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The 11 Step Ultimate Guide: How to Build a Niche Website That Can Make $2,985 a Month

| November 11, 2016

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Yes! I Love to Learn

Want to learn step-by-step how I built my Niche Site Empire up to a full-time income?

The 11 Step Ultimate Guide: How to Build a Niche Website That Can Make $2,985 a Month

If you are learning about building niche websites, then you’ve just landed on the only resource you will need to get started.

Today, I am going to give you the ultimate guide that will teach you how to brainstorm, rank in Google, and make very real money from your very own niche site.

You see, I built my very first website back in 2005 (over a decade ago) and I’ve been building these types of sites ever since. You can read more about my qualifications to talk about this subject; however, I feel very confident that this truly is the only resource you will need to get your very first niche website up and earning.

I’ll give you the knowledge, you just need to add water your own effort.

I quit my job in 2011 because my niche websites were making over $10,000 a month.  But does this stuff still work? Absolutely!

As proof, I have a site that I started last year that made $2,985 last month!  The potential is 100% still there to make good money with niche websites, and I’m going to show you how.

Warning!  This is a VERY long article with lots of videos and links to resources.  In order to learn everything, you will need to come back to this page often to watch all the videos and read all the other resources.  However, everything is here…it will just take you some time to get through it all.

Let’s get this started!

Recent Results

Before we jump into the details, I know that you might be interested in seeing some actual results.  Remember, these results don’t come automatically.  You have to put in the time and effort to achieve results like this.

I’m going to share a couple screenshots from the earnings from just 1 of my websites last month.  Then I’ll give you more details about how I achieved these results, but more importantly, how you can hopefully replicate this with your own website.

Amazon Associates Earnings First Tracking ID:

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2016-11-03_1021

Second Tracking ID (same website):

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2016-11-03_1022

Google Adsense Earnings

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2016-11-03_1216

Other Affiliate Earnings: The site also made an additional $66.08 from another affiliate deal. Total Earnings from this 1 Niche Website: $2,985.26

Now that I’ve dangled that tempting carrot in front of you, let’s dive into how to actually make a site like that happen.

Brief Overview

The massive guide that you will find below includes everything you need to know to build your very first niche website.  However, there is a lot of content there, so I’d like to provide just a quick overview of the process.

The whole idea behind a successful niche website is to find a target niche, start ranking in Google for lots of keywords in your chosen niche, and then turn that free traffic into earnings through affiliate offers (like Google Adsense or Amazon Associates), or through your own product offerings.

Consider this like a table of contents for how to build a niche website from scratch:

  1. Brainstorm general market and broad niche ideas
  2. Begin In-depth keyword research
  3. Determine what problem your site is solving.  How will your site stand out?
  4. Pick a good domain name.
  5. Host your website.  Pick a Theme and get a logo.
  6. Develop a long term content strategy.
  7. Pick a monetization strategy.
  8. Link Building.
  9. Social Media and Other Marketing Strategies
  10. Maximize earnings through list building.
  11. Consider long term strategies to continue growing.

Throughout this guide, I mention several software tools that will help you build a website faster or better.  These are tools that I use and recommend, but all of them are not required:

What is a Niche? And What is a Niche Website?

A couple of years ago, I wrote out my definition of what a niche website is…here’s what I said:

I want to start off by simply clarifying how I personally think of niche sites.  A niche site does NOT mean a small website.  There, I said it.

I think too many people think that a “Niche” website means building a site that only has 10 or 20 pages of content.  This is simply not the case.

“Niche” really means a small segment of an overall market or product.  It means laser focused on one particular topic…or niche.  As a perfect example, and to prove that I’m not the only one that thinks this way; check out the Wikipedia page of > > what a “Niche” Market is right here> .

And even better, guess what example Wikipedia gives as an example of a Niche market/website?  ESPN.com!  That’s right > > ESPN.com> is a niche website.  It focuses exclusively (with laser focused intensity) on Sports.  Again, this isn’t my example, this is from Wikipedia.  Yes, this is a VERY large niche site, but it is indeed a niche site.

ESPN.com produces dozens of articles, videos, and more each and everyday.

I share this simply to get the incorrect idea out of your head, that “niche” means a “small” website.  It doesn’t.

However, its more common to think of a niche site as one that targets a more narrow niche than just Sports in general.  A smaller niche in sports would be perhaps, Little League baseball, or Curling in Canada, or Speed skating.  However, just because your niche site only covers curling in Canada, doesn’t mean it can’t be thousands of pages of content.  Make sense?

So, a niche site is a site that covers the sub-segment of any market.  The site could be one page or a million pages of content, its still a niche site.

