Are you thinking about starting a niche website about cannabis?
This is a great niche to start a website because this century of cannabis followers are some of the most loyal you’ll ever find. The target customers are extremely passionate about the cannabis niche and always have been. People already love all the benefits they can experience from weed, so helping introduce them to this niche creates the perfect opportunity to make a very profitable niche website in cannabis.
Highlights
- Huge market growth potential in the US and globally
- Extremely loyal followers who will advocate and fight for decriminalization of cannabis.
- Many Amazon products to promote and interesting private label options for extra income.
The story:
I smoked cannabis for the first time in high school. It was a fun experience, especially since I was not interested in alcohol at the time. That euphoric “high” was enjoyable and I would smoke from time to time throughout the rest of high school and college.
Now, I live in Denver and the legal weed industry is huge. Products that I find in dispensaries make that weed I smoked in high school look like dirt. I can get weed cookies, candy, soda, vape pens and more. I can even pick weed that gives me focus and energy, or weed that puts me to sleep and heals my body.
Cannabis is more widely accepted and consumed by people of all ages since becoming recreationally legal. People of all ages and walks of life smoke weed. You can find college kids, business people, medical workers, parents, the elderly, or literally anyone in the dispensary. With the exception of alcohol, you likely won’t find a more widely diverse market than cannabis.
What is Cannabis?
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the Cannabis plant used primarily for medical or recreational purposes.
Cannabis is legal for recreational use in 15 states and medical use legal in 35 states. In medically legal states, you must obtain a medical marijuana card from a medical professional to purchase weed. In recreationally legal states, you merely have to present your state ID showing you’re over the age of 21.
THC is the chemical in weed that gives you the euphoric high feeling. Depending on what type of weed you use, THC levels can spike to considerable heights. CBD is the chemical in weed that provides the healing effects.
The most popular forms of cannabis are flower, concentrates, and edibles. Flower is the regular weed you’re used to seeing, usually in nice, pretty looking buds. Concentrates are wax, shatter, or vape solutions. Edibles are anything that can be eaten or drank that contains THC.
What I like about this niche
Cannabis has an extremely long history in the world and has the followers to show for it. Globally, cannabis has one of the largest market values I’ve seen. In the United States alone, the cannabis market is growing so fast, it’s difficult to keep accurate numbers.
A growing amount of studies are being published about cannabis showing the benefits of use compared to other forms of treatment. It has shown to help with depression, anxiety, and body pain. If that’s not serious enough for you, it is also used in conjunction with popular cancer treatments.
Thanks to the long history of cannabis on our planet, you can find a large number of very loyal consumers. They also spend more on cannabis, and more often. Let’s just say, they people who support cannabis, really love cannabis and are willing to fight for it.
The market for cannabis continues to grow as more people advocate for decriminalization across America and the world. The number of states allowing marijuana use is increasing, so this is a great time to jump in before it becomes legal nationwide. If that happens.
Cannabis supports a large number of products and that continues to increase everyday. You can find plenty of different products in dispensaries for consumption. But, don’t forget about the products people use to prepare for the consumption of weed like papers and rolling trays. You also have weed merchandise like shirts and hats. Finally, you’ll find another large amount of products for people who want to grow marijuana.
What I don’t like about this niche
Not many clickbank products to promote for the cannabis niche. Other than a few products, there’s nothing for cannabis lovers on clickbank. This isn’t a dealbreaker, but I typically like the well-optimized funnels including upsells associated with clickbank products.
More studies are also being conducted that claim disadvantages of prolonged marijuana use. Other studies show problems with brain development in teens and young adults if they start using marijuana too early. While these studies are still being conducted, it’s difficult to know what the public will latch onto. For example, the, since disproven, gateway drug theory was preached to my generation like gospel with no scientific evidence. Only strong public support was needed to make people think, “If you smoke weed, you’ll smoke crack, meth, heroine, etc.”
Other than these two small issues that I have to really be picky to find, cannabis is a great industry to start a niche website.
Niche pros and cons at a glance
The benefits of the huge market size and long history of loyal consumers far outweigh the drawbacks of few clickbank products and possible propaganda studies. Cannabis is a great niche to start a website.
Pros
- Huge market in the US and globally
- Growing number of studies showing benefits of cannabis use
- Long history of loyal consumers
- Growing market and becoming legal in more states and countries
- Large number of products in many different categories
Cons
- Basically, no clickbank products to promote
- Still more studies being conducted about the disadvantages of long-term use
- Otherwise, not many issues with this niche
Who should start this site:
- You don’t know anything about cannabis, but want to learn about it and document your experiences.
- You’re very experienced with cannabis and want to teach others more about cannabis.
