NICHE research?

[jarnold22]

I understand how to do keyword research, own Market Samurai and several other tools, but the one place that consistently trips me up is NICHE research. How do you find a good niche?

Jon

[mikedeering]

Hi Jon,

I get a lot of ideas from the BU keyword spreadsheets.

What has worked for me:
1. Go to Amazon and look for products with a lot of reviews.
2. Go to a forum and see what people are talking about
3. Yahoo answers

Sometimes my best ideas come out of the blue.

For example: listening to the radio, watching tv and it's numerous commercials, shopping, driving, ect.

[admin]

There are a lot of ways to find niches but what I suggest is letting the BEST KEYWORDS find you and then help you build a broader niche around it.

If you go to the KEYWORDS section of BU you can watch the main video or it is covered in the 12 Step Success Strategy training.

Also watch the domain hunting videos as they have some good ideas for digging up ideas.

http://www.bloggingunderground.com/vide ... n-hunting/

[mikedeering]

Let the best keywords find you works. Because what we like may not be a profitable niche. It should be something that you have some knowledge or an interest in. I had a site on belly dancing that did not do too well, because although I have a belly, I do not know how to dance

[admin]

Funny!

Is there a good keyword for beer belly... oh yes... truth about abs...

[jarnold22]

hmmm, maybe i am using the wrong keyword research program. i own most of them over the years, including market samurai, micro niche finder, brad callen's thing, traffic travis, and various others but the one i have been using recently is Long Tail Keyword Pro.

the problem is that for every keyword phrase i seem to research where it goes out and finds the long tail versions of it, then i look at the results for possible candidates for the top 10 for that particular kw phrase, it seems like they all have at least 1 or 2 pr going up to 4's, 5's, 6's and higher pr's. Even with NO emd and many without the kw phrase in the title, isn't it going to require an act of God to even rank for the phrase, even if i have the emd AND kw in the title?

or is there a different program i should be using? can't really afford the one featured in the videos, at least until i can get this to where it would pay for itself.

[mikedeering]

I've been submitting my rss feeds in places like Feedage, Feedagg, Friendster, Prolific, Feedbite and the site starts ranking for many keywords. I use a plugin called Nexxus rss and submit that feed plus the regular feed.

I find my site ranking for keywords other than my domain keyword. btw: You can get your site to rank for any keyword by creating back links to it.

[jarnold22]

re nexus rss, isn't the functionality you describe already part & parcel of wordpress; ie, pinging a defined set of rss aggregators whenever a new post is made? i am trying to understand the value of what you are doing and why.

damn, this is getting discouraging, seems like very niche i research (via long tail pro) has the top 10 competing sites from pr 3 to pr 6+, where by the time i would rank a new site for that, social security will have long since been abandoned as "a good idea at one time"..... trying to compete against established sites like that has the equivalent productivity (and results) of peeing upwind...

[MasterMind]

re nexus rss, isn't the functionality you describe already part & parcel of wordpress; ie, pinging a defined set of rss aggregators whenever a new post is made? i am trying to understand the value of what you are doing and why.

damn, this is getting discouraging, seems like very niche i research (via long tail pro) has the top 10 competing sites from pr 3 to pr 6+, where by the time i would rank a new site for that, social security will have long since been abandoned as "a good idea at one time"..... trying to compete against established sites like that has the equivalent productivity (and results) of peeing upwind...

Whoa, you've made something easy into something extraordinairly hard. You're so all over the place it's hard to tell you where to start. What long tail keyword did you find that has 10 sites with pr from 3-6? Makes me wonder what your definition of long tail keyword is.

It's relatively simple.

1. Grab some of Mikes free keyword lists.
2. Get rid of all thos kw's that pay to little or have to little traffic.
3. Go to GoDaddy's buld kw tool at http://www.godaddy.com/domains/searchbu ... om&ci=8991
4. check for .com, .org, .net, .us even .info
5. Take the list of available domains you just got from Godaddy and paste them into MS.
6. Run MS to double check Mikes figures as the results do vary.
7. Get rid of all the KW's you entered into0 Market Sam that are to low traffic or to low for money.
8. Start checking what you have left in the SEO Competition Module.
9. Take the kw's with the biggest payout, traffic and are the easiest to rank for.
10. Go build a site.

Warning, sometimes you end up with 60 to 70 ke's to check competition on. Do them all no matter what you think. I've got hundreds of kw's waiting in the wings from about 12 of Mikes free spreadsheets.

