Should You Make a "Blog" or 25 Micro-Niche Sites? (details inside)

20 replies
Greetings fellow warriors!

I found an affiliate product I'm absolutely in love with and I'm about to start marketing it adamantly. The sales page for the product I want to promote gets 60,000 unique monthly views, and is in an "evergreen" niche that I have expertise in.

The problem I have right now is that there are 5 major keywords that could be used to promote the product. These key words are different ways of stating an underlying problem, but they're each unique. Each of these "root" keywords gets a pretty healthy amount of traffic, but I'm not sure how to include them all in my marketing efforts.

Strategy 1: Write a Single "Blog"

I can create a "blog" in the blog sense of the word. Rather than writing lots of quick-and-dirty articles targeting specific key words, I will write longer articles that are designed to build a solid relationship with a readership that grows over the next 3-6 months. There are lots of lateral topics that can potentially feed into the 5 major key words. I (roughly) anticipate having 30,000 unique monthly visitors after 6 months, with higher conversion rates to the product. And this also means I can build a pretty solid list.

The drawback is trying to reign in too many keywords, thus diluting the power to speak directly to the problem. And this is a problem that should be solved within a few months of the person looking for help - it's not like Internet Marketing, where the problem persists for years.

Strategy 2: 5 Niche Websites

I can create 5 different websites, each of which targets a different root word. These sites would be very specifically tailored to each problem, BUT I could get some savings by recycling my presell pages, as the product essentially solves the underlying cause of the problem behind each key word.

Strategy 3: Break each of those 5 Niche Websites Into 5 = 25 sites

Each site would target 20 or so key words. This would be the typical quick-and-dirty article marketing strategy that many advocate on this board.

Overview

At the start, I don't feel that blogging is particularly risky relative to the other mediums. What's risky about it is "diluting" the way I target key words in the long-run. It may be too much trying to reign in too many keywords.

I am a huge believer in the power of video, and I think blogging is a more solid medium through which to get a powerful return on video. (i.e. video requires a lot of work, and if you have a solid readership to connect to, you can be more certain that your video will be well-received). In fact, you could extend that point to the blog in its entirety - it's a good opportunity to do long-term research and continuously pitch to your niche.

The Big Question
How do you handle the way you target keywords when the niche you want to go into has the potential to be broader in scope than a "typical" article marketing website?
#choosing #scope #website
  • Profile picture of the author KateD
    Hi...

    Well, it really depends on the quality of the keyword phrases.

    If there are lots of subniches (groups of related keyword phrases) within the keyword list for that niche, you could either tackle them all with one big blog, or target each subniche with its own niche blog.

    Bigger, authority sites will take longer to rank for. Do you need to see income now, or can you wait longer for a bigger potential payout?

    Tightly-focused niche blogs (based off a high search demand/low competition grouping of keyword phrases) will rank better faster. So you'll make money quicker.

    But long term, if your subniche blog is too targeted, you may reach a maximum amount of visitors (in theory, I have never been to that sweet place).

    Personally, I prefer smaller niche blogs based around profitable subniches. Sometimes I'll create a blog around a single keyword phrase. I'm only trying to rank for one keyword, but I end up ranking for many more.

    Anyway, I'm not sure if I answered your question. Just food for thought I guess.

    KateD
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    • Profile picture of the author Soapyshoe
      I have enough savings to go for the next 1.5 years without making a single dime. I could probably stretch it out to 2 if I absolutely had to. I'm working my ass off right now - 30 hours a week at school, 30 hours devoted to Internet Marketing. I'm past the point where I'm just spinning my wheels - the rubber is finally meeting the road.

      I'm leaning pretty strongly toward a bigger authority site. "Relationship marketing" (i.e. getting to know your audience really well) seems to be the wave of the future. I want to do everything hands-on for the first 2 years at least - no outsourcing unless absolutely necessary. Here are some reasons:
      1) Higher conversion rates to the affiliate product(s) I like.
      2) Easier to build a list and sell lots of things over time. The niche I'm starting in has a series of products that could be sold on the back-end.
      3) Easier to launch my own products and make bigger long-term profit if I have built up authority.

      The main difficulty I'm having is that there isn't a lot of information about building up high page-ranking websites. Most "make money online" systems are geared around cheap outsourced article creation and longtail word targeting. The "get rich now" kind of stuff without a lot of long-term growth. There's a pretty bad dead-zone when it comes to doing your keyword research beyond the long tail - people just tell you to avoid anything with competition, but because I have time to build my business up, I'm okay with competing. I will out-write the competition Just not sure how to approach it in terms of SEO, keyword research, or article writing!

