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Do You Agree Or Disagree & Why ? ...With This Article About Micro Niche Sites From Flippa.com

by onpointinfo
26 replies
I am currently researching and looking to disapprove or approve the article from flippa.com on making money with micro niche sites.
http://flippa.com/blog/why-micro-niche-sites-no-longer-work/ The goal is to determine if this is still a good online biz model to pursue or not, or should pursue it but from a different angle, with the google panda update this model may no longer be a good one to pursue ;>)

Note:
After you read the article, please give your feedback whether you disapprove or approve the claims of the article and what are your reasons for disapproving or approving the claims in the article, whether you are successfully still making money with this method & whether the panda update affected you or not


Note:
There are people selling courses based on developing micro niche sites online such as Affiliate Marketing Course - AffiloBlueprint

I read here on WF that affilorama 3.0 has changed with a focus on list building and selling on back end not sure if this is true or not.
http://www.warriorforum.com/internet...k-til-day.html
#agree #article #disagree #flippacom #micro #niche #sites
  • Profile picture of the author nik0
    Banned
    It's a dead model.
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    • Profile picture of the author larryboy03
      It's not dead, it still works but I don't see much point of making such a small site to be honest. Build a site with a minimum of 100 posts, increase domain authority, page authority and increase the rankings of long tails keywords. That's what Iv been doing and my new niche sites and they are gaining authority, traffic and most importantly making more sales.

      Find a very profitable niche and stick at it
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      • Profile picture of the author martinp
        What's your definition of "micro"? Less than 5 pages? 5-10 pages? Less than 20 pages? I have quite a few sites with around 10 pages that do very well still. I even have a few with less than 5 pages that are doing quite nicely and ranked on page 1 of Google.

        I do build the most successful of my sites out eventually by adding more content though - I try to update every site at least once a month with some fresh content.

        I don't agree with her quote: "The average earnings one can expect from a micro niche site is $1 a day. If you do it well and target the right keywords you might even make $100 a month."

        $1 a day is just one $30 sale per month. Most of my niche sites make 3-6 sales per week, and many are promoting products that pay out alot more than $30. I suspect she was talking about Adsense though which I'm sure is alot more difficult to earn with given the small earnings per click.
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        • Profile picture of the author larryboy03
          Originally Posted by martinp View Post

          What's your definition of "micro"? Less than 5 pages? 5-10 pages? Less than 20 pages? I have quite a few sites with around 10 pages that do very well still. I even have a few with less than 5 pages that are doing quite nicely and ranked on page 1 of Google.

          I do build the most successful of my sites out eventually by adding more content though - I try to update every site at least once a month with some fresh content.

          I don't agree with her quote: "The average earnings one can expect from a micro niche site is $1 a day. If you do it well and target the right keywords you might even make $100 a month."

          $1 a day is just one $30 sale per month. Most of my niche sites make 3-6 sales per week, and many are promoting products that pay out alot more than $30. I suspect she was talking about Adsense though which I'm sure is alot more difficult to earn with given the small earnings per click.
          I don't agree with her either, I sold a 5 page website in august for $1750 and it was making $200 per month and it had 6 pages of content. It had no good cpc or that, I just drove "tons" of traffic to it with keyword research.

          I talk to the person who bought it from me and the earnings are increasing and so is the traffic, if you ask me Google is favoring the site with "5 pages" of content.

          It was also only 5 months old.

          My new niche site has 18 posts so far and I'm updating the site every Wednesday. It generates 100 unique visitors a day and increasing every week and making 1-4 sales per day, earning £5-£10 a day, so where she gets 100 per month "facts" is bull****.

          It's funny how people that don't make there income from websites come up with ridiculous false facts.
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          • Profile picture of the author nateall
            Originally Posted by larryboy03 View Post

            I don't agree with her either, I sold a 5 page website in august for $1750 and it was making $200 per month and it had 6 pages of content. It had no good cpc or that, I just drove "tons" of traffic to it with keyword research.

            I talk to the person who bought it from me and the earnings are increasing and so is the traffic, if you ask me Google is favoring the site with "5 pages" of content.

            It was also only 5 months old.

