A niche website is a small website that concentrates on a particular segment of a particular market.
They are an excellent way to develop an online business.
Even though there are millions of websites currently on the internet, thousands more are being added daily.
Therefore there's no point in competing in an over-crowded market.
Niche websites offer the opportunity to select a targeted segment with few suppliers but with potentially great demand resulting it better chances of business success.
Finding and selecting a niche You may already have in mind a topic that you would like to explore, so run with it.
However there are online research tools available that can give you ideas of topics around which to build a niche website.
Examples are Google Trends, Yahoo's Overture and Wordtracker.
Additionally, there are paid research tools which are helpful if you need to conduct in-depth research or cover several niches areas.
Website templates Several options are available for building and hosting niche websites.
These include free blog-spot templates such as Google's Blogger (which also gives you the option of upgrading to a domain for a small fee), Final Sense, and eBlog Templates.
WordPress and Site Build-it (SBI) are other options.
These two are generally accepted as good content management programs that are easy to manage.
WordPress and SBI don't require web page editors like Dreamweaver or Frontpage because their systems allow segregation of the site page from the content pages.
Neither system requires specialized web designing skills, just general understanding of site layout and HTML formats.
Have a look at several programs before deciding which one to select.
Generally if you just want to know the basics or your technical understanding is limited then SBI is better.
If you want to incorporate more technical aspects and are willing to learn how, then WordPress is a better selection.
The latter has plug-in architecture that allows you to add elements beyond the basic installation package.
Monetizing a website Monetizing refers to earning additional income from your niche website or blog by incorporating alternative packages and external advertising.
Examples of monetizing plans include Squidoo, affiliate marketing, Google's AdSense and Pepperjam.
The two most popular monetizing methods are affiliate programs and AdSense.
Affiliate programs are cost-free plans whereby you place a link or banner of a particular product that you can promote in return for payment.
You should be somewhat familiar with the product and therefore it's recommended that you try it out yourself.
You earn money for each visitor or paying customer based on per visit or a sales commission.
AdSense requires that you place on your website a code given by Google after which they put ads on your page that are relevant to the theme of your website.
They look similar to ads placed in a newspaper.
Google pays you for each ad click.
Unlike affiliate marketing, AdSense does not require any selling.
AdSense is better for content-based websites where as affiliate marketing is best suited to product-review pages.
It is possible to use both on the same website.
Many people build niche websites especially for use as income producing sites.
The search engines have no problem with this if the site contains quality content for the readers.
When building niche websites solely as income producing sites, it is very important to have someone build your site who is very familiar with search engine optimization techniques.
Also, stay away from the build it yourself websites that millions of people have.
The search engines are more interested in well built but unique sites with quality content.
If you feel you are interested in having one or more income producing sites, visit us for a world of information and advice.