• Choosing A Marketing Niche Without Keyword Research Is A Huge Mistake •
• You’ve Got To Understand Traffic Volumes and Actual Search Terms Being Used •

Here’s a situation that is all too common with newcomers to the internet marketing world. But in this instance, the question is being asked by an individual that claims to have a web development business. I don’t know about you, but if I had hired this company to help develop my website’s online presence, and I became aware that the owner was asking a question like this one, well his company wouldn’t be involved with my website anymore!

I am digressing here … back to the subject at hand. Here is a very common situation that arises AFTER a new internet marketer jumps on the band wagon. Let me share the gist of what this individual was asking about: 

Hi: I am new to the affiliate marketing business. I presently own and operate a small web development company. We recently developed a website targeted to people who are interested in and/or related to all areas relating to dogs. They could be dog owners, breeders, groomers, trainers, etc.  

Here is my question: Is ‘dogs’ a good niche?

 

Is ‘Dogs’ A Good Niche?

Sigh … OK, so this individual has already purchased a domain name; has started to build out a site around the HUGE category of dogs; has probably taken time to write content; taken time to place the content and other information onto this new site … but he’s asking NOW “is ‘dogs’ a good niche”??

Did he put the cart before the horse? Yes, most definitely. My suggestion to him was to STOP what they were doing right now and do some keyword research using a tool like Wordtracker.

I told him that the niche of dogs was huge! (‘Dogs’ is not what you’d call a niche. Poodles would be a niche, or puppy training would be a niche.) I advised ‘dogs’ was way too broad for them to achieve any online marketing success. That they needed to narrow it down!

I told him I’d make a 200% wager that they hadn’t done any keyword research, based on the question. I told him if they expected to attract targeted traffic, then keyword research was a must.

In addition, I advised that not only would the keyword research help them discover smaller niches within the broad category of dogs, they’d also get a grasp on what people were REALLY typing into the search engines to find out information about dogs.

If you know what people are searching for, then you’ll know what content topics to write about in order to try and grab some of that traffic via your organic search engine rankings!

As an example of what I am talking about, I entered ‘dogs’ into Wordtracker, set it to give me the top 100 results, and here’s an example of those results for today.

Here’s the top ten (actual term being used with projected 24 hour searches made in the USA):

1.  dogs    36,052
2.  dogsrule.com   7,241
3.  who let the dogs out   1,417
4.  funny dogs   1,130
5.  dogs for sale   1,058
6.  hot dogs   831
7.  cute dogs   798
8.  boxer dogs   753
9.  small dogs   693
10.  mummy dogs   622

All the way down to:

93.   herbs for dogs   123
94.   teacup dogs    122
95.   seizures in dogs   120
96.   english bull dogs   120; and lastly …
100.  havanese dogs   115

So, the moral of this story is to do your keyword research before you even purchase a domain name! You have to know the niche(s) you will be targeting within the broad category you’ve chosen.

Plus, you must get an idea of what people are searching for!  If you build out a website that contains information that only 2 people a day are interested in, it’s going to be terribly difficult to make any money as an online marketer! 

• Who Do You Turn To For Answers? •
• What Resources Do You Use To Help Further Your Online Success? •

I’m posting today in response to a private email I received from a newbie (my favorite kind of internet marketer!) the other day, asking me how I have “gotten as far as I have” with my online business, and how they might be able to speed up their learning curve.

Let me state right here before I write another word, I am nowhere near the top of my game. But I am getting closer every day Yes, I sure do have many learning curves ahead of me, such as:

• I don’t know everything there is to know about the MOST effective ways of online promotion for the particular niches that I market to, but I am testing the waters and like everyone else, I keep an eye on the pros and cons of my efforts and tweak things.
• I don’t yet know how to build a membership site, but I will one day as that is something I hope to get into place for my online SEO business.
• I am still honing my skills on how to write the most compelling sales copy.
• I am still learning how to make more money via AdSense.
• I often stumble through learning yet another behind-the-scenes technical coding issue that is necessary to improve one of my sites.
• And the list goes on and on (whether I like it or not! lol)

However, I am at a point where I can offer a whole lot of no-nonsense practical, sound advice to new online marketers. I always tell folks, “Why sit there, trying to figure out something, or go ahead and blindly implement something to your new site, only to find out it was a huge waste of time … when all you had to do was ASK FOR HELP or ADVICE first!!”

Do You Seek Out Help And Guidance?

I ask this because you really ought to find someone or somewhere you can go to, to receive help and guidance through the full-of-hype maze called internet marketing!

