1. Absolutely! I had a similar experience a couple of years ago when I owned a small blog. I eventually sold it, and the new owner managed to make significant improvements. The blog now ranks for a wider range of keywords, and its traffic has surpassed what I achieved during my ownership. While small blogs can still be successful, it's important to note that there may be certain challenges involved. One such challenge is finding meaningful and relevant keywords, which the new owner seemingly excelled at, while I struggled in that aspect.
2.Indeed, there are limitations when it comes to small niches, with the availability of keywords being a major constraint. With fewer keywords to target, it often translates to lower traffic and potentially reduced earnings.
However, there is an advantage in exploring small niches: the lack of competition. If you come across a small niche with, let's say, a maximum of 20-30 keywords that receive at least 10 monthly visitors each, and find that none of the top 10 search results are occupied by affiliate sites targeting those keywords, you have an opportunity to be the pioneer by creating your own affiliate site. It can be advantageous to use an exact match domain (EMD) since EMDs have regained recognition from Google. By taking this approach, you can potentially dominate the search engine results pages (SERPs) for an extended period, especially if others overlook the niche due to its low traffic volumes or lack of interest.
Certainly, the challenge lies in effectively monetizing such blogs as obscure niches tend to offer fewer monetization options. During my ownership of a crafts and hobbies site, promoting an ebook proved successful since it provided valuable knowledge and guidance to enthusiasts in that particular craft. However, without an ebook, alternative strategies need to be explored. Traditional methods like AdSense may not get significant results due to limited traffic, relying on high-paying keywords and exceptionally high click-through rates (CTRs) of 20-30% to generate substantial profits.
Fortunately, there is an approach to consider. One can acquire private label rights (PLR) ebooks from defunct websites for a minimal cost, usually around $7 or as part of a membership fee, and sell them on your small blog for a higher price, such as $19.99. Even with a conservative conversion rate of 5% and attracting around 200-300 monthly visitors, the ebook sales alone could generate approximately $200 per month, surpassing the potential earnings from AdSense.
Regardless, the main point is that small blogs can still be successful, especially with the resurgence of exact match domains (EMDs). By identifying even just one untapped small niche each month, where there are no existing affiliate sites in the top 10 search results, you can generate a decent income for an extended period. Setting up 10-15 such sites per year, assuming a conservative revenue of $50 per site per month, can result in easy earnings of $500 or more per month. While it may not be a substantial amount, not everyone aims to become wealthy through SEO. For some, earning $200-300 per month is more than satisfactory.
The beauty of this approach is its simplicity. Once you establish these sites, typically comprising 10-12 content pages, you can set the domains to auto-renew for the next five years and essentially leave them untouched unless they drop from the search engine results pages (SERPs). This way, it becomes an effortless source of income that requires minimal maintenance.
