Did you know that up to 81% of shoppers do online research before making a big purchase? A study done by GE Capital revealed that 60% of all purchases today start by buyers typing into a search engine to find the products they want. Further, 61% of online shoppers will not make a purchase until they have read online reviews of the products they want to buy.

This data reveals how much power random bloggers and product reviewers on the net have in swaying purchasing decisions. The internet now gives any person who is motivated enough and knows enough to write authoritatively about any given topic the chance to act as an intermediary between shoppers and retail stores.

Think about it. How many times have you searched for or compared online product reviews before making a purchase? If you clicked through a link on the page of the product info or review and made a purchase, it is very likely that the owner of the site was paid a commission off the sale they (or you?) generated.

You too can act as a middleman in such a set up and earn referral income or lead generation fees.

There are several big companies that follow this business model. Travel sites such as Booking.com, Kayak.com, and TripAdvisor.com have perfected this business model.

Since you are a one-person show and you don’t have the budget to build huge sites in the realm of Booking.com, what you can do is build what is called a ‘niche site’.

What Is a Niche Site?

A niche site is a relatively small site whose focus is publishing content about a small sub-set of a bigger market with the intention of ranking high in the search engines for search terms relating to that ‘sub-market’. For example, if you love diving and wanted to create a diving website, reviewing diving equipment that can be found in Hawaii and the stores they can be bought or rented from would make your site a niche site.

It’s a narrow niche and your target audience won’t be divers in general but divers going to Hawaii who don’t want to carry any equipment and would rather buy or rent them from local stores. Your competition will be small and you will have higher chances of ranking high on Google for the keywords you target.

Authority and Business Model

Needless to say, your source of revenue will be the referrals or leads you send to the businesses you recommend on your site.

For users to trust you enough to take your recommendation, your content needs to be authoritative. For this reason, you should create a niche site around a niche you are familiar with. If you can’t find a profitable niche you are familiar with, commit yourself to learning enough about the niche to speak authoritatively about the various topics you will write about on your site.

Finding businesses that will pay you for leads is not hard at all. No business will turn down an opportunity to make an extra sale.

You can get started today by creating a simple WordPress website, doing keyword research about your target niche, and writing great content around those keywords.