Powerful Keyword Research Tips

There's no way around it--keyword research is the

the foundation of every good affiliate marketing business.

It doesn't matter if you're an organic search guru or a

PPC baron, you'd better be able to pinpoint the keywords

that matter and become competitive for them as fast as

possible.

I'll admit that when I got started, keyword research was

always at the bottom of my to-do list. I almost never

seemed to get to it on time.

That's obviously changed over the years because to be a

true super affiliate, you need some fantastic keyword

lists.

So, for all the marketers out there who don't know where

to start with their keyword research or who do but dread

doing it, here are some tips that I've been using for some

the time now to great effect.

Basic Research

To get started, you need to do some basic research. You

probably have a very rough idea of what people are

searching for--the simple keywords that every good

marketer pinpoints early on.

However, that initial list is the same as brainstorming

for a novel. Sure, you have a rough outline, but you still

need to sit down and write the thing.

I like to get started in the Google Keyword Planner--it's

free, easy to use and has a decent amount of data to draw

from.

To get started, visit

http://adwords.google.com/keywordplanner, sign into your

Google account, and enter a basic term or phrase into the

search tool. You can enter multiple terms but for now,

just one will do.

I'll use "lose weight" as an example. The top level of

search results will be terms that use the basic term, and

will include things like:

* How to lose weight

* Lose weight fast

* Lose belly weight

These terms are all directly related to the term and give

you more options for building your list. Look for the

Global Monthly Search Volume to get an idea of how many

searches this term gets each month.

Unless you're developing a PPC campaign, ignore any other

information, just as competition data, as this relates to

advertising. You just want to know how many people are

searching.

Next, scroll down a bit and see what additional keywords

Google has selected. These are syntax-related terms and

might include phrases like:

* How to burn fat

* Weight loss tips

* Get thin fast

* Muscle-building tips

Basically, terms that tend to show up with the phrase you

searched for originally will appear here. You won't

necessarily use all of these terms, but you can get a lot

of ideas this way.

Your goal should be to create a list of any terms you

think someone would search for while trying to solve the

weight loss problem. Later, we'll narrow down to specific

keywords that help you.

Forums and In-depth Research

Another great way to find keywords is to go to the industry-

specific pages, like forums or relevant group pages on

social media, and search for terms that relate to

questions or problems that people have in this niche.

Forums like these are good because they represent a hub of

data where users will search for solutions to particular

problems.

For example, if you were to visit a weight loss and

dieting forum, you might find specific body locations and

muscle groups that people are targeting, like:

* Pectoral fat burning

* Get rid of fat on obliques

* Build bigger quads

These terms may not have popped up immediately because

they are a bit too specific.

Another great way to create lists of more specific

industry terms is to analyze competitor pages. Which

keywords are your competitors using to boost their own

pages?

Tools like Traffic Travis allow you to input URLs and get

keyword reports on how a site is optimized. You can also

search for sites or keywords to see which terms are being

used with Google AdWords.

You can get Traffic Travis here:

Best Kinds of Keywords

Okay, so now you have a good general idea of what keywords

you'll be using. What about the actual terms you should be

targeting?

I have a small listing of terms I like to use as often as

possible. How you optimize will depend on your strategy,

but if you're doing PPC, you pretty much have to have

lists for these particular terms:

* Author Names - If you're promoting info products on

weight-loss products, you can find keywords related to the

authors of those info products.

Check your affiliate program's rules to determine if

you're allowed to do this. Most vendors will be perfectly

happy to let you. More commissions for you means more

profits for them.

* Product Names - Along the same lines, product names are

highly successful conversion tools. Most people, when

searching for a specific product name, are looking for

reviews or final justification before a purchase.

The search volume is lower, but you're getting leads that

are much more likely to convert.

* Buy Phrases - Find keywords with terms like "buy,"

"order," "purchase," or "download." If you have that, plus

a product name or author name, you can almost guarantee

the prospect is ready to make a purchase.

These keywords have far fewer searches but are worth

10-100 times more than a standard product-related keyword.

