Top Three Ways to Make Money with a Niche Blog

One of the best ways to start making money online is through the use of a blog. Blogging is not only extremely simple and fast to setup, but it’s also one of the least expensive ways to get started.

Before we talk about the specifics of why you should start a niche blog and how you can make money with the site, let’s talk about the barrier of entry.

When you think about running a business, you probably think about local businesses and how they have to employ staff, pay for rent, have operating costs and all of the other headaches and costs that go with running a business.

Now let’s break down what you need to start a business blog of your own.

1. A domain name ($10 a year)
2. Web hosting ($10 a month)
3. WordPress Installation (free)

Yea, it’s really that simple and cheap!

For less than $20 you can get started with your own blog today. If you are really pressed for money, you can start a free blog through services like Wix and Weebly, you just won’t have a domain name.

Now let’s jump into the many different ways you can make money with a blog of your own.

For this article we are going to be focusing on a NICHE blog. This means that you are creating a blog on a specific niche topic that allows you to keep all of you content relevant and right on point. A great example of a niche blog would be “medical alert services or seniors”.

Through your blog you would want to write original articles on everything you know about medical alert services. These articles can consist of everything from reviews, general information, questions people ask and anything else you can think of. This way when someone searches Google for questions, hopefully your web site comes up in the results.

Using long tail software and Google Keyword Tools is a great way to find out what people are searching for in a niche market and how competitive it might be for you to rank for specific search phrases.

Now let’s talk about three of my favorite monetization methods you can implement on your niche blog right now.

Affiliate Marketing

One of my favorite ways to build niche sites is to focus on a specific affiliate offer or product. Instead of trying to monetize a site with a bunch of different offers and methods, focusing on one specific product will allow you to continually learn how to best promote it and push it to your audience. It’s best to focus on high end offers that are real, versus email submits and quick lead gen offers that won’t be around for a while.

Creating Your Own Product

Even better than an affiliate offer, is to create your own specific product or service. Depending on the niche you are in this might be easier or harder than initially expected. Be sure to take a look at ClickBank.com and see if there are already any products in your desired niche. If there are, you can promote these product… or create a similar one of your own.

Google Adsense

While I have my own thoughts on Google Adsense, it’s still one of the best ways to monetize a niche site if done correctly. Google continues to have one of the largest selections of advertisers and if you are in a highly targeted niche that doesn’t have many affiliate offers to promote, you could be earning $1+ per click through their network.

if you end up using Google Adsense and see some great results, be sure to take a look at the ads being shown on your site and see if you can run them on an affiliate program basis. You could be earning more or less depending on your niche and products you are pushing. It’s all about split testing.

There are many different ways to monetize a niche site of your own, such as building a mailing list, selling your own personal services and even selling direct ad placement on your sites.

Take a look at your niche market, see if you can rank at the top of the search results and compare the best ways you can convert your audience into leads/sales while still offering them a quality site experience.