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Are you having a hard time deciding what you should blog about? There are so many ideas flowing around in your head of things you can write about, but you are unsure where to start? How do you even know if a topic is good?
After all, your goal is to make money from your blog, right? You want to start a website that can actually be profitable and make you money.
This is where you might be asking: Is there a way to know if a website topic will be profitable or not?
Well, I had the same question and I found my answer with the Niche Site Academy course by Mike Pearson. Today I want to share with you my thoughts about this SEO course and hopefully help you decide whether this is the right investment for you.
Do I recommend the Niche Site Academy course?
Yes! This is a great course that will teach you how to decide on a profitable topic for your website. What I love about this course is Mike’s systemic approach to picking a profitable website idea. You will do all of the research before actually investing in any domain name and then you can confidently start your website knowing that it can make you money.
Note: This course is only open for enrollment a couple times a year. You are in luck because the course is open NOW for enrollment until November 12th. Sign up here for Niche Site Academy.
What is a Niche site?
A Niche site is a type of website that is narrow and only focuses on a particular topic. By being narrow with your content the website will be seen as an expert in that particular topic, which helps with ranking in search engine results. The main goal of a niche website is to get targeted traffic from search engines and make money through affiliate marketing and ad revenue.
Building a successful niche site does take time. When you build a website from scratch the return will not be immediate. This is a long game because the goal is to get targeted search engine traffic that has buyer intent. Building up your authority does take time for Google and other search engines to start ranking your content. So if you are looking for a quick return then building a website may not be for you. But if you are patient then the return can be exponential as you build out your website with good content.
Niche Site Academy Course Overview:
The Niche Site Academy Course originally launched in June 2020. It is a video based course hosted on the Kajabi platform. The author is Mike Pearson who is a SEO expert that has launched multiple successful websites.
Who is this course for?
The Niche Site Academy course is designed for anyone who is looking to build a website from scratch.
- If you are new to blogging this is a good course for you because it will provide you with a systematic way to decide on how to choose a topic for your blog that can actually make money.
- If you are looking to start an additional website this course is for you. This isn’t your first time blogging, but you want to scale your income and manage multiple websites. Not only will you learn how to choose the right niche for your blog, but Mike shows you how to scale your process by hiring content writers.
What you will learn:
After going through this course you will have picked a topic and started a website that has money making potential.
How to choose a profitable niche for your website
Mike will take you step by step through his systematic approach on how to choose a profitable niche for your website.
- Learn how to validate whether or not a niche is profitable
- How to come up with niche ideas based on Ahrefs SEO data
- How to test out the profitability of your niche idea
- Filter out ideas that may be too competitive or are considered Google E-A-T (expertise, authority, trust) driven topics, which can be harder to rank for.
How to start a website
After you have picked your topic Mike will walk you through the steps on how to actually start your website.
- How to choose and register a good domain name for your blog
- Picking a host and setting up your website with WordPress
- Which pages you need to make sure your website it legal
- How to create category pages that help with SEO
Planning out your website content
Mike offers a systematic approach to planning your content that involves:
- Researching your competitors
- Finding out what keywords they are ranking for
- Creating better content to out rank them
When it comes to SEO you want to pick keywords that have good traffic potential, that are not too competitive and ones with monetization potential. After you go through this course you will have a nice list of post ideas that you actually have a chance to rank for.
How to write your content to get it to rank
When it comes to your website it is important to understand that your content is your asset and it is important to invest in good content.
When it comes to Niche websites there are 3 main types of content.
- “Best of” or buying guides: These posts usually compare multiple products and are used to help people make a decision on what product they should purchase
- Reviews: These posts tend to focus on one product in depth and why someone should purchase it
- How to: These posts help to round out your website and show your authority on the topic. The keywords themselves don’t necessarily have buying intent, but within the post you can include affiliate links when relevant and make money through page views and ad revenue.
Mike will walk you through the process of how to write good SEO content for your blog and how to do on page SEO to help Google understand your content to help it rank in search engines.
Building Backlinks to your content
From a SEO stand point the more backlinks you get from other websites the more authority that content has which will ultimately help your content rank in search engine results. Mike will walk you through how to start building backlinks to your content. Building out good content is important, but to beat out your competitors you need to improve your overall website authority with backlinks.
How long does it take to complete the course?
The course is designed to walk you through the process of choosing a niche topic and setting up your website. This is not a theory based course where you just watch the videos and then take action. You should take action as you go through this course. This is nice because you can go at your own pace. You have lifetime access to the course material so you can set your own timeline.
For those who like a bit of hand holding then this course will be good for you. After completing the course you should have set up a fully functioning website.
How much does it cost?
The course typically offers two payment methods: one time payment or over monthly installments. The one time payment is $397 and the monthly payment plan is 3 payments at $147. When you go with the one time payment you pay less than the monthly plan.
Note: To successfully go through this course you will need to use Ahrefs, which is an online SEO research tool. Ahrefs offers a $7 1-week trial, but to effectively complete your research after the trial ends you will probably need to sign up for a month subscription which is $99 for their lite plan. I just wanted to give you this heads up so you can factor in this cost when deciding whether or not this course is right for you.
Stupid Simple SEO vs Niche Site Academy: Which one should I take?
Mike offers two SEO focused courses: Stupid Simple SEO and Niche Site Academy. Let’s talk about the difference between these two courses and decide which one is right for you.
Stupid Simple SEO
- Good for someone who already has a website, but is looking to improve their traffic with SEO
- More in-depth and comprehensive SEO course than Niche Site Academy
- Does NOT talk about how to pick a website from scratch and how to validate your topic idea.
- Can sign up at any time
Niche Site Academy
- Shows you how to start a website from scratch and how to pick a topic for your blog that has monetization potential using a systematic numbers driven approach
- Does touch on SEO principles, but not at the same depth as Stupid Simple SEO
- Good for a brand new blogger looking to start a website or an experienced blogger who is looking to start a new website from scratch
- Only open for enrollment 2-3 times per year
Bottomline both are excellent courses and I highly recommend both. But if you are trying to decide between the two then just think about where you are at in your blogging journey.
- If you are trying to start a brand new blog from scratch then Niche Site Academy would be the best pick.
- If you already have a blog and you want to learn how to improve your SEO to get more search traffic then Stupid Simple SEO is the best option.
Also consider your timeline. Niche Site Academy is only open 2-3 times per year, but if you want to up your SEO game now then definitely sign up for Mike’s Free SEO Masterclass to learn more.
Check out my full review of Stupid Simple SEO course.
Course Bonus:
As a bonus to the course you will get access to a private, student’s only Facebook group. In this group you can ask questions and bounce ideas off of other students. This Facebook group is managed by Mike and another SEO expert Mark Wilcox and they are there to help answer any questions you have with the material. If you are a person who likes to ask questions, then the Facebook group is a great place to get feedback and interact with other students who are going through the course as well.
Recap + Recommendation:
If you want to learn how to start a website from scratch then definitely check out Niche Site Academy. This is a great course that shows you a systematic way to decide on a blog topic. After taking this course you will have confidence in your blog topic and you will have the tools to create a profitable website.
Hi! I'm Tricia the founder of Blog Her Way. I teach aspiring bloggers how to set up their website + grow their email list to start earning income online.