Regardless of whatever online business model you have established, you will need traffic. And the best way to generate traffic is through the implementation of sound Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques.
Central in every SEO campaign is the selection of the right keyword or key phrase to focus on. This is a very integral part of the process. Make a mistake with this area, and your online business can potentially crumble into obscurity.
How do you select the right keyword or key phrases for your traffic generation tactics? Here are 5 vital considerations you should keep in mind:
1. Choose a keyword that has a high demand. How can you establish this? Simply determine the number of times a particular keyword has been searched for by internet users all over the world. You can do this by using the free tools at www.inventory.yahoo.com or www.nichebot.com . Just type in the keyword you have in mind, and results of related keywords and key phrases will appear, as well as the number of times they have been searched for within a certain period. Overture has been bought by Yahoo, so more or less, you’d have a great barometer of a keyword’s demand through the stats provided by one of the internet’s most widely used search engine. You will want to choose keywords that have high number of searches.
2. Choose a keyword that is being catered to by fewer websites. Each website that is devoted to the keyword you are considering is your competition. The fewer the competition you will have, the more successful you will be in securing the market attached to such a keyword. Internet marketing, after all, still follows the basic rule of business, which is taken from the basic rule of economics: low supply plus high demand equals to a highly profitable industry. If you’ll be one of only a few enterprises catering to a particular keyword, then you’d have better chances of generating traffic from the same.
3. Choose a keyword that fetches a number of relevant ads. If you’re enrolled with Google AdSense, you can run a search of the said keyword at www.google.com . On the results page, notice the row of links on the right side. These are PPC ads. They are, more or less, the same ads that will appear on your own web pages if you’d decide to use the same keyword. As a rule, choose the keyword that fetches at least 5 relevant ads. This is to ensure a higher Click Through Rate (CTR) for your PPC campaigns. You wouldn’t want non-relevant ads to populate your web pages, otherwise, your CTR will terribly suffer.
4. Choose a keyword that has a high Cost Per Click (CPC). This is especially true if your business is involved with Pay Per Click (PPC) models like the ones that are enrolled with Google AdSense, AdBrite and Yahoo Advertising. A high CPC will ensure bigger profits for you. PPC programs pay you every time a visitor of yours will click on a particular ad that is displayed in your pages. If the CPC is high, you’d receive more per click. How can you know the going rate for some keywords? You can try to make a search atwww.adsensearena.com and the corresponding CPC for quite a number of keywords will appear. Or you can try Overture’s tool, found at http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/USm/search/tools/bidtool , to determine the bidding price for certain keywords.
5. Choose a keyword or a key phrase that are used by people who have the mindset to buy. Determining this is quite easy. Casual internet users who are only looking for certain bits of information during their free time usually use one or two words for their search terms. But people who are ready and willing to buy something usually type in three or more words as their search term. Hence, it can prove to be more profitable to focus of keywords or key phrases composed of three or more words so that you’d be able to attract such a market.
Showing posts with label Keyword Research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keyword Research. Show all posts
Thursday, April 5, 2012
What My Cat Taught Me About Niche Marketing
Some people are "dog people," others are "cat people." I'm a cat person. Regardless of which pet you prefer, we can all agree that pets enrich our lives in many ways. They provide unconditional affection, they don't care what we look like, and sometimes even they teach us a life lesson.
But I never expected my cat to teach me a marketing lesson! A niche marketing lesson, to be more precise.
At this point, the dog lovers reading this are saying that this cat person is crazy. But I'm not. Here's how it happened.
Like millions of other pet lovers, I bought plenty of pet toys. We all want to be able to interact with our pets, yet still have them not be bored when we're away.
My cat went through the usual toy assortment: feathers, balls with bells in them, foam balls, catnip, string, and an assortment of stuffed rodents. Because we all want the best for our furry friends, I bought the biggest stuffed rat I could find. It received an occasional sniff but was mostly ignored.
The medium-sized stuffed mice received more attention, but only if I moved the mouse or threw it for the cat. He wouldn't play with it on his own.
Then my cat was given a pair of tiny stuffed mice. I thought they were too small and would be ignored just as the giant rat was.
Boy was I wrong!
Like a lion on a gazelle, my cat pounced on the tiny mouse and gave it a beating it would never forget. He played mouse hockey through the house, scoring goals under the refrigerator and under the stove. He played baseball, tossing the mouse high into the air and catching it again, or hitting a home run on the way down. He played jungle lion, proudly carrying his prey back to his waiting pride (me!).
So what does all this warm fuzzy cat stuff have to do with online sales?
It's a metaphor for niche marketing. The cat is the consumer. The cat toys are your products. The ultimate goal is to match the former with the latter.
Your first product, the giant rat, was of vague interest to the consumer (the cat). The consumer sniffed at your ad or sales page, but did not like what he smelled, and moved on. No sales.
Your second product, the medium-sized mice, were more interesting to the potential buyer. He would take action, but only after intensive prompting on your part. You would probably have to spend a lot on pay per click ads or gave away lots of bonuses to get his business. A few sales might be made, but it would be expensive to get those sales.
