Obviously, no 2 situations are alike; and multiple factors affect any outcome. Practically, the number of answers is infinite.

But one factor I've looked at intensively, full time for years is the role played by the brand name and/or the site's domain(s).

Think of doing business -- online or off -- as moving along a path. Some paths are rocky or go through quicksand. Others can be made straight and smooth. Obstacles can be cleared, or the surface may be lubricated.

For most niches, you'll see brand names / domains that add friction -- friction that is compensated for by extra marketing inputs ... effort or money.

Suppose your niche were nicotine patches. Well, ideally you might own NicotinePatch(es).com to simplify brand recognition, add trust, increase click-through rates, and so forth.

Traffic can be built up without an exact-match domain. No doubt about that. Still, not all domains / names perform equally well online or in the minds' of an audience.

Answers aren't always so clear cut. However, since the internet is built on domain names, domains and names are worth evaluating very deliberately.

In the old days you bought and exact match domain, threw in a couple of blog posts and most probably your website ranked. Today you need to build content for an audience, that means you need to build something that has real purpose, readers, engagement. Trying to "game" Google to do Adsense or make money out of affiliate links would probably last for 2 or maybe 3 weeks and then your website will erode away.

So the first thing you need to is focus on your customer and how you want to serve them. In the purpose of not being "etheral" and without knowing what your product or service is do the following.
1. Keyword research: a tool like Market Samurai is great because it lets you grasp who your competitors are and how tough would it be to beat them.
2.Technology: if you are not tech savvy, go with something like wordpress where most content will be indexed by google
3.Develop a content strategy: define what and how often you will publish content to your site.
4.Link building is still a great ranking factor but it has to be done so you wont get a penalty and it looks natural under the eyes of search engines.

All of the above can be done by a single individual. I have built and sold more than 300 niche websites, happy to jump on a call if you require advice :)

There is no one size fits all magic bullet answer here. Anyone who answers trying to help is just shooting in the dark.

So many unknown factors.

Well, as you already understand the importance of quality content, you are already half way through my friend. :)

If your content adds value to the lives or businesses of your visitors, it all boils down to taking this content out and reaching to consumers.

SEO, as I assume you understand, plays a very big role here. Let people find what they want at your niche website.

Other than that, using old school email marketing is the best way to induce customer engagement with your brand.

Collect emails through opt ins and engage them through emails. Your quality content would do the rest.

Other than waiting for the customers come in, you can reach them out using Facebook pages and twitter, whichever you are comfortable with. Let each post be helpful for your audience and include links to your website.

There's a lot more you can do and this is a pretty wide question.

If you want more details or solutions customized to your case, feel free to drop a message. :)

I replied to similar question earlier so I will adjust the relevant content towards your specific question below:

I echo the comments of the previous experts. As one SEO expert told me, search engine optimization is on-going exercise, not a one time event. This is the situation here, and I would separate you efforts between new and returning visitors. Sites in general that get a high number of visitors on a monthly basis usually have a core group of returning visitors that leverage it for content sharing or expertise on a regular basis.

In the case of returning visitors, you could have a forum/testimonials for people have who have leveraged your product/service/insights. You could also look to start with other languages for content for other countries to provide a point of differentiation if you have US only competitors. Blogging, linking to articles relevant to your user base, also curating news through sites like Paper.li or Rebelmouse provide an easy content option without much effort.

For new visitors, media exposure and references from top opinion leaders in the space can help. I would look to other portals in your industry or that attract the age group you are targeting and request the site owners to write a piece, send out a communique and/or reference your product/service/knowledge base to the targeted audience. Getting local media in your areas to report on your service can also provide exposure. I always focus on finding the free avenues first and when you find the highest referring sites, focus any ad dollars there to get the best bang for the buck.

I have focused on building my website based on deep content but you might find that Pat Flynn's niche site duel has some helpful ideas as he shows you two examples of how he built a high traffic niche site: http://www.smartpassiveincome.com/nichesiteduel/
Warm regards, John

The key to getting high traffic will be converting users from other information-based sites in your niche to your site.

