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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Too Many Niches

Do you have too many niches?

Are you spreading yourself too thin over numerous topics and trying to manage several websites and blogs?

I know I am. I have a pets website, a toys website, a cooking website, several craft/hobby sites, a nutrition site, and several blogs, on top of hundreds of individual content articles. The best of my niche sites is earning $350+ a month, but I have not had time to add to it in weeks.

An insight that really hit home for me during my Wealthy Affiliate course yesterday was the instruction to not diversify until you have exhausted a niche.

One single keyword can earn you $1,000 a day.

If you are earning $50 a week from one of your sites, the temptation might be to make another site on another topic and get that one earning $50 a week too. But stop right there -- what if you wrote more articles, promoted more products more successfully, and started a subscriber list on that SAME topic, all connected to your website? What if you added more backlinks, started a PPC (pay per click) campaign and drove as much targeted traffic as possible to your site and subscriber list?

What if you could really earn $1,000 a day from one keyword or set of keywords? Would you really need ten niche sites and a half-dozen blogs on a variety of topics?

The problem with over-diversifying is that you lose the ability to focus well on one particular niche.

This realization has been a light-bulb-moment for me. Starting today, for the rest of the summer, I am going to try to focus 90% of my efforts on one specific niche as I work through the Wealthy Affiliate training. My goal is to be earning $1,000 a month from that one particular site, which I began building over a year ago, by the end of this August.

Are you over-diversifying without maximizing your potential in a specific niche? Have you considered just working on one site for a couple months, giving it your complete focus, and measuring the results?

8 comments:

Genesis said...

Very interesting. You'd have to have a very good niche to earn that though, I should think. Many people focus on low competition and low searches because they don't know that there are still a TON of high search, low competition options out there.

Alicia James said...

Wow!
Maria sounds like you are pretty busy with all the blogs and websites that you have and I thought I was doing something with four sites. Settling into one niche can be hard to do but why not promote that niche to the fullest. Looks like your new investment is working out well for you so far.

CJ said...

There really are a lot of niches, haha, but Wealthy Affiliate is awesome, I hope everything works out for you.

Try using the Google Directory to find niches, it helps!

Tammy Frost said...

I was just browsing through my blogger dashboard and saw this post after thinking...."There are so many ways to make money...Am I taking on too much?" I enjoyed your post. Good Luck!

Anonymous said...

I tend to agree, although I think it may be possible to avoid exhausting a niche via expanding topical matter into related areas.

Tami said...

This is a great reminder that spreading yourself to thin will only weaken what you are trying to accomplish.

Hope you can come visit me. http://www.wahmtalkradio.com/tips-for-avoiding-work-at-home-scam/

Unknown said...

I have been pondering this thought for a long time now. I am making around 600$ from my online survey site and was thinking of spreading my wings but at the same time just like you said why spread the wings when you cna suck more life out of what you got. Thanks for the tip.

Mama Melly B said...

I can certainly relate! I have a ton of blogger blogs here. I also have 5 blogs on my own hosting account and write for numerous content mills and private clients.

I am nowhere near making the kind of money you are talking about with my blogs though. Mind you I am not much of an affiliate marketer though and just recently even started posting with affiliate links included in anchor text.

This gives me great encouragement though and a new look on things. I do feel too spread out most days, so I may try taking your advice!

thanks for a great post.