[Live Study] Are Micro Niche Sites Dead?

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  • SEO
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I have seen a number of threads on here asking

"Are micro niche sites dead"
"Can you still make good money from niche sites"
"Is Adsense a viable option"

Now personally I have a large number of these sites that do well...but most of them have become well established and, to a greater or lesser degree, been built out to be more than their original premise.

So what I wanted to do was show that, actually, micro niche sites DO still work. Yes they take a bit more work than they used to, but given the money they can generate I still think them worth it.

Just before the weekend I was chatting with a mate who is struggling for a bit of cash - he runs a pub which is starting to take off, but a side income would be useful to him. Since he is often sitting in the pub in quiet times with nothing to do he figured there must be a way to make money.

I suggested to him we partner up on microniche sites. I have been struggling for time to carry on my building of sites as I take on new projects, so combining with a partner (one I can trust) makes sense from my end too.

The Basic Game Plan

The plan is a simple one...to build about 50 microniche sites a month. We will flip some - some profitable ones for quick cash, some of the ones that fail for us to hand to those that can get them to work.

But we anticipate keeping 15-20 a month, building up a stash of passive earners.

Details

Presumably every one is more interested in the details. To that end I will be looking at first of all keywords

Specifically my research will focus on keywords with 1300 exact searches or more a month (ideally local searches to US or UK), $.70 or above and with low SEO'd top 10 competition.

I only ever care about the top 10, the rest can go hang for all I care.

Oh and the EMD has to have .com, .net or .org available

We will create a minimum of 5 articles on the keyword and related keywords for each site before we go live, and probably add a few more on each site as we go.

We then SEO the hell out of it

Onpage

Images with keyword titles, captions, etc, the right headers, titles, keyword density, bolding, italics, underlining, interlinking etc, meta dexription, meta tags and the like

Offpage

Squioo Lenses and Hubpage hubs as tier 1 links, as will some EZA articles (for syndication more than the link). Then we will be using AMR to spin and distribute articles to point at our tier 1 properties - plus building out a few wide range niche blogs on blogspot and wordpress. We may look at things like profile linking to these depending on how it goes.

TIME

We know that the reality is that these things take time. We're not really going to even be looking at income for sites until 90 days after creation (other than for stats for this thread and a blog if we bother setting one up). At that point we will take a decision on flipping or keeping (some may go before, depending on what we need).

We'll be keeping the stats going on here, and showing (hopefully) that microniche sites work. With the level of site creation we will be doing we should find out within 6 months whether micro niche is dead or not...I suspect it is alive and well, but if not then we have learned that OUR approach to them is wrong.

If you have any tips you'd like to share so we can alter our approach, we're always open to new ideas! simply share them below.

Anyway wish us luck. Just chosen our first 4 domains, should look at getting started on development first thing tomorrow.
#dead #live #micro #niche #sites #study
  • Profile picture of the author BenJackson
    Case studies are always great, looking forward to your future posts

    My advice to make this a really valuable case study:
    1. Be detailed about your SEO strategy
    2. Share exactly how many sites are succeeding over time
    3. Share your costs VS ROI
    4. *Post a link to one or two of your sites

    *If you're comfortable with that
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by BenJackson View Post

      Case studies are always great, looking forward to your future posts
      Cheers. I've loved reading through a bunch of case study threads on here and learned a lot - so I figured doing one would

      a) help and inspire some people
      b) teach me a huge heap

      My advice to make this a really valuable case study:
      1. Be detailed about your SEO strategy
      2. Share exactly how many sites are succeeding over time
      3. Share your costs VS ROI
      4. *Post a link to one or two of your sites

      *If you're comfortable with that
      Some good points

      1) I will be. Until now I have been more organic than formulaic with my SEO efforts, but doing this much at once and with end goals in mind means developing a full strategy, as it evolves I shall be updating it here.
      2) That was the main intention, to show whether they are succeeding or not to allow myself and others learn from the data
      3) Good point, hadn't given that much thought. Should also think about logging man hours in as well...the one thing most case studies leave out. Will try (though tracking hours between projects may be more difficult)
      4) TBH probably not, though I will give it some thought

      As a side note the main inspiration for doing it like this (and the project) came from how adsenseflippers.com are doing theirs. I have always done microniche sites between projects and despite my spending more time eslewhere they are comfortably my biggest earner - the idea of making a full business strategy out of it, along with using a close mate to help kick my ass along the way when my enthusiasm wanes, came from reading their excellent blog.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    I'll take a larger site any day of the week.

    Rank multiple internal pages instead of a single keyword rich Index page.
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      I'll take a larger site any day of the week.

      Rank multiple internal pages instead of a single keyword rich Index page.
      I have both, and love the authority site for how quick and easy ranking for keywords are, but I have to say the majority of income still comes from micro sites, and given the amount of people pronouncing them dead I thought this project would be worth pursuing.

      My main projects outside of this are

      1) developing 3 authority sites (1 health niche, 1 sports niche, 1 finance niche)
      2) learning CPA, PPC, PPV etc

      This micro project is meant to be a couple of hours a day - and given I tend to work about 12 hour days it seemed a good way of forcing myself into keeping the 'spare' hours productive and me off Facebook!
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    • Profile picture of the author jameskahon
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      I'll take a larger site any day of the week.

      Rank multiple internal pages instead of a single keyword rich Index page.
      This is what I'm currently planning to do. Ranking many keywords on every single post.
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      • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
        Originally Posted by jameskahon View Post

        This is what I'm currently planning to do. Ranking many keywords on every single post.
        Horses for courses an' all that. I have a couple of authority sites and started another a few months ago that i am loving atm (getting much better at understanding the keywording of long articles for numerous keywords in a single post - loving the traffic that it can bring in).

        But not all keywords suit larger sites, and the laser focus that a micro niche site can bring to a keyword can really help you nail it. Plus it has the advantage of being able to flip a bit at a time when you want a cash injection or to move on, rather than having to sell the entire cash cow.

        I love both methods, but like to keep things mixed up.
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  • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
    Things going a bit slower than I anticipated - for the simple reason I have so much I need to teach my partner, and he needs to get into the swing of writing articles. In both cases once this speed bump has been crested I should imagine things will be going a lot quicker.

    That said results so far are 1 website up and running as of last night, and the content for another now in place, which will be going up later today.

    Each have 5 x 500 word articles on them. Plan on getting 5 in place by the weekend which will than be SEO'd with the tier strategy on Sunday.

    Still excited about this, just forgot how much I have learned on the subject which your average man on the street doesn't know and needs to be taught!
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Welsh Warrior View Post

      Still excited about this, just forgot how much I have learned on the subject which your average man on the street doesn't know and needs to be taught!
      That's easy to do. When you do the same IM processes everyday no matter how difficult they are you get proficient over time & get into a groove (creating content, seo, etc...). It's very easy to forget that others new to IM need to take it slower & focus on the details first.