      I've done keyword research targeting a specific keyword phrase (the way you mentioned at the end of your post). If I target 10 key words and get #1 ranked for them, I could expect ~2000 to 9000 monthly views per phrase, which might culminate in ~30,000 or so unique monthly views. There is ~90,000 competing pages for each term, so crappy articles and few backlinks won't cut it. I've seen a lot of smaller bloggers doing something similar when they first start out, probably squeezing out a decent $30,000/year income. I'd like to do triple that within 2 years.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    The main difficulty I'm having is that there isn't a lot of information about building up high page-ranking websites. Most "make money online" systems are geared around cheap outsourced article creation and longtail word targeting.
    you need to step into the SEO forum with the website building kids and away from the article kids in the main forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonmorgan
    as a followup...

    create backlinks to your index page focusing on your primary BIG keyword.

    create more backlinks that are directed at individual pages or even the category pages to start building authority for your secondary keywords... deep linking

    keep at it and you'll start building up overall authority for your entire site covering multiple keywords and pages... which is essentially an authority site.

    not really in-depth but you should get the idea.

    does it work, it works for me.

    My current project following this method has my 3 primary index keywords ranking from #8 - 12 and the other 11 secondary keywords within the top 20.

    It's a longer process and takes more work because I'm chasing after a lot of competitive keywords but I'm also building a site that is steadily gaining in rank for just about every keyword/long-tail that is relevant and receives respectable traffic... 16k - 500 searches a day. Also, as a side-effect, a lot of additional long-tail keywords are gaining rank due to the growing authority of my site.

    Could be a few more weeks or months but eventually I'll be on page one for all of my keywords and I'm doing this with three sites at the same time so I'll have a nice lock on this niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author Midas3 Consulting
    I don't see your choices as either or Soapyshoe, I would do both, they will work synergistally to increase your overal traffic.

    Build your authority / money blog site with quality content, add pages based on each of the primary keyphrases you wish to target.

    Build 1-3 page mini sites for each of those phrases and have those link back to your money sites relevent internal page.

    That would be my approach.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jill Carpenter
      Simon is right.

      Start with your primary blog or website. Just do that first. Write an article or post for each KW phrase. Focus on one per each. Get a longer list of KW phrases to hit on as well - some longtail that you can possibly rank for more quickly.

      When your blog is filled up a bit, and you have really done what you can with it, meaning - RSS submission, article from ezine pointing back to your blog, videos, bookmarking, etc etc - After that, start to build your mini sites around your primary blog.

      Use those other KW's as domains if possible, and point them all back to your blog.

      You can purchase the additional domains now, but you should build them naturally over time. Each of those sites will also need to be bookmarked, pinged, etc etc

      Just get the first site up and built.
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      • Profile picture of the author Intrepreneur
        Most niche's are so competetive you have no option but to build sites that are more than a mini site. I'll say your best option 100% of the time is to go with option 1 and don't think otherwise. Just get to it and build the bigger site.

        Even if you do write about the same thing over and over again you're still doing a better job than what a minsite will. Think high traffic for years to come. That's what it's about. Good luck on your quest and I wish you the best with it all.

        Also I notice you said about there doesn't seem to be enough information on the bigger sites. I find that the best way to learn is to replicate what's out there. Find your niche see what other blogs are doing and then do the same. DigitalTrends.com is a prime example of a super power blog.

        Mark
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  • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
    My recommendation would be to build a flagship blog that would seek authority for the best keyword first, then gradually add in the others. This blog would not only seek search traffic but referral and social traffic. It would also serve as a platform to gain a readership.

    At the same time, build simple Blogger blogs and write articles for EZA and other major article directories to cover the keywords that you aren't getting to right away with your flagship blog. You can also build other supporting blogs/sites on other free blogging and site building platforms. Depending on the circumstances, you can directly link to the offer or link to your flagship or Blogger/EZA.

    Also do social bookmarking of your sites and write SEO articles for distribution on second and third tier article directories.

    The eventual goal is for your flagship to have considerable authority for all of the keywords in question from links of your own plus links given by others in the niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Stigson
    My method is pretty simple and it works wonders... Get your main BIG KEYWORD on a "sales page review/ money page", that's easy to do.. then build out smaller blogs for the "sub keywords" to get SEO traffic from those, then funnel that to your money page.

    Build links to all 6 sites, and also post even more long-tail keyword posts on the 5 blogs, that way you are "catching everything", now backlink each site until all 5 are ranking #1 for their keywords, which can take some time, but it's quite worth it.

