Long-time readers will remember that I created a couple of niche sites from scratch. One used my neglected niche site strategy (basically, create a typical MFA site, submit it to some directories, and forget it). Another used SBI, which is a more managed approach, focused on creating a quality niche site.
Both sites were started in November of last year, but my natural procrastination kept either from being much to look at until March (when I had enough of the SBI site up to monetize it).
Traffic
The SBI site started receiving traffic almost immediately. Too soon, in fact, since I hadn’t had enough pages up to make it a site worth visiting when the first visitors started arriving. But that just gave me the motivation to get a minimum set of pages up quickly, instead of procrastinating. The SBI site currently gets about 70 unique visitors a day, on average. I’ve done no promotion with it beyond directory submissions.
The neglected niche site has had, on average 0 visitors a day until just recently. It takes sites like this a while to age before Google decides they’re okay to list. It’s now sitting on page 2 for its keyword in Google. Based on my experience with other sites like this, it’ll take another three or four months to get up to page 1 (and will drop off entirely several times in that period). The key here is to keep up with the directory submissions, so Google sees continued linking to the site. So going with just the recent activity, the site is getting about 5 visitors a day.
Adsense Income
The SBI site started getting Adsense hits as soon as I monetized it, since traffic was already coming to the site (another reason for late monetization is the instant gratification you get by getting at least one Adsense hit). It’s made a grand total of $30 since March. Not great by any measure…the particular niche I chose might tend to discourage Adsense clicks.
The neglected niche site has made about $1.50 in that same time period. Based on other sites like this I’ve done, I expect it to eventually make about $1 a day. It’s in the same niche as the SBI site, but provides less useful information so the click through rate on Adsense will be higher.
Which Is Better?
It all depends on how you work.
I think the SBI site has more potential for income, but the key with a site like that is that it must be updated frequently, and the information must be quality. You’ll make less in Adsense in the short-term, but you’ll build trust with your regular visitors. That trust will let you recommend affiliate products or sell your own products later.
But the neglected niche site strategy is a fire-and-forget strategy. It’s the “build 50 of these sites to earn $1,500 a month” strategy. That’s appealing to a lot of people, because it doesn’t require creating quality content, and doesn’t require much in the way of promotion. It does, however, require patience, since sites like this take forever (in Internet terms) to rank well.
I’d recommend you try both and see how they work out for you, personally.
Jay…I write three blogs; the oldest is about three years old. I am preparing to launch a new site and revamp one of the others for 2009.
I came across a mention of Site Build It, which led me to the SBI site, where I found an article contending that blogging is NOT always the best answer. That initially struck me as heresy, since my online activity began with blogging and I have accepted by faith that blogging is the big wave to catch. But a lot of what SBI says in that article struck a chord with me.
So, I searched for other SBI reviews, which brought me to your blog. I have read ALL of your SBI posts. I became curious to know who you are, so that led me to numerous other Internet locations — your personal blog, your Squidoo pages, Hubpages, Ezine articles, etc. Looks like you have experimented with just about everything, from MLM to niche websites to blogging and all things in between.
Suggestion for a blog post (or website or Squidoo lens or ebook or whatever): You know what I would really like to know? Having experimented with so many different online activities, which ones are the ones that are REALLY worth the time, and which ones not so much? Your approach seems to be to make a little bit of money in a host of of different ways. But surely some of these activities have proven to be more productive than others. Are all of your multiple income trickles adding up to a healthy stream? Or if you had it to do over again, would it have been better for you to have put more of your online eggs in fewer baskets?
Perhaps your answer is that there is no way to know which ones will pay off and that the best strategy is to try a little bit of everything. If that’s what you think, then an article fully elaborating on that view would also be very interesting.
Thanks for a couple of hours of informative reading. I think I’m going to give SBI a try — sure hope you aren’t steering me wrong. I’m going to wait and see if they repeat the Xmas special they offered last year — two sites for the price of one. When I sign up, I will come back here to do it through your link.
Hi Terry! Definitely wait for the SBI Christmas special before investing in it. That’s a great deal.
That’s also a good idea for a blog post, although I don’t know that I have a conclusion yet. What is worth the time depends a lot on the person.
For example, I’m not at all attracted to dropshipping via Ebay. But people make livings that way. I *am* attracted to content creation, but have fairly limited time to spend on it, so my results are limited. Give someone who was out of a job an SBI site, and they’d likely do very well.
But even with part time effort, niche sites are bringing in most of my online income. It’s all additive, so none of your effort is wasted. It just takes longer if you don’t spend the time on it.
The main benefit that SBI gives you is the ability to compete in more competitive keywords. My SBI site currently gets about 75 visits a day via search engines, and that’s with an almost total neglect on my part (I add about one page a month to it). Other niche sites I’ve created using WordPress get 10 to 15 visits a day (also with almost total neglect).
Thanks, Jay. What you say really rings true with me. All three of my blogs are WordPress blogs. I also do not have the time to post frequently, and my traffic is always at the 10 to 15 visitors a day level. 75 visitors a day would be a real blog storm for me.
My remaining question about SBI is how well it works to incorporate a blog as one feature on an SBI site. SBI says it is doable — but others out there don’t seem convinced.
I haven’t tried blog integration yet with SBI, but from all I’ve read on the SBI forums it works well. You basically set up a WordPress blog on your own hosting, and SBI redirects blog.yourdomain.com to that. It’s on you to make that look like part of your overall site, but if you spend the time on it you can get a seamless look.
OK, Jay. As I said I would, I just purchased the Xmas Site Build It special. I clicked through from your site. Thought I’d let you know (I’m always distrustful of whether affiliates always get their affiliate credits.) … Terry
Hi Terry, I did just get the notification, thanks! Let me know if you have questions as you go through the Action Guide. It’s worth the time to take it step by step, even when you think you can skip ahead. The SBI software works very well with its intended uses, finding high traffic keywords to compete in and letting you focus on content creation, and the Action Guide makes sure you’re feeding it the right info. Most of the people who have trouble with SBI skip parts of the Action Guide, and end up choosing keywords with too little traffic, or too much competition, etc.