      It's just like learning anything else, you get faster & better over time by doing repetitive task.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicelife
    Hey man,

    Great initiative by you to perform this case study.

    According to my experience small niche often websites perform well when using Exact Match Domains(EMD) in combination with a really High Quality article on the front page.

    #Cheap High Quality Content Tip
    Instead of writing articles myself I usually go out and look for a high quality article and have it rewritten, that's incredibly cheap, a 1500-2000 word article usually costs $6-$7 only because they don't need to do any research.

    Preferably I like to find articles that has gone viral within the niche I'm targeting and have them rewritten, this work very well sometimes.

    Anyway, looking forward to getting some results from your case study.

    Thanks
    /Daniel
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by nicelife View Post

      #Cheap High Quality Content Tip
      Instead of writing articles myself I usually go out and look for a high quality article and have it rewritten, that's incredibly cheap, a 1500-2000 word article usually costs $6-$7 only because they don't need to do any research.
      Good tip! thought of this before but not actually done it. Where do you find the writers? Fiver? DP? Odesk?

      To begin with the plan is to keep this manual - to control quality and to help teach my partner each step. As we get into the swing of things and start seeing an income I can see outsourcing as being a very important part of our business model (especially backlinking)
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  • Profile picture of the author jimbo61
    Pob lwc bach, da iawn
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by jimbo61 View Post

      Pob lwc bach, da iawn
      Diolch bach.

      Dw'in dim siarad Cymraeg... Wyf o Mwmbles

      did I get that right?
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      • Profile picture of the author jimbo61
        Originally Posted by Welsh Warrior View Post

        Diolch bach.

        Dw'in dim siarad Cymraeg... Wyf o Mwmbles

        did I get that right?

        Pretty much yes, I am only a few miles from Mumbles, why only this morning I was in starbucks in the village
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        • Profile picture of the author phans
          good luck with this study
          i am interested in the topic because MNS are what i am doing atm as well
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        • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
          Originally Posted by jimbo61 View Post

          Pretty much yes, I am only a few miles from Mumbles, why only this morning I was in starbucks in the village
          There's a Starbucks there now? I know Cafe Nero (I think) moved into the old Nags Head (shame, always thought that would make a great seafood bistro).

          Don't really know anyone around there who speaks Welsh though...and half my family still live in Mumbles.
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  • Profile picture of the author jimbo61
    odesk is Ok, Fiverr better as at least the bulk of people on Odesk can write English, even if it is that Americanised junk :p
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by jimbo61 View Post

      odesk is Ok, Fiverr better as at least the bulk of people on Odesk can write English, even if it is that Americanised junk :p
      Sorry, got me a little confused there. Fiverr is better because oDesk can write Americanised English?
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  • Profile picture of the author nicelife
    I get the rewrites done here on the forum most of the time.

    Contact several article writing service providers and ask for the rate of rewrites instead.

    Pick a cheap one and expect to put in the final touch of the article yourself.

    I guess you could go to Fiverr or several other places as well it's just a matter of preference
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  • Profile picture of the author kengperapol
    I've just ranked a micro niche site. It may not dead but a lot harder to rank than before.
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  • Profile picture of the author AfteraDream
    Why no outsourced content?
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by AfteraDream View Post

      Why no outsourced content?
      Only to begin with, for a number of reasons

      1) I want this to be a self funded project as much as possible. Whilst obviously the domains have to be bought prior to income, the idea is simply that we need to be looking at keeping this affordable (as a bonus, doing it this way means anyone following the study can jump n and try it for themselves without too much of a financial hit)

      2) My partner has ZERO IM experience. By starting with the article writing aspect and teaching him things like keyword research and SEO as we go he can have an instant input to the business, that isn't held back by his lack of IM knowledge

      3) Habit. I write a LOT by trade (doing article marketing for a few IMers), and tend to like to keep things in house.

      But as the project progresses this will completely change, and we will be looking to reinvest profits into outsourcing and scaling.
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      • Profile picture of the author AfteraDream
        Originally Posted by Welsh Warrior View Post

        Only to begin with, for a number of reasons

        1) I want this to be a self funded project as much as possible. Whilst obviously the domains have to be bought prior to income, the idea is simply that we need to be looking at keeping this affordable (as a bonus, doing it this way means anyone following the study can jump n and try it for themselves without too much of a financial hit)

        2) My partner has ZERO IM experience. By starting with the article writing aspect and teaching him things like keyword research and SEO as we go he can have an instant input to the business, that isn't held back by his lack of IM knowledge

        3) Habit. I write a LOT by trade (doing article marketing for a few IMers), and tend to like to keep things in house.

        But as the project progresses this will completely change, and we will be looking to reinvest profits into outsourcing and scaling.
        Well, it's good to teach the guy about how to start in IM.

        Good luck guys, there seems to be opportunities in niche sites still. No matter what some are saying.
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  • Profile picture of the author paulmthw2
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
      Originally Posted by paulmthw2 View Post

      Having a network of micro niche sites , i would say that its far from dead. Actually my profits have been rising non-stop.
      It all depends on the correct choice of the best niches out there.
      Agreed. The micro niche sites that are "dead" are the low quality sites with mostly poor - or even worse - spun content that provide no real value.
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshuaG
    No offense, but if your goal is 50 sites a month you're going to see some dismal returns. Careful keyword research is paramount to building a successful micro niche site. You simply won't have time to do enough digging if you expect to get 50 sites up.

    If you just pump them out in bulk like this you'll end up with $500+ in domain fees and meager gains for the vast, vast, majority of your sites.

    If you get lucky and a few start earning, your earnings will be low and you won't see a positive ROI on the project for years.

    You can't expect to sell the clunkers for any substantial amount. No ones going to pay a fair price for sites without earnings.

    If I were you I would take a serious look at your model and re-think it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by JoshuaG View Post

      No offense, but if your goal is 50 sites a month you're going to see some dismal returns. Careful keyword research is paramount to building a successful micro niche site. You simply won't have time to do enough digging if you expect to get 50 sites up.

      If you just pump them out in bulk like this you'll end up with $500+ in domain fees and meager gains for the vast, vast, majority of your sites.

      If you get lucky and a few start earning, your earnings will be low and you won't see a positive ROI on the project for years.

      You can't expect to sell the clunkers for any substantial amount. No ones going to pay a fair price for sites without earnings.

      If I were you I would take a serious look at your model and re-think it.
      If I were concerned I wouldn't be able to find that number of micro niches with EMDs I would. But I have my system down very well now (I also create some micro niche sites every week for clients), and finding viable options that meet my criteria doesn't take too long at all. A few hours every Sunday should uncover enough for the week.

