Building A Super Niche Site That Elvis Would Approve

I received a really excellent call today from a blogger named Mark Mason from MasonWorld.com. Very nice guy and I have to say, it’s about time I receive some material worth writing about on my blog. When I got back from my Disney World trip, I had to clean out quite a few messages that were clearly just people who wanted me to visit their blog and had little to contribute. So it was really cool to get a “Real Call” with some “Real Material” worth writing about. Mark’s blog is a personal blog where he documents his latest projects and allows his readers to follow his progress. Like many, Mark holds more fascination with discovering how he can take a blog or a site and turn it into a money machine rather than making the money itself. If I understand this completely, it is more a of thrill factor or a challenge for Mark to be able to achieve the goal of building a successful site that makes money. Nothing wrong with that!

The current events going on at MasonWorld.com is Mark’s attempt to create a niche site that collects a nice passive or residual income but in a way that doesn’t completely depend on Google Adsense. Like many, including myself, Mark wants to experiment around with various affiliate programs out there.

In the message that Mark left for me, he was curious about my thoughts on creating niche sites that utilize affiliate programs and such, most importantly he wanted me to follow up and explain whether or not I still felt like these were viable solutions for making a passive or residual income.

Mark is investing some time and applying what he has learned in the past with a niche site called, History of Elvis. Now I have to say, I am really impressed with what Mark has done. I do not see why a site like this can’t make money. The remainder of the post is directed specifically to Mark, however it applies to anyone who has an interest.

There is always a thin line between determining which projects get pushed off into what I call the, “build, drag and drop” niche sites, or becoming a project that I take under my wing and invest more personal time to.

Yeah, I have tons of blogs that are made for making money using Adsense and various affiliate programs. However, these sites by themselves don’t make a lot of money. It’s the sheer volume of all the sites collectively that allow me to make a full time living.

From time to time, there comes a site that I feel has more potential than simply being plugged into the “blog farm” of niche sites. The Airplane Blog is an example of a niche site that I have been working hard on because I feel it has more potential than being plugged into The Matrix of MFM (made for money) blogs I own.

History of Elvis, I see and feel has similar potential to The Airplane Blog. I would strongly advice investing more individual time into personal development, social networking establishment and building up your RSS Feed Subscribers, Email List Subscribers and regular daily content readers.

I think you’re on to a great idea. I think your site is very unique, it has “surprisingly” low competition but yields quite a bit of potential traffic in the SERPs and can easily score the interest in thousands of Elvis Fans. So, totally… you’re on to something and I give you two big thumbs up on what you have done so far.

My advice to you would be to stop trying to monetize it initially build up all the elements needed to make money with a blog.

• Traffic
• Authority
• Regular Readers
• PageRank
• Superior Ranking In SERPS
• Word of Mouth
• Back Links

With a site like this, don’t get me wrong… it’s all hard work, but something like this, shouldn’t be quite as difficult compared to other people trying to be #1 in MMO or SEO. Honestly, you have a great idea and I feel that if you play your cards right, you potentially have in your hands more than a MFM (made for money) blog.

Here is what I would do if I owned the blog:

• Remove many of the things that draw attention away from the content.
• Hire or acquire a person who lives, eats, breaths Elvis and would be eager to write on the blog. (Multiple people if possible)
• Your time would then be free to market, promote the site in all the right places.
• Invest time into redesigning the site. If you’re good at CSS and stuff like that, save money and do it yourself. If you need to hire someone, find someone locally where you can watch over their shoulder. Make sure the person who does the redesign is also knowledgeable with search engines with heavy focus on Google.
• Slowly start doing reviews of various Elvis products. Preferably products that are within an affiliate program such as Amazon.com.
• Shape and mold your site into the place where people can expect to learn everything there is about the history of Elvis.
• Find various collectors who would be willing to write content on your blog in exchange for being able to proudly showcase their collectors items on your blog. Many people don’t want to sell, they just want to brag and show off their goods. This equals content. Content equals traffic. Traffic equals money.

All in all, I think you have a site that has a huge potential to make money. I would invest the proper time with this site and put it under your wing and push forward with it. You’ve done great work with it so far, and in my opinion, its not a site that I would push off into the pool of 100 blogs for making a few bucks a day.

Voice Mail Response To Mark:

Got A Question Related To Blogging?

Have a question about blogging or any of the topics I typically write about? Don’t be a chicken and pick up the phone like Mark did and I’ll write about you and answer your question. What are you waiting for? Pick up the phone and call, (931) 368-4120. Phone lines are open 24/7. The call is free, minus the typical long distance charges from your carrier.

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