Learn the Truth about Niche Marketing

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole
process. It’s the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes - many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking - your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch “the market” closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn’t become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor’s position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor’s position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from month to month.

This means that your must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months. You must adjust your list of engines according to the whims of the Internet users.

Check out http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html for a current list of website favorites.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations - this is a neon red warning sign! It could mean a number of different things.

It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search engines spiders - those sneaky programs that seek out your site and rank their positions - have found some type of problem with your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula, and suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search
engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet
as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture - your long-term marketing campaign.

Analyzing your web traffic statistics can be an invaluable tool for a number of different reasons. But before you can make full use of this tool, you need to understand how to interpret the data. Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web traffic information that you then have to interpret and make pertinent use of. However, the data you receive from your host company can be overwhelming if you don’t understand how to apply it to your particular business and website. Let’s start by examining the most basic data - the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

These figures are the most accurate measure of your website’s activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see recorded, the better you can assume your website is doing, but this is an inaccurate perception. You must also look at the behavior of your visitors once they come to your website to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your site.

There is often a great misconception about what is commonly known as “hits” and what is really effective, quality traffic to your site. Hits simply means the number of information requests received by the server. If you think about the fact that a hit can simply equate to the number of graphics per page, you will get an idea of how overblown the concept of hits can be. For example, if your homepage has 15 graphics on it, the server records this as 15 hits, when in reality we are talking about a single visitor checking out a single page on your site. As you can see, hits are not useful in analyzing your website traffic.

The more visitors that come to your website, the more accurate your interpretation will become. The greater the traffic is to your website, the more precise your analysis will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can distort the analysis. The aim is to use the web traffic statistics to figure out how well or how poorly your site is working for your visitors. One way to determine this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is relatively brief, it usually indicates an underlying problem. Then the challenge is to figure out what that problem is.

It could be that your keywords are directing the wrong type of visitors to your website, or that your graphics are confusing or intimidating, causing the visitor to exit rapidly. Use the knowledge of how much time visitors are spending on your site to pinpoint specific problems, and after you fix those problems, continue to use time spent as a gauge of how effective your fix has been.

Additionally, web traffic stats can help you determine effective and ineffective areas of your website. If you have a page that you believe is important, but visitors are exiting it rapidly, that page needs attention. You could, for example, consider improving the link to this page by making the link more noticeable and enticing, or you could improve the look of the page or the ease that your visitors can access the necessary information on that page.

If, on the other hand, you notice that visitors are spending a lot of time on pages that you think are less important, you might consider moving some of your sales copy and marketing focus to that particular page. As you can see, these statistics will reveal vital information about the effectiveness of individual pages, and visitor habits and motivation. This is essential information to any successful Internet marketing campaign.

Your website undoubtedly has exit pages, such as a final order or contact form. This is a page you can expect your visitor to exit rapidly. However, not every visitor to your site is going to find exactly what he or she is looking for, so statistics may show you a number of different exit pages. This is normal unless you notice a exit trend on a particular page that is not intended as an exit page. In the case that a significant percentage of visitors are exiting your website on a page not designed for that purpose, you must closely examine that particular page to discern what the problem is. Once you pinpoint potential weaknesses on that page, minor modifications in content or graphic may have a significant impact on the keeping visitors moving through your site instead of exiting at the wrong page.

After you have analyzed your visitor statistics, it’s time to turn to your keywords and phrases. Notice if particular keywords are directing a specific type of visitor to your site. The more targeted the visitor - meaning that they find what they are looking for on your site, and even better, fill out your contact form or make a purchase - the more valuable that keyword is.

However, if you find a large number of visitors are being directed - or should I say misdirected - to your site by a particular keyword or phrase, that keyword demands adjustment. Keywords are vital to bringing quality visitors to your site who are ready to do business with you. Close analysis of the keywords your visitors are using to find your site will give you a vital understanding of your visitor’s needs and motivations.

Finally, if you notice that users are finding your website by typing in your company name, break open the champagne! It means you have achieved a significant level of brand recognition, and this is a sure sign of burgeoning success.