      Take a look at the criteria - and remember all this is a 100% MINIMUM, many will be higher. Where do you think I am skimping?

      Specifically my research will focus on keywords with 1300 exact searches or more a month (ideally local searches to US or UK), $.70 or above and with low SEO'd top 10 competition.

      I only ever care about the top 10, the rest can go hang for all I care.

      Oh and the EMD has to have .com, .net or .org available
      Any advice on what you think I should be looking to improve on that is, of course, most welcome.
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    • Profile picture of the author grinder3011
      Originally Posted by JoshuaG View Post

      No offense, but if your goal is 50 sites a month you're going to see some dismal returns. Careful keyword research is paramount to building a successful micro niche site. You simply won't have time to do enough digging if you expect to get 50 sites up.

      If you just pump them out in bulk like this you'll end up with $500+ in domain fees and meager gains for the vast, vast, majority of your sites.

      If you get lucky and a few start earning, your earnings will be low and you won't see a positive ROI on the project for years.

      You can't expect to sell the clunkers for any substantial amount. No ones going to pay a fair price for sites without earnings.

      If I were you I would take a serious look at your model and re-think it.
      Excelent point made!! I am also diving into the niche websites and figuring from my past experiences, a poor keyword research and things done hastingly will only make you end up with big expenses....which I am guessing is not your goal.

      Still apparently this thread seems to have found a dead end...
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  • Profile picture of the author jficarro
    I guess the difference between micro and authority is the number of pages?

    My niche sites that do best are ones that I consistently add to and update with fresh new content. IMO it's harder to rank a one or two page site, especially in Google. So most of my sites end up being huge with sometimes thousands of pages.

    When people talk about "micro niches"... is there a reason for keeping them so small (few pages)? I know posting daily to hundreds of sites is a hassle, but I look at it as keeping my readers happy and good SEO.
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by jficarro View Post

      I guess the difference between micro and authority is the number of pages?

      My niche sites that do best are ones that I consistently add to and update with fresh new content. IMO it's harder to rank a one or two page site, especially in Google. So most of my sites end up being huge with sometimes thousands of pages.

      When people talk about "micro niches"... is there a reason for keeping them so small (few pages)? I know posting daily to hundreds of sites is a hassle, but I look at it as keeping my readers happy and good SEO.
      With 'micro niches' the target is almost always one keyword, with some minor keywords targeted by sub articles.

      For example an authority site might be called "curtain rail city" - curtainrailcity.com - targeting all sorts of things to do with curtain rails. But a micro niche site will be "oak curtain rails" (I havent looked up stats here) with oakcurtainrails.com - and from there you have minimal amounts of articles targeting things to do with oak curtain rails. the growth out of these sites is possible (I have done it multiple times), but because it is so laser focused and easy to rank it can often be easier to leave it earning well on what it's focus is (with only occasional updates) and move on to creating another one.

      Both business models, in my experience, work - it's about choosing hat is best for each site
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      • Profile picture of the author jficarro
        Originally Posted by Welsh Warrior View Post

        With 'micro niches' the target is almost always one keyword, with some minor keywords targeted by sub articles.
        Thanks, that makes sense and would in many respects be easier to rank (because of the laser focus).

        So.. seems to me, I could have a 1000 page micro-niche site, but all focused on one narrow keyword with few exceptions.

        duhhh. micro-niche NOT micro-site. Forgive me, I've only been doing this since the Internet went public
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        • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
          Originally Posted by jficarro View Post

          Thanks, that makes sense and would in many respects be easier to rank (because of the laser focus).

          So.. seems to me, I could have a 1000 page micro-niche site, but all focused on one narrow keyword with few exceptions.

          duhhh. micro-niche NOT micro-site. Forgive me, I've only been doing this since the Internet went public
          Lol, exactly. The idea is to build up a network of these rather than one or two large authority sites with thousands of pages.

          There are advantages and disadvantages to both models vs each other. For instance a large 'authority' site will likely find it easy to knock up a quick article on a keyword not worth buying a domain for, and rank quickly due to it's own inherent authority.

          but at the same time if it is going to a slightly more difficult job the laser targeting of a micro niche makes that a more likely candidate.

          I admit that, for the most part, I have tended to micro-niches. but over time a few of these have developed into authority sites in their own right, and a couple more I have created with the explicit aim of becoming a large authority site in it's own, wider niche.

          Horses for courses an' all that!
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  • Profile picture of the author jimbo61
    I struggle with what people know, as I find it easy now to get rankings for sites, I can look at a site and know what needs doing in seconds, but it all comes with experience.
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshuaG
    If I were concerned I wouldn't be able to find that number of micro niches with EMDs I would. But I have my system down very well now (I also create some micro niche sites every week for clients), and finding viable options that meet my criteria doesn't take too long at all. A few hours every Sunday should uncover enough for the week.

    Take a look at the criteria - and remember all this is a 100% MINIMUM, many will be higher. Where do you think I am skimping?
    Again no offense here what-so-ever.

    I think there is skimping in lots of ways and also an overvaluation of the outcome.

    I have my doubts that there is such a bounty of profitable keywords with exact search volume of over 1300 and low serp comp. that it would only take you a few hours once a week to find them. (Although I only have experience with higher CPC values, so my view is slanted here)

    - AND -

    That you have the time to get all the sites up while simultaneously doing your due diligence on your keywords, from niche selection right up to serp analysis.

    Like how are you analyzing your competition? Just taking a quick glance or what?

    And how many pages on average will each site be?
    50 sites x 5 pages a site is 250 profitable keywords / month.
    That quite a few to find and analyze.

    Or are you just building 1 page sites and only need 50 keywords/month?

    Even if those keywords are out there in droves are they likely to have a decent CTR? Or is that not a factor you consider(which of course takes time)?

    And what about costs?
    Domain - $10
    Link building - $??
    Content - $??
    Building the sites? - $??

    With such a low CPC where's your ROI on all this stuff?

    It sounds like you have experience, and it works for you, but from where I'm coming from I just don't see it.
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by JoshuaG View Post

      Again no offense here what-so-ever.

      I think there is skimping in lots of ways and also an overvaluation of the outcome.

      I have my doubts that there is such a bounty of profitable keywords with exact search volume of over 1300 and low serp comp. that it would only take you a few hours once a week to find them. (Although I only have experience with higher CPC values, so my view is slanted here)
      This aspect I have no concerns on at all - tbh with you I often wonder why people have such a hard time finding such keywords. Maybe my ideas will dry up as I push things and I will find it more difficult, but as of now I haven't really struggled at all.


      - AND -

      That you have the time to get all the sites up while simultaneously doing your due diligence on your keywords, from niche selection right up to serp analysis.

