A Niche Site is Much More Profitable Than A Blog
Just a few days back I wrote about how much you should charge to display ads on your website or blog.
In the discussion, I provided one example of how JUST ONE webpage of JUST ONE of my niche websites can generate over $200 in annual residual income from JUST ONE advertisement.
What’s the big deal you might ask? This is a huge deal from an earning capacity. Your earning capacity from advertisements on your blog or niche site is limited to the real estate you have to display ads on.
Blogs are typically designed to be less convoluted and lean in appearance compared to a niche site and therefore inherently have limited online real space. Add to that the right and left hand panels which are normally static (they don’t change).
Blogs initially became popular because of their ease of use. Writers were availed a content management system that required no programming or coding, thus simplifying the ability to get online in a jiffy.
Unless you invest the time and spend the resources to individually code or program each page of your blog, you are limited in how much you can advertise on it, assuming that you are not able or willing to display ads within the actual body or content of your blog posts (that’d be weird?).
Niche Site Webpages Have Better SEO Potential than Blog Posts
Many traditional advocates of websites over blogs will tell you that websites have an SEO advantage over blogs because each webpage’s URL tends to be shorter and less convoluted.
Sure, you can design a blog’s permalinks in one of many ways, but each option tends to be more convoluted nonetheless. Compare the following for example:
Blog URL: http://extramoneyblog.com/parlaying-passive-income-to-build-multiple-streams-of-income/
Niche Site URL: http://www.dubai-information-site.com/dubai-weather.html
This presents challenges for search engines in many ways. In addition, advocates of static websites will tell you that because blog posts are designed to get buried in archives due to the inherent infrastructure design of blogs, your post URLs will have a more difficult time getting crawled and indexed by search engine spiders.
I am not a Techie to differentiate one from another, but this rationale always made sense to me. Grant it that there are blogs that do extremely well with search engine optimization, but part of me still believes there is some level of inherent disadvantage to blogging from an SEO perspective. That is why the Thesis WordPress theme was created to begin with!
Blogs are also written to flow more naturally, hence the name blog (web-log). This writing practice dilutes the keyword density and the correlation between keywords utilized within the body / content of the post and the meta tags, a key component of on page SEO.
One way to get around this is to go back and optimize each and every blog post after having written it, but what’s the fun in that? The whole point of blogging is that it is quick, easy and turn-key so that both a 16 year old and a 60 year old can get on and start doing damage.
Ad Placement on Blog Posts VS. Webpages
In the little bit of interaction that I have had with potential advertisers on my blog, I have not heard once an advertiser tell me they want to advertise in specific posts. I have offered this option to them because this is one way I make money with my niche sites, but the answer is always no.
Whether posts get buried in archives and disappear forever is a false perception or mostly reality is a moot point for the purposes of this discussion. Perception is reality as most of us know it. There is something that advertisers shy away from immediately when I propose advertising within relevant blog posts. When I ask why, I get no response.
Blogs also tend to go stale when the author / blogger takes a temporary or permanent sabbatical. A blog is built on the foundation of a readership / followership. It’s kept live and fresh by the regular content on it, the comments and interactions between readers and the authors. You die when you stop blogging, or at least get injured pretty badly.
Don’t believe me? Try taking a 3 month break from blogging and see what happens to your traffic, Alexa and all the other metrics you measure your success with. A niche site on the other hand can be made evergreen, or to last forever. I have niche sites I haven’t touched in years which are still generating solid levels of income.
In fact, because they are optimized well and were initially marketed heavily, there was a period when I wasn’t working on them when traffic and revenues trended upward in a 30 degree angle for months before “plateauing” to where they are at. I have not experienced any decline since, even after the most recent Google Algorithm modification.
Ad Placement on My Niche Websites
I make several thousands of dollars advertising on my niche sites, and so far have made a Goose Egg from advertising on my blog (partly by design). But the point is that I have been able to do it with relative ease once my niche websites have been established.
In addition to displaying Google Adsense ads on my website, I also display private placed advertisements from various relevant vendors. Going back to the example discussed in my post how much you should charge to display ads on your website or blog, I gave an example of just how one small ad can generate over $200 in annual advertisement revenue from just one page of your website.
