When first planning to launch a new web site or blog for profit, it’s important to choose a topic or niche that you know is going to be in demand and have a good monetization play for months or even years to come. One niche market that is flush with business opportunities and is making money every second of the day is personal and business finance.
Before getting started, it’s important to first know what your audience wants. To help with this process, let’s break down the three main reasons why anyone is using the internet in the first place.
- To find information
- To purchase something
- To be entertained
With the concept of creating a finance blog and an ultimate goal of making money with the site, one should focus on “to find information” — and more specifically, providing your audience with such information.
Now let’s walk through a few different examples of topics and questions individuals, businesses and entrepreneurs are searching for on a daily basis — and how you can create a site around such information and monetize your traffic and content in the process.
Personal and Business Loans
Loans are one of the biggest money makers in the world today. It doesn’t matter if they are for personal use, business, a short term loan or even just to provide you with enough funds to put money down on a big purchase — the lenders and banks are always going to make money. With that in mind, millions of people search online daily for the best interest rates and types of loans they can apply for. This is a great opportunity to create a niche site with such information, while also giving your audience a wide range of solutions to choose from.
A perfect example of this can be seen in this loan comparison guide. If you were to create a site of your own, this resource provides you with everything you need to know about personal loans, business loans, SBA loans and more. With so many great financial resources already out there, you don’t need to be a finance expert to create a resource site, you just need to compile information and provide it to your audience in the best way possible. Another recommendation here is to pick one specific loan type and become the authority in that space. The competition will still be fierce, but it will also niche down your content and focus at a much deeper level.
When it comes to the monetization of your site, you also have plenty of options. Even Google Adsense would work well on a finance resource site, as it will trigger many top paying banks, lenders and advertisers. There is also the option for affiliate marketing with other finance offers and even building out your own mailing lists and reference guides.
Best Rewards Program Credit Cards
Just like there is a great demand for personal and business loans, the finance world is also loaded with credit card opportunities as well. Again, the same way banks and lenders make money with loans, the same holds true with credit cards — and what’s even more exciting, is that credit cards can be broken down into several smaller niche markets of their own. There are credit cards for people with bad credit, travel rewards credit cards, cards for businesses and much more.
Once again, millions of people are searching Google every day for the best credit card rewards programs, or even where they can apply for their first credit card. Just think about how many kids are getting old enough each day to get their first credit card. The numbers are massive and it’s a market that just keeps growing.
So with all of this in mind, if you were to create a blog focused around the best credit cards on the market today, or even just a subset (ie: best rewards, best cards for college students), there is still a huge market that you can tap into. To see a great example of this type of content already in place, check out this article on Forbes. It’s focused on the best cards for college students, while also highlighting what to look for when choosing a credit card and how to pay attention to any hidden fees that might be associated with them as well. All important questions and answers anyone looking to apply for a credit card would find value in.
With such content in place, again monetization is key. Most sites running these types of lists are going to earn a commission on each card application that comes through their sites. Most of the major credit card brands already have affiliate programs available to the public. If you can push volume, try contacting the company directly if they don’t already have a public affiliate program in place.
Credit Score Reports and History
When you look at the two examples I’ve provided you with above, they both have one thing in common — the results of someone successfully getting approved for a loan or credit card will ultimately come down to their credit score and history. In previous years, one could only pull a free credit report once or twice per year. Now you can get them daily if you like.
However, millions of people are still searching Google daily not just for how to get their credit score, but also how to improve it, remove infractions, look up their history and more. Trying to compete in this space in a generic “credit score” angle would be tough, so once again it’s important to try and niche down as much as possible. Even going after simple keywords like “credit score 580” could result in a decent amount of traffic that is heavily targeted. Another option is to provide a resource guide on providing the best information for any of the commonly asked credit score questions people commonly ask — such as “what determine’s my credit score?”.
You can see a great example of how this was done in this article from CNN Money where they cover three interesting facts that everyone should know about their credit score. As mentioned, “credit” can be quite generic by itself, but since they are answering several commonly asked questions, it provides a lot of value to their audience, while also allowing them to rank and target their audience in need of credit answers.
Just like with loans and credit cards, the monetization of a site focused on credit scores is probably best done with affiliate marketing. Many of the top free credit score sites will offer a commission every time a new lead is sent to their site. It’s also worth testing and option like Google Adsense as well, as you will start to see very high-level advertisers being listed on your site, who are also paying top dollar for exposure and clicks in the process.
How to Start a Successful Finance Blog
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the foundation of your blog is key to its long-term success. I highly recommend you take a look at some of the top finance blogs on the internet today and see what type of content they are creating that is gaining traction and providing value. At the same time, also search through Google as if you were a user looking for information. This is a great way to learn about consumer searching happens and what type of content ranks for what.
If you haven’t started a blog of your own yet, I recommend you take a look at my free 7 Day Blog Challenge, which walks you through the complete process of how to start a blog from scratch, with the ultimate goal of ending up with an authority site.