I thought I’d talk a bit about creating niche sites. My niche site plan has three basic levels and I ultimately use The Niche Blogger to teach me and keep me motivated. But the secret is that I don’t really use it at first. Let me explain.
Phase 1
In this stage, I think of a niche with some accompanying keywords. The first month of Niche Blogger gets into all this. But since I am adept at reserving domains and setting up wordpress, I skip all the other stuff in month one and just focus on finding a theme that’s passable (I used to obsess but just find one that’s “good enough” for now).
Then once it’s all set (I don’t really worry about widgets and the only plugin I install is akismet) I start writing. For this first phase, I write ten articles in advance and set them to publish 2-4 days apart. I find 2-3 income streams for the blog which could come from Adsense, Amazon, eBay, Clickbank, etc.
Once I do that, I work on creating backlinks using article marketing, Squidoo, and Hubpages. Once I create five backlinks, I let the site rest for a week or two and move on to another level of my grand plan. In this case it would be to work on one of my larger non-niche sites like this blog.
Phase 2
Once the new niche site sits for 1-2 weeks, it’s time to do phase 2. Basically all this level amounts to is writing ten more posts and creating five new backlinks. I forgot to mention that each post and each backlink should be optimized for one keyword. It shouldn’t be the same keyword – each one should be unique.
Phase 3
After the site sits for another week or two the next step is to go through The Niche Blogger method. This will basically amount to writing 30-40 more posts (which should take you through half a year) and setting things up to make money. Going through the method will also increase page rank and traffic.
I’ve tried a bunch of things including Blogging to the Bank. These are all good – really they are. The point isn’t that you use one method or the other but that you choose one that you want to use and then stick with it. I find that Niche Blogger is best for the niche sites and something like Blogging to the Bank is good to use for larger websites (like this one).
And that’s it.
Now, my business plan has me set up to building several different income streams. However, yours doesn’t have to be this way. Niche Blogging is just one tier for me.
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Katherine, I’m confused by your step 2. You write, “each post and each backlink should be optimized for one keyword. It shouldn’t be the same keyword – each one should be unique.”
You said you’ll write 10 posts and 5 “backlinks” (presumably articles). AND you said they should not have the same keyword. Each should be unique. So is that to say that you write things for 15 different keywords? IOW — if your blog was about shoes, would you write 10 posts (nike, adidas, minolo, new balance, nine west, keds, converse, chinese laundry, stilettos) and then 5 backlinks (pumps, candies, skechers, flip flops, jessica simpson)???
Hi Melissa – let me clarify – sorry about the confusion! (I’m going to edit the post, too…)
Each post has a separate keyword. So if the site were about shoes the posts would be exactly as you said.
But for the backlinks (yes, that does mean article marketing or squidoo or hubpages…) I just choose a keyword from the list that I used for the posts.
I hope this makes sense!
Katherine
Great plan Katherine! I was reading through it and realized that I do something very similar but not in such an organized manner. I’m going to have to try putting a little bit more focus into it and see if I get better results.
One thing that I do a little differently is 1) I put a ping list into each blog as soon as I build it and 2) I install Headspace plug in because a lot of WP templates aren’t built very well for SEO and this plugin is a god sent.
I used to spend a lot of time looking for templates as well, but then I invested $20 in the Elegant Themes package. They are so affordable and you get 26 of them. And they do look pretty great I think.
BTW – glad to see you back! I’ve missed your posts!
Aw! I’m glad to see I was missed.
I think it’s a good idea to put a ping list in there – it could only help, right?
Elegant themes? I’ll have to look into that. I use Super Adsense at times and I admit, the adsense earnings are pretty good.
Recently, there has been a good deal of investigation by the
FTC against blogs and website owners
for not publishing advertising income, or potential
connections with ad networks.
What are your ideas about how this could effect
the blog community?