The Next Steps for Keyword Research

Don't worry if it seems like a lot of work to do your keyword research. Also, you're building Ugly Websites and you will learn your own subtle nuances as you proceed. Don't worry about being perfect - be productive.

Now that we have a starting point based on our research at Ebay - you should have a topic and some keywords from the products you see people buying - we're going to hop over to Overture.

I actually use a keyword research tool that gives me a greater amount of detailed information - it saves me time and makes me money. I recommend it - when you feel this is a direction you want to pursue. Click here to learn more.

For now, let's go with free - let's go to Overture [opens in new window]

I want to be clear that there are always exceptions to every Internet marketing rule. That's what can make it confusing at times. Since our model is based on finding soft pockets in the search engines - ie, phrases that we have a good chance to rank well in due to low competition - we don't want or need big numbers. We're building a portofolio of web sites.

At this point in our research, I've determined a few things.

1. There is high demand for water heaters online, because a lot of people are bidding on them at Ebay.

2. There is good profit potential in water heaters because people spend hundreds of dollars for the right water heater.

3. There is enough search volume - enough people looking - for 'tankless water heaters' that I like that subtheme within the larger them of 'water heaters'. Remember, we want to think in terms of 'themes' and 'sub-themes'. With over 40,000 search per month for 'tankless water heaters' and an additional 11 terms falling into the general range of 500-5000 searches, we have a likely winner here.

I will take one additional step, to sell myself on building a site about 'tankless water heaters' by doing one last research task with Keyword Locator Plus - my favorite keyword research tool.

NOTE: The following phrases and search counts were conducted in March 2006 - notice the significant difference in numbers from the example above, done in November 2005. This is why keyword search counts are general rules of thumb - not rules etched in stone.

We can extract a lot of good information here - like all of the keyword phrases that include 'tankless water heater' - here we are looking, primarily, at the number of advertisers competing for ad placement.

We want to see high numbers - the number are usually higher on Google (who's paying us) than on Overture because of the way the respective systems work. We want to see number over 30 on Google (we do) and we want to see number of at least 5 on Overture (we do).

IMPORTANT NOTE: We are looking at the general theme. You may use the above criteria and decide that "rinnai tankless water heater" with only 1 advertiser on Overture is a poor phrase. It may actually be the best.

The reason is there is low competition for that phrase in an otherwise competitive niche. Google will place ads on your site that stand to make you - and Google - the most money. That's a balance of what advertisers are willing to pay and the relevence of the ad itself.

I do not want to confuse in your research. In teaching people this system, I have found that keyword research seems to be the most confusing aspect of the process.

I have witnessed many people become paralyzed - and take no action as a result - because they get a little too caught up in the numbers; a little too caught up with discovering "the perfect" keywords.

Frankly, some of my biggest successes - and the biggest successes of those who've done this program already - have come from sites that didn't appear to have much potential to begin with. How about a five page site on the topic of closets making $4.00-7.00 per day - within three weeks of launch?

What I'm teaching you know will help you develop a better sense of the overall process as you continue building sites. You may build dozens - even hundreds of sites. And each and every one will get better and better.

There are some topics that will never pay and we want to avoid those. I give my friend Lin a hard time because one of her first sites, built as part of a $6,000 coaching program, was on the topic of "wildflowers". I love wildflowers, but there just isn't much money in them! So Lin put a lot of time and effort (and money) into a site that didn't have a good shot at success.

In contrast, hundreds of people - probably thousands - have built sites on high paying search phrases like "mortgage refinancing" - "mesotheleoma" - "defense attorney", etc. While those search phrases pay extremely well, the overwhelming competition offers a small chance for success.

Bottom line: We are looking for the best odds of success; a balance between modest traffic and good pay per click bids.

The Infamous "Closet" site

Right below is a screen shot from a student who built a site on closets, of all things. I've had to gray out some of the Google information - but you can see by the numbers the results he was able to produce.

A few items of note -

* This student was a complete beginner to the idea of content sites and Adsense. He had absolutely ZERO prior experience.

* The first two days of the month there were 70 page impressions to this site with no clicks. I believe he was showing the site off to friends and our group - so his actual CTR was much higher 115 clicks from 268 visits.

* This BRAND NEW site averaged $2.56 per day - and was topping $4.00 per day consistently towards the end of the month.

* What did he do to promote this site and gain traffic? He submitted one article to one article directory.

Advertisers drive the market and a tool like Keyword Locator Plus can give you quick information about how many advertisers are in the market - and what they're paying. The more advertisers, usually the stronger bid prices are for clicks.

When you look at the example below, you want to notice the OVERALL number of advertisers. I like seeing many advertisers for the first five terms here on the Overture network.

But what about that sixth term, "Rinnai tankless water heaters"? There's only one advertiser. Should we avoid it?

No. In fact, it might be a gem. Google will show the ads that it estimates will make GOOGLE the most money. That's a combination of the ad being relevant - a close match - to what's on the page and what advertisers are spending for those ads. So even if there aren't many advertisers for a specific phrase, there may be for the phrase in general and Google will serve the ads that should pay them (and you) the most money.

On the downside, the ads won't be as targeted that are shown - but that's OK. We'll do fine and I'd build that page.

Bid stats give me a final idea of what the potential income is for the site.

Since Google doesn't share actual advertiser bid information - or even the percentage they pay you - we have to make a guess. Best guess is you'll make about 30% of the bid price for position number 5, per click - or about .30 per click based on the screen shot above.

So with this topic, assuming a 50% CTR, we only need about 7 visitors per day to our site to make an average of $365 per year.

And remember, I am using absolute low-ball numbers here. You could potentially gain 2-10 times that much traffic per day - and make 2-10 times as much income.

Although my model site on Outdoor Fireplaces has averaged $1 per day since launch - it's now making an average of $4.00 per day and growing.

Note: In the month of December 2005 - high season for fireplaces - my site averaged over $7.00 per day.