Choosing Keywords for Niche Sites
Dec 04
photo credit: andy_carter
The only way you can get it wrong is by not getting started.
I want you to go back and reread the statement. Go ahead~ I’ll wait.
This is so true. The only way you get it wrong is by not getting started, not moving forward, not publishing something.
With that said, there are some things you can do to make it go better, but remember this is a marathon, not a sprint. You can always course correct along the way, and one bad post, keyword, whatever doesn’t ruin the whole thing. So just take ACTION… TODAY.
Today we’re going to look at choosing keywords for a niche blog.
What is a niche blog?
When I talk about niche blog I’m talking about a relatively big site, maybe 50 to 100 posts. Each post will relate and be relevant to the overall topic of the blog.
The purpose of the blog:
Create specific keyword targeted posts to drive traffic to not only the blog overall, but to the specific keyword targeted page. From that page you can sell a product or get adsense clicks.
Where do I start?
Do you have a problem you deal with? Do you have a hobby you love? Do you have an activity you love to do?
My suggestion is to start digging there.I suggest this because it will be much easier writing content (and there’s a lot of content to be written) on a topic/subject you have some investment in. Whether it’s curing a pain you have, or telling people how to do a specific activity that you love to do, or overcoming some problem. All much easier when you have an interest.
If you don’t want to do that or you can’t think of anything my favorite thing to do is go to an affiliate network (commissionjunction.com, shareasale.com, linkshare.com) sign up and start looking around. You’ll find there are merchants (stores) that want you to promote their stuff. You will find a lot of these merchants are pretty specialized, and sell one niche of things or target one problem solving area. This is a fantastic way to get an idea to get the ball rolling. There’s no right/wrong way to do this ~ we’re just getting ideas here, we’re brainstorming what we can build our niche blog about. You have to have a place to start the treasure hunt for keywords right? Why not start with a topic/idea that you know has an affiliate program.
This is very similar to what we did at Amazon looking for ideas for Christmas cash lenses ~ only now we’re looking for a bunch of related keywords ~ and we want a whole niche of stuff to look in ~ thus looking at a whole store instead of one product.
So let’s look at an example:
I love to bike. (If you haven’t checked out my biking blog stop by. Road to Bike Across Kansas) (this is not a “niche blog” it’s more of an authority type site ~ just so you can see the difference) Since I love biking I thought I’d look around and see if I could find any biking keywords that might make a good niche site.
I want to make sure I’m looking for buying keywords so let’s try putting something about bikes for sale in the keyword tool. What I’m doing is looking for a niche from an idea.
My idea is selling some kind of bike. Now let’s see if I can find a real niche within that idea.
I had an idea (selling some kind of bike) and from this search I found a few possible niches.
vintage bikes
mountain bikes
road bikes
children’s bikes
beach bikes
All of these are possible niches I could do a whole niche site on. The next step is to see if they are viable or not ~ which simply means is there enough keywords out there to make a whole niche site around? Let’s see.
It seems the mountain bike niche will provide us with plenty of keywords.
*** An aside *** When I’m searching for keywords for niche sites I look for search volume above 300 (and this is really kind of an arbitrary number I made up for myself, but it has worked for me) ~ but realize you really can’t do this wrong. As long as you find some keywords that are related and relevant you can always add more/fix it later. If you find a keyword with no competition, but it only has 30 or 50 searches a month go ahead and put it on the list. For every keyword your site ranks for the more authority it will have and the easier it will be to rank for keywords that are more competitive than we would normally pick. For that matter if you find a keyword that has lots of searches but is a little higher than you would like in the competition area go ahead and put that on the list too ~ as time goes by and your site gets bigger you’ll be able to rank for more competitive keywords. You can just put the tougher ones at the bottom of the list. ***
Now we just need to find out if the keywords that are showing up in the keyword tool are going to be within the range of competition that will make them doable ~ when I say doable, I mean make it easy enough for us to rank in the search engines for them.
Let’s take a look.
In that video we’ve gone through and checked the level of competition for some of the keywords coming up in the adwords keyword tool. So for my mountain bike niche I checked hardtailed mountain bike, specialized mountain bike, Giant mountain bike ~ all of which were good when it came to competition.