Now that I’ve clarified how I view a “niche” website, let’s move to step 1 in how to build a niche site.

1. Brainstorm Niche Ideas

Several months ago, I started something called, Niche Site Project 3.0.  The main idea of the project was for 3 coaches (Jake, Perrin, and I) to train 3 students that have never built a successful website before, how to build a niche website that makes at least $500 a month.

The first step to building a successful niche website is picking a niche to target.  This just means, what general topic are you interested in or even better, what can be profitable?

**What Does a Successful Niche Site Look Like? **

Pick a Niche Through Keyword Sampling

One of the keys to success with your niche website is keyword research.  I’ve written extensively about keyword research in the past.  However, the main idea is that you will rank higher and faster in Google if you target phrases that people are search for on Google that are not extremely competitive.

I recommend using Long Tail Pro (which I created) for all aspects of keyword research.

With “keyword sampling” you are simply trying to see if your potential niche has lots of low competition keywords BEFORE you actually finalize your decision.

Find Your Website Doppelgangers

Analyze Your Doppelgangers

Is This a Good Niche? A Checklist

  1. Am I interested in starting a long term project in this niche?

  2. Can I easily produce 100+ content ideas?

  3. From my keyword sample, how many keywords had under KC 30?

  4. How easy was it to find long tail keywords in this niche vs. others I tried? (rate easiest to hardest)

  5. From the under KC 30 keywords; how many “weak” (Doppelganger) sites did I find? (Under DA 25-30, less than year)

  6. Using SEMrush, how many other weak sites was I able to find?

  7. How much traffic do each of these Doppelganger sites get (in SEMrush)? (maximum of 10 per niche is more than enough).

  8. Do I see the potential to create products in this niche?

  9. Can I think of any unique angles to stand out in this niche? **Assignment to Pick Your Niche: **

Read these resources for even more depth for Niche Website Coaches on how to pick your niche:

Watch These Videos for in-depth details on picking your niche:

These videos will walk you through SEVERAL examples of the exact guidance that I provided above.  If the outline above wasn’t enough details for you, these videos definitely will be.  I highly recommend you watch these to help you pick your niche.

2. Begin In-depth Keyword Research

Now that you know what general niche you want to go into, it’s time to do more in-depth keyword research.

I recommend using Long Tail Pro to make the keyword research process easier and faster.  The most essential thing to remember with keyword research is that you want to go where the competition is low.

If you can target a few low competition keywords, you are much more likely to rank than if you were to target highly competitive terms.  This means that you will often need to target very low search volume keywords…and that’s just fine!

Goal: Target Long Tail Keywords in Each Article on Your Site

Why Long Tail Keywords?

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Picture1

High Volume is Not Needed

Criteria of a Winning Keyword

Examples of Low Competition Keywords

How to Find Low Competition Keywords?

Keyword Modifiers to Consider

How to Analyze the Competition

**

Additional Tactics to Quickly Find Low Competition Keywords…

**Assignment for Keyword Research **

Read these additional resources to learn more about the keyword research process:

Watch these videos for more in-depth training on keyword research:

Try Long Tail Pro for Just $1 Right Here

3. Determine How Your Site Will Stand Out

Vision Statement

Examples:

How to Make Your Website Stand Out

Developing a Voice

Again, this depends on your angle and brand of your website – they should align.

Read these additional resources on developing a vision and how to make your website unique:

Watch These Videos:

4. Pick a Good Domain Name

Some people spend much too long trying to come up with a good domain name.  However, the reality is that just about anything will work.

I recommend that you do NOT worry about putting keywords in your domain name.  The days of using exact match domains are long gone.  You will do much better with something memorable and brandable.

I recommend using NameCheap.com to register your domain name.

Here’s a few tips when considering what domain name to register:

A web host is simply server space for your website.  There are thousands of companies that can host your website and many of them are less than $10/month.

The key to finding a good webhost is to make sure it is a reputable and reliable company.  I also recommend that you find a hosting company that allows to to install WordPress with just 1 click.

One of the companies that I have used for a long time to host my niche websites is Bluehost.com

Hosting

WordPress Theme

Logo

6. Develop a Long Term Content Strategy

These ideas are what can take you from having just a so-so website to having a great website that helps you stand out as an authority.

So, not only do we discuss things like types of content and on-page SEO, but we also go into more in-depth strategies like clickable titles and more.

Developing a Long Term Content Strategy

Keyword Focused Content

Examples of Valuable Content. Writing and Publishing Content

Organizing Content on Your Site

Resources to Help You Write Different Types of Blog Posts How to Create a Great Title Thrive Content Builder

**Assignments for Long Term Content Strategy **

Read these additional resource for more details on developing a long term content strategy here.

