How to Properly Build a Mini-Niche Website in 2017
If I told you that there are over 1 million niches, you would probably tell me I am nuts. But that is the reality of the Internet, any audience, no matter how small it seems in a potentially successful niche. A niche site, the framework of it, can quite easily be constructed in a matter of 4 weeks and we are going to be showing you how to build a niche website in a month within the live class training here at Wealthy Affiliate.
First things first though, I want to clarify the difference between a niche website and an authority site. They are similar in many ways, they are the same thing in others, and there is going to be a lot of confusion here if I don’t do a proper job of explaining things.
A Mini-Niche Website vs. an Authority Site
A mini-niche website is one that is going to be much more focused on a smaller pocket audience, sometimes these audiences are even temporary or seasonal. Many marketers online have the approach where they build out 5-10 of these niche websites and in the process they are creating multiple streams of income (each site produces income).
FootballSnackHelmets.com is one such example, a mini-niche website that was created in a past Live Class Case Study series. There are limitations to the scalability of a site like this. There are also ways in which it can be scaled, but there is going to be a point in which you are going to have to deviate from the main theme. At which point you will just be maintaing that respective mini-niche website and any comments it gets, but it is unlikely that you will focus on scaling the website any further.
To scale your business with mini-niche websites, you typically capitalize on smaller, much more targeted niches and will be building out several websites over time. To scale, you build more websites in more mini-niches (which differs from the authority site space).
An authority site is a much more unified and longer term approach to a single website. This is what is taught within the OEC and Bootcamp training courses. The idea is the choose a niche, but not a niche that is not quite as specific as a mini-niche site that is more "exact match" targeted.
Authority sites always have room to grow and scale and you should never run out of opportunity with an authority site, that is, it only takes ONE authority site to have a long term and scalable business online.
In theory there should be 10,000's of low competition keywords within any niche that you build an authority site around, even something as peculiar as dog toys has over 50,000 products on Amazon alone. That means that a site like that would have the potential for 50,000 product reviews, not to mention probably 100,000's of other keywords. You could create a dog toy authority site.
Using Exact Match Domains (EMD’s) For Your Mini Niche Sites
Smaller or “mini” niche sites tend to focus on keywords within their domains as well. What I mean by this, is that your target keywords are right within your domain name URL.
An example of this would be football snack helmets, that being the niche. Ideally you want to be able to purchase a .com for that respective domain as .com domains tend to rank the best, but as a secondary you would want either a .net or a .org domain. Google does reward exact match domains with higher rankings if you target their exact term.
So unlike an authority site where you don't need a keyword in your domain, a keyword within your domain is much more important with a mini-niche website where you are trying to achieve rankings under the specific keyword that is in your domain name.
Subsequently, in the example above it is ranking #1 overall in search engines (including Google) under the term:
football snack helmets
And drives consistent revenue daily as a result of being ranked under this search term. This case study has turned into $1,000+ per month during the football season and a consistent income stream throughout the year (even during the football off season).
The core starting point of a mini-niche website though is having a domain that is exact match in nature.
How the Niche Website Live Classes Are Going to Work
Each week, for 4 consecutive weeks you are going to be able to watch over Jay’s shoulder as he builds out a niche website. The niche has been selected by Jay and it will be a brand new niche that he has never been involved in.
Like the FootballSnackHelmets.com website, the goal of this niche website is going to be to get ranked under the primary terms, but also many other associated terms as the site is built out. Ideally this site once it gains some traction and authority, which can take a few months to do, will start to achieve high rankings, traffic, and ultimately revenue.
Past Success Building Niche Websites
The last time such a live class was run, the focus of the niche website as aforementioned was within the Football Snack Helmet niche. To most, this would seem like a crazy idea for a niche (it actually seemed crazy to me when Jay brought it to my attention lol), but that is the thing about the Internet. There are millions of little pockets like this that you can leverage and build a consistent income from.
