How important is analyzing competition for article marketing?

[newBum76]

I'm just starting out with article marketing. As far as keyword research, should I worry about anything more than # of searches and # of competing sites? Most of the guides I've read don't get into anything more specific than that, but then some people are saying you should research the strength of competition......PR, alexa ranking, incoming links, etc. to really filter out the best long tail keywords to use. It sounds like quite a bit of extra work (especially without using something like micro niche finder) and I'm definitely willing to put in that work, but I'm curious to see everyone's thoughts on how important it is to go that extra mile and if it would really make that much of a difference for a newbie starting out in bum marketing. Thanks!

-Jon

[Okane]

There are three things to consider:

(1) Search volume
If nobody is searching for what you are promoting, then it's difficult to sell anything. Personally, I look for keywords with at least 1000 searches per month. If, however, the keyword targets customers who are close to a buying decision, then much lower numbers are acceptable.

(2) Competition
If you have no chance of getting a good ranking on the first page of google, then it's pretty pointless to write an article for that keyword. Again, the situation is a bit different for customers close to the buying decision. They sometimes search with very long keyword phrases and also consider pages 2, 3, etc. of the google results.

(3) Relevancy
You can target a keyword that has tons of searches and little competition and still make no sales. Why? Because the keyword is not relevant enough for the product you try to promote.

Ignore any of the above and you waste a lot of your precious life time.