Stay away from marketing kw's. Acne, weight loss, aging are all great niches with lots of keywords to use but you have to look to find them. Lol, it's a lot like panning for gold.

[MasterMind]

Rank Ease Keyword Traf Comp CPC


3 anti aging cream 1864 2440000 $4.81
3 anti aging eye cream 33 115,000 $1.12
3 best anti aging creams 91 311,000 $4.25
3 best anti wrinkle 137 175,000 $1.44
2 best face creams 374
best facial moisturizer 137 46,700 $1.44
3 best hair color product 61 $3.90
3 best hair loss shampoo 112 $2.51
3 best products for curly hair 137 $2.91
2.5 best shampoo 2278 $1.87
2 best skin care products 374 1,200,000 $1.95
3 best styling products 33 $1.56
2 best under eye cream 75 53,100 $1.34
2 best vitamins for hair growth 75 $2.27
3 black hair growth products 50 $2.43
3 black hair styles 5081 $1.63
3 black skin care products 61 93900 $3.19
2 chemical peels 2278 2690000 $3.37
2 cosmetic brands 1022 525000 $2.20
3 cosmetics products 167 1,020,000 $1.03
3 curly hair products 559 $2.68
3 discount skin care 91 341000 $6.08
3 eye skin care 75 300000 $2.26
3 facial products 250 300,000 $1.61
2.5 female hair loss 1519 $3.95
3 good skin care 137 505000 $2.47
3 hair color products 307 $2.77
3 hair curlers 1022 $1.73
3 hair growth shampoo 684 $2.95
3 hair growth vitamins 1022 $2.18
3 hair products for damaged hair 50 $2.67
2.5 hair products for fine hair, products for fine hair 75 $2.70
3 hair regrowth for women 75 $3.62
3 hair regrowth products 91 $6.42
3 hair relaxer 835 $1.98
2 hair restoration cost 204 $19.92
3 hair straightening products 137 $2.88
3 hair thickening products 50 $4.72
2.5 healthy skin care 61 971000 $3.17
3 laser skin care 307 515000 $8.39
3 man skin care 75 247000 $2.08
2.5 medical skin care 112 556000 $2.22
2.5 mens hair products 112 $2.39
3 natural cosmetics 684 2550000 $4.09
3 natural hair products for black women 50 $2.04
3 oily skin care 307 284000 $2.27
2 olive oil hair products 33 $2.60
3 organic hair products 167 $2.91
3 organic skincare 835 1930000 $3.78
2 osmosis skin care 61 179000 $3.17
2 private label skin care 61 90800 $4.48
3 professional skin care 167 816000 $3.86
2 receding hairline treatment 61 $1.90
3 regrow hair naturally 91 $2.48
3 rosacea skin care 75 321000 $3.02
3 shampoo for oily hair 250 $2.68
2 shampoo for thinning hair 204 $3.36
3 simple skin care 75 492000 $1.80
3 skin care coupons 112 1850000 $5.19
2 skin care discount 91 471000 $5.66
2.5 skin care in winter 75 302000 $1.47
1 skin care kits 61 1310000 $4.85
3 skin care specialist 75 630000 $2.20
2.5 skin care specialists 75 1190000 $2.21
3 skin care wholesale 75 152000 $2.44
3 skin moisturizers 75 141,000 $0.00
3 stop hair loss 1022 $3.57
2.5 treatment for thinning hair 167 $4.06
2 vitamin products 167 295,000 $1.69
3 vitamins for hair 2775 $1.96
3 vitamins for hair growth 1022 $2.38
2.5 wholesale hair products 91 $3.02
1.5 young skin care 61 68200 $3.13

For rank ease the higher the number the harder to rank. I don't mess with anything above a 4 unless I need it for a post.

[jarnold22]

thanks mastermind, i think that helps.

when i was referring to longtail keywords, i didn't mean THE longtail keywords, i meant the software program i have been using to find the nuggets, LongTailPro, very different thing.

but per your advice, it looks like i should blow the dust off market sam and take that approach.

thanks, much appreciated.
jon

[jarnold22]

ok, making progress but i would be in heaven if i only had 60-70 kw's to examine. so i took one of the keyword lists, sorted it by global searches, got rid of everything with less than 1000 searches per month. then resorted it by adsense clicks, got rid of everything that was less than $1.25.

but i still have well over 4000 kw's. is there another filter that can be applied to dig into it to come up with the nuggets?