Watch this coaching video for even more depth on developing a content strategy:

7. Pick a Monetization Strategy

Now we get to the step where you finally get to start thinking about making money for your website!  The previous steps will help your site get great content and your site may even start ranking in Google before you do any link building at all!

I have made a list of over 50 ways to make money from your website in the past; however, the short outline below (along with the videos) should be enough for you to get started.

How to Monetize a Website Sell Your Own Products – most profitable; long term strategy

As an Affiliate – short term strategy

Amazon Associates Examples

Google Adsense Examples CPA/Lead Offers Creating Your Own Products

Build an Email List

**Assignments for Making Money with Your Website **

Read More details about Monetizing your site here:

Watch this Video for even greater depth on making money from your website:

Link building is a very in-depth and often controversial topic. On one hand, some people feel like link building is so critical to a site’s success; on the other, you have people that never do any linkbuilding and do really well with niche sites.  I personally tend to be somewhere in the middle.

I don’t believe that link building is the most important activity you can be doing on your site.  I think keyword research and creating great content is the most important activity.  However, I do see the value in getting links as well…this is clearly a huge ranking factor in Google.

However, I’m a strong believer that your most valuable links are going to come naturally.  I have several sites that I’ve never done a single outreach or link building “campaign” for that have thousands of links.  So, it’s not that I don’t think links are important (they are)…I just don’t believe that it’s always necessary to personally put in the effort to get every single link.  Lots of links will come on their own…if you do things right.

Why Links?

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Picture1moz

Types of Links

Aggressive Link Building is NOT Critical to a Site’s Success

List of Link Building Strategies…

Jon Cooper – PointBlankSEO.com: http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

Set Up RSS…

Set Up Social Media Accounts

Ask People You Know

Blog Commenting

**Assignments for Basic Link Building **

  1. Submit your RSS feed to at least 5 directories (focus on the higher quality directories).

  2. Find ways to auto-post all new posts to FB, Twitter, Pinterest

    • feedsposter.com

  3. Find one person you know that will link to you

  4. Find 5 blogs and comment with link to your site

  5. Review Jon Cooper’s list: http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies and decide on 2 or 3 more advanced strategies that you would like to try in the future.

  6. Bonus Assignment: Read some blog posts on the 2 or 3 tactics that you decide on.

Read these posts for more basic link building strategies: Watch these videos for more basic link building strategies:

The above section was focused mostly on very basic link building strategies, and to be honest, that may be all you ever need!  However, there is so much more that can be done to help your site get more links pointing to it.

List of Link Building Strategies…

Outreach / Build Relationships

HARO Look at Competitors Links

**Assignments for more advanced link building **

Read these articles for more advanced link building strategies

Watch these videos for even more in-depth details on advanced link building strategies:

9. Social Media and Other Marketing Strategies

Your level of participation on social media and other marketing channels may depend on your niche or your overall goals.

I personally own several niche sites that I never get involved in social media with.  However, other site owners do EXTREMELY well with some of these ideas, so they are worth mentioning.

I will simply say that it’s possible to do very well with Google traffic alone, but the same could be said of social media traffic as well.

YouTube Marketing

Jake and Ryan did a great call about getting started with YouTube right here.

In a lot of ways, this strategy is very similar to the long tail keyword strategy we regularly talk about in the keyword research phase of site building. Basically, you focus your efforts on more specific search queries in the hopes of ranking for those less competitive searches and building an audience.

This is called a “bracelet and charm” strategy, which as you’ll see in the video is just a way to visualize how your primary keyword/category connects to all the more narrow, long tail searches inside of that category.

Recommended reading: The 4 Step Slam Dunk Process that Generated 140,000 Free Leads From Youtube

Reddit Marketing

This is a unique strategy of using the popular site Reddit.com to drive traffic to your niche site.  You need to be careful with this, because its easy to get your account on Reddit closed for not following their guidelines.

Perrin wrote a great guide on Reddit Marketing: How We Got 10,000 Pageviews and a PA 48 Link from Reddit in 2 Weeks

Here’s just a highlight of how to post content to Reddit:

Additional resources: The Marketer’s Guide to Reddit and Cracking Reddit

Pinterest Marketing

Pinterest is one of the highest traffic websites in the world.  And the best part for niche website owners is that it can sends hoards of traffic.

If fact, I bought and sold a website that got most of its traffic from Pinterest (3,000 visitors a day!).  You can read my own Pinterest case study here.

However, I don’t claim to be an expert at Pinterest traffic, so I will simply say that I’ve had some decent success with Pinterest, but there are others that have had PHENOMENAL success with this traffic source.