      Like how are you analyzing your competition? Just taking a quick glance or what?
      competition analysis =
      • # of backlinks to page (though still trying to find a reliable indicator now there is no yahoo site explorer)
      • Is it a top level domain?
      • Have they done onpage SEO well (headers, titles, images)
      • Is the keyword used 'intitle'
      • Authority of parent site (this I am testing but tbh, the likes of Amazon and co aren't hard to outrank)

      they're the focus of my investigation on each keyword.

      And how many pages on average will each site be?
      50 sites x 5 pages a site is 250 profitable keywords / month.
      That quite a few to find and analyze.
      Not each of the 5 pages will meet the same criteria. Only the main keyword the site is based on is done to that standard, I accept far lower stats with regards sub-article focused keywords.

      Or are you just building 1 page sites and only need 50 keywords/month?
      No, 5 x 500 word articles on each site as a minimum. But as I say the criteria is loosened for the 'minor' article keywords.

      By minor article I mean those not on the front page.

      Even if those keywords are out there in droves are they likely to have a decent CTR? Or is that not a factor you consider(which of course takes time)?
      TBH this is something I am hoping will be something I learn from this test - what drives clicks and what doesn't. I have focused on product keywords (though products such as the mentioned 'oak curtain rails' rather than 'dewalt power drill DW880' or whatever), and found those to be fine. The majority of these sites will follow the same pattern, though I may test a few different areas out as well.

      I am hopeful I can gather some meaningful data from this test myself, as well as just seeing if micro niches are still a viable target.

      And what about costs?
      Domain - $10
      Link building - $??
      Content - $??
      Building the sites? - $??
      The majority will be done manually to begin with. As I said in my original post this came about as a friend of mine is in need of a side income - and as he runs a pub he has a fair few hours where he is manning the bar but not actually doing anything - this is about tapping into that 'down time' and making it profitable for both of us.

      For myself I will be doing what I can manually, but outsourcing if I find I don't have the time...I'll be allocating jobs to me and my partner and will decide if my schedule allows me to get the jobs done or if I need to use a link builder/content writer/VA.

      But everything we will be doing will be replicable by anyone who wants to do it themselves, there is no use of complicated issues that you need pages and pages to understand. The most complicated software I use is probably Market Samurai and AMR, both of which are pretty easy (and relatively cheap) to pick up.

      With such a low CPC where's your ROI on all this stuff?
      Again the issue is that is just a minimum put in there for the sake of people seeing stats. I am certainly not going to be looking at something with a CPC of .70 if it also only has 1300 exact match searches, but neither will I discard it if it has 7000. It is about looking at what works and what doesn't.

      The plan is to reveal the stats for each site once a week (probably Fridays), with regards what their keyword stats are. Obviously not the keywords themselves (we know how that will go), but people are then free to decide if they like what they see, or if they think that I aiming too low etc.

      It sounds like you have experience, and it works for you, but from where I'm coming from I just don't see it.
      That's fair enough, and don't think you have got my back up by questioning me (I know my writing style can seem a bit, shall we say 'blunt', on forums), I appreciate questions - especially ones like yours that get me thinking about what I am doing and where I can improve etc.

      Let me know if you have any ideas/thoughts/questions - I can do with all the help I can get!
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  • Profile picture of the author JoshuaG
    Thanks for the reply. I'm still a bit skeptical, but the proof is in the pudding. If you guys work hard and pull it off, more power to you. Good luck!
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    • Profile picture of the author AfteraDream
      Originally Posted by JoshuaG View Post

      Thanks for the reply. I'm still a bit skeptical, but the proof is in the pudding. If you guys work hard and pull it off, more power to you. Good luck!
      I think it depends on what Keyword research tool you use. If you got a good one, fast one then it's not as boring and long to find them. And I see people building 80+ sites a month so this case study is really doable.

      I have found 1000+ keywords myself and that took me like 2 weeks. I'm done with it for now and can be building sites for a long time. And I lost some more keywords too by not saving them
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      • Profile picture of the author JoshuaG
        Originally Posted by AfteraDream View Post

        I think it depends on what Keyword research tool you use. If you got a good one, fast one then it's not as boring and long to find them.

        I have found 1000+ keywords myself and that took me like 2 weeks. I'm done with it for now and can be building sites for a long time. And I lost some more keywords too by not saving them
        ...yea you think you did.

        My bet is you'll be singing a different tune after you get those sites built and see how many actually rank as easily as you think.

        Sorry for being a doubter, but I've built quite a few micro niche sites in my time (maybe I'm bad at it lol) and these just aren't reasonable numbers to me even with the help of good tools, which I do use btw.
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        • Profile picture of the author AfteraDream
          Originally Posted by JoshuaG View Post

          ...yea you think you did.

          My bet is you'll be singing a different tune after you get those sites built and see how many actually rank as easily as you think.
          Didn't say it was gonna be easy! According to my keyword research tool they are low comp. Couple of sites I built got first rankings in 4th or 5th page with no linkbuilding.

          I'm betting that kw research tool I use will be good and shows good data.

          How about you stop being so pessimistic, eh.. not really AdSense enthusiast..
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          • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
            Originally Posted by AfteraDream View Post

            How about you stop being so pessimistic
            Pessimism is just as valid as enthusiasm imo...as long as it is coming from experience rather than just being a general nay sayer.

            The whole point of this is meant to be 'do micro niche sites work' but obviously what it really is, is 'does my method of micro niche sites work'. Here he is doubting my methodology, and the 'ease' we find these niches...so either we prove him wrong, or he is right.

            Whatever happens we all learn something, so there are gains to be made for everyone reading along with this case study.

            Josh - how do you go about your niche sites then? I'm intrigued to see what works for you
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          • Profile picture of the author JoshuaG
            Originally Posted by AfteraDream View Post

            Didn't say it was gonna be easy! According to my keyword research tool they are low comp. Couple of sites I built got first rankings in 4th or 5th page with no linkbuilding.

            I'm betting that kw research tool I use will be good and shows good data.

            How about you stop being so pessimistic, eh.. not really AdSense enthusiast..
            Lol, if its not gonna be easy to rank them then of course its easy to find tons of keywords!

            Unfortunately, the whole point of building micro niche sites is to target keywords that are easy to rank for!!!

            Your right though, I should stop being pessimistic. Experience is the best teacher.

            Also thanks for pointing out I'm not really an enthusiast. I'm total changing my tag to "AdSense Realist"
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            • Profile picture of the author AfteraDream
              Originally Posted by JoshuaG View Post

              Lol, if its not gonna be easy to rank them then of course its easy to find tons of keywords!

              Unfortunately, the whole point of building micro niche sites is to target keywords that are easy to rank for!!!

              Your right though, I should stop being pessimistic. Experience is the best teacher.

