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Niche Bloggers are bloggers that concentrate on blogging about a particular subsection of a general topic. They zeroed in on their target and make their kill, so that every word, post, comments have a singular purpose of creating an impact that will blow you away. Such bloggers are also known as “Sniping Blogger” – a term that was coined in one of our most popular previous article – Are You a Sniping Blogger or a Gatling Gun Blogger. Niche Bloggers are so exclusively focused on the specialized subject matter at hand that they seldom stray away from their niche topic. There may be an occasional post here and there that is off topic but generally they stick to their niche topic ninety-nine percent of the time.

For example, dogs is considered a general subject matter. However, a blog exclusively about Pugs is a niche blog; Asian foods is a general topic covering a broad spectrum of Asian cuisines, however, a blog about Malaysian Food is a niche blog as it focused on food that is indigenous to the people of the Malayan culture; Consumer Electronics is a huge field, however, a blog about Apple’s IPod is a niche blog because it is exclusively about a very popular brand of digital listening device called Ipod.

So, what do you consider to be the main characteristics of a profitable niche blog? What suitable monetization methods are at your disposal? What are the pitfalls of a niche blog?

Characteristics of a Profitable Niche Blog

	Highly focused content on niche topic. When you set out to pick on your niche subject of choice as the main topic, it is important to pick a niche that have at least 5 possible fairly strong sub-categories. This is to ensure that you have at your disposal a sufficient number of keywords to build a big blog someday. This will endear your blog to the search engine because people who are searching for a particular term will stand a pretty good chance of finding you.
	In-depth Coverage of the Niche. It is relatively easy to provide a deep coverage of a subject matter for a niche that has a handful of related but strong sub-categories. This could work very well to your advantage especially when you dominate the main and the sub-categories of the topic, such that the first page of the SERPs will show mostly your links. In time to come, dedicated readers and repeat visitors will beat a golden path to your door.
	Popular among Affiliate Networks. Because there are relatively few sites vying for the attention of the Affiliate Network, you can easily stand out in the pack. Marketers are always looking for more people to sell their product and services. If you offer a site that is compelling and is supported by a large captive audience, this would work out to your advantage as the negotiation power shifts to your side.
	You are a Subject Matter Expert. It is relatively easy to establish yourself as an expert in a field that offers little or no competition. Once a position is achieved, traffic will start to pour in.
	Captive Audience leads to Profits. As there are relatively few sites competing in your niche, people who have previously visited your blog and liked it, have a strong likelihood of returning. And, when they do so, they may hopefully click on an Advertisement.
	Unique Content. This point serves as a general rule of the thumb for all blogs – niche and non-niche. It is the main currency of the internet, if your content is not unique, all major search engines will make you regret it by penalizing your site. You will not get any ranking from them. However, if all your content are unique and in sufficient quantity, you will grow in ranking in no time, with other factors being equal, . Post Often and Post Unique.

Monetization Methods of Niche Blogs

One cannot expect to monetize on a niche blog without meeting the majority of the requirements above. The degree with which your monetizing efforts are going to be successful is wholly dependent on how well the above requirements have been executed. For instance, if you have not written enough in-depth content on your niche subject matter including its sub-categories, and you are using context sensitive type advertisement like Adsense, it will result in ads that are not diverse enough, resulting in “Ad Blindness” – a condition of “Ad Paralysis” to be avoided at all cost.

If your niche topic is wide enough to encompass a handful of related sub-categories, monetizing it can be very easy indeed. Any type of Context Sensitive type advertising like Adsense, Kontera Context Links and Bidvertiser will work very well with it. These Advertisements are context sensitive to the keywords used and therefore offer more relevancies to the subject matter, resulting in a higher Click Through Rate (CTR). With careful blending and placements of Ads, visitors that come to your blog looking for specific information will have a higher likelihood of clicking on the Advertisements. Another added advantage of using such Context Sensitive Advertisement Networks is that it only needs to be set up once. After optimizing it for blending and placement, it is basically on an auto-pilot, and you can go about concentrating on producing good content.

You can also easily integrate other Affiliate Products and Services into the mix. Please be very careful not to violate the TOS of any Ads Network especially Adsense which has pretty strict guidelines regarding the usage of other advertising network on the same page Adsense Ads are running.

What are the Pitfalls of Niche Blog?

	Small Audience. A niche blog is by definition catering to a small audience because of the nature of the small subject matter. This will translate to less monetization opportunities, as there are going to be less customers coming to your blog to click on an Advertisement.
	Lack of Affiliate Offerings. If your niche subject does not encompass a handful of sub-categories, it can be hard to find affiliate that carry products and services that complement your blog’s niche topic. This translates to less income opportunities.
	Ad Blindness. If you are using a Context Sensitive Ad Network like Adsense, and your niche subject does not encompass a handful of strong sub-categories, your Adsense Ad block may ads rotating among the same few advertisers, resulting in “Ad Blindness”. This translates to less income potential.
	Tough getting Inbound Links. This is because there are so few sites in the same niche, it hard to get anybody to link to your blog. Also, the sites that are in the same niche will try to retain their visitors and not sent them your way. This translates to difficult establishing a Pagerank.
	Hard to get Traffic. It is difficult to get traffic if users hardly search for a keyword related to your blog’s niche subject matter.