After analyzing the data for over 5,000+ sites that have been accepted by Raptive (formerly AdThrive) and Mediavine, I have identified 23 profitable niche ideas that have been validated with multiple successful sites from our database of URLs.
In previous write-ups, we broke down thousands of sites in the Raptive and Mediavine networks. We updated the data sets, and combined them, to then analyze over 5,000+ websites to find the most common and profitable niches.
Use this analysis to understand what are the most profitable niches and also to help choose a niche for your next project.
Let’s get into it!
10 Popular Niches on Mediavine and Raptive
We sampled hundreds of sites to find the most popular niches that are accepted by premium ad networks. Here are the most popular niches in order of popularity:
- Food/Recipes/Cooking
- Home & Garden
- Travel
- Pets
- Auto
- Technology
- Video Games
- Personal Finance
- Animals (non-pet)
- Crafts
In 2018, Mediavine stated that 47% of its sites were in the food category, but they have since diversified to a wide variety of popular lifestyle niches.
7 Most Unique Niches
We found some unique or less common niches that typically have lower competition than the most popular topics.
- Meanings of different colors
- Things in order (e.g., order of books in a book series)
- Software tutorials (e.g., Excel, Photoshop)
- Shopping at a specific store (e.g., Costco, Trader Joe’s)
- Hotels with X (e.g., hotels with hot tubs)
- Calculators (e.g., body fat calculators)
- Rock finding
23 Best Niches From Analyzing Successful Content Sites
1. Home and Garden
There are many home and garden sites that use Mediavine or Raptive and they often focus on a specific category like home decorating, home improvement, home organization, gardening, lawn care, or power tools.
Within the gardening niche, there are several successful sites that focus on taking care of indoor plants (succulents, herbs, hydroponics).
Home and garden niches are a great option because the topics can be highly commercial with a large number of relevant products to recommend.
2. Animals
Animal informational sites (non-pet) generally require fewer links to build a high traffic site that is eligible for Raptive or Mediavine. Informational content about animals is typically non-commercial, so the competition can be low for some animal topics.
Some examples of successful sites in this category focus on specific animals like horses, squirrels, or butterflies. There are several successful sites in the related niche of pest removal which has a good opportunity to recommend affiliate products.
Content about farm animals like chickens or horses can be combined with a more commercial niche like homesteading or farming.
3. Spiritual
There are several high-traffic sites in the spiritual niche including sites about astrology or Christianity.
Millions of people check astrology sites regularly for their daily horoscope or search for other astrology topics.
There is a large audience of people who participate in organized religions. 47% of Americans say they are members of a house of worship. Some popular Mediavine and Raptive sites cover Christianity topics such as lists of bible verses or examples of prayers for specific situations.
4. Arts and Crafts
Arts and crafts are a huge business in the United States. In 2022, the online sales for craft supplies grew to $16 billion. The most popular craft niches on Raptive and Mediavine include sewing, quilting, and crochet.
This can be a profitable niche because there are lots of affiliate programs for courses, eBooks, and other digital products. Crafters need to spend money to participate so product affiliate links can increase the earnings per visitor.
One challenge of this niche is that you may need to spend more time making example projects or tutorials because you will be competing against people who are passionate about their hobby. Similar to cooking sites, craft sites typically require more subject matter expertise and hands-on experience to succeed.
5. Pets
Pet sites are very popular on Mediavine and Raptive with over 20 sites about dogs, often focused on a specific breed. There are also several fishkeeping and aquarium sites.
Other popular pets like birds, reptiles, and rabbits are the focus of several sites with strong traffic.
The pet niche provides good affiliate opportunities since pet owners spend a lot of money on pet products. There are also lucrative affiliate opportunities with courses like online dog training.
6. Outdoor
There are many examples of successful outdoor sites that focus on a particular outdoor activity such as camping, hiking, fishing, off-roading, skiing, or water sports.
There are thousands of different products that can be reviewed in this niche, especially outdoor gear. REI’s affiliate program pays a 5% commission rate which is higher than Amazon’s 3% rate for outdoor products.
7. Automotive
There are many sites with strong traffic from answering questions and troubleshooting issues with specific car models like the Ford F-150.
This can be a great niche because you can build a specific audience who is interested in a particular car model or a specific car brand. There are many different brands or types of cars you could focus on to establish strong topical relevance and subject matter expertise.
Some successful sites in the automotive niche take the approach of combining outdoor lifestyle content with content about recreational vehicles like RVs, campers, or off-road trucks.
8. Sports
With the huge audience that watches sporting events, there are a lot of opportunities to cover topics in professional sports as well as information about participating in sports like golf.
There are examples of Raptive and Mediavine sites in most major sports such as football, basketball, baseball, golf, soccer, and even professional wrestling (WWE).
Other sports niche examples include information about famous athletes and reviews of sporting goods.
9. Music
Successful music sites on Mediavine and Raptive focus on topics like reviews of new music releases, learning musical instruments, and reviews of music equipment.
The music niche of musical lessons provides a good opportunity for earning commissions from online music lessons and recommending equipment for aspiring musicians.
10. Beauty
The beauty niche is a consumer product-friendly niche and there are several categories you could focus on including makeup, nails, skincare, and hair care.
Some sites niche down into beauty products for a specific type of reader. A good example I found on Raptive is beauty advice for seniors.
11. Fashion
Fashion is an excellent niche that doesn’t seem as saturated as other niches but offers a lot of monetization opportunities from brand sponsorships to product affiliate links.
