Modern technological advancement has opened the door to a wide range of activities that have become available to an increasing number of people around the world. This involves everything related to creativity, advancement, and even technology itself.
And this is exactly what Shawna Newman of Skipblast decided to look into for her Expert Picks this month. Businesses in the Travel, Tech, Music, and Writing niches are blooming today, so why not take advantage of them?
SailingSavvy.com
Despite being a seasonal niche, the broader boating niche is one of my favorites because it has an audience that likes to spend money. Plus, with the right planning, you can take a boating site and do some travel-focused articles that really boost your site’s RPM.
This domain is a great entry point into the boating niche because the domain has a great brandable name and the existing backlink profile has some heavy hitters in it. In fact, if I didn’t already have an aged domain in this niche, then I would have picked this one up without hesitation.
What I really like about this domain is that the existing backlink profile already has some great links from big travel brands like Afar and Shermans Travel, which means you’ll be able to start with some travel content from the start.
If I were to pick up this domain, my initial focus would be on two main topic clusters – sailing for noobs and travel-related sailing topics. With these clusters, primary monetization options would be affiliate and display ads.
As those clusters grow, you have the natural addition of info products – ebooks and courses. This would mostly be for the ‘sailing for noobs’ cluster, but you could do some travel sailing info products as well. A membership program would also work here, if you wanted to manage something like that.
Future growth opportunities include expanding into other types of boating clusters, as well as private label ecommerce options.
QuietSide.com
For a more evergreen niche that is also lucrative, this domain is great for anyone interested in building a site around the HVAC niche. I think you could use this domain to create a massive site that dominates this niche covering everything related to HVAC.
With this domain, your target audience would be homeowners and your goal would be to create the go-to source for HVAC information. This means primarily informational content that you’d monetize with display ads. You’ll also want to recommend products, which gives you the ability to earn from affiliate programs.
Once the site gains some authority, you could add another revenue stream using either lead generation or a paid directory. Homeowners often need HVAC professionals, so you could either create a directory where you charge HVAC companies to list in the results, or instead go the lead gen route for this.
Depending on how knowledgeable you are about all things HVAC, or if you want to pay a pro, then you could create some info products for an additional revenue stream. And if ecommerce is on your list of things to conquer, then you could eventually private label some stuff to sell.
Musistic.com
I’m a big fan of building sites in niches where hobbyists tend to spend a lot of money, and musicians definitely fit the bill here. I love this domain because it would be a great brand for a site targeting musicians and people with home recording studios.
Based on the history of this domain, I think I would start with a topic cluster focused on all things home recording. As you build out this cluster, you will be able to naturally start building other clusters – i.e. when you write about how to mic a guitar, then you can create content on all of that related equipment.
Initial monetization for this would be affiliate programs and display ads, with info products being a natural progression. I think courses would be the best type of info product to start with, and if you don’t have the knowledge to create courses on the topics, then you can either partner with someone or pay someone to create them for you.
If you happen to have a home studio, or the interest in building one, this creates an additional opportunity for a YouTube channel. You can use this to both funnel traffic to your site and as an additional revenue stream.
As the site grows, you could also likely add on a membership program and maybe even start private labeling some products to sell directly to your audience.
NovelRocket.com
With the popularity of Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) program, there are plenty of people both writing and self-publishing new books every day. All those new authors need someone to tell them where to start and hold their hand along the way. This domain would be the perfect place for someone to do just that.
With this domain, I would focus on a hybrid project right from the start that is part content site, part service-based. What do all of these writers need? Editors, proofreaders, their book converted into ebook formats, cover design, marketing, and more. Some of them probably even need ideas and ghostwriters. You can offer all of these services and then just hire them out to other freelancers, or build your own team that can do these things. You also have the option to offer a complete done-for-you service here.
I think the best content approach is going to be mostly informational/instructional (monetized with display ads), with the remaining content being a mix of affiliate and stuff you use to sell the info products you’re going to create. Some authors aren’t going to want to hire out everything and instead learn to do it on their own. With that in mind, you can sell courses on these things. Again, if you don’t want to learn how to use Scrivener to write your ebook, then pay someone who does or partner with someone to sell a course on it.
You’ll also want to start building an email list from the start, which you will be able to monetize by selling ad space to people and brands who offer the services that authors need.
Building on your info products empire, you can also create your own ebooks to sell to these authors on topics that are relevant to them. I think with the right focus, you could turn this domain into a mega authority site on self-publishing.
Business Can Be Creative and Fun
Why not enjoy the business by doing it in a fun and entertaining niche? When you have the fire burning in you, you can light up your audience, because they’re constantly looking for inspiration and solutions. This is a perfect chance for you to succeed with any of the Odys domains picked by Shawna.
And, in case they don’t ring your bell, we’ve always got more in the Odys Marketplace.
