The Easy Way To Build A Trustworthy Niche Site So People Buy

It often surprises people, especially bloggers, that niche sites can make money.

Niche sites are simple sites. There is usually not too much to them and they don’t have all the bells and whistles that are found on blogs. They are usually small, stick to their niche and don’t have anything extra.

But they can still make lots of money.

If you want to optimise your earnings (who doesn’t!), it’s important that your site looks trustworthy. You might still sell some products if it doesn’t, but you will sell more if people coming to your site trust what you have to say.

Remember, the reason that niche sites work is because you are targeting an audience that is at a certain point of the buying cycle. It’s those people who have already decided they want to buy a certain product but just need a gentle nudge to the right choice. When these people land on your niche site, you want to help them choose the right item so they click on your link to Amazon and buy straight away.

If they don’t trust your advice, they will click back to Google and go to another site.

This doesn’t just mean that you lose out on a commission, but it can also hurt your search engine rankings. And we don’t want that!

The good news is that it’s not hard to make your sites look trustworthy. In fact, it doesn’t take much time at all. Below, I will show you how I ensure this.

1. What to do to make your site look trustworthy

There are several elements to making a site look trustworthy. Some of the most important of these are described below around giving your site a personality, branding it and keeping it updated. Here, I will describe some other aspects to consider.

First of all, your site must have great English (or whatever language you write in). No one is going to blame you for the very occasional error but you should do your best to avoid these.

It’s also important that you write in the right version of the language for the country you are targeting. For example, I write in American English for US sites. Many niche sites don’t do this (most I come across are in obvious Indian English), so you are winning straight away if you ensure you are using the correct version.

This can mean that it’s worth getting the site proofread by someone from the target country, especially if you are not writing in your first language. I found even as a native English speaker, I needed help with some of my American terminology. It’s amazing how many things have a different name in the States versus in Australia. I had no idea until I started developing niche sites.

It’s also important that your articles are well researched and thorough. If someone reading your site notices a factual error, they are not going to trust your advice. You also need to answer any questions a potential buyer of the product might have so that they feel like they have all the answers they need by the end of your buying guide meaning they buy on Amazon with your links instead of clicking back to Google to read someone else’s guide.

Make sure you sound like you know what you are talking about.

If you guide is well researched, this will be easy.

2. How to give your site a personality

It’s important that your niche site has a personality – and one that people trust. This can either be about yourself or a made up person. It doesn’t really matter. The main thing is that you create a personality for the site.

The way I do this is:

• About page. It’s very important to have an about page. On this page, you should include:
  • The name of the author
  • A photo of the author (can be a stock photo)
  • Some personal details about the author
  • Why they started this site
• Sidebar widgit. I like to use a sidebar widgit to do a short summary of the About page. This often has a photo as well but at least says the author’s name and why they built the site. For example, Welcome to my site! My name is Stephanie and I am obsessed with juicing! I am so obsessed that I have used (and own!) most of the juicers out there. I started this site to help you pick the best juicer for your needs.
• Giving first person opinions in reviews. I add personal touches to reviews by saying things like: I particularly like this juicer because it’s sleek and easy to store. I just wish it was slightly quieter.

3. Why you should give your niche site some branding

A website looks more legitimate if it has some type of branding and looks like some care has gone into the site. Thankfully, this is quite easy with WordPress and Canva.

I recommend installing a theme on your niche site that helps to make it look more professional. I prefer themes that have review functionality built in. You can read more about picking a theme here.

Once you have your theme installed, it’s time to make a logo. A site looks much better with a logo and it’s very easy to make one in Canva. I recommend installing the theme first as different themes have different logo size requirements. You will need to look in your theme settings and work it out.

The logo doesn’t have to be professional quality or brilliant. It just needs to be readable, look nice and help give the site some personality.

4. Why you need to keep the site updated

Apart from seeing terrible English, the next worst thing is out of date information and links that don’t work.

It might surprise you how often things change in the product world. I have an annual job to update any guides that have gone out of date. Some niches stay fairly constant and this is an easy job, some change a lot. It will depend on your niche.

I also recommend checking all your links at least every 6 months. More often if you have a niche where things change often. You can use a broken link checker to check for broken links but it’s important that your links don’t just work but go where you expect them to. For example, you don’t want your Amazon links pointing to an old version of the product.

Checking (and updating) all the links is a great job for a VA. If they do it regularly, it doesn’t take long.

It’s not difficult to make a trustworthy niche site and it doesn’t take long. It should, however, be an integral part of your set up process. And now that I have outlined what to do, you have no excuse!

You can also read my 5 Monster Tips For Making More On Amazon and my Niche Site Case Study for step by step instructions for making a niche site.

How do you make your sites look trustworthy?

You can also find more posts on my other case studies and niche sites here.