What are they? Simply put, niche markets take a narrow focus on a subject, and then put a whole cluster of related content online – in the end, search engines will index them well for the term (hopefully), and send traffic to their site. From there, using ads, affiliate programs, or what have you, the site tries to make money from the visitors.
The reference to Mesothilioma is a bit of an inside joke in the niche market. At one time, lawyers wanting to be part of class-action suits were running very expensive AdSense ads, in the hope of targeting people with the disease. For that reason, ads rates went very high, and people eventually started developing sites on the topic of Mesothiliema, in hopes of attracting ‘clicks’ – and high payouts.
(For those actually interested in the subject, Peritoneal Mesothelioma is a tumor occurring in the membrane surrounding the organs of the abdomen, and has one cause: asbestos exposure. The good news is that not all Peritoneal Mesothelioma are cancerous; some may be benign. Of course, the cancerous versions are what are attracting the interest of lawyers hoping for a payout. For more information, you can read an interesting explanation of peritoneal mesothelioma here).
Now in my case, using the words here likely won’t do anything (although there may be an ad or two displayed), primarily because my site is less targeted (surprisingly enough, this is the very first time I’ve talked about Peritoneal Mesothelioma, or in fact any Mesothelioma). But if my site was devoted to the topic, and I provided relevant and useful information, and the AdSense ads appealed to the visitors (who we hope would be interested in following through with a lawsuit), and they then clicked on them,… well then you see the way it works.
And that’s a niche site. There’s a few twists and turns to the technique, but it involves ranking high in the search engines for a given topic, especially in a narrow focus, and then finding a way to monetize at the end of it. And the nuts and bolts – picking the words, getting the content, monetizing it – that’s where the riches (and secrets) lie…
