Why Do Niche Sites (and Niche Site Owners Fail)?
You may read income reports for niche sites (like from Smart Passive Income or Niche Pursuits), and dream about creating your OWN SITE making $5,000 or $10,000 per month.
(Who doesn’t want to make a side hustle or full-time income from a simple website.)
You’re willing to do the work.
You’re not looking for a get-rich-quick scheme.
You want to create a long-term asset that actually provides value to the world.
You want to earn your success. (Does this sound familiar?)
So, what happens?
It turns out that most people who start niche sites quit within the first three months.
Why?
It’s simple. When people start niche sites, they do the wrong things.
And the problem is when they spend time on all those things they find something happens:
They’ll waste their first three months, and they’ll have NOTHING to show for it other than a bunch of logins, passwords, some great content, and the belief that “I just need to finish this one last thing…”
But they’ll have NO TRAFFIC and NO SALES on Amazon or other affiliate programs.
And that lack of results will demotivate the MOST AMBITIOUS individual.
(And believe me. I know because I’ve been there…)
It’s human nature.
If you work on something without getting positive rewards, then you won’t want to keep working on it.
In fact, it gets harder and harder to work on.
And that’s why, I believe, most niche site owners fail.
They start niche sites with good intentions, but slowly trail off and stop working on their sites because they waste time on pointless tasks that don’t have an impact on what they really want:
- more traffic
- more sales
It’s sad, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
I have a question:
**Are you worried that the same thing will happen to you?
**Are you scared that you’ll waste your time on the pointless things that won’t help you grow your niche site?
**Or worse, maybe the same has already happened to you… and you’re ready to do something about it?
If you said “YES!” you’re in luck.
I’m going to tell you about the most common mistakes with niche sites. I’ve created a bunch of sites myself, but more importantly, I’ve talked to dozens of niche site owners and coached many others.
Mistake #1: Not Knowing WHAT To Work On
One of the most frustrating things is to sit down at your computer, ready to work on your website, and NOT know what you should be doing.
Let’s say you have a full-time job, like most people, or you only have limited time to work on your side project – say a niche site.
For the sake of argument, let’s say you have about 5 hours a week to work on your niche site. That’s just 1 hour a day, 5 days a week. It’s significant, but most people can carve out that time.
But if you have to spend about 60% of your time researching on
- blog posts
- YouTube videos
- Or podcasts
Then that leaves you with just a couple hours of time to do your REAL work.
The last thing you want to do is waste time trying to figure out the next step in the process.
There are 2 main issues with this:
- It’s frustrating and annoying.
- You work less effectively.
But wait…
You also have to deal with the fact that not all of the “free information” out there is up to date and correct.
That means you may end up investing a lot of your scarce time only to find out that you haven’t learned the latest and greatest techniques and information.
Do you know how many little steps (i.e. tasks) you need to complete to have a profitable and prosperous niche site?
It’s okay if you don’t – most people don’t – even people that have successful niche sites.
There are over 107 tasks and most of those break down into 3 or more subtasks.
Now, imagine a time when you felt very productive. Think about where you were sitting or standing.
Was it bright? Dim?
What time of day was it?
Now, think about it… Did you know exactly what to work on? Or did you waste most of your time researching WHAT to do?
I’m betting you knew exactly what to work on. You focused like a laser and you got it done.
If you want to be successful a creating a niche site, you need to know exactly what to work on.
A perfect example is student, Marty McLeod, who is making $4,000+ per month. He was making much when he started working with me.
After several months, he reached 4 TIMES his initial goal of $500 per month.
Marty dabbled in the past but the course helps him work on what matters – focusing on the 80/20 of niche sites.
It took time and Marty can attest that he worked super hard. But after he completed the tasks and put a lot of sweat into it, he reached another HUGE milestone.
Check out the FRAMED Goals that Marty achieved…
Solution: Use a process that is PROVEN and KNOWN to work.
