On A Budget? Start a Niche Content Site for Under $50!

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Niche content websites provide an excellent avenue to share knowledge, express passion, and even generate significant income. If you’re considering launching your own niche site, but you’re on a budget, you might be concerned about the costs involved.

This guide will show you how to build a quality niche website for less than $50 using cost-effective tools and resources to keep you on budget and ready to make a profit!

Identifying Your Niche

The first step in creating a successful niche content site is to choose a topic that excites you and you have good knowledge about. Be sure it’s something you won’t tire of by the time you hit your 50th article. You don’t need to be an expert yet, but have enough knowledge to be able to write quality articles that have been thoroughly researched.

If you’re planning to build a site to eventually sell, there are a few niches that may be best to stay away from. Lifestyle blogs that focus heavily on you as a “brand” of sorts can be tough to sell to another buyer, as much of the audience will be invested in you personally.

Food blogs can be a bit tough as there is so much competition. It can take a bit longer for food blogs to gain traction, which can delay your ability to sell it.

When planning to start a website with the eventual goal of selling it, keep things a little more general. That totally doesn’t mean you can’t add your personality into it; just don’t make YOU the focus of your site and instead keep it more about your readers and how you can help them (which is always what should be the focus anyway).

Selecting and Registering Your Domain

When it’s time to set up your website, you’ll start by registering a domain name. I personally prefer Google Domains for its user-friendly interface, affordable pricing, and seamless integration with other Google services.

Plus it saves me from having to keep track of yet another login, make sure auto-renew is established, and make sure my credit card details are up-to-date. I keep all that active on Google anyway, so it’s one less stress in maintaining my sites.

Once you have a few domain name ideas, head over to Google Domains, search for your desired domain name and check its availability, add the available domain to your cart and proceed to checkout, and complete the registration process by providing the necessary information and making the payment.

The overall cost of domain registration typically ranges from $10 to $20 per year, and Google Domains usually cost $12 and include free privacy protection.

Stuck on what domain to pick for your new site? Here’s a guide to picking domain names that will help you find your ideal domain!

Update: On June 15, 2023, Squarespace announced acquisition of Google Domains properties. The transition is expected to occur in 3rd quarter 2023. Squarespace has agreed to honor Google Domains pricing.

I’ve started switching my domains over to Namecheap as they come up for renewal. Namecheap has a great reputation and their domains are often even cheaper than Google Domains. While I didn’t mind paying a bit extra for Google, I’m pretty happy with Namecheap so far!

Choosing a Hosting Provider

Once your domain is registered, it’s time to select a hosting provider. When starting out, I highly recommend Hostinger due to its affordability, reliable performance, and great customer service. Once your site is established and getting decent traffic, you can look at moving to a faster host that offers more resources, but I’ve found Hostinger to be great for my needs.

I started with the Premium Web Hosting plan and it was great until I added my 10th site, when it started to use a bit more resources, so I upgraded to the Business Web Hosting plan. It’s been much better even with the 15 sites I currently have on it!

WordPress is the ideal choice for creating a niche content blog due to its flexibility, user-friendly interface, and vast array of plugins and themes. To install WordPress on Hostinger, log in to your Hostinger account, navigate to the control panel and find the “Auto Installer” section, select “WordPress” and complete the installation process. Then you’re ready to start creating your site!

Selecting a Theme

The visual appeal and functionality of your blog’s theme are crucial to its success. The free Kadence theme, with its professional design and customization options, is our top recommendation. I’ve used a ton of other themes over the years, and Kadence is 100% my favorite for ease of use, site speed, and customization options.

To install and customize the Kadence theme, navigate to “Appearance” > “Themes” in your WordPress dashboard, click “Add New” and search for “Kadence”, install and activate the theme, and then it will ask you to install Kadence Starter Templates. These are the best way to put together an attractive site quickly.

Once the starter theme is added, you can customize each page to match your vision. But remember, DONE is better than PERFECT, so don’t stress too much. As you become more comfortable with your site, you’ll be able to make more changes to improve it.

Enhancing Your Site With Essential Free Plugins

Plugins are vital tools that boost your site’s functionality and improve user experience. For niche blogs, we highly recommend the following free plugins: RankMath, UpdraftPlus, Google Site Kit, Wordfence, and Kadence Blocks.

RankMath

RankMath is a powerful SEO plugin that helps you optimize your content for search engines. It provides detailed suggestions to improve your on-page SEO, assists in keyword integration, and gives your content an SEO score to guide your optimization process. With RankMath, you’re equipped with the tools to help your blog gain higher search rankings.

UpdraftPlus

UpdraftPlus is a backup and restoration plugin that keeps your blog safe from data loss. It allows you to schedule regular backups of your website and stores them in a remote location like Google Drive or Dropbox. Should anything go wrong, you can restore your blog to its previous state with a click.

This is my absolute favorite plugin as it’s saved me so many times where I had site issues after doing updates and was able to just…roll it back to the last update with no issues and no contacting support to have them assist.

Google Site Kit

Google Site Kit is a must-have for anyone seeking to understand their audience better. It integrates services like Google Analytics, Search Console, AdSense, and PageSpeed Insights into your WordPress dashboard. This plugin allows you to monitor how visitors interact with your site, which content performs best, and how your site is doing in search results.

Wordfence

Wordfence offers comprehensive security for your WordPress blog. It includes an endpoint firewall and malware scanner to protect your blog from hacking attempts, data breaches, and spam. It alerts you to any potential security issues and provides solutions to keep your blog secure. I pair it with Google Authenticator for a bit of extra security.

Kadence Blocks

Kadence Blocks adds custom blocks and options to the standard WordPress editor, enhancing its functionality and giving you more control over the design of your posts and pages with Kadence Theme.

Starting a niche content blog for under $50 is achievable by using cost-effective tools and resources such as Hostinger, Google Domains, a free Kadence theme, and free plugins. With Google Domain costing you $12, and a year of Hostinger hosting totaling around $36, you can be up and running for under $50!

By carefully selecting your niche, creating engaging content, and promoting your blog, you’ll be well on your way to building a thriving online community and generating income from your passion without breaking the bank.

Don’t want to waste time building a site? Consider buying a starter site to get a jumpstart on building your income!