After about two months in this game, following the Thirty Day Challenge internet marketing formula, and learning an absolute SHED load of information, I have come to settle on a niche to develop, one that I am happy with, and one that has lots of possibilities. I am going to tackle the travel industry. Now let me tell you how I reached this point:
At first, for my “challenge” test site, I was advised in the training to examine my “interests” and subjects “I know about” – but these yielded no immediate ideas, so to keep up with the challenge deadlines I decided to do something based on a physical product where I had identified a hopeful keyword. Hence PushchairStroller.net was born. This was a failure in terms of the challenge, because there was a quirk with the keyword, half of it being used only in the UK and the other half only being used in the USA. So I got to number 1 and no traffic. Of course, I have no interest in pushchairs, and to be honest the next site was a little more interesting to me – in the field of fitness. I like to keep fit myself and I was OK about writing articles on this subject. However, the “digital product” that I am referring people to – well, you really can get the same information anywhere on the internet if you can be bothered to look – and I can’t honestly say I believe in it. However, I stuck with it as a learning exercise – and I am still pushing it because it seems that it is more competitive than the research suggested and I cannot get it near the top of the search engines just yet. The traffic of 15-20 visitors a day have not bought anything. Today I added an email subscription box – subscribe and get a free guide.
Oh dear, this was meant to be a quick post. Anyway, on to the next site, for an electronic product. This has been up for about six weeks and is now at no 5 for its main keyword with about 15-20 visitors a day. Three sales so far, which is not bad for the number of visitors. I am pushing this like crazy – no – that’s a lie – I would LIKE to push it but things get in the way..
Then I directed by search towards travel, because actually I am interested in it and like writing about it – like so many writers, of course! I did some keyword research and quickly found that most of the niches are mega-competitive – but at least it is a wide area to look at. The monetisation side is excellent too – if only I could get a sale or two. My first two test sites went well – well weird that is. One has yet to rank anywhere interesting, and the other, after about four weeks, is at number 8 for the theme keyword. The problem is that the 1200 forecast visitors for the number 1 slot should dilute into something more than the two-a-day I am getting at number 8. So what is wrong? Who knows. There is some seasonal stuff coming into the mix, but I allowed a lot for that and even so..
The point of this post, which I have digressed from, is that last night I hit a sort of epiphany – I realised just how “right” the travel niche feels for me, and that I am indeed ending up following the advice and marketing something I actually like – why on earth could I not see this in August when I was looking at my interests and trying to relate them to Internet Marketing? I am not stupid, but in this case I was hopeless – couldn’t even see what was right in front of my face!
Oh well, not much time lost and at least one of my pre-travel test sites has made some sales! Now, I have been either brave or stupid and registered a rather generic travel brand-rich domain name and intend to build content on this for a long time. Alongside this I intend to develop a lot of (hopefully) quick-win micro-niche sites with keyword-rich domains. And I am trying not to think about the £1800 gross that I am not earning each month, which is what I need to pay the bills.
Authors bio is coming up shortly.