I checked the competition by taking the PR of each of the 10 sites on the first page of google and adding them together. I’m looking for a number below 30. I want to do this for all the keywords I can find related to my topic. YES… it can be time consuming doing it by hand.
I also show at the end of the video how much easier all this is with Micro Niche Finder. You can check the level of competition right from the search page, save your keywords in a project folder and print the whole list out once it’s complete. VERY helpful tool to get and will make the process much faster and easier.
When I find a keyword that fits the competition level I go ahead and write it down. I want to make a list of keywords that are directly related to my main niche idea.
For example: my niche is mountain bikes for sale. I want to stick with specific types of mountain bikes, and keywords that are specific to mountain BIKES. I don’t want to veer off into mountain bike parts, or mountain bike shoes, or mountain bike clothes ~ just mountain bikes. That’s the niche and I want to stick to it.
I may take a look at any of those other things and they may be viable niche sites on their own ~ but I’d have to do the necessary research to find out. I don’t want to dilute this niche site with keywords and information that is not directly related to mountain bikes for sale.
I hope this makes sense and I’d be happy to answer any questions you have, just ask them in the comment section.
You know your business only grows when you take action so I thought I’d add an action step to my posts to help you get moving.
Today’s Action Steps:
1. Brainstorm some possible niche ideas.
2. Look to see if your ideas have related keywords.
3. Check for search volume on your specific niche related keywords.
4. Check competition for your keywords.
5. Write down the good ones and start a list of niche related keywords.
6. Try to come up with at least 30 ~ better 50 or 75 niche related keywords and write them down or gather them in a project folder at MNF and then print them out 
In my next post we’re going to look at choosing a domain name for this niche site of ours so stay tuned.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=09d42396-bd0e-4bcd-abf1-75880c1df39d)
Are you ready to take Undaunted Action? But don't know where to start?
If you're ready to take action, join us in the safety of a friendly caring community. Join us in the K.I.S.S. Club! Your business will never be the same!
Other Posts That Might Help:
this tutorial is really good and helpful. thanks fr this!!!
Hi Jim,
If you click the box that says “subscribe to comments” below the comment box you’ll get replies from that post so you can keep up with the conversation.
If you’ve got 25 lenses and you’ve only written 20 articles ~ there’s your problem.
It takes LINKS to get your lenses to rank on the first page of Google which is where you will get your traffic. Doing nice lenses and good content is great, but if you don’t build links you just won’t get the traffic and sales. I say take the lenses that you’ve made some money on ~ focus on them, build links to them and get them to page one.
The fact that you’ve made SOME money in the last 6 months tells me you’re on the right track… just need to focus more on the link building so you can get more traffic.
Good luck. You might want to sign up for my newsletter on backlinking ~ it’s all backlinking, all the time (well, once a week lol). It will probably help you.
http://www.internetmarketingformommies.com/backlinking101
Jackie
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie,
These tutorials really help. I subscribed to the yearly plan and have learned more since reading and learning from you then anything else. I have been with owm for probably about 6 months now. I have amaybe 5 or 6 5 campaigns with about 25 Squidoo pages and about 20 articles. To date, I have made about $43!! I have read your blogs about blogs and I’m not sure whether to stay with owm or switch to the blogging. All I know at this point is I’m getting very frustrated. I have to be missing some piece of this pie! Any suggestions or help would be appreciated? I made a comment on another of your posts and don’t remember which post it was and don’t know where to go back and look for an answer.
Thanks,
Jim
Hi Jackie,
We’ve got a question:
How trustable do you think these figures are (in keyword software, e.g. in “Micro Niche Finder”).
Do they really reflect competitevness, actual number of searches, etc?
Do you mind if we use your quotation: “The only way you can get it wrong is by not getting started” for our tutorial (with a reference to you)?
Thanks,
Lena & Dima
Follow me @DimaNikolayenko on Twitter!