But your third product, the mini-mouse, was pure magic! Your cat consumer took one look, something in his brain clicked, and a sale was made. It was as if your product was a key that unlocked the part of the customer's brain that triggered the buying impulse. Jackpot!
That's what my cat taught me about niche marketing. You must find a product that somebody desperately wants (preferably a large group of somebodies). That product must be exactly what they were looking for, even if they didn't know they wanted it! It must be so tantalizing that your customer is more concerned about playing with his new toy than he or she is about paying for it.
You see, I made a classic info-product mistake with my cat. I gave him what I thought he would like. I wasted money promoting large stuffed rodents and heaps of other toys to him. What I didn't do is ask him what he needed and give him that!
Don't make the same mistake! Figure out what your customers want FIRST, and give them that. Then watch them pounce on it so fast that the payment process is almost an afterthought for them.
I have since learned that the mini-mice are about the same size as real mice. No wonder the cat was sold on them immediately! He had never seen a real mouse, but there was a mini-mouse sized niche in his brain that was instantly gratified by the smallest mouse toy.
Don't give your customers what you think they need. Ask them what they want, and give them that. Then you will have truly created a better mousetrap, and they will beat a path to your door (and your bank account)!
Learn more about niche marketing through the link below.
But I never expected my cat to teach me a marketing lesson! A niche marketing lesson, to be more precise.
At this point, the dog lovers reading this are saying that this cat person is crazy. But I'm not. Here's how it happened.
Like millions of other pet lovers, I bought plenty of pet toys. We all want to be able to interact with our pets, yet still have them not be bored when we're away.
My cat went through the usual toy assortment: feathers, balls with bells in them, foam balls, catnip, string, and an assortment of stuffed rodents. Because we all want the best for our furry friends, I bought the biggest stuffed rat I could find. It received an occasional sniff but was mostly ignored.
The medium-sized stuffed mice received more attention, but only if I moved the mouse or threw it for the cat. He wouldn't play with it on his own.
Then my cat was given a pair of tiny stuffed mice. I thought they were too small and would be ignored just as the giant rat was.
Boy was I wrong!
Like a lion on a gazelle, my cat pounced on the tiny mouse and gave it a beating it would never forget. He played mouse hockey through the house, scoring goals under the refrigerator and under the stove. He played baseball, tossing the mouse high into the air and catching it again, or hitting a home run on the way down. He played jungle lion, proudly carrying his prey back to his waiting pride (me!).
So what does all this warm fuzzy cat stuff have to do with online sales?
It's a metaphor for niche marketing. The cat is the consumer. The cat toys are your products. The ultimate goal is to match the former with the latter.
Your first product, the giant rat, was of vague interest to the consumer (the cat). The consumer sniffed at your ad or sales page, but did not like what he smelled, and moved on. No sales.
Your second product, the medium-sized mice, were more interesting to the potential buyer. He would take action, but only after intensive prompting on your part. You would probably have to spend a lot on pay per click ads or gave away lots of bonuses to get his business. A few sales might be made, but it would be expensive to get those sales.
But your third product, the mini-mouse, was pure magic! Your cat consumer took one look, something in his brain clicked, and a sale was made. It was as if your product was a key that unlocked the part of the customer's brain that triggered the buying impulse. Jackpot!
That's what my cat taught me about niche marketing. You must find a product that somebody desperately wants (preferably a large group of somebodies). That product must be exactly what they were looking for, even if they didn't know they wanted it! It must be so tantalizing that your customer is more concerned about playing with his new toy than he or she is about paying for it.
You see, I made a classic info-product mistake with my cat. I gave him what I thought he would like. I wasted money promoting large stuffed rodents and heaps of other toys to him. What I didn't do is ask him what he needed and give him that!
Don't make the same mistake! Figure out what your customers want FIRST, and give them that. Then watch them pounce on it so fast that the payment process is almost an afterthought for them.
I have since learned that the mini-mice are about the same size as real mice. No wonder the cat was sold on them immediately! He had never seen a real mouse, but there was a mini-mouse sized niche in his brain that was instantly gratified by the smallest mouse toy.
Don't give your customers what you think they need. Ask them what they want, and give them that. Then you will have truly created a better mousetrap, and they will beat a path to your door (and your bank account)!
Learn more about niche marketing through the link below.
Niche Dictionary: Automatically Add Keyword-Rich, Highly-Focused Content To Your Adsense and Niche Websites With Just 1 Line Of Code! Better Than RSS And Keeps Search Engines Coming Back. Visit http://www.NicheDictionary.com now.
Finding Your Niche in Keyword Research
To start with, what are keywords exactly? And why on earth is keyword research so damn important?
Here’s a short backgrounder for you, my slightly confused and misinformed friend: whenever you log on the internet, whether it be for something really important (i.e homework research) or something bordering on the ordinary (i.e you’re just “surfing the net” ‘coz you’re having one of those boring gaps in your life once again), more or less, you’ve probably have typed something in the search engine box just to help make your “research” be simpler, easier (since you don’t have to memorize all of those long website addresses) with just a few taps on your keyboard. What you’ve actually typed there is what is commonly known as a keyword/phrase that helps aid you with your search. Through good keyword research, you’ll be surely able to find the website containing the correct data that you need/want.
