Niche Blogging and Informational Sites
I got an interesting trackback on one of my older niche blogging posts, Niche Blog Beginner Tips, and I thought I’d do a quick response post to it.
What is a Niche Marketing Blog?
In this article on Biziki, Some Thoughts On Update Frequency, Frank wrote the following:
I think that this defeats the purpose of providing your readers with something new to read. In my mind, one creates a niche blog in order to address a need for information in that certain niche. If the most recent content was published a year ago, do you think that your old readers would keep coming back for more? I really don’t think so.
Unfortunately, he didn’t get the point in my article, that a niche blog, in the context I was writing about, is designed as an advertising medium for one-time search visitors, not as a social, entertainment or informational medium for repeat readers and subscribers. I had covered this somewhat in another article I also wrote way back in January called Niche Blog vs. Social Blog. In short, the point of a niche marketing blog is to direct the visitor toward a particular advertising offer. The offer could be an Adsense ad block or an affiliate banner or link.
The primary objective isn’t to inform or entertain, it is to make a sale. This is done by either by not providing information and thereby encouraging the visitor to move on, hopefully via one of your Adsense ads, or by directing them to a location where they can make a purchase and you can make a commission from it. I wrote about this method in these posts:
- Arte Moreno’s Niche Blogging Lessons
- Niche Blog Content Ideas and Experiences
- Niche Blogging: Limit Visitor Choices?
- More ‘How To Write Niche Blog Articles’ Fun
- How to Create ‘Fast Food’ Articles
Informational Sites and Blogs
If one does want to write an informational mini-site or blog about a niche topic they have a passion about, that’s fine. Vic mentioned this in a recent video post, Niche Marketing Is Not For Everyone. Not everyone wants to write fluffy ad copy in the hopes of getting commissions. I understand that.
However, informational sites can make good money when paired with the right monetization methods. I wrote about this in a few other posts a while back such as MSNBC Catches Up With Niche Blogging and Making Money With Adsense Even If You’re Old and Gray. I’ve found that these sites make good “$1 a day” sites, meaning that they can average about a $1 a day with no effort beyond some basic SEO practices at the start.
One interesting thing about such informational sites is that you still don’t need a frantic update schedule like a social blog where you’re chasing the elusive subscriber/reader or a trends blog where you need to stay right on top of the news niche you’re covering. You don’t need the “every other day or even two or three times a week” schedule like Frank suggested on his Biziki post. A schedule of 6-8 weeks works quite well and even longer update frequencies will still work. Oddly enough, you’ll still get RSS subscribers and regular readers as well as good search traffic.
I suggest comparing it to the magazine industry. Some magazines, like People and Newsweek, are published weekly. Others are published monthly and others every quarter. Some magazines are even published on an annual or other infrequent basis. I do recommend having a publishing schedule, particularly if you’re using a blog format, or using an email newsletter to announce new content and to perhaps promote offers.
To slip in a little update, Griz has an article he just added about the folly of chasing purely social traffic and then trying to making money with it called Does Garry Conn Really Make Money Online?. It’s another great one by Griz and well worth reading.
OK, that’s enough for today. I have to get back to work on My Content Generator Program. If you have any thoughts on this, please leave a comment here or on one of the other articles I mentioned.
Caricature photos courtesy of iClipart.
Tags: Advertising Medium, Affiliate Banner, Arte Moreno, Beginner Tips, Blogging, Choices, Fast Food, Food Articles, Informational Sites, Niche Marketing, Niche Sites, Niche Topic, Objective, Passion, Quick Response, Response Post, Social Entertainment, Time Search, Vic, Video Post