Are niche websites reallly the way to go?

I have several niche sites, and I also have two big authority sites that cover several niches. What does better?

In terms of advertising, my big authority niches do better, but when it comes to building a specific list that I can market to (and profit from) the smaller niche sites do better.

I think it wholly depends on how you are monetizing before you can determine what works better than this or that.

BP

It depends on your method of marketing and monetizing. Then, it depends on what works for you. Some people can make an authority site and it just dominates a niche. Whereas another guy I know has like 50 niche sites pulling in over $10k per month with just organic traffic. It's all in what works for you. I personally like the really targeted niche stuff. But, I also do a lot of ppc. That stuff is generally cheaper. You won't really know until you get out there and make it happen. Pick one and test. Or test both.

Just read this great article by respected IMer Chris Rempel. It will provide you with food for thought regarding this subject. It's about what to do Post Penguin but it covers the niche vs. authority site towards the end. Great read!

Here’s How We’re Ranking Right Now, Post-Penguin…

I've always wondered the same thing. Like can the power of numbers really put you on the same traffic/income level as the authority sites. It's pretty confusing because I see on one end of the spectrum you have the Top Dog sites that pull in say 1000 visitors daily and on the other end you have 100 mini-sites that pull in 10 visitors daily, in theory they should have the same conversion rates since they are pulling in the same kinds of numbers but I'm interested in seeing if the conversions would be similar.

Niche blogs are a great way to make money online. I personally like the residual aspect of them and the fact that I can work around my own schedule the most. I don't do well with deadlines being that I'm a procrastinator and what not. They also provide you with the opportunity to generate various streams of income with things like list building.

Most importantly, though, you are building a "virtual asset" that can be sold for a lump sum of cash. How much you can sell a site for really depends on how much income it generates a monthly basis. If you have a crappy site that's money making any money, chances are that you're not going to be able to get much, if anything, for it.

Joey

Look at niche websites as a store for example - selling plumbing equipment, you need less visitors to buy plumbing equipment from your store, but if you have huge mall full of products, then the percent of your visitors who will buy plumbing equipment will be very small.

Niche websites do not distract visitors attention, if he is looking exactly what your niche website is about

Hey,

niche sites are great if you do things right. After the Google Penguin updates, the following was recommended for how to create backlinks that will help your SEO rankings creating organic search engine traffic to your sites.

1. 60% of your links should be either
generic (ex. click here) or brand
and URL based (ex. www.bluewidgetdomain.com/bluewidgets.html)

2. 30% of your links should be phrase based
with the anchor text contained within
(e.g. click here to find out about blue
widgets)

3. 10% of your links should be direct match
anchor text based (e.g. blue widgets)

It was also mentioned that paid backlinks, still work. And blog networks that are not
private still work too. All from a trusted source so that's good news!

All the best,
Ryan

i have a few Amazon affiliate sites, built on small niches. once i choose the niche, i build them as authority sites in that small niche, i add more than 50 articles and reviews for different products. this way they do really well when it comes to ranking in Google. if you stop adding content, Google is gonna stop ranking you high.

To the OP, I'm not entirely sure where you're going with this. Are you asking about selling websites as a business-in-a-box (like Flippa, I think)? Or are you talking strictly web design?

Here's my take:

Too many Warriors think in terms of websites instead of businesses. You shouldn't be trying to build a money-making website. You should be building a money-making BUSINESS. It might seem like semantics, but the difference in your thinking is CRITICAL.

Any business coach, book, article, etc. worth their salt will tell you you need to specialize. Niche your product or service down to a particular target market and then market like crazy. Entrepreneurs typically don't have pockets deep enough to market to "everybody." Trying to sell to "everyone" is a recipe for going broke in a hurry.

To be clear: you're building a BUSINESS. The website is just a MEDIUM (like TV, radio, direct mail, etc.) for communicating with prospects and customers, building your list, marketing your products and services, taking orders, etc. Stop thinking in terms of "niche websites"! Think in terms of a business serving a niche market.


I paid $2600 recently for a complete redesign of one of my sites. (The other one needs the same thing, but I don't have another $2600 right now.)

I'd NEVER paid that much money before and saw no reason why I should. Like a lot of Warriors, I tend to do things on the cheap. Good is good enough.

Unfortunately, my coach had to beat it into me that good is NOT good enough. (Ok, she really didn't beat me. But she DID have to coach me quite a bit before I finally got it right.)

She stressed that I needed custom design and custom graphics -- that the little things in the design mattered (i.e. names of the company, products and programs, etc. should be custom graphics, not just text typed onto a background; graphics should be sharp and clear, no fuzzy edges; etc.). She told me that the design should follow the latest design trends and not look like something done in 1998.

(I notice that a lot of IM-oriented websites tend to look the same: abstract/stick figures that look "shiny" and round (like a game piece); the same buttons and arrows; the same 3-D graphics; the same bright blue or red headlines promising "secrets" of wealth; etc. It all begins to look the same. Although much of it is crisp and clear, it often doesn't feel credible because of the graphics.)

I'm a writer, NOT a designer. I thought good design is good enough, but great design isn't essential. My coach taught me otherwise. She taught me that website design really matters because it's part of positioning your company, products, programs, etc. in your market's mind. The Internet really allows us to compete with the big guys (like Microsoft, Coca-Cola, etc.) It's our office, our storefront, our face to the world. So a few thousand dollars in web design isn't out of line.

I really had to get past my mindsets around design and spent more money than I wanted on re-do's. I FINALLY got it right though and am super happy with my new/current website. I got a logo I LOVE from 99Designs.com for just $297. My website design was $2600, but it's a complete custom design. It's all very professional and I LOVE it. (You really DO get what you pay for!)

It might seem like a lot, but it's more than just "web design." My website is the basis of all of the branding for my company, including colors and fonts. The "look" IS my brand identity and is carried through to all other marketing (business cards, postcards, e-books, applications, etc.).

When you think in terms of building a long-term business instead of just a website, it makes investing that kind of money seem more reasonable.

I'm not sure if this is where you were going with this thread, but I hope it's helpful.

Michelle

It's always best to have a range of different sites and various different income streams. Small niche and individual product sites can be much easier to rank well and are very simple to maintain- if you optimize them well they can perform very well as a collective to give you steady streams of traffic and income.

It's best to diversify your types of sites so in addition to small niche sites it's a good idea to run authority sites providing real value for your visitors. There are lots of advantages to an authority type site- you can build a list, review and advertise multiple products and build up a brand utilising all of the social media platforms to build large streams of traffic.

In terms of buying/selling sites.. usually with niche/affiliate sites the sale value relates to the income the site generates. So a small niche site that is very new and only ranks page 2 -10 might go for cheap ($50 like mentioned). However, of course if a site already has authority, has been running for a while with lots of regular unique content and performing well, it can sell for much more -based on the monthly sales revenue (why a page 1 site making for example $300 average per month can fetch $1000+).

I build both niche sites and authority sites and they both do well. Niche sites are great for a narrower focus and selling a niche product, whether it's your own or a clickbank or other affiliate network product.

where to find niche directory sites?

The problem with small niche sites (and why I don't do much with them) is that when you own lots of them, costs can become an issue (renewals, content outsourcing, etc). Additionally, you typically aren't going to get lots of repeat traffic.

I prefer larger "authority-type" niche sites. I'll typically choose a broader niche (power tools, for example) and build out a site with 50-100 product reviews on it of various power tools. I own maybe 10 of these kinds of sites and do very, very well. It's so much easier (and cheaper) to manage a handful of larger sites than it is to manage dozens of smaller "niche sites". I spend no more than an hour or two per day (tops) managing my small stable of "authority" sites.

Another major advantage that "authority-type" sites have over the smaller sites is the fact that other larger sites will often reference them if done right, resulting in great backlinks and tons of traffic. For example, one of my sites has received over 500 visitors to just one product over the last 3 days because my site was referenced by one of the big coupon sites (think slickdeals, fatwallet, etc). This happens fairly often now and results in lots of sales. I don't believe that would happen with a 5 or 10 page niche site.

Disclaimer: We're heavily in the niche site camp, having created over 2,000 sites and counting.

We had the same question a while back and decided to get a few other well-known bloggers involved. We recruited Mike From Maine and Steve Scott to help us with a debate post, Niche Vs. Authority Sites. You can check it out here:
Debate: Niche Sites Vs. Authority Sites | AdSense Flippers

It was a wildly popular post for us and I thought they both made some fantastic points. Using niche sites to test out authority sites seemed a compelling argument to me. I also liked the Creative Vs. Process-Oriented discussions in the comments if you're interested in that sort of thing.

I think with the recent updates in Google niche sites are being much harder and will take way longer to make one that will rank well in Google. The main priority in a niche site is to not stuff any main keywords too much, and use as many LSI keywords as possible through many high quality unique articles.

Minisite option allows you not to put all eggs into one basket and create new sites on the fly, so I would say yes, it's a great way to go.