    Those blogs would also sell the product, but mostly link back to your review/money page, which I make an opt-in page... Then scale out and catch as much traffic from the Search Engines as you can =)

    I've got 2 blogs ranked top #10 for 100,000+ keyword in the same niche, both on the front page, then funnel that traffic to affiliate review site =) Works really well

    - Chris
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    • Profile picture of the author Soapyshoe
      Thanks a ton everybody!!!!

      You have no idea how much this is helping me right now!

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      • Profile picture of the author Liane Fitzpatrick
        Wow! What a great thread, so much valuable information! Thanks to everyone!
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        • Profile picture of the author sean-john
          Originally Posted by Liane Fitzpatrick View Post

          Wow! What a great thread, so much valuable information! Thanks to everyone!

          yah i second that thanks...
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  • Profile picture of the author whawk57
    Also checkout these:

    Internet Business Blog - Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

    Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging - ProBlogger

    These guys are keyword dominators . Stick to quality. Like you said one big blog is better than 50 blogs on the long run, that's my opinion.

    Cheers
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  • Profile picture of the author webtrix
    Regarding your "5 major keywords"; how's your competition?
    Will the product still be there in a year or two?
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  • Profile picture of the author DeonKrey
    I honestly can say at this moment, Strategy 1 works for me the best and it's the easiest way to start developing this VALUE to your readers and to the search engines to rank your website better. Also, by blogging and sharing relevant contents, you can always have this big chance to create products or even promote effective products that you have used in the past and then make money from it. That's how affiliate marketing works within the blogging industry.

    One other thing to mention is the relevance of the contents being posted in a regular basis. That way, you target on keywords profitable for your niche.
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    • Profile picture of the author genietoast
      I recommend a couple of easier tactics.

      Since you've got a lot of expertise about this niche product, write about it. Or write about the niche with a link to the product or your site that has the product on it.

      Submit a guest post to blogs in your niche that already get a lot of targeted traffic. You can find them by googling your niche + "write for us". Find out what the guide lines from the blog owner to submit your guest post.

      If there's a blog or site you know that's got the perfect audience but doesn't have a "write for us link", email the blog owner to see if they'd be willing to accept a guest post.

      You're right there in front a targeted audience. Give them excellent information like you would do in an article. Have a link in the bio to your site, your product, your list or wherever you want them to go. Shouldn't cost you anything to do that.

      Another method is to create a press release simply talk about your product. Not a review. Not an advertisement. Announce it. Make it newsworthy. Not only are SEO press releases great for announcing something, they're great for helping you build backlinks to a site, too.

      Go to a site called SEO Content Solutions. They have a link talking about press releases an how to write them and where to submit them.

      There are a lot of press release places that are free, but if you pay a little money you get more exposure and more benefits.

      Check out Kim Roach's blog at Buzzblogger.com for more free traffic ideas.
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  • Profile picture of the author gubwell12
    I the market for niche products is big then go for niche websites for each product.
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  • Profile picture of the author LilBlackDress
    I would definitely go for the big site and build that up. And as Simon says point your mini sites at it.

    I recently joined a forum that focuses on big site building and it is awesome. Much easier (to me) than managing a bunch of little sites.
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    • Profile picture of the author paolo83
      What an awesome post guys!

      I'm just about in the same situation.
      A great product that i know about and want to promote, i got already 2-3 minisites up and running and i'm thinking to set up a blog and make it a long term buisness.
      So far sending traffic to different minisite is becoming a silly pain in the neck too much time on the PC.
      Therefore i'm kinda convinced that option 1 IS the way to go.

      Also by esthablishing a little readership and building relationship through the value of your work is the greatest thing in the world (business wise).
      These people will love you for what you put out there for free. They will trust you and therefore they will be more likely to listen to you when you present them something nice. This means that you will gain social proof by becoming a mini authority in your field, which is the secret to any business: build your online presence.

      Also, with a blog you can build your list anyway,which i suppose is the aim of your 25 minisites...

      My humble opinion is that it's way easier to concentrate your mind, efforts and resources onto one site and build it up, gain momentum and expand on that. ( It seems so common uh? no ninja tactis...)

      It seems to me you are ready to invest on this quite a lot of "capital"( time ,money, effort etc.) so why don't you think of it in terms of actually building business and not just another income stream of few bucks per month...

      Hope this help
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  • While I am not an expert in SEO, I'd say that one authority blog smartly SEO'd devoted to that one product should do better than few mini sites. Once you have the blog SEO'd and swimming in content, it's all about building backlinks to it.
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