I learned how to build autopilot niche websites, several years ago. The main problem with them was ranking a website on Google, and keeping it there. You need to create an awesome website in order to do this. It’s not quite as ‘autopilot’ as I first thought. For a while I ranked a couple of my websites, sure. But over time, other more popular websites took the first place. Websites which offered more social engagement and authority, slowly took over.
It wasn’t entirely surprising. I thought initially though that I could simply buy a domain name with my keywords in, and that would ensure I would stay on top! It used to be the norm around 15 years ago. But things have dramatically changed since then. Google uses multiple signals to decide how your website should be ranked on their search engines. You need to be aware of the most important ones.
How To Build Autopilot Niche Websites – Your Foundation
Autopilot niche websites should be built on a good foundation. Mostly that means keyword research. You should also think carefully about what you would feel comfortable writing about. If it’s a passion, then it will be much easier to maintain the website over the long term, and keep building content for it. If you have no interest in the topic whatsoever, you’ll struggle to compete with other websites in your niche.
That being said, if you find a fantastic niche with little or no competition, you’ll probably do ok. But keep in mind that marketers have been scouring the internet for years looking for the untapped niches which will make them an easy monthly income! The companies which promise to show you how to build autopilot niche websites, know how difficult it is. Most people will fail, but the companies will still get their joining fee! So if someone’s charging you to show them how to build autopilot niche websites, be aware!
Keyword Research
Head over to Google’s keyword tool and type in your main keywords: two words which describe what your niche might be about. If you already have a hobby or passion, you can use that. Once you have done this you will see a list of keyword terms which get searches every month on Google. Usually this will start with the most searched keywords. The most searched for keywords will be far too competitive for your niche site. You can find longer tail keyword terms which fit your topic too. Just scroll down the list or toggle to the lower end of the average monthly searches by clicking on the Avg. monthly searches tab.
How To Build Autopilot Niche Websites
You’ll ideally want at least 1-3000 monthly searches for your keyword. You can use the average monthly searches tool in the left hand side to tell the keyword tool your minimum or maximum monthly searches. This will bring up less competitive keywords which you may be able to use. Once you have found a suitable keyword, you can head over to Google and see how competitive this is.
I found “garden accessories uk” which is a pretty broad keyword. So let’s use it as an example. From today’s search this gets 1000 monthly searches. Keep in mind that even if you land top place on Google with your site, you’ll still be competing with other sites and paid adverts. That’ll spread your 1000 monthly searches pretty thin. however, you can make up some of this shortfall by writing keyword targeted articles around your niche. More on this later.
How To Build Autopilot Niche Websites
Take your keyword and plug it into Google in “quotes”. As you can see below, my keyword for this example has brought up 9570 competing pages for this particular keyword. That’s the number underneath the search bar. This number give you a general idea about how much competition you have.
Obviously the lower this number is, the more change you have of ranking your website. Under 10,000 is a good starting point. Also do a normal search without quotes. For this term Google brings up 8,280,000 when I do the search. Less than 1 million is ok, but the lower numbers are obviously better.
How To Build Autopilot Niche Websites
Keyword research is probably the hardest part of this process. I built many websites and some of them ranked and some failed immediately. An online course I did recommended at least 2000 searches for your keyword a month for it to be worth your while. That was over 10 years ago now and it’s much more difficult to find these gems today.
Remember that Google wants value for the end user. Aim to build an awesome site; not just a throwaway page with nothing of use to anyone. That used to work 20 years ago but doesn’t today. Google will be very likely not to rank you at all for a few months, however good your site is. It values:
- Domain age
- Incoming links from quality authority sites in your niche
- Social media presence
- Discussion and ‘live’ activity
- Page load time
- Visitor’s time on your website and “click-away” rate
- Etc.
For this reason, don’t think you can easily throw up a niche website and forget about it! You’re unlikely to make money. If you build a solid authority site which is worth visiting, you can potentially earn an income from it.
How To Build An Autopilot Niche Website – Domain Name
Once you find your keyword, you can start to build you website. You can purchase a domain name which has your keyword in it. This may still carry some weight with Google, even if it’s less than it used to be. However, it’s the content of the site and how your visitors interact with it which will be the big indicators to Google, as to whether it’s worthy of a high ranking.
You need to get some discussion and social media engagement on your site too, ideally. Â However, it can be much better to build a website which has a broader reach. That way if you decide to change tactics, you’ll be building on a stronger foundation without having to start again every time. Get clear on what you want to do and how you’re going about it, before rushing in and you’ll save a heap of wasted time.
How To Build An Autopilot Niche Website – A Broader Reach
If you get a broader termed domain name, you can write anything on it, and it can evolve as you learn better strategies. I haven’t even mentioned the products you’ll need to find in order to monetise your website. Again, it’s irrelevant if you don’t get any traffic so that’s why the keyword research is so important.
If you decide to go down this route, you’ll need to choose some good products which are a great fit for your audience. Many of the untapped niches, if there are any left, are lacking in the product department. One of my websites was Whentoharvestgarlic.com. It’s not there now but it used to have top place on Google. It got taken over by more enthusiastic and better websites.
I have no interest in harvesting garlic, which is why it was a mistake to build it in the first place. Anyway, there were few products I could promote on it which were a good fit for the audience. But those I could find offered very little markup for their affiliates. Combine that with low volumes of traffic and you’ve got yourself an autopilot website which doesn’t make any money.
A Different Strategy
A different strategy to the niche website one is with paid advertising. It’s worth mentioning because it can mean you get better and faster results. But again, it all depends on how you apply the knowledge you gain. The income online niche is incredibly competitive. Even so, you can still rank a few articles which give you multiple ‘trickles’ of traffic.
With the right products though, you can also use paid strategies which give you much quicker traffic and can be scaled up much more easily and quickly. With paid strategies you need better and more expensive products. You can’t combine paid strategies with low value affiliate products and succeed. At least it’s not going to be easy to succeed!
By using a product range from which you can earn:
- Subscription commissions
- Commission from ‘up-sells’
- from high ticket products
- and multi-tier sales,
you are in a far better position to grow and scale your business than by trusting and hoping that Google will rank your niche website.
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