Adsense Marketing

As anyone familiar with our approach to starting an Internet business can tell you, we're HUGE believers in niche marketing.

We know that the best way to succeed online is to target a small group of people who are all searching online for the solution to a very SPECIFIC problem (that's what makes it a niche).
I mean, it just makes sense...

Once you've done careful keyword research to define a small, targeted market, it's easier to create products that this market is practically crying out for... write winning salescopy that speaks directly to their needs... follow up with MORE offers you know for sure they'll be interested in... and a LOT more.

And I'm happy to say that our message is getting through!

Seems that these days, many of the conversations I have with customers and subscribers start off with "Hey Derek, I've got a GREAT idea for a niche! What do you think about X?"

So yes, I'm thrilled to see so MANY of you diligently doing the keyword research necessary to uncover these lucrative niche markets...

... but (and you knew there was a "but" coming, didn't you? ;-) it's important for you to recognize that finding a niche is a process that includes -- but is not limited to -- doing keyword research.

Too often, I see people spend a LOT of time collecting an extensive list of keywords and phrases to define a niche, but then go straight from the research to building their sites.

This is a mistake!

That's because, while keywords indicate the potential for a good niche, the presence of those good keywords on their own isn't a "slam dunk" successful market.

Once you've identified a potential market by finding these good keywords and phrases, you still need to do some work to discover if it's actually a VIABLE market.

In other words, will you be able to make money from it?

So to save you from burning through a LOT of time, effort -- and quite possibly money -- setting up an Internet business in a mediocre niche, and then spending years struggling without ever getting anywhere..

... here are FIVE critical questions you need to ask yourself AFTER you've done keyword research, to confirm you've found a lucrative niche worth pursuing:

Question #1: How Tough Is The Competition In This Niche?

Whenever you do keyword research using any of the familiar tools out there (like Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery, or BeBiz) one of the statistics you'll turn up for each keyword is the number of websites competing for that word.

This number does NOT represent your actual competition!

That's because these tools count every single website that ranks for that particular word, whether or not they're selling anything that's even remotely related to what you're interested in promoting.

So take some time to get to know your REAL competition, by visiting those sites that are getting good rankings for your keywords.

When you do, you'll be able to divide your competition into two groups:

Indirect competition -- This will be the larger group, and consist of sites that show up as "competing" only because they happen to contain one or more of your keywords.

These sites are relatively easy to compete with because it's unlikely that they're even trying to get high rankings for those words.

But don't ignore them entirely! There may be clues to how they're ranking for those words that you can take advantage of when you build your site.

Direct competition -- These are the sites selling products that help with the same (or similar) problem that you're thinking of.

So take a close look at these, and decide if you can compete with them.

Do all of the best spots on the free search engines and pay-per-click campaigns belong to companies that are serious about their rankings, and have the knowledge and resources to consistently outrank you, no matter what you try?

At the same time, look at the amount of direct competition. Are there already TONS of sites catering to your market? Are they giving away their information? Selling it? Offering products?
Finally, take a look at how they're marketing themselves. Do they have badly done websites that break every rule in the book, or are they professional looking and organized, and more likely to put up a fight?

By getting to know your REAL competition, and getting a realistic idea of how easy or difficult they'll be to compete against, you'll be able to make a well-informed decision about whether or not to pursue this niche.

Question #2: How Many People Are Searching For Information In This Area?

One mistake I see a LOT of site owners make when they're doing their keyword research is to get excited about the keywords that don't have a lot of competition...

... while completely ignoring how many people are actually searching on those keywords!
So here's a sobering statistic for you to consider: If you're lucky, 2% of your site's visitors will become customers.

Note that I said 2% of your visitors, NOT 2% of the people who search on the keyword.

So if there are only, say, 20 searches a day on your keywords, and you're lucky enough to get 5 of those searchers to your site, it will take you 10 DAYS to make one single sale!

Hardly the stuff of early retirement, right?

SO check your stats CAREFULLY. How many searches are conducted in a 24 hour period for each keyword? How much does this add up to when you've accounted for all of your keywords?
If there aren't a lot of people searching, this may not be the niche for you.

Question #3: How Much Time And Money Will I Need To Get Started?

One of the things I find most attractive about starting your own Internet business is that, compared to typical brick-and-mortar businesses, you don't often need to invest a lot of money up front.

But choose your niche in haste, and that may not be the case for you!

See, we typically recommend using pay-per-click advertising to get started. It's a great way to get instant traffic during those first few months, while you're just building up your natural (i.e., free) search engine traffic.

So take a close look at how much you'll have to pay for your pay-per-click ads to start out.

Do the keywords you'll need to bid on have LOTS of competition already? Are the ads being sponsored by huge companies that clearly have unlimited access to advertising dollars? How much would you have to pay per click to get an ad positioned near the top of the sponsored results?

At the same time, consider how much time it's going to cost you to enter this niche.

Will you need to do extensive research before you can develop a product for your site? Are there other niches that will be less time-consuming to enter?

Think carefully about how much you'll need to invest in this niche before going ahead. And be honest with yourself! If you think there will be more work or money involved than you can comfortably commit, this may not be the niche for you.

Question #4: How Motivated To Buy Will My Traffic Be?

Something else to consider when choosing your niche is whether or not the people who make up this market are quality buying traffic... or if they're just looking for free information.

Take this simple test: Type (free) + (your keyword) into the search engines.

How many sites come up? And do they offer something that competes with your product for FREE? Or is it just a come-on?

If your potential customers really can get the solution to their problem for free from multiple sources, you're going to have a hard time getting them to pay for yours.

A good way to figure out if people are willing to pay for products that are similar to yours is to check out what's already sold, on sites like Amazon.

Question #5: Will I Be Able To GROW A Business In This Market?

It's all well and good to be able to make a one-time sale to a lot of people within your chosen niche, but you should also be thinking about whether or not a purchase today could lead to MORE purchases down the road.

So think carefully: Are there other products you could offer this market? Is there an indication that they may be looking for more than one thing within this niche?

If you're going to spend all of your time selling a single product to each new visitor -- and then never see them again -- you may well end up using all of your time and energy sending a constant stream of NEW visitors to your site...

... instead of enjoying the FAR easier task of selling other products to established customers who already know and trust you.

Your Action Plan...

While finding a solid, viable niche certainly starts with solid keyword research, you'll need to keep an open mind as you continue to dig deeper into each potential niche.

After you've identified a number of niches through your keyword research, go through and rank them by asking the five questions I've outlined here.

Assign each potential niche a number for each of the five categories (1 being the best, and 3 being the worst), then add up the scores. The niche that gets the LOWEST score is likely your best choice.

It sounds like a lot of extra work, but the MORE time you spend evaluating your potential niche, the lower the risk of pouring hundreds of hours of hard work -- and potentially a LOT of money -- into a website that never really stood a chance to begin with.

By Derek Gehl. Proceed to his Free Goal Setting Video

Labels: adsense marketing, keyword research, market niche