When it comes to building a niche site, or any site for that matter, there are some core components that I feel make up the site in its entirety.

You may agree with me here, you may not. Either way is fine. This is just what I have observed from my experience with building websites, and most recently, my niche site I’m currently working on.

Here are, what I believe, are the 5 core components that make up a website, or what should be part of every website that you build.

Header

To me, the header of a website either makes or breaks the entire site. It’s the first thing that people see when they come to your site and should leave a positive reaction.

Does your header explain what your site is about? Does it get your message across?

If you answered “No” to either question, then consider revamping your header. And, if you don’t even have a header, then you best get one.

Having a professional looking header for your site will make a huge difference in regards to the trust your visitors place on your site.

There are minor exceptions to this rule, but for any major site or niche site, make sure you have a well-designed header.

When Building a Niche Site

If you notice the header I have for my new niche site (http://getbackyourexadvice.com), it’s nothing real fancy, but it looks nice and gets the point across. You don’t have to purchase professional images.

If you’re comfortable using an image editor, you can find images on the internet that you can use and incorporate to design a nice looking header for your website. Or, you can have one created for you for a small fee. I prefer to use Photoshop.

Also, what I do when I’m just starting to design a site is to get the header done and uploaded to the site before I ever touch anything else regarding the design and style of the site.

The header is the focal point of the site, and the site should be designed around the header, incorporating the colors into the overall site.

Navigation

Once we have the header and overall design out of the way, the navigation of the site should be the next thing to focus on.

You’ll want to decide where you want your navigational links located, as well as what links you actually want to have.

I use the FlexSqueeze Theme to design my sites, and I can either have the navigation above or below the header. I prefer below, so I choose that option, and it’s done.

You can even choose not to show the navigation at all, and with WordPress, you have the option of showing your navigation links in the right-hand sidebar using a widget. That’s an option as well.

There’s not really a right or wrong way to go about it, but it’s important that you do have a clear navigation for the site so people can get around easily, and that they can also easily find the navigation links.

Essential Navigation Links

There are some key links that you should include in your navigation. These, at the very least, should include:

• Home Page
• About Us/Me
• Contact

These, I feel, are essential links you should have. You can obviously have more links if need be, but you should at least link to these important pages.

Monetization

You may think I’m crazy for labeling this as a core component, but in all honesty, it really is. If you’re building a niche site, good chances are you plan on monetizing the site.

When thinking about the design, navigation and all the other components of the site, you should have a plan for how you’re going to monetize the site and incorporate that process into the site.

For instance, if you take a look at this blog or my new niche site, you many notice a few things that stand out.

There’s a Feature area just below the navigation, where I can add practically whatever I want there. I chose to showcase my newsletter and provide a simple sign-up form for people to easily subscribe.

Being able to add more than one column, I can also section the area off and advertise one or a couple other offers as well, which as you can see I have done.

The right-hand sidebar is also a great place to add a newsletter sign-up form, banner ads or whatever else you want to put there.

Bottom line is, you should be thinking about how you’re going to monetize the site while you’re still in the design process.

Unless of course you don’t plan on monetizing or don’t want to until a later time. Have an opinion on this? Check out a guest post I did about when to monetize a website and leave your thoughts there.

Funnel

I’m not talking about a funnel you use when pouring liquids, or a funnel formed from a tornado. Although, that would be pretty cool.

I’m talking about the path that you want your visitors to take when they land on your site. This could be a specific path for first-time commentors, or a path for people who subscribe to your newsletter.

It could even be a series of links that take people to a product you’re promoting.

Whatever action you want people to take, create a funnel and guide them in the right direction.

Pages

Aside from the essential pages you’re linking to from the navigation, there are some other essential pages you’re going to need for your website.

Privacy Policy

Having a privacy policy is an absolute must. In fact, it’s a requirement for any website. I’ve written about having a privacy policy in the past, and there are many reasons to have one. The most important reason, if you need a reason, is because it’s mandatory, so get one up.

Not sure how to write one? Here’s a cool resource that will create a privacy policy for your site in just a few short steps: http://privacy-policy-generator.legalriver.com/.

Terms of Service

A Terms of Service page is just as important as a privacy policy. You have to have one, and fortunately, creating one is just as easy and can be done by going here: http://terms-of-service-generator.legalriver.com/.

Yep, from the same site as above. Thank you, Legal River.

