I’ve been thinking about where design fits in. I think it’s part of both monetization and content.

I like how you “store up” content to focus on the other 2 steps.

I think the unique niche is a big reason for getting organic traffic without marketing. Thanks for sharing that experiment. That’s more evidence of the power of choosing a unique niche.

I think my model works better for new to intermediate webmasters. In my experience, if you start with monetization, you’ll be tempted to go into a niche you’re not passionate about. To me, that’s not a good idea. In my opinion, unless you’re a really good marketer, it will be harder to make money in a niche you’re not passionate about.

The problem is most of us are not really good marketers.

Also, when you actually build your website, you have to use my model, because you can’t market without content and you can’t monetize without traffic which comes from marketing.

I think if you have good content and marketing, you can monetize any niche. It might not be a full-time income, but it should be a decent part-time income. If you have good content and marketing, you’ll get traffic. And if you have traffic, there are just too many ways to monetize traffic today.

Content can be duplicated easily. That’s why marketing is more important than content. I think most websites are not marketed well at all. Marketing allows you to establish a dominant market position. But to keep that position, you need quality content.

Thanks for your dissenting opinion. It’s made me think more deeply about my opinion. I’m thinking of emailing some internet marketers for their thoughts on this matter.

I suppose Design is part of Monetization but i think that is a big part of converting traffic into money.

The other people who have commented are being narrow minded and not seeing this post for what it is. Obviously these 3 things aren’t the ONLY things that someone needs to consider, but as a framework its a great start.

Interestingly John Chow has posted something very similar to this on his blog 2 days after you. I reckon you should go ask for a credit from him!

Great post though.

When I start a new business online I always start out by finding a high demand/low comp. niche to target. Then I run through monetization options for the niche and finally I setup a website with the relevant content to a) support the monetization options and b) the demand.

It has worked perfectly.

The thing that is a challenge with content is finding a unique niche and building an audience before anyone has a chance to duplicate your content.