If you're new to building niche websites (or even if you have more experience), you're probably interested in seeing some specific examples of successful niche websites, though it's just to have proof that you can still make a living online. 

Well, that's what I'm going to review today – 22 updated examples of sites that are crushing it in monthly traffic.Now, to be clear, these are not my websites.I don't know who owns all these websites or how much money they make.However, I will explain what I think they did well and why I think they are most likely doing well as far as income is concerned.

Also, just to note: all of these sites have different monetization methods.There are so many different ways to monetize a website these days, that it's hard NOT to make money when you have a lot of traffic.All of these sites target keywords that receive a good search volume.

I won't look specifically at the levels of competition for these keywords, but rather how much traffic comes in for some of the higher-volume keywords.Most of these sites cater to pretty high competitor keywords, but that's not the focus of this post today.

I want to focus on keyword volume and CPC, domain names, website layout, content, and monetization methods.

If you've been following me for a while, you probably know that nowadays, it all depends on the quality, not only the website, but also the quality of the actual page on the site.You're unlikely to rank well for a competitive keyword with a 1500-word article and lots of links.Most articles need to be thorough and answer any questions the user might have on the subject.

22 EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL NICHE WEBSITES:

While there are many websites out there that are doing very well, here's a list of 22 websites I've put together for you that either I know are doing very well, or I suspect are doing very well based on traffic. 

I'm not sure what tactics they're using to reach the large amounts of traffic they receive, but I can say they get a lot of traffic and, with that traffic, a good amount of monthly recurring revenue.Let's dive in with 22 examples in no particular order.

EXAMPLES OF AFFILIATE MARKETING WEBSITES

WEBSITE NAME: THEWIRECUTTER.COM+THESWEETHOME.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 4.5 + million visitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 3.2 million + ranked keywordsTop ranking page content Topic: Wireless routerHighest ranking page content length: 10,181 words (does not include comments)How they earn: mainly Amazon affiliates The Wirecutter.com and TheSweetHome.com were sold a couple of years to the New York Times.

They were both Amazon-affiliated sites, and that's where most of their revenue came from then, and still comes from today.When the sites were purchased, TheSweetHome.com was redirected to TheWireCutter.com as both sites had very similar content structures. 

WireCutter dominates organic search results for many keywords intended by the buyer and is also a "verified expert reviewer" of Amazon.The site receives huge amounts of organic traffic and has gained enormously in popularity and search ranking after being purchased by the New York Times.  

Because of the budget they have, this site has the ability to purchase products and pay independent reviewers to review each product and take photos for their item.Many of their articles are extensively studied and it is not uncommon to see some of their articles with more than 7000 words on a topic. 

This is one of the biggest examples of a successful Amazon niche website, and based on estimated traffic, they're probably making hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, if not millions, far removed from my recent FBA and business selling venture .

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WEBSITE NAME: RUNNERCLICK.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 548,000+ hitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 394,000+ keywordsContents of the topmost page Topic: Running ShoesStart Page Content Length: 4,891 wordsHow they earn revenue: Amazon affiliatesRunnerClick.com is an interesting Amazon associates website.

Interestingly, it hasn't existed all along, but it has gained rapid momentum thanks to ongoing outreach efforts.You can see that their link-building efforts have been a success when you look at the historical data on Ahrefs, which shows the trend in the referring domains.  

They rank extremely well for many buyer-oriented keywords in the execution space and have a lot of product reviews.

The thing I like most about the site is how it feels.All of Amazon's affiliate links are extremely well integrated and have done custom design work to make some of their images interactive.Another trend here is that the owners of this site own similar sites in many other niches. 

You can know which sites are owned by the owners of this site when you look at the bottom of the site and notice that they link internally to their other web properties.This is becoming a popular trend, with people in DigitalMarketer.com doing the same thing with some of their projects, such as SurvivalLife.com and DIYReady.com. 

It's hard to estimate the total revenue for this site, but because the calls to action on the site are so good, it wouldn't surprise me if this site generated more than 70,000 per month in Amazon affiliate revenue each month.

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WEBSITE NAME: BESTREVIEWS.IT

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 522,000+ hits Number of organic keywords (Ahrefsestimates): 471,000+ keywordsContents of the topmost page Page topic: FryersStart page content length: 3,000 wordsHow they earn revenue: affiliates AmazonBest Review is a website that does exactly what the domain name claims.

They offer extremely detailed and thorough reviews of certain products and make sure to show that their reviewers have their brand on display to ensure that the reader builds a trust factor established with the website. 

