Lately, I’ve been thinking of earning money online with the least amount of work and somehow I stumbled on content aggregation. It might just be the laziest way to earn money online, so I had to learn more. I found out some “really” exciting things I wanted to share with you.
Someone can earn money with content aggregation by using it to create something of value to entice someone to continue visiting a website and earning money through ads or affiliate offers!
Keep reading and I’ll share what content aggregation is, 3 examples of businesses that use it, and more importantly how we can use this idea to earn more money now, doing the least amount of work.
What is Content Aggregation?
Content Aggregation is when a website takes information from other sources and publishes it in one place.
You might be wondering how it’s different than Google. Google is a master of finding stuff that someone types into a box, content aggregation usually involves ALL the information on a topic in 1 spot with NO typing.
Usually, a content aggregation website doesn’t produce its own content and it involves one niche.
Some of these websites are INSANELY successful and might just be one of the best business models behind the Salvation Army store.
The Salvation Army gets items for free and then resells them to people, how brilliant is that? The reason I “really” like content aggregation is there is “almost” no work required (cool right?) and it’s helpful.
All you have to do is get a website and use an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to pull information to the website that updates it automatically.
You could be wondering WHY these websites are popular. One reason is convenience, due to all the information being in 1 place it can save someone time. It might be better to wrap your head around if you saw some examples.
What are Examples of Aggregator Businesses?
A good example of an aggregator business would be the Drudge Report HERE. It’s not too fancy and it looks like it came from the 1950’s, but it works and the website got over 25 million visits in the last 24 hours (amazing stuff).
The million-dollar question is how the Drudge Report got so many visits. One reason is how simple it is. It’s easy to find the top stories.
Another reason is the branding. The Drudge Report was started in 1997 when Drudge created it to supplement a $10 per year email newsletter. In 1998 the Drudge Report got noticed when it broke that Newsweek had information on sexual relations between a White House intern and Bill Clinton.
People started to get in the habit of going to the Drudge Report for the top news and the site just grew. Even my dad “loves” the Drudge Report.
It’s like a newspaper where people don’t even have to write stories. Seriously, is there a better business model than that? If so, please tell me!
The next example would be a popular website for movies and TV shows called Rotten Tomatoes. The website pulls reviews from MANY places and it’s about 1 niche.
I’ll be honest, I do go to this website at times to find ideas for movies, but I’m skeptical of reviews. Rotten Tomatoes was also launched “a long time ago” in 1998.
You’re starting to see that the popular content aggregation sites have been around for while and their brand pulls people to keep using them.
I think it’s a branding thing on why they are so popular.
A third example would be Fliboard, that annoying app that came pre-installed on my phone. It’s similar to Pinterest, but instead of pinning something you would flip it.
What’s “really” cool that I didn’t know is you can even submit the content you create to Flipboard and get traffic. Another cool thing is if you submit content to the website it will automatically assign where it goes.
Flipboard has been around since 2010 and one of the reasons it’s popular is due to its simple design and it’s automatically installed on some devices.
How do I Create a Content Aggregation Business?
Let’s get into the fun stuff on how we can use this content aggregation thing to put money in our pockets.
One idea is to first focus on just ONE niche. In all honesty, this might be the most difficult part, because there are TONS and TONS to choose from.
What area are you MOST interested in? Do you have a secret collection of Pokemon cards, for example?
What area do you “really” want to learn more about? The niche could be about anything, below are a few examples off the top of my head…
- New top-earning new affiliate products
- Rollerskates
- Flowers
- Vampires
- Horses
- War in Ukraine
- The worst outfits someone wore every week.
After you have picked the niche and the domain. You then would build a website around it. To learn how to create a website I would recommend this place HERE. Plus, you get a really good simple WordPress theme to use and they include really good training on free traffic ideas.
There is also “a TON” of good information about creating a website that they share. If you are going to build a website, it’s almost mandatory to get good training that this group HERE is guaranteed to give you.
You have a domain and website next ALL you have to do is search the web and find cool stuff on the niche you picked. One option is to go to a website like this one HERE, where you can create a custom RSS feed on any topic.
They have TONS of different feeds they can show and below is a small sample.
When you have the feed it’s VERY easy to display it on your website. On the backend of WordPress you would go to Appearance then click on Widgets, and then click on the Feed option.
Next, put the feed address into the widget and it will display on your website.
A better option is a paid plugin HERE, which you get “a lot” for and there are no monthly fees. It’s a better option that will save you money, has more features, and is better.
Most importantly you can show more content for less money and this gives your readers MORE value. The cool thing is the feed updates automatically, so there will ALWAYS be fresh new content on your niche on your website.
You can see how this can be valuable to someone who is interested in your website topic.
You might be wondering how you are going to get paid for all this right?
The easiest way is to put ads on your website. Different ad companies will pay different amounts, but I would “highly” recommend and use this place HERE.
You can start getting paid from advertising on a brand new site and they pay the highest, that I’ve found.
Another idea (that I like) is to include a landing page and I would use this place HERE, which is FREE to start. It also comes with a landing page and you can collect emails.
Then you could send out emails and earn money with affiliate marketing products that are related to your niche.
If you’re not sure how to do email marketing, I would recommend getting a free eBook I created HERE.
Hopefully, some of this is making sense.
The RSS feed gives someone a reason to come back to your website and you earn more money.
You might be wondering how would you get traffic to your website. There are many options and the team HERE, that helped you build a website gives really good training on free traffic methods to start.
ONLY after you can earn money with free traffic would I recommend the “option” of experimenting with paid traffic. Crawl, before you walk and last run (because you don’t want to fall down and hurt yourself).
The “cool” thing about using content aggregation is it’s a great thing to advertise to get someone to come to your website to start with and to keep coming back to see what is new and update themselves on your niche.
Plus your website will “always” be fresh and new with NO work on your part.
Another benefit is (if you want) you can create content around the latest news that was in your feed and it can give you content ideas. The last benefit is it helps you think of ways of providing value FIRST before thinking of earning money.
We all want to earn more money, but you got to provide value first.
Closing
In closing, you don’t want to do any shady stuff with the RSS feed. This means acting like you write an article that you didn’t and sticking it on your website.
You know taking credit for someone else’s work (horrible stuff).
I hope this post “at least” gave you some ideas on what was possible with earning money online. One of my favorite sayings is business is just “strategically giving” and that is why I’m excited about this idea because you’re giving, with barely any work and I think that is a great thing.
Bye for now.