Have a look at my Dubai City site for example. This niche site has hundreds of pages, almost 1,000 if I recall correctly (haven’t touched it in ages). Can you imagine the advertising potential? Even if a page generates $10 in ads a month, 500 pages will generate $5,000 a month or $60,000 a year. That is a full time salary for many folks.
I actually have my VA working on soliciting more ad vendors for this website.
Getting Vendors to Advertise on Your Website
If you read my previous post on how much to charge for ads, you know how easy it can be to generate $10 a month in ad revenue. Think about it, who in their right mind would decline an offer to advertise for $10 a month assuming you are getting decent traffic?
I am not talking heavy traffic volumes. A mere 200 visitors a day can mean 600+ page views which can translate to $40 per month in passive, residual income from just one advertisement. Read this to see how I calculated the amount. This amount can be more or less depending on current advertisement rates for the types of subjects or topics you are targeting.
From the advertiser’s perspective, the situation can’t get any better. They get page rank juice flowing from your website to theirs, some added credibility and popularity by association making them inherently more trustworthy and the vendor of choice from the perspective of their potential customer (who is your website visitor).
The opportunities are truly endless with an established niche site. The sky is the limit on how much you can earn, and YOU dictate that.
Maximizing Advertisement Revenues
If you fear that no one will advertise with you, don’t worry. Only the heavy traffic generating websites are approached by vendors to advertise on their website. However, this doesn’t mean you cannot capture a piece of the pie. You can. You just have to reach out to the vendors and pitch your value proposition or what you have to offer to them.
You will be surprised how well that goes. Like I said, you dictate how much you want to earn. You just have to work for it. Alternatively, you can hire a virtual assistant to do nothing but solicit relevant vendors who can advertise on your website. This strategy has worked like Lucky Charms for me. You can read more about my strategy of getting advertising business for my websites by leveraging a VA here.
Can you imagine how much you can earn with multiple ads across a niche site of 10, 20, 30, 40 or more pages? This is one reason I prefer content websites over a blog for passive income generation purposes. A fully established website has unlimited passive earning potential in my opinion.
Automate the Advertising Process
The advertising process involves soliciting advertisers or responding to advertising queries. This is often followed by negotiation via several back and forths. Then you collect payment, display the ad, track and collect more payment monthly, renew ads or cancel them, then remove and replace them.
Can you imagine doing this for multiple ads over multiple web pages? Even if you have a blog with only 6 ad spots, why not automate the process and not have to worry about it and simply collect checks?
Adbrite is a neat, free tool I use to automate this process. I simply set a price I am willing to accept for each ad spot, and the system does the rest. Each month I get an aggregated paycheck from them instead of getting one from each advertising vendor. Life has been real good after I found AdBrite * * tears * *
Concluding Thoughts
Call me biased but I prefer the niche site method to generate passive income online. I am not oblivious to the fact that blogs are also very powerful tools that can serve multiple purposes.
In fact when my blog starts to make “real” money (which it will with time), I will make sure to provide an update right here. That said, I don’t anticipate it to come anywhere near the money my niche websites are generating for me. I also don’t anticipate it to be nearly as automated and passive as my niche websites.
Blogs are very powerful, they can serve different purposes simultaneously that niche websites may not be able to. For example, I believe blogs are better used for personal or business branding, building a readership or followership base, cultivating relationships and so forth.
There are ways even a niche site can do these tasks, but not nearly as effective as a blog in my opinion. A blog is inherently more conducive to achieving such objectives. What would I do if I was to start all over again? Not a thing different.
I suggest figuring out your purpose and objectives and only then choosing the method that will best help you achieve those objectives. If your main goals revolve around passive profits and ease of implementation, I highly recommend looking into establishing profitable websites.
Site Build It! has always been my website building platform of choice, and one that has served me VERY WELL throughout the years. With SBI, I have been able to build websites specifically meant for Google Adsense, as well as others that are generating solid affiliate income for me. I also have websites that generate a solid income from private ad placements.
And although I have provided my brief perspective on why I prefer building to blogging, I have not nearly scratched the surface of this topic. Dr. Ken Evoy and his team at SBI have a mouthful on this topic. They too believe in building over blogging. You can read SBI’s perspective on why building static websites are better than blogging here.