Hi Lena and Dima,
The search numbers from MNF are based on the Google kw tool ~ so however accurate it is. Who knows, but it’s the best we have to work with. The soc (competition) number in MNF is based on a variety of elements that let you know how difficult it will be to bypass a site in the SERPs so yeah I think they are pretty accurate. They are not just measuring 1 thing ~ but a variety of things so I think it’s a pretty good measure.
Sure you can quote me.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
YAY!! I thought that might have been the problem.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Jackie
You are amazing …. you make it all to easy!
I mistakenly went straight to PLUG-INS.
I’ve now done what you said and my SEO is all fixed.
Once again. THANKS!
Regards
RUSSELL
Follow me @kimbarra on Twitter!
did you go to the sidebar and click settings to get to the plugin? That’s where you need to make the changes at. Let me know. You shouldn’t be getting that message if you went in through the settings.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Thanks Jackie
I’ve successfully changed title/tagline, but have trouble with ‘all in one seo’ plugin.
Went to edit and had a page of html appear. Plus a warning about making changes to an activated site. Presumably I should de-activate prior to changing, then reactivate.
But can you tell me how to make the change?
Sorry about so many queries being tossed at you.
Regards
RUSSELL
Follow me @kimbarra on Twitter!
Russell,
Your header looks fine. I like the new theme btw. Start writing your posts and publishing them. You can tweak all this as you go. You need to get some content on this site.
You can change your title/tagline by going in the settings area of wordpress and changing it in the general settings area. If you have all in one seo plugin working you’ll have to change it there as well.
Don’t worry so much about the title ~ for your blog going with what you have will work fine.
Don’t understand the last question. Just start writing about your topic, you’ll be fine.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie
I really appreciate the help you gave me elsewhere at the end of last week. I’ve returned to this post looking for info to help me fix my errors with keywords. I’ve installed a new theme on my W/P niche blog site but would like to change the headline/keyword it carries. Can I do this, and if so, how? This is my primary question!
I’ve found a keyword/phrase I’d like to put into the blog header which has a monthly search of 210, very low competition, a MNF rating of 1, green circle, exact phrase count of 51, OCI of 41%, MOB 54. Does this sound OK?
Further, I found what I think are ideal keyword phrases for many drafted posts.
Final question. With a sentence like – Need to replace equipment that is required. How does one identify,say, the first 4 words as the keyword so that it gets picked-up as such?
Again, many thanks ..
RUSSELL
Follow me @kimbarra on Twitter!
Hi Julie,
When I first researched this niche and decided to do this site I was planning on using a plugin to pull in ebay auctions to monetize. Now that ebay has changed the game plan I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do to monetize the site at this point. (which is why it became the test site for these tutorials) It will still work to show all the elements that go into building a niche site. I may still use ebay just to test how well the pay per click can work with them. We’ll just have to see.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie and Merry Christmas to you and yours! I have a question about your choice of keywords. I have checked out your new blog and see that in your title you list “Buy used mountain bikes and find great deals on mountain bikes for sale”. I see how you could find new mountain bikes to sell on your blog – but where do you find “used” ones? Maybe this isn’t as much a question about keywords as it is about finding product to sell. Thanks again! ~Julie
Follow me @floorance on Twitter!
Yes. Thank You
Do you mean the article on the articles page titled “Internet Marketing strategies ~ pros and cons of each” ?
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Jackie, you had a post about choosing if I wanted to either build lenses or do a blog. It may have been a pro and con post. I do not exactly remember. But I have been looking through the articles. I think there was a whole outline about how to make money with blogs as well.
Thanks Jackie! You are very wise!!!
So, I’ll have to learn to let it “simmer”!
All I can say is I will TRY…
Thanks!
Cindy
Follow me @casurette on Twitter!
You’re going to be giving yourself a ton of undue stress if you don’t quit.
PPG calls letting it “simmer”. You do what you need to do (kw research, do the lens, build the links) and then move on to the next thing. Just keep doing it, over and over at some point you will forget you have things going and then one day they will start making money and you’ll remember they are there. 
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Yeah, yeah, I know, but patience isn’t my strongest quality!
What can I say?????
Thanks!
Cindy
Follow me @casurette on Twitter!