This is a very smart move for any type of review-based website.If you can take your own photos and show your readers that you actually have experience with products, there's a good chance your reader will identify with your content and be more likely to convert to a buyer once they've gone to Amazon or another online resource to buy their product.

The best reviews are interesting for several reasons.They are attractive because they pay a ton of their traffic based on the results obtained through SEMRush.com. 

They average around 300,000 visits each month due to Google Adwords ad spend.This means they bid on keywords and pay for traffic in addition to the organic traffic they already get.It is possible that buying this additional traffic helped them get additional links because their content is very good. 

The purchased traffic is only helping them get closer to an audience that is actually searching for their product, just like SEO.If conversion rates are lower, you'll end up earning less money than you spend on buying traffic, but due to the authenticity of reviews, BestReviews.com likely to convert searchers into buyers at a higher rate than other affiliate sites. 

Although it's hard to know exactly, I guess this site produces 6 digits per month or more in Amazon affiliates' revenue due to their traffic number.

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WEBSITE NAME: GEARPATROL.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 668,000+ hitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 772,000+ keywordsContents of the topmost page Page topic: Office chairsStart page content length: 1,600 wordsHow they make money: Amazon affiliates, displayads GearPatrol.com is an online resource that reviews anything you can think of.

They run in the same vein as TheWireCutter.com but have an angle that is more towards men.They get a lot of traffic with their reviews of bourbon and whiskey, as well as many other products that might be considered more masculine. 

They emphasize a lot of men's gear in their reviews and probably make a really good chunk of their revenue from being an Amazon affiliate.They run adsense, and they also seem to have a decent amount of content that could be considered a "sponsored post."

A sponsored post is just an article that a larger company puts together to promote their product, while paying for exposure to the website owner.

This site is an example of what many sites are doing these days.They are "reduced" in parentheses of some products and create an online multimedia experience in the form of an online magazine-style site.There are many large images, some videos and it looks like a real multimedia property. 

Chances are you'd need to hire a designer to get a similar look for your website if you were to try it out.From a revenue perspective, this site is probably making more than six figures of total revenue if I had to guess, based on their organic traffic number alone.

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WEBSITE NAME: BABYGEARLAB.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 119,000+ hitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 107,000+ keywordsTop ranking page content Topic: convertible car seatsStart page content length: 8,800 wordsHow they make money: Amazon AssociatesBabyGearLab.com is basically the kid-OutdoorGearLab.com version of .

It has the same theme and structure as the OutDoorGearLab.com site.Although it does not express that this site is owned by the same people, it is probably run by the same group. 

The structure is very similar and the focus is definitely the income of Amazon affiliates for this site.The nice thing about this site is that they actually have really good reviews and content.It's similar to TheWireCutter.com, but reduced, which is a popular route that most sites are walking these days.

While traffic estimates are lower than some of the other sites on this list, people in the baby gear niche are an important customer base because they definitely buy products.This is a big industry and I guess the conversion rate for this site is slightly higher than OutDoorGearLab.com. 

Typically when someone searches for a baby product, they are typically trying to buy that baby product.If someone is looking for a tent, they might just be looking around at several options they can compare for their next camping trip, not necessarily to buy that tent. 

Most of their traffic is organic, and continuing the trend of well-ranked long-form content, their main post is 8,800 words long (which is a beast of an article).If you had to guess the revenue, it would probably be north of 30k per month for this site based on traffic.

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WEBSITE NAME: OUTDOORGEARLAB.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 611,000+ hits Number of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 349,000+ ranked keywordsContents of the topmost page Topic: hiking bootsHighest ranking page content length: 6,001 words (does not include comments)How they earn: mainly Amazon affiliates and ad space salesOutdoorGearLab.com is another monster Amazon affiliate.

They get tons of traffic and target many different keywords to shoppers for purchases that are largely made online.They are more well-groomed (which I think is a good thing) than a web property like TheWireCutter.com. 

I would never recommend anyone to go out and create another WireCutter because if you're just starting out, you won't have the budget to compete as deep as they do.

When it comes to ranking well in Google, Google will generally give your site preferential treatment on certain topics, once you understand what your website is about.Sites that cover such a wide variety of topics don't tend to rank as well as sites that are small, unless you have an amazing backlink profile and a really big budget. 

Because TheWireCutter is owned by The New York Times, they have the budget to test new products and have the authority to be linked to any other web property owned by The New York Times.If you're targeting a specific audience, Google is much more likely to favor your content on a larger site when it comes to that audience. 

