Search Portal Niche sites? Are they dead?

[webhead2]

I've been thinking about building a site similar to:

www.seopage.com

I'd like to hear any opinions, especially if anyone has ever operated such a site.

My main questions are:

1) How would you get traffic to such a site? (being that the site itself has very little content?) embed into a blog?

2) Would it be better to create a site that searches the entire web or a high paying niche (such as insurance, etc.)?

3) recommend any existing PHP based script to hit the ground running? Or should I stick with WordPress and create my own solution from there? (I am a good programmer).

Thanks! I'll be around for some back and forth on this one!

[Black Max]

This won't help you much, but personally I hate those kinds of sites and avoid them like they're rabid.

[molona]

Yes, I do too. They annoy me sooooo much. When I go to a site, I expect to find content. If I find something like this, then I tend to think that the site is under construction or that the guy just lost interest on it.

I guess you can make it look more interesting, like a directory. Then I think I would go for a niche.

[Tailslide]

Oh I'm glad someone else has said it! To me they seem to pollute Google - lists of lists of list etc etc ad infinitum.

[molona]

Still, I haven't answer any of the questions. The reason is that... well, I have never run a site like that and, as everyone can guess, that's unlikely to happen. As tailslide said, the type of site you are referring to is just click after click after click. You never go anywhere, you never find any information. They break the rule of the "3 clicks" (if the user hasn't completed his transaction in 3 clicks, it will leave the site). A transaction doesn't need to be financial. Finding information is too.

The only thing I would consider is creating a database/directory of companies in a certain niche. Making it a quality one is tough though. But Craiglist got it allright, so I guess that could happen again.

[webhead2]

Thanks, guys.

I hate those kind of sites too, but they must make money, else why would someone do it?

Financial freedom is my goal, and this would be added to a long list of sites.

[molona]

Thanks, guys.

I hate those kind of sites too, but they must make money, else why would someone do it?

Financial freedom is my goal, and this would be added to a long list of sites.

Financial freedom is the goal of any of us, but you should do something you can be proud of and, most important, something that you love.

You need that because in order to make real good cash is going to take time and effort and you are going to be fed up with it. So it must be something you think you will never get bored of.

Those sites do not make money per se. Most of the time, it is the hosting company when the owner is not inserested anymore in the domain, or someone specialized in the domain business, and they want to keep the traffic to sell the domain to someone else for a good price, plus earning a bit of cash through some clicks.

They earn quite a bit that way because they have hundreds of domains in that situation.

[Black Max]

What Molona said.