Life List Goal – Create a Niche Website That Makes Money

A while back, I started a new web project with a friend, Jeff from Sustainable Life Blog, to create a niche website that makes money. I just found out that we have officially made money!

I wanted to have a profitable niche site by the end of 2012, which was a life list goal, and I am pleased to report that we have easily passed the hurdle point.

The site, all about elk hunting, is a collaboration of Jeff’s knowledge and my research on the topic. Jeff is a passionate elk hunter, and I am passionate about making money. I was happy to put in time and research to help build a useful and reputable site about elk hunting, though I have never been hunting myself.

Jeff focused primarily on hunting rifles and recipes. I focused on articles on elk hunting in specific states, mostly in the Mountain West of the United States. I learned all sorts of things about elk hunting laws and regulations. I had no idea what you need to do for a hunting permit, now I know what to do in five different states.

I would not go as far as to say I am an expert in elk hunting, but I am an expert in building websites. I put in a lot of time on images, headers, and placing Google AdSense strategically around the site. I am thrilled to say that it worked like a charm.

We are not rich just yet. We have not even made enough to justify all of the time we put into it. But we have hit the first milestone, profit.

I can confidently and happily mark this one off of the life list. The project is not over by a long shot, though. We need to keep adding quality content and working on increasing the site’s ranking in the search engines. We have a lot of opportunity to make a lot more money.