OutdoorGearLab.com did exactly that by focusing only on reviews of outdoor tools.I guess they also have a big budget and, as a result, have created a very successful affiliate business.It is also an outstanding looking site with a lot of excellent information.  

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WEBSITE NAME: 10BEASTS.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 211,000+ hitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 35,700+ ranked keywords Highest ranking page content Topic: Wireless router Highest rankingpage content length: 5,300 words (does not include comments)How they earn revenue: Amazonaffiliates 10Beasts.com has been a successful affiliate site for the past couple of years.

It was a bit of a "heated debate" in the internet marketing industry.The website actually has very little content compared to other authority sites. 

It has less than 20 pages of real content, but it is believed that due to the strong link profile, Google favored the site's content.It's an extremely unusual site, as most of the link profile consists of scholarship links, which many marketers believe is an abused link-building tactic that is ripe for a Google sanction.

That said, the traffic this site earns from having so few posts is extremely impressive.There have been many other websites that have attempted to achieve the same success with the same tactics, but have not had the same results as 10beasts.com regarding rankings. 

While it's hard to estimate income, I guess it was in the range of 30K to 50K per month due to all the traffic the main items receive.They are highly purchased items online (gaming mice and wireless routers), which make it an extremely profitable affiliate site. 

While I can't recommend trying to get links via scholarship links, there is no doubt that Google has ranked this site very well because of such links.The content isn't as good as some other in-depth articles, but they're very attuned to the specific keywords they're trying to rank for.

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EXAMPLES OF ADSENSE NICHE SITES / EXAMPLES OF NICHE SITES OF DIRECT ADS

WEBSITE NAME: FATHERLY.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 171,000+ hitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 497,000+ keywordsTop page content Topic: Baby MonitorStart Page Content Length: 1,600 wordsHow they get revenue: Display and Amazon Associatesad revenue Fatherly is a website that addresses many different forms of content.

Based on a similar web.com lookup, they get about 22% of their traffic from organic search.  Almost 25% of their traffic is direct and almost 40% comes from social media (Facebook, Pinterest, etc.). 

It's important to take note of this because while they may not get a ton of Google's organic traffic based on keyword spread, they're getting a ton of traffic from social media platforms that undoubtedly has a huge impact on revenue.

While their main keyword for getting organic traffic is about Baby Monitor, items like these that are monetized through Amazon affiliates are only a fraction of the site's revenue.I'm sure display ads account for the majority of their revenue, either through an ad network or by selling their own ad space.  

It looks like they're currently monetized with AdSense, but that could be part of their monetization strategy with any larger ad network.There are larger ad networks out there that typically offer a higher RPM than just Adsense these days, so it's something every website owner with some serious traffic should look at. 

Overall, the traffic Fatherly.com generated each month is extremely impressive.

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WEBSITE NAME: TOMSHARDWARE.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 11.6 million + hits Number of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 7.6 million + keywordsTop ranking page content Topic: Heirarchy GPUStart Page Content Length: 1500 Words (Extremely Useful Table Data)How They Get Revenue: Display and Amazon Associates Ad RevenueTom's Hardware pretty much started as a forum.

They have expanded and redesigned and the website is now one of the most popular and visited sites in the PC niche.The site is where hardcore PC enthusiasts go to discuss all the different issues related to PC parts. 

Popular topics include CPU drives, memory, motherboards, overclocking, systems, operating systems, and next-generation computers.While the old forum post format worked well as a revenue method for display advertising (remember the site was primarily a forum as I used it for a PC build I did) – the amount of authority with which the site lent itself very well to becoming a completely content-based site.

Now Tom's Hardware publishes its own reviews, and in addition to the revenue generated from display ads, it is earning a significant portion of money from Amazon affiliate links.The site is already known for reliable content on Personal Computing, so it makes sense to increase content generation to attract more organic search volume. 

It would be difficult to estimate the monthly revenue for this site, but it is very likely to generate 7 digits per month. 

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WEBSITE NAME: THEATHLETICBUILD.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 85,000+ hitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 62,000+ keywordsTop ranking page content Topic: athletesStart page content length: 2,500 wordsHow they earn: Amazon Associates, Affiliate Programs, Display AdsTheAthleticBuild.com is a website that covers different fitness topics.

It's probably safe to say that most of their content is geared toward men, and most of their revenue comes from Amazon or their affiliate programs. 

