I'm thinking of setting up an authority camping site

20 replies
(Moderated: We're going to keep this thread in the Main Discussion forum for now since the OP is asking for ideas on how to set up an authority "camping site". If it gets into social media then I will move it. - Your friendly neighborhood Mods )



Hi,

I have a Facebook page in the camping niche with over 3500 real likes. They all engage extremely well with posts, images, polls, etc posted on the page.

I feel like I'm missing a great opportunity to monetise the users, but since only a very small amount see FB posts these days I do not want to rely on FB's platform as I'm sure there are definitely more profitable routes to take.

I'm thinking of setting up an authority camping site, but I'd just like some ideas as to how to approach it...

They sometimes individually post their own camping reviews to the FB page - they don't mind writing their own content or uploading their own images. So for this reason I think I'll add a user reviews section where they can write their own campsite/product reviews.

I'm also keen to pursue email marketing so will have some lead capture around the site. In the future I'm not completely against turning it into an ecommerce/dropshipping store if I feel there is demand.

Basically, I'm a web developer by trade so I can implement any features I want really, I just need to come up with some good ideas to monetise.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Joe
#3500 #acquired #active #authority #camping #capitalising #likers #niche #page #ppc
  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Lenney
    First off, post this in the social media section of this site where it belongs :-)
    Second, see #1
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    • Profile picture of the author joetann
      Originally Posted by eljeffe77 View Post

      First off, post this in the social media section of this site where it belongs :-)
      Second, see #1
      Thanks for your response.

      With respect, I don't think this post has much to do with social media. I'm asking about growing an authority site and marketing ideas for said site. The only social media bit is that my audience happens to be on Facebook at the moment, but my reason for posting this is that I am not going to be using Facebook to monetise...
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      • Profile picture of the author savidge4
        I am not to familiar with monetizing directly on FB. I am sure it can be done. However, the usual route would be to have a site, then use FB for traffic. You already have the traffic. you simply need the site to go with it.

        Forget the "its hard" "its difficult" you have already gotten the hard part down, getting traffic for a specific niche.

        Your traffic would easily convert to a camping blog. You already have images of what people are interested in, so you could focus on those subjects to start. You have people that would be willing to guest blog it sounds like. Its all right there for you, just go after it.

        Seriously how much does a site cost? $30 a year? Would it not be worth the financial risk to at least try?

        Hope that Helps!
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  • Profile picture of the author GamerZag
    I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think the mindset of this project should instead be reflected with a post such as: I'm thinking of attempting to set up an authority camping site

    Having a site be an authority of a particular subject matter is difficult, and for Google to think you're an authority is also very difficult to do.

    Be prepared to fail as that will likely be your course. More importantly, be prepared to learn from this experience, and apply those newly learned skills into your second effort into whatever IM related.
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  • Profile picture of the author estpog
    I have an authority blog concerning camping and I must say that it's very hard to sell stuff to this traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author simonpiemon
    The "usual" very simple formula of

    Blog -> List -> Informative Content & Affiliate Offers

    Build the list, mail them stuff every day.

    Rinse and repeat.

    While you're at it - build another one alongside and sell it on Flippa, or sell PLR ready-made-blog versions of it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Anton
    hi Joe,

    You managed to do something very few people in online marketing or in the WF have done - create a facebook fan page with real interactions. Some questions:

    1) Is the fanpage a branded camping name, or is it generic? Joe's Camping Tips or is it "Camping". This matters because when you supplement with a website you'll want synergies to exist between the two platforms (consistenecy). I believe you can request the Fan page name to change through FB as well if you want to brand it (to become an authority this is important)

    There are a few ways to go about becoming a "go-to" or authority website. You simply can't do it all yourself, so you'll need to leverage either paid writers or the community (people are more willing to post/share on fb then your website).

    Also, you'll want to setup a business model. It's important to have visions of greatness but the numbers have to make sense too. Figure out what types of traffic you are going after. Organic social media? PPC social media? Search engine traffic, organic or paid? Email marketing (really need traffic to get to this last step).

    Monetization. Adsense? Affiliate marketing, dropshipping, buying from wholesalers and selling yourself?

    Main thing is you have a vision and passion. Most lack this, and the rest can be figured out, but the devil is in the details. Write down a plan and take action.
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    • Profile picture of the author joetann
      Thank you all for such great replies. I didn't anticipate such good response!

      Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

      I am not to familiar with monetizing directly on FB. I am sure it can be done. However, the usual route would be to have a site, then use FB for traffic. You already have the traffic. you simply need the site to go with it.

      Forget the "its hard" "its difficult" you have already gotten the hard part down, getting traffic for a specific niche.

      Your traffic would easily convert to a camping blog. You already have images of what people are interested in, so you could focus on those subjects to start. You have people that would be willing to guest blog it sounds like. Its all right there for you, just go after it.

      Seriously how much does a site cost? $30 a year? Would it not be worth the financial risk to at least try?

      Hope that Helps!
      Thanks!

      I also don't mind spending some more money getting everything set up and in place. I've allocated £100 for January for this to all take shape. I think this will be more than enough. I'm going to buy a magazine style theme and customise it to however I see fit, instead of developing from scratch which would be a waste of time at the moment.

      So my main costs this month are going to be:
      • Theme - $45
      • Outsourced content - 8 articles ~ @$5/ea = $40
      • VPS hosting - DigitalOcean $5/m
      • My time
      • Domains are already purchased from a long time ago

      I value my time because I could be freelancing in web development otherwise, but I'm more passionate about this and am determined to get this up and running.


      Originally Posted by Matthew Anton View Post

      hi Joe,

      You managed to do something very few people in online marketing or in the WF have done - create a facebook fan page with real interactions. Some questions:

      1) Is the fanpage a branded camping name, or is it generic? Joe's Camping Tips or is it "Camping". This matters because when you supplement with a website you'll want synergies to exist between the two platforms (consistenecy). I believe you can request the Fan page name to change through FB as well if you want to brand it (to become an authority this is important)

      There are a few ways to go about becoming a "go-to" or authority website. You simply can't do it all yourself, so you'll need to leverage either paid writers or the community (people are more willing to post/share on fb then your website).

      Also, you'll want to setup a business model. It's important to have visions of greatness but the numbers have to make sense too. Figure out what types of traffic you are going after. Organic social media? PPC social media? Search engine traffic, organic or paid? Email marketing (really need traffic to get to this last step).

      Monetization. Adsense? Affiliate marketing, dropshipping, buying from wholesalers and selling yourself?

      Main thing is you have a vision and passion. Most lack this, and the rest can be figured out, but the devil is in the details. Write down a plan and take action.
      Thanks Mathew. It's quite a long story actually. Basically I tested out some different niches a couple of years ago to see how cheap I could get Facebook clicks. The camping niche came out the cheapest (beating things like poker, Apple, cups of tea, etc) so I just ran with it. I spend around £110ish in total which got me around 3000 likes if I remember correctly. I can get some screenshots of the FB PPC data for it all if you want.

      As it grew I started getting more and more engagement on my posts so I should create a site to go with it (like now...). However this was during uni when despite having a metric ton of free time, I had better things to do so I put it executing properly. What I did do however was ask the page exactly what they wanted. For example I asked (via a poll) if they would like a website to go along with their facebook page community - they all said yes. I then put the name of the website to a poll vote - I said as long as the domain is available I would choose the answer with the most votes. So I did this and bought the domains for what the community voted for - by this time I had enough likes to be able to change the name/URL of the page to this new camping branded name. I also polled things like what would the community like the site to do - answers included having a reviews section and being able to write their own reviews.

      I'm going to start off with AdSense and as an affiliate (I'm on a few different suitable programmes like amazon and ebay), and perhaps down the line if I can compete then move towards something like dropshipping or camping daily deals or something along those ecommerce lines.

      I'm going to send out some emails tomorrow to camping/outdoor brands to see if they'd be willing to partner up in return for links and reviews.

      Cheers all, this has been really helpful.

      ~~~

      Edit: Thank you mods for providing reasoning for keeping the thread here - much appreciated.
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  • Profile picture of the author Donowhy
    I love the idea- There are tons of camping/hiking enthusiasts, and they are very passionate about their hobby. Since this is an active niche, I would also suggest you consider adding a forum to your website.

    Also, there are many different kind of campers so keep that in mind when promoting products. But depending on the age group of your main demographic you could even promote health and fitness products
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    • Profile picture of the author Matthew Anton
      Originally Posted by Donowhy View Post

      I love the idea- There are tons of camping/hiking enthusiasts, and they are very passionate about their hobby. Since this is an active niche, I would also suggest you consider adding a forum to your website.

