Niche Websites

[Envision]

What up fastlaners,

I wanted to bring up the topic of niche sites to all of you on here to see if any of you are building them or would think about building them in the event of getting into the fastlane.

Other than my job, real estate, and business in my spare time I started a little niche website for fun, to practice SEO, mess around with wordpress, and generally to see if I could make money at it.

Niche sites are websites that make income from affiliate, adsense, ads, products etc in a very specific niche through targeted SEO articles to drive traffic. Obviously if we've read the book we understand most of that is not fastlane at all. But over the past 3 months my traffic has exponentially been compounding on itself and Im wondering if I could turn this niche site into an actual business.

This brought me to nichepursuits.com which I've been reading alot on and I guess most of these guys are building an eco system off of niche sites and FBA business into their own businesses. My niche is in something very specific to what I like and as this site grows and makes more and more money Im gonna start looking at expanding its possibilities.

I was interested in if anyone on here has been into them, owns them etc? I remember at the summit someone talking about website portfolios. Id be interested in seeing what you guys do to grow your websites as well as purchase them if you do

 

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[OperationMyWay]

What up fastlaners,

I wanted to bring up the topic of niche sites to all of you on here to see if any of you are building them or would think about building them in the event of getting into the fastlane.

Other than my job, real estate, and business in my spare time I started a little niche website for fun, to practice SEO, mess around with wordpress, and generally to see if I could make money at it.

Niche sites are websites that make income from affiliate, adsense, ads, products etc in a very specific niche through targeted SEO articles to drive traffic. Obviously if we've read the book we understand most of that is not fastlane at all. But over the past 3 months my traffic has exponentially been compounding on itself and Im wondering if I could turn this niche site into an actual business.

This brought me to nichepursuits.com which I've been reading alot on and I guess most of these guys are building an eco system off of niche sites and FBA business into their own businesses. My niche is in something very specific to what I like and as this site grows and makes more and more money Im gonna start looking at expanding its possibilities.

I was interested in if anyone on here has been into them, owns them etc? I remember at the summit someone talking about website portfolios. Id be interested in seeing what you guys do to grow your websites as well as purchase them if you do

I'm pretty sure you are talking about @DaveC .

Check out the last two posts here and that should get you started. Dave really provides a great case study and his awesome presentation.

 

[DaveC]

I'm pretty sure you are talking about @DaveC .

Check out the last two posts here and that should get you started. Dave really provides a great case study and his awesome presentation.

Yes I've done the build route for niche sites...I think that's still an option but I prefer buying existing sites and have folks manage/grow them. Some people are better "builders" than "buyers" though, sounds like that may be the case if you like your niche. I like nichepursuits.com...we actually bought a site from them. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[JDK]

I have several years running and working with niche websites.

I started with no knowledge of Wordpress, SEO, or basically anything about websites. I just jumped in it with the attitude "if he can do it, so can I".

It took me about 2 years to really get things moving, considering there was a lot I had to figure along the way to make any sort of progress. It was a huge learning experience. Once things got kicking, I started pulling in anywhere from $2,000-$4,000 a month through a combination of Adsense, affiliate links and direct advertisement sales. If I really pushed things in the social media department, I could push revenue up to $5K some months. It largely depended if there was anything new and exciting releasing. This was done with very little money invested into the site. Most months, 90% of the money was pure profit. If I had invested a little money in say a t-shirt or an item to give away, revenue/profit would go a lot higher.

I ran with this website and this one website alone for quite some time - 6, 7 years, something like that. I put every ounce of free time into it. I have a 9-5 job, so I would run the website after my daily routine was over, usually into the early morning hours. I'd create content, submit backlinks, schedule posts, do research - the whole nine.

I gained authority status with Google, but more importantly with the community of people who made up the niche. I wasn't the biggest site in the niche by far, but I was mentioned alongside the leaders, and that enough was to gain me recognition by the people who mattered most, the people who wanted to know what was new and exciting, the buyers. I made out good from them through affiliate sales and the occasional t-shirt sale.