This can be done by increasing the "share-ability" of your content and creating a user experience that is far superior to those of your competitors.

What does "share-ability" mean?

- content layout that incorporates multiple ways to share the content over social media
- content that includes quotes, videos and other linkable items
- APIs that allow for contacts/data to be shared

User Experience

- responsive design
- mobile optimization
- conversion optimization

These tools are required in order to optimize your site for inbound marketing (which will cost significantly less over the longterm than using only paid advertising to convert users to your site).

I would be happy to discuss the tough competition that you are trying to beat out on a call.

Yes, Manythings can be done.

Let me share you one among them.

1. Competitor Analysis -

There are many ways to do same but i will talk here about one method.

A1. Competitor Analysis with ALEXA.

Go to Alexa and input your competitor's domain name.

In result you will get classified information that from which website your competitor is getting more traffic.

Congo !! You get road, Now drive your car on same road and your taxi will get passengers #ifyouknowwhatimean :p

🔥 7 Evergreen Ways to Get Traffic I learned by owning a online magazine 🔥

To have a successful online magazine your need traffic. POINT.

It’s what everything else stands on.

Unfortunately, when I started my video games magazine (which then turned one of the leading publications about the topic in Italy), I didn’t have the budget of large publishers.

In fact, I was 13-years old, I didn’t have cash at all

(I mean, besides the one, my grandparents were giving me for Christmas and B-days :-D)

Social media weren’t even a thing (it was 2007!)

I had to base everything out of evergreen ways to rank over my competitors

I gotta be honest, SEO was my main hustle at that time, but besides that

The following list of tactics has helped me as well in my ranking efforts, and got me traffic from sources that,

Even if you’re not an SEO pro, you can still exploit RIGHT NOW:

1- Interview Someone in Your Niche. I not only cold outreached to key personalities in my industry (producers, developers, etc.)

But also to whoever else had a medium-large active following.

For me, these were all the “clans” of players (small-medium groups of people that plays together at certain games).

And all the online games, the latter had thousands of active members, and I was interviewing them with the agreement that they would have shared the link to their X, XXX+ members’ newsletters.

Usually, these online games were struggling to get exposure (they didn't have huge budgets), so it was win-win.

2-Organize a Contest or a Giveaway. I used to partner with video games producers for this kind of stuff. For instance, we organized a fantasy soccer tournament for different years with the distributors of PES.

Outside of the videogames world, you can easily partner with SaaS, products-based businesses, etc. if you have an engaged following and subscribers, for them, it’s a cheap and effective way to get visibility for their products so they’ll probably agree. For you, it's a great way to get traffic and build a community.

Use Viralloops or a similar service for the giveaways.

3- This one is common sense, but ask for feedback to others in your industry.

Do you remember MSN? Each time I had a huge announcement, a new design of the website, I was asking for feedback to others in the video games industry. This helped me to get traction when starting out, and to remain top-of-the-mind, but also they were helped me to find bugs or misspelled words.

People love to give feedback if you're not asking for them, what the hell you're waiting for.

4-Be a Regular On Niche Forums (Now It's More About Reddit, Quora, and FB Groups.)

6-Get Interviewed

7- Partner up with complementary products/services. I used to partner with complementary (but not competing) websites to produce backlinks organically.

