Creating a Profitable, Niche Site from Schmeg.com

   

The following is my entire process for identifying a niche and building a content site to fill it.
I’m hoping that it will help beginners who have not yet refined their own process.

Find a Niche - Choose a few niche subjects - if you need help with ideas then visit directories like DMOZ, check Google News, #*$!'s top 1000 searches list, go to a yard sale or flea market, check a store catalog, go to the mall or some other things of this nature until you’ve found some interesting niche subjects.

Check Search Volume - Check the search volume of the core keywords using your tools of choice (I use Overture, #*$!, and AdWords Sandbox) The core keywords are the most basic keywords that contain the essence of the niche - the more obscure the niche is, the longer these usually are). Collect a modest keyword list for the moment.

Check Competition - Perform some searches in the various engines for a few of your keywords to gauge competition:

A key phrase without quotes search to see what sites get returned in the top 10

A "key phrase in quotes" search to check for pages that touch on the niche

A Google allintitle: key phrase search to check for optimized pages

Judge Monetization Potential - If you think you can compete with the currently ranking pages then check the bid amounts for these keywords using overture's bid tool, perform a search on google and count the number of AdWords adverts, then search for affiliate programs, CPA offers and anything else you could use to monetize the niche.

Expand and Organize Your Keywords - Assuming you’re happy with the earnings potential now expand your keyword list using more diverse tools like MSN’s SRC beta, Vivismo’s Clusters, FindForward’s Yahoo Cluster, OneLook’s synonyms and take these new keywords back to your original tools to expand them some more. After you’ve driven yourself mad with keywords take the list and *guess* what surfers are really searching for based on the different combinations of keywords and arrange them into groups based on what you perceive their purpose to be. Some research into the niche may be required to get this part right – don’t be afraid to ask someone in the know what they think. After this you can decide how to attack the niche (a large informational site, mini sites, ecommerce site, etc.) and what the structure and 'flow' of the site should be like. For the sake of this example I will choose an informational content site.

Let it Stew - At this point let the idea cook for a week or so in the ole’ noggin. Come back occasionally and add or tweak something. Write every idea you have down regardless of how dumb it seems at the time.

Refine - When you return to the plan, you now have a basic site idea along with a list of ideas and keywords. It's time to sort through the ideas, generate some more, explore their possibilities and decide which are worth further investigation and which should be trashed. Use whichever idea generation methods you prefer –If people request it, I would be willing to detail my process for this in another thread.

Site Mapping - Time to design the structure of the site based on how it will be used. The main sections are dictated by your keyword groupings. Ideas that passed the last step get added to their appropriate sections. If you’ve chosen a CPA or affiliate program then add sales pages to each main section which will be used to monetize the traffic, these are the pages you will be driving your traffic towards. Draw (on paper or the computer) some mock-ups of how you want the different sections to look. Envision each part of the site. This is the stage where you should have selected the domain name as well. Host it and password protect it.

Choose a CMS – Make your own or use an existing one? Check your list of ideas and create another list of features needed in the CMS to make them reality. Install/build it and get the directory structure right, make any tweaks, install any plug-in’s, perform any hacks, whatever is needed to get the functionality needed for the finished site.

Design and Content – It’s time to turn those ideas into reality. Tools, scripts, and main sections of the site now get polished. Community features that let users add content are great assuming you can manage any spam or exploit attempts. Create or outsource your site graphics/template. All of your money-making (sales) pages should be ready to go at this point.

Make it Public, Grow, and Get Links – The basic site should now be operational. Open up the domain for the public and begin slowly adding useful and unique content pages to the main sections, each targeted at a specific keyphrase from your list. These pages will be used to catch searches and will serve as entry-points into your site. Depending on the keyphrase targeted on each page, link to other sections within the site to funnel the user to the appropriate sales page. If you’re only using contextual advertising then link them however you feel is most intuitive for the user.
At the same time initiate a link campaign. Submit to niche directories, DMOZ and Yahoo’s Directory (If you have the cash). Find sites that you can negotiate links from, and syndicate articles deep-linking to your content pages using your target keywords without duplicating any of your content.

As you begin to see traffic, keep your eyes on your logs for the search phrases people are using to find you and make any adjustments that are needed to compensate for deviations or capitalize on opportunities. Set up a Google Alert using your URL to monitor for new links and rumors.