Thanks. The pom is my wife’s dog…I have a pitbull/border collie “cow” dog. I appreciate the comparison to Grizzly. I love his blog but where he focuses primarily on the adsense market, I have always loved the “marketing” aspect more. This is where I think we kind of differ. While I think that adsense is a great way for residual income, I personally think that if people can get beyond it as an end all for making money online, they will experience exponential growth.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and great book you have there btw…..

I came across your blog just last night and after reading several of your posts, I see another Grizzly persona in the making. Just wait for the snowball effect and everything will fall into place with this blog.

BTW – I have 2 Pomeranians. Perhaps IM families are genetically pre-disposed to having Poms? They’re yappy, but very sweet and are guard dogs at heart. I have a child as well – a 6 year old boy full of mischief, but our traveling lifestyle keeps him in awe and away from getting into trouble too much.

I’m new to the “make money online” niche, but definitely NOT new to making money online with niche sites. I don’t spend a lot of time reading blogs, so it’s strange that I found yours. After reading this post, I have the odd inclination to brand myself and my products with blogs – something I have spent zero time doing in the past. I make money doing what I do, but maybe it’s time to mix things up and have some fun.

Anyway, keep in touch (via email??)… I’d like to hear from you.

Janet Smith

Basically it comes down to the question of quick cash vs a sustained business model. I know I can churn out tiny niche sites that rank well and generate decent revenue through AdSense or affiliate links. I’m not going to stop doing that. But at the same time I worry that those sites are always in danger. All it takes is one tweak to Google’s algorithm or one big authority site deciding to target the same keywords and I’m toast.

By building authority sites myself I can insulate myself a bit from the whims of the SEs. Sure, I can still generate organic traffic by targeting the right keywords. But if I can also build relationships and build a loyal following and a list, I can survive and thrive without relying on the big G.

That’s my plan anyway.

Mike

Yeah, once a blogger figures out keyword research and how to use it to build more traffic, it is like a lightbulb goes off in their heads. Unfortunately, most are too stuck on building a ass ton of content to get anything else.

Yup…that is how I started too. Don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t possible. There are more than one way to skin a rat.

….tell me about it….

The reason why I mention going smaller is more for bloggers who have never done niche marketing and don’t quite get how to build from the inside out. For most of my readers, going from niche marketing to an actual flagship blog would be much like graduating college….you are using the tools that have been making you money to make more money and be more gratified in the process.

That is exactly how I started internet marketing in the first place…accidentally. I wasn’t trying to make money and was just doing what I liked to do. The issue that most marketers and bloggers who want to make money have is that they tend to gravitate toward highly competitive BROAD markets and then inundate their website with a lot of “me too” posts that could be found elsewhere. This is okay but there are a lot of things that have to happen in order for the marketer or blogger to rise above the threshhold.

With niche marketers, this isn’t the case. They focus on a couple keywords and understand that they aren’t going to get rich from one website. Instead, they build tons of websites and scale as they begin to make money.

Like I said, personally, I find blogging more gratifying than building a ton of crap sites. BUT, if this was my only website (and I have treated this site the same way that most bloggers treat their sites…with a degree of indifference), I would be living in a cardboard box in downtown Memphis by now. Last year, this blog made a whopping $800 from 2 offers I made over the year. My other sites account for my living.

Which ever you choose, if you learn something new you never lose.

I talked with some of the bloggers in my community, and became a general gaming blogger like they turned into. The problem is keeping all your readers entertained when you are talking about a game they don’t play.

Of course it is much easier to write about a different game every day, and I don’t feel the burnout from talking about one game 24/7, but in the back of my mind I think I should go back to my smaller niche blogs.