Most online searches, whether for information or products, begin with a keyword being typed into a search engine like Google, Yahoo, MSN, or any one of several hundred others.
Keyword research will tell you which keywords are most popular, so you can optimize the wording of your webpages and get attention and better ranking from search engines. Keyword research will also tell you which keywords to target in pay per click advertising campaigns. But those actions are all somewhere in the future. Right now, all we want to do is identify a potentially profitable market. Good keyword research can also do that.
How and Where to Research Keywords
After you have made a short list of a few niche markets where you might like to work, go to an online keyword research tool and type in whatever basic keywords you would use if you were actually searching for information on those markets.
By the way, I personally prefer online keyword research tools rather than desktop softwares that actually “live” on your computer. I'vefound the results to be more reliable.
The NicheBot keyword research tool is a terrific time saver. You can set up a professional account and get 10 search credits for just $1 US. To practice, you might want to pick three or four words from the list on page one of this report. I won't go into the mechanics of using the NicheBot site. Excellent help files are available therein. I'll also make a quick mention the Free Trial at Keyword Discovery which is a paid keyword research service. Nichebot also provides some results from the Keyword Discovery engine – but if you want the
whole enchilada it's best to go directly to the source.
A commonly stated rule of thumb is that any base keyword that returns 50,000 or more searches a month is a potentially good market. However, don't cast the 50,000 figure in stone. Smaller markets can be profitable if they are not already overwhelmed by other marketers.
Along that line, NicheBot also provides statistics on keyword competition as well – in other words, how many competing pages show up on major search engines when that keyword is queried. The Keyword Discovery engine provides an insight into existing market competition with its “KEI” factor.
The larger the KEI number, the less competition there is for any given keyword. But don't allow yourself to be automatically put off by a highly competitive niche. Where there is a lot of activity, there is typically a lot of money as well. Think for a moment about how fast food chains tend to cluster their outlets in a single area of any given town. They all learned a long time ago that competition breeds activity, and activity results in sales.
Next
Once you have firmed up a potentially profitable market, be sure you actually search the base keywords in both Yahoo and Google, and visit at least the top 10 search results to see what those sites are up to – what they are offering in the way of products – and what needs you might be able to fill in that niche.
So you see, defining a profitable niche market involves compiling
information relating to several factors – as no single factor will tell the entire story. You need to at least take a good look at:
- niche topic popularity
- keyword popularity
- actual search statistics
- level of competition and their tactics
- product presence (or absence)
and then come to a conclusion based on logic and observation, leaving emotion and cheap thrills to the side for the fortune seekers and program hoppers.
Finally
Keep in mind that how well you package and market your product, and the degree of market penetration you achieve, will likely be the deciding factor in whether or not your venture flies or crashes to the ground.
Thousands of outstanding products go by the wayside every day from a gross lack of effective marketing. At the same time, truckloads of worthless junk are perpetrated on the buying public every day of the year, as a result of clever marketing tactics.
At this point, I could go on into aspects of product development and marketing, keyword targeting and generating traffic with online content, advertisements, viral campaigning and on and on
Keyword research will tell you which keywords are most popular, so you can optimize the wording of your webpages and get attention and better ranking from search engines. Keyword research will also tell you which keywords to target in pay per click advertising campaigns. But those actions are all somewhere in the future. Right now, all we want to do is identify a potentially profitable market. Good keyword research can also do that.
How and Where to Research Keywords
After you have made a short list of a few niche markets where you might like to work, go to an online keyword research tool and type in whatever basic keywords you would use if you were actually searching for information on those markets.
By the way, I personally prefer online keyword research tools rather than desktop softwares that actually “live” on your computer. I'vefound the results to be more reliable.
The NicheBot keyword research tool is a terrific time saver. You can set up a professional account and get 10 search credits for just $1 US. To practice, you might want to pick three or four words from the list on page one of this report. I won't go into the mechanics of using the NicheBot site. Excellent help files are available therein. I'll also make a quick mention the Free Trial at Keyword Discovery which is a paid keyword research service. Nichebot also provides some results from the Keyword Discovery engine – but if you want the
whole enchilada it's best to go directly to the source.
A commonly stated rule of thumb is that any base keyword that returns 50,000 or more searches a month is a potentially good market. However, don't cast the 50,000 figure in stone. Smaller markets can be profitable if they are not already overwhelmed by other marketers.
Along that line, NicheBot also provides statistics on keyword competition as well – in other words, how many competing pages show up on major search engines when that keyword is queried. The Keyword Discovery engine provides an insight into existing market competition with its “KEI” factor.
The larger the KEI number, the less competition there is for any given keyword. But don't allow yourself to be automatically put off by a highly competitive niche. Where there is a lot of activity, there is typically a lot of money as well. Think for a moment about how fast food chains tend to cluster their outlets in a single area of any given town. They all learned a long time ago that competition breeds activity, and activity results in sales.
Next
Once you have firmed up a potentially profitable market, be sure you actually search the base keywords in both Yahoo and Google, and visit at least the top 10 search results to see what those sites are up to – what they are offering in the way of products – and what needs you might be able to fill in that niche.
So you see, defining a profitable niche market involves compiling
information relating to several factors – as no single factor will tell the entire story. You need to at least take a good look at:
- niche topic popularity
- keyword popularity
- actual search statistics
- level of competition and their tactics
- product presence (or absence)
and then come to a conclusion based on logic and observation, leaving emotion and cheap thrills to the side for the fortune seekers and program hoppers.
Finally
Keep in mind that how well you package and market your product, and the degree of market penetration you achieve, will likely be the deciding factor in whether or not your venture flies or crashes to the ground.
Thousands of outstanding products go by the wayside every day from a gross lack of effective marketing. At the same time, truckloads of worthless junk are perpetrated on the buying public every day of the year, as a result of clever marketing tactics.
At this point, I could go on into aspects of product development and marketing, keyword targeting and generating traffic with online content, advertisements, viral campaigning and on and on
No comments:
Post a Comment