How To Start A Profitable Shoe Blog

• With low competition and high buyer intent keywords, shoe blogs can capitalize on the exploding interest in sneaker culture
• RunRepeat.com is a great example of a niche shoe blog, which has already achieved significant success
• Tactically approaching this niche with strategic keyword research, using pop-ups and ads, automating social media, publishing content as fast as possible, and optimizing internal linking can capitalize on pricey sneakers with impressive commission opportunities.

Do you love shoes? Do you have a real passion for fashion? If so, starting a shoe blog could be the perfect niche business for you!

Particularly because there are some amazingly low difficulty/high buyer intent keywords in this niche.

So, whether you are a seasoned blogger or just getting started, read on for tips and advice on how to create a successful shoe blog!

First, let’s check out some of these insanely easy to rank keywords from the massive shoe blog, RunRepeat.com:

These are just 1,000 of the keywords they rank for that are under 25 Keyword Difficulty.

The Major Players in the Sneaker Market

The global Sneaker market was valued at USD 384 billion in 2020 (Source). These are the leading companies in the space.

1. Adidas
2. Nike
3. New Balance
4. Under Armour
5. ASICS
6. MIZUNO
7. Puma
8. Lining
9. Ecco
10. Kswiss
11. Skecher
12. ANTA
13. 361°
14. PEAK
15. Guirenniao
16. China Dongxiang
17. Xtep

The Big Idea

Create a shoe blog that’s 70/30 affiliate/informational content- reviewing pricey sneakers and answering common shoe-related queries for long-tail traffic.

Example Site: RunnerRepeat

RunRepeat.com does this really well, which is why it’s a great example to emulate.

Shoes are a sexy topic, but there are a surprising amount of low-competition keywords you can target in this niche.

Currently, they’re ranking for over 1 million shoe keywords, getting over 2 million organic visits a month:

While they do have a huge DR, what I like about this niche is that there are a lot of websites with low DRs, even DR 0 sites, ranking for thousands of keywords, like this one:

This is a DR .1 website ranking for nearly 5,000 keywords and getting over 5,000 organic visits a month.

*5/2022 Update: WearEnthusiast is currently ranking for over 10,000 keywords and receiving 18,000 visits a month, from 495 indexed Posts.

They published a ton of content (495 Posts) very, very fast- and are just now reaping exponential results around 9 months in.

Check out some of their top-ranking keywords:

You can see lots of low competition keywords with high buyer intent.

But, back to RunRepeat- a true sneaker authority site:

What I like

• RunRepeat’s reviews are fantastic- full of real pictures and helpful information
• Unique and attractive design designed for conversion
• Multiple affiliate partners- Zappos, Running Warehouse, Rei
• Deals page in the Menu- great way to incentive affiliate clicks

What I don’t like

• Very heavy on affiliate content- always risky with Google

Example Landing Page

Check out this example landing page for the Adidas Yeezy 350 Boost v2- I breakdown what I like about it below the screengrab:

1. Great above the fold information- satisfies user intent immediately
2. Multiple affiliate partners- pulls pricing data from different e-commerce sources
3. An Amazon-style, highly detailed comparison table
4. Real product images- they’ve actually reviewed the shoe, which helps appease Google’s product review requirements + delivers an awesome user experience
5. A stickied table of contents sidebar helps orient desktop users- great for pushing people back to the ‘money’ sections of the page
6. Facts/Specs section adds more organization and data- interlinking to relevant categories, great for SEO and user experience
7. Pop-up carousel of YouTube reviews- another nice user experience element
8. Author box helps satisfy Google’s E.A.T requirements- helps legitimize a heavy product-review site

What I’d Do

Niching Down

If I were approaching a shoe blog, I’d consider niching down into a type of shoe to start.

I’d choose an expired domain name (learn how to buy expired domain names on Spamzilla) that’s fairly broad so I could diversify my content themes if needed.

But I’d start with a particular genre of shoe blog keywords- maybe running sneakers, or high-fashion sneakers, or maybe particular brands.

Keyword Research

In terms of finding keywords, I like Matt Diggity’s recursive keyword research process.

In a nutshell, you basically find sites ranking for keywords in your niche, use Ahrefs to extract all their keywords, paste it into a spreadsheet, do the same for at least 5 other sites, and you’ll have a massive list of keywords you can target.

I’d like the site to have a tight, semantic structure to start- cover ALL the keywords in a particular category (say, how shoes ‘fit’), before moving on to new categories.