Since search engines are the first stop for people on the Internet looking for goods or services, the position your website appears in search results is an important factor. If your URL shows up far down the results list, the chances of the consumer never finding you increase incrementally. Once you achieve a high search engine position, it is essential that you make sure you maintain the high ranking you have worked so hard to achieve.

This means you must come up with a strategy to monitor your search engines positions. This strategy is crucial to the success of any marketing campaign. Think of your search engine positions as your online portfolio. Would you let your stock portfolio be ruled by chance and market fluctuations, or would you keep close tabs on your stocks so you could buy and sell when the time is right? This is the way you must consider your search engines positions.

Be aware that at first, after you have launched your search engine campaign and done all the right things to increase your rankings, you will most likely see a continual upward climb. What you need to be on the lookout for is the moment that upward climb reaches a plateau. When this happens, your search engine position campaign moves into stage two, the monitoring and protecting stage.

In stage two, do not be concerned about the short-term fluctuations in your positions. These are similar to the subtle rising and falling of stocks in a portfolio. Short-term movement is an integral part of the whole process. It’s the long-term changes that you must watch for and prepare to act on immediately.

Analyzing the long-term trends of search engines positions is imperative. The way in which search engines rank websites may change at the drop of hat. If you are unaware of these changes - many of which are subtle yet can be deadly to your ranking - your position may drop to the bottom of the list before you can get your bearings. To prevent this kind of precipitous drop, you must create a system to monitor your positions on a monthly basis. Devise a chart to keep tabs on your top ranking positions or your top pages, and make sure to watch “the market” closely.

Each search engine uses a formula to compute website rankings. When a search engine changes this formula in any way, it may raise or lower your ranking. Some search engines use a number of different formulas, rotating them so that a formula doesn’t become overused or outdated. Depending on which formula is being applied, your search engine position may suddenly drop or rise in rank significantly. Therefore, you must check your positions frequently in order to catch when a search engine changes formulas and what effect it has on your positions.

You must also deal with your competition - a crucial factor you must always be vigilant about. Your competitor’s position may suddenly rise, automatically lowering your position. Or their position may drop, pushing your position higher. Each month, expect position changes due to the continual changes that are occurring in your competitor’s position, and be prepared to adjust your marketing strategy to compensate for decreased rankings. Monitoring these fluctuations will also give you vital information about how to improve your website to increase your position in search results.

Of course, you must discern what the most popular search engines are in order for your monitoring efforts to be effective. Right now, there are ten popular search engines that direct most of Internet traffic to your sites. The challenge you face is that these top ten may change from month to month.

This means that your must not only monitor your search engine positions, but you must also keep track of the ranking popularity of the search engines you are monitoring. Find out which search engines people use most frequently every month and be sure to live in the present! People are fickle about their favorite search engines, and it takes constant vigilance to follow their dalliances. The search engines they loved when you first launched your campaign may be old news in the next few months.

Check out http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/netratings.html for a current list of website favorites.

Another factor to monitor carefully is a sudden drop of your positions in all search engines. This is not the same as monthly fluctuations - this is a neon red warning sign! It could mean a number of different things. It all your search engine positions have plummeted, it may indicate that search engines spiders - those sneaky programs that seek out your site and rank their positions - have found some type of problem with your website. If you have recently changed the code, for instance, the spider may become utterly confused and consequently drop your positions disastrously. If a spider creeps up on your website when it is down for adjustments or changes, you may actually disappear from a search engine index entirely. Or a search engine may drastically change its formula, and suddenly all of your website come up as irrelevant. If that search engine is a current favorite, it may create a domino effect, causing all of your position to drop in all search engines.

Some search engines rely on the results from other search engines, and it is vital that you know which engines these are and keep track of all the engines they influence. The biggest problem here is that search engines will sometimes change affiliations, and this can create a major shift in the geography of the Internet. For example, recently Yahoo decided to display only results gleaned from Google. So you must not only monitor your own positions, but you must keep abreast of seismic shifts in the landscape of the Internet as a whole.

