To my chagrin, one of those domains had nothing on it -- not even a basic html frame, no blog, nothing, and I'd owned it for 11 months. I decided to renew, even though it's just a .info domain, but only after committing to myself that I would actually use it for a website before it hit the 12 month mark. And to that end, I've spent the past week making this new site. Here's what it looks like in terms of structure, content and money-making model.
Website Format: Static Site
The cleaning niche I picked isn't particularly conducive to a blogging format, and I find that websites that won't be frequently updated or commented on do best in a static format, so I picked a simple html template and customized it with niche-specific cleaning photos.
Website Content: Outsourcing
I wrote one page and outsourced seven articles from Textbroker. While I've used Textbroker several times in the past month, this was my best set of articles from them thus far. I chose level 4 and was very specific in my request instructions. The writers did well -- I had to make only minor edits to the articles before adding the content to my site pages. All told, I spent $60.77 on the content.
Website Monetization: Adsense & Amazon
The income model for this site is simple: Google Adsense units along the two side columns and in-article text links to Amazon products. I've also used Amazon product photos to illustrate the content and these link to their Amazon product pages as well. As far as earning potential, I don't expect this to be a huge money-maker, as it is a narrow niche and the products are inexpensive ($5-$100, with most under $30).
However, there isn't much competition there either. I'll set $100/month as my goal for monthly earnings for this little site, and hope to hit that within a year.
I'll definitely post updates on the website as it begins to earn money (here's hoping!) and I add more content. For the record, I put the first page up on May 17. No backlinks yet, but the first page was crawled and indexed by Google a few days ago, which means at least the search engine giant knows it exists.
Are you working on a website, new or old? How is it doing?
11 comments:
Actually, I'm working on my first niche site...working my way through Pat Flynn's and Tyrone Shum's niche site coaching program. Wow is there a lot to learn! :-).
CD -- that's great! Keep us posted -- I'd love t hear how it goes for you.
I'm also working on my first niche sites right now. It's nice to see different ways of formatting sites. Thanks!
I will follow this project with interest! LOoks great Maria!
Great, Heather -- let me know how it goes.
Thanks, Darla!
I'm in the brainstorming phase about which product niche I want to get into, but I've given myself a deadline of Sunday to have solidified my ideas and started an action plan. I always have to be tough on myself, because I have a tendency to get distracted at times.
Amberr -- you've hit the nail on the head: taking action is essential! Sometimes we spend too long brainstorming, planning and otherwise "working" at things that don't bring results. The doing part is most important, especially when you're first beginning.
Really enjoy your posts. I've started a new website, but getting the traffic is driving me crazy! What would you say was your most helpful info in getting started? Also, for textbroker, did you take bids or set a price?
Thanks!
So how is this project going???
traci -- Pick a topic you enjoy writing about, pick a keyword phrase domain name, and write excellent articles. On textbroker, I order by word count and star level -- set prices.
Darla -- it's up with a handful of good pages, on the back burner as I work on a few more lucrative sites. :)
Have you written a post that details what kind of things you do to build backlinks to your niche sites? I'd love to hear what your strategies are.
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