In the early stages of the website, Jay experienced some breakthrough success. The Morning Show contacted Jay and asked if they could showcase his site on the morning show leading up to the Super Bowl, showing people some cool ideas for Super Bowl parties.
That propelled high volume sales for several days following the show, but as time went on Jay achieved not only #1 overall rankings in Google for the main focus keyword, “football snack helmets”, he was able to achieve first page rankings all over the place for related searches.
Here is the past case study from 2015 if you want to watch the entire series or if you simply want to check it out.
- WA Live Niche Case Study Series - Week 1 of 4
- WA Live Niche Case Study Series - Week 2 of 4
- WA Live Niche Case Study Series - Week 3 of 4
- WA Live Niche Case Study Series - Week 4 of 4
- Live Niche Case Study Complete, Now What?
The Main Focuses and Topics Covered
There are going to many different topics covered in the 5+ hours of live training that is going to be taking place over the next 4 weeks. The ultimate goal is to walk you through the exact process of going from the research phase, building out your niche website, getting indexed and ranked, and then integrated products/services that will drive revenue to your business.
Some of the topics that are going to be discussed in the upcoming 4 weeks are as follows:
- Researching and Finding Lucrative Niche
- Analyzing Low Competition, High Yielding Keywords
- Understanding Important Competition Metrics
- Purchasing a Domain in WA with Credits
- Building Out the Content Framework of a Niche Site
- Integrating Google Analytics Awareness
- Properly Adding Google Webmaster Tools to the Site
- Optimizing Pages and Posts for Search (SEO)
- Adding All Sorts of Links (Internal, External, Incoming)
- How to Profit in the Early Stages of Your Website
- Creating a Better Menu Experience & User Friend Nvaigation
- A Look at Stats, Rankings & Profits
- The EVERGREEN Plan of Action
- Your 4 Week PDF Checklist
- The Journey Forward and an Week 4 and Beyond Action Plan
Between each week there is going to be a recap based on what was done in the week. The time and energy investment never stops when you are building a business and this is going to be exemplified each week.
So make sure you take part in the training that will be taking place through the month of April. The Live Classes can be registered to within the Live Class page:
https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/training/webinar
And you will also be able to see all the past replays there. The replays for a live class are usually posted within 24 hours of the live class taking place. As a Premium member you can attend all of the live classes and watch 100's of hours of past live classes. :)
- Build a Niche Site - 2017 Live Case Study, 1 of 4 (Available NOW!)
- Build a Niche Site - 2017 Live Case Study, 2 of 4 (Available NOW!)
If you have any comments or questions about mini-niche sites or authority websites, please leave them below.
Recent Comments
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I thought my niche as too narrow when I made my travel site specifically for horseback riding vacations. but at the same time i thought travel in general was too broad and there was too much competition. But now I can think of my site as a min-niche site. The traffic was been good as of lately.
This is great! I can't wait. I thought I messed up with my first site by picking a niche that was too narrow. Turns out it's just a mini-niche site. I put it on the back burner to work on another site but after these classes, maybe I can revive it. Like you said, it's good to create multiple streams of income.
Thanks Kyle.
Wow that would be great Kyle...but unfortunately, even though I have asked repeatedly you have never solved the problem with me not being able to log into his webinars as each attempt is met with a redirect to pay for the premium upgrade, which I have been a premium member from the very beginning.
The last time you responded you told me that perhaps I have a problem with "Explorer" which I do not.
I think I have asked for help on this for close to a dozen times now....when will it get fixed?
Hi Kyle,
I have been trying to reach you through but PM or “other inquiry” doesn’t work. So I am posting here, which I preferred not to do since it is your private message and personal. I never heard back from you.I made a decision to leave WA effective today, 4/4/2017. You have a wonderful business, with great prospects for the future. I do not want to build a website alone and work it myself. Communication via email alone is not satisfactory for me. I need face-to-face and telephone communication, as I have had that my entire corporate career. I am retired and have already owned two businesses and a long term satisfying career. I have worked very hard for 35 years and no longer want to do so, nor need to do so in my retirement years. My focus is in the creative area of my life, my poetry. I did not realize the scope that it would take to run an online business.
