Home About Great FREE Guides Disclaimer Privacy Policy
Twitter
RSS
Facebook

Profitable Niche Markets: How To Track Them Down

By Alison Wood on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 | 2 Comments

If you want to boost your online income, niche markets are your key to success. Niche markets are sub-categories of broader markets, and can be very profitable. The key to the high profitability of niche markets is their specificity. For example, it’s much easier to find and market to people who are interested in 1964 Ford Mustangs than it is to market to people who are interested in cars in general (or even Mustangs in general). Plus, the people who comprise your potential customers in niche markets are usually quite passionate about their chosen interest, and are ready to buy if you’ve got the right marketing message. So how can you find hot profitable niche markets to boost your online income?

Some people look at the headlines in magazines or best-selling non-fiction books for ideas. However, there is a much better way to find niche markets with the most eager buyers. One is to search on eBay. The front page of eBay will show you the top 10 most frequently searched categories on the site. These are categories in which people are actively looking to buy. You can then find these categories in the categories menu on the left-hand side of the page. Click on the appropriate category link, and it will show you all of the sub-categories associated with it. These are niche markets and if there are buyers on eBay then they are most probably profitable niche markets.

You can see just how many people are selling things in those niches, just by scrolling through all the listings. More importantly, to see how many people are buying and how much money they are willing to pay, scroll through the list of items for sale in that niche and see how many bids there are on the items there. If you find a niche with a lot of bidders, and with less than 1,000 items for sale, you’ve found a profitable niche market but with little competition. This is a niche you should get into and one which with a little research you can start to source products for, and by all means use one of the larger affiliate product providers such as Amazon, eBay, Commission Junction or Linkshare. However, there really are a wide variety of companies out there who have affiliate schemes and thus you should spread your net as wide as possible in order to profit from niche markets.

Day 4: Keyword Density – How To Get The Balance Right

By Alison Wood on Monday, January 25th, 2010 | No Comments

On Day 1 we looked at the reasons we target keywords at all in our content, Day 2 we looked at what keywords to use for your niche , Day 3 we turned our attention to keyword tools and on this the penultimate day we are going to consider keyword density.

What do you know about keywords? They improve how the search engines perceive your content. But, too many can also get you a bad name. Learn about keyword density and how to mix and match for the perfect combination.

A Keyword Myth

Common sense is not always the best approach especially when thinking about keyword use. Your mind says that if such and such keyword is the one you should be using to attract customers, then it should appear everywhere. So far, you are right.

This next part is where many veer off the track. Putting them everywhere doesn’t necessarily mean stuffing your content like a keyword burrito. At one time, you may have gotten away with that but search engines have evolved much like anything else. They are smart enough to know that a keyword is not going to appear in every third sentence as the normal course. This is keyword stuffing.

Keyword Density

A search engine is a complicated mix of algorithms that the average person won’t ever hope to understand. All we know is that it tells the bots to do their thing and they do it. They search for keywords that are entered into the search box on thousands and thousands of sites, blogs and the lot indexed all over cyberspace.

Keyword density is a measure of how many of those particular words appear within text. For instance, if your article is around 500 words, bots will calculate how many times a certain word appears within that text. Internet gurus used to always say that a safe keyword density was anywhere from 3-10%.

But, search engines have their own ideas about what constitutes the proper density for their rankings. Now, it can be as low as 1-3%. For a 500 word article, that would be 5-15 occurrences for any keyword. Most err on the lower end just to be safe. Besides, in 500 words, encountering the same keyword fifteen times may seem a little banal depending on your subject matter.

Keyword density also takes into account the number of words in your target keyword. Long tail marketing has become popular and can further focus your content and website for a larger, well-defined market.

But keyword density also works for your website in general. Using keywords in picture tags, as anchor text within content and as subheadings as well as headlines will also get you noticed. The content will get people to visit you over and over, but your entire website will be the linchpin that can help you gain and stay on the first page of search results.

Day 3: Keyword Tools for Your Website Content

By Alison Wood on Saturday, January 2nd, 2010 | 1 Comment

On Day 1 we looked at the reasons we target keywords at all in our content, on Day 2 we looked at what keywords to use for your niche and today we turn our attention to keyword tools.

What do you do with that list of keywords after you’ve taken the time to brainstorm? Well, you could potentially be holding on to a gold mine of profitable words. But, you won’t know that unless you analyze their potential with keyword tools.

You don’t have to go out to your nearest computer store and purchase any software. Most of what you need is available on the Internet for free or a small fee. If they offer a free trial, use it. At least you will learn how the process works and if that particular software works for you.

Here are a few software tools for finding appropriate keywords for your website. All of these are free tools but some offer more features for a paid subscription.

Wordtracker (http://www.freekeywords.wordtracker.com) – There is no way that you could possibly think of all the different combinations of words that are used to find results in your niche. That is where software like Wordtracker comes in handy. Using the list of possible keywords you have compiled, choose a keyword to enter into the program. The software will return all possible combinations (according to your search parameters) and the number of searches for each. You may even notice a few that you haven’t thought of before. You can even compare results by search engine.

Wordstream (http://www.wordstream.com/best-keyword-tool) – If you want to let the software pick the keywords for you, here are a few tools that you can use. Wordstream returns keyword suggestions that work well for content and pay-per-click ads. You can also manage your keywords. You will be able to pick form the best words and phrases for your niche.

Overture (http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion) – This keyword tool is brought to you by Yahoo. It is now called Yahoo! Search Marketing. Using this search engine, the tool returns results for a variety of keywords and how many searches are done for them. You can choose to keep or discard the ones that have too many search results and opt to exploit the keywords that have not been overdone.

Keyword Discovery (http://keyworddiscovery.com) – This tool will return the best keyword results from one keyword that you enter. It pulls information from over 100 search engines to compile a focused list.

Another great source for not only keywords in profitable areas, but tons of other research as well is Affiliate Niche Packs (http://www.affiliatenichepacks.com).  For those wanting to start affiliate sites without spending tons of time researching keywords, niches, and everything else that goes into setting up a site, these packs will do it for you.

It all starts with keywords. If you pick the right ones, you can definitely find a profitable website. Using these tools can help you narrow your search even further than the list you came up with. Which ones will be winners? You’ll have to test them and see.

    Optional Widget Left

    Setup via Dashboard Widgets

    Optional Widget Center

    Setup via Dashboard Widgets

    Optional Widget Right

    Setup via Dashboard Widgets