Broad Niche vs. Narrow Niche?

14 years ago

I don't think that's going to be a winnig strategy for many. The whe idea behind niche marketing is that it is easier to get results and you target people who want to purchase the product - trying to get ranked for a popular and general perfume keyword would be a possible nightmare.

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Sheryl Polomka

14 years ago

This is a good topic and one that I have been thinking about a lot myself lately. I guess with more targeted niche's or long tail keywords you have less competition and so might have a better chance at ranking higher. Yes you have less people searching for that niche than for a broader niche, but you are ranking higher so should get a big percentage of those searches.

However, I too have been thinking more along the lines of a broader niches, bigger site, that covers many topics within the niche. More competition but also more searches, question is whether you can rank high enough to get many of those people searching in the broader niche.

I have some smaller websites, not small as in the 2 or 3 page sites you see so much off, I try to make mine bigger than that, but not huge and generally just based around a long tail keyword.

I have just started a new website that is in a broader niche, although I still got a reasonable keyword phrase, and I'm hoping to make this a much bigger site and cover a few of the sub-niches within this niche on the same site.

I guess I'll just have to work at it and see how it goes, then I can compare which does better for me - the smaller sites or the bigger one.

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cryptone24

14 years ago

I enjoyed this video from Lisa Parmly really good advice and is what got me thinking about going broad.

This Video Gives Away Many of My SEO Secrets … InlineSEO.com

Though I am not telling anyone to go broader, am just saying maybe there is something more to it.

Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka

This is a good topic and one that I have been thinking about a lot myself lately. I guess with more targeted niche's or long tail keywords you have less competition and so might have a better chance at ranking higher. Yes you have less people searching for that niche than for a broader niche, but you are ranking higher so should get a big percentage of those searches.

However, I too have been thinking more along the lines of a broader niches, bigger site, that covers many topics within the niche. More competition but also more searches, question is whether you can rank high enough to get many of those people searching in the broader niche.

I have some smaller websites, not small as in the 2 or 3 page sites you see so much off, I try to make mine bigger than that, but not huge and generally just based around a long tail keyword.

I have just started a new website that is in a broader niche, although I still got a reasonable keyword phrase, and I'm hoping to make this a much bigger site and cover a few of the sub-niches within this niche on the same site.

I guess I'll just have to work at it and see how it goes, then I can compare which does better for me - the smaller sites or the bigger one.

Thanks
1 reply

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Sheryl Polomka

14 years ago

Originally Posted by cryptone24

I enjoyed this video from Lisa Parmly really good advice and is what got me thinking about going broad.

This Video Gives Away Many of My SEO Secrets ... InlineSEO.com

Though I am not telling anyone to go broader, am just saying maybe there is something more to it.

I watched this video this morning and found it really interesting, it certainly gave me a couple more ideas or techniques that I am not using. I am really looking forward to working on my new site now using her methods as I can see a heap of potential there.

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cryptone24

14 years ago

I think more people should be paying attention to SEO instead of just focusing on backlinks. As Lisa also mentions, we don't know what the Google will do in the future and what sites they think are not relevant anymore.

Again the micro niche strategy is still a good one, but its NOT suited for everyone. All I was doing was making my hosting provider richer, instead of working with what I got.

Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka

I watched this video this morning and found it really interesting, it certainly gave me a couple more ideas or techniques that I am not using. I am really looking forward to working on my new site now using her methods as I can see a heap of potential there.

Thanks
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StacyHolmes

14 years ago

The prevailing message is to be laser targeted when choosing a niche.

A narrow niche will monetize earlier and be easier to win, but will have a limit on income.

A wider niche will have a higher ceiling income-wise, but will take longer to monetize and will take more work to get there. Wider niches are much more competitive.

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cryptone24

14 years ago

Originally Posted by StacyHolmes

A narrow niche will monetize earlier and be easier to win, but will have a limit on income.

A wider niche will have a higher ceiling income-wise, but will take longer to monetize and will take more work to get there. Wider niches are much more competitive.

Yes Stacy,

If you look around the Warrior forum, there is really this emphasis on getting results super fast, which means people are always looking for the next big thing, its good for thousands of WSO's, not good for the newbies who only get one message.

I beginning to get back to basics, after 3 years of chasing after the magic potion in internet marketing (and realizing there is none, it take time and hard work)

For me its now building an authority site and focus more on SEO and giving the search engines what they want.

Though you have to find a have a market that interests you, and luckily I did.

For the newbie, it could take building a few small micro niche sites to really understand this stuff unless you are much more smarter that I am and figure it out early.

Thanks

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Sheryl Polomka

14 years ago

Originally Posted by cryptone24

I think more people should be paying attention to SEO instead of just focusing on backlinks. As Lisa also mentions, we don't know what the Google will do in the future and what sites they think are not relevant anymore.

