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Setting up a Niche Site Using Wordpress
July 05, 2005
I use Wordpress for a lot of my sites, but often my sites are NOT blogs. Instead, I've been using Wordpress as a content management system. If your webhost offers Cpanel with Fantistico, Wordpress is quick to set up, and once you've got Wordpress installed, publishing new content is incredibly easy. The best part of all is that Wordpress is free to use.
The key to using Wordpress for niche websites is to make your sites search engine friendly. I've been using a cobbled-together checklist of things to achieve this goal, doing different tweaks and relying on an assortment of Wordpress plugins. But things have just gotten incredibly easier. Teli Adlam has a new ebook package out, Optiniche: A Guide to Optimizing Wordpress Niche Blogs and it's a superb package for anyone who's interested in using Wordpress for niche sites.
Not only does Teli take you through the steps for optimizing your Wordpress site using simple, clear step-by-step instructions, she also gives you the php code to cut and paste into your Wordpress theme (a Wordpress theme is simply the template you use for your site). But for me, the most amazing part of the package is the OptiNiche plugin. Teli is a rare breed - a web designer who knows her SEO. And she's developed a plugin that handles the work of optimizing not just your blog's main page, but each and every post that you make.
To round out the package, there is also a plugin for a handy "email this to a friend" function, and a fully optimized Wordpress theme that you basically just "plug and play". Drop this theme into your WP Content/Themes folder, upload the OptiNiche plugin, and you're all set.
I've been using the OptiNiche techniques and the special plugin for about two weeks now on one of my sites, and the results have been very impressive. I have doubled my unique hits, and this number keeps climbing every day. When I check the "came from" results in my stats, I actually see visitors coming for search terms that I've only just posted about a few days before.
So if you're interested in using Wordpress for setting up niche sites, or you've already been using it for your niche marketing, I highly recommend OptiNiche.
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Posted by BJ at 10:24 AM in Niche Marketing | Permalink
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Comments
You start off this post advocating using WordPress for non-blog sites, but then flack a tool for "Optimizing WordPress Niche Blogs". Forgive me, but if I'm interested in the former, why would I want the latter?
I've used WP for a blog site, and would love to learn how to use it as a general CMS. Any tips and/or example sites I could learn from?
Posted by: Dave | Jul 9, 2005 8:10:34 AM
Dave,
"Optimizing Wordpress Niche Blogs" is what Teli calls her ebook, but when she's referring to a "niche blog", this also includes a "niche website".
The whole "blog" vs. "site" thing, from a technical, web design perspective, is really a matter of semantics. If you want to use Wordpress as a CMS and set up a site that doesn't look like a blog, you just have to strip out the things that make it look like a blog. Because Wordpress is template-based, you can do anything via html and php code to the templates that you can do with a regular website. That's the key to using it as a CMS.
I'll write a post this weekend about how I normally set up a niche site using Wordpress as a CMS. The value of Teli's ebook is in helping with the optimization once you have your Wordpress site set up.
Posted by: BJ | Jul 9, 2005 10:35:14 AM
Thanks for the response! I look forward to your WP/CMS post. I came here via one of your posts at associateprograms.com this morning and just love the place.
Posted by: Dave | Jul 9, 2005 12:17:44 PM
Hi BJ,
Thank you very much for the mention of my ebook, I am happy to hear that your blog is seeing some true success from using the techniques outlined in the eBook.
Dave,
http://www.actorsinfobooth.com/ is powered by WordPress. It's not a niche affiliate site, however, it is an example that WordPress sites don't have to look like 'typical' blogs.
In order to use WordPress as more of a CMS, it will take planning of how you truly want the site to 'lay out' and how you want the information organized. Once you know this, then you can start modifying WordPress for that purpose.
Posted by: teli | Jul 10, 2005 5:21:46 PM
I don't know why, but I started not to like WP as I did when I first discovered.
I am pretty familiar with it, I know how to customize it, so on.
But when I try change a skin, or want to do something more advanced, I get into trouble.
I think that WP is good only for blogs, for more advanced sites, there are other solutions.
Let's not use a stick to build a house, let's use brick and mortar.
Posted by: Gigel Chiazna | Feb 22, 2006 8:29:29 AM