Finally, pay attention to your keywords. Keywords are the foundation bricks of the entire search engine system, and they demand individual scrutiny in your monitoring efforts. If you have found that a number of your positions have plummeted, it may mean that a page of your website has become invisible or inaccessible to search engine spiders. Or the competition for that particular keyword or phrase has recently rocketed into outer space. In either case, you must act quickly and efficiently to regain lost ground.

Your search engine marketing campaign is an investment. If costs you time and money on a continual basis. Protect this investment as diligently as you would your financial portfolio. In the same way, track your positions from an objective perspective, and monitor your positions on a regular basis. Make sure your time and effort reap rewards by keeping your eye on the big picture - your long-term marketing campaign.

One of the most important steps to take to ensure that your site is successful is to have a site that is well-loved by search engines. This is actually fairly easy to do—but also fairly easy not to do. It is a known fact that well-placed keywords and keyword phrases on a piece of content will attract search engine spiders. It is also a well-known fact that keyword stuffing—using keywords way too much—will repel spiders and stop them from putting your site on a search engine.

So what is the delicate balance of having just the right amount of keywords and keyword phrases? How do you achieve it? How do you make sure you aren’t overusing keywords? In this newsletter,
we will go over all of the above to help make your site keyword optimized.

How do I write content that the search engines love?

The easy answer is to make sure your content has several keywords. But how is this done in a natural way so not as to hurt your traffic from actual human beings? Well, it all comes down to naturally putting keywords into your content. We’ll briefly go over this process.

#1: Sit down and decide what your content should be written about

If your site is all about sports, figure out what kinds of sports content you’ll put on there. Maybe you’ll write about basketball or golf or football or any other sport. Or if you’re running a music site, you could write content about a particular style of music or band/artist. The point is, make sure that
whatever content you write is relevant to your site.

#2: Make a list of keywords that are relevant to your content

So if you’re writing a music article, these keywords could be:

Rock
Pop
Country
Rap
R&B
Hip Hop
Guitar

But try to narrow your list down to 2 or 3 keywords. The first keyword should be a primary keyword(used at least 10 times in a 500 word document) and the other one or two should be secondary keywords(used a few times each in a 500 word document).

#3: Begin writing the content.

As you write each sentence, try to think about where the primary and secondary keywords might fit in. Wherever it seems natural, use the keywords. However, you should never try to make them fit
where they don’t fit. If it looks unnatural, don’t use them.

#4: Read over the content.

When you read over the content, try to read it like a visitor would. Do the keywords you’ve tried to incorporate in the text distract you from the meaning of the content? Do the keywords seem blatant? If they do, rewrite the content to make it flow more naturally.

#5: Count the number of keywords and plain words

If you have a 500 word piece of content, you’ll want to see around 5-15 primary keywords sprinkled throughout the content—a keyword density of at least 1%, but ideally 3%. Keyword density is the number of keywords divided by the total number of words. A keyword density of 1% in a 500 word piece of content would be 5 keywords, while a keyword density of 3% in a 500 word piece of
content would be 15 keywords. Strive for 3%.

#6: If you don’t have enough keyword density, or have too much, rewrite the content

Rewrite your content as necessary to have enough keyword density.

Why is keyword “stuffing” bad for my site?

It is bad for your site simply because search engine spiders have been programmed to skip over sites with excessive keywords.These would be sites with keyword densities of at least 10%. Sites like these are known as spam sites—sites created specifically to earn high rankings in a search engine due to
high keyword usage. Before, spam sites would be heavily ranked in a search engine, but not anymore. Spiders are smarter than ever, able to detect spam sites from a mile away.

That’s why keyword stuffing is a bad thing for your site—it will actually keep spiders from visiting. Make sure you do not have a keyword density of much more than 5%. Even 5% is considered too
high.

Keeping the above things in mind will help you to build a site that search engine spiders love.

Creating and maintaining a site with content that search engine spiders love is easy as long as you follow the guidelines in this blog post!

The function of keywords is to attract the search engine’s attention. Once attracted, the search engine lists the site that contains the keyword. This system opened up avenues for search engine abuse by web masters. Because of a search engine’s heavy dependence on keywords, anybody could write “sex, xxx, porn” and other strong keywords even though the website contains nothing of the sort. As a result of this abuse, the reputations of search engines all over the web begun to suffer. Surfers got re-directed to websites that had no relevance to their query.

