BuRP on infocarnivoreSome of you may have noticed the frequency with which I’ve been blogging here at infocarnivore.com has dropped off a little in 2011. That’s not because I’m not around! Instead my focus has shifted into building niche sites with the goal of monetizing them with the amazon affiliate program (or potentially other affiliate programs).

I’ve become aware that it is very difficult to successfully monetize a site such as infocarnivore.com with broad topics and where I simply am sharing my opinion and writing specifically about technology topics of interest to me. Though it does generate some income, particular through the google adsense program, it is not a site I want to focus all my energies into for the purpose of income. I want to continue with infocarnivore with the intention of writing articles around the topics I already do (including blogging advice), and in addition about my niche site adventures. The money I’m making at infocarnivore does not balance with the amount of hours invested in the site.

Build, Rank and Profit

Following solid advice from down under I’ve been working through The Build, Rank, Profit course by Alex Whalley. Alex does a really solid job of laying out the steps and tools one needs to begin building niche sites and making money with the amazon affiliate program. If it’s something that interests you I highly recommend you subscribe to his course! In fact you better do it quickly, because Alex mentioned to me that the course will be going to a member system with a subscription fee (right now, it’s still free!). I’ll let you in on a few more details about the BuRP (Build, Rank and Profit) course with a BuRP review in a new article soon.

My first Niche Site

Last week I launched my first niche site build (still under some construction), and you can see what that is all about at myfireproofsafe.com. The site is built around the niche of fireproof safes, file cabinets and media storage, and focuses on a few specific brands. At this point I have really only done the initial design elements, and slowly began adding content, so there have been no link building efforts yet. Still with the SEO knowledge I’ve learned through blogging here at infocarnivore and the advice offered by Alex in the BuRP course, I’m already ranking #1 in google for the longtail keyword “sentrysafe h3300 review“.

The key is certainly in targeting keywords that you can actually compete for (and that people are actually searching for too!), and then really doing a solid job of optimizing your on page SEO. I’ve written an article about how to optimize your articles for the search engines, this post teaches you how you can successfully write an article that ranks #1 in the SERPs.

Why Amazon?

There are TONS of affiliate programs out there, all with their own incentives. The reason I’m going with Amazon (initially, with this first site) is because of the ease of implementation, the benefit of having a trusted giant like Amazon behind me, and the simple method with which I can identify and display quality products to my readers. Amazon does have some drawbacks. Low commission rates, and short cookie life are big negatives in my opinion, but with A LOT of traffic, and effectively written sales copy one can build a site and be very successful (I’m confident in this, though you’ll have to wait a little longer to hear about the results of my first project.)

Of course there are alternative affiliate programs that I’d be very interested in looking into and building niche sites around. I’d be happy to hear your feedback and thoughts on niche site development, and affiliate programs that exist to monetize these sites. Please share your input with me.

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