The creation of website for niche begins with understanding your niche market. Once you have figured that out that you can follow these steps:
1. Advertise: This one is so obvious; we are going to look at it first. Paid search, social media advertising and display advertising all excellent ways of attracting visitors, building your brand and getting your site in front of people. Adjust your paid strategies to suit your goals – do you just want more traffic, or are you looking to increase conversions, too? Each paid channel has its pros and cons, so think carefully about your objectives before you reach for your credit card. If you are hoping that more traffic to your site will also result in more sales, you will need to target high commercial intent keywords as part of your paid search strategies. Yes, competition for these search terms can be fierce (and expensive), but the payoffs can be worth it.
2. Get Social: It is not enough to produce great content and hope that people find it – you have to be proactive. One of the best ways to increase traffic to your website is to use social media channels to promote your content. Twitter is ideal for short, snappy (and tempting) links, whereas Google+ promotion can help your site show up in personalized search results and seems especially effective in B2B niches. If you are a B2C product company, you might find great traction with image-heavy social sites like Pinterest and Instagram. Here is more advice on making the most of social media marketing.
3. Mix It Up: There is no magic formula for content marketing success, despite what some would have you believe. For this reason, vary the length and format of your content to make it as appealing as possible to different kinds of readers. Intersperse shorter, news-based blog posts with long-form content as well as video, infographics, and data-driven pieces for maximum impact.
4. Write Irresistible Headlines: Headlines are one of the most important parts of your content. Without a compelling headline, even the most comprehensive blog post will go unread. Master the art of headline writing. For example, the writers at BuzzFeed and Upworthy often write upward of twenty different headlines before finally settling on the one that will drive the most traffic, so think carefully about your headline before you hit “publish.”
5. Pay Attention to On-Page SEO: Optimizing your content for search engines is still a valuable and worthwhile practice. Are you making the most of image alt text? Are you creating internal links to new content? What about meta descriptions? Optimizing for on-page SEO does not have to take ages, and it could help boost your organic traffic.
6. Target Long-Tail Keywords: Got your high-intent keyword and popular keyword bases covered? Then it is time to target long-tail keywords, too. Long-tail keywords account for a majority of web searches, meaning that if you’re not targeting them as part of your paid search or SEO efforts, you’re missing out.
7. Start Guest Blogging: Securing a guest post on a reputable site can increase blog traffic to your website and help build your brand into the bargain. Be warned, though – standards for guest blogging have changed radically during the past eighteen months, and spammy tactics could result in stiff penalties. Proceed with caution.
8. Invite Others to Guest Blog on Your Site: Guest blogging is a two-way street. In addition to posting content to other blogs, invite people in your niche to blog on your own site. They’re likely to share and link to their guest article, which could bring new readers to your site. Just be sure that you only post high-quality, original content without spammy links, because Google is cracking way down on low-quality guest blogging.
9. Go After Referral Traffic: Rather than trying to persuade other sites to link back to you (a tedious and time-intensive process), create content that just begs to be linked to.
10. Post Content to LinkedIn: LinkedIn has become much more than a means of finding another job. The world’s largest professional social network is now a valuable publishing platform, which means you should be posting content to LinkedIn on a regular basis. Doing so can boost traffic to your site, as well as increase your profile within your industry – especially if you have a moderate to large following.
11. Implement Schema Microdata: Implementing schema (or another microdata format) will not necessarily increase traffic to your website on its own, but it will make it easier for search engine bots to find and index your pages. Another benefit of using schema for SEO is that it can result in better rich site snippets, which can improve click-through rates.
12. Link Internally: The strength of your link profile is not solely determined by how many sites link back to you – it can also be affected by your internal linking structure. When creating and publishing content, be sure to keep an eye out for opportunities for internal links. This not only helps with SEO, but also results in a better, more useful experience for the user – the cornerstone of increasing traffic to your website.
13. Interview Industry Thought Leaders: Send out emails requesting an interview to thought leaders in your industry and publish the interviews on your blog. Not only will the name recognition boost your credibility and increase traffic to your website, the interviewee will probably share the content too, further expanding its reach.
