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Are mini niche sites dead?

by RebelMVP
34 replies
I have been hearing a lot of talk about mini niche sites being dead?

Authority sites seem to be the new way to go.

Is this true?
#dead #mini #niche #sites
  • Profile picture of the author Anomalous
    Maybe its just SEO that's dead.

    Its not, but I stopped depending on it quite some time ago. I'm not comfortable with being at Google's mercy.

    In any case, I think you're better off blogging and list building. If you do this in the spirt of building relationships and sincerely helping people the SEO happens naturally, the way its supposed to.
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    • Profile picture of the author RebelMVP
      Originally Posted by Anomalous View Post

      Maybe its just SEO that's dead.

      Its not, but I stopped depending on it quite some time ago. I'm not comfortable with being at Google's mercy.

      In any case, I think you're better off blogging and list building. If you do this in the spirt of building relationships and sincerely helping people the SEO happens naturally, the way its supposed to.
      Ok...

      Let me ask you this then.

      Are you saying that I should become some sort of a Consultant? It seems like Consulting is the way that everyone seems to be going these days?
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      • Profile picture of the author SunilTanna
        Don't believe all the crap people tell you about X is dead, Y is dead.

        One of my most reliable sites has only about 20 pages, 4 or 5 of which are pure affiliate content, hasn't been updated in a year, has an exact match domain giving it much of its juice.... everything people tell you is dead.

        It's traffic doubled in the last year. January traffic was about 20K visitors, 70K page views.

        What is dead, and should be dead, and always was doomed is trickery. You can't outsmart a multi-billion dollar company full of brainboxes by providing crap and tricking your way to the top. Well maybe you can for a short time, but you can't hope to sustain it.

        The reason this site works is it provides exactly the cotnent which visitors are looking for, every time (hundreds of people click the FB like button for a reason, but FB is not a major source of traffic to the site, Google is)

        Provide real content that answers what your visitors are looking for, and take as long as it takes to provide it completely and thoroughly.

        (The reason my 20 page site isn't being updated, is there is virtually nothing really I could add, without repeating myself or wondering off topic)
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        • Profile picture of the author Malcolm Thomas
          Originally Posted by SunilTanna View Post

          Don't believe all the crap people tell you about X is dead, Y is dead.

          One of my most reliable sites has only about 20 pages, 4 or 5 of which are pure affiliate content, hasn't been updated in a year, has an exact match domain giving it much of its juice.... everything people tell you is dead.

          It's traffic doubled in the last year. January traffic was about 20K visitors, 70K page views.

          What is dead, and should be dead, and always was doomed is trickery. You can't outsmart a multi-billion dollar company full of brainboxes by providing crap and tricking your way to the top. Well maybe you can for a short time, but you can't hope to sustain it.

          The reason this site works is it provides exactly the cotnent which visitors are looking for, every time (hundreds of people click the FB like button for a reason, but FB is not a major source of traffic to the site, Google is)

          Provide real content that answers what your visitors are looking for, and take as long as it takes to provide it completely and thoroughly.

          (The reason my 20 page site isn't being updated, is there is virtually nothing really I could add, without repeating myself or wondering off topic)
          This. Providing value to your website visitors is the KEY to ranking highly in Google. Mini niche site or Authority site, it really doesn't matter. As long as you answer your readers questions, Google will reward you with a higher ranking in the search engines.
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        • Profile picture of the author ArielT
          Originally Posted by SunilTanna View Post

          One of my most reliable sites has only about 20 pages, 4 or 5 of which are pure affiliate content, hasn't been updated in a year, has an exact match domain giving it much of its juice.... everything people tell you is dead.

          It's traffic doubled in the last year. January traffic was about 20K visitors, 70K page views.
          Are you using wordpress for that site or an static html?
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      • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
        Originally Posted by RebelMVP View Post

        Ok...

        Let me ask you this then.

        Are you saying that I should become some sort of a Consultant? It seems like Consulting is the way that everyone seems to be going these days?
        Do what YOU want to do. Not what you think everyone else might be doing.
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    • Profile picture of the author Saito
      Originally Posted by Anomalous View Post

      Maybe its just SEO that's dead.

      Its not, but I stopped depending on it quite some time ago. I'm not comfortable with being at Google's mercy.

