Yesterday we did some math and figured out the economics of building a network of localized niche minisites:

25 minisites x $3.00/day avg net = $75/day x 30 = $2250.00/month

We assumed it would cost $500/month in expenses which means we either raise our sales expectations/site, raise the number of minisites, or take the cost out of our existing projection.

Now we need to figure out what we’re going to do with 25 minisites!  What kinds of niches to target, which localities, which offers, etc.  And although not difficult, it can get involved.  Let’s break it down…

The order in which you do your research will change the answers you receive!  If you pick 25 locales to focus on then research niches your going to get different answers than if you research niches first and then apply your list of niches to locales.  And in real life, it doesn’t make that much difference.  As long as you know this ahead of time you could even do both and see where the answers are the same and assume that those choices would be the best (and you wouldn’t be wrong).

So, we’re going to do this completely backwards.  Just to let you know that as long as your doing all three (niches, locales, offers) it will work out in the end for you.

I like to know what I’m doing  so I’m going to look at the offers first.  This way I can see who’s “pushing” their offers, what’s new (and potentially hot), and if there are good offers that trigger my creative juices.  Because, you can’t monitize without offers!

Go take a look at the AffSpot NewsRoom…  PAGE HERE

Now, What does this give us?  Information on programs and offers from a large number of networks all in one place.  If you start seeing a pattern for table linens, healthcare packages, exercise equipment, lighting fixtures, etc. then you can dig deeper into each of the offers, pick a few that look good, and do a little bit of keyword research to see if you have a niche that makes sense for a minisite.  One trend I’ve been noticing lately are eyeglasses and contact lens offers.  That may be a good niche you can localize on.

Now, we’re going to look at eyeglasses and contact lenses as a niche to attack with localized minisites.  Cool, one down two to go (research wise).  We’ve looked at a few offers, etc. and now it’s time to get local!  I’ll let you google this out..  But I’ve found that choosing the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th largest cities in each US State for local targeting is much less competitive, and give you more opportunities when going local.  Let’s look at Kansas.

Go to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool And do a search for Kansas Glasses, Wichita Glasses, Topeka Glasses and see what you get.  Pay attention now.  Take a look at the keywords and the demand on them.  By now you’ve figured out that the keyword tool comes up with little to nothing for Wichita glasses.  And if you do a regular Google search you get very few results as well.  Same for Topeka, Overland Park is a little busier, etc.  This means there’s not going to be very much online competition!  PERFECT!

So, eyewear/glasses/contact lenses localized seems to be good.  We’ve looked at Kansas.  Take a look at a couple other States too..  Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, etc.  I think you’ll see very similar results.  Not a lot of competition on a local level.

Now you need to do this all over again, with a copy/paste into a spreadsheet or even writing things down in a notebook.  But you need to go back now and pick cities and states with little competition for your niche but have high populations.  You can even do a little simple division of offers/hundred thousand population with the highest number being more potential for sales (and choose on your newly invented “power number”).

So now you know how many sites will be in your minisite network (25), You know a niche to go for (eyecare/eyeglasses/contact lenses), you’ve found some offers using the AffSpot NewsRoom and researched those.  And you have researched various local markets with simple Google tools.

Next we’re going to take a look at where we are, what tasks we need to accomplish, and lay out the building blocks we’ll need technically to start building out our minisite network.