Building a profitable niche website is one of the most rewarding forms of making money online. Rather than trying to sell products that may not interest you at a personal level, you have the opportunity to share your own knowledge about a subject that YOU find fascinating.

When done right, a niche website is also one of the most reliable ways to produce income from the internet. If you follow a few simple rules, you almost can't go wrong!

Also known as content-rich sites, these specialty websites form the heart and soul of the information highway. These are the sites people turn to when they need to get reliable information from someone who's "been there and done that." Car repair, dog breeding, party planning, resume writing--there's almost no topic that you couldn't use for building a profitable niche website.

Success isn't guaranteed, however. Building a profitable niche website involves following some tried-and-true guidelines. Here are my top 5 tips to make sure your niche website becomes a hit.

• Choose the breadth of your niche carefully. Too broad, and the competition will be too much to overcome; too narrow, and you won't have enough visitors to produce an income. A poor choice of your primary theme could be a death sentence.

• Take the time to research good keywords for your content pages, then follow standard search engine optimization (SEO) techniques when writing. Make sure each page is keyword-focused and link generously between relevant pages.

• Add a blog. You've probably already heard that search engines love blogs. If you have a hard time coming up with more new content for it, just publish a shorter version of your articles. Link to your blog from your home page.

• Take time to find relevant backlinks. The best way I've found to do this is to pick either a narrower or broader topic based on your theme, and start searching for websites on those topics. For example, if your theme is "Baking," you could look for broader websites on "Cooking," or narrower websites on "Cakes." When you find a website, be bold! Use their contact form or email and tell them you like their site and would like to exchange links. If you follow through on this technique for each page as your website grows, you will find more than enough backlinks to boost your search engine rankings. Also, take time to get your site listed in some directories and other search engine-friendly sites. Quality backlinks are an integral part of building a profitable niche website.

• Take care of your customers! You should run your niche website like it's the hometown hardware store--not the big box chain. Start by writing articles that are truly informative. Then, take time to respond to your visitors' inquiries; after all, they see you as the expert. Send out relevant, informative newsletters, give out free ebooks, and do anything else you can to let them know they're important. Give more than you ask in return. Your visitors are the lifeblood of your business; if you treat them right, there's no way you can fail.

A content-rich website won't make you rich overnight, but it is a very rewarding form of internet business, and it can provide a steadily increasing flow of income. Take the extra effort to build a niche website correctly from the start, and you almost can't fail.