Again the micro niche strategy is still a good one, but its NOT suited for everyone. All I was doing was making my hosting provider richer, instead of working with what I got.

I completely agree that the micro niche strategy is good but not for everyone. I gave it a go and just felt that it wasn't enough for me, I wanted something more, something bigger and something that would go on to last long term. I didn't want to worry about losing all my micro niche sites because Google decides to close them all down for whatever reason.

I want something more solid but I really struggled with what to do because I was sick of writing articles and building sites on niches that didn't really interest me. I wanted something that I could relate to and would enjoy working on.

It took me a while but I found it and then watching Lisa's video just made me expand my ideas further and I feel really good about it. I know this is a good niche and I know it is also competitive and will take some time to build up, but I know that if I stick to it and build it then it has the potential to do really well long term.

Also with the micro niche sites - yes there is less competition with these long tail keyword phrases, but there is also a lot less searches. I have one micro niche site that is sitting at #2 in Google for the main keyword phrase which gets 8100 searches a month and yet I'm only averaging 20 visits a day and making very little income with it. I've made $3.74 over the last 7 days. I haven't had a lot of luck with the micro niche sites so time to try something bigger for me.

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cryptone24

14 years ago

All the best Sheryl.

I feel you will find allot easier to focus on a broader niche when you have an interest in it. I am in the fitness niche, but a specific area of fitness but tons of products to sell.

I like to live a healthy lifestyle and want others to as well, so I will spend the time making sure my site gives value, instead of the shotgun approach to marketing.

Before I would jump on any trend and just get a domain, good for others, who I know for sure can only do that because they (a) have been marketing for quite a while and its now second nature (b) they already have authority sites bringing them money (which they never tell you), so its not such a risk (c)they have a great team of outsources ready to tackle these micro niches quickly.

I jumped on the Ipad bandwagon and quickly lost interest in a 2 weeks.

There are some great WSO's that came out recently that have been focusing on SEO and how to get Google to love your site, but Lisa's course also looks good too.

Originally Posted by Sheryl Polomka

I completely agree that the micro niche strategy is good but not for everyone. I gave it a go and just felt that it wasn't enough for me, I wanted something more, something bigger and something that would go on to last long term. I didn't want to worry about losing all my micro niche sites because Google decides to close them all down for whatever reason.

I want something more solid but I really struggled with what to do because I was sick of writing articles and building sites on niches that didn't really interest me. I wanted something that I could relate to and would enjoy working on.

It took me a while but I found it and then watching Lisa's video just made me expand my ideas further and I feel really good about it. I know this is a good niche and I know it is also competitive and will take some time to build up, but I know that if I stick to it and build it then it has the potential to do really well long term.

Also with the micro niche sites - yes there is less competition with these long tail keyword phrases, but there is also a lot less searches. I have one micro niche site that is sitting at #2 in Google for the main keyword phrase which gets 8100 searches a month and yet I'm only averaging 20 visits a day and making very little income with it. I've made $3.74 over the last 7 days. I haven't had a lot of luck with the micro niche sites so time to try something bigger for me.

Thanks

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cryptone24

14 years ago

I have nothing against niche specific markets. It works time and time again and a great strategy, but I think that marketers are too scared to tackle a more broader niche.

For me personally i find manging 100 websites tedious, and I rather attack a broader niche on many fronts.

I dont know how Google operates or how they will in the future. Many of my niche sites attract traffic for totally unrelated keywords.

I really enjoy a much broader niche as a personal preference, and I have learnt if I don't like what I am doing then I am not going to put that much effort into it.

I also want the search engines to take me seriously as an authority site and not a flash in the pan.

But this all comes to strategy. I am in it to for the long term, cause they money is where the big boys are hanging.

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ShaneRQR

14 years ago

If you go broad and you want a chance at getting a good amount of search-engine traffic, you'll still have to optimize your individual pages towards specific, longer-tail keywords.
It's either that, or spend huge amounts of time and effort trying to catch up with established authority sites that tend to dominate broad search terms.

However, competition is not the only reason to go after micro-niches.
There are two more things about going narrow that you have to keep in mind:

1. Commercial Intent:
As a rule of thumb, people searching for broad terms are less inclined to spend money. If I'm looking for "digital camera" I might be looking for some free info, or just want to learn a bit about the technology behind digital photography (think: Wikipedia entry for such a term).
If I'm looking for "Canon model such-and-such review", then I'm probably looking to spend money.

2. Appeal:
If you try to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one. Take the perfume store example in your first post. I am personally not interested in perfume, at all. If I see "perfume store for men, women and teens" there's no way I'll even give it a second glance.
However, if I were to see "perfume store for 26 year old dudes who spend too much time in front of the computer and enjoy martial arts" I'd have to check it out. Even though I don't care about perfume, the latter offer is obviously exactly for me, so I'd be curious to see what it's about.