Let’s look at a couple specific time-wasters while we’re at it.
Finding the PERFECT:
- WordPress Theme
- Domain Name
- Logo or Header
- Colors and Design
Trying to find the perfect “anything” is simply a fool’s errand, and it’s a form of procrastination.
The success stories that we hear about NEVER have a part where “everything came together when I found the right theme,” or “traffic went through the roof after we changed the header.”
The success stories start with someone taking action and making progress each day. Each week.
Solution: Don’t get hung up with the small things that don’t actually move the needle. Take action and adjust along the way.
If you pick a bad domain name, no problem – change it later. If you decide your WordPress theme is lame, no sweat – you can change that, too. Being successful is about being adaptable, being flexible.
______
Mistake #2: Picking A POOR Niche
Let’s say you have the perfect list of all the tasks you need to complete to create a niche site.
Spoiler alert: One of them is picking a niche.
You’ve probably heard it before from any number of sources:
Getting the right niche and picking the right keywords are CRITICAL.
You have to get that right or you’ll never have a profitable niche site.
The advice is right.
You do need to have a great set of keywords if you want to have a successful niche site valued in the 5 to 6 figure range. (Note: Most niche sites have a valuation of 20 – 30+ times the average monthly profits. So if you have a site making $500 per month, you can sell it for about $10,000+.)
But imagine you pick a niche that is not profitable.
Wah Wah Wah…that would totally suck.
You see, picking a niche is one of the earliest steps in the process. Once you do some keyword research, you can evaluate the competition in niches, then you can pick a niche that’s profitable.
If you pick the wrong niche, then here is what happens…
- Do keyword research and pick a niche.
- Create a site, publish great content, get backlinks.
- People visit your website but hardly anyone buys anything.
- You feel sad because you worked really hard, but didn’t get the satisfaction of a successful, profitable niche site.
Look, it happens. Not all niches will be profitable. I know because I’ve picked some really terrible ones in the past!
I thought I found a great set of keywords – 1000s of searches per month. And the kicker was that no other niche sites were even targeting those search terms.
I found 1 forum that seemed to have some content on the topic, but they weren’t really competitive. It turned out that the product wasn’t one that people actually bought online.
So I created a site that got a few 100 visitors per day, but they had no interest in buying. Sure, I made a few pennies a day from Adsense, but that’s nothing significant.
The main problems are:
- Not enough people search for the terms in the niche so your site gets too little traffic.
- The competition in the niche is too tough.
- The products in the niche aren’t expensive enough so your affiliate commissions will be low.
- Targeting a product that people don’t normally buy online.
The sad part is that there is so much information out there about keyword research and so much of it is old.
Want a real example…?
You can buy washers, dryers, & refrigerators on Amazon and they can be $1000 — $2000 each!
But do you actually know anyone that has? Me neither.
Most people go to a big box store so they can see what the washer, dryer, or refrigerator looks like and feels like. Big box stores normally have some great deals and sales for big holidays, too. The result is that people don’t buy many big appliances online.
Keyword research is the root of choosing a great niche. And if you get that wrong, your whole niche site will be metaphorically cursed.
If you had the right metrics for your keyword research, you could reduce your risk of picking a niche that just isn’t profitable.
Mistake #3: Doing the wrong things to get traffic
Even if you get the right niche, you still need traffic on your site. If you have the best content in the world but no one is reading it, then you have an issue.
Traffic is the holy grail. If you can get traffic while targeting a profitable niche, then your site can make money.
And, if you’re reading this, then it’s even simpler. You can review and recommend some product that sells on Amazon.
People buy things on Amazon because they trust Amazon.
And a ridiculous number of people have an Prime Account. I have one and I’d prefer buying something on Amazon over going to the crowded mall any day.
But, of course, you still have to get that traffic to your site. I didn’t get started with niche sites all that long ago.
It was actually almost 7 years ago when I bought the domain for my very first Affiliate Site.
