Develop Some Killer Features for the New Niche Sites

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   Will Apseposted 9 years ago

   Niche sites can develop great authority and brand recognition with useful features that cannot be found elsewhere.
   
   Some sites have searchable and comprehensive data bases. Tattoo. com has lists of tattoo artists all across the US, for example.
   
   Apps that calculate mortgage repayments, suggest the best way to build a surround sound system etc are commonplace now but gave sites that first used them a huge advantage.
   
   Anyone got any bright ideas? Have flu presently, IQ of a newt, so none really from me...

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   Marisa Wrightposted 9 years ago

   Great point, but I don't think it's possible to think up an idea that would work for all the sites - I'd say it would be unique for each site.

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      Will Apseposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I think you might need to wait for the next big thing to come along in each niche then move quickly enough to make that thing your own.

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   agilitymachposted 9 years ago

   Just off the top of my head without even thinking much about it...  I know people love photos of pets.  Have a photo gallery/page/Pinterest type dealy on PetHelpful.  You can use the best photos on the pet Hubs maybe?  Link the photos to the Hubs for extra views?  I know based on my FB newsfeed that people LOVE pictures of animals.

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      Will Apseposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Best pet photos of the day, or week or whatever could be a good front page feature or a good foot of the page feature on particular pages. UK newspapers offer best pics of the week slideshows and I have a habit of looking at them. If there was a steady supply of good pics might be OK to post on Facebook once a week.
      
      The Pinterest idea could be very good. I suppose that would mean a lot of hotlinking, though.

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         agilitymachposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         How it would all work computer wise, programming wise and SEO wise is beyond me.   I'm just a dumb dog trainer.  I know what my market likes, but I have no clue how or if that could be transferred to a website.
         
         I hope you are feeling better today.

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            Will Apseposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I'm no SEO guru. I only really look out for techniques that are actually blackhat and  likely to get me a penalty if I use them innocently.
            
            I am not even sure if Pinterest uses hotlinking or just downloads images to its site. It seems to have no copyright issues although people sometimes complain that their images have been stolen.
            
            A sort of 'pet pin' page sounds very attractive but you would have to link out to the source, maybe nofollow links, and then you would have to defend it against spam.
            
            You could just invite users to contribute pics.
            
            Thanks for your kind thought. Flu is almost over, but no exercise for a week. Been reduced to growling at cats but not actually chasing them (where cats=beer).

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      Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Oh lordy, I can see the Chihuahua spam now.

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      sallybeaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, apparently they even have dogs at Crufts this year which have become famous on Instagram.  People are even going to Crufts especially to see them.

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   SimeyCposted 9 years ago

   Trending topics would be really useful. For instance - on the 'Entertainment' niche site, there could be a section showing recent Entertainment news (such as the death of Harper Lee) and then link to articles about 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.

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      Will Apseposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Haven't seen you for a long time, glad you are still around...
      
      Any news section might be able to make use of Facebook'e new Instant Articles: https://instantarticles.fb.com/
      
      The program is going to be open to any publisher soon. Quite what it means, how articles will be selected. how much revenue it delivers, how far it will benefit web traffic, is hard to say but it would be daft to get left out.
      
      Of course, you need a steady supply of real news. HP is not blog or news orientated.  Maybe your idea of a link back to an article would be enough of a carrot to tempt hubbers to write news stuff. Or maybe there would be enough revenue to employ a full time professional journalist.

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         SimeyCposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks. Never really left - just stopped using the forums, and basically maintained. Was waiting for something to change on here - hoping the niche site idea is the one that stabilizes traffic...

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   Will Apseposted 9 years ago

   Forgot about this thread. How about ask an expert? A place for readers to post questions. Might get some good titles out of it.
   
   And also 'Suggest a Page'. A place for people to suggest subjects that could be covered.
   
   This is how they do it on Wikihow: http://www.wikihow.com/Special:RequestTopic
   
   And this is a list of pet related topics that people think should be covered: http://www.wikihow.com/Special:ListRequ … nd+Animals

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      agilitymachposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting idea.

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      Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      This is much more on the line with what I see as useful.
      
      Seriously...I can stare into my puppy's eyes all day. I really don't need other cute pics. (They better be really special and funny.) I need training tips, health tips, that sort of thing. What will extend our lives together or make our time together more fun?

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   Lionrhodposted 9 years ago

   If PetHelpful or any other niche site wants to position themselves at the front of the pack, they need to offer a service that hasn't been offered before.
   
   I think my dogs are the cutest on the planet. You think yours are. Posting oh-so-cute pics nominalizes the PetHelpful brand to "yet another one of the 6 bajillion sites that have cute pet pics."
   
   If PetHelpful wants to use the power of their brand then we need to find a way to make it EASY for pet owners to find simple, healthy, economical and earth friendly answers to their problems and challenges.

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