For some dumb reason, I didn't invest any money into the site aside from purchasing some t-shirts and occasional items for giveaways before I figured out how to get brands to give me stuff for free. I should of hired at least one to two writers to create content when I wasn't, or maybe invested some money into SEO in an effort to make more revenue instead of wasting my time trying to do it myself when I don't know nearly half of what a professional does.

Enter 2013, my son is born. Wanting to be a father as much as I could and trying to balance a 9-5 job on top of trying to run a now big website, things started to slip away. I would still update the website, but not nearly at the same rate I use to. It was a competitive niche, think of something along the lines of technology. People want to know what's out there when it's out there. For an anticipated product, posting about it a day or two after it releases could effect revenue considering viewers would have heard about that hot new item somewhere else and 60% of them would have already bought it through another sites affiliate link. There was still Adsense revenue though outside of affiliate sales and that from selling advertisements to companies, so it wasn't a wash out. Not yet at least. About 6 months later - 2 Google updates or so - I noticed organic traffic took a big hit - enough to cut revenue from Adsense and affiliate sales in half. Soon, advertisers started pulling ads do the dip in traffic they were seeing. It was sometime in 2014, about a year later when I officially chalked it up as "dead". The site still continues to make money with no new content or effort, but nothing to write home about. Maybe one day I'll fire it back up, who knows. Had I hired some help to create content, this story would be much different today.

Since then, I have been helping people who have started like me. Those who went into it alone with no real idea of what's to come. I teach them about my mistakes and my triumphs. Having let a major website slip away from me, I know a lot about what not to do and where the focus really needs to be and how to stay afloat. I made a lot of contacts in the niche during my time and I now use those contacts to help people I mentor in the same niche, and even some of those outside the niche, push there dreams further.

 

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[Angry Dragon]

I have several years running and working with niche websites.

I started with no knowledge of Wordpress, SEO, or basically anything about websites. I just jumped in it with the attitude "if he can do it, so can I".

It took me about 2 years to really get things moving, considering there was a lot I had to figure along the way to make any sort of progress. It was a huge learning experience. Once things got kicking, I started pulling in anywhere from $2,000-$4,000 a month through a combination of Adsense, affiliate links and direct advertisement sales. If I really pushed things in the social media department, I could push revenue up to $5K some months. It largely depended if there was anything new and exciting releasing. This was done with very little money invested into the site. Most months, 90% of the money was pure profit. If I had invested a little money in say a t-shirt or an item to give away, revenue/profit would go a lot higher.

I ran with this website and this one website alone for quite some time - 6, 7 years, something like that. I put every ounce of free time into it. I have a 9-5 job, so I would run the website after my daily routine was over, usually into the early morning hours. I'd create content, submit backlinks, schedule posts, do research - the whole nine.

I gained authority status with Google, but more importantly with the community of people who made up the niche. I wasn't the biggest site in the niche by far, but I was mentioned alongside the leaders, and that enough was to gain me recognition by the people who mattered most, the people who wanted to know what was new and exciting, the buyers. I made out good from them through affiliate sales and the occasional t-shirt sale.

For some dumb reason, I didn't invest any money into the site aside from purchasing some t-shirts and occasional items for giveaways before I figured out how to get brands to give me stuff for free. I should of hired at least one to two writers to create content when I wasn't, or maybe invested some money into SEO in an effort to make more revenue instead of wasting my time trying to do it myself when I don't know nearly half of what a professional does.

Enter 2013, my son is born. Wanting to be a father as much as I could and trying to balance a 9-5 job on top of trying to run a now big website, things started to slip away. I would still update the website, but not nearly at the same rate I use to. It was a competitive niche, think of something along the lines of technology. People want to know what's out there when it's out there. For an anticipated product, posting about it a day or two after it releases could effect revenue considering viewers would have heard about that hot new item somewhere else and 60% of them would have already bought it through another sites affiliate link. There was still Adsense revenue though outside of affiliate sales and that from selling advertisements to companies, so it wasn't a wash out. Not yet at least. About 6 months later - 2 Google updates or so - I noticed organic traffic took a big hit - enough to cut revenue from Adsense and affiliate sales in half. Soon, advertisers started pulling ads do the dip in traffic they were seeing. It was sometime in 2014, about a year later when I officially chalked it up as "dead". The site still continues to make money with no new content or effort, but nothing to write home about. Maybe one day I'll fire it back up, who knows. Had I hired some help to create content, this story would be much different today.