My thoughts? Do both. Why not? I am.
Is a blog more profitable than a niche site? Do you blog or build? Why do you prefer one of the other? What is your opinion on this matter?
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14 Responses to “A Niche Site is Much More Profitable Than A Blog”
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Sunil,
Thanks for the low down. From what I’ve read so far on the internet, a niche website is the way to go. Blogging is a lot of work and I’m pretty sure you’re right about taking a break. If any of the big blogger stop for 3 months, their revenue will plunge.
I’ll have to figure out a niche to build something in.
Great post!
THANKS!!!!
I do both and from experience I can tell you it is indeed. Usually a blend of passion and market demand does it for a good niche. What are some areas / subjects that interest you most? Have you researched the supply / demand of keywords in your niche?
Terrific article. I’ve been so busy with my blog didn’t want to take on anything else. But I seriously should look into building a niche website, too. I was initially worried about burnout or getting pulled into too many directions. Thanks and keep up the great work!
Thanks Buck – a blog and one niche website on the side should be manageable. Of course I don’t know what else you have got going on. However, I do plan on covering niche websites extensively step by step, from keyword research, to structure, build, seo, marketing all the way to monetization and even potential sale. My free report gives a good overview of this if you haven’t read it yet. More to come – promise…
I have already placed a page on my blog for advertising. I realize that I need to reach out to potential advertisers in my niche. WordPress has a plugin called wp125 that you can create an ad if you have the image url for the ad.
I made one last night just for practice.
Justin,
Keep me updated on the advertising offers (both solicited and unsolicited). I am interested in your experience with this.
Can you share with us a link to the ad you created using wp125? I am assuming this is a plugin that allows you to use an image already online (through its URL) and simply embed a link in it? If so, don’t you think it’s safer to save and upload the image on your server just in case the current one disappears (is taken down by the owner)?
I uploaded my own photo using Google Picasa. On my blog I made an ad for the Art Of Lucid Dreaming. I am actually an affiliate, if you click the ad link it directs you to a review page on my blog.Also next to that ad is a blank ad that says, Your Ad Here.
I’m just preparing for when I actually get an ad sponsor. I’ll let you know when I get my first advertiser on my blog.
What you have done is a good way to increase page upload speed as well. Good stuff
I don’t think blog or site is really an important distinction, it’s really all about repeat visitors.
Where a blog (or any continuously updated site) will get repeat visitors, static sites probably won’t. Plus, with a static site, the prospect of building a mailing list isn’t really there. In many ways, you’ll have to write just as much for a static site with a mailing list as you would a non-static site without a mailing list.
I think diversification is ultimately the best. If you’ve limited time, then go the static route, but I think that ultimately the ceiling is lower for a niche site than it is for a niche blog. However, the floor is higher for a niche site than a niche blog.
JT – With a blog your repeat visits come mainly from subscribers, which subside when you stop blogging or take a long break. It goes back to a blog’s SEO capability, which is an inherent limitation of the platform.
A properly optimized website on the other hand benefits from consistent search engine traffic, some of which come back given the quality of content.
Have a look at this site as a classic example:
http://www.dubai-information-site.com/
Also note the subscriber count of this website, which addresses the point on a mailing list. Is it easier to build with a blog? Likely so, I agree.
I do agree that diversification is the key, and that’s why I am engaged in both. I also agree that the sky is limit for a seasoned blog that has persevered over time and has amassed a substantial subscribership.
I thought it was going to be some boring old post, but I’m glad I visited. I will post a link to this site on my blog. I am sure my visitors will find that very useful.
I have used sib in the past for a website. I started out loving it then didn’t use it for a while and had to relearn things each time. I had thought about trying word press but not sure. I do like that sib has it all in one package.
I have done some keyword research for a niche website just not sure which direction to go.
Thanks for any input, kristy
Kristy, WP certainly provides a lot more flex, but it does come with more learning if you are willing. happy to address specific questions you may have. feel free to email if your KW related questions are too specific/personal
Sorry I meant to say SBI in the post above. Kristy