Is building niche sites still a good starting point for an average beginner?

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paulseowork

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Nov 15, 2011
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I feel like every year, making money on the internet via standard site building is getting harder and harder. Google is getting more sophisticated each year, creating a higher barrier to entry for effective SEO compared to a few years ago. Basic niches for beginners are also getting overpopulated, and you have to have serious horsepower just to find profitable niches.

Is the basic idea of finding a niche, building a site with articles, creating backlinks, and so on still a viable strategy for an average beginner?

I mean someone who is not necessarily a programming guru, just doing intro level coding. Someone who cannot "beat" google via clever tricks, just doing basic sensible "whitehat" seo.

Are niche sites still a good starting point for beginners, or is a different better starting point recommended these days?

For comparison, adwords (not adsense), which was not recommended for beginners even before, has been changed over the years so as to be completely unsuitable for brand new little guys.
 


paulseowork said:
I feel like every year, making money on the internet via standard site building is getting harder and harder. Google is getting more sophisticated each year, creating a higher barrier to entry for effective SEO compared to a few years ago. Basic niches for beginners are also getting overpopulated, and you have to have serious horsepower just to find profitable niches.

Is the basic idea of finding a niche, building a site with articles, creating backlinks, and so on still a viable strategy for an average beginner?

I mean someone who is not necessarily a programming guru, just doing intro level coding. Someone who cannot "beat" google via clever tricks, just doing basic sensible "whitehat" seo.

Are niche sites still a good starting point for beginners, or is a different better starting point recommended these days?

For comparison, adwords (not adsense), which was not recommended for beginners even before, has been changed over the years so as to be completely unsuitable for brand new little guys.
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I would say yes because it's just a jumping off point. You learn quickly if you're in it to win it or burned at the starting line. Also, you can pick something you care about. If I like cars, it's going to be very difficult to go after cars against Cars.com, for example. It also helps the beginner to LEARN THE PROCESS of driving traffic.
 
Are niche sites still a good starting point for beginners, or is a different better starting point recommended these days?
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It's a great starting point - especially local niche sites. This is where the strength of the exact match domain still shines brightly.
 
You're doomed to fail.

You've outlined why in the OP.

Instead of thinking of niches and tricking Google, think of business models and why you deserve to rank.
 
What d_diggler said. Approaching ranking from the mindset that you're going to "game" Google to the top makes it really hard nowadays to actually succeed. You have to have solid content and links.

That said, if you have the time and funds to practice, knock yourself out. You've got nothing to lose and lots to learn.
 
paulseowork said:
just doing basic sensible "whitehat" seo.
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In my mind, if you want to build real assets that will last and continue to earn you money throughout the years, this is what you ought to be doing. It's not "basic" SEO. It's marketing with a hint of SEO and is pretty powerful stuff. It just takes more effort.

You sound like you are on a good path. Just be careful choosing your niche and you should be good to go.
 
I disagree with most replies. I started with SEO and it really SLOWED my learning curve. It was joint ventures, webinars, interviews, list building, and product launches that really opened my eyes to the game and its potential. I had to learn split testing and implement it in an evening, create upsells on the fly, etc., or it was game over. Sure you can (and should) do that with SEO, but most newbies (and even intermediates) don't. I've never been a paid traffic expert, but I like their philosophy. Fail and fail fast, tweak, again, tweak, again, tweak, success!, scale!, $$$$$$
 
You have a point but I would still do the ethical SEO if I were you. Practicing black hat SEO is taking a bigger risk, your website will be penalized by Google anytime. Think twice and make a wise decision. :)
 
Sure its still gives too much reward not for the newbie but I also advised the experience ones to do that regularly as it returned you mandible income. Also as time passes lot of them going for more and more profit.
 
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