Project DIY Niche Site - Construction Underway

Hi. My name is Bill and I’m a Blogaholic.

Hi Bill!

Oops. Wrong meeting.

In all seriousness I am getting more and more addicted to blogging and I find myself devoting more and more time to blogging “projects” than I do my niche sites.

I have not worked on a few of my sites in weeks as I have started to prefer to spend my time developing and promoting this blog and getting a few other projects rolling. It’s quite addicting.

Project DIY Niche Site

One of the projects I have neglected has been my “Project DIY Niche Site” project that I started about 2 months ago. I am building a niche site from start to finish and will share the process every step of the way. I will cover topics from domain selection to authority building so we can see what goes into this kind of site. It can be a fair amount of work depending on how eleborate you get.

I don’t claim to be any kind of an expert on the subject so all the haters can put on your Billie Jeans and beat it. I have built several niche sites in the past and I have learned a TON from doing so but I will be the first one to admit that I have more to learn. The thing that I will do that most others won’t, is share what and how I do it so you can see what goes into one and maybe adopt some of my techniques and make them your own.

Once this project is completed, I intend to hold some kind of a promotion or contest to give it away to a reader of the blog. Up to this point I have identified and acquired the domain, and I now have it hosted on the domain. I debated between using a template like 19pages or Wordpress but I tend to lean towards Wordpress for it’s many advantages so I have decided that’s the template of choice.

I have the domain hosted but the site is under construction and not ready for public viewing. I am using the Maintenance Mode plug in so that when you visit the site you should be met with a “Maintenance” screen that instructs visitors that the site is under construction.

This is a useful plugin for any blogger or sitebuilder that wants to make some changes out of view of the public eye.

Monetization

I debated a few different forms of monetization for the site and my original intention was to monetize via Adsense primarily but I think that would be leaving money on the table. My intention is to mix a bit of adsense in with Ebay affiliate links and some ads from Neverblue Ads.

It might also be possible to eventually sell private advertising on the site although with this kind of niche that is not likely. Ebay affiliate program is a pretty good gig for niche site builders and can provide some lucrative returns, especially if you can attract new ebay members to your site. $25 dollars a pop for signups is not a bad deal.

The Next Step

The next step is to complete the site to the point that I can at least let it be seen by the world. After that I will begin building some back links and trying to build some site authority. A site like this is going to be highly dependent on being able to rank well for its’ search terms.

The project managed to get a bit off track for a few weeks and for that I apologize for those who are interested. I have resolved a few parts of my blogging addiction and managed to free up some time to work on the completion of this project. I am looking forward to carrying it through to completion and I’d love to hear opinions on how to give it away.

How are your projects going? Do you manage your time better than I do?