Based on the look and feel of the site, they have some supplement reviews that are likely affiliate programs where they get paid a portion of every sale a buyer makes. 

Some of these affiliate programs have higher returns than other programs, but there are some right or wrong decisions that you'll need to work through yourself if you're endorsing certain types of nutritional products, especially if you don't take them yourself.

That said, this site definitely gets decent traffic and even if they were just participating in display displays and Amazon Associates as monetization, I'm sure it would make a significant income. 

As BabyGearLab.com – people looking for supplements usually try to buy something, and decisions about health foods are often impulse purchases.This means that this niche can convert better than others, especially since the price points of many of these products are low-end. 

For a "guessable" income – I'd say this site is probably making north of 20K per month between affiliates and display ad revenue.

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WEBSITE NAME: THESPRUCE.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 42 + million visits Number of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 13.4 + million keywords Top of the ranking page content Topic: Roasted pork chops Top of page Content length: less than 1,000 words, but highly relevant grill of many pork chops recipesHow they earn: Display ads, direct sales of advertisingspace TheSpruce.com is an interesting website for several reasons.

It started taking off in early 2017, specifically as a cooking + food website.The traffic growth is huge, and the website is now ranked for millions of pretty competitive keywords. 

They have a small staff and, in the beginning, they focused on producing recipes, with high-quality pinnable images (Pinterest) and even some very detailed videos showing how to cook or decorate parts of your home. 

They accept contributors' posts, but not unsolicited guest posts, and because of domain authority, I'm sure there are bloggers who line up to provide them with extremely valuable content for free as long as it's featured on the site.

As a result of their rapid growth, they also have a stellar link profile.It is a situation where, because they rank well, get more links, and the more links they get, the better the ranking of all their articles.There are a number of reasons why this site took off, but overall it's an excellent site that has built a solid foundation on nothing but organic traffic. 

I have no idea what strategy they initially used to get links and start getting the exposure they did, but the growth this site has experienced is nothing short of impressive.I would estimate their traffic figures at between six and seven digits on a monthly basis.

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EXAMPLES OF NICHE LEAD GENERATION WEBSITES

WEBSITE NAME: LEARNHOWTOBECOME.ORG

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 445,000+ hitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 168,000+ keywordsContents of the topmost page Page topic: Medical Assistant TrainingStart Page Content Length: 3157 wordsHow they earn: CPA/LeadsLearnHowToBecome.org is a dedicated education website that provides information to prospective students.

They have a lot of great content and cover pretty much every type of educational field that comes to mind when it comes to discovering the best university path in a given profession. 

A quick look at the backlinks shows that they have tons of major educational institutions they work with, which is a significant part of their backlinking strategy.The content is top-notch, and the website is specifically designed to allow users to interact with the comparison grids and search the best possible schools for their topic.

The point where they make money is when someone chooses a school to get information.There are companies (like Quinstreet) that allow you to get paid "per lead" for educational content.Some of these leads can pay anywhere from $20 up to $50 per lead depending on the institution.There are many affiliate sites in the education niche that get paid using these kinds of contacts. 

I'm not sure if LearnHowToBecome.org uses Quinstreet or another CPA network, but the fact is, there's definitely a lot of money in the industry for education affiliates.In the past, these were some of the most profitable CPC earning niches you could find yourself in (see our sites from 2012), but many have switched completely to the lead-based model when it comes to monetization.

If you had to guess, LearnHowToBecome.org is probably earning six-digit multiple monthly revenue due to ranking for a number of excellent education-focused keywords.

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WEBSITE NAME: LAWYEREDU.ORG

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 55,500+ hitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 35,000+ keywordsContents of the top rankings page Topic: How long does law school lastStart page content length: 600 wordsHow they earn: CPA / LeadsSimilar to LearnHowToBecome.org, LawyerEdu.org is a site focused on continuing education for the legal profession.

Their content is designed to guide their visitors to the most appropriate legal career.The site is custom coded as an HTML site, so it loads extremely quickly. 

All the sites we've reviewed so far have primarily used WordPress as their CMS system, so it's interesting when I see a successful affiliate site that uses a custom design and HTML.

I'd say the content on this site is a little less "in-depth" when compared to LearnHowToBecome.org, but the content is still very good (hence the reason a 600-word article ranks well for a high-volume keyword).While it's hard to judge based on traffic estimates, I guess LawyerEdu.org is making over $10k per month based on lead sales. 