The Modest Man is a fashion blog for short men on Raptive that was receiving 400,000 visitors per month when it was featured on the Niche Pursuits podcast.
12. Tech Troubleshooting
Many sites have experienced strong traffic growth by publishing content about solving specific tech issues related to tech products.
One challenge of this niche is that tech products are constantly changing with new models so the content may need to be updated frequently. An opportunity for tech sites is that there are often new products or models to publish content about.
13. Things to Do in a City
There are many successful sites dedicated to covering things to do in a specific city. Most of these sites are about U.S. cities with high populations like Austin, Minneapolis, and Orlando.
City-focused sites present a good opportunity to attract local sponsorships. It can be less competitive because you typically have to live in that location to provide authentic reviews.
You can focus on a type of activity in a city such as things to do with kids, tourist attractions, best restaurants, or date night ideas. There are also sites about things to do in a state and cover things to do in multiple cities in that state.
14. Greeting Card Templates for Important Events
There are several sites that focus on helping people write a good greeting card note for important life events like weddings, graduations, or birthdays. There is strong search volume for examples of notes like condolences, congratulations, or thank yous.
A site in this niche could also monetize with greeting card affiliate programs like Etsy.
15. Name Ideas
There are multiple examples of sites approved by Mediavine or Raptive that provide lists of name ideas (e.g., 35 creative baby names that start with C).
These sites can focus on a specific type of name idea like team names, gaming names, baby names, and pet names. A similar topic is the meaning of certain first or last names.
16. Party Ideas
Multiple sites are focused on providing inspiration for themed parties for many different occasions. There are many opportunities for covering party ideas related to a popular brand for kids (e.g., Minecraft party ideas).
These sites can sell digital products such as printables and recommend decorations for specific themes with Amazon affiliate links.
17. Unique Food/Recipe
Food and cooking niches tend to be very competitive. To differentiate your site and lower competition, you may consider a unique angle within the food niche.
Examples of unique food niches include:
- Campfire cooking
- Recipes that kids can make
- A specific cooking technique (e.g., air fryer recipes)
- Cuisine from a specific country (e.g., Italian cooking, Korean cooking)
18. Quotations
There are several sites focused on providing a list of quotes from a person or about a specific topic.
Some sites focused on specific types of quotes such as success quotes, astronomy quotes, TV show quotes, movie quotes, or celebrity quotes.
This can be a low-competition niche that can grow traffic quickly. However, it can be easy for competitors to copy your content. Another challenge is that entertainment niches (e.g., movie quotes) can have a lower RPM due to the general audience it attracts.
19. Video Games
There are dozens of video game sites on Raptive and Mediavine that capitalize on the huge audience of video game players. One 2021 survey found that 65% of Americans play video games on at least one platform.
While it may be easier to reach the traffic requirement to qualify for a premium display ad network, the RPMs are generally quite low in this niche.
A unique angle by one site on Mediavine focused on helping gamers learn how to livestream on Twitch. They provide tutorials on how to livestream games and recommendations for recording gear.
20. Television Shows
Millions of people watch television shows and there are several sites focused on covering a specific reality show like Shark Tank or Kitchen Nightmares. One site on Mediavine even reviews products that are featured on the show Shark Tank.
Some TV shows provide a good overlap with a profitable niche. An example is a site about a travel show that also covers content about the locations that are featured in the show.
21. Careers and Work
There are several sites that focus on helping people learn about a specific career such as firefighting, joining the Airforce, or working in the video game industry.
There are also several successful sites that help people be more successful in their careers with advice on interviewing skills, salary negotiation, and navigating workplace issues.
Some sites focus on a specific type of work like remote work or gig work, topics that are increasing in popularity.
22. Celebrities
People have a natural curiosity about the lives of celebrities and several sites cater to this audience by providing information about famous actors, musicians, and athletes.
A popular topic is the net worth of different celebrities. CelebrityNetworth.com is one of the largest sites on the Internet with over 7 million in monthly organic traffic according to AHREFs and they use Raptive’s ad network.
Other successful sites answer common questions asked about celebrities such as what languages does [celebrity] speak?
23. Streaming
With large numbers of people spending more time watching shows and movies on streaming services, there are multiple sites about streaming that are receiving strong traffic.
Some sites focus on a single popular streaming service like Disney Plus and receive over 100,000 monthly visitors according to AHREFs.
Questions About Popular Niches on Raptive or Mediavine
What niches are not a good fit for Raptive or Mediavine?
Raptive and Mediavine look for sites with content that are a good fit for their advertisers. Niches related to controversial subjects like violence may not be approved to join. If a high percentage of traffic is from countries outside of the United States, your site may not be approved.
Which niches earn the highest revenue per visitor?
Based on revenue and traffic data from over 500 Motion Invest site listings, the niches with high revenue per visitor include personal finance, tech products, beauty, home, and pets.
How do you find examples of successful sites on Raptive or Mediavine?
All sites on Mediavine or Raptive have a footer signature like “Exclusive Member of Mediavine” or “An Elite Cafemedia Publisher” so you can search Google to find many examples. Display ad networks also provide a sellers.json file that lists sites on their platform.
Wrap Up
Reviewing sites using the Mediavine or Raptive display network is a valuable way to identify good niches and validate their traffic potential. You can also find ideas for low-competition niches or topics that have not been covered by other sites on Mediavine or Raptive.
You can conduct your own niche research by reviewing our database of Mediavine sites and our database of Raptive sites.