That's what targeting a narrow niche is about. It's saying: "I have a solution to your specific, personal problem" instead of saying "I have solutions to problems".

Hope this makes sense.

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GlenH

14 years ago

I hate the thought of trying manage dozens of small 1, 2 or 3 page sites.

I prefer to cover a niche in a broad sense, cover all the topics I can within that niche and create a silo structured self-updating authority site, which Google loves.

But, hardly anyone in niche marketing does this though.

--Glen

Thanks
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cryptone24

14 years ago

I agree.

I also could think of a few broader terms that are clearly buyer driven. Example --discount ladies perfume.

If I link that term to a trusted site like Amazon will tons of related products (so long I can rank for it), which is also a well respected and reputed seller, can this term not be a converting term?

In addition you can always adsense your site for broader terms since you stand to attract more traffic flow to supplement as an additional revenue source.

Thanks for the great feedback guys? I see the point about laser targeting your niches from the poster earlier, great post.

Also, is there not a bigger chance of attracting some laser niche traffic as well from building an authority site?

Originally Posted by GlenH

I hate the thought of trying manage dozens of small 1, 2 or 3 page sites.

I prefer to cover a niche in a broad sense, cover all the topics I can within that niche and create a silo structured self-updating authority site, which Google loves.

But, hardly anyone in niche marketing does this though.

--Glen

Thanks
1 reply

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GlenH

14 years ago

You could build a whole 'authority site' around the broad theme of 'perfume'.

'Discount ladies perfume' would be just a one page.

For starters what about all the perfume brands.

You could build a massive site easily, either with Adsense on the pages or as an affiliate selling the different brands.

But, the big secret is you need to structure your site correctly so that Google can easily understand the theme of your site and spider though it quickly as easily.

But that's what most people get it totally wrong.

--Glen

Thanks
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cryptone24

14 years ago

Great point Glen.

Like I said-- I am really starting to feel like Google is looking for more authority with all the hundreds of millions of sites now online, and the video I mentioned earlier made me realize this--if I can build a good site with good SEO I can potentially outrank guys that have been around longer have tons more links.

I also don't like feeling someone could come around tomorrow and push me off.

This might backfire on me, but I am going to designate 30-60 days to each niche from now on.

All in in all this is a personal choice, some people are better suites for micro niche sites, I am just not one of them. I want to leave this baby after a month and make money with it for years.

I still have some micro niche sites, am just not as excited about them.

Disclaimer, especially to newbies: Do not take this as authoritative advice, find what works for you and stick with it.

I want to do my part to lessen the clutter around here.

Originally Posted by GlenH

You could build a whole 'authority site' around the broad theme of 'perfume'.

'Discount ladies perfume' would be just a one page.

For starters what about all the perfume brands.

You could build a massive site easily, either with Adsense on the pages or as an affiliate selling the different brands.

But, the big secret is you need to structure your site correctly so that Google can easily understand the theme of your site and spider though it quickly as easily.

But that's what most people get it totally wrong.

--Glen

Thanks

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tyroneshum

14 years ago

Originally Posted by GlenH

I hate the thought of trying manage dozens of small 1, 2 or 3 page sites.

I prefer to cover a niche in a broad sense, cover all the topics I can within that niche and create a silo structured self-updating authority site, which Google loves.

But, hardly anyone in niche marketing does this though.

--Glen

True. Not that you're promoting a broad niche you would always go around too general topics. Your pages would help maximize more topics that you could cover and that way, you'll also get more followers as your niche ages.

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cryptone24

14 years ago

Glen,
Am interested in this silo structure you mentioned. Can I do this with wordpress? Any resources you can direct me too?

Thanks

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cryptone24

14 years ago

Would love to get some views on this really important topic.

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freeads551

14 years ago

I am glad someone has asked this question!

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stevecane

14 years ago

It's not too difficult to manage a dozen or so small sites. In fact it's actually easier to manage small sites than bigger sites cos you just plug away doing a little everyday. It's much more difficult to SEO a broader niche.

Ste

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Dan Bainbridge

14 years ago

Originally Posted by cryptone24

Why buy 100 domains when you can create 100 categories.

This is how we work - one big site in the main area of self help, and 200 pages covering everything from health to dating to the law of attraction.

It works... very well, for us and our affiliates. The potential for upsells, repeat purchases is immense - as are the possibilities for recruiting affiliates from a wide range of niches, and JV partners from all areas of self help.

I like the 1 page / long copy approach - the focus you get with thatis great, but this way has worked very well for us, and it is evergreen... I wouldn't work any other way.

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cryptone24

14 years ago

Thats more like hitting it with a cricket bat than a tiny baseball bat (i'm from the West Indies).

Amazing, your approach is a little broader than mine even and it still works.

I wish this theme could be resonated more in here and give folks another way to do things.