* Crisis Keywords - These are keywords related to a crisis

that your searcher may be in. For example, many people

search for gardening advice, but if they're in a crisis,

their search will be much more urgent.

Keywords then might include "cure blight," "kill pests on

tomatoes," or "tomatoes won't grow." These are specific,

immediate problems that they'll buy a product to solve.

* Product-Related Keywords - General keywords related to a

product niche are still valuable, but can be a little less

effective. You need to be more careful here in general.

Here you'll find things like "how to," "lessons,"

"online," etc.--terms that relate to getting advice, but

with less urgency.

* Long-tails - Finally, if you're doing PPC or creating an

authority site, using long-tail keywords can really boost

your performance.

For example, if you're writing about dog training, you can

add the dog breeds to the beginning of each

keyword--instantly creating 200 potential long-tails for

each base keyword you have.

For example, someone might search for "fix golden

retriever aggression" and someone else might search for

"fix poodle aggression." Those are both specific

long-tails and can be extended as much as is needed to get

your traffic.

Keywords are the currency of any good affiliate marketer.

You want traffic? You need to find the words people are

searching for and become competitive for them.

Before you ever start marketing any of your new niche

products, spend some time researching, building lists, and

analyzing the keywords.

Using tools like Google and Traffic Travis, check to make

sure there is volume, and always check your competitors to

see what they're optimized for.

If you do it right, you should be able to create a huge

list of potentially golden keywords.

How to Find Profitable Affiliate Niches

In this post, we're going to take a close look
at how to pinpoint the most profitable niches.

Affiliate marketing starts and ends with finding the right
niche to market in.

It's pretty simple, really. You find a hotbed of buying
activity and you plant yourself firmly there to market as
many hot products as possible to a very active market of
potential customers.

It's worked for hundreds of marketers who have become
very, very rich, but let's face it--when you're getting
started, nothing is ever quite that easy.

I want to delve deeper into the idea of niche research,
along with the mistakes that so many of us tend to make
over and over again.

When you can eliminate those mistakes, life gets much
easier and the profits are more consistent.

The Niche Research No-Nos

First up, let's take a closer look at what so many
starting affiliate marketers do wrong. At the very top of
the list, and something I've been preaching against for
years is diversification.

Of the super affiliates I've met, the vast majority
(pretty much all of them, including myself), make them
profits almost entirely from one or two niches.

Yup, that's right, it's exactly as it sounds. They spend
hours a day working on just dog training, or just marriage
advice or just weight loss.

They find a profitable audience and they hit them up over
and over again with different products, sites, and selling
points.

Second, as you might have guessed, they stuck to the big
niches--the evergreen ones that have always been solid
moneymakers.

Sure, they experiment a little bit, but only enough to
check out other niches, not so much that they dilute their
income from their one or two big niches.

Which niches are considered the "big niches"? Weight loss,
making money, muscle gain, self-help, dating, and health.

People are always looking for new products in these
niches, so you cannot cannibalize your sales, nor can you
run out of warm leads.

Of those niches, weight loss and fitness are the biggest
across the board, with making money coming in at a close
second.

Finding Your Niches and Products

Of course, just saying "try out the stuff that works"
isn't very helpful, so I want to go into a bit more detail
on what you can promote and how to make your selection.

Lucky for you, I have a couple of methods I like to use
that has always been highly successful for me.

In terms of finding product ideas, I usually stick to
ClickBank and Amazon. On occasion, I will also use Google
to review possible affiliate networks in greater depth.

Amazon.com Research

Let's start with Amazon.com. I start here because I want
to first find a niche that has a large buyer base.

You can always find a product on ClickBank with high
gravity, but even before that, I want to identify the
breadth of a potential audience first. You'll see why very
shortly.

To start with, visit Amazon.com and start reviewing
products and topics in niches that you are interested in.

This is very important because you'll be spending a lot
of your time investing in that niche, especially if it
becomes one of your two big niches.

Be sure it's something you're willing to write about and
market extensively for months to come. If you could care
less about weight loss or are afraid of dogs, those might
not be the best paths to success.

With that in mind, start searching on Amazon for books and
other niche products. Your goal here is to find products
with at least 20 reviews. Why just 20 reviews?