            My new niche site has 18 posts so far and I'm updating the site every Wednesday. It generates 100 unique visitors a day and increasing every week and making 1-4 sales per day, earning £5-£10 a day, so where she gets 100 per month "facts" is bull****.

            It's funny how people that don't make there income from websites come up with ridiculous false facts.
            Are you saying that you drove traffic with keyword research? Just targeting low competition keywords? No linkbuilding?
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        • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
          Originally Posted by martinp View Post

          What's your definition of "micro"? Less than 5 pages? 5-10 pages? Less than 20 pages? I have quite a few sites with around 10 pages that do very well still. I even have a few with less than 5 pages that are doing quite nicely and ranked on page 1 of Google.

          I do build the most successful of my sites out eventually by adding more content though - I try to update every site at least once a month with some fresh content.

          I don't agree with her quote: "The average earnings one can expect from a micro niche site is $1 a day. If you do it well and target the right keywords you might even make $100 a month."

          $1 a day is just one $30 sale per month. Most of my niche sites make 3-6 sales per week, and many are promoting products that pay out alot more than $30. I suspect she was talking about Adsense though which I'm sure is alot more difficult to earn with given the small earnings per click.
          The bolded part is what confuses me the most. I've got a nice handful of micro niche sites doing much, much better than that. That said, I tend to have at least 15-20 pages of content with occasional updates throughout the month.

          Additionally, I DO have a few 5 page sites ranking very well for some pretty decent terms. So I don't think they're "dead." I've been getting away from these types of sites. But I'm nowhere near building massive 100+ page sites either.
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        • Profile picture of the author onpointinfo
          [DELETED]
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          • Profile picture of the author martinp
            Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

            I am referring too " micro sites any where from 5 - 20 page sites " but since the google panda update I have read online and my understanding is that google now prefers mini sites that have more then 5 to 10 pages and not sure what exactly google prefers now for these micro mini sites to take the site seriously and give it some rankings, I think I read some where else that 20 pages is a minimum for micro sites to get any traction for SEO ...
            Alot of my sites are less than 20 pages and rank on page 1 of Google for a number of keywords so it's definitely not impossible. Niche marketing isn't dead but you do need to provide some quality, even if your site is less than 20 pages.

            I do agree that it's not as simple as "pick out some keywords you know nothing about, send it to writers and marketers in the Philippines and India, and sit back and enjoy the moolah coming in". Even before 2013 there was alot more to it than just throwing up a crappy site and expecting it to make money. I know alot about each of my niche site topics, I do pay alot more than 1 cent per word for content (although I write alot of my own content too), and I have always chosen my own keywords.

            Alot does come down to choosing the right keywords though - if you can find relatively low to medium competition keywords then you can rank easily with just a few pages. It's probably better to target high competition keywords on authority sites.
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        • Profile picture of the author onpointinfo
          Originally Posted by martinp View Post

          What's your definition of "micro"? Less than 5 pages? 5-10 pages? Less than 20 pages? I have quite a few sites with around 10 pages that do very well still. I even have a few with less than 5 pages that are doing quite nicely and ranked on page 1 of Google.

          I do build the most successful of my sites out eventually by adding more content though - I try to update every site at least once a month with some fresh content.

          I don't agree with her quote: "The average earnings one can expect from a micro niche site is $1 a day. If you do it well and target the right keywords you might even make $100 a month."

          $1 a day is just one $30 sale per month. Most of my niche sites make 3-6 sales per week, and many are promoting products that pay out alot more than $30. I suspect she was talking about Adsense though which I'm sure is alot more difficult to earn with given the small earnings per click.
          Hi Martin...

          I am talking about a minimum of 5 to 20 page micro sites, since the understanding is since the " GOOGLE PANDA UPDATE " that to get any respect from google now, a micro site should have more pages but not sure exactly what google means by more pages, I think I read somewhere that to give google at 20 pages so that google takes your site more seriously ...
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      • Profile picture of the author onpointinfo
        Originally Posted by larryboy03 View Post

        It's not dead, it still works but I don't see much point of making such a small site to be honest. Build a site with a minimum of 100 posts, increase domain authority, page authority and increase the rankings of long tails keywords. That's what Iv been doing and my new niche sites and they are gaining authority, traffic and most importantly making more sales.