- You suffer from an issue like anxiety or depression and want to use cannabis for treatment.
- Cannabis isn’t legal in your state or country and you want to advocate for decriminalization.
- Cannabis just became legal in your state or country and you want to share your commentary on the growth of the industry in your local area.
Niche market research
The cannabis market is largely estimated by the legal sales, but a large number of illicit sales dramatically decrease the actual value.
Niche market worth
Currently, the global cannabis industry is valued at $344B. Discrepancy in the legal marijuana market value has the US market value at $17.5B.
Niche estimated growth
The US market is expected to reach $73.6B by the year 2027. Another source shows cannabis to hit $65.1B by the year 2027.
Customer information
These customers are passionate and finding them is pretty easy which is why I think you could start a highly successful niche website. Check out some of these statistics about the target audience:
Millennials (born between 1981 to 1996) are the largest buyer of cannabis at 51% of total sales.
Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980) is the next largest buyer at 25% of total cannabis sales.
Men account for 60% of cannabis purchases and spend more on average.
Statistics
$361B
Market worth
$417B by 2027
Estimated growth
31K
Amazon products
Influencers
Here are the top influencers in the cannabis niche. Browse their websites to learn more about cannabis and how to use it to improve any person’s quality of life. Then, network with them to gain even more knowledge in this niche. Also, search for ways to expand upon this topic even more on your own niche website. This is where it helps to be innovative.
Weed Humor
https://www.instagram.com/weedhumor/ Private Instagram with nearly 6M followers with weed memes, info, and humor.
Trippy Treez
https://www.instagram.com/trippy.treez/ Stoner babe with weed info, products, and recipes.
Dr. Michelle Ross
https://www.instagram.com/drmicheleross/ Doctor who talks about the science behind cannabis and its effects on us.
Execution
Domains
I like these domains for the execution of this cannabis niche website. At the time of publishing this article, these brandable domain names are available for a discount.
- weedcommunications.com
- couponweed.com
- weedgraphics.com
- weedaudio.com
- fuweed.com
- modelweed.com
- profitweed.com
- celebrityweed.com
- cannabisearth.com
- michaelcannabis.com
- cannabisaudio.com
- studentcannabis.com
What hosting I suggest for your new niche site
Hosting is a huge factor for site speed. Here is my favorite hosting provider
Hosting
Bluehost
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5 of 5 stars
Site Structure
I would structure this website to drive the visitor to a CTA which will hopefully grab their email address.
The homepage should be driving visitors to the CTA or blog posts.
The blog posts should drive visitors to other blog posts or the CTA.
I would experiment with different types of CTA, but I really like the thought of a cannabis quiz. I explain a little more about my site structure in the following tabs.
Pages and Menu Setup
- Home
- Blog
- About
- Contact
- CTA
Home
Homepage is setup to hit pain points of visitor not fully enjoying their life.
1-2 sections hitting the pain point of them not completely enjoying their life or certain ailments like depression.
CTA
Section explaining what cannabis is and how it can improve their life.
Section for blog posts.
CTA
Blog
The blog will need to focus on thoroughly explaining:
- what is cannabis
- Why cannabis can help improve life quality
- Products and resources to better use and understand cannabis
About
Should be a typical about page explaining who you are and why you put together this website.
What is this site about, Why you created it, what you help people accomplish, who you are.
Contact
Regular contact page that people can contact you if they have questions. Not much content needed here. Just a small sentence saying, “Fill out the form to get ahold me.” Or something similar. And the form of course.
CTA
This can be a free resource to help the visitor better understand how cannabis can better help them. It could also be a resource of 10-20 things that will help them to help them best enjoy their high. I also like the idea of making a quiz called something like the, “What is the best type of cannabis for me?” Or something more specific like, “What is the best flower for me?” Then, ask for the users email after the quiz either a ?gate? page or the results page.
Categories
Cannabis
This category explains everything related to cannabis. This will help your visitors learn more about cannabis as a full topic so they don’t have to leave your site if they have more general questions.
Resources
This category includes all resources and tips for selecting or enjoying cannabis . Daily posts could include music to listen to when high. Or tv shows to watch high. Also, practical tips like, “How to select the best flower” or “Best edibles for long trips.”
What theme I suggest for your new niche site
Professional design and functionality are important to build a successful niche website. Here is my favorite theme.
Theme
ThriveThemes
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5 of 5 stars
Images
Here’s a sample of the type of images I would use on this site.
Traffic Sources
Summary of why I chose these traffic sources
FB groups
These Facebook groups have large numbers of people interested in cannabis. I like that these groups have a large number of people and are already focused on our niche. You can find a large number of groups with many people who love cannabis. You can even find groups specific to certain cannabis topics like edibles or medical use.
