Building Niche Websites – Progress Report

December 31, 2009 | By | 47 Replies More
Busy Building Niche Websites

Busy Building Niche Websites

Well, it’s been a couple of months or so since I decided that building niche websites will be what I will do to create an income online for myself.  since I have put my new niche website about Mens Wrist Watches Online, and I am very slowly building backlinks to it to improve its rankings. I think it is important to take the time to do you SEO properly as it will pay back over time.

Here is what I have been doing and will continue to do to get the word out about my site and to get it bumped up to a better search engine rank:

(At present it is nowhere near page #1  (to be honest I haven’t seen it in the first 20 pages of Google yet, so I have some work cut out for me), so the traffic I am getting is extremely low.  I have seen though through StatCounter – you will see the little counter on the bottom right hand side of Mens Wrist Watches Online – that for some keywords which I haven’t even considered it did show up on page #1, and that’s good!)

  • Continue to add new pages to the site – this is important as it shows that the site is expanding and “alive”, not stale. And we all know that the more quality and relevant content you have on your site the more the search engines will love you!
    • As I have a big problem with coming up with content for a wrist watch site I did outsource this task on Elance and got 11 content pages for mens wrist watches for $75, and I am very happy with it. It would have taken me months to do this and I would have really struggled. I still have to add some of the pages to my site, and will do so slowly over time.
  • Keep commenting on other related blogs or internet marketing blogs and leaving a link to my site, preferably with one of my keywords as anchor text. These blogs should preferably have keywordluv enabled and be dofollow.
  • Writing and submitting articles to Ezine Articles – these articles are purely there to provide backlinks to my site in the resources box. The articles are not optimized for any of my keywords that I have for my site, as I don’t want them to compete with my site. I just want great and valid backlinks to Mens Wrist Watches Online. The articles are related to anything that has relevance to watches, like accessories, watches (!), time management etc.
    • Here, as with creating content for my pages, I outsourced the writing of the articles on Elance and got 10 beautiful articles back within a week for $50. Again, I am prepared to pay this amount of money as the website will give me that money back and a lot more over time. Paying for the outsourcing of content and articles is the only money I have spent and will spend for this site. My other niche website about Beach Decor is making me a consistent $150/month from several sources, and I am confident that it will be the same with Mens Wrist Watches online. And I haven’t even started with optimizing for the keywords for all of my other pages, I have only been building backlinks for the main site! So there is a lot more to be gained still, on both sites.

So, there you have it. Building Niche Websites is really the optimal way to earn some money online for me, as I have found in the past that I am not good with keeping up with updating blogs, or writing emails to a list, or anything that requires a lot of time and creation of content on my part.

Mens Wrist Watches Online has already earned me a tiny little bit of money through ebay, so I am confident that it will grow, given time. I can only recommend to anybody with little time who wants to break into making money online to start doing the same as I do – building niche websites! Read my previous post on it, and act. I am sure you won’t be disappointed – I am not!

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Category: Niche Websites, SEO, Website Traffic

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Comments (47)

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  1. hospitalera says:

    Don’t forget to add Squidoo lenses, Hubpages hubs and Infobarrel articles to the back link mix 😉 SY
    .-= hospitalera@blogging´s last blog ..Merry Christmas =-.

  2. Jacinta says:

    Hi Petra,

    I really like the idea of the build a niche websites. I think it will be something I will look into this year. I had a look at your Men’s Wrist Watches site. It looks great.

    I signed up with JT’s MPW niche website program, the only problem for me is I am having trouble getting accepted as an ebay affiliate. For some reason they have refused my application saying the sites I was going to promote them on were unsuitable. 🙁

    I hope you had a great festive season! 🙂

    See you back here soon! :mrgreen:

    Jacinta 😀
    .-= Jacinta @ Creating A Business Online´s last blog ..Good Bye 2009! Hello 2010! =-.

  3. Peter says:

    Hi Petra,

    Thanks for the update. Glad to see that you have created your niche website and I wish you well. It does take time to build backlinks or add more pages (you’e using xsitepro right? so that should be easy). I’m sure your efforts will be rewarded very soon.