Links are the backbone of the Google Algorithm. Yeah, there are 200+ other ranking factors, but they pale in comparison. The thing is that you NEED to have organic traffic from Google if you want to have a niche site that will make a profit.
A profitable niche site needs to have visitors every single day, preferably free, organic traffic from Google.
There are a few pitfalls that can get you in the traffic area.
Using old, out of date techniques
Back in the day, before my time, you used to be able to build a website, stuff in some keywords, buy some links for a few bucks, and rank fast.
In fact, I got my start by learning from Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income (SPI). A lot of people don’t realize that Pat got lots of attention with his niche sites a few years back using what we now consider gray hat techniques.
Even Pat advised (in the Backlinking Strategy That Works) to create a link wheel, use Build My Rank, and an article spinner.
If you didn’t know Build My Rank was penalized and de-indexed in 2012 and an article spinner is software that uses artificial intelligence to re-write existing content on the web.
He does NOT anymore, and he’s a white hat supporter now just like me.
But back in 2010-2012ish, one of Smart Passive Income’s most popular posts was “The Backlinking Strategy That Works” and I read that post in 2013 after I discovered the SPI Podcast. Those techniques would get you penalized by Google in 2016 faster than Usain Bolt could run 100M. I mean it’s really spammy stuff!
Expecting visitors to “just find you” because you have great content
That may have worked a few years ago with fewer niche sites and websites in general. But now you have a lot more competition.
Having great content is just the price of admission.
You need to get backlinks in a white hat way so you DON’T get penalized by Google. If you just publish content week after week, day after day, you will be disappointed.
Focusing on things that don’t ACTUALLY help your site get traffic
There are lots of ways to get backlinks to your site. Some are easy, some are hard, some work well, some don’t…
The thing is, you need to know what’s actually effective and what’s not. If you have limited time to work on your niche site, then you need to ensure that you’re not wasting it.
So you may have heard people talk about using If-This-Then-That (IFTTT) to syndicate their posts or some other “system” that will help you rank your site. There are 2 big problems with techniques like that:
- You FEEL like you are getting great work done.
- You LOSE motivation because you DON’T get the positive results that you thought you would.
If you’re interested in building a long term asset (that’s actually going to last and NOT get penalized by Google), then you need to be smart about what you do.
You’ll need to have a link building and promotional plan that’s scalable and effective.
Solution: Be sure not to follow old tactics or shortcuts that don’t work. Don’t buy links in any form and follow a White Hat approach. If you seek to network in your niche, then ask for guest posts, you’ll be on the right track. You’ll end up with plenty of valuable high authority backlinks that Google loves.
Do THIS instead & avoid making the mistakes
Most people seem to think they need that one idea to strike it rich – “a million-dollar-idea” to allow them to have the time, money, and freedom they deserve. Or, to win the lottery.
Instead, I discovered that creating a niche site is one of the best ways to earn your freedom and get started in online business.
A niche site allows you to create an asset that draws free, organic traffic from Google.
You won’t have to beg people to be your client or sell hard.
- Allows you to make money while you do what you want like travel, take your kids to school, or spend time with friends.
- Gives you time, the most precious of all commodities, since you won’t have to work 60 hr weeks.
On Friday, I’ll show you how to get started with your niche site.
Talk to you then.
Doug
ps: here is your action item for the day.
- Write down your goal
- Put it in a prominent place so you see it every day, many many times (like right by your computer)
- Take a picture & send it to me.
Remember: People who wrote down their goals, shared this information with a friend, and sent weekly updates to that friend were on average 33% more successful in accomplishing their stated goals…
- When you get distracted and start endlessly scrolling down your Facebook feed…
- When you get distracted and start reading another blog post…
- When you get distracted and start listening to another podcast…
Then your goal will be looking right at you, reminding you that you should be taking steps to reach your goal— NOT doing other things.
So get to it!