However, it is very important that you do not blindly follow this list. Indeed, it maybe better to steer clear of it, as these are the subject areas that will become the most crowded and attract the big publishers over the next few years.

 

We call them the healthy, wealthy and wise subjects.

 

 

 

Diets are an evergreen subject. They will always find a willing audience happy to pay for advice. eDiets is a hugely successful site with tens of thousands of members (www.ediets.com). In 2004, the South Beach Diet website (www.southbeachdiet.com) took over $20 million in subscriptions.

 

 

 

Closely aligned to #1, health is becoming an important subject for information sites. They cover topics such as dealing with children with illness, coping with your own illness, vitamins, mental health, etc. An example site is Your Medical Detective (www.yourmedicaldetective.com).

 

 

 

Starting a business has always been popular in the magazine and print newsletter world. This popularity has now transferred to the online world. Some of the sites deal with part-time businesses working from home, such as making money on eBay. Others are more professional, helping entrepreneurs put together business plans and raise funding.

 

One example is the Abraham Insider (www.abrahaminsider.com). This publication educates entrepreneurs on how to grow their business. It costs $300 a month to join.

 

 

 

Making existing businesses more successful is a rapidly growing area of online publishing. These sites enable business people in the same industry to share tips, tricks and opportunities to build their business. These websites are often far more practical and down to earth than industry associations. A good example is the website, Restaurant Owner (www.restaurantowner.com), which has over 20,000 subscribers paying $100/year each.

 

 

 

Newsletters with share and investment tips have been around for a long time. Now many of them are moving online. There are a few very important advantages from being on the internet. These include real-time updates, interactive charts, discussion forums where members can discuss tips and archives of trading information so members can look back at previous recommendations. A good example is the UK website, T1ps (www.t1ps.com).

 

 

The subject of dating and relationships continues to grow as an important market sector, with many huge sites turning over millions of pounds. uDate.com has 6,000 new members join every day. Friend Finder has over 6 million registered users. Introductions are a sector dominated by the big players, but there are still a lot of opportunities for subscription websites in related subject areas.

 

 

 

These are sites that educate and train amateurs and enthusiasts alike to pursue a hobby or improve their skills. It could be needlework, fly-fishing or digital photography. A few such website are Writing for Money (www.writingformoney.com) and ancestry (www.ancestry.com)

 

 

 

These are sites about moving to a new place or country, usually a sunny climate. Over the last few years, this has become a very popular subject. The leaders by a long shot are International Living (www.internationalliving.com), but there are many smaller sites specialising in individual countries (Dream of Italy – www.dreamofitaly.com and Italy with Us www.italywithus.biz).

 

 

 

Websites that are communities centre around a kind of lifestyle or religious beliefs attract strong and loyal followings. Examples include the Christian site by Bishop John Shelby Spong (www.johnshelbyspong.com), the site about combining your work, life and religious beliefs into an On Purpose lifestyle (www.onpurpose.com) and a slightly different a site for naturists (www.healthandefficiency.co.uk).

 

 

 

Well, I had to mention it! Adult content sites make more money than all the other categories put together.

 

 

As I said, you do NOT need to write about one of the subjects above -- although the headings encompass a lot of areas -- to create a successful subscription website. With global reach and a deep knowledge of where your customers can be found, even the most specialist subject can become a successful website.