About Page

This is self-explanatory, or should be. This page should be about you or your business/company. You can take a look at my about page for some ideas. Just don’t copy word for word.

Contact

It’s imperative you give your visitors a way to contact you. I like using a contact form with some form of Captcha so that I don’t get a bunch of spam emails.

It doesn’t really matter what you use, as long as you make it easy for people to get in touch with you if they have any comments or questions for ya.

Affiliate Disclosure

If you’re an affiliate, promoting other people’s products, then you must include some sort of affiliate disclosure on your site. You can thank the FCC for that.

It’s really not that big of a deal. I’ll even give you a couple examples to go by or use to copy for your own site:

• http://www.replaceyoursalary.com/work-from-home-blog/disclaimer
• http://getbackyourexadvice.com/affiliate-disclosure

Conclusion

There you have it. Those are the 5 core components that I feel make up a website. Obviously, depending on the type of site, there may be more components if need be.

Now, over to you…

Do you agree that these 5 are essential? Are there any you think I should have added?

Leave your thoughts below…

I know I promised a series of posts about backlinks, keywords, etc., but before I get into that I wanted to post my income from July and also update you on some new projects. First, let’s get to the earnings…

Income from ReplaceYourSalary.com

• ClickBank: $69.14
• PayDotCom – $140.85
• Angela’s Backlinks: $45
• Paul’s Backlinks: $12
• Yarie: $16.18
• Google Adsense: $33.61
• SFI: $17.54
• Project Payday: $13.50 (commissions earned from promoting the program, not actually using it)
• AdFish – $29.40
• ResponsiveData – $24
• Ads – $90
• FlexSqueeze WordPress Theme – $38.10

Total = $529.32

Income from Internet Marketing Services

It’s been a pleasure to be able to work for a highly successful internet marketer. I’m able to learn from and apply the same strategies to my online business, all of which I’ve blogged about here at one time or another.

Total = $120

Income from Proofreading/Re-writing/Editing Services

As I said previously, I’ve gotten a decent amount of freelancing work last month. It’s great to be able to provide a high quality and much needed service, and it’s been an honor serving my clients. You can learn more by visiting the link below.

• Proofreading – $63

Total = $63

Income from Re-writing Service via David Hurley’s PLR Article Service Membership

It has been an honor to be able to partner with David, a good online friend of mine, and provide the re-writing portion of his article membership. To learn more about his PLR article service, visit the link above.

Total = $75

Total online income from all sources…

$787.32

July is my best month yet. Getting closer to my goal of $1,000 in a month. I know that if I spend more time marketing that I could get there quicker, but I’ll admit, I’m sometimes lazy. It happens.

Anyway, I have some updates for you on some new projects I’m working on.

I have entered into the niche Adsense site arena and got my first site up. I won’t link to it here for multiple reasons, but it’s a niche that has potential to bring in some decent money from Adsense. I’ve only begun building backlinks to it, but it’s already on the first page of Google in the #4 position.

I hope to get it to the top spot shortly so that it will get more traffic and start to get clicks. Testing and tweaking will most likely be necessary. I’ll keep you updated on the performance of that site each month.

Also, I’m planning on entering another niche once my micro niche site starts bringing in some revenue. This niche won’t be micro and I won’t be using Adsense to earn money, but it’s a niche with barely any competition and a lot of hungry buyers. I’ll promote a single Clickbank product and create a funnel for visitors to get them to the order page.

That’s about it for now. As always, feel free to leave your comments below…

Spending your precious time on your blog should be compensated in some way, right? I mean, why put forth all of that effort if no one cares to read what you have to say and just leaves right away?

Notice in the title I used “visitors” and not readers. You first have to convince your blog visitors to stay awhile and actually read your blog before you can call them readers. Makes sense… I hope.

Getting people to stick around and become a reader, which in turn provides comments on your posts, involves a few factors. These factors can include your blog design, the content (what you write) and the style of your writing.

This certainly isn’t the all-inclusive list to go by, but these are some of the main factors you may want to consider if you just can’t seem to get anyone to take notice of your hard work.

I wrote a guest post on HowToSpoter about 3 Tips to a Better Blog where I go more in-depth regarding these three factors and what you can do to turn that sucky blog of yours into a masterpiece worthy of readers.

Be sure to read the post and comment. You’ll see me over there as well replying back.

What have I done to improve this blog?

