A Niche is a Bitch
I'm sorry I had to use that word, but it's the truth. I'm working on a niche blog that I simply have to get up and running because of the time factor. The keywords get searched enough and there aren't even a half a million pages competing. There's absolutely NO advertiser competition for the first keyword and average competition for the second. So, what's the rush?
The reason that time is a factor is because one of the two keywords I'm targeting will explode within a month or so. I'm not going to be stupid and let the cat out of the bag, because that would be, well, incredibly stupid.
Writing
Writing the text for this niche blog is the hard part for me this time. I type more than 60 words per minute and it isn't fast enough. I have too much information to put into only 10 posts for the seeding. It'll probably end up being many more.
The good part about it is that I'm very familiar with the subject matter and it's easy to write the content. The bad part is that it's difficult to break it down into bite-sized chunks.
Goodbye AdSense
I checked the CTR for the AdSense on this blog earlier today and it appears that it's been smart-priced (again), even with an average CTR of 3 percent. I'll probably be removing it from this blog today and replacing it with something else. This is a case of maybe or maybe not because Chitika hasn't been doing very well at all.
Perhaps I'll go with TextAdMarket since I've already sold a spot on my "test" banner. If I do that, I'll have to write some code to keep it from hanging and slowing down the page. That should be fun.
More Alternatives
I'm looking at other alternatives. I may be signing up with RevResponse, but I haven't decided yet. BidVertiser is out of the question. I've already tested it and found it doesn't work well on this blog either.
There are a kabillion alternatives to AdSense and CPC publishing and I'll probably be examining more as time progresses. Right now… I haven't had enough sleep (due to other circumstances) and hard decisions have to wait.
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I hate writing for niches…. i am definitely not in the trouble you are without enough time to write…. i don't have a lot of time but i have no desire to write when I do have the time.
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I only dream of finding good niche topics that I know something about :)
I'm very interested in the results of the adsense replacement too as I may need to jump ship as well. Might as well learn from your mistakes right?
No. :twisted:
Being niche-less has its own fair share of grief!
How the heck do you submit to directories and such when there's really no dominant theme or niche to your blog? There's rarely a category for "Things about me & stuff I find interesting."
:neutral:
I've found that only "Personal" fits, even it's not really correct.
Hi Richard,
I'm pleased to see that your contemplating joining RevResponse and I'd like to see what I can do to sway your opinion. Without knowing the niche of your new initiative, I'll keep this pretty high-level and point out our key benefits:
1. RevResponse allows you to contextually offer your audience free networking and technology related resources like free magazine subscriptions, white papers, software trials, and podcasts to name a few. Most importantly, you get paid each time someone requests one of these free resources. Payouts range from $2.00 to north of $20.00 per action depending on the content. Where else can you offer your audience something free AND actually generate some cash by doing so?
2. Co-branding/white labeling – you can customize your landing page to seamlessly integrate into your site/blog.
3. Flexible promotional tools – you can promote our offers via email, widgets, banners, deep links, blog posts editorializing our offers, and anything else you can dream up.
4. Dedicated Account Manager – Upon joining, you'll be assigned an account manager who's sole responsibility is to make sure you're generating as much revenue for yourself through our program as possible. Yes, you'll even get their phone number and direct email address. :razz:
I could go on forever but you get the idea.
Why don't you give us a shot?
Cheers,
David Fortino
RevResponse.com
I'm sorry, David. For some reason, your comment wouldn't display unless I removed the 2 lines where the link was. Someday, I'm going to have to figure out why it does that.
no worries. thx
I find it hardest to write for a niche where I know the subject well, because then I write too much! And splitting it up into those bite size pieces is a headache too I agree.
Rev Response does look interesting, but there again, so does TextAdMarket which I've been looking at myself. I might just give them both another look.
Sounds like you've picked a good niche. I'm really interested to see the results when you finally let the cat out of the bag :smile:
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making niche blogs can be good and rewarding, but i think its more important to write about something u really enjoy writing and learning about :/
Well some niches are more profitable than others but part of the whole niche fuzz is finding a niche you really like and has nice affiliate offers for it. This way it will be less a less painful process. As for AdSense alternatives AdBrite is nice. Still AdSense holds first place in earnings per click.
My latest blog post: Which are the most profitable niches?
Whatever you decide to write about it has to be something you either know a lot about or enjoy – nothing worse than choosing a niche and then realising after a couple of weeks the subject bores the life out of you.
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I have my own criteria for finally deciding which niche(s) I'd get involved in. My problem was that I listened to others saying that the niches I was most interested in were to competitive. So I went for a couple of smaller ones where I didn't know a lot about them nor was really interested and found them boring as hell, particularly since I concentrated on article marketing to promote them.
I did make some money. In fact, I had my most successful year to date, particularly with one of those niches. But I wasn't happy so I let the site go.
I love what you've done with this site because I tend to want to talk about various subjects as well but without having to have 1,001 sites that separate the topics.
adsense works well with niche blog…
My latest blog post: Make Adsense Smarter And More Relavant