It is extremely important for those who want to create (and eventually launch) a website to have good keyword research. For internet users to be able to reach your website, you should use proper keywords and phrases so that it’ll be a lot easier for internet surfers to stumble upon your website while using the search engine on the internet. Your website should be brimming with appropriate keywords and phrases, to help promote its content. There really is so much you can do on the internet, you can sell stuff to other people from all over the globe, you can express and share your thoughts to blogging, you can advertise your business, the possibilities are actually endless. This is why a lot of people are trying to make the most out of this incredible opportunity by setting up websites with big hopes that random strangers will actually find them.
If only things were that easy, unfortunately though, even with this high-tech world of ours, good old fashion hard work and patience is what still helps rake in the big bucks. Simply put, you need to still invest on your website in order for it to serve its purpose, it order for it to actually take flight, you have to learn a thing or two about keyword research.
Keywords and phrases don’t just come in a handy for niche websites, on-line advertisements and what-have-yous, they’re actually a significant part to its success. Keyword research will actually help your website stand out and get noticed more by internet users, since it’ll avoid the usual spamming and link farms and link exchanges that internet users usually hate. It’ll actually help you figure out what your potential visitors want by the keywords that they type, thus, helping you improve on your keyword research.
Also, keyword research will help you keep afloat from your competitors, because through it, you’ll know what the public wants, what people are actually looking for, thus giving you ample time to come up with services and goods that these people want (i.e. potential customers). May it be websites focusing on the people’s major concerns, such as health, current events, etc.
If you want to try out those stay at home businesses, you can actually use keyword research to your advantage since, it’ll prove to be highly useful with those pay-per-click services since it’ll certainly bring in the traffic your ads/ websites.
Keyword research truly is a remarkable thing to arm yourself with in these tech-savvy times, you may opt to buy the available software and help educate yourself further on with this unique method or if you’re too lazy or just not the “technical” type of person, you can leave your keyword research to an expert, who’ll happily do the nitty-gritty for you, but for a price of course.
Surely, you won’t lose anything by simply trying out keyword research, there are no doubtful schemes, just a practical and cost-efficient way of improving your on-line business.
Here’s a short backgrounder for you, my slightly confused and misinformed friend: whenever you log on the internet, whether it be for something really important (i.e homework research) or something bordering on the ordinary (i.e you’re just “surfing the net” ‘coz you’re having one of those boring gaps in your life once again), more or less, you’ve probably have typed something in the search engine box just to help make your “research” be simpler, easier (since you don’t have to memorize all of those long website addresses) with just a few taps on your keyboard. What you’ve actually typed there is what is commonly known as a keyword/phrase that helps aid you with your search. Through good keyword research, you’ll be surely able to find the website containing the correct data that you need/want.
It is extremely important for those who want to create (and eventually launch) a website to have good keyword research. For internet users to be able to reach your website, you should use proper keywords and phrases so that it’ll be a lot easier for internet surfers to stumble upon your website while using the search engine on the internet. Your website should be brimming with appropriate keywords and phrases, to help promote its content. There really is so much you can do on the internet, you can sell stuff to other people from all over the globe, you can express and share your thoughts to blogging, you can advertise your business, the possibilities are actually endless. This is why a lot of people are trying to make the most out of this incredible opportunity by setting up websites with big hopes that random strangers will actually find them.
If only things were that easy, unfortunately though, even with this high-tech world of ours, good old fashion hard work and patience is what still helps rake in the big bucks. Simply put, you need to still invest on your website in order for it to serve its purpose, it order for it to actually take flight, you have to learn a thing or two about keyword research.
Keywords and phrases don’t just come in a handy for niche websites, on-line advertisements and what-have-yous, they’re actually a significant part to its success. Keyword research will actually help your website stand out and get noticed more by internet users, since it’ll avoid the usual spamming and link farms and link exchanges that internet users usually hate. It’ll actually help you figure out what your potential visitors want by the keywords that they type, thus, helping you improve on your keyword research.
Also, keyword research will help you keep afloat from your competitors, because through it, you’ll know what the public wants, what people are actually looking for, thus giving you ample time to come up with services and goods that these people want (i.e. potential customers). May it be websites focusing on the people’s major concerns, such as health, current events, etc.
If you want to try out those stay at home businesses, you can actually use keyword research to your advantage since, it’ll prove to be highly useful with those pay-per-click services since it’ll certainly bring in the traffic your ads/ websites.
Keyword research truly is a remarkable thing to arm yourself with in these tech-savvy times, you may opt to buy the available software and help educate yourself further on with this unique method or if you’re too lazy or just not the “technical” type of person, you can leave your keyword research to an expert, who’ll happily do the nitty-gritty for you, but for a price of course.
Surely, you won’t lose anything by simply trying out keyword research, there are no doubtful schemes, just a practical and cost-efficient way of improving your on-line business.
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