Since then, I have been helping people who have started like me. Those who went into it alone with no real idea of what's to come. I teach them about my mistakes and my triumphs. Having let a major website slip away from me, I know a lot about what not to do and where the focus really needs to be and how to stay afloat. I made a lot of contacts in the niche during my time and I now use those contacts to help people I mentor in the same niche, and even some of those outside the niche, push there dreams further.

I have several years running and working with niche websites.

I started with no knowledge of Wordpress, SEO, or basically anything about websites. I just jumped in it with the attitude "if he can do it, so can I".

It took me about 2 years to really get things moving, considering there was a lot I had to figure along the way to make any sort of progress. It was a huge learning experience. Once things got kicking, I started pulling in anywhere from $2,000-$4,000 a month through a combination of Adsense, affiliate links and direct advertisement sales. If I really pushed things in the social media department, I could push revenue up to $5K some months. It largely depended if there was anything new and exciting releasing. This was done with very little money invested into the site. Most months, 90% of the money was pure profit. If I had invested a little money in say a t-shirt or an item to give away, revenue/profit would go a lot higher.

I ran with this website and this one website alone for quite some time - 6, 7 years, something like that. I put every ounce of free time into it. I have a 9-5 job, so I would run the website after my daily routine was over, usually into the early morning hours. I'd create content, submit backlinks, schedule posts, do research - the whole nine.

I gained authority status with Google, but more importantly with the community of people who made up the niche. I wasn't the biggest site in the niche by far, but I was mentioned alongside the leaders, and that enough was to gain me recognition by the people who mattered most, the people who wanted to know what was new and exciting, the buyers. I made out good from them through affiliate sales and the occasional t-shirt sale.

For some dumb reason, I didn't invest any money into the site aside from purchasing some t-shirts and occasional items for giveaways before I figured out how to get brands to give me stuff for free. I should of hired at least one to two writers to create content when I wasn't, or maybe invested some money into SEO in an effort to make more revenue instead of wasting my time trying to do it myself when I don't know nearly half of what a professional does.

Enter 2013, my son is born. Wanting to be a father as much as I could and trying to balance a 9-5 job on top of trying to run a now big website, things started to slip away. I would still update the website, but not nearly at the same rate I use to. It was a competitive niche, think of something along the lines of technology. People want to know what's out there when it's out there. For an anticipated product, posting about it a day or two after it releases could effect revenue considering viewers would have heard about that hot new item somewhere else and 60% of them would have already bought it through another sites affiliate link. There was still Adsense revenue though outside of affiliate sales and that from selling advertisements to companies, so it wasn't a wash out. Not yet at least. About 6 months later - 2 Google updates or so - I noticed organic traffic took a big hit - enough to cut revenue from Adsense and affiliate sales in half. Soon, advertisers started pulling ads do the dip in traffic they were seeing. It was sometime in 2014, about a year later when I officially chalked it up as "dead". The site still continues to make money with no new content or effort, but nothing to write home about. Maybe one day I'll fire it back up, who knows. Had I hired some help to create content, this story would be much different today.

Since then, I have been helping people who have started like me. Those who went into it alone with no real idea of what's to come. I teach them about my mistakes and my triumphs. Having let a major website slip away from me, I know a lot about what not to do and where the focus really needs to be and how to stay afloat. I made a lot of contacts in the niche during my time and I now use those contacts to help people I mentor in the same niche, and even some of those outside the niche, push there dreams further.

Great posting JDK. I am looking into creating a website. I am currently taking a few courses on Udemy. I am looking to develop multiple streams of passive income and the internet seems a little scary to enter. I also have no knowledge of Wordpress, SEO, or basically anything about websites either. The more courses I am taking, is easing some of my fears and I am learning a lot. Your posting gives me a little more courage to start an internet business. It's great that you are mentoring others, but don't give up. You have 6 to 7 years (or more) invested into the business, your next website could be the BIG ONE!!!