        Find a very profitable niche and stick at it
        Hi larryboy...thanks for your feedback but I am confused can you help me clear up what you are saying, I do not wish to assume I understand what you are saying

        You sound like you do not agree with that article I posted from flippa.com am I right to assume you definitely disagree and believe that " MICRO SITES ARE NOT DEAD " based on the results you are getting but your site is not a micro sites since they have 100 posts ....confused you say they are not dead but then you state that to do well post 100 posts if this is the case then your site is not a micro site with 5 - 20 pages but do you have any actual micro sites actually making money for you that are 5/20 pages big ?

        I am confused you disapprove the article but then you say that you should build niche sites with 100 blog posts essentially = to 100 pages ...so does this mean you switched from smaller 10 - 20 page sites because they were not working for you or did they ever work for you and the performance dropped after the panda update for you so now you started adding more posts or pages to gain domain / page authority for your long tails keywords ....

        to 100 blog post sites Also you state that do not waste time with small micro sites with a small # of pages ...

        Are you suggesting that you have bad exper that you prefer to build not so much micro site - but instead build niche sites with at least 100 pages to ensure you get more traction from the search engines But
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  • Profile picture of the author nik0
    Banned
    When I hear micro niche site all I can think of are those 3-4 boring nothing saying articles and stuffed with Adsense ads based on some long ass EMD name.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dave37
    In my opinion, the website flipping business is getting more and more profitable, however associating website flipping with micro-niche site might not always be a good idea, especially because of Google's latest updates, most micro-niche sites are not SEO-optimized.
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  • Profile picture of the author TimothyTorrents
    I know some people who are making money with micro-niche review websites. In fact, I wrote quite a few articles for different micro-niche websites. Personally, I am not a fan of small websites, but if you can drive traffic, it could be quite profitable.
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  • Profile picture of the author onpointinfo
    Can anyone provide a recent case study of one of their sites that they setup with a small # of pages and is ranking well for their long tail targeted keywords and making at least $30 / mo from the site
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    • Profile picture of the author martinp
      Originally Posted by onpointinfo View Post

      Can anyone provide a recent case study of one of their sites that they setup with a small # of pages and is ranking well for their long tail targeted keywords and making at least $30 / mo from the site
      Obviously I can't give away the url, but a site I built about 7 months ago has 3 pages and is ranked top 5 of Google for the main keyword. Here are the details:

      It is in the weight loss niche.
      It is a 'how to' keyword (tone a specific part of the body)
      It has an EMD (6 words)
      It has 3 pages.
      It gets over 300 uniques per day.
      It makes over $30 a day.
      It consists of 2 articles of 800+ words each and a product review.
      It has about 12 backlinks (blog comments).

      It is a very small but fast growing topic (a few years ago this topic got less than 100 searches per month and it is now getting 15000+ searches per month according to Google). The site ranked very easily because it is very low competition - there aren't even any specific affiliate products targeting it yet. The sales I'm making are for a $10 product I created myself.

      Will I add more pages to the site? Probably not. It's a very tiny niche so there's not a massive amount I can write about it. I know the site won't last forever, especially once other affiliates find the keyword and jump on board but seeing as it was only a few hours work I'm not too bothered.
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      • Profile picture of the author nateall
        Originally Posted by martinp View Post

        Obviously I can't give away the url, but a site I built about 7 months ago has 3 pages and is ranked top 5 of Google for the main keyword. Here are the details:

        It is in the weight loss niche.
        It is a 'how to' keyword (tone a specific part of the body)
        It has an EMD (6 words)
        It has 3 pages.
        It gets over 300 uniques per day.
        It makes over $30 a day.
        It consists of 2 articles of 800+ words each and a product review.
        It has about 12 backlinks (blog comments).

        It is a very small but fast growing topic (a few years ago this topic got less than 100 searches per month and it is now getting 15000+ searches per month according to Google). The site ranked very easily because it is very low competition - there aren't even any specific affiliate products targeting it yet. The sales I'm making are for a $10 product I created myself.

