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I've been building niche
content sites and really studying all the different ways
to do it. Not those pseudo content sites that are
just scraped search engine results pages, but real
content with value. (the Profiteers
blog tells about my latest)
The problem with
delivering real content is that it can be even more work
than publishing a newsletter.
For months, that was my
biggest problem, and I started to think that maybe I
should just trash my ethics and start building scraper
sites like so many others were doing. But I knew
from a number of forums that those sites were being
de-listed left and right. With Google sand-boxing
new websites for 4 - 6 months, any new scraper sites
were lucky if they ever even got indexed in the first
place. (You can read more about how NOT to create
content sites in the May issue of iMarketing
iNsight).
I want to build sites
with some staying power. Something that won't cost
me an arm and a leg to get up and running, and that will
grow over time - producing a steady positive cash flow.
Today, I use a number of
techniques that evolved over months of trial and error
and thought I would share a little of that with
you.
Traditional Content
Site
After you've found a
niche with potential for profit (a whole separate
topic), you've got to have content, and the easiest way
to create content for your niche site is by using other
people's articles. There are hundreds of article
directories where you can find articles in virtually any
niche - the author has submitted them to these
directories with the express purpose of having other
publishers (i.e. you and I) put them on their
websites.
You can also get private
label articles, have them ghost-written for you, or
write your own, but if you're just starting out it's
cheaper and easier to just use the free articles from
the article directories.
My first content site was
a traditional information site built using only 3rd
party articles.
Sales conversion on that
site is very good, but I found that getting volume
traffic to that site was an uphill battle. The
niche was brand new to me. I had no list, no
original content, no search engine rankings.
I was able to do it - but
it took a lot of work, and I wound up having to find
someone with a sizable list in that niche to get the
early traffic I needed.
Add a Blog
On another niche content
site, I also implemented a blog. That decision
made it so much easier to get free traffic. I know
you've heard it before, but I'll say it again. The
"search engines love blogs", and a lot of
marketers will sell you information about how to create
a blog for search engine rankings and traffic
generation, and then link from your blog to your sales
site.
Actually - it's not that
the search engines prefer blogs over a traditionally
created site. What they love about blogs is the
frequently updated content, and the fact that it is so
easy for them to find out about those updates via the
RSS feed directories.
As long as you provide
regular updates to your site, update an RSS feed for the
site, and ping the feed directories, the search engines
will find your site, spider it and get you listed- and
with a blog, all of that can be automatic except
gathering the content for the site (and there are tools
to help with that, too).
The problem with the
typical blog for building niche content sites is the
chronological way that your posts are presented.
This is great for a journal of events, or writing about
a topic where the most important thing is "current
events", but there isn't much stickiness.
People tend to come read the most current post and then
leave.
If they leave by clicking
on something that makes you a few cents - great.
But keeping them around long enough to do a good
pre-sell on an affiliate product is tough. You
have to develop a loyal readership, repeat visitors that
will actually click through your recommended links from
each post, to make your effort pay.
Making a Blog
"Work" for a Content Site
What I needed was a site
with all the ease of blog posting, all the attention
from the search engines - but that had the organization
and the "look and feel" of a more traditional
content site. It needed a home page that did more
than just report my latest ramblings on a topic.
I had seen this sort of
site being built by a fellow member of Content
Desk. In fact Jeff Walters was working on a
product to use WordPress to build traditional looking
web sites, but he hadn't finished it.
Actually, his sites were
great, but Jeff is something of a perfectionist and he
just wasn't ready to put his name on it and offer it to
the public. He wanted to get an SEO analysis of
his resulting sites so that he could make it even better
(which he did).
I had come to know Jeff
over the past several months, and we were collaborating
on a new niche site. I was able to convince him to
let us use his Rapid
Niche WebSites to build that site.
The results were pretty
amazing. The new site was launched just a month
ago (on November 6) - no list, no nothing.
Within the first 10 days,
we were indexed in Google, Yahoo, and MSN search
engines. We're averaging over 150 unique visitors
per day with some days reaching over 300 unique
visitors.
Within 15 days, we had 4
top 10 rankings for relevant keyword phrases on Google,
3 on Yahoo, and 9 different top ten rankings on MSN
search!
That all means that we
were earning money almost from day one!
Adsense revenue started
trickling in on the third day after launch and has been
growing steadily. We started with one affiliate
product and have added three more. Now that we
know we can make money with this, we've even started an
opt-in list so we can turn some of that free search
engine traffic into repeat visitors. I'll be doing
this over, and over, and over again.
Compare that to your
own results.
Most sites are getting
sand-boxed by Google when they are first created and
site owners get discouraged because they just can't get
traffic to their new site. Does that sound like
you?
If they stick it out,
things may get somewhat better - but how long do you
wait? How do you turn it around?
I'll be creating niche
sites with Jeff's product from now and, quite frankly, I
think you should too.
It's Rapid
Niche Websites and it lives up to its name (I
created my last site in a hotel room one night while on
a road trip). In fact, it may take you longer to
read the informative manual that comes with the product
than to create your first Rapid
Niche Website
There is one other
thing...
I not only got Jeff to
finally release his product, I convinced him to offer it
with an introductory price. It's going to go up by
about $50 soon, so you have an opportunity to get this
at a pretty deep discount for a very short time.
I don't know how long
he'll keep this discount offer open, but more
importantly, the longer you wait - the longer it'll be
before you start creating dependable streams of income
from niche web sites.
Jeff stands behind his
product, gives great support, and gets my highest
recommendation.
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About the Author:
Sid Hale is the owner of several successful websites including
ad-CLiX.com and Info-Syndicate.com,
and is co-creator of
jvAlert
- a membership site for facilitating high-level Joint Ventures.
Join thousands of subscribers who benefit from our highly informative
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ezine.
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