    Peter Lee

  4. Richard says:

    Petra, I just checked out the watch store. It looks great. I am anxious to find out how your watch project goes…so keep your readers up to date :). Watches seem like a great choice too as some are quite expensive, especially Rolexes…make sure to add those. Good luck and Happy New Year!
    .-= Richard@How To Videos´s last blog ..How To Open A Roth IRA =-.

  5. Mildtech says:

    Hi Petra, I really love your blog.. I’m just getting started in online business, I haven’t done alot of niche building, but I will now thanks to your advice.. 🙂
    .-= Mildtech´s last blog ..Create a simple to use kiosk machine with Fluxbox =-.

  6. Mike says:

    You’ve definitely got a tough niche to generate new content for on a regular basis. It might be worthwhile to contact a few wristwatch companies and ask them to donate some watches.

    You can then do a giveaway where people get entries by leaving comments, posting about it on their blogs, or linking to it somewhere on their site.

    It will give you some easy content and links, as well as some traffic.
    .-= Mike@free job board´s last blog ..[full-time] Payroll Specialist, Atlanta, GA to $42K at Employment Atlanta =-.

    • Petra Weiss says:

      What a great idea! Mind you, in my Mens Wrist Watches site I do not have a blog attached at the moment, so I am just creating pages which will stay pretty stationary. That’s the whole point in me creating niche websites – I want to avoid to have to come up with fresh content all the time, I just want to change a little bit on every page occasionally which requires a lot less effort and work. Mind you, to encourage people to have a link back on their site to my site is an idea…

  7. Steve says:

    I never even thought about using elance for getting my content created. Do you mind emailing me the users that you used?

    I have a ton of site ideas, but I just haven’t had the time to develop the content.

    I still do all my own content creation for my weight loss site. (with a few guest posts mixed in)

    To your point about paying for the content, it’s all about ROI right? Plus you’ve paid for it once and now you own it forever.

    Thanks,
    Steve
    .-= Steve@ Weight Loss Weapons´s last blog ..New Years Resolutions 2010 =-.

    • Petra Weiss says:

      Steve, I am struggling with updating my weight loss blog at the moment, because I feel that I have said the main points about weight loss already, and I am also a bit short on time right now. But my weight loss blog is a bit personal, so I don’t want to outsource content creation for that. And you are right about ROI, I think it will pay for itself, given time.

  8. Ned says:

    This looks like a great article for building any blog not just a niche site. I am particularly intersted in how you used Elance for articles.

    I have a ton of articles I want to write and outsourcing them may be the answer.
    .-= Ned@RE Investing´s last blog ..1099s Are Due! Have You Sent Yours Out? =-.

    • Petra Weiss says:

      Ned, I just posted the job I had on offer and the proposals flooded in. I checked out the people who offered to do the writing for me, and of course had to make sure the project was within my budget, and then just decided on somebody. You just have to read their feedback and make sure you are ok with what others said about them so far.

  9. Jack says:

    I would like to share a tip that has helped me out with my backlinking efforts.

    When you write articles for ezine, or you create pages on squidoo, etc., give them a “boost” and bookmark them using propeller, digg, and delicious (best social bookmarking sites I know).

    Some domains aren’t accepted on some of the bookmark sites, but you can use delicious for ezine articles. All 3 accept squidoo….

    Give it a try. It can only help your linking/ranking efforts.

    • Petra Weiss says:

      Thank you so much for your great tips, definitely worth taking on board. There is still so much to learn, I personally haven’t even gotten much into social bookmarking yet! That’s one of the areas I will have to dive into at some stage. There is just so much to consider when starting to market on the Internet….

  10. These are great tips Weiss, thank you. But:
    (1.) What do you mean by “building on WordPress Platform” Is there a way of buildding a site on WP apart from blog?

    (2.) Who is hosting your sites: Did you get unlimited domain hosting or what? Need the clarification pls.
    Also, it seems your Xsitepro website is down now.