If you recall, CPA/Lead sales programs can produce up to $50 or more per lead, and some professions and/or schools pay even more for them.Overall this site doesn't have a ton of content, but the content it has is super informative and hyper focused on a line of work.It also has an excellent connecting profile, which is another reason why it ranks well.

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WEBSITE NAME: NERDWALLET.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 11 million + hitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 2.9 million + keywordsTop ranking page content Topic: How much can I affordStart Page Content Length: 200 words (interactive calculator with appropriate title attribute)How they earn: CPA/Leads

NerdWallet is another gigantic site, which earns most of its revenue from the form of CPA offerings and generated leads for financial institutions.Similar to services like Lending Tree, NerdWallet gets your information when you look at different financial products and sells your contact information as a "lead" to qualified financial institutions looking to sell you products. 

The kicker here is that the CPA on most financial products is significantly higher than on other CPA offerings, such as educational leads.A benefit for a loan might pay $200 instead of the regular $20 – $50 you'll get in the education niche.

Should you attempt to enter the financial niche?Personally, this is not a niche I would consider.Financial niches are extremely competitive, and although they are very profitable if your site ranks, it will cost much more time and money to get your site in a place where you are constantly earning. 

That said, if you're a certified financial expert or already have a social media following for financial topics, it might be "easier" to start a site, get backlinks, and start running.If you're planning to open a student loan website or buy a home, expect there to be a lot of competition.I have no doubt that NerdWallet is making over 7 digits per month.

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WEBSITE NAME: GREATIST.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 2.1 + million hits Number of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 4.4 + million keywordsContents of the topmost page Topic: Healthy breakfastsStart page content length: 2,655 wordsHow they get revenue: Displayads Greatist.com is a health publication started in 2011.

The growth in traffic over the past couple of years is incredible and the site has become a full-fledged multimedia resource.Greatist.com has a larger staff and has purchased several other businesses online.  The first keyword "healthy breakfasts" gets about 62,000 searches per month, but the long-tail traffic that Greatist.com becomes truly incredible.

With 2.1 million organic search results per month, this site rivals some of the largest media publications in the health and fitness niche.They also appear to a wide mass of individuals rather than just bodybuilders or professional weightlifters.Greatist.com articles feature content on food, basic fitness, strength training, marathons, and more.It's not as small as other health sites, but it doesn't claim to be an expert in a specific niche.Rather, they recruit industry experts to write about specific topics.The sheer volume of traffic Greatist.com takes on each month leads me to estimate that this site is probably making more than six figures per month in display ad revenue alone.

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COMBINATION AND DIRECT SELLING EXAMPLES OF NICHE SITES

WEBSITE NAME: MUSCLEFORLIFE.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 636,000+ hits Number of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 431,000+ keywordsTop page content Page topic: Men's workoutsStart page content length: 2507 wordsHow they earn revenue: Sell yourown MuscleForLife products.

com is another successful website. I hate calling it an affiliate site, because it's actually a real brand, and probably the truest form of what I would recommend to most people if they have a niche they're passionate about.Basically, Mike Matthews started a fitness blog because he was passionate about fitness. 

I'm not sure about his credentials as a fitness mind – it's possible he doesn't have any.What he did was write a book about what worked for him and people followed him.Many people have seen excellent results following his training programs, so because of the value he created, he sold many books.

Looking at his history, it seems that he has always had an entrepreneurial spirit.I'm not sure if I wrote his books myself or wrote them ghostly, but once he had a wider following: he launched his own supplement product line and it seems he's doing very well selling in his shop, as well as selling on Amazon.com. 

Mike has done what most people starting out doing business online should hope to do: build a brand around themselves, build an audience, and sell them the products they really want to make a difference.If I'm guessing about income numbers, I'm sure this is a seven-figure deal per year with its supplements.  

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WEBSITE NAME: HEALTHAMBITION.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 181,000+ hits Number of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 241,000+ keywordsTop Ranking Page Contents Topic: apple cider vinegarStart page content length: 1,600 wordsHow they earn: display ads, Amazon affiliates, affiliateproducts HealthAmbition is a public case study website created by kids on AuthorityHacker.com.

It's easily a 7-digit business per year based on their own admission, and they profit from display ads, recommended Amazon products, and separate affiliate offers they send to their mailing list. 

This has been a long-term project owned by the Authority Hacker team, as they publish new content and test different monetization strategies.  

Just as I've been able to create several profitable websites, this site is a great example of what works right now in SEO.The site is full of useful content, and most of the most recent content has a rather long form (that's over 2,000 words per article). 

