As you know if you follow the blog regularly, in 2014 I undertook a project to optimize my personal finances. Two key words to this ambitious project: reduce my expenses to clean up my accounts and start diversifying my sources of income. We will focus here on this second aspect. I mentioned a few weeks ago my new project to increase my income. It was about launching a niche site . The idea of today’s article is to present my approach to you and in particular the reasons which led me to embark on this project. I will share with you the objectives that I have set myself for this new site, and the elements that allowed me to embark on the theme of the latter.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, a quick definition is in order. A niche site, what is it? As its name suggests, it is above all a website! Its particularity is that it targets a particular theme, as opposed to a general site. Who says particular theme says less competition in the eyes of Google, and therefore more facilities to position oneself correctly on the chosen subject. It is therefore a question of finding the right balance between competition and search volume in the targeted domain. Indeed, it will certainly be easy to position oneself on the subject of “albino parakeets of Bolivia” , but I am not convinced that many people are looking for information on this subject!
Obviously, identifying the right topic for a niche site is not done by snapping your fingers. Somewhere, a mini market study is necessary. As I mentioned through the example of parakeets, a good niche site must combine several qualities, including:
Let’s take the 3 axes to validate to launch your niche site and see how my first project of this type is positioned.
For the first item, there are 14,800 exact searches per month for the main keyword . In view of what I presented a little above, this is clearly an excellent figure. Note that the search term is intentionally hidden in the screenshot below.
The competition for this keyword on the first page of Google is low. Without going into detail now, Long Tail Pro allowed me to quickly highlight the lack of competition in this sector. Most of the first results correspond to online sales sites. A general site and a forum also arrive in these first results. A niche site is on the first page on the same keyword ! Rather than scare me away, it comforts me in the idea that it is possible to position yourself correctly in this sector provided you take the trouble.
On the chosen monetization method, for my first try, I chose affiliation with Amazon. Even if the commissions per sale are not huge, on the order of a few percentages, the Amazon affiliation has the advantage of being extremely simple to set up . This is the perfect solution for a beginner like me. Adsense advertising is not one of the leads retained, the cost per click on my main keyword being relatively low (less than 50 cents).
So here I am with a niche site with significant search traffic, low competition and simplified affiliation. All that remains is to put it all to music!
In the medium and long term, the objective behind this niche site is to generate new passive income . The idea is to reduce my excessive financial dependence on my salary, by setting up a new source of income. After rental investment, this type of project could become my second source of passive income. In any case, it is all the misfortune that I wish myself! 🙂
So much for the main lines. Although the goal is ambitious, it is still a bit vague. And I know that a vague or ill-defined goal is all the more difficult to achieve. So let’s put some concrete stuff behind it all, by following what’s called the SMART method. For those who wish to know more about the subject, I may publish an article on the subject one of these days. In the meantime, I invite you to take a look at the EconoSphere blog, which presents the principle very well.
I’m far from being an expert in SEO, even less in the field of niche sites since this is the first time I’ve come across it. My only relatively close experience is that of this blog, but the objective is very different. Until today, I have exclusively focused on writing articles on subjects that I know and that interest me, without really worrying about my referencing with our friend Google. For a niche site, this is precisely one of the points on which I must focus in order to hope to attract as many visitors as possible, and therefore as many buyers as possible. But we are not there yet, so here are the objectives I have set myself for this new exercise:
It may seem distant to some, but my wishes for financial diversification do not correspond to a sprint, but rather to a long distance race. The same goes for this project. Patience and length of time are more than strength or rage .
One of my next posts will be the opportunity to set up a regular follow-up of this niche site project. I will probably share the actions I have carried out there. I will probably also propose a detailed follow-up of the statistics relating to this new project. See you soon!
What do you think of these goals? Would you be interested in a regular sharing on this project?