Newbie Niche Site Strategy

My guess is there is no strategy to rethink.

It seems to me there's a bit of a disconnect on this forum between people who use internet marketing to support real businesses (many of which happen to be only online) and those who try to make money by putting out copious amounts of (at best) mediocre content to try to squeeze a few bucks here and there. It's the difference between people who think in forumulas and steps (e.g., keyword research followed by five posts 2,000 words with liberal use of keywords and a big, shiny, red "Buy" button) and those who think about customers. Personally, I fall squarely in the create a real business and create real value for your customers camp. But what do I know? I've never tried that other "strategy".

Maybe if you follow these types of forumulas you really can rank on search engines (at least for a while.) Maybe some people won't be completely turned off by your hard-to-understand, keyword-laden text. And maybe some of them will actually click an affiliate link. And maybe some of them will actually buy based on that click. Who knows?

But I do know with a strategy like that, you'll have a hard -- if not impossible -- time building a list. And you'll have just as hard a time getting repeat customers or word-of-mouth referrals. Nobody is going to subscribe to your RSS feeds. You won't have the type of site that will attract people on social media or will convert people from CPC campaigns. Nobody's going to search for you in search engines, bookmark you, or type in your URL directly. In short, the only traffic you'll get is accidental traffic, people who click on your site because you happen to be higher ranked that the pages below you, not because you're actually... you know... good.

Again, though maybe it can work. I really don't know. But it seems like a tough way (and very precarious way) to make a living.

I think you are right in saying smaller sites often convert better. Small niche sites do better than larger niche sites that are too big and in the process lose focus. The real major benefit of making sites larger than necessary is getting increased long tail traffic.

I second the notion of simply using a basic html site.

There are tons of free templates around. I've used Open Source Web Design - Download free web design templates. for years.

Static sites like this are not only faster and more secure, but they avoid the whole hassle of setting up databases and having to keep both the CMS/plugins and the theme updated.