Again ~ it takes time after your article goes out for google to find and count all those links. BE PATIENT.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
That’s what I thought too, one article through UAW was enough, but it only got me to page 3. That’s why I did a second article.
And I Hope it does come back up before Christmas! If not, I think I would be defeating my purpose…
Thanks!
Cindy
Follow me @casurette on Twitter!
This is completely natural. It happens a lot. It will come back up. Just keep building your links. One article out of UAW should be more than enough for one lens.
Jackie
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hey Jackie!
I know this is a lil’ off topic, but I’m going to ask you here anyway…
I have been trying to build backlinks to my Christmas Cash lenses and I thought I was getting up there with my “Definitive Technology Speakers” lens. In fact, when I checked 2 weeks ago it was on page 3 of Google. So, I decided to build more links to get me to page 1. I took an Article off of UAW and submitted it to Ezine, it was approved and I submitted another article to UAW (it has been submitted to 200 sites so far). Sounds like I’m doing things right, doesn’t it? Well, I must not be because my lens has gone from page 3 to page 17 of Google!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What am I doing wrong??
Thanks!
Cindy
Follow me @casurette on Twitter!
Hey Val,
Thanks for the kind words. I do think micro niche finder would be a good investment. It will make finding good keywords much easier. Since keywords are the cornerstone of successful niche marketing I think a tool you can use to make that piece go right is worth the money.
The only other thing I would say is pick one strategy and stick with it. If you’re going to do lenses ~ do lenses, if you want to do niche blogging (which I think is a great place to start) then do that, but don’t try to do them all. Remember, I am a blogger so I have to keep giving information, and the topic of my blog is internet marketing strategies ~ so at some point I have to cover different strategies. If you’ve chosen something and I move to something else ~ take what you can from the posts but stick with the strategy you’ve chosen for yourself.
They ALL work if you work them. It’s not like the next strategy I cover is going to make you more money than the one I just covered ~ it’s just different. The basic concepts are always going to be the same (for the most part) keywords, content, promotion ~ it’s just a matter of how you use those three things.
Ok ~ rant over. The only other thing I’d really suggest is Unique Article Wizard. Getting backlinks can be tough ~ and time consuming. It’s the one thing that really helps you create backlinks that will work ~ as well as helping you create unique content you can use in other places.
It’s not cheap ~ but it’s the other thing I have found thus far that feels like a “must have”. (and yes, I’ve tried quite a few cheaper linking products/networks and I still keep coming back to UAW ~ the benefits just outweigh the cost.)
HTH
Jackie
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Wonderful post. Thank you for sharing all the great info. The thing that I like about your instructions are that they are so detailed. They show us what to do step by step.
My question is, since I’m pretty new at IM (only a couple of lenses), do you think that micro niche finder would be a good investment at this time? I know experienced marketers use it a lot, but do you think it could help make it easier for someone new or would it be overwhelming?
Also, are there any other “tools” (fairly inexpensive. I don’t have much money) that you would recommend for someone just starting out that could make this journey to IM success a little easier.
keywords and knowing how to find the right keywords is important in a niche … these are great tips, thanks for sharing
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
As usual, your posts are awesome. This one in particular is very helpful. I’m finally starting to “get it” about internet marketing.
Seeing your videos brings it all together. I like the way you follow up the videos with the explanation in words as well.
I did get MNF and didn’t realize about the “save projects.” That is a real time saver (no more writing everything down by hand)!
Now, back to my research…
@Pat Adsense are ads you put up on your site (they come from google). They pay you when someone clicks on the ad. Adsense creates ads that are relevant to your content. So if your content is about mountain bikes the ads will also be about mountain bikes. If someone clicks one of the ads you will get some money.
You don’t need to find keywords that are “for sale” at the end. If you have a specific type product or service that should be enough. If you can’t find 30 to 75 keywords for the niche it’s probably too small for this purpose ~ which doesn’t mean you can’t do a small niche site ~ it’s just different than what I’m doing here.
Look for related keywords ~ don’t forget to look for different brands of what you’re doing ~ like the mountain bikes ~ I would go and look for keywords related to all the different brands of mountain bikes for sale ~ that will really up my keyword total.