I appreciate the thoughtfulness and sincerity of the folks who embraced me and I wish the best for you and all of them. Please confirm that the monthly fee of $49.00 is not withdrawn from my account. Please inform other members, as I no longer want them to waste their time to send email to me : “following you, please follow me, as I am no longer a member. Please let them know.
Thanks,
Jeanine E. Brown
P.S. I tried to put this in a PM to you and Carson at least 5 times in other inquiry, but it doesn’t work. As soon I as I clicked on it, it disappears!! I sent a message to VitalilyG re: my departure. He suggested “other inquiry as well, but none of it works. So I am posting it in chat, as there is no phone number to call you and no other way to get a hold of you.
Please follow up. Please do not send me any more info via my email, as I no longer want to waste other people’s time following me.
Hi I share the same sentiment with Jeanine too and wish to discontinue this program. Do not want any further charges removed from myself also. Thanks
Great news Kyle and Jay. I have gradually watched most of Jay's case studies and really enjoy the way they are presented. I know this one will be similar in the procedure to the others but there is always something new to learn as the Internet changes all the time!
Unfortunately I can't make it live being in the UK, but at least with the recordings, I can stop/start as I make notes.
Thank you WA for always moving forward :-)
This is a bit off topic, but still relevant. My wife owns an entertainment company and is interested in setting up some special streaming concerts with some of her clients charging a small fee for followers to watch these special concerts. Similar to the way WA sets up the live lessons, but with a band playing for an hour or so, rather than Jay giving out priceless knowledge. Can you give me an idea of what we would need to set this up in a way that people can pay, and then be notified when the show is going to start, and not crash if a few thousand people log on? Thanks for any help you can give me.
Wow , is it OK to say as a newbie in this that I'm realizing everyday that I have so much more to learn. Thanks, I love a challenge and I'm so glad that I came to WA the excitement that I feel knowing I can learn this with all the tools and support you guys provide is appreciated
Yeah, it is OK to say that. Learning is part of this and part of building your skill set within the online space. Learning about niches and being comfortable with the different concepts of online opportunity including mini-niche websites just will lead you to being more well versed online.
I have been at this 15 years now full time and I am learning new stuff all the time, if you are not learning you are simply taking up space! lol
This is really interesting: about a week or so ago, I started thinking about the name of my site and had this unsettling feeling. Nothing "bad" just weird. Initially, I was really confused about keyword search, so I thought that a keyword had to be in the name of my site itself.
In reading your post, although I see my site as an Authority Site, the name of the site may give it the appearance os a Mini-Niche Website. UGH!!! Would that be an issue?
Well no, a keyword doesn't have to be in the name of your website in particular if you are creating an authority site.
The thing is that you will be able to rank under the keywords that you target within every page or post on your website. Over time this could be 1,000's of keywords.
Sometimes it is perfectly fine to have keywords within your domain if you have an authority site, it is definitely OK as well, in particular if you like the sound of it.
OK...I think I had a mini panic attack after reading your post, lol.
I definitely have a much better understanding of keywords, so, should I decide to create another site, I'll know better.
I appreciate your feedback, Kyle. Thank you!
Oh so excited to see these classes! Kyle, you explained the difference between the micro niche sites and authority sites really well...I never knew the difference and had never really thought about it!
I don't think I'll be able to watch live but going to try and keep up with watching the replays!
Sure, no problem at all you will definitely be able to catch the replays and watch those as many times as you like.
Understanding first the difference between authority sites and smaller mini or micro niches sites is important. The thing is that once you understand the fundamentals of building a website out (as taught here), you can venture in either direction.
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This should be really interesting, as I was around for the last case study that Jay did with the FSH.com niche and the Webinars were amazing
I love watching these case study classes they give you great insight and ideas moving forward.
Good on you Kyle and Jay for making this happen again excited!!