To stop the abuse and enhance their accuracy and reputation, search engines devised an algorithm method where web crawlers not only looked at the keywords, but also at the contents that goes along with them. With this new method of indexing, web masters and internet marketers were finally forced to perform honest work. They stopped using words like “sex, xxx” and porn” where there was none and begun writing relevant articles that give accurate descriptions of their website or products.

As a result of this new indexing system, the industry of search engine optimization (SEO) article writing was born. SEO article writers are required to write meaningful articles that thoroughly describe the product or website. Aside from using correct and appropriate writing methods, they also have to reserve slots within the article for the seeding of keywords.

As far as search engines are concerned, they index your website by scanning the top of your website first. Be sure to have descriptive literature of about 250++ words as this is what the search engines look for. Within that 250++ word article, embed your keywords in it without breaking the smooth flow of the article. Try to avoid grammar deficiencies because of keyword seeding. Your article needs to be as correct as it can be for the search engine to understand what your website is saying and what relevance it has to a searcher’s query.

You can try the old method but you will not get as good results as you will with the honest way. Furthermore, attempting to mislead a search engine can lead to a bottom placement in search rankings. Aside from being given low priority in searches, search engines also have the option of removing your website from their index. If this unfortunate development happens to your website, you’ve already lost your business.

The internet is evolving. Just as it took centuries for the laws of the United States to reach maturity, the internet is hurrying along at light-speeds to protect everyone who decides to visit it. If you try to disrupt the flow of one of its economies, various individuals and corporations that own a stake in the internet will immediately smother you and the tools you use for disturbing a relatively peaceful environment.

As honesty seems to be the best policy for now, SEO article writing is the way to go. Do not compromise your articles for the sake of keyword density. After all, when your customers get to your website and read a poorly written article, your esteem in their eyes will immediately plummet. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they decide to transfer to another website with better services and a higher degree of usefulness and accuracy.

Being an SEO writer myself, I can only say that what I wrote above is all true. I’ve surfed hundreds of sites pertaining to SEO writing tips and suggestions. I never saw anyone suggesting a higher priority for keywords over relevance. My own opinion is that keyword seeding and article composition should both be done with great care.

I discovered this tool in June 08 and I don’t think it had been out for very long at all, I found it by reading the Google Blog.

We all know Google is the ‘Search Engine’, the one everyone targets and if you are ranked in Google, you will see results. I also wanted to point out that Google isn’t really a search engine, they are an advertising company that provides search results.

Google Insights for Search is an incredible tool and if you want good information about Google and the way people are searching, why not get it from Google. You can find out search volume (top searches, rising searches and breakout searches), geographical data, compare data back to 2004, find breakout search terms, by category (this is the powerful part for niche marketing), competition and more.

This is one of my favorite tools right now and it’s free to use.

I will use Insights to find a niche that is being searched, drill down the keywords the best I can there and then head over to NicheBot and really drill down the keywords to find a good niche to build a website or blog around.

You can also use Insights for finding niche products and see what products are selling. This requires a bit more time as you will need to find the top searches in a niche topic, then type them into Google’s main search and see what people are advertising using Adwords. This will give you a great insight (pun intended) into what people are selling in that niche.

Use your imagination and think outside the box on this one, I’ve used this tool in combination with many different niche research tools to find good high paying niches.

Happy Niching,

Pat Lovell

When you are thinking about choosing a niche for your niche marketing campaigns, it can be quite a hurdle if you are new to niche marketing. Even if you have been doing it for a while it can be hard to find the ever illusive perfect niche.

In my workshops, I teach this at 3 different levels and it works out very well for each experience level.

1. Beginners - Stick with what you know. You are new to Niche Marketing so don’t burden yourself with trying to find a high paying niche yet,  focus on what you know until you get familiar with Niche Marketing and are comfortable with your strategy.

I’m sure you have a hobby, passion or profession. These are the best places to start because you will have a lot of knowledge on the subject already. You won