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22 exact searches a month, why bother?

by John Romaine
13 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey guys.....

Just recently I saw an opportunity to promote a product that attracted just 22 exact match searches a month globally, and the results have been fantastic.

Thats right, just 22.

I thought Id share this in the hope that it might inspire a few people, and prevent potential missed opportunities for those seeking huge search volume numbers. This can become a habit. I know it has been for me!

I wont go into details of what this product is, but I will tell you is that I'm selling it at $197 USD. And so far, Ive sold 2.

Without getting into any sort of boring details, when I saw this opportunity I was mindful of a number of things.

They were...

1. The competition was ridiculously low. Infact, there was only one other competiter, to which I'll get to in a moment. This was enough to get me interested.

2. The search volume was extremely low too, so I knew I couldnt spend too much time on this. I didnt want to spend 2 weeks putting something together that attracted such little search volume, and could potentially fail. So in total I put the website together, plugged in paypal for payment processing, and had everything operational in less than 5 hours. Actually, it took me just over 4 hours.

3. The product was something I already possessed from a project from years ago, so creating it wasnt an issue. Heres a tip, check your hard drive for stuff that you think might be worthless and do some keyword research on it!

4. I would only consider such low search volume on a higher priced item. There was one other competitor as mentioned, and his product was $300 more than what I intended to sell mine for. I knew I could beat him on price, for the exact same product, and for buyers this should be a no brainer.

5. I was ranked first page in Google, number 3 spot in 2 days. Why? Because of the low competition. I needed just a handful of links.

In summary, heres a few suggestions.

1. Dont think that you need 1,000,000 searches a month for something to make money. You dont!

2. Take advantage of opportunities like this. Theyre everywhere!

3. Learn to act quick and fail fast.

4. Keep things simple. Avoid analysis paralysis.

5. Enjoy yourself
#bother #exact #month #searches
  • Profile picture of the author KenJ
    Hi Ramone-Johnny

    Just wondering if you would mind removing this post. You might give people some ideas that will make them money.

    I also focus on low search volume niches where I am either alone in a market, first in a market, or at least very close to having no competition.

    Then I know I can rank for my keywords.

    Kenj
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by kenj View Post

      I also focus on low search volume niches where I am either alone in a market, first in a market, or at least very close to having no competition.
      Hi Ken,

      I tend to be very cautious when I find no competition at all. That to me says 1 of 2 things...

      1. Theres no demand - in which case I could be wasting my time
      2. Its an untapped marketplace - in which case it could be a gold mine

      From experience, 95% of the time its proven to be point 1.

      I would much prefer to see some level of competition rather than none, as this tells me immediately that its commercially viable
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      • Profile picture of the author KenJ
        Originally Posted by ramone_johnny View Post

        Hi Ken,

        I tend to be very cautious when I find no competition at all. That to me says 1 of 2 things...

        1. Theres no demand - in which case I could be wasting my time
        2. Its an untapped marketplace - in which case it could be a gold mine

        From experience, 95% of the time its proven to be point 1.

        I would much prefer to see some level of competition rather than none, as this tells me immediately that its commercially viable
        I take your point and am also very cautious. But for the cost of a domain its often worth a punt just to see if there is a market that is truly new. Commercial viability is often hard to predict.

        I used to be obsessed with keyword tools and numbers. Now I try to engage my brain and use these tools for reference. I do not use them other than this. (Well OK maybe sometimes).

        I love untapped marketplaces because I do not have to work quite so hard.

        Kenj
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  • Profile picture of the author PPC-Coach
    I totally agree with Kenj, please remove this post, nothing to see here ladies and gentlemen. Follow the rules that the "gurus" tell you for search count only, NEVER stray outside those with out of the box thinking.

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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Copeland
    I like this post, it shows that there are different ways to look at promotion... 2 sales at that price is the same as over FIFTY $7 items... and that would take a bunch more effort...

    I'm sure it matters that the product is desirable at that price point, but if you get one then you can make some serious $$ for very little work.

    Nice one!
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  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    Smart people should pay attention to this. Potential ROI if ranked #1 is what people should use to guide their keyword research. Not the number of searches.

    I discovered a similar keyword that gets about 300 searches a month a few months ago. Not as low as your 22, but still a word that "gurus" tell IM'ers to stay away from. It has been consistently making me over $350 a month for 3 months now.

    If someone is advising you on keyword research and they say you should eliminate everything with less than XXXX number of searches and then check how many results you get in Google when you search the keyword in quotes, you should immediately stop listening to everything else they have to say.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      If someone is advising you on keyword research and they say you should eliminate everything with less than XXXX number of searches and then check how many results you get in Google when you search the keyword in quotes, you should immediately stop listening to everything else they have to say.
      This, exactly.

      It's typical of "numerical approaches to SEO" rather than approaches based on quality and relevance. And you should certainly stop listening to them. They're typically the same people who will tell you to decide whether or not a keyword's any good by looking at the "number of competing sites" instead of assessing the SEO-quality of the sites of top 5 - 10 rankings. :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Ward
    Question: is that "22 searches / month" figure proving to be accurate? You didn't mention that. I'm curious how accurate the keyword figures are when they get that low.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
      Originally Posted by Matt Ward View Post

      Question: is that "22 searches / month" figure proving to be accurate? You didn't mention that. I'm curious how accurate the keyword figures are when they get that low.
      This is a little off from the original post but new markets don't have a search history so the numbers will be low - for now!

      You need to judge each opportunity with the knowledge you have learnt in the past. It will take some mistakes before your judgement is regularly close to the mark but you will get there, eventually. Whether it is a lowly searched term that filters out the masses of affiliate marketers or it is a new product or current event, you can have almost a free grab at some very targeted traffic for only a little bit of your time and mind. Give it a shot and learn from your mistakes.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nero Arcnumé
    It's a great post and I would like to add to this that people could also try to look for these types of keywords for their own country or other non-English speaking countries.

    Chances are that you're pulled into the American market when you're starting, atleast I did. But the world is big. Low competition, high reward, non-English markets are incredibly open and many remain untapped.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by Matt Ward View Post

      Question: is that "22 searches / month" figure proving to be accurate? You didn't mention that. I'm curious how accurate the keyword figures are when they get that low.
      Its proving to be pretty accurate.

      Heres a screenshot of my traffic - caution, huge numbers here!



      Originally Posted by Nero Arcnumé View Post

      It's a great post and I would like to add to this that people could also try to look for these types of keywords for their own country or other non-English speaking countries.

      Chances are that you're pulled into the American market when you're starting, atleast I did. But the world is big. Low competition, high reward, non-English markets are incredibly open and many remain untapped.
      This is an EXCELLENT point.

      Its always worth checking the level of competition in your own back yard before going immediately to the global market. Often the competition is much much lower, and the opportunities are awesome!

      Just realised Ive had a 9% conversion rate. (Hope thats right) Not bad on a $197 product!
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  • Profile picture of the author UMS
    I have to admit that I'm guilty when it comes to keyword research and generally filtering out everything less than X searches.

    That said, I do have a site for a highly targeted product (ie: strong buying keyword) that only gets a few hundred searches per month.
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  • Profile picture of the author RayW
    Awesome thread, ramone_johnny. Just wondering though: what kind of product are you selling (clickbank, amazon, something from commission junction?)
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