I wouldn’t worry about finding a product first ~ if you’re looking for specific product type keywords products shouldn’t be a problem.
@Russell, You have to go to the SEO for Firefox page and download it. (click the download now button) Once you do that it will want to restart your firefox, but it will restart automatically and it will be installed.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie
Great stuff! Thanks for another great post and I’m looking forward to working thru this exercise and the learning that goes with it. Like the others keep saying, you really do a great job. I can assure you that I really appreciate it.
I know I keep asking amateurish questions, but here’s another one.
I use Internet Explorer most of the time, but I do have Firefox. (I also have MNF, but am just learning what it’s all about and how to use it).
Can you tell me how to get ‘SEO for Firefox’ up on my Firefox?
Russell
Follow me @kimbarra on Twitter!
Great post as always. When you mention getting adsence clicks. What exactly are those? Is that someone who pays to get to your lens?
When picking a niche that you like, should you find products first or just working on a small area? Every time I tried a search in toolbox, I was coming up with small numbers, like only 150 searches on a global volume. I tried all my searches, with for sale on the end of them and it was slim pickin’s. Is that ok?
Hey Kelly,
Thanks for the kind words ~ that is impressive earnings for your first month. Way to go!!
About owm and niche blogging ~ You certainly CAN expand any OWM campaigns by starting a niche blog on them. I would probably only do that if I had OWM campaigns already done that were working ~ then I’d build them out in a niche blog of their own ~ it wouldn’t necessarily have to be a big blog like this ~ but same/similar kw as you used on Squidoo ~ if there are more words or you can go a little bit wider on the niche of your campaign I would say go for it.
I probably wouldn’t do them both if I was starting a new niche. You don’t want to spend a bunch of time doing both strategies only to have it not be a niche that takes off. You will use Squidoo to support these blogs ~ so we will continue to use Squidoo, just not all out campaigns like in OWM.
About PLR ~ NO. You can NOT use PLR on these blogs. You CAN use PLR for your linking blogs, UAW, and other places that you will use to build links, but your money site content should be all unique.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Jackie –
A couple of questions
When building a niche site like you’re talking about, is it ok to use PLR articles for some or even most of the content? (assuming that you make them work with your keywords)
And, if I’m doing OWM, could I combine this with that – using both things for the niche, with similar keywords, each feeding off each other? Or is that really biting off more than I can chew… or would they just not work well together.. ?
– and to repeat what’s already been said – Thanks so much for all the information. I really can’t even begin to tell you how indebted I am – I really feel that you’ve helped me make a major change in my life. I first started researching IM only about 2 months or so ago. In that time, I’ve seen SO MANY people in complaining about having spent $1000s of dollars on courses and programs and haven’t made any money to speak of. By sticking with what I’ve learned from you and Jen, I made over $250 in November – only my first full month of IM! This probably isn’t the place for this – but I want to tell people, Jackie knows what she’s talking about! Stick with her! Don’t give up!
Kelly
Hi Jackie,
I just wanted to thank you for all the time and effort you put into all of your videos and content. I have been following you since the Christmas Blueprint and it has been great. So thank you in advance for the next series of learning material.
Sheryl
Thank you for this step-by-step tutorial I’m looking forward to the posts to come. I know it takes a lot of time to do these posts Jackie and I really appreciate the “gift” of this information. May your “gift” bring one hundred fold returns to you!
Michele
Follow me @Lovebostons on Twitter!
Hi Ken,
I just use the default wherever I am ~ google tool is broad, MNF is exact. I use a combination of both ~ I don’t feel for these type of sites it’s going to make such a huge difference.
Glad you guys like the post.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Jackie, When searching using Micro niche finder, do you worry about the exact phrase count? Also, when doing any search you find a term has “not enough data” in the local search but global has a good amount, what do you conclude from that?
Excellent post Jackie!! This will help me a lot. Thanks for all of your help!!
Jane (MoneyMom)
Wow, this is a brilliant post.
I happened to be doing some research online and took a break to check my email where I found yours with a link to this post where you happened to answer one of the answers I was searching for.
I know these type of posts take time and effort. I want you to know how appreciated it is.