Have you found a forum (or two or three) that is full of helpful people who generously answer your questions without trying to jam a product down your throat? Yes? Great! Not yet? Well, keep nosing around the ‘net. You will be able to tell very quickly how sincere and helpful the other participants are just by reading a few threads.

Search Hint: to zero in on a specific forum theme, type into your favorite search engine: type-of-forum + forum *** Example: seo + forum

You know, I certainly continue to visit and participate in a small handful of forums that I know I can gather sound advice and help from. Sure it took me a little time to find them, but not too long. And I do try to offer help and answers when it is appropriate for me to do so, too.

You Could Find Great Help Via Someone’s Blog Posts, As Another Example

With the boom of blogging nowadays, there are some highly informative ones out there. (Mine being one of them, I hope!) With the personal spin a blog encourages us to put into our posts, I have found that there are a few I like to regularly check in on because I always pick up a valuable morsel of information.

Plus, I just like the way the authors express themselves, which in turn helps me think about how I express myself on my blog. Another win-win situation … I read their blog and maybe leave a comment; and I learn new things.

Along The Way You Just Might Actually Find A True Mentor You Can Learn From One-On-One

This happened to me. I am blessed, I really am. Through the situation of finding a quality forum that addressed the needs I had in a particular area of my marketing, and because I posted questions in order to receive the help I needed, I ultimately struck up a relationship with someone who happened to be extremely helpful, patient and just all around nice.

One thing led to another, and now this individual is truly my mentor. He is light-years ahead of me with internet marketing knowledge. I honestly soak up everything he freely offers to me. He has taken me under his wing and is slowly guiding me in building my online business (affiliate and otherwise).

I have no qualms in telling you all this, nor did I hesitate in stating this to the individual who wrote that email to me, asking about how they might possibly be able to shorten their learning curve.

Before I stop here, I’ll share this thought with you. Maybe it seems too elementary … maybe some of you are reading this and thinking “DUH! That’s just plain common sense, Claudia”.  But then again, maybe many of you really don’t realize this fact (which I do find to be true), and that is:

I’ve seen this mentioned time and again when I read about the top internet marketers and how they got to where they are today:

They all state that they received help, direction, mentoring, and resources from people that were already successful. They all say they had their own mentors in some way, shape, or form that helped guide them to success.

If I can help you, please do not hesitate to leave a comment, or send me an email. It is my pleasure to try and give back what has been, and continues to be so generously given to me … expert, no-hype, internet marketing knowledge.

• Stay-At-Home Mom Says “I Need To Make Money To Help Support My Family” •
• In Addition, She Thinks Affiliate Marketing Will Be Her Focus  •

I always try my best to offer SEO help to internet newbies. I fully understand how daunting it can be to get your first website up and running and I don’t mean just the technical aspects, either. Choosing a domain name, which host to sign up with and such is very confusing too, to say the least.

Anyway … I received an email the other day from a young stay-at-home-mom asking for some SEO help and affiliate marketing advice. I thought this might be of help to others, so here it is, in an abbreviated version:

QUESTION: I have never had a website or domain name. Does it cost money to have one? I was thinking about appealing to moms and family since I have some experience being a mother and homemaker. I will think of a domain name and find all of the products I want to promote. I haven’t quite pinned a theme down yet though because I haven’t seen anything that just pops out at me.

ANSWER: Yes, ‘moms & families’ would be a great niche to target marketing-wise. There is lots of competition, but with research and such, you should be able to find a less competitive area within the niche of “moms & families” that you could probably do very well in.

My biggest suggestion is this: don’t jump in and register a domain name without doing keyword research into the niche that interests you. Because of the online success I have personally experienced and because professionally I am an SEO consultant, I will tell you that you HAVE to know what you want to target, meaning what niche you want to market to, before you jump in and buy a domain name.

Do you know what “niche” means? Do you understand that you have to find a smaller area of the great big theme of “moms & families” to try to sell to? Have you entered all sorts of different keyword ideas into Google to see what kind of other websites are out there, what they offer and such? These sites might very well be your competition.

Let me steer you to some FREE tools you can use to investigate further.

To research what keywords people are using, here is a free version of the professional tool most of us SEO’s and website owners use: WordtrackerFreeTrial.

In addition, to get a really good idea of why keyword research is so important … from the choice of your new domain name on to how you will structure your website’s theme, here is another FREE tutorial from Wordtracker that will really help you: Keyword Research Guide. Please make a point to read this. You’ll learn from it.

I think this is enough for you now. Please trust what I am sharing with you here. Read it all BEFORE you jump in and buy up a domain name and get hosting, etc. I can help make some suggestions to help you with that, too.

You CAN do this, but let’s make sure you do it RIGHT!!! You’ll never regret taking your time in the beginning.