    Kenny@signlanguage

  11. Rob says:

    Hi Petra:
    I have to agree with you about niche websites, and not wanting to constantly be adding content. I have been struggling trying to make money online until I found this program, Please believe me, I am not trying to pull a fast one on you. You don’t have to allow this comment to show. You can delete if you like, but please do yourself a favor and check this link out. If you want to rank really well on the serps you should really give this program a try. It’s working great for me and a lot of others as well. Now I am starting to make money on a daily basis, and ranking in the top ten on the search engine results. I wish you all the best.
    Rob
    here is the link
    http://b7c669pdzhrk2u07ydngysfy1a.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=CRBLG1
    .-= Rob @ digital drawing pad´s last blog ..Bamboo Pen =-.

    • Petra Weiss says:

      Rob, this program looks really, really interesting and sounds like it fits exactly with what I am trying to achieve. I will check it out! Thanks for alerting me to it.

    • hospitalera says:

      I had a quick look at it and I must say I am not impressed and I really got put off as I wanted to leave and these two annoying “please don’t leave now” windows kept popping up. I have seen too many sales-pitch-pages like this, to have develop a serious allergy to them. Never heard of the product before either, so if it is so great, why is it not better known? SY
      .-= hospitalera@Gummi Crib Rail´s last blog ..Comment by =-.

      • Ned says:

        > develop a serious allergy to them

        That’s funny.

        I hate that kind of intrusive marketing also but I have to admit he was creative in how he applied it. The gray box and the audio to stay on the page were pretty ingenious. The reason people do that kind of stuff is because it works. I was tempted to sign up. (but I didn’t)
        .-= Ned@RE Investing´s last blog ..2010 Baltimore Tax Sale Date =-.

  12. Hi Petra,

    You’ve given some great tips and advice here, you’ve covered the 2 most important things, good content and backlinks. In particular backlinks from ezine are worth a lot since ezine is an authority site.

    Outsourcing the articles is a very good idea also since writing lots by hand can be a tedious process!

  13. hospitalera says:

    One thing that I have been doing over the last weeks was to go back to my (micro) niche sites and check if the earnings match their position in the SERPentines. Especially the older ones, the ones that rank great in the search engines but perform less well when it comes to earnings benefited from some minor adjustments, especially when it comes to the position of the ads / products on the site. Sometimes optimizing an older sites is better and more profitable then starting a new one! SY
    .-= hospitalera@Gummi Crib Rail´s last blog ..Comment by =-.

    • Petra Weiss says:

      SY, you have got a really good point there. I have also decided that instead of pushing out heaps new sites now I am going to work on my existing ones a bit more, like with my Beach Decor site, I haven’t even done any deep linking for my other keywords like Tropical Home Decor, or Lighthouse Home Decor. The site could probably bring in heaps more traffic if I keep improving and optimizing the site. I actually want to change the whole skin of the site (it’s WordPress), but am too scared right now to do it as I have seen that it will throw heaps of content and images out of line. Will have to work out how to get that done without too much damage.

  14. kathleen says:

    I have a few niche websites that I truly enjoy working on. I suppose you could say I am obsessed with the niche – which really aids in adding more content. If I didn’t have this obsession, I would definitely outsource my article writing.

  15. stela says:

    i think your all points are applicable and if this points follow properly like blog commenting on related sites, article submission and add new pages to your website then you will definitely earn from your site. nicely written post keep it up

  16. Great advice there.
    It’s a smart choice to outsource your articles, this gives you free time to plan or do more site promotion for traffic.
    Getting the suitable articles that engage reader and “Sell” your product is the key.
    Will check back for more updates, keep it up.
    .-= onlinemakecash´s last blog ..3 things you should do before diving into forex =-.

  17. chris says:

    Thanks Petra, its always a pleasure to read case studies and examples. Your progress report is very motivating. I hope you update it this month (Feb). I haven’t seen a big return from my websites yet, but with posts like this motivate me to just keep going.
    .-= chris@sublinugal b12´s last blog ..Sublingual B12 Better Than Tablet B12? =-.