Its also a bi-product of the culture we live in now. We want results and we want it now.

Maybe this thread would catch on and change some minds.

Originally Posted by submp3s

This is how we work - one big site in the main area of self help, and 200 pages covering everything from health to dating to the law of attraction.

It works... very well, for us and our affiliates. The potential for upsells, repeat purchases is immense - as are the possibilities for recruiting affiliates from a wide range of niches, and JV partners from all areas of self help.

I like the 1 page / long copy approach - the focus you get with thatis great, but this way has worked very well for us, and it is evergreen... I wouldn't work any other way.

Thanks

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N4PGW

14 years ago

Cryptone, there is a way to have your cake and eat it too. In some cases you can create re-usable domain names. While this is easiest to do with localities, it can work with other terms as well.

An example would be to buy the domain name "homeintulsaok.com". This is a broad niche that can be narrowed down easily with sub-domains.

HowToBuyA.HomeInTulsaOK.com
WhenToBuyA.
WhereToBuyA.
IWantToBuyA.
IFoundMy.
DoYouWantToMakeYour.

GolfScore.com
HowToImproveYour.
LowerYour.

You get the idea.

I hope this helps.
Buck

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cryptone24

13 years ago

Anyone else having success with slightly broader niches?

Thanks

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ShaneRQR

13 years ago

Check out inlineseo.com

As far as I know, she works mainly with sites on broader topics and she seems to know what she's doing. Have a look at the "truth report" to get an idea of how darn much work is involved, too...

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Kurt

13 years ago

Originally Posted by cryptone24

Why buy 100 domains when you can create 100 categories.

There's a few benefits to having multiple domains instead of a single, bigger one...

It's possible to own more positions in the Top 10, which can't be done with a single domain.

Each domain is an asset which you can sell individually. This aspect shouldn't be over-looked.

More linking opportunities. For example, some directories may only allow one link per domain.

Potential for more IPs.

Exploit the use of keyword specific domain names, which likely have good SEO benefits.

Good for trying to camouflage or hide your identity. There's the obvious reasons, but one example may be you may want to sell something but don't want it associated with your own site/brand. For example, an affiliate product that competes with your own stuff.

Diversity and protection. If you're dependant on SE traffic and get a big site banned it could be devastating. If you do SEO, spreading your "eggs" in many baskets may be a good choice.

Testing and experimenting. You may want to try and test some more aggressive SEO techniques, while eliminating risk to your "big" site.

More effective use of software and memberships. If you buy a program to submit to web directories, may as well use it 100 times instead of once. Same with memberships like Linkvana, which is probably too expensive for only one domain bot a good deal if you have a collection of domains.

These are just some of the reasons to have multiple domains. Of course, there's also disadvantages such as the cost of domain names and others mentioned above.

I'm not saying one way is better than the other. As a matter of fact, I believe you do BOTH...Or better yet, ALL.

Instead of having a big site with 1000 pages, I'd suggest a site with 350 good/quality pages, then use the other 650 pages to build smaller sites, blogs, wikis, etc.

Have the big site concentrate on content and quality and use the others in a variety of ways, some for linking, some for affiliate programs, some for Adsense, etc.

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cryptone24

13 years ago

This is a powerful stuff, thanks Kurt.

Originally Posted by Kurt

There's a few benefits to having multiple domains instead of a single, bigger one...

It's possible to own more positions in the Top 10, which can't be done with a single domain.

Each domain is an asset which you can sell individually. This aspect shouldn't be over-looked.

More linking opportunities. For example, some directories may only allow one link per domain.

Potential for more IPs.

Exploit the use of keyword specific domain names, which likely have good SEO benefits.

Good for trying to camouflage or hide your identity. There's the obvious reasons, but one example may be you may want to sell something but don't want it associated with your own site/brand. For example, an affiliate product that competes with your own stuff.

Diversity and protection. If you're dependant on SE traffic and get a big site banned it could be devastating. If you do SEO, spreading your "eggs" in many baskets may be a good choice.

Testing and experimenting. You may want to try and test some more aggressive SEO techniques, while eliminating risk to your "big" site.

More effective use of software and memberships. If you buy a program to submit to web directories, may as well use it 100 times instead of once. Same with memberships like Linkvana, which is probably too expensive for only one domain bot a good deal if you have a collection of domains.

These are just some of the reasons to have multiple domains. Of course, there's also disadvantages such as the cost of domain names and others mentioned above.

I'm not saying one way is better than the other. As a matter of fact, I believe you do BOTH...Or better yet, ALL.

Instead of having a big site with 1000 pages, I'd suggest a site with 350 good/quality pages, then use the other 650 pages to build smaller sites, blogs, wikis, etc.

Have the big site concentrate on content and quality and use the others in a variety of ways, some for linking, some for affiliate programs, some for Adsense, etc.