Setting Up A New Niche Website Step By Step

Posted at February 16, 2010

Step By StepYesterday we talked about ways to come up with some good niche ideas. I hope you’ve also had a chance to check out my report on finding hot and profitable niches. Today is all about setting up a new niche website. Here are the different steps I go through. Feel free to use them as a guideline when you set up your niche websites.

Preliminary Tip – Before I start going to far into it, I like to take a quick look to see if there are some decent looking affiliate programs out there that I can promote in this market. I don’t usually get too deep into looking into the quality and “salability” (is that a word?) of them, but I want to know before I get started that there’s some decent stuff out there that I can promote.

1) Keyword Research

I like to start with keyword research, so I can determine what main keyword I want to go after. This way I can try to get a domain name that includes the term. This step isn’t crucial, but it helps as people start to link to your site since quite often they will simply link with your domain name.

If this is all new to you, take a look at this post about what keyword research is and why it is so crucial when you develop a website.

2) Register A Domain

Next I start looking for a domain. I only use .com domains and don’t use numbers in them. Whenever possible I stay away from any type of dash (-) etc. When I do include it, I have to have a very good reason to do so.

Then I try to find something I like that’s easy to remember that includes my main keyword. Last but not least, I try to come up with something that isn’t terribly long and reads and types well.

3) Get Hosting

Next is setting up hosting. I prefer a host that uses cpanels. My main requirements are that it supports php and mySQL (that’s for step 4).

If you already have several websites, you may want to make sure some of them are set up with different hosting instead of lumping everything together. This way not all your sites will be down at once should something happen to one host.

If you can find a host that will install a wordpress blog for you (last I checked ReliableWebs.com did this for me), go for it. It’s worth not having to mess with it yourself.

4) Set Up A WordPress Blog

Once your hosting is ready, install your wordpress blog (or see if your hosting provider will install it for you). The process is pretty straight forward and WordPress.org has some good instructions. If you don’t want to do this yourself, and your host won’t do it for you, you can usually find someone to do this for you for about $40.

Templates

Look through some of the free templates available. I have also used some paid templates before. StudioPress Templates are my favorites and I use them almost exclusively now for my niche sites because they don’t look like your typical blog.

Plugins

Don’t forget to look at some plugins as well. I like to use the following

Anything else I just install as things come up once I start to build the site up more. (Feel free to share your favorite plugins in the comments section below).

At this point I also like to set up the permalink structure for my posts. Most of the time I simply use a id# for the post followed by the title of the post. The permalink structure looks like this:

/%post_id%/%postname%/

You can change these by going to Settings, Permalinks and then check the custom structure option.

I’ve also added a .html at the end of the postname to make the urls look more like a static website.

5) Write An Introductory Post

Your next goal will be to get some content up there so Search Engines can start to realize that there’s a new website out there. Get that first post up and posted right away. If you can continue to write several new posts per week (more on that in step 7), you can get your site indexed by the search engines rather quickly.

6) Buy and Review A Few Affiliate Products

Next it’s time to take a closer look at the affiliate products out there. Buy the most promising ones and consume them. If they are books, read them, if they are software, try it etc.

This will get you ready for the content creation phase. You are going to recommend some affiliate products in your content and readers will feel if you know what you are talking about or not. You want to leave them with a good feeling and build their trust so please spend the money and time to actually try the stuff you are going to promote.

7) Come Up With A Content Schedule and Get To Work

Last but not least it’s time to get some more content on the site. Ideally you want to create 1 to 2 new pages or posts per day. Grab your keyword list from step 1 and start to come up with post ideas based around your keywords.

I like to brainstorm a bunch of topics and create a content schedule. This way I don’t have to sit there and think about what I’ll write about in the morning (or evening in this case). I have my schedule and know exactly what I’m supposed to be writing about.

Just keep adding content regularly and your site will grow in no time at all.

Susanne Myers

P.S. Don’t forget about the Hot Profitable Niche Report. It’s inexpensive and a quick read, but full of the strategies I use to determine if a particular niche or market is worth going into. Grab your copy at www.affiliatetreasurechest.com/hotniche/

You may also like to read:

  1. Build A Niche Website This Weekend
  2. How To Register A Domain With Website Forwarding
  3. Niche Business Ideas – Introducing Affilite Niche Packs
  4. Free Ways To Increase Website Traffic – The 2010 Content Marketing Challenge
  5. Brainstorming Content Ideas For Any Niche

Affiliate Marketing, Internet Marketing

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