Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.
Updated 6.13.24
Thinking of building a niche site?
You can choose from plenty of niche site ideas. A niche blog or website can offer you a creative writing outlet and a way to build an online community with those who share a similar interest. My husband, for instance, follows several niche sites dedicated to Civil War battle sites and in particular, Gettysburg.
Plus, if you’re a freelancer or business owner, your niche site builds credibility. Readers who see that you offer solid information about your services and products are more likely to engage with you.
And naturally, there’s niche blogging for profit. If you choose from the niche site ideas that are screaming for good content – and then systematically build page after page of solid information – then you can build a following and monetize the site. Soon, you’ll earn passive income from affiliate sales and products on your site.
So how can you choose a money-making niche site idea that works for you? The secret is specificity.
A niche is a highly-specialized market, says online publisher and guru Neil Patel. That means a niche site is a blog or website that caters to small segment of readers that share a common, narrow interest.
It’s that specialized interest that sets apart a niche site from a typical website or blog. While a mainstream site addresses a more generalized topic, a niche site is laser-focused on one specific subject. It can be a particular need, want, problem, activity, hobby, pursuit, or profession.
For example, “Food” is one of the more popular niche site ideas. A generalized website may profile different types of cooking. A more specific site could tackle the subtopic of Honduran cooking. A site that focuses on Honduran cooking for singles? That’s a niche site. It focuses on a particular readership who want information about a very specific topic.
“An authority website is a site that is trusted,” says content marketing manager Christopher Ratcliff. “It’s trusted by its users, trusted by industry experts, trusted by other websites, and trusted by search engines.” Wikipedia, iStockPhoto, and the BBC come to mind as commonly-accepted authority sites.
A niche site may not have the pull of those generalized publishers, but don’t let that intimidate you. As you set out to choose your topic from all the niche site ideas out there, know this: a niche site can become respected in its field by producing quality, through content in its particular field. Authority sites get that way by earning trust from users, experts, other websites, and search engines.
Let’s look at a few niche site examples that have earned trust … and lots of traffic.
Any niche site idea can be profitable. The key is to do some homework before you niche down. Experts say you should consider keywords and competition. Ask these questions about …
New and prospective bloggers want to know how detailed their website must be — how “niched down” — in order to get traffic. While any niche site idea can be profitable, some are perpetually on readers’ radar screens. Here are thirty evergreen topics to get you started. Remember — these are big picture themes. The key is to narrow down your topic to a subtopic and then to a niche or micro-niche.
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The secret is specificity, right? Let’s look at a way to start with a topic and narrow it to a niche site idea. You are an animal lover — in fact, you’ve owned cats your entire life. “Pets” is a popular niche site idea, but it’s broad. You understand the need to drill down your focus.
As you’ve worked to care for your furry feline friends, you’ve visited hundreds of cat websites. You regularly comment on several cat blogs. Yet even with all that content at your disposal, you’ve struggled to find information about making your own cat food.
Meanwhile, you’ve gathered bits and pieces of information about cat health from various sites and developed your own recipes. You’ve found special gadgets that help you make cat food and deliver it to your pets. As you conduct further research, you discover scattered information about feline nutrition, yet no dedicated site. The keywords look good. And there are plenty of products, services, and courses out there that you could leverage as affiliates to make money. You may have a solid niche site idea … probably even a micro-niche site idea.
You don’t need to be an authority on a topic in order to build a strong niche site. You need a good idea. You need the willingness to learn more about your topic and the passion to stick with your topic for the long haul. And you need to want to have fun.
You’ve drilled down from one of the dozens of broad niche site ideas to a specific topic. Now, as you load your niche site about cat nutrition, other readers find you. They share your excitement for your specialized topic. And as you post page after page of quality information, you find a tribe and earn readers’ trust. The search engines index your site and “see” that it is credible. Soon, veterinarians and other feline experts are messaging you about your recipes. Meanwhile, you’ve added affiliate links and your site begins to earn a nice side hustle income.
You started with “Pets” — one of the most popular niche site ideas. Then you found a need that wasn’t being met through other niche sites. You met that need by creating a niche site with quality content.
In the process, you’ve become a homegrown authority. You make money from your site. And you’re having a wonderful time doing it.
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