Have you ever thought about starting a niche blog, but you wonder how to make a full-time income with a niche site? Today, Rebecca Lynn is here to share the story of how she grew her niche site to a full-time income without depending on display ads!
IE 261: How to Make a Full Time Income with a Niche Site with Rebecca Lynn
Rebecca is a former teacher who now works full-time in her online business. She blogs at Proud Police Wife, where she provides support and resources for other law enforcement families. She also shares content on social media to help law enforcement families not feel alone.
Is There More than One Way to Grow a Blog?
When Rebecca started her blog five years ago, she took advice from the bloggers who were seeing tremendous success. But Rebecca knew that her small niche couldn’t be handled the way the other bloggers’ mega-blogs were.
Law enforcement is a relatively small niche. Rebecca needed to know how to make her blog, which was getting 30K views per month, as successful as the blogs getting a million views per month. And she knew that the same strategy for both wasn’t going to work.
Rebecca was also discouraged by others who told her she needed to broaden her topic and use their methods to grow to their level of success. But she didn’t buy into it. And while her monthly pageviews have stayed on what most would consider the lower end, she makes a full-time income doing what she loves.
While the other successful blogs were bringing in money from display ads and affiliates, Rebecca created products and served her community in different ways.
Is Pinterest the Best Way to Grow Traffic?
Rebecca’s most commonly received advice when she started was to pin to Pinterest consistently. That’s where everybody was getting their traffic five years ago.
But Rebecca knew that her audience didn’t always go to Pinterest for what they needed. So she began learning and working on her SEO (search engine optimization) to get her content in front of the eyes of the people who were looking for it.
Today, Pinterest is her third-highest traffic driver, with Facebook and her email list coming in the top two spots. Rebecca says she wasted a lot of time jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon when it wasn’t producing the same results for her as it was for others.
How Does a Niche Site Make Money?
We’ve already shared that Rebecca’s site doesn’t get millions of page views per month, so you can guess that she isn’t raking in thousands and thousands from display ads. So how does she make a full-time income from a niche site?
To be clear, Rebecca was with an ad network that first year – Adsense. And in that whole first year, she never hit the $100 threshold to get a check from them.
Instead of waiting for ad dollars to start rolling in, Rebecca got busy creating her first product.
Her advice to niche site owners –
“If you have an audience that has a problem and you have a solution for them, if you have a way to solve that, then focus on that. It doesn’t always have to be traffic.”
Rebecca’s first product was an ebook for law enforcement spouses that helped them through many struggles unique to their position. At the time she published the ebook, she had 800 email subscribers. She made $500 off that ebook, selling only to that email list.
Getting Strategic About Growth in Other Areas
Now that Rebecca had sold her first product, she was confident that she could do more. Her next step?
She wanted to get on Mediavine.
At the time, Mediavine required 30K sessions in 30 days to qualify. Luckily, Rebecca had a blog post go viral, which brought in the 30K sessions needed, and very quickly, she was in.
So now that she’s on Mediavine, is she making a killing from ads? Nope. Her monthly sessions are still on the lower side of sites, so she earns a small amount from ads every month.
Setting Up Other Streams of Income
Rebecca now has several products under her belt to grow her passive income.
Some of them are sold as tripwires, some she sells through her email list, and others she holds flash sales on from time to time. But since they’re created and ready to go, there is no further work required from her.
She also hosts a conference every year for the law enforcement community. She earns income from ticket sales, which can be yearly access, lifetime access, etc. And she has sponsors for the conference! The conference is her highest income driver.
Rebecca has also branched out into brand partnerships. This has been one of her favorite ways to monetize, as she shares brands she has come to use, love, and trust. Brand partnerships make up about 50% of her current income.
Other great ways for niche sites to make money are through memberships and coaching.
How to Do Paid Partnerships with a Niche Site
This is the one argument I hear from my niche site owners; there aren’t any brands to work with!
And that’s not true. Rebecca has worked with brands, and her site is super niche. You just have to know what companies can help your audience and vet the products, but trust me, there are brands for every niche.
Rebecca has worked with brands that offer bullet-proof vests, personal privacy on the internet, tactical baby gear, subscription boxes for first responders, realty companies that serve law enforcement families, and many more.
The great thing about brand partnerships when you are a niche site is that they tend to be more extended partnerships. Most of Rebecca’s contracts are year-long contracts. That means, instead of having to look for more and more partners every month, she has guaranteed income for the next year!
Brands want to work with niche sites because the audience is clearly defined, and they know how their product will be received.
Rebecca shared a ton about how she packages her social media content for partnerships, how she uses Reels and TikToks, and the deliverables she provides. Be sure to listen in!
The Future Is Bright!
Rebecca has long been a student of my course, Pitch Perfect Pro, and she is also in one of my Masterminds, so I am lucky enough to watch her business grow from behind the scenes. That also means I know what’s coming up for her, and it is exciting!
Rebecca has finished her second book, but this one is being traditionally published and will be out in November of 2021. So, it is out by the time you’re reading or listening to this.
The book is titled “Proud Police Wife: 90 Devotions for Women Behind the Badge.” The book is a faith-based compilation of encouragement for anyone who supports a police officer.
If you have a first responder or police officer in your circle, I encourage you to get Rebecca’s book and connect with her on social media.
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