              Also thanks for pointing out I'm not really an enthusiast. I'm total changing my tag to "AdSense Realist"
              Well define easy... no backlinking? Pretty sure that won't happen fast.. Running one SEO campaign from WSO forum and getting to the first page, how is that? Costs 30 bucks, you do nothing except pay..

              Oh and btw I don't necessary go after EMDs..
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  • Profile picture of the author jficarro
    I'll be following this thread too. I used to be very light on adsense and got a little money from time to time. But then I got a client that made his whole living on it. Ever since then, I've been obsessed - and not doing too badly.

    I understand what Joshua's saying, but to me, if I have 30 sites that only pull in $10/day (not that difficult), then I have a pretty good income stream coming in separate from other IM projects and clients.

    Plus, some might turn out way better and you can sell the lesser ones.

    Can't wait. I hope you stick with it and let us know your results.
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  • Profile picture of the author WilliamBlah
    I'll be following this thread with great interest. Let me first say that I am yet to see regular earnings with micro niche websites. I am pretty new to the game, and while I consider myself widely read and knowledgeable, I don't feel I have the expertise and wisdom gained through experience - although I hope this is gradually changing.

    My keyword research normally takes me between 30 minutes to 1 hour to find a keyword (with suitable minor keywords) that I feel is profitable. In the case of micro niche websites this means:

    -Confident to rank in top 3
    -High enough CPC (with several active advertisers)
    -High enough search volume

    If even one of these factors is not to my liking, it makes the keyword completely useless to me.

    One recent gem of wisdom I feel I have acquired is in not using any keywords which Google gives images, videos or maps at the top of the search. You would in effect be competing with 3-4 essentially immovable competitors.

    My main current source of frustration is theme/template based. I tend to dawdle when it comes to actually dealing with the website set up. Keyword research, sourcing articles, on-page SEO, off-page SEO - not a problem for me at all. Perhaps what I need is to find a partner willing to do the bits that annoy me. Perhaps I need to get motivated and do the bits myself anyway.
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by WilliamBlah View Post

      I recent gem of wisdom I feel I have acquired is in not using any keywords which Google gives images, videos or maps at the top of the search. You would in effect be competing with 3-4 essentially immovable competitors.
      I agree with that, I also avoid ones that have google shopping options at the top of the list
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  • Profile picture of the author isaacsmithjones
    Aww... End of the thread already..? lol.

    Deffo following this. Really interested to see what happens.

    I've never been able to profit from the few micro-niche adSense sites I've made. I've been able to make a few decent clickbank sites, because I have enough data to be able to realistically estimate ROI, but I can never guess CTRs for adSense.

    But yeah, this thread might motivate me to have another go at adSense.

    So good luck, and keep up the good work!

    Thanks =)
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by isaacsmithjones View Post

      Aww... End of the thread already..? lol.

      Deffo following this. Really interested to see what happens.
      Lol, no, not at all - just been a very busy weekend (shattered after a hard game of rugby yesterday and spending all day at 'the taste of christmas' at the ExCel arena today)

      Will be putting up the KW stats of the sites sometime tonight/tomorrow morning. 4 Made so far, think my partner has a handle on what I have him doing atm so should see things pick up pace a bit more now.
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    • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
      Banned
      Originally Posted by isaacsmithjones View Post

      Aww... End of the thread already..? lol.
      I'm guessing they've been tripped up by a little thing called reality, lol. There's no way he/they can do what is outlined in this thread without outsourcing.
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      • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
        Originally Posted by Black Hat Cat View Post

        I'm guessing they've been tripped up by a little thing called reality, lol. There's no way he/they can do what is outlined in this thread without outsourcing.
        Interesting you would rather address someone else rather than me (who you are commenting about), especially as I had already answered this point.

        Why do you think the two of us will be unable to complete this? I explained that actually I was a little ambitious to start with because I forgot how much I needed to teach my partner, I wonder what other obstacles you forsee that will require us to outsource?

        Outsourcing is in the plan, just a few months down the line.
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  • Profile picture of the author chrome
    I prefer niche...micro/niche over large authority sites. I've built and owned both types over the last 11 years....niche sites always outperform especially ad CTR.
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  • Profile picture of the author dengwen168
    Case studies are always great,please share more details about the project, thanks a lot.
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  • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
    So I have indeed been slacking on getting this updated. Let me ask people - what stats would they like to see?

    Obviously at this stage things like rankings/income/traffic will be minimal, but I can include them.

    What i was thinking is also KW info. Specifically exact match searches, competition numbers, competition breakdown of top 3-5 (Pr, backlinks, age)...give each keyword a code (I'm not actually going to show my KWs here) and include that sort of info once, then refer to the code of each site with regards traffic, income etc later on.

    6 Sites up and running so far, should have 2 more tonight
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    • Profile picture of the author jficarro
      Originally Posted by Welsh Warrior View Post

      So I have indeed been slacking on getting this updated. Let me ask people - what stats would they like to see?

      Obviously at this stage things like rankings/income/traffic will be minimal, but I can include them.

      What i was thinking is also KW info. Specifically exact match searches, competition numbers, competition breakdown of top 3-5 (Pr, backlinks, age)...give each keyword a code (I'm not actually going to show my KWs here) and include that sort of info once, then refer to the code of each site with regards traffic, income etc later on.

      6 Sites up and running so far, should have 2 more tonight
      Even if they (rank, traffic, income) are minimal, I'd like to see them. I was trained as a scientist, so for me - the data is what it is. Even $2/day is something (especially if you end up with 100s of sites).

      This is a tall order. Even just keeping everyone informed is time consuming. I'm hoping for your success!!!! But regardless, I hope you just keep at it and just let the chips fall where they may. And please do keep us informed.
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      • Profile picture of the author Tim_Hawksworth
        Hi,

        This is great thread and well done for sharing.

        What platform are you using for the sites ?
        Wordpress ?

        Any chance of seeing ( just one ) of your sites so we can see
        what you are experimenting with ?

        Thanks and wishing you all the best.



        .
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        • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
          Originally Posted by Tim_Hawksworth View Post

          Hi,

          This is great thread and well done for sharing.

          What platform are you using for the sites ?
          Wordpress ?
          Yep. Currently using the clickbump theme, but may consider playing around with options to check CTR etc

          Any chance of seeing ( just one ) of your sites so we can see
          what you are experimenting with ?
          I'll consider it, though am concerned about revealing anything too 'exact'. Will give it some thought.

          Thanks and wishing you all the best.
          .
          Cheers!
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Wilson
    Very interesting.

    I'd suggest you to do a really deep market research and get a few keywords that are really easy to rank for.

    The thing is that people are taking offsite SEO too seriously. Small niche site with 5 articles is getting 1000s of backlinks 2 weeks after its launch. How is that natural?

