Why set up a sniper site when there are no Ads?

by MissTR
15 replies
  • SEO
  • |
Hey,

I was wondering about something. There is this "Guru" that did a video about researching a product to sell on an affiliate site. Just one big problem though...he seems to have broken a cardinal rule.

What he did was find a product on clickbank, found a keyword, (the keyword had less than 1,000 searches), put the keyword into google and then when the results came up there was NO google ads on the page. Not even 1 sponsored ad showed up in the top or on the side of the google page for this keyword.

As far as I know, most people who know about niche/affiliate marketing will tell you NOT to optimize for a keyword that doesn't have any ads. This usually means that the keyword isn't a profitable keyword, yet this "guru" suggested that someone register the exact match domain name (which was available) and build a site and sell the affiliate product for this keyword.

Since he didn't register the domain and do all the other stuff needed, I wonder how this will turn out if someone he is teaching to actually tries this. It made me very confused and I wondered if this person should be giving advice at all.

I'm bummed because it goes against the grain and makes me think these people are just taking advantage of others by saying one thing and doing another. But maybe someone can explain to me how in theory what he did could work out.

Can anyone tell me if they have ever built a site where there were no ads, and they still made a ton of money selling an affiliate product for the keyword no one is advertising for and has under 1,000 searches per month?

Thanks,
MissTR
#ads #affiliate marketing #keyword research #set #site #sniper #sniper site
  • Profile picture of the author MySpaceLyrics
    Interesting remark. I didn't know it wasn't good to take a spot for KW that have no advertising. May be it is good to take the spot BEFORE they are being advertise? If you create content for them, it may attract interest?
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTR
      MySpaceLyrics,

      Not the case. I am not looking to create a new market. Let someone else pave the road. Also, if I was going to set up an Adsense site, then I would want to see ads for the keyword.

      If no one is advertising, I won't get paid.

      MissTR
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      • Profile picture of the author Tony Marriott
        Difficult to comment on what you actually saw as I cannot see it in context on the overall tutorial. It may simply have been a demonstration of the process or part of the process. I have no way of knowing that.

        But yes it is "standard practice" to expect to see a significant amount of Adwords when searching for your desired keyword in Google. This is likely to be an indication of the level of "AdWord" buyers and hence the likely "buying" power of that keyword.

        Couple of things you should note:
        AdWords for search and AdWords for content (AdSense) are distinctly different and one is only an indication of the other.

        The ECPC (how much Ad buyers might pay) may be an indication of the "value" of a keyword. Values under $1 are likely to see very small payments to you (per click) for AdSense.

        When looking for AdWords when searching Google you need to ensure you are searching with the correct Google search engine (Google.fr, Google.co.uk, Google.de etc). Remember that any default search will be local so if you are located in the UK and simply search for a keyword that has (say) 1000 US monthly searches, you may see no AdWords. Search on the US search engine and it may be a very different story.
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  • Profile picture of the author traffic2
    I dont see the logic in that. If there are no ads then there is obviously no market for that niche/keyword. I guess you could build the site and hope you get a piece of the traffic that search your keyword and offer affiliate products on it. Thats about the only way to monetize your traffic since advertisers are not advertising.
    There is no way that 1 little site with such little traffic, is going to attract an advertiser. So building a site in hopes that there will be advertisers, is just not smart and setting yourself up to fail. I have not seen the video you speak of. So I cant say for sure what he was trying to accomplish, but I would not try this. Keyword research is THE most important aspect when building an adsense site. This is my criteria I do when choosing a niche:

    1) How many global searches are there (Minimum 1000)
    2) Is there ads?
    3) How many ads are there (preferably 10 or more)
    4) Is the exact match domain available
    5) How many competing pages are there indexed in Google for that keyword
    6) How strong is the competitions PR and how many back links does the competition have
    All that plays a part in the effort and time to get the site making money.

    After the keyword passes my criteria above I can determine by that if the site will make money.

    I make my money on adsense sites and I have for many years now. I could be missing what he was trying to show you. It sounds like a shot in the dark and not a very good strategy. Like I said "I cant knock the Guru since I didn't see the vid".
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    • Profile picture of the author BrianLG
      I've seen a few WSO's where you try to find a new product which hasn't been released
      yet but there's a lot of interest. So you try to get you site setup and established and
      hopefully do well when its released. This is mainly for amazon sites and definitly not
      adsense
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTR
      Originally Posted by traffic2 View Post

      I dont see the logic in that. If there are no ads then there is obviously no market for that niche/keyword. I guess you could build the site and hope you get a piece of the traffic that search your keyword and offer affiliate products on it. Thats about the only way to monetize your traffic since advertisers are not advertising.
      There is no way that 1 little site with such little traffic, is going to attract an advertiser. So building a site in hopes that there will be advertisers, is just not smart and setting yourself up to fail. I have not seen the video you speak of. So I cant say for sure what he was trying to accomplish, but I would not try this. Keyword research is THE most important aspect when building an adsense site. This is my criteria I do when choosing a niche:

      1) How many global searches are there (Minimum 1000)
      2) Is there ads?
      3) How many ads are there (preferably 10 or more)
      4) Is the exact match domain available
      5) How many competing pages are there indexed in Google for that keyword
      6) How strong is the competitions PR and how many back links does the competition have
      All that plays a part in the effort and time to get the site making money.