Considering the fact that Amazon estimates only 1 in 1,000
people actually review something they buy from their site,
a product with 20 reviews is likely to have been purchased
by at least 20,000 people.

That's a huge market, especially if it's just one product
in an information niche.

If you can find multiple products in the same niche that
all have 20+ reviews, you've hit the jackpot.

It doesn't matter if the niche has 100 products or just 2;
if there are people buying products, it's a good niche.

Moving to ClickBank

With that in mind, it's time to find a product that you
can actually market.

In general, I don't recommend promoting products on
Amazon. The commission rate is very low, and most Amazon
products are on massive reductions, so the profit potential is
limited.

If you find a highly valuable product in a niche like
"solar energy kits" or "home stereo equipment," you might
rethink that, because you can make $15+ per sale.

Generally speaking, though, you should never choose a
niche where your minimum commission per sale is less than
$15. That should be your magic number.

So, with that magic number in mind, we take a stroll over
to ClickBank--the number-one affiliate network on the
Internet, where info products are sold by marketers like
you and me for commissions of up to 75%, sometimes even
more.

A single $20 book on ClickBank will net you a profit of
$10-$15--much better for the time you invest into it.

As for finding a niche product, go to the Marketplace
(https://accounts.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm) and
search for the product niche that you've already
identified on Amazon.com.

For most popular info niches (the major niches we
discussed at the beginning of the newsletter), you'll find
dozens of products.

I recommend sticking to these major niches because of they
have more options and have proven conversion rates.
Seasonal and specialty niches require more work and are
hard to focus on in the long term.

Look for a $ per sale of at least 15. Ideally, you'll get
even more than this--upwards of $30+ per sale.

Additionally, look at the gravity of a product. This
represents how many affiliates have successfully sold that
product in the last few weeks. The higher the number, the
better it converts and the more room there is in the
market for you to join in. Usually, a gravity of 30 or more
is ideal, but sometimes a bit less than this is workable.

Later, you'll need to review the competitor sites to be
sure you can find a place for your own websites, but for
now, just identifying the niche is enough.

Heading to Google

Of course, ClickBank is not the only affiliate
marketplace, and if you find a product on Amazon that
doesn't show up on ClickBank, you still have other
options. Go to Google and search for "best affiliate
networks." Many times, other networks will pop up
with plenty of options.

Getting It Right

There is no right answer for which niche you choose to
work in. However, if you're even remotely serious about
being successful and becoming the next big super
affiliate, you need to pinpoint a rich, evergreen niche
that can be solicited time and again for profits without
boring you to tears.

Do that, and you'll be well on your way to a successful
marketing plan.

Keyword Research Tips

There's no way around it--keyword research is the

foundation of every good affiliate marketing business.

It doesn't matter if you're an organic search guru or a

PPC baron, you'd better be able to pinpoint the keywords

that matter and become competitive for them as fast as

possible.

 Before you read any further, I want you to check out

this really important news from famous super affiliate

Mark Ling, where he shares the real truth about

affiliate marketing:

 I'll admit that when I got started, keyword research was

always at the bottom of my to-do list. I almost never

seemed to get to it on time.

That's obviously changed over the years because to be a

true super affiliate, you need some fantastic keyword

lists.

So, for all the marketers out there who don't know where

to start with their keyword research or who do but dread

doing it, here are some tips that I've been using for some

time now to great effect.

Basic Research

To get started, you need to do some basic research. You

probably have a very rough idea of what people are

searching for--the simple keywords that every good

marketer pinpoints early on.

However, that initial list is the same as brainstorming

for a novel. Sure, you have a rough outline, but you still

need to sit down and write the thing.

I like to get started in the Google Keyword Planner--it's

free, easy to use and has a decent amount of data to draw

from.

To get started, visit

http://adwords.google.com/keywordplanner, sign into your

Google account, and enter a basic term or phrase into the

search tool. You can enter multiple terms, however, for now,

just one will do.