They publish quite a bit, and this team is known to have their processes very well among their writers, editors, VA, and other parts of their team.This is a difficult niche to solve, but these guys did a great job demonstrating how to build a profitable authority site from A to Z.

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WEBSITE NAME: HEREPUP.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 66,500+ hits Number of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 86,500+ keywordsContents of the topmost page Page topic: What dogs can/can't eatStart page content length: 3,886 wordsHow they earn: Display ads, affiliate partnerships, HerePup.com  it's another public case study that was released by one of my former employees, Perrin.

Perrin is no stranger to affiliate sites, as it was the public case study for Niche Site Project 2 and created an authority site in the shaving niche. 

This site was one that started building while it was still working for me and the traffic took off.The site worked very well for him for quite some time, when he decided to sell the site to several outside investors.  

Perrin wrote a blog on his site at AuthorityHacker.com blog, and also openly discussed the sale of this site, which was sold for over $200,000 as the final sale price.The site still does very well in organic search rankings, and monetization seems to have been diverted from display ads, to an affiliate program with a pet food company. 

This site is proof that with the right systems and content in place, profitable affiliate sites are still out there to be created – even by the solo entrepreneur or the person who loves SEO as a hustle.

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WEBSITE NAME: LABRADORTRAININGHQ.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 223,000+ hits Number of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 196,000+ keywordsContents of the topmost page Page topic: English LabradorsStart page content length: 7,720 words (including comments section)How they earn: Display ads, LabradorTrainingHQ affiliatepartnerships.

com is a site I came across while searching competitively for Perrin's affiliate site. They compete for some of the same keywords and seem to be monetized with the same methods (Amazon Affiliates and an affiliate program with Chewy.com). 

This site receives more traffic than HerePup.com, but it's yet another example of a smaller website that's doing very well.This is a WordPress site, with a generic template/theme, and (there are free themes that look just as good) it's more in the form of a blog than a true media property.

The site has many links, and the long-form content that the site showcases is one of the reasons why it ranks so well.Most of the site's content is extremely focused and very informative.It is quite typical that an article on this site is over 2,000 words. 

While longer content doesn't always mean better, Google bases some of its ranking factors on the amount of content on the page that covers the topic in its entirety.The deeper the article, the more likely it is that the user will find the answer they were looking for, which is why this website has so many articles that rank very well. 

Each article is very comprehensive and provides great information on the subject.If you had to guess, the site is probably making over $20k per month based on traffic estimates.

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WEBSITE NAME: NOMADICMATT.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 393,000+ hits Number of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 360,000+ keywordsContents of the Top ranking page Topic: ThailandStart page content length: 3,158 wordsHow they make money: Book salesNomadicMatt.com is similar to MuscleForLife.com in that Matt Kepnes took his passion and turned it into a legitimate business.

If you're planning to start a site in the travel niche, Nomadic Matt's blog is probably a resource you'll take a look at quite frequently when analyzing your content. 

He capitalized on his traffic by self-publishing a series of books.He has gained credibility from several media appearances, which I am sure helps his book sales and allows him to get natural and high-quality connections.

The volume of traffic it gets is significant if you think that most people interested in travel have a disposable income.This means they are more likely to spend money on luxury items, making them a perfect demographic purchase for products.In the past, Matt has had some CPA offers on his posts where he talked about the best travel credit cards. 

These offers earn a similar income to NerdWallet.com, who when someone clicks on its link and applies for a credit card, a referral fee is paid.It seems those products are gone now, and he decided to focus tightly on selling books and keeping his blog free from other display ads (Kudos to you Matt). 

If I had to guess, I'm sure Matt is making at least $50,000 a month for his book sales seeing all the traffic he gets.

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WEBSITE NAME: MAKINGSENSEOFCENTS.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 49,100+ HitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 50,000+ keywordsTop ranking page content Topic: Earn Amazon Gift CardsStart Page Content Length: 1,425 wordsHow they make money: affiliate hosting, course sales, displayads Michelle Schroeder-Gardener launched MakignSenseofCents.com in 2013.

While Ahrefs estimates that it is getting 49,000 hits per month, its actual page views are much higher as it is part of the AdThrive network, which allows websites to be part of it only if you have 100,000 page views per month. 

You can see in its income reports that this income makes up an extremely small portion of its entire revenue streams.Its biggest earnings are Bluehost affiliate commissions and its course that sells.

The thing I love about this website is that Michelle tells you exactly how she makes money and hides nothing.Its traffic numbers are impressive, and it's starting to make money on social media, based on its concluded 2017 business review. 