Run Popups

I’d run pop-ups on the content using ConvertBox and begin to incorporate pure, affiliate listicles (i.e. “best running shoes for seniors”) as more of my informational content is getting indexed.

Content + Ads

I’d try to maintain a 70/30 split between informational and affiliate content, eventually getting ads running using Ezoic for lower trafficked sites and eventually Mediavine/AdThrive for higher trafficked sites.

I’d recommend publishing as fast as possible- if this is your only site, getting 100 posts published a month could be a realistic target.

Internal Linking

Set up automatic internal linking with LinkWhisper can help optimize your site’s link structure. This is important both for its SEO benefits as well as for enhancing user experience.

Automate Social

I’d also use MissingLettr to automate my social media drip campaigns. My Virtual Assistant does all of that for me and instantly fills out 6 months of social media content, which is good for ‘social signals’ as well as incremental traffic.

Publish, Publish, Publish

Publish as fast as possible- set a goal for yourself. It can be 50 Posts a month or even a 100.

Do it for 3 months and see where you stand- organic traffic takes time, so if you load up early and fast, you reap the rewards down the line.

How To Make Money

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular ways to monetize a blog.

And, lucky for you, there are plenty of affiliate programs available in the shoe industry! For example, you could sign up for Amazon Associates and earn a commission on every purchase made through your site.

There are a variety of shoe affiliate programs you can join, including:

1. Zappos
2. Indestructible Shoes
3. Shoes.com
4. Puma
5. Yami Dance Shoes
6. Shein
7. Just Shoes For Kids
8. Spring Step Shoes
9. Nina Shoes
10. Public Desire
11. Nike
12. Chamaripa Shoes
13. Shoeaholics
14. Nashville Shoe Warehouse
15. AllSole
16. Converse
17. REI

Obviously, you’re going to be writing up reviews, running pop-ups on your content, trying to rank for the millions of lucrative review keywords in this niche.

I’d start with Amazon’s affiliate program and selectively apply to alternative affiliate programs once I was confident I had traffic to send them.

Display Ads

Another way to make money from your shoe blog is through display advertising. One of the most popular ad networks for bloggers is Google AdSense.

AdSense is a program that allows you to place ads on your website and earn money every time someone clicks on an ad or is served an impression of that ad.

The goal would be to use Ezoic or AdSense until you’re getting enough traffic to apply to Mediavine or AdThrive. Ads are fairly plug-and-play at this point.

The good thing about this niche is that you can focus on affiliate income until you have enough traffic to justify the incremental benefit of running ads.

How To Get Traffic

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website for Google search with the goal of earning higher web traffic levels and improving your blog’s visibility.

There are a number of things you can do to optimize your site for SEO, including:

• Keyword research: Identifying and targeting high-traffic keywords that relate to your blog’s content.
• On-page optimization: Optimizing individual blog posts and pages for relevance to specific keywords.
• Link building: Creating backlinks to your website from high-quality websites.

What I’d do- find 10 shoe-specific sites, extract all their keywords using Ahrefs, compile them all into a big Excel spreadsheet, and use HireWriters or UpWork writers to publish content as fast as possible.

Social Media

Another great way to drive traffic to your shoe blog is through social media. Platforms like Facebook, Pinterest Twitter, and Instagram are excellent places to share your blog content and connect with potential readers.

Though, for the most part, you’re going to get the bulk of your traffic from SEO. If you handle it correctly, maybe you can get decent traffic from Pinterest.

When using social media to promote your blog, there’s some obvious stuff you can do to gain visibility and experiment with traffic potential:

• Use relevant hashtags: Hashtags are a great way to reach new people and get your content seen by a larger audience.
• Share high-quality images and videos: People are more likely to share and engage with content that is visually appealing.
• Post regularly: Consistency is key when it comes to social media. The more often you post, the more likely you are to reach new people.

YouTube

YouTube could be a great place to share shoe haul videos, unboxings, and reviews.

There’s a tremendous traffic opportunity on the platform, and it’s a great way to connect with potential readers.

It’s also easy to do affiliate marketing on YouTube, which could be a great way to monetize your channel.

The Kevin Durant shoe video above has over 3 million views!

Summing Up

Starting a shoe blog can be a great way to share your love of shoes with the world and make some money in the process!

There are a number of ways to make money from your blog, including affiliate marketing, display advertising, and SEO. Additionally, social media can be used to drive traffic to your blog.

Choose low competition keywords, publish lots of content fast, use an expired domain, and make sure you overload your site with informational content!

Last Updated on March 3, 2023 by Ryan Nelson