        Will I add more pages to the site? Probably not. It's a very tiny niche so there's not a massive amount I can write about it. I know the site won't last forever, especially once other affiliates find the keyword and jump on board but seeing as it was only a few hours work I'm not too bothered.
        Nice work!
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  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    It seems to be working for me. Google is getting rid of a lot of the keyword metrics on GA, but my traffic is still flowing and sales are keeping up. I wonder why Google wants break GA and to blind us. Perhaps we need to focus on BING more. They might be replacing the BIG G in a few years. The Google model with NP or [not provided] is broken now. I use to use ad words a lot before, but not any more.
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  • Profile picture of the author Teravel
    I was going to break down the article into sections and show why the information was bad. Then I realized the entire article was a huge load of garbage.

    The entire article is based on the idea that you are creating a website focused completely on what Google wants.
    High click, Low competition 'Keywords'.
    Search Engine Optimization.
    Exact Match Domain.
    "Organic Traffic"


    IT'S ALL WRONG!!

    If you want to create a successful "Micro-Niche Website", you need to stop focusing on Search Engines. They don't make the rules!!

    If you want to succeed, you have to stop focusing your attention on Search Engines, and start focusing your business on PEOPLE.
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  • Profile picture of the author BlairDesigns
    I don't necessarily think that micro niches are dead or on their last leg but instead think that the way in which online marketers were building micro niche sites is. You could in the past throw together an extremely ugly site with unreadable articles in hopes to rank and just funnel visitors into clicks.

    Of course it was extremely unethical and perhaps an excellent reason for the updates Google rolled out. It's about time marketers are held to a higher standard and though authority niche sites in my opinion are more valuable micro niches could be the new come back kid if done right!
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  • Profile picture of the author affilliate-script
    Xfactor who started the whole micro-niche site thing, switched to building out his sites into authority sites by adding more content

    He said that the micro-niche model was not dead, but making his sites into larger authority sites was more profitable

    He wrote a PDF ebook about it - but I can't remember what it was called
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  • Profile picture of the author TheRockstarWriter
    A blog post on a site that sells websites wants to encourage users to create more robust (which many will see as "better") websites to sell?

    Color me shocked.
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    While you spend time reading people's signatures on a forum someone else is working to make the money you could have made.

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  • Profile picture of the author Slin
    I agree with Niko.

    It's not worth making a micro niche site, sure I still see them rank, but it's just so much easier to create a content heavy authority site.

    I still believe that some link building is required though, in fact, I've seen the best results from a combination of heavy link building, and heavy content.

    I could say the opposite though, low content and low backlinking, or even low content and high backlinking, just don't get me any results these days.
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  • Profile picture of the author TryBPO
    I know the girl that wrote that article. She's super-sharp, but she's out of her depth on this one, I believe.

    We're still building profitable niche sites, although less successfully than we were when we first started. We avoid any/all linkbuilding to avoid Penguin hits and we've toned down our onsite seo as well.

    We're also testing through starting with more expansive 50 pages sites as well, but we're a couple months away from determining whether there's a better ROI for us there.
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  • Profile picture of the author goindeep
    Approve. Still works, people still do it, just not a model I would use.
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  • Profile picture of the author brettb
    My niche sites are still making a bit of money. But over time surely Google will only ever get better at spotting poor quality sites that add nothing to searchers. And let's be honest if you're outsourcing the content writing or writing about something you're not an expert in, then it's just spam really.

    If you want to do well now, start building useful stuff.
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  • Profile picture of the author Teravel
    Many of you have this terrible misconception that "More Content" makes your site an "Authority".

    Authority Sites are websites that have hundreds, possibly thousands, of people that are contributing.

    Craigslist is an Authority website. It has almost no actual content, save from the mass amount that is created by it's members on a daily basis.

    Facebook is an Authority website. It has people using it to connect with friends, businesses looking to connect with clients, and games wanting new gamers.

    WarriorForum is an Authority website. It has over half a million members, many of which are adding content multiple times per day.

    The business model is completely different as well. Websites like Facebook and the WarriorForum get their money from renting advertising space. Their business model revolves around moving visitors from one place to another, in the mass.

    Niche sites are focused on getting visitors that are interested in a specific topic. They provide information about their topic, and show advertisements based on that topic. Generally, these sites earn most of their earnings through sales or affiliate commissions.
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  • Profile picture of the author dengkane
    Approve. Just read the article, and good writing, the analysis is reasonable.
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