Building a Niche Website to Earn Income
I have something fun I’ve started working on that I’m excited to share it with y’all. I’ve decided to relaunch my old website and turn it into a niche website. There are so many reasons I want to do this and you’ll see my reasons below. While I am pretty new to the personal finance blogging world, I’m fairly comfortable and much more confident in my niche world.
Related reading:
- Typical Day in the Life of a Full-Time Blogger
- 9 Ways to Avoid Blogging and Freelance Burnout
- How to Manage Your Time as a Blogger
- 90-Day Blogging Guide For Beginners
The Backstory
I started making a physical product from home in 2007. I was really happy with the results and so were the end users. I began giving out samples of the products to friends and coworkers in return for feedback. After a few tweaks, I decided that I wanted to sell my product.
For months, I researched my competitors and purchased similar products. I worked with a photographer, graphic designer and other various consultants to make sure all my ducks were in a row before launching my product.
I launched my company and niche website in late 2007!
Aside from my website, I also sold my product in person via craft fairs and farmers markets. Before I knew it, I was selling my product wholesale and it could be found across the country in different shops.
Editors actually found me (I never did any real marketing) and my products were even featured in magazines!
I was extremely active with my business from 2007-2013. When I was laid off from my job in 2009 (thanks recession!) it was even my sole source of income for several months.
In mid-2013 I accepted a new job and relocated across the country. I made a decision to shut down my company and niche website.
To be honest, I was relieved.
I was exhausted from working around the clock trying to have my day job as well as fulfill orders. I no longer enjoyed anything about my business.
What I did wrong
I am really embarrassed about this. In fact, I am actually cringing at my laptop screen typing out these facts about my company and my website:
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- I never once monetized my website except to sell my own products
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- I received several offers to participate in programs that would have been extremely beneficial for my company, but I was too shy to accept any of them
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- I never fully understood Google Analytics nor the power of page views (and some of my page views were pretty awesome)
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- My biggest traffic source came from Pinterest, but I had no idea that Pinterest really helped my business
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- I never optimized my posts (and some posts had a lot of great content and views!)
- I never optimized my images
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- I never had a newsletter for my blog
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- I never had a signup form where readers could subscribe to my latest posts
Even with all these things I didn’t do, I was still successful. Imagine how much more successful I would have been if I had implemented the above!
{Resource: 10 Ways Your Blog and Business Can Benefit from Pinterest}
Moving forward
In an effort to create more passive income, I have given my old website a lot of thought the past six months. I am going to relaunch my website but shift the focus of the product.
The bottom line is I still get overwhelmed when I think about relaunching this product. It is not something that can be sourced overseas (I’m a Made-In-America kinda girl anyways) and it would take some time to build up the orders before I could pay someone else to make this product for me.
Instead, I am going to focus on how to help people make my product themselves. I’m going to provide content, references, examples, you name it!
Not only do I want to share this information through blog posts, but I would love to create an eBook for my audience. To my surprise, there still aren’t than many books on this subject and I think it would really benefit and help other people.
Update: I created an ebook about side hustling. Check it out here!
My next steps to create a niche website
I’ve decided to document and share my journey while I relaunch and create my niche website. I won’t be hiding anything and plan on being completely transparent. I’m going to share the mistakes I make (hopefully there aren’t many) as well as the positives.
I plan on sharing my strategies for monetizing my niche website, the progression of writing my ebook as well as how to utilize my Pinterest account.
I have hundreds of posts that need to be sorted through and optimized with updated photos.
I’m going to discuss all aspects of building my niche website.
Update: You can get my complete guide to starting a website. Check it out!
In all honesty, this is going to be a time-consuming and tiring process. I am going to have to use my time carefully since I’m already pretty busy with my day job and this site. Of course, I’m always on a budget, and the less I can spend, the better!
I am excited to see where this takes me!
Start a blog
I went from making $40/month to over $4,000/month in the span of six months. That’s crazy! Here is a tutorial that walks you through how to start a blog.
