What Type of Niche Site Should You Create?

If you’re interested in creating your own niche site as a potential source of income, you have a number of different styles to choose from.

I recently listened to a podcast from the guys over at Empire Flippers, comparing 3 different styles of niche sites.

The podcast does a great job of explaining things and I’ll link to that at the bottom of this post, but I’ll also break it down for you here and throw in one additional niche style as well.

I referenced Pat Flynn and Spencer Haws in my recent Niche Site Duel 2.0 update post and they are a primary focus of the podcast as well.

The Empire Flipper guys break down niche sites into 3 main categories, in order of amount of effort/resources needed:

1. Pat Flynn Niche Site Duel 2.0 type of niche site
2. The Spencer Haws “Best Survival Knife” type niche site
3. Empire Flippers AdSense style niche site

One caveat upfront, is that niche sites are not get rich quick schemes.  All of the niche site types will take a minimum of about 3 months before you will notice any sizable traffic in my experience.  It typically takes Google that long to figure out where to rank a newly established site.  I will leave the 3+ month time factor out of the cons for each, since that is universal across all niche types.

Pat Flynn Niche Site Duel 2.0 Type Site

This is a full “authority” niche site.  By that I mean that Pat wants to be THE resource for “Food Trucks For Sale”, but also plans to expand things out from there as well.  They mention in the podcast that this will be a huge effort, one that would require someone’s full time attention for most likely 8-10 months.  They envision this will also require several full time staff members dedicated to doing things like interviewing food truck owners, creating HD videos of food trucks for sale, etc.

Pros:  High barriers to entry.  Once a site like this is established, it would be very difficult for someone to easily replicate.  Low reliance on Google or other search engines for traffic once a following is established.  Potential for huge sustainable revenue over the long run.  Potential for $10k+/mo after a year or so with positive results.

Cons:  Huge amount of full time effort required upfront as well as time to keep the site up-to-date down the road.  This niche site would be more of a full time job than a passive niche site.  Substantial upfront costs are required.  Additional resources are most likely required, such as full time staffers.  Depending on branding/involvement, might be difficult to sell the business down the road.

Summary:  I’m glad they had the same take I did.  When NSD 2.0 came out initially, I was super excited to not only follow along, but to get involved with my own site as well.  However, once the size and scope of the plan came out, along with the significant time delay, I decided this particular type of site wasn’t for me at this point in time.  It will still be fun to follow along.

Spencer Haws “Best Survival Knife” Type Site

I would categorize this as a mini-authority type site.  Spencer wants his site to be a great resource for anyone searching for the “best survival knife” and related terms.

Pros:  Much lower cost of entry and effort compared to NSD 2.0 style site.  Due to a lack of branding/personal aspect, more likely to lend itself to being sold in the future.  Decent income potential, most likely targeting $200-500 a month per site.

Cons:  Depending on your expertise level on the niche, may require outsourced content from someone with more knowledge on the topic (this is what Spencer does for much of the content).  Dependent on Google/search traffic for the vast majority of your customers.  Relatively easy for someone to copy/steal your idea, which actually did happen to Spencer (that is most likely due to the fact that his efforts were detailed publicly on his site).  Revenue can be sporadic, depending on seasonality and other factors.

Summary:  This seems like a good middle of the road site in terms of effort and potential payout.  I will definitely utilize elements of this style in my next niche site.

Empire Flippers AdSense Style Site

This is a very basic rudimentary style site designed specifically to place AdSense ads prominently on the page.

Pros:  Very low cost to entry, mostly just the domain and hosting.  Content can be very cheaply outsourced if desired, $5 per article most likely.  Can quickly and easily setup one site, utilize same process and move on to the next.  If you do setup multiple sites in difference niches, you’ll have a level of diversification.  Lends itself to bundling/selling multiple sites down the road if desired.  Once multiple revenue producing sites are established, revenue tends to be consistent.

Cons:  Low revenue per site, they mentioned $20-30/month as an example of a site performing well after several months time.  Many sites may never end up producing, so you will need to setup multiple sites, depending on you goals.  100% dependent on Google and AdSense for all of your income.  Easy to duplicate.

Summary:  I’m tempted to try out one of these as well, since I have approximately $60 sitting my my AdSense account and would like to try and hit the $100 payment threshold sooner rather than later.  However, since I’ve had more success with affiliate type sites, I will probably focus my efforts there since I feel it is a better utilization of my time.

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of the different types of sites you might want to start in on, to create some income streams down the road. Hopefully they have peaked your interest and gotten the creative juices flowing.

Which reminds me, if the creative juices aren’t quite flowing yet, be sure to subscribe via email in the box below this post, in the side bar or via this link.  I will instantly send you my free eGuide “Top 10 Killer Tips For Keyword Brainstorming” upon confirmation of your email address.

In the guide, I provide 10 tips on how to come with ideas for your next site.  One way I judge the success of a post or guide is whether I refer back to the material on a regular basis.  Since I am constantly pulling up the guide for ideas myself, I really think it will help out and it’s just my little way of saying thanks!

If you need step by step assistance to get started, I’d recommend checking out my favorite free affiliate marketing training.

Have any questions or need any pointers?  Please drop a comment below or feel free to email me via my contact page as well.

As always, thanks for being a part of the site and best wishes for success with all of your online adventures!

Reference:  Empire Flippers Podcast EFP 66 – Comparing 3 Vastly Different Niche Sites

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