      In any case, I think you're better off blogging and list building. If you do this in the spirt of building relationships and sincerely helping people the SEO happens naturally, the way its supposed to.
      In my experience, blogging is a decent traffic strategy but a terrible business model.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sillysoft
    The weird part is some of my sites I started as a mini niche site, but it turned into an authoritative site in that niche and took off.
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  • Profile picture of the author Danny Shaw
    Mini niche site are not dead but you can not just throw up a 5 page site and expect it to stay on page one just with link building. New content that then gets some social hits is what google is looking for. For instance I went for the keyword "novelty valentines gift ideas" in the UK which I thought would be quite tough (through experience) and am now #1 with very little link building or original content at all (200ish words). I would suggest getting a domain with a keyword like cheap, buy, review, onsale ...... and then treat each post as hitting a niche. This way you can go for low comp, low traffic keywords but after sometime they all build up to huge traffic to your site. If you have any question you can PM me.
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    • Profile picture of the author SuppaDave21
      Originally Posted by Danny Shaw View Post

      Mini niche site are not dead but you can not just throw up a 5 page site and expect it to stay on page one just with link building. New content that then gets some social hits is what google is looking for. For instance I went for the keyword "novelty valentines gift ideas" in the UK which I thought would be quite tough (through experience) and am now #1 with very little link building or original content at all (200ish words). I would suggest getting a domain with a keyword like cheap, buy, review, onsale ...... and then treat each post as hitting a niche. This way you can go for low comp, low traffic keywords but after sometime they all build up to huge traffic to your site. If you have any question you can PM me.
      I agree ^^^^^^

      No the concept of MICRO-NICHE sites are not dead as all you are doing is targeting a "micro niche". Such as a particular style of product opposed to choosing just the product niche and building a site around that niche, rather than building a crappy micro site around a niche and expecting it to bring you in any steady reliable cash flow
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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Blades
    I still do minisites the same way, but not for Google, I rank them easily on Bing/Yahoo, Google isn't the only big boys on the block.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    They are not as long as you go DEEP. The problem with mini-niche sites, as they were previously implemented, was the fact that they were thin sites. Also, most used exact match domains. So they got hit by a double whammy. Now if you go the opposite way and went with DEEP content and used brandable domains, you might do better. Way better. Google is steering people to go a certain direction. Sadly, many of us require more than a few slaps to snap out of a 'shortcut' and 'hit it and quit it' mentality.
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    • Profile picture of the author Green Moon
      Originally Posted by writeaway View Post

      They are not as long as you go DEEP. The problem with mini-niche sites, as they were previously implemented, was the fact that they were thin sites. Also, most used exact match domains. So they got hit by a double whammy. Now if you go the opposite way and went with DEEP content and used brandable domains, you might do better. Way better. Google is steering people to go a certain direction. Sadly, many of us require more than a few slaps to snap out of a 'shortcut' and 'hit it and quit it' mentality.
      This is exactly what I was going to say. However, I would add that even with deep niche sites, Google seems to have a preference for pages with more content rather than less. I think the "mini" part, if not dead, is in trouble.

      I think a 5 page site that says everything there is to say on a very narrow niche is still going to have problems ranking for its key word on Google. It won't be impossible. If the whole world thinks your 5 pages are the best authority on your niche and share that love by linking to your site, you can still rank. I just think it is tougher than ever before to compete with the mega sites that also cover your topic.
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  • Profile picture of the author RachelLily
    of course not, its not dead. niche sites are still very alive. the only problem it could face is optimization penalty.if your site is well optimized then it has nothing to worry about.
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  • Profile picture of the author NewRiseDigital
    Authority sites will always be the long term vehicle you build your brand around, and mini niche sites will always be those long tail investments. They both serve different needs and also are both totally different business models, plus they'll work well or not so well depending on the market you're targeting. There's always room for a new authority site, since they generally take on some of your own personality (and you're unique!).
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  • Profile picture of the author tomerep
    Niche sites are not dead, they, when given the right treatment, will return you deserve depending on the work you put it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Scrambler
    I don't think they are dead; but several of my mini niche product review sites that did well prior to the last Google update got spanked pretty good. So now if I were to consider another niche site I would look at a niche with pretty good room to grow, say into a 50 page site. I would also make sure your niche site has original content and by all means stay away from any unnatural linking scheme.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    No definitely not dead. I chuck up mini sites all the time, many still rank, others get traffic from paid advertising, a lot of time they are ranking even easier than they used to. Seems like Googles updates in 2012 wiped out a lot of the competition or confused everyone so much that they gave up. Suits me.
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  • Profile picture of the author YasirYar
    Mini sites are still good, it just all depends on your target market and your specialized needs for one.
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  • Profile picture of the author asiriusthoth
    Something is only dead to you, if it no longer works. Mini-niche sites work for quite a lot of people. I started a niche video site about a month ago; it's bringing in traffic like crazy. It just depends on what you do, and how you do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author adsassist
    Originally Posted by RebelMVP View Post

    I have been hearing a lot of talk about mini niche sites being dead?

    Authority sites seem to be the new way to go.

    Is this true?
    No, mini niche site work very well for product reviews. Find a good product, find a great long tail keyword, and you will make money from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sue McDonald
    Mini niches or micro niches are certainly not dead. They are alive and well. They stay alive if you post relevant unique information on them. When people type in a browser, they are looking for a solution. They want to know "How To" or "Why" and if you have the solution you will have lots of traffic coming to your mini niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author SuppaDave21
    I have also found that a site with 200 word articles are fine as long as they are written in a post or news article style if you cannot come up with enough big articles to fill your site.

    They key is the keep posting new articles like that everyday or at least one every 48 hours. Get creative with the articles to keep readers wanting more.

    If you mix in a few great 400-500 word articles, before you know it you will have a site full of great google and anybody with a credit card ready loving content


    You can find great 200 word articles for under $3 a pop so it would not cost much.
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  • Profile picture of the author run
    Some specific detail topics no need to have more than 5 posts/articles. Because it is shaping a very detail and only for one long tail topic/keyword, it's no more article/posts to be published more.

    It depends on the specific niche that based on small articles!
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  • Profile picture of the author Rachel McKnight
    Niche sites are definitely not dead but a lot of sites got wiped out due to the updates. One of mine did as well but others continue to flourish.

    If you really want to get into niche sites you gotta learn how to do some in-depth research though.
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    • Profile picture of the author RebelMVP
      Originally Posted by Rachel McKnight View Post

      Niche sites are definitely not dead but a lot of sites got wiped out due to the updates. One of mine did as well but others continue to flourish.

      If you really want to get into niche sites you gotta learn how to do some in-depth research though.
      How can I learn how to do this in-depth research the proper way?
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      • Profile picture of the author Ken Durham
        Originally Posted by RebelMVP View Post

        How can I learn how to do this in-depth research the proper way?
        For Someone's (not Christ's cause I don't want to make a stir) sake!!!.... This is too simple!!!
        Type in what you want to know.... refine it to be a bit more in-depth...
        Put yourself in your customers shoes... give what you would like to see...
        Easy as that my friend.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chri5123
    For someone asking whether mini niche sites are dead it is probably not best to go into consulting.

    You need to know the answer to that question before you consult others and get paid for it.

    My opinion is this:

    Mini niche sites are not dead.

    Seo is not dead.

    It HAS changed but it is ALWAYS changing.

    All the scares with the penguin, panda's and updates did not affect my sites too much.

    My advice for what it is worth:

    "If you want to rank on Google or any other search engine, focus on providing quality content to the people that NEED it, and update daily - keep this up for 3 months and you will be ranking for some pretty juicy keywords."

    The hard part is keeping going.
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  • Profile picture of the author joshcohen
    No far from dead.. just need to work smart.

    Niche sites are booming, and the recent google emd update only effects low quality exact match domains that don't make sense. To start ranking you don't even need much content, just make sure to do some detailed keyword research and choose 1 main word (which should be in your domain) and then a couple of secondary keywords.

    Set up the site with meta tags, a page title and image with the keyword as the alt tags.

    I will then start socially bookmarking the site to get it into Googls radar before any other back linking is done. Once you start picking up some traction create some new content but remember google works on math not English - the quality content is for readers and visitors, not Google.

    Then leave it for another week or so before you monetize it.

    I have a free course to niche website building being made now, if interested it will be here: An introduction to the lucrative world of niche marketing | Work With Josh Cohen
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  • Profile picture of the author WallyKyle50
    I just visited the SEO burial site last night. I had no tears lol!.. A few nights back I did a review of one "Our own" on his mini site niche product/training...YAWN!

    Go out and build real relationships with people who are yearning for that. And they will thank you through purchasing of your stuff. simple.
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  • Profile picture of the author jgant
    Why not try one and see if it works? I have one for a product I use and love that does well. Mini sites aren't the foundation of my business, but my smallish site generates very low four figures monthly, but doesn't require much maintenance at all.

    I'm currently testing 3 local mini sites targeting a sub-industry for 3 towns. These sites are still too new to report results, but I figured it was worth trying since I receive excellent commissions form a local company in this industry.

    The key is finding a great offer and getting targeted traffic and converting traffic. I deploy SEO because I use them as set it and forget sites, but you can get traffic in other ways.

    The bulk of my effort and income is from larger sites where I blog regularly, build up a readership and fumble my through list building.

    To test a site, look for software or an expensive product you have and love. Put up a small site about that product targeting prospective buyers. See what happens.
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  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    Tiny 'lil insignificant nothing websites get beat by HUGE, AUTHORITY sites all day long!

    After you build your 5 pages and links....what then?
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  • Profile picture of the author fixie
    Not dead, but definitely not what it used to be. In the good old days you could just pick EMD, 4 articles related to the emd keyword and voila, all work is done. Not anymore.
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