Blogging has totally changed my life. I even share my online income reports so other people can see how I got started and how I am growing.
Would you be interested in reading more about a niche website series even though my blog is mostly about budgets and personal finances?
Kristin, is the creator behind Believe In A Budget. She teaches others how to start a blog and how to side hustle. Her course, Pinterest Presence, helps bloggers + businesses drive traffic to increase their website’s profitability. Click here to learn more!
Thanks for sharing this info. I am currently planning on creating niche sites myself both for advertising (direct) and for selling affiliate products. I am trying to learn everything there is to know about niche sites in order to do it correctly and be effective. Planning on having this be one of my new passive income streams as in the past I concentrated more on traditional income streams such as real estate, stocks and brik and mortar businesses. Again some valid points to consider here when building a profitable niche site.
Thanks! My niche site is a work in progress and I’m super excited about it. It’s totally different than having a traditional blog/website such as this one, so it’s been hard for me to eliminate so many topics and stick to just the niche aspect 🙂 Good luck!
Wow ! Great tips!!! 🙂 Since I am new to the blogging world , I have been doing a lot of studying and this post was really helpful! 🙂
Thanks Natasha! I have been slacking on this and have finally gotten around to getting back to this. I am definitely going to start doing a niche update once a month or so to share my progress. Good luck blogging!!
I think that sounds like a great idea. I would be interested in reading that series. I think that what you have to share would be pertinent to most of us as we grow our current blogs.
Thanks Tennille! I’m excited to share the process with everyone!
PLEASE write more about this! I think it’s really interesting when people shut down niche websites or any website. It’s interesting just how much someone may be willing to pay for a site that an owner thinks isn’t worth much. I’m looking forward to reading your series and I have (no joke) at least 10 domains in my Go Daddy account that I would love to use for niche websites. I have a ton of ideas but simply do not have the time. I am working towards outsourcing and automating more of YAM to free up time for these sites so definitely looking forward to learning more about your experiences.
I have thought about buying and registering different domains (way too many ideas in my head), but so far just have this and my niche site. I’m hoping to do the same thing in regards to outsourcing. I am struggling with finding time to do it all as well!
Well done on everything you did between 2007-2013! Even if you say you made a few mistakes its pretty awesome to have made sales and been featured in magazines. I run 4 different niche sites so I’d definitely be interested in seeing how you approach this topic and what becomes of it.
Thank you so much! Wow, I can’t even fathom running 4 sites! I plan on posting updates pretty regularly about my niche site and discussing anything and everything related to it!
Best of luck to you! I’ve read several of these types of websites and it’s always interesting to see how they do, so yes I’d probably follow it. Who knows…might do my own one day!
I would love to hear about your experience building a niche site. I’m sure if you implement all the strategies you mentioned in this post you could definitely find success with it. Let me know if you ever need any help!
Thanks Chonce!
Wow!! I would absolutely love to read about this!! I can’t wait to hear more about the product and how it can help people!! I’ve been thinking of starting a niche site, too…but haven’t found the time yet. In the meantime I would absolutely love to follow along your journey!!
Best of luck to you!
I’m struggling with finding the time too- I really need to stick to a tighter blogging schedule to make this work. Thanks Sarah!
This is exciting! I’m really looking forward to reading about this. I’ve had a little niche site for a few years that was just an experiment, but it’s brought me some ad revenue. I revamp it every now and then, but I don’t dedicate much time to it. There’s definitely a place for talking about niche sites on your money blog, since it’s a great way to earn passive income!
Thanks Lauren! It will definitely be an experiment this time around and I am going to play around with it. Awesome job with your niche site!
I would be very interested. I think this is a great idea. Its scary to say that I see myself right now in regards to my present blog. I haven’t branched out to do many things because I am too shy and just don’t have the knowledge. I am learning how to ignore that inner voice and try to make things happen with no fear of failure.
Good luck with your new blog niche and I’m sure you will be successful this time.
Thanks Petrish! It’s definitely hard being shy and something I have always struggled with!