    Good luck with your sites. Don't over optimize when doing on-site SEO. Keep it natural make it for humans not for SE.
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by Daniel Wilson View Post

      Very interesting.

      I'd suggest you to do a really deep market research and get a few keywords that are really easy to rank for.
      That's the plan! he whole thing revolves around easy to rank keywords so am looking carefully at the competition for each one.

      The thing is that people are taking offsite SEO too seriously. Small niche site with 5 articles is getting 1000s of backlinks 2 weeks after its launch. How is that natural?
      Agreed, which is why I am planning on only hammering massive links to 'buffer' sites such as squidoo, hubpages, infobarrel, etc

      Good luck with your sites. Don't over optimize when doing on-site SEO. Keep it natural make it for humans not for SE.
      Have varied 'pure' SEO (over optimizing) with those that are less pure, will see which works. So far this is the only real effort at 'split testing' I have done.
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  • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
    Getting a tad behind on updating this and a bit on sites... 10 up so far, the majority of which have a squidoo and a hubpage link pointing to them. have paid for a AMR blast to each of these tier 1 links which will be happening over this weekend (is on my to do list, but dont have the time because of other projects)

    The sites so far - backlinks were all researched before Yahoo shut explorer down, I have about 10 more researched via that, afterwards I will need to find a suitable backlink checker.

    KW1
    1600 exact match
    $1.21 CPC
    Top 5 have a maximum of 30 backlinks, top has just 5. All poor SEO'd for it

    KW2
    1900 exact match
    $0.72 CPC
    Top 5 have a maximum of 40 backlinks, top has just 8. All poor SEO'd for it

    KW3
    1400 exact match
    $0.79 CPC
    Top 5 have a maximum of 14 backlinks, top has just 14. 2nd seems well SEO'd

    KW4
    1800 exact match
    $0.81 CPC
    Top 5 have a maximum of 65 backlinks, top has just 1. All poor SEO'd for it

    KW5
    1100 exact match
    $2.47 CPC
    Top 5 have a maximum of 60 backlinks, top has just 4. All poor SEO'd for it

    KW6
    2400 exact match
    $1.05 CPC
    Top 5 have a maximum of 4 backlinks, top has just 4. Top seems well SEO'd

    KW7
    1900 exact match
    $0.78 CPC
    Top 5 have a maximum of 40 backlinks, top has just 8. All poor SEO'd for it

    KW8
    1400 exact match
    $0.78 CPC
    Top 5 have a maximum of 22 backlinks, top has just 8. All poor SEO'd for it

    KW9
    1400 exact match
    $0.98 CPC
    Top 5 have a maximum of 48 backlinks, top has just 12. 3rd and 2nd seem well SEO'd

    KW10
    1200 exact match
    $0.92 CPC
    Top 5 have a maximum of 32 backlinks, top has just 4. All poor SEO'd for it

    Not checked ranking, search or income yet - expecting minimal. Will update this next week when we start looking at the stats

    Hope to have another 5 done over the weekend
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    • Profile picture of the author jficarro
      Originally Posted by Welsh Warrior View Post

      .... have paid for a AMR blast .........
      What's AMR? Some kind of backlink or article marketing thing?
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      • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
        Originally Posted by jficarro View Post

        What's AMR? Some kind of backlink or article marketing thing?
        Article Marketing Robot - The Ultimate Article Marketing, Spinning & Submission Tool *EVER*

        Their words, not mine...
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      • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
        Originally Posted by jficarro View Post

        What's AMR? Some kind of backlink or article marketing thing?
        Exactly, Barry put the link up. I use it myself, but for this I simply don't have the time so have paid someone else to do it. Anyone doing this themselves would easily be able to do it if they have any time, but as this is a side project for me it makes more sense to outsource it.

        I said at the start I would try keep outsourcing to a minimum - but to be fair to my partner who is putting the time in it is the only real prospect I have. If we were doing things slower, or I didnt have other work on, then it wouldnt be an issue.

        The plan is to use AMR to create a large amount of links from spun articles to my tier 1 sites (squidoo, hubpages and the like), to power up the links to my money sites
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  • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
    Originally Posted by Timothy Ellis View Post

    Micro sites are not dead (They better not be)! I had a guy ask me to look at a few of his sites recently, he wanted to know why he wasn't earning any money. His keywords were terrible. Rule number one with Adsense, don't fall in love with a bad keyword!!! If the numbers don't add up.. Find another keyword!!
    Abseloutly. No KW tool is right, not even Google's. I've been top of the rankings for some keywords, and got zero traffic despite local KW searches being high - and for others I find good traffic coming in despite being in #15 place.

    The KW tools and stats should be a guide, not the be all and end all.
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  • Profile picture of the author TryBPO
    Wow...really looking forward to this case study! You're starting off almost EXACTLY the way Joe and I started building the niche sites. What I've wondered is whether our same approach can be duplicated by others. I've talked to some of our readers that have had success on a small scale, but haven't started at the level you're starting at...this will be really interesting to follow.

    PLEASE make sure you follow up on this thread though...good or bad. There are SO many threads like this that just die out with no follow-up from the OP...would hate to see that here. I'm hoping I can give you a few points that will help you out quite a bit:

    1. Get a website/blog up. Document your process and story there as well as this thread. Start building some readers now as you start your journey. You might not have as many readers right now, but it will be wonderfully helpful to you later on.

    2. Along with the website/blog...get an email list. It helps tremendously when it comes time to sell the sites. Aside from a direct monetary benefit...it helps you really think through your process, your content, your direction, etc. if you're going to be sharing it with others. Also...we've received a ton of valuable information from our readers this way...totally worth it so start early!

    3. Vary your anchor text. I see that you've modified (made better?) the linkbuilding portion of our process...just make sure you modify the anchor text a bit to make it more natural.

    4. Don't get frustrated too early. We made around $30 our first month...it was a bit heartbreaking. We stuck with it and pulled it out...by our fourth month we knew we were on to something good.

    5. Once your partner is ALL OVER the content writing...have him outsource it and check the outsourced writer's work. He'd be much more effective editing than actually writing all the content required. It's GREAT that you're starting off doing it yourselves, though...you'll be infinitely more familiar with the process down the road...a big help.

    Thanks for the mention, guys...definitely rooting for you!
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    • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
      Originally Posted by TryBPO View Post

      Wow...really looking forward to this case study! You're starting off almost EXACTLY the way Joe and I started building the niche sites. What I've wondered is whether our same approach can be duplicated by others. I've talked to some of our readers that have had success on a small scale, but haven't started at the level you're starting at...this will be really interesting to follow.
      Cheers for posting! As I said it was you guys that were the inspiration for this - I have honestly been meaning to do this for about 2 yars but kept coming up with reasons not to - mostly time related. I've had some very good success with mini niches but never done a whole process, then I read your blog (and listened to the podcasts) and it struck me how good mates you 2 are and made me think it might be an idea to bring in a mate of mine. Since a very good friend is time rich but cash poor it was an obvious fit, and one I should have thought of earlier!