Here’s a few resources that you will get you started:

10. Maximize Earnings Through List Building

Many niche website builders never get to the step of actually building out an email list.  And quite frankly, there is nothing wrong with that!  I’ve done very well building sites that simply rank in Google and I get paid from affiliate offers (Google Adsense and Amazon Associates mostly).

However, if your niche website turns into something that you would like to take to the next level, you’ve got to start building an email list.

An email list will allow you to sell your products or affiliate offers to interested buyers over and over again.

Joe Pulizzi of ContentMarketingInstitute.com said:

“An email list is critical because you can’t build your content on rented land. So many brands and companies build their audiences on Facebook and Google+, which is fine, but we don’t own those names – Facebook and Google do. If we are thinking like real media companies, the asset is in the audience. Getting an email address is the first critical step to figuring out who my reader is, and hopefully in the future, my customer of some sort. If our goal is to drive sales or keep customers happy in some way, we first need to get them as part of our audience.

The tools that I recommend for building your email list are:

Here’s some great resources that teach you how to start building your email list:

11. Long Term Strategies to Grow Your Niche Website

Wow!  Now that you’ve gotten through the first 10 steps, you should have a successful niche website on your hands!

However, I would like to point out a few ways that you can keep growing your niche website into a larger business.

Here’s 3 ways that you can make more money with your new found skill of building niche websites:

  1. Build MORE niche websites
  2. Get MORE traffic to your current website
  3. Make MORE money from each visitor

For most of my niche website “career” I’ve opted for option 1…just building more niche websites.  Often once I get them ranking in Google and the money is coming in somewhat passively, I have just decided to start a new website.  If this sounds like a good option for you, then congrats, start back at step 1 and build a new site!

You may decide to keep all the websites or you can venture into selling off some of your website for a profit at that point.

Or you may decide to continue focusing on this one niche website and simply grow it larger.  The most obvious way to do this is add more content.  There are always more keywords that you could be targeting in your niche, and these additional keywords and articles are likely to bring in more traffic.

This is an excellent strategy that I am currently employing on my niche website that made $2,985 last month that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  Building one website to level that it is making more than your full-time job is not at all out of the realm of possibility.

There are LOTS of niche websites making six-figures a year.  Don’t believe me?  Just check out the constant flow of listings for sites making that much on the Empire Flippers Marketplace.

Finally, the last way to grow your niche website business is to make more money from each visitor.  You can do this through split testing where your ads are placed, becoming an affiliate for an offer with higher payouts, or building an email list and selling more often to that list.

However, another HUGE way to make more money from your own site is to create your own product.  Instead of making a 6 to 8% cut from Amazon Associates, you could start making 100% of the revenue if you create and sell the product.

The types of products you could create are endless from ebooks, software, video tutorials, physical products, and more.

I’ve personally been doing well lately with my own physical products and then selling them on my own website and through the Amazon FBA program.  If you want to read about getting started with the Amazon FBA program, I’ve written how I got started here.

However, the point is to think about whether it’s worth it for you to move from being just and affiliate to being the actual product creator.  Both have advantages and disadvantages, so I will leave that decision up to you.

Although, I will simply leave you with this thought.  The website I mentioned at the beginning of this post that makes me roughly $3,000 a month from Amazon Associates and Google Adsense also sells my own physical products!

So, this website actually makes me much MORE money that I reported.  Last month, this website sent roughly 1,400 visitors to my own listings on Amazon and generated sales revenue of approximately $4,200 from those visitors.

This $4,200 is in addition to the $3,000 I made from affiliate commissions.

So, you should at least worth consider developing your own product as it can dramatically increase the earnings from your niche website.

Where to Go From Here?

With nearly 20 hours of videos and tons of resources to go through above, obviously you won’t be able to soak it all in at once.  But this resource is here for you to come back to again and again.

If you are looking for additional support as you begin your niche site building journey, you can join a private Facebook group that I created right here.

In addition, I would recommend that you get on my email list so that I can notify you when I have more in-depth tutorials on building a successful online business.  Join my email list right here.

Overall, this article provides you everything you will need to get started building a niche website.  However, the ability to stay motiviated and put in the work over the next several months needs to come from you.  This is not an overnight business, but it can be a very real one.

The website data that I’ve shared throughout this post was started about a year and a half ago and is now making about $3,000 a month.  The results can happen, but at this point its really up to you.

I would love to hear your thoughts or experiences building niche websites below in the comments.

Yes! I Love to Learn

Want to learn step-by-step how I built my Niche Site Empire up to a full-time income?

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