14. Do not Neglect Email Marketing: So many businesses are focused on attracting new customers through content marketing that they forget about more traditional methods. Email marketing can be a powerful tool, and even a moderately successful email blast can result in a significant uptick in traffic. Just be careful not to bombard people with relentless emails about every single update in your business. Also, do not overlook the power of word-of-mouth marketing, especially from people who are already enjoying your products or services. A friendly email reminder about a new service or product can help you boost your traffic, too.
15. Make Sure Your Site is Responsive: The days when internet browsing was done exclusively on desktop PCs are long gone. Today, more people than ever before are using mobile devices to access the web, and if you force your visitors to pinch and scroll their way around your site, you’re basically telling them to go elsewhere. Even if you have a basic website, you still need to ensure that it is accessible and comfortably viewable across a range of devices, including smaller smartphones.
16. Make Sure Your Site is Fast: If your site takes forever to load, your bounce rate will be sky high. Make sure that your pages are as technically optimized as possible, including image file sizes, page structure and the functionality of third-party plugins. The faster your site loads, the better.
17. Foster a Sense of Community: People want to speak their minds and weigh in on subjects they feel passionately about, so building a community into your site is a great way to start a conversation and increase traffic to your website. Implement a robust commenting system through third-party solutions such as Facebook comments or Disqus or create a dedicated forum where visitors can ask questions. Do not forget to manage your community to ensure that minimum standards of decorum are met, however.
18. Make Yourself Heard in Comment Sections: Commenting doesn’t necessarily provide an immediate boost to referral traffic right away, but making a name for yourself by providing insightful, thought-provoking comments on industry blogs and sites is a great way to get your name out there – which can subsequently result in driving more traffic to your own site. Just remember that, as with guest posting, quality and relevance are key – you should be engaging with other people in your niche, not dropping spam links on unrelated websites.
19. Examine Your Analytics Data: Google Analytics is an invaluable source of data on just about every conceivable aspect of your site, from your most popular pages to visitor demographics. Keep a close eye on your Analytics data and use this information to inform your promotional and content strategies. Pay attention to what posts and pages are proving the most popular. Inspect visitor data to see how, where and when your site traffic is coming from.
20. Get Active on Social Media: It is not enough to just share content through social channels – you need to actively participate in the community, too. Got a Twitter account? Then join in group discussions with relevant hashtags. Is your audience leaving comments on your Facebook posts? Answer questions and engage with your readers. Nothing turns people off quicker than using social media as a broadcast channel – use social media as it was intended and interact with your fans.
21. Submit Your Content to Aggregator Sites: Firstly, a disclaimer – do not spam Reddit and other similar sites hoping to “hit the jackpot” of referral traffic, because it is not going to happen. Members of communities like Reddit are extraordinarily savvy to spam disguised as legitimate links, but every now and again, it does not hurt to submit links that these audiences will find genuinely useful. Choose a relevant subreddit, submit your content, then watch the traffic pour in.
22. Incorporate Video into Your Content Strategy: Text-based content is all well and good, but video can be an asset in both attracting new visitors and making your site more engaging. Data shows that information retention is significantly higher for visual material than it is for text, meaning that video marketing is an excellent way to grab – and hold – your audience’s attention, and boost traffic to your website at the same time.
23. Research the Competition: If you have not used software like BuzzSumo to check out what your competitors are up to, you are at a huge disadvantage. These services aggregate the social performance of specific sites and content to provide you with an at-a-glance view of what topics are resonating with readers and, most importantly, making the rounds on social media. Find out what people are reading (and talking about) and emulate that kind of content to bring traffic to your website.
24. Host Webinars: People love to learn, and webinars are an excellent way to impart your wisdom to your eagerly waiting audience. Combined with an effective social promotion campaign, webinars are a great way to increase traffic to your website. Send out an email a week or so ahead of time, as well as a “last chance to register” reminder the day before the webinar. Make sure to archive the presentation for later viewing and promote your webinars widely through social media.
25. Attend Conferences: Whatever industry you are in, chances are there are at least one or two major conventions and conferences that are relevant to your business. Attending these events is a good idea – speaking at them is even better. Even a halfway decent speaking engagement is an excellent way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and gain significant exposure for your site.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath