The other week, Melinda posted a comment on my post on theinfopreneur.net on Growing your email list, specifically about whether having a email list was important to a niche blog.
So, in this week’s post I thought I’d devote this space to answering the question and also examining how you can make money from your blogging niche.
On my own blog I talk a lot about defining your market and carving your niche. So, my answer is, Melinda, very definitely, yes – an email list is very important, whether your niche is wide or narrow. The earlier you start collecting email addresses the earlier you start building your relationships.
After all, people are more likely to buy off someone they have a good relationship with.
So, as to making money from your niche, in this post I’m going to talk about two very niche sites which have a lot of traffic and generate their owners several $000 dollars each month and hopefully give you some ideas how you could too.
If you were going to pick a niche I guess there is nothing more niche than guinea pigs.
1000′s of families often buy them as first pets for their children, so where do people go when they have queries about how to look after their guinea pigs or where to buy accessories for their beloved pets?
Guinea Pig Secrets is where they go. Guinea Pig Secrets is a site, believe it or not dedicated to all things guinea pig – providing tips about how to double the life of your guinea pig, how to choose a guinea pig and even features pictures of readers pet guinea pigs.
When you visit the site you’re presented with an option to sign up for the newsletter, which lists all the benefits of signing up to discover these magical secrets! Do you think if you had a guinea pig you’d sign up? Why wouldn’t you? The owners of the site have since expanded and introduced new sites for other small animals such as hamsters. Could you be the leading authority for your niche and create a compelling newsletter to increase sign ups?
Talking of Magic…Another niche is raw foods. Nathalie Lussier over at Raw Foods Witch has developed a great niche site, which according to her interview for the Empire Building Kit earns her over $3,000 per month. The site explains the benefits of raw foods as well as providing delicious recipes to try – great if you’re rubbish at cooking, all presented in a quirtky way.
A lot of people may recognise that raw foods are good for them (foods which have not been cooked in any way) but don’t no how to go about it. So Natalie’s becomes the authority in her niche and becomes that authority.
Nathalie earns her money from a mixture of personal receipe plans for people and affiliate links plus sales of products. It’s a great model because people are likely to buy different products from her, rather than buy a one off ebook or information product.
As I’ve said before, people buy from people they trust. So if you’re seen as an authority in your niche, then you’re more than on your way to making an income from your site.
Now, I was going to go into all the ways that you can establish your authority in your niche, but thanks to the excellent article by Phil Johnson my fellow TIP Team Member, I don’t have to, go and check it out!
Back to the original question. In my opinion, the earlier you start your email newsletter list the better, even if you don’t immediately intend to monetise your blog, but to build up a loyal following. As when the time comes, these people will be your loyal fans and advocates which will help you grow your business.
Matthew Needham, is a UK based professional interim manager and qualified accountant. He is the writer for The Big Red Tomato Company and member of the Infopreneur.net TIP Team. You can connect with him on Facebook or on Twitter or subscribe to his RSS feed. If you have an business problem you want to chat through you can hire him for a one hour brainstorm/consulting session.
Thanks matthew. I’m totally agree with you. Of course people wants to buy some thing from a trusted source. So the most important option is getting trust.
Absolutely Alamin. You’ve got to be all over your niche and add value to your readers.
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Those are some great sample sites, Matthew, thanks! I’ll be sure to check them out and take a close look, especially the Raw Foods Witch site, which seems to have taken a path that I want my own blog to eventually go down.
I also haven’t started an e-mail list yet for my blog, since I haven’t done enough research at the moment to properly implement a system (I’m currently just concentrating on adding content: post once a day, etc), but since you insist that getting a list is better as early as possible, I’ll have took much closer into that.
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Hi Noel, it’s good to hear from you. Sounds like you might have found a business model to emulate! Good luck to you!
Certainly start building your email list now!
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..How to Write your ebook part 5
Good lesson here about the “list”.
In my opinion, the key is to engage your list and never stop thinking of ways to grow that list. As your list evolves, never ever forget that these are real people and to treat them as individuals.
I will send notes to my list and encourage people to respond directly to my email address if they would like to speak to me or learn more. Even if your list is huge, I think this is an important step. People buy from people they feel they know and whom they like. I have had people on my list respond directly to me, it opened the door for additional conversation, and later these people became paying customers.
The other thing I will add here is that niche targeting is important, but being passionate about the topic is also a MUST. If you eat meat and start a vegan blog… sorry, it aint gonna fly
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Hi Justin! good to hear from you!
I think that’s a good point, your mailing list is another way to have a conversation.
You’re absolutely right, you need to live and breathe your niche and be 100% committed to it.
Thanks for the comment!
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..How to Write your ebook part 5
Hi Matthew,
You illustrated your point very well here. I have yet to get my email list going, but then, I have not been all that concerned about doing anything more than learning. Having said that, I think that the time is coming.
For me it will be most important to build a community of people that like and respect each other. I think that has begun, and once I narrow my focus a tad more, I think that the email list will be close behind.
Nice post! Have a great day
mark´s last [type] ..Time Management and Your Goals
Mark, thanks for that !
The earlier you start, the sooner you get your community built!
If you want to sign up with Aweber, use the link on my site and it can buy some nappies for my son!
Matthew
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..How to Write your ebook part 5
Matthew,
Creating the list early on is the KEY. I really liked the link to the guinea pig site too. This is a perfect example of someone who found their own niche and intead o going head-to-head with all of the weight-loss and “make money online” people, carved their own.
Even if you don’t have anything to sell just yet, it’s good to start building the list, so when you do, you will have more than 2 people that are availebl to buy from you.
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
T.I.P Team Member
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Joshua, you’re spot on here, it’s definitely a good example of carving your own niche and being yourself.
The best way to do that as Justin says, is follow your passion.
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..How to Write your ebook part 5
I totally agree. You cannot understate the value of an email list. It’s simply the best way to keep your community informed. Nathalie’s site is the absolute best example of an email subscription offering I’ve seen. I’m taking notes.
Absolutely Robbie, I signed up for the same reason!
Have you tried the smoothie?
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..How to Write your ebook part 5
Very inspiring thanks Matthew.
I guess if someone can make it with Guinea Pig’s then there would be lots of hope for the rest of us
. I will have to let my brother know about that site for his guinea pig “Elvis”. haha.
Thanks again mate, reading your posts always make for inspiration.
Hey Scmidty,
That’s funny cause that’s what I was thinking when I read the post also. I mean, you know, Guinea Pigs is a high ticket market.
Brandon
Just imagine what you could do with rabbits!!! Carrot anyone?
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..How to Write your ebook part 5
Exactly Schmidty! Follow your passion and you can make money from it.
Glad you find inspiration here, thanks for the feedback!
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..How to Write your ebook part 5
Hey Matt.. The easiest thing I would say for someone who is starting out would be to grab Micro Niche Finder or Market Samurai and find some really good micro niches to start out with. You can get a really good following if you find the right niche, and starting off small is a good way to go. It’s easier than trying to compete with others when you are new to internet marketing.
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I also love Market Samurai…it really rocks for keyword research. I have it and use it a couple times each month.
Brandon