  18. Best of luck, looks like you’re on the right track. As some others have mentioned def use social and Web 2 sites (Squidoo, Hubpages, various social profiles that allow a link in your profile) too. And once you can, outsourcing will really free you up, speed things up, and allow you to do a lot more growing.

  19. mel says:

    Hi,

    This is a really nice post. Thanks for sharing .

    I agree that Squidoo is a really nice option…

  20. Kristi says:

    If you are trying to get higher rankings in Google, try adding a few outbound links to sites that do not belong to you. Link to sites that are in your niche and are ranking well for the terms you want to rank for. Google will see that and reward you!

    After all, what do you have to lose if it is not ranking well by itself?

  21. Bill says:

    Petra, your link to the progress report on building niche websites appears to be broken. Thot you would like to know.

    Bill

  22. Bill says:

    Sorry, false alarm. The progress report opened on the 3rd try.

    Bill

  23. Hey Petra !
    I bought your product yesterday, working perfect!
    I recomend it to all!
    Thanks, keep it up!
    .-= Tweetomatic Profiteer´s last blog ..Tweetomatic Profiteer Video =-.

  24. Laptop Price says:

    nice advice..i am start a niche website..i hope i am doing it right thanks for some suggestions…
    .-= Laptop Price´s last blog ..Laptop Price =-.

  25. wow…nice article..need to start and try a niche site…

  26. interesting article Petra. Usually I only scan blogs, but yours I have read completely. It think you are doing great with your http://www.mybeachdecor.com/ site. My greatest respect (also for getting that $150 a month 🙂 )
    .-= http://www.pensioenbv.org/Hoe_regel_ik_de_afkoop_van_mijn_pensioen´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.

  27. i am now on my niche website..it’s easy to maintain..
    .-= Anesthesiologist Salary´s last blog ..Anesthesiologist Salary Range =-.

  28. Jason says:

    Thank you for posting and your advice. Like to agree with you Petra, on one very important thing. Two. Or three actually. You need to build backlinks to your website steadily; all the while you keep updating the site by keeping to add new posts. As you say this suggests that “you are there” and that the site isn’t going stale. But most importantly, thirdly, I think it’s quite important about “what” exactly you write about.

    Building Niche sites tells us that you should focus on that topic. In Google’s eyes it would make sense that a website don’t just hold a lot of backlinks to it, but also the lots of articles that go with it spread all over the site. This don’t tell Google better what the site is all about. This “convinces” Google. To pick another word: It “satisfies” Google.

  29. Roch says:

    Great article. Will definitely use some of this in my marketing efforts.
    Roch recently posted…SelfBank Mobile updated Tue Jul 6 2010 2-43 pm CDTMy Profile

  30. Rob says:

    It’s good to see niche websites are working from you. And I search up mens wrist watches and it seems you’ve made some progress from the time you published this article. Your now on the first page for those keywords. 😉 Do you also use ads to make money, or is all of your money coming from JUST affiliate marketing?

  31. Seb says:

    Hi Petra, I have returned to this post. I have not been adding to my sites, so thanks for that tip. I’m not sure quite what to add, but as I understand it the Google bots like to see something expanding as it gives it credibility. What I do find strange is that I sometimes come across a website on page 1 of Google, that has barely any content and very few backlinks. I have been monitoring one such site for three months and it has not budged from its spot on page 1.
    Seb recently posted…Pedometer Watches and Pedometers Their Uses and FeaturesMy Profile

  32. Susan says:

    Hi Petra. You are smart to write articles that do not compete with your own site. I’ve read in a forum once where someone described outsmarting himself by writing articles in his niche and submitting them to another site with higher authority, only to be outranked for his own keywords. I didn’t want to make that mistake, so I do the same thing as you. I’ll write about real estate in general, but not about what’s happening in my city. I’m saving those for my own site.

  33. You’ve given some great tips and advice here, you’ve covered the 2 most important things, good content and backlinks, thanks for the help.
    Interesting Stories recently posted…Stalker Makes 65,000 Calls In A YearMy Profile

  34. Build, build, build niche and micro niche for your website… It’s the key of success!!

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