About picking a niche

8 replies
First let me state that I am new to affiliate marketing. I've been trying to find a good niche to promote and I think I found one. But there is one slight problem.

I have found a few long tail keywords that get between 1,500-6,700 searches a month with 200,000-700,000 competing sites. I feel confidante that I can rank a site on google first page for these keywords. The problem is the fist site for each of my keywords if the site who's product I would be promoting.

My site wont be anything like the product owners site.

Should I pursue this niche with these keywords and this product? My concern is that people who visit my site might like what I say and want to buy the product, but when they are sent to the product owners site they might get turned off because they have seen it before.

Any suggestions?

I hope I made myself clear
-Nick
#niche #picking
  • Profile picture of the author Giraffe
    Originally Posted by paradox_qu View Post

    ...The problem is the fist site for each of my keywords if the site who's product I would be promoting...
    Hi Nick, I could make some general comments, but could you please clarify the sentence I have quoted above? It makes your exact question difficult to understand.

    While we're at it, are those competing search figures based on a broad search (no quotes) or phrase like this "Keyword phrase"?

    Cheers,

    Giraffe
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1072864].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author pcpupil
    Ive just recently started and this is what im doing by the way Travis explains it.
    The bum marketer.
    I search for keywords that get between 500-1000 searches a month and only have 50,000 or less competing pages{sites}.I actually go less than 20,000.
    On one of my websites i had up i was on the first page of google for one of my keywords 3 times.I was in the number 3,5/&9 position and i actually beat out a person from EZA wich was at #4 because i had #3.
    I didnt get any sales because shortly after i put the site up the searches went down to 9 a day.[wordtracker].Or the sales page took to long to load,wich it did in my opinion[im on dialup].
    Or the picture of the oriental person was to fake.[wich i also thought].
    Anyway,back to you.What i would do is pic a few more keywords,then look for competing pages lower than 50,000.
    See if you have the same competition.Then search [inurl:keyword] and [intitle:keyword] and see how many your competing against.
    Then use the url in your domain name and title.
    Signature
    I will be your Digital Assistance for cheap.PM me.
    I can help relieve your work load.Pm me

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1072868].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author WorldInternetForum
    Banned
    [DELETED]
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1072926].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author dadeon
      Don't get bogged down with keyword research - start marketing instead.

      Analysis Paralysis is the ONLY thing stopping people. You are going to make mistakes regardless of how long you analyze things. You need to make those mistakes as fast as possible.

      Keyword research is ONLY indicative anyway.

      I wouldn't pick a niche based on keywords alone - especially if it's just one keyword. What are you going to do if that keyword does not convert?

      Think in terms of markets instead. Think mass markets and think how you can peel off a small section of that market.
      Signature
      PR3 in 7 Weeks - Get Front Page Google Rankings Fast

      Free Link Building Blueprint show you how...
      http://linkbuildingblueprint.com/download/
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1072964].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author johnlagoudakis
    Hi Nick,

    I would agree with the comments made above and confirm what has been said.

    When you're starting out, I recommmend going for niches that have a gravity of at least 20 in Clickbank.

    Then, when searching for relevant keywords that have good search volume but low SEO competition I use Market Samurai. Awesome software that costs less than $100 (don't know how much it is going for now). Within seconds I get a list of:

    all the relevant keywords
    how much traffic I can expect for a no. 1 search ranking
    ppc value of the keywords (great for Adsense)
    SEO competition
    and more...


    Best regards,

    John
    Signature
    Need help getting more leads and sales? *** Click here to work with me ***
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1073078].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author paradox_qu
      @Giraffe To clarify. I found a product that I would like to promote and I have found keywords associated with it. But the first listing on google for each of my keywords is the site of the product I would like to promote.

      Also the keyword figures I gave were broad. If I put quotes on the phrase the competition is between 850-54,000 competing sites
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1073086].message }}
      • Profile picture of the author Giraffe
        Originally Posted by dadeon View Post

        Don't get bogged down with keyword research - start marketing instead.

        Analysis Paralysis is the ONLY thing stopping people. You are going to make mistakes regardless of how long you analyze things. You need to make those mistakes as fast as possible.

        Keyword research is ONLY indicative anyway.

        I wouldn't pick a niche based on keywords alone - especially if it's just one keyword. What are you going to do if that keyword does not convert?

        Think in terms of markets instead. Think mass markets and think how you can peel off a small section of that market.
        Excellent post and especially good for those of us who have been at this a while and got bogged down in the detail. Really well said. However, when starting out I think it is a good idea to have some broad parameters to use and now that I fully understand Nick's question, he is particularly worried about the Merchant's page currently being in position #1 for the keywords he is considering.

        Originally Posted by johnlagoudakis View Post

        Hi Nick,

        ...Market Samurai. Awesome software that costs less than $100 ...
        Agreed, excellent software, I also use it.

        Originally Posted by paradox_qu View Post

        @Giraffe To clarify. I found a product that I would like to promote and I have found keywords associated with it. But the first listing on google for each of my keywords is the site of the product I would like to promote.

        Also the keyword figures I gave were broad. If I put quotes on the phrase the competition is between 850-54,000 competing sites
        Ok cool Nick, I totally get you now!

        The in quotes numbers are a far better indication of your real competition and those numbers are fine.

        So far as the Official Product Page being number one in the SERPs problem, well, this does not necessarily preclude you from making substantial referrals, nor does it necessarily mean you cannot take position one!

        Just recently I purchased a bargin WSO from Mark Dickenson called Backlink Bully (It is only $7!). Now, I heartily recommend it, but my reason for mentioning it here is that he managed to rank #1 for the one word product name of a major product. This is very cool! Mark is a great example of someone who finds what works and gets on with it, his method is not overlly complicated and when I asked him a few technical questions about it I was taken aback yet pleasantly surprised to hear that he did not worry about those things I asked him at all! The point here being, it can be done!

        Have a look at how many backlinks the Merchant has as a starter. You can use Yahoo Site Explorer to see the number of incoming links they have, the quality of these links is another matter. There are some other websites that will do a bit of this research for you and if you own Market Samurai it handles this very snappily for you indeed. I'm not saying go buy stuff! Just letting you know that the strength of the competition is more than just the number of competitors and you might want to check that out somehow.

        Overall if you are really keen on this, you feel you are targeting keen BUYERS. Then Go for for it HARD! The only other handy tip I would give you is, before going totally nuts Backlining like crazy to your offer and trying to knock the official page for number one in the SERPs. Set up some simple Squeeze landing pages for your keywords and run a basic adwords campaign to test a) if there really is the traffic for these K/Ws and b) if you can convert that traffic. By the way, is the merchant's landing page any good? If not you can be sending them traffic like crazy and may as well be sending them into space. So, the testing with adwords idea is a good one and could save you a lot of time. Yes gravity is an indication too, but your own data is the best.

        Keep in mind what Dadeon said and combine it with some swift due diligence as above when all else seems good.

        Hope that helps
        Cheers,

        Giraffe
        {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1073252].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Travis72802
    Here's a free pdf I did for folks that are looking
    for that 'hungry niche'.

    http://www.bummarketingmethod.com/nf.pdf

    Hope it helps.

    Travis
    Signature

    Be A Bum Marketer! Free eCourse
    http://www.BumMarketingMethod.com

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1073479].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Kris Turner
    I would go ahead with your plan.

    Most people need to see something multiple times before they buy, so it might be to your benfit if your visitors have already seen the sales page you're sending them to.
    Signature

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1073486].message }}

Trending Topics