Marcus Richards
Starting up an online business focussed around a specific niche has never been easier, nor has it ever been more profitable. Although the team here at BestStartup have proved that there are various ways to earn money from owning your own website, one of the latest ways is to build an affiliate website.
Finding your Niche
The first thing you need to figure out is what type of website you want to build from a content point of view. It is important to remember that content is what you are going to be spending 90% of your time. Therefore, it might be important to you to be writing something which you at least have an interest in. The more focussed the niche, the easier it should be if you’re working by yourself or as a small team. For example, a website built around holidays in the USA is way too broad of a topic. Instead, you could think of something along the lines of holidaying within a specific state in the USA.
Incidentally, if you are already an expert in a certain topic, then even better. For example, if you are a personal trainer and you are looking to create an affiliate website which sells fitness items, then you will already have an advantage over some of your competition. Furthermore, if you market yourself and your brand properly, Google will quickly be able to see that you are writing as a qualified expert. This brings us to our next point…
Your Competition
You should be aware that you will have competition, and this can be good and bad. Once you have figured out which niche you would like to operate in, we recommend scoping out your competition and picking out two or three of the websites which are performing the best in your niche. Make a scout report of what they do well and what your site can offer users which your competitors do not.
A good rule of thumb is to offer your users content which is better than what is currently the best out there. If you do this on a consistent basis, you can expect to see good results. This is another reason why it helps a great deal to be passionate about whatever you are writing about.
A great example of a successful affiliate website which operates within a narrowly defined niche is www.slotshawk.com.
Key Tips for Building your Website
Using the example of SlotsHawk, if you are building a website within the online gambling niche, then first and foremost, you need to ensure that you adhere to any regulations there might be. For example, we can see that SlotsHawk is primarily for UK audiences and they showcase a long list of online casinos for British gamblers. When we look even closer, we can see that they only advertise slot sites in 2024 licensed by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC). Although it is not illegal for affiliate sites to advertise non UKGC casinos, it is illegal for casinos which are not licensed by the UKGC, to offer their services to British gamblers.
No matter which niche, it is important that you look into laws which you may need your website to abide by. You should also be wary of any copyright laws. We recommend that you try your best to take your own pictures whenever you use images on your website.
Everything Content Related
As Google says, ‘Content is King’ and the quality of your content is the single most important aspect of any website. The key to a successful website is writing pages which satisfy whatever users are looking for. If you can do that, then it will send signals to Google that your website’s pages are good enough to rank high on their algorithms, and you will also see a high number of sales with users purchasing products with your site acting as the middleman.
Depending on your niche, you should look to publish at least one top-quality article per day when you first launch your site. We also recommend ensuring that you have all of your main pages published on the site before you allow search engine robots to crawl your site. This way, when Google first sees your site, it will see one which has several of the most important pages already published.
However, do not just publish for the sake of it. There should always be quality control when you publish any content. Make sure it is at least as good if not better than your competitors, and try to add something new for the user which nobody else does. In Peter Thiel’s (former CEO of PayPal) best selling book Zero to One, he remarks that any new product should have something which is completely new. You can do this with your content.
Promoting your Website and Branding
As well as the production of new content, you need other websites to promote and link back to your own site. Preferably, other sites within your niche will give you links, but this is difficult if they are your competitors. This can happen naturally, but it also helps if you get in touch with other websites and ask them if they would like to link to an article you have written.
Brand promotion is also important. You can use social media to help your site build up a following, for example. Business listings are also a good way for users to know that your website is legit and it is also helpful for Google to see your site on those same listings.
Final Words
Make no mistake about it, building a successful online website takes dedication and lots of hard work. However, the difference between success and failure often comes down simply to working when you really do not feel like working.
The team here wishes you luck on your journey and we recommend bookmarking this article so that you can come back for help and inspiration.
