I run a video game blog called Portable Video Gamer. Before I started the site 5 months ago, I did some research on various forums and sites like this one to try to work out how much revenue I could expect to earn from my site.
All of the research I did pointed to the fact that video games are the lowest paying niche, at least for contextual ads. The reason is twofold: gamers tend to be "ad blind" so the click-through rates are abysmal, and the industry in general does not attract very high bids for ad placements. I went ahead with the site because I am passionate about my topic and also because I figue SOMEONE must be making money in the sector. So far in my experience, I should have listened to the nay-sayers. The 1-2$ per click revenues in other fields like travel are looking awfully good to me right now in the land of the 10-cent click.
On the upside, at least video gamers are highly represented on the internet and rabid consumers of news, so this makes it easier to grow a stable readership than in other fields.
I would like to know what anyone else thinks about this? What is the "best" niche to be in? What can I do to compensate for the low ad revenue in my chosen niche?
It's possible to make money
It's possible to make money in a niche where advertising budgets aren't massive.
I'm in the football news / soccer news niche and I can assure you that while the 10-20 cent clicks are frustrating to start with, there are two things that will happen:
1) EPC will vary, but you'll have to increase your traffic considerably before you see 'comfortable income'.
2) Once the site starts to do well in terms of traffic, it's hard to mess it up because the niche has very passionate users (football fans are crazy!).
So, don't worry about it, keep working at it and do good linkbaiting / seo, and keep focusing on building your regular readership.
Once your site has run for an year or so, you'll start seeing a natural (and regular) increase in traffic (as long you keep focusing on the right keywords / topics) and correspondingly your site revenue will increase as well.
one other thing
Any long posting lapse on your site can set you back. Regularity of posting is important, even if it's just once a week during a "lapse" period. Get a friend to guest, if possible.
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