      PLEASE make sure you follow up on this thread though...good or bad. There are SO many threads like this that just die out with no follow-up from the OP...would hate to see that here. I'm hoping I can give you a few points that will help you out quite a bit:

      1. Get a website/blog up. Document your process and story there as well as this thread. Start building some readers now as you start your journey. You might not have as many readers right now, but it will be wonderfully helpful to you later on.

      2. Along with the website/blog...get an email list. It helps tremendously when it comes time to sell the sites. Aside from a direct monetary benefit...it helps you really think through your process, your content, your direction, etc. if you're going to be sharing it with others. Also...we've received a ton of valuable information from our readers this way...totally worth it so start early!
      You're right, been debating it but it is absolutely something I should be doing to get interested buyers in place. On my to do list for this week!

      3. Vary your anchor text. I see that you've modified (made better?) the linkbuilding portion of our process...just make sure you modify the anchor text a bit to make it more natural.
      Agreed - the backlinking part is the main area I intend to do some spli testing on, but in the past I have found mixing bare links with correct anchor text (and similar anchor text) has worked well.

      4. Don't get frustrated too early. We made around $30 our first month...it was a bit heartbreaking. We stuck with it and pulled it out...by our fourth month we knew we were on to something good.
      No worries there - as I said I know mini niches pretty well and know it takes time for them to get going - traffic and income wise.

      5. Once your partner is ALL OVER the content writing...have him outsource it and check the outsourced writer's work. He'd be much more effective editing than actually writing all the content required. It's GREAT that you're starting off doing it yourselves, though...you'll be infinitely more familiar with the process down the road...a big help.
      100% agreed again. Until Xmas I have him on the content and soem basic other stuff, then I'll be back in Swansea (my home town) for the Xmas period where I can run him through the back end/web stuff and show him how I run my VAs (which I use on my own content site projects)...which should really speed things up.

      Thanks for the mention, guys...definitely rooting for you!
      No worries - keep up the good work!
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    • Profile picture of the author AfteraDream
      Originally Posted by TryBPO View Post

      Wow...really looking forward to this case study! You're starting off almost EXACTLY the way Joe and I started building the niche sites. What I've wondered is whether our same approach can be duplicated by others. I've talked to some of our readers that have had success on a small scale, but haven't started at the level you're starting at...this will be really interesting to follow.

      PLEASE make sure you follow up on this thread though...good or bad. There are SO many threads like this that just die out with no follow-up from the OP...would hate to see that here. I'm hoping I can give you a few points that will help you out quite a bit:

      1. Get a website/blog up. Document your process and story there as well as this thread. Start building some readers now as you start your journey. You might not have as many readers right now, but it will be wonderfully helpful to you later on.

      2. Along with the website/blog...get an email list. It helps tremendously when it comes time to sell the sites. Aside from a direct monetary benefit...it helps you really think through your process, your content, your direction, etc. if you're going to be sharing it with others. Also...we've received a ton of valuable information from our readers this way...totally worth it so start early!

      3. Vary your anchor text. I see that you've modified (made better?) the linkbuilding portion of our process...just make sure you modify the anchor text a bit to make it more natural.

      4. Don't get frustrated too early. We made around $30 our first month...it was a bit heartbreaking. We stuck with it and pulled it out...by our fourth month we knew we were on to something good.

      5. Once your partner is ALL OVER the content writing...have him outsource it and check the outsourced writer's work. He'd be much more effective editing than actually writing all the content required. It's GREAT that you're starting off doing it yourselves, though...you'll be infinitely more familiar with the process down the road...a big help.

      Thanks for the mention, guys...definitely rooting for you!
      Did you had to give my plan away? huh?

      First month wasn't great to me too, second one isn't stunner either but rankings are starting to come slowly as I'm testing few different linkbuilding packages and maybe I will settle with one to complete the system for myself.
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  • Profile picture of the author chrislangley
    I think the experiment will work swell, having great content and promoted on some top tier sites is a great way to find out if a keyword will deliver
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  • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
    As an update, got 4 of the target 5 done on the weekend (which was better than I was afraid of as both of us were playing rugby on loooong away days on the Saturday, and hungover to hell on the Sunday).

    Will get the stats up for that on Friday, along with hopefully another 10 during the week.

    Does anyone know a good backlink checker? Trialed a few and been very unimpressed. I check it with an authority content site I KNOW has over 7k backlinks including a couple of hundred from the BBC and a few dozen more from various UK newspapers, and only one has found the BBC links, and none have shown my the Newspaper ones (and none has shown over 2k in backlinks).
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  • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
    12 sites done this week (including last weekend), fully backlinked. That will be it for the week though - wife's xmas party tonight (shes a nurse and they know how to get drunk), so will be hungover tomorrow. Then on Sat both me and my partner in this have a rugby game and a rugby xmas do after it (he plays in Swansea, me in London) so Sat and Sunday also a write off.

    22 sites so far, happy with how it is going.

    Noticed a few clicks on Adsense, but not checked ranking and income. that will be my one and only job tomorrow whilst feeling like hell...will let you know
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    • Profile picture of the author AfteraDream
      Originally Posted by Welsh Warrior View Post

      12 sites done this week (including last weekend), fully backlinked. That will be it for the week though - wife's xmas party tonight (shes a nurse and they know how to get drunk), so will be hungover tomorrow. Then on Sat both me and my partner in this have a rugby game and a rugby xmas do after it (he plays in Swansea, me in London) so Sat and Sunday also a write off.

      22 sites so far, happy with how it is going.

      Noticed a few clicks on Adsense, but not checked ranking and income. that will be my one and only job tomorrow whilst feeling like hell...will let you know
      Good job! 22 sites are awesome!!! If they make $1/day that's already 600 bucks a month.
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  • Profile picture of the author Welsh Warrior
    As a separate note I have been working on starting my own private blog network in the last few weeks (high PR, well backlinked, aged domains built out with fresh content). To begin with I have a few things in mind for it, but in the new year I shall try it out on 10 or so microniches to see how that does with the ranking.

    Always wanted to try a private network but been reluctant to give others control and access to my keywords, setting up my own is rather exciting for me!
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  • Profile picture of the author JoeLawrence
    Hey there!

    I am curious as to what tools you use to stay organized. I have many niche sites and am doing something similar as you (except my backlinking campaign is different).