One of the major updates I made to this blog was installing a new blog theme. Granted, I didn’t think my blog sucked (hopefully not), but it certainly was due for a face-lift, I thought. The new FlexSqueeze Theme is definitely way more modern than what I used to have and allowed me to customize every aspect of the design.

The content on here I think is pretty good, but I’d love to hear what you have to say about. I try to be as personable as possible and provide a relaxed reading environment, something I hope you all enjoy. Of course, there’s always something to learn here, so let me know if I need to clarify/expand on anything. Afterall, I try to write for you, my readers.

I took the weekend off (3 day weekend) to celebrate Independence Day and enjoy being with family and friends. It was great to just put business aside and relax and enjoy myself. The fireworks show in State College at Beaver Stadium was amazing; one of the top ranked shows in the nation. It was a blast… no pun intended.

I took pictures throughout the show along with a 40 second video of the finale. If you would like to check them out, just add me as a friend on Facebook. Otherwise, one of the pictures I took is to the right.

As much fun as I had, it’s time to get back into the swing of things. June was a rather busy month, and I’m excited to see just how many posts I had last month. If you happened to miss any of them, you can find them below…

June Comment Contest – Win Cash and Prizes!

An Unforeseen “Benefit” of 3-Way Link Exchanges

It’s Official – Alan Mater is an EzineArticles.com Expert Author

How Blogging About Internet Marketing Can Make You Money Online

New Blog Theme – I’m Using the FlexSqueeze WordPress Theme

Why You Should Incorporate Exercise Into Your Work From Home Routine

May 2010 Income Report

Why Good Keyword Selection is Essential for Home-Based Business Success

What a Man, a Dog and a Leash Have to do with Internet Marketing

Transcription Crash Course Review – Become a Home Transcriptionist Today

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I can barely hold my excitement in as I’ve been looking forward to this for quite some time now. For about the last week or so, I’ve been playing around with a new blog theme, completely in the background and undetectable to anyone.

Thanks to the plug-in Theme Test Drive, I’ve been able to install a new theme and customize a good portion of it behind the scenes. You’ve all been seeing the current theme while this was going on.

Missing the old theme already? Here’s a farewell snapshot…

In my excitement to roll out the new theme, I forgot to get the snapshot before enabling the new theme, so I had to find a cached version with the old theme… LOL.

As you may notice with the new theme, there is still a lot that needs to be done, most notably the footer area. I’ll get to that in a minute.

This new theme is a customized version of the FlexSqueeze WordPress Theme, which is a completely customizable theme that allows you to create your own unique blog theme. I bought this theme on a recommendation from Dennis Edell, and I couldn’t be happier.

This theme had everything I wanted, and then some. The main thing I wanted was better navigation, and if you’ll notice, the page links are now below the header and to the left, rather than above the header and to the right.

The next thing I wanted was a feature area, which is right below the navigation. I can add whatever I want here, and I may be changing some of the offers over time. The newsletter opt-in will most likely be permanent.

You’ll also notice I now only have one sidebar (a big one at that) on the right-hand side. I also have two sub-sidebars below the main sidebar to add additional content.

Within the next week you’ll see changes being made to the sidebar. I already have plans for it, and once I get everything finalized and the way I want it, it shouldn’t change much after that. So, don’t be alarmed if you see random stuff disappear or appear over the course of this week.

At some point, I’ll be adding a custom header to replace the plain, boring one you currently see. It’s okay as-is, but I think I can make something that stands out a little better.

I’ll also be adding additional pages to the blog as well. Not sure when this will happen, but I know for sure that I’ll be adding a Comment Policy, Disclaimer of some kind, a Write For Us page, and a Resources page that contains tools that I use and recommend.

I Need Your Help

As with any new theme installation, etc., there is always the chance for some bugs/errors to occur. I haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary yet, but if you come across anything, please make me aware of it so that I can get it fixed.

And lastly, as mentioned above, there is a feature section at the footer. I had played around with this, but I couldn’t come to a conclusion as to exactly what I wanted there.

So, I’m asking for you to recommend what I should do with that space.

What should I include in the footer area? Should I remove it altogether? Should I add the newsletter opt-in form there also?

I’m open to any and all suggestions.

I’m very excited about the new theme, and I think it looks more professional than the old one. I look forward to the new changes to come, as I hope you are too.

I appreciate and thank you for sticking with me and helping to make this blog what it is. I couldn’t have done it without all of you!