      Also, there are many different kind of campers so keep that in mind when promoting products. But depending on the age group of your main demographic you could even promote health and fitness products
      Forums are probably the hardest thing to create unless you have built in traffic. I would not recommend this approach until you get every other puzzle piece in place.
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  • Profile picture of the author RogueOne
    So for this reason I think I'll add a user reviews section where they can write their own campsite/product reviews.
    You could build the entire site on this premise. This way people create most of the content for you. You could approach camping locations and product manufacturers with ad placements. Get them to comp. you trip fees for feature blog posts, etc.

    You could very well be onto a good idea, if the niche is not already well represented.

    If you are not familiar with them, check out REI for their affiliate program. They carry all of the top of the line, cutting edge camping, hiking and climbing equipment.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    This is a good idea but I suggest you must have a lot of knowledge about camping before embarking into such huge niche. People are buying camping merchandise everyday through amazon and references from clickbank. If you have a good authority site with informative content, people will surely follow your site. The best thing is to camp your self, write about your experiences, things that needed in some specific locations etc... My brother has a travel authority blog and he is making a very good amount that he can even finance his own travel almost everyday through website earnings alone, not to mention hotels/restaurants reviews. Camping is almost the same.
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  • Profile picture of the author ronrule
    Sent you a PM Joe
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    • Profile picture of the author RogueOne
      Originally Posted by ronrule View Post

      Sent you a PM Joe
      Thanks for your helpful post!:rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author RogueOne
    I'm going to start off with AdSense and as an affiliate (I'm on a few different suitable programmes like amazon and ebay),
    All the lowest paying programs available, and with the most restrictions.

    You can find much more profitable ways to monetize the site.
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    • Profile picture of the author joetann
      Originally Posted by RogueOne View Post

      All the lowest paying programs available, and with the most restrictions.

      You can find much more profitable ways to monetize the site.
      Fair comment. Any other suggestions?

      Ill be marketing to the email list too. Not sure how ill be monetizing that yet exactly though...
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  • Profile picture of the author RogueOne
    check out REI for their affiliate program.
    REI.com is the Internet's largest outdoor store, offering a broad selection of trusted gear as well as expert advice and in-depth information about products and outdoor recreation
    REI-OUTLET.com features the best assortment of brand-name closeouts, overstocks and seconds with discounts of 20 to 70%
    REI has a loyal customer and membership base of more than 3 million people
    REI's 100% satisfaction guarantee and free shipping to local stores help to convert your visitors into REI customers!
    REI has been a leader in the outdoor industry since 1938
    Here's how it works:
    Choose which affiliate network you want to work with:
    Commission Junction
    AvantLink
    Complete the application for the REI program
    Once approved, post an REI.com and/or REI-OUTLET.com link on your site
    Send customers to REI through your links and REI will send you a commission check each month
    Track your clicks and commissions through the Commission Junction or AvantLink interface.
    Become an REI Affiliate Partner

    Be sure to have your site finished before you apply.
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    • Profile picture of the author joetann
      Originally Posted by RogueOne View Post

      Become an REI Affiliate Partner

      Be sure to have your site finished before you apply.
      Thanks for the suggestion! I forgot to mention that my audience is predominantly from the UK. Here's a screenshot from the FB insights:



      Once the site is up and running I'll still apply to REI though and integrate them somehow.

      Some updates:

      - Interviewed some content writers via oDesk. Found an excellent writer for $3.30/hr so will be using her from now on for smaller articles, and writing longer more informative articles myself
      - Purchased a theme and began creating the site locally
      - Secured other social profiles for the brand term

      To do:

      - Finish website
      - Outreach to possible brands in the niche for partnership
      - Setup email marketing and lead capture
      - Think of some competitions/prizes to create
      - Lots more!

      I've just asked the Facebook page once again what they think the site should have on it (I previously asked > 1 year ago). Got some great suggestions for content and sections of the site. I'd definitely recommend reaching out to your audience and literally asking them what they want!

      Updates to follow. Anyone in the camping/outdoors niche feel free to get in touch via PM if you think there's potential for partnership.
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  • Profile picture of the author celente
    I would do this

    1) go to the other authority sites and / or competitors.

    2) Mark down all the good features and problems

    3) Create a site and make it 100 times better. Make the problems of the other sites disapear.

    4) make sure you are building a list, or giveaways to build a list, so you can people to visit again and again.
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  • Profile picture of the author tehdellguy22
    Sell an information product! Good luck
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