It’s important to have a blogging niche. This could be one of the best things you do as a blogger, and revenue share sites can be perfect for the development of your niche.
I know rev share sites are unpopular with some bloggers and writers out there. However, these are the places I’ve made the bulk of my income in recent years, and I don’t regret doing that.
I have posts that I wrote back in 2016 and 2017 and routinely pull in at least $20 per month without doing any extra work on them. I do no promotion, so it really is passive income.
Say you have 10 posts that pull in just $10 per month without extra work. That’s $100 per month and $1,200 per year. Think about how much that adds up, and you’re doing no extra work at all. Oh, and that is on top of the rest of the money you make when writing.
Anyway, I digress. I can talk for days about why I think revenue share sites are worthwhile, but this is about how they help the development of your blogging niche. Here’s why I use rev share sites and not my own blogs.
They don’t cost you a penny to sign up
When you’re not sure if a writing or blogging niche will work out, you don’t really want to put a lot of money into it. You may not even be that bothered about control. You just want to start getting your name out there and go for a no-cost, low-risk option to start building your niche.
Residual income writing sites offer that ability. They’re set up in a way that you just quickly add your details and you become a member.
Some of them you will need to go through an application process, but for the most part they are very easy to get into. Some sites without application processes can be scams, but there are some worthwhile because of the rules.
There was one site that took me months to get my first post approved. Honestly I was working half-heartedly and when I started to put in the effort I was fine. Nobody could believe that it took me so long. But it shows that the sites do focus on quality.
But there are free blogs, right? Well that takes us onto the next benefit.
You don’t need to run revenue share sites
Free blogs will require more of your time. You need to set up themes and add in the advertisement code or affiliate codes (if you’re able to use them). You may not be putting in a lot of money but you’re putting in a lot more time to build your blogging niche.
If you’re just looking to see if the niche is viable, you want to put in as little time as possible. You don’t want to worry about the actual site as much as you would if you had your own blog.
Sure there are still aspects that will demand your time. But they’re going to demand your time anywhere. These are things like marketing your posts, growing your following, and generally anything that involves building your niche.
Revenue share sites don’t require a lot of extra work. In some cases, you just write and let the sites take care of the rest.
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There’s the benefit of other people’s posts
Other people will contribute content to the revenue share sites. There are some pros and cons with this, but right now let’s focus on the pros.
When you have your own blog, you need to get a lot of content up in a short space of time. Before I started one of my blogs, I had to write three month’s worth of content in a short space of time to make sure I had enough to post to help the site rank.
With the residual income sites, others are putting up content to keep Google crawlers and other search engines coming back to your site.
The downside is the content may not be on your niche. If you’re lucky like I was with the history niche, there will be others who write on similar, complimentary topics. There was one history writer who covered mostly the Wars of the Roses, while I covered the Tudors and the Stuarts. We worked together quite well to help grow each other’s audiences.
No commitment to stick with the blogging niche
If you find that the niche isn’t faring as well as you’d hoped (and you really have put the effort in) then you don’t need to worry about closing it all down. You’ve got no commitment to stick to that niche. It’s possible to go right back to the drawing board and try with something else.
This is part of the low-risk element. If you bought a domain name and hosting for a niche, you’d want to make sure you got your money back. You wouldn’t want to create a loss.
Using the residual income writing sites to develop your blogging niche is also great for those who aren’t quite sure on the niche that they initially want to develop. They can try a couple of niches, maybe on one site with different accounts or across different sites. It gives them a chance to share their experiences, their views, their opinions, and their interests quickly and easily.
And if you get bored of the initial niche, the residual income site is useful. With a free blogging site, you’d have to start all over again. With the residual site, you just start writing on a new niche!
You’ll still get writing and marketing experience
Let’s not forget about the benefit of writing and marketing experience. You don’t always get that with your own blogs, since you’re starting from scratch.
Some residual income sites have forums that you can visit. You get the chance to talk to veteran writers; those who have made a living with their writing. This is where you can get tips to help build and develop your niche. If the sites don’t have forums, there may be a Facebook group or two.
Other sites will have admins and editors step in to offer some advice. They may make a note on your articles to help get them published quicker or to help get out of the editing phase that some accounts require.
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Revenue share sites are not a complete waste of time
I know that my opinion is an unpopular one with big-name writers, but I don’t really care about that. There are plenty of people using residual income writing sites to get started. They’re low-risk and easy to use.
And they can be extremely useful for building your blogging niche. You just have to know how to use them to your advantage.
I say they’re a lot better than content mills!
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