The most important question when it comes to websites is: how much money will I make from my idea?
People write to me very often:
- “I built a site, but it brings in very little money, and I don’t know how to monetize it. I placed AdSense—pennies are trickling in.”
- “I want to create an international site about gardening; there’s less competition, and I’ll definitely succeed.”
Sure, you might succeed, but there’s no competition because there often simply isn’t any money there. Yes, you’ll rank at the top, but the financial difference between that top spot and the Russian-language web is small.
That said, not all informational sites are bad. Take, for example, the cooking/culinary niche in the US.
https://app.centurica.com/marketwatch/listing/7928/
This site earns $48.6 per 1k unique visitors on AdThrive and gets 60k daily traffic. Monthly income is $95k dollars, which is awesome for culinary and info sites.
Building a site deliberately, understanding the niche’s profitability and monetization model, is far better than randomly picking a site niche and hoping it takes off.
That’s why I build affiliate sites for partner programs—because the model has long been tested by others. All that’s left for me to do is rank at the top.
And by the way, this post is still relevant for those who haven’t decided on their future niche:
«Easy Money on the Amazon Affiliate Program, and I Don’t Have a Porsche to Be Cool in Moscow.»