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/420people/ 420 People
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/322637644873749/ Highly Edible
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1606095356346616/ Cannabis Growing Tips n’ Tricks
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/IllinoisMCC/ The Medical Cannabis Community
Forums
These forums get a ton of traffic. These forums are worth browsing through and establishing yourself as a participant. These are the most popular ones. I could’ve probably added about 100 forums to this list, but I would focus on 1 or 2 big forums for quality.
- https://forum.grasscity.com/ Grasscity Forums
- https://www.thcfarmer.com/forums/ THCFarmer
- https://www.rollitup.org/ Rollitup
- https://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-forum/index.php THCtalk
Subreddits
You can find a few subreddits for cannabis, but these are the most popular ones. If cannabis is legal in your area, you can usually find a local subreddit. These are the best ones worth targeting for promoting your niche site.
- https://www.reddit.com/r/weed/ r/weed
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Marijuana/ r/marijuana
- https://www.reddit.com/r/cannabis/ r/cannabis
- https://www.reddit.com/r/COents/ r/coents
SEO
SEO for cannabis is difficult for generic marijuana keywords. Especially if cannabis is legal in your area. You’ll likely just get local results of dispensaries or cannabis coupon websites.
The long tail keywords are less competitive and you can find an unlimited number of user-generated keywords as more people get into cannabis. The trick here will be to answer as many questions as you can about cannabis because this industry is so new that many people have unanswered questions. If you can answer a bunch of questions and get 10-20 clicks per keyword, that adds up to a ton of traffic in the long-term.
Another thing to remember when optimizing for search is to remember what audience you’re speaking to when writing articles. Don’t target everyone who likes marijuana because this will give you a wide array of visitors, but you won’t be speaking directly to any of them. I would be sure to target some segment specifically like elderly, college kids, vacationers, athletes, first-time smokers, moms, etc. You can pretty much pick any group and they likely have a large amount of people who consume.
One last thing about SEO. Keywords that mix marijuana with another niche are big winners. I really like the cannabis and fitness keyword combinations. This intersection of customers will have double the passion and convert higher on your website because you’re speaking directly to them.
Keywords
- Money keywords
- weed for depression
- weed to help with stress
- weed vs antidepressants
- how weed affects mood
- why weed is good for athletes
- Long-tail keywords
- which weed makes you hyper
- who discovered weed gets you high
- which weed makes you laugh more
- which weed makes you mellow
- how weed is made
- where weed is legal map
- what weed strain am i quiz
- which weed seeds grow buds
- weed drug classification
- can weed be addictive
SEO Products I like
SEMRush
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5 of 5 stars
Monetization Method
This website will be monetized with affiliate marketing to promote Amazon and Clickbank products.
Amazon Products
The Cannabis Grow Bible: The Definitive Guide to Growing Marijuana for Recreational and Medicinal Use
https://amzn.to/2Xdb1lI This is the definitive guide to growing cannabis on your own. This is one of the most popular books for people who are new to growing cannabis.
VIVOSUN 48″x48″x80″ Mylar Hydroponic Grow Tent with Observation Window and Floor Tray for Indoor Plant Growing 4′ x4′
https://amzn.to/3pUhJcv This is a tent for growing cannabis indoors. It’s pretty small so you can grow in a closet or small space.
Kozo XL Wood Stash Box Kit with Rolling Tray, Locking Smell Proof Jar with Airtight Seal, Aluminium 4 Part Herb Grinder
Clickbank Products
Prosper CBD Pain Freeze Cream
https://ca7049yif7ftimo2q9kch4ouaz.hop.clickbank.net/?cbpage=crmsmpl
Quit Weed
https://a815adr8kdkuphno1fw8yfxo3d.hop.clickbank.net/
Earning Potential
Assuming you can get one clickbank sale per day and a few Amazon products sold with the customers making a few extra purchases you can make $2400 per month on the conservative side.
You also have the potential to make even more money by selling your own private label cbd products. I’ve seen many people doing this with great success after building an audience.
You could also explore more cannabis related affiliate products to add even more income to your niche website.
Tons of Amazon products with a few really good converting clickbank products $2400/month””
Summary
The cannabis niche is a great topic to start a niche website. I love the extremely passionate following and the high-converting products you can promote. It also has some great brandable domain names and many easy places to find traffic. I wish you much luck in starting this niche website. I would love to start it myself, but I’d rather find more profitable niches to share with you!
The Feature Highlights
- Huge market growth potential in the US and globally
- Extremely loyal followers who will advocate and fight for decriminalization of cannabis.
- Many Amazon products to promote and interesting private label options for extra income.