My buddy, Ben Shaffer, taught me this method. I followed him as he created a blog, promoted it online (without spending cash) and sold it for $1,440 in just 19 days. I take that back, he did spend money on the blog: $9.95 for the domain registration. This is what is called �flipping websites�. He should have kept the site for a few months and then sold it, but he wanted to prove a point to me which is his strategy worked.
Here is how you can do the same thing. First find a profitable niche through keyword research on Google�s Keyword Tool, Microsoft�s AdLab Commercial Intent Tool, and Keyword Tracker�s Keyword Question Tool. You want to find a niche of rabid buyers and target your website to rank for keywords related to search terms in this niche. In Ben�s case he chose �mineral makeup�. This is a very lucrative niche, but certainly not the only one filled with rabid buyers.
Do your research and you�ll find them. Check the categories of books on Amazon.com, the
categories on eBay, and the magazine rack at Barnes & Noble to get ideas for niches that are ripe for the taking. If there are advertisements as you do searches related to the niche, then there is money to be made. Here are a few more: candle making; lacrosse; horse dressage; model trains; forex trading (super competitive niche); learning to play the guitar; and dog training.
Just because you don�t have an interest in something doesn�t mean there aren�t people out there who are paying to learn more about a topic or buy related items to their interests online. I�m sure you have a few hobbies or interest other people wouldn�t touch with a stick. This is about making money, so go in with an open mind and don�t limit your thinking about what people will pay for. It�s that kind of thinking that keeps you behind a desk for 30 years with an underfunded 401(k) at retirement.
When researching keywords you want to find ones that have a decent amount of daily searches (usually 80+) and limited competition (less than 30,000 competing pages). But you want to make sure you have competition (because that means there is money to be made). If you see Google AdSense ads to the right of the search engine result pages, then you can be sure there�s money in the niche, otherwise people wouldn�t spend money to advertise. The more ads on the right, the better.
Once you�ve found a niche, and about five search terms you want to rank for. Register a domain name related to the niche, and set-up a Wordpress blog. If you use JustHost or BlueHost, you can set-up the Wordpress blog with the single click of the button, there is no need to program or figure anything out. Now, just grab a free theme and install it onto your Wordpress blog and write at least five posts centered around those �high traffic� and �little to moderate competition� keyword phrases you researched in the earlier step. If you don�t like writing you can outsource the task to someone who does on sites like eLance.