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Building an Online Business With Niche Websites
This is in contrast to portal type sites which offer general content on a variety of topics. Almost all Websites are themed. For example the theme of the Website could be about making Websites. If you are building a website to make money (i.e. as an online business, extra income source) then a niche site is the ideal place to start. Niche Websites- The BenefitsBy making a website based around a highly focused niche you reduce considerably the number of competitors that you are competing against. This makes it easier to stand out in the search engines i.e. get a good ranking (first 3 pages). This is offset this by by the fact that you also reduce the number of potential visitors. However having a niche site means that that visitors to your site will generally have a greater interest in what you offer, as your product, information or service is highly targeted towards them. If you are selling a product or service this means that your visitors are already pre-qualified to buy. Hence your conversion rate sales/visitors should be high, and should therefore require less visitors for the same number of sales! How To Find A Niche
Here we will look not only at how to find your niche but also at how to find a niche were you have a good chance of success. Your choice of Website theme/niche is the most critical factor in your Website success !. Because of the size of the Internet there is no point trying to make a Website based on general areas like Software, Fashion, Fitness, Health. There are too many other larger established companies competing in those areas. What we are looking for is to find a niche within, were the competition isn't so stiff, and yet the demand is sufficiently high. There are three main approaches to to finding a niche.
Keyword Approach to Finding a NicheThis simply involves researching what people are searching for and then looking for areas that are in demand (lots of searches) and where there isn't too much competition (not many existing websites). With this approach you aren't really interested whether or not you have any interest or expertise in this area, you are just searching for niche markets. This is a money centred approach to finding a niche, but if your main purpose for building the site is to make money then this approach will work. Of course the logical thing to do would be to find several and choose the one that interested you the most. Areas of Interest ApproachThe idea here is to build a site around a theme that you have interest/expertise in, and so first is to list the areas were you have a particular skill, interest, knowledge or aptitude. Then you need to decide if the area is too general (e.g. like fashion) and if it is then to find a niche within, were you can operate successfully. This is the approach I prefer. Product ApproachHere you choose a product and develop the site around the product. Although this is not the usually recommended approach it does work well provided you choose the right product. The main disadvantages are that it can be difficult to compete against the product owner and that eventually the product may no longer be available. Examples sites are quite plentiful. See all of the windows, iPod, iPhone related sites
Niche Research and AnalysisRegardless of the approach you take you will need to evaluate your niche for suitability. There are several aspects to assessing suitability:
See Niche Research and Analysis Building The WebsiteI find WordPress offers the best all round solution as it is ideal for creating professional websites without requiring that you master complex webmaster skills like advanced scripting, web design etc. In addition it is free, open source, and is constantly being improved and developed by 1000s of developers. You can find out more in how to build a website using WordPress.
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