It has a very good sized email list, which I'm sure is used not only to promote its own products, but also for other affiliate or sponsor offers that might make their way to product-related or course-related opportunities.He did a great job diversifying his income, and luckily for me – I don't have to guess how much he earns.  

He fully discloses his income and earns over $120k per month from blogging alone.

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WEBSITE NAME: NICHEPURSUITS.COM

Organic monthly traffic (Ahrefs estimate): 17,700+ HitsNumber of organic keywords (Ahrefs estimates): 28,200+ keywordsTop ranking page content Topic: Amazon FBAStart page content length: 5,270 wordsHow they make money: my products, affiliate partnerships That's right,my blog NichePursuits.com is a successful affiliate website!

While I don't earn as much as some other bloggers, it's been my passion and voice that lends itself to my brands and software product businesses that I know my readers can use. 

While I don't publicly disclose the revenue I make from my activities, you can go back and see from my previous revenue reports exactly how much NichePursuits earns each month.My income from NichePursuits.com is only a part of my online income because of all my other activities that I am a part of.

That said, NichePursuits.com earns me a fair amount of revenue from affiliated companies and I get some of it from hosting affiliated companies.The reason I listed Niche Pursuits here is because it is a successful site and proves that you can make money online if you think about it.

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WHAT CAN YOU TAKE AWAY FROM ALL THESE SITES?

There are a few things you can take away from all these sites.Some of these are important and I think they are worth mentioning in a little more detail.

1. You can still succeed online, you just need to get to work.It may take longer than before, but there are countless businesses started online every day.
2. Long content seems to dominate Google right now.It doesn't matter what you're selling, but if you want to rank well on Google, you need to give Google a well-researched topic.
3. Not all affiliate sites focus on the same thing.There are thousands of ways to make money online: choose a niche you love and find a way to monetize it.
4. There is always room for more competition.Choose if you want: there are people out there making six figures from websites about succulent plants.
5. Don't chase money.Money is good, but if you really want to grow your business, focus on value.All these websites are unique in that they provide a lot of value.Value first, money second.

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IDEAS FOR NICHE SITES IN 2019

So you've seen all these niches, but you're still not sure which one is right for you.No problem.It is difficult to choose a niche, and you are not alone.We have a whole Facebook group full of people trying to find their niches and create great websites.

Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

• Living at home
  • Mom's gear
  • Dad clothing
  • Baby equipment
• Sports
  • Lacrosse
  • hockey
  • Paintball
  • Billiards

• Passions
  • Model trains
  • magic tricks
  • Collectible toys
• Outdoors
  • Hunting
  • Peach
  • Hiking
  • Survivalist
• indoors
  • Kitchen
  • Furniture
  • Indoor pets
  • TV
• Bless you
  • Fitness
  • Paleo
  • Crossfit
  • Resistance training
  • Weightlifting
  • Training from home

HOW TO START A NICHE WEBSITE

Starting your niche website has never been easier.We have a complete guide to monsters if you want all the details.Here, I will cover only the bases.

1. FIND YOUR NICHE

Finding your niche involves starting a business based on where your passions and needs meet.Make sure you are interested in the business you are going to start or you will burn out. 

But how do you know which niches need?(By the way, niches with high demands always get big profits since the competition is less) You'll need some keyword research.

I recommend using the free version of KWFinde r for this initial niche research.You're looking to use your favorite niche ideas (passion) and come up with long-tail, low-difficulty (need) keywords.These keywords should have no more than 2 websites positioned on the first page of Google with more than 25 domain authorities.

It's a pretty specific requirement.I search for about 10 keywords that fit this definition of low difficulty.These 10 will be easy to rank and will help my website get some initial earnings.

For every niche you can't find 10 long-tail keywords with the specs above, tick it.There may be a need there, but you will have to spend much more time and energy to make a profit.

2. PLAN YOUR CONTENT

When you've chosen a viable niche that interests you and needs, you need to start planning your content.The 10 keywords you've found to validate your niche are a great place to start.

Here you want to start finding different "content categories".Sometimes these are called hubs, silos or spokes.These categories are groups of content around a similar topic in your niche.Let's say your niche is fitness.You may have "Home Tool Training" as a hub, "supplements" as a hub, and "Healthy eating" as a third hub. 

You can have as many hubs as you want, but NichePursuits has almost 700 contents, and we only have 7 categories.Do not overdo it and do not go too tight.For a new niche site, I think 3 categories is a large number.