      After the keyword passes my criteria above I can determine by that if the site will make money.

      I make my money on adsense sites and I have for many years now. I could be missing what he was trying to show you. It sounds like a shot in the dark and not a very good strategy. Like I said "I cant knock the Guru since I didn't see the vid".
      Traffic2,

      I would love to post the vid, but I can't do that. I will say that he was trying to promote a clickbank affiliate product. The problem I saw was as you stated, just because there is a product with some keywords it doesn't mean that product will sell. And it probably won't if no one is adversting for that keyword- My point exactly.

      It's an even worse idea for adsense, which I already knew.

      Someone registered the domain after he did the video, they may be sadly disappointed or they may get lucky. Either way I did not fall into that trap--too many other fish to fry anyway, but I saw this as bad advice.

      Thanks for your comment.
      -MissTR
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  • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
    Yes that can and probably makes some sense as soon as you mention click bank. Many many products from click bank no longer run on adwords, many if not all adwords advertisers that used to promote click bank products have either been banned or have moved on.

    Not sure what it is your aiming to do but if you could get a site up for a CB product that used to appear on Google ads then the possibility given many factors is it may do well given you no longer have adwords competition competing for those spots.
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTR
      Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post

      Yes that can and probably makes some sense as soon as you mention click bank. Many many products from click bank no longer run on adwords, many if not all adwords advertisers that used to promote click bank products have either been banned or have moved on.

      Not sure what it is your aiming to do but if you could get a site up for a CB product that used to appear on Google ads then the possibility given many factors is it may do well given you no longer have adwords competition competing for those spots.
      This issue about a cb product that didn't have ads. It was about a keyword search result in which there were no ads for the keyword phrase. Yet the person still promoting a specific cb product for the keyword, suggesting low competition.

      Do you have a lot of positive experience making money selling affiliate products with this approach? (no ads, but maybe some buyers anyway?)

      -MissTR
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      • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
        Originally Posted by MissTR View Post

        This issue about a cb product that didn't have ads. It was about a keyword search result in which there were no ads for the keyword phrase. Yet the person still promoting a specific cb product for the keyword, suggesting low competition.

        Do you have a lot of positive experience making money selling affiliate products with this approach? (no ads, but maybe some buyers anyway?)

        -MissTR
        confused ? you said there were no ads running for the clickbank product keys ? yes / if so this is because many clickbank products no longer run on adwords / hence no ads no longer run on adwords, where once they may have been full of ads and as such probably shows a false reading in regards you cardinal rules per say.

        these include weight loss / mmo / love me tender / hypnosis and many other types of sites which was the answer to you question why you saw no ads and why it was no surprise to me that you did not see any ads.

        I still do have a few natural type CB ads / banners running but i stopped promoting CB products in the main a long time ago when google started slamming every one, my account was one suspended by google but i was lucky enough to get it back, since that time i have never again promoted CB in that way.
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  • Profile picture of the author Snow_Predator
    Don't build a site around one or two keywords, don't build sniper sites. You will do far better if you focus on building larger content-rich websites. A lesson that took me some time to figure out (after a few failures with Sniper sites)
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTR
      Originally Posted by Snow_Predator View Post

      Don't build a site around one or two keywords, don't build sniper sites. You will do far better if you focus on building larger content-rich websites. A lesson that took me some time to figure out (after a few failures with Sniper sites)
      Snow,

      I think for the most part you are right about this. I guess my point is there are people out there not following this and certainly not teaching it. What makes it worse is what they are teaching doesn't seem to be right even for the basics-especially as a beginner.

      Thanks for the comment,
      MissTR
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTR
      Originally Posted by Snow_Predator View Post

      Don't build a site around one or two keywords, don't build sniper sites. You will do far better if you focus on building larger content-rich websites. A lesson that took me some time to figure out (after a few failures with Sniper sites)
      Snow,

      This is definitely a hot topic (content). I realize rich content wins out with Google. The size of the site doesn't matter as much.

      The thing I was getting at here, is before even building the site- focusing on a keyword that has no ads. I wouldn't want to do that, unless there was some way I could still make a ton of money somehow. And this is referring to selling CB products to solve a problem people are searching for.

      Thanks for your reply,
      -MissTR
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTR
      Originally Posted by Snow_Predator View Post

      Don't build a site around one or two keywords, don't build sniper sites. You will do far better if you focus on building larger content-rich websites. A lesson that took me some time to figure out (after a few failures with Sniper sites)
      Snow,

      Are you selling CB products or your own?

      Thanks,
      -MissTR
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  • Profile picture of the author J0hnnycl1ckz
    Anyone can call themselves a guru so take their advice with caution. The only scenario I see this possible as a good move is if your in on a product prelease and your EMD is buyxyzdotcom or something close to that. If not, I wouldn't be seeking advice from that person anytime soon.
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    • Profile picture of the author MissTR
      Originally Posted by J0hnnycl1ckz View Post

      Anyone can call themselves a guru so take their advice with caution. The only scenario I see this possible as a good move is if your in on a product prelease and your EMD is buyxyzdotcom or something close to that. If not, I wouldn't be seeking advice from that person anytime soon.
      Yep, my point exactly.
      Just makin' sure I wasn't missing something.

      Thanks,
      -MissTR
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