[MasterMind]

Now divide them up into chunks of 500 and run them through the godaddy tool at the link above. Throiw out anything that isn't available as an exact match domain for .com, us, org and .net plus whatever else you like. That should get you down around 3-500. Then run them through MS and double check the prices, traffic and stats. Get rid of all the bad ones and you shouled be down to a few hundred. It's a long process to find good keywords.

[jarnold22]

where does that score come from in the list you posted?

[MasterMind]

where does that score come from in the list you posted?

It's an arbitrary score I give each keyword depending on what I see in Market Samurai in the competition section.

If a site has less than 10 links, nothing in url, no yahoo or dzmoz, no title with keywords it's a 1. .; I have no set rules for deciding the ease but the experience I have with SEO. After you do a few you'll soon figure it out and have your own scoring system. The more green you see in the competition the better the score.

[admin]

hmmm, maybe i am using the wrong keyword research program. i own most of them over the years, including market samurai, micro niche finder, brad callen's thing, traffic travis, and various others but the one i have been using recently is Long Tail Keyword Pro.

the problem is that for every keyword phrase i seem to research where it goes out and finds the long tail versions of it, then i look at the results for possible candidates for the top 10 for that particular kw phrase, it seems like they all have at least 1 or 2 pr going up to 4's, 5's, 6's and higher pr's. Even with NO emd and many without the kw phrase in the title, isn't it going to require an act of God to even rank for the phrase, even if i have the emd AND kw in the title?

or is there a different program i should be using? can't really afford the one featured in the videos, at least until i can get this to where it would pay for itself.

Personally it sounds like you are using TOO MANY TOOLS and following too many different GURUS.

The only tool you need is the Google Keyword Tool - or better yet - start with the BU keyword spreadsheets and then put into Google tool. You can use other tools but very often they are more distracting than helpful.

As far as 'analysis" my advice to you is to JUST START DOING as right now it's easoer than ever to rank for almost any keyword phrase. You're splitting hairs over something that does't require much more than a good gut feeling.

It sounds to me like you're not really following the training we have here, which is cool, but you're missing out on how we find keywords to target, which is easy and fun.

[mikedeering]

Personally it sounds like you are using TOO MANY TOOLS and following too many different GURUS.

I have fallen prey to that before

I had subscribed to many 'gurus' who would overwhelm me with their emails, suggesting this, do that, buy this...

Now, I listen to gurus who tell me that it takes time and patience and to keep it simple.

[MasterMind]

hmmm, maybe i am using the wrong keyword research program. i own most of them over the years, including market samurai, micro niche finder, brad callen's thing, traffic travis, and various others but the one i have been using recently is Long Tail Keyword Pro.

the problem is that for every keyword phrase i seem to research where it goes out and finds the long tail versions of it, then i look at the results for possible candidates for the top 10 for that particular kw phrase, it seems like they all have at least 1 or 2 pr going up to 4's, 5's, 6's and higher pr's. Even with NO emd and many without the kw phrase in the title, isn't it going to require an act of God to even rank for the phrase, even if i have the emd AND kw in the title?

or is there a different program i should be using? can't really afford the one featured in the videos, at least until i can get this to where it would pay for itself.

Personally it sounds like you are using TOO MANY TOOLS and following too many different GURUS.

The only tool you need is the Google Keyword Tool - or better yet - start with the BU keyword spreadsheets and then put into Google tool. You can use other tools but very often they are more distracting than helpful.

As far as 'analysis" my advice to you is to JUST START DOING as right now it's easoer than ever to rank for almost any keyword phrase. You're splitting hairs over something that does't require much more than a good gut feeling.

It sounds to me like you're not really following the training we have here, which is cool, but you're missing out on how we find keywords to target, which is easy and fun.

Googles Keyword tool no longer shows you all availaable keywords. They just show you the ones that are most profitable. Tht changed a short while back.

[admin]

I'm still using it and getting great results. Make sure you login to Adwords account and go to Tools and Analysis tab then select Keyword Tool.

[mikedeering]

Trust your gut feeling if the keyword makes sense.

[admin]

Yes! Trust your gut feeling after passing the basic tests!

By the way - they redid the sandbox tool

http://ctrlq.org/sandbox/

It should help you get a feeling for how much money the advertisers are making!

[mikedeering]

Thanks for the new Google sandbox link