In these categories you will need a lot of long-tail keywords with high purchase intent.Reviews and "best X for Y" items are uploaded to the purchase of content.Try to find keywords that contain the word "best" or "review."You want these to make up about 80% of your content at the beginning. 

It also searches for content with many referring domains.This type of content will almost always be informative.Think about how to lead or answer questions.

Although the difficulty is high on this type of content, these referring domains are people that you can later propose links.The purpose of this type of informational content is not to rank, but to build the authority of your website via backlinks.

In general, it is better to plan at least 50 contents (40 intent to purchase, 10 informative with lots that refer to domains).

3. LAUNCH YOUR SITE

Now you have your niche know your content.It's time to get started.I love and recommend Bluehost for hosting your website.They're fast, cheap, and customer support is out of this world.Over the years they have hosted countless niche sites.

Once your site is up and running, you'll need to customize it as you wish.For this, I recommend GeneratePress for your theme with Elementor as a page builder.Both of these tools are free, so you don't have to pay anything to try them out.

Get the GeneratePress theme for free here.

Get Elementor for free here.

And once your site looks the way you want, it's time to produce your content.You can do it yourself or hire others.I advise you to write your first articles yourself even if you are not a great writer by nature.

If you want to hire writers to do all the work for you, I recommend Upwork or ContentPit.Upworks can be hit or lost.You'll have to sift through a lot to find a great writer at an affordable price.If you go this route, I've had a lot of luck with college students who don't have reviews.They often work cheaply but write quite well.

I used ContentPit on my niche site project 4. I think they are an incredible service.They write as cheap as college students but are of much higher quality than 90% of freelancers.If you use my link, you will get an additional 30% on your first order.

4. EMPOWER YOUR AUTHORITY

There is never a final step towards niche sites, but this is the step on which many people fail.Increasing your authority involves attracting links to your content.

There are many ways to do this, and one of the ways is to wait until your site gets links naturally.It's not what I do for my niche sites, but it's what I do for NichePursuits.I don't build any connection with Niche Pursuits, but it generates hundreds of them every month.

If you want to create links, I recommend posting the guests or the skyscraper tactics.Posting guests involves asking other site owners if you can post free content on their site.In this content, link to your site.

The skyscraper technique is a bit more involved.Write incredible content, find everyone that links to others, similar content, and ask if they will link to your content instead.

You can click here to read our complete guide on creating links for niche sites.

4 EXAMPLES OF NICHE WEBSITES SINCE 2012 (MINE, HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED!):

If you want to see some historical data – here are some of the successful websites in 2012. It's crazy how things have gone from smaller sites that have focused on having a domain name (keywords in the domain name) with exact match to sites that are authority sites with lots of quality content.

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WEBSITE NAME: MEDICALASSISTANTSALARYGUIDE.ORG

The targeted keyword is obviously "medical assistant salary".This keyword receives 27,100 local searches with exact match every month and has a high CPC of $3.88 according to the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. I personally like to target keywords that have 3 to 5k or more exact match searches.So, 27k is AWESOME!Also, the CPC of $3.88 is also very good (above my $1 minimum).

The site is currently ranked 8th on Google for its main keyword.Note that they used the keyword in the domain name, even though it's not an exact match domain, but it's still dense with keywords.

Here's what the site looks like:

The first things that come out are the number of ads (which I circled).This might be a bit heavy and I don't usually place many advertisements above the fold. However, I guarantee that they have an excellent CTR with this layout.The ads are above the fold and within the content, plus using the link unit at the top where a navigation bar would typically go is also very safe.I would be surprised if the CTR was not at least 10%.However, I would like to warn against using this number of ads.My edit would be to remove one of the middle square units and then wrap the text around the other.

Anyway, my guess is that this site ranks 8th in Google for this keyword and high CPC, probably pulls between $500 and $1000 per month.In reality it could be much more than just depending on how much traffic they actually receive.This assumes that they receive traffic from more than just this keyword (as is the case with every single website I've ever owned).

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WEBSITE NAME: DENTALASSISTANTSALARYDATA.COM

This search term also receives about 27,100 LOCAL searches with exact match per month.The CPC is $4.24 – another great Adsense keyword.I can't stress how important it is to check exact match searches to make sure the volume is really there.

The site is currently in first place in Google!

Here's what the site looks like:

I highlighted with red boxes how they are monetizing the site.First I emphasize the professional appearance of the site: it has a custom logo and a very clean look to the site.   

     

    

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