    I use a google doc (shared spreadsheet) and ranktracker to track rank, but admittedly, each site has like 20 steps to take to get it running and I like to constantly check on the site to make improvements and see patterns. for example, if one of the sites makes $60, then i want to say, "ok what page on the blog is making this money and how do i repeat this process and multiply it?" (rinse, wash and repeat method).

    To clarify, i'm just curious how do you keep track of all the work needed when you are taking on so many micro sites (like if you use a CRM or something like basecamp). And how do you track progress?

    P.S. Don't worry too much about the critics, just focus on the progress and updates. Its a case study, not a debate! (just my two - cents. it's awesome that you are doing this and don't want to see you get distracted).

    P.P.S. Keep up the good work.
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  • Profile picture of the author MMateo23
    I hope Micro Niche sites are not dead. Would like to create some with wordpress. Did you use Wordpress for your niche sites and, if so, what plugins do you recommend?
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  • Profile picture of the author sasai
    Welsh, could you share more about keyword research, I find it very hard to find one, not to say 50.
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  • Profile picture of the author ale88
    Hi there, any updates of your microniche project??

    regards
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  • Profile picture of the author todawg_not
    Originally Posted by Welsh Warrior View Post

    I have seen a number of threads on here asking

    "Are micro niche sites dead"
    "Can you still make good money from niche sites"
    "Is Adsense a viable option"

    Now personally I have a large number of these sites that do well...but most of them have become well established and, to a greater or lesser degree, been built out to be more than their original premise.

    So what I wanted to do was show that, actually, micro niche sites DO still work. Yes they take a bit more work than they used to, but given the money they can generate I still think them worth it.

    Just before the weekend I was chatting with a mate who is struggling for a bit of cash - he runs a pub which is starting to take off, but a side income would be useful to him. Since he is often sitting in the pub in quiet times with nothing to do he figured there must be a way to make money.

    I suggested to him we partner up on microniche sites. I have been struggling for time to carry on my building of sites as I take on new projects, so combining with a partner (one I can trust) makes sense from my end too.

    The Basic Game Plan

    The plan is a simple one...to build about 50 microniche sites a month. We will flip some - some profitable ones for quick cash, some of the ones that fail for us to hand to those that can get them to work.

    But we anticipate keeping 15-20 a month, building up a stash of passive earners.

    Details

    Presumably every one is more interested in the details. To that end I will be looking at first of all keywords

    Specifically my research will focus on keywords with 1300 exact searches or more a month (ideally local searches to US or UK), $.70 or above and with low SEO'd top 10 competition.

    I only ever care about the top 10, the rest can go hang for all I care.

    Oh and the EMD has to have .com, .net or .org available

    We will create a minimum of 5 articles on the keyword and related keywords for each site before we go live, and probably add a few more on each site as we go.

    We then SEO the hell out of it

    Onpage

    Images with keyword titles, captions, etc, the right headers, titles, keyword density, bolding, italics, underlining, interlinking etc, meta dexription, meta tags and the like

    Offpage

    Squioo Lenses and Hubpage hubs as tier 1 links, as will some EZA articles (for syndication more than the link). Then we will be using AMR to spin and distribute articles to point at our tier 1 properties - plus building out a few wide range niche blogs on blogspot and wordpress. We may look at things like profile linking to these depending on how it goes.

    TIME

    We know that the reality is that these things take time. We're not really going to even be looking at income for sites until 90 days after creation (other than for stats for this thread and a blog if we bother setting one up). At that point we will take a decision on flipping or keeping (some may go before, depending on what we need).

    We'll be keeping the stats going on here, and showing (hopefully) that microniche sites work. With the level of site creation we will be doing we should find out within 6 months whether micro niche is dead or not...I suspect it is alive and well, but if not then we have learned that OUR approach to them is wrong.

    If you have any tips you'd like to share so we can alter our approach, we're always open to new ideas! simply share them below.

    Anyway wish us luck. Just chosen our first 4 domains, should look at getting started on development first thing tomorrow.
    Hey Dude,

    Don't build Micro sites and don't build Authority sites , build in between.

    Don't build 3-5 posts build 20-30 posts split them through pages each linking
    each other like a silo structure.

    1000+ Exact searches is too high and compeditive.

    Go for lower hanging fruit but with more articles you'll make up the search
    volume on the longtail.

    With articles 4-5 words KW's you will rank easy peesey lemon squeezey

    I would focus on quality than quantity.

    Obviously if you can punch out 50 sites at 20+ articles per site then your a
    machine.

    Outsource as much as you can and spend the money on tools
    to make your life easier.

    Consider a highly aggressive bookmarking campaign but you must stay consistant
    don't just do 300 one day and none the next.

    Be patient and give yourself 3 months before you start seeing decent results and don't
    get distracted by shiney object WSO syndrome

    With some hard work watch the paper roll in

    Good luck

    Nigel
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  • Profile picture of the author pimplesremedies
    I don't know about others but I think anything less than 3000 exact searches is not for me. I learnt this by doing. I worked on some sites and when then became number one I was getting around 2000-3000 visitors per month.

    I use adsense, so just do the maths what you can make? Just not worth my time and effort.

    But there are exceptions. If it is in high paying niche the site can earn good.
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  • Profile picture of the author owlfowl
    great description, learned many things.
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  • Profile picture of the author d0rhk
    I would like to know where the OP is with this..

    I'm assuming it's been forgotten about or something, as usual with these threads.
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  • Profile picture of the author TryBPO
    That's too bad...another one bites the dust?

    It's too bad that these threads so rarely get seen through. These are typically the types of threads I WOULD like to keep up with...yet they always get abandoned...ugh. Hope the OP does come back for an update.
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  • Profile picture of the author Captain_Morgan
    TryBro

    u are doing adsense too yes have you ever done one of these posts before too where u have done a case study say on micro niche's??
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    • Profile picture of the author TryBPO
      Originally Posted by Captain_Morgan View Post

      TryBro

      u are doing adsense too yes have you ever done one of these posts before too where u have done a case study say on micro niche's??
      We asked a question as to whether there was anyone out there scaling the process heavily that turned into a pretty long thread. You can read that here:

      http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...che-sites.html
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  • Profile picture of the author spoiledkid01
    If i missed it. Can you please share which keyword tool are you using to find that much amount of keywords?
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    My Goal Is To Make 90 Grand A Year - At Least

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  • Profile picture of the author markviduk86
    What's your title mean?
    Micro niche site dead on Adsense, on Search Engine or anything?
    If it dead on adsense - Maybe, I have banned from adsense because my micro niche site.
    On SE: No, It also depends on your way to build link
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  • Profile picture of the author sackboy127
    Micro Niche Sites do work, just make sure that each of them has at least 5-10 articles (not as micro as it used to be), and build out the successful ones to even bigger sites, while selling the rest.
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