I'll use "lose weight" as an example. The top level of

search results will be terms that use the basic term, and

will include things like:

* How to lose weight

* Lose weight fast

* Lose belly weight

These terms are all directly related to the term and give

you more options for building your list. Look for the

Global Monthly Search Volume to get an idea of how many

searches this term gets each month.

Unless you're developing a PPC campaign, ignore any other

information, just as competition data, as this relates to

advertising. You just want to know how many people are

searching.

Next, scroll down a bit and see what additional keywords

Google has selected. These are syntax-related terms and

might include phrases like:

* How to burn fat

* Weight loss tips

* Get thin fast

* Muscle-building tips

Basically, terms that tend to show up with the phrase you

searched for originally will appear here. You won't

necessarily use all of these terms, but you can get a lot

of ideas this way.

Your goal should be to create a list of any terms you

think someone would search for while trying to solve the

weight loss problem. Later, we'll narrow down to specific

keywords that help you.

Forums and In-depth Research

Another great way to find keywords is to go to the industry-

specific pages, like forums or relevant group pages on

social media, and search for terms that relate to

questions or problems that people have in this niche.

Forums like these are good because they represent a hub of

data where users will search for solutions to particular

problems.

For example, if you were to visit a weight loss and

dieting forum, you might find specific body locations and

muscle groups that people are targeting, like:

* Pectoral fat burning

* Get rid of fat on obliques

* Build bigger quads

These terms may not have popped up immediately because

they are a bit too specific.

Another great way to create lists of more specific

industry terms is to analyze competitor pages. Which

keywords are your competitors using to boost their own

pages?

Tools like Traffic Travis allow you to input URLs and get

keyword reports on how a site is optimized. You can also

search for sites or keywords to see which terms are being

used with Google AdWords.

Best Kinds of Keywords

Okay, so now you have a good general idea of what keywords

you'll be using. What about the actual terms you should be

targeting?

I have a small listing of terms I like to use as often as

possible. How you optimize will depend on your strategy,

but if you're doing PPC, you pretty much have to have

lists for these particular terms:

* Author Names - If you're promoting info products on

weight-loss products, you can find keywords related to the

authors of those info products.

Check your affiliate program's rules to determine if

you're allowed to do this. Most vendors will be perfectly

happy to let you. More commissions for you means more

profits for them.

* Product Names - Along the same lines, product names are

highly successful conversion tools. Most people, when

searching for a specific product name, are looking for

reviews or final justification before a purchase.

The search volume is lower, but you're getting leads that

are much more likely to convert.

* Buy Phrases - Find keywords with terms like "buy,"

"order," "purchase," or "download." If you have that, plus

a product name or author name, you can almost guarantee

the prospect is ready to make a purchase.

These keywords have far fewer searches but are worth

10-100 times more than a standard product-related keyword.

* Crisis Keywords - These are keywords related to a crisis

that your searcher may be in. For example, many people

search for gardening advice, but if they're in a crisis,

their search will be much more urgent.

Keywords then might include "cure blight," "kill pests on

tomatoes," or "tomatoes won't grow." These are specific,

immediate problems that they'll buy a product to solve.

* Product-Related Keywords - General keywords related to a

product niche are still valuable, but can be a little less

effective. You need to be more careful here in general.

Here you'll find things like "how to," "lessons,"

"online," etc.--terms that relate to getting advice, but

with less urgency.

* Long-tails - Finally, if you're doing PPC or creating an

authority site, using long-tail keywords can really boost

your performance.

For example, if you're writing about dog training, you can

add the dog breeds to the beginning of each

keyword--instantly creating 200 potential long-tails for

each base keyword you have.

For example, someone might search for "fix golden

retriever aggression" and someone else might search for

"fix poodle aggression." Those are both specific

long-tails and can be extended as much as is needed to get

your traffic.

Keywords are the currency of any good affiliate marketer.

You want traffic? You need to find the words people are

searching for and become competitive for them.

Before you ever start marketing any of your new niche

products, spend some time researching, building lists, and

analyzing the keywords.

Using tools like Google, check to make

sure there is volume, and always check your competitors to

see what they're optimized for.

If you do it right, you should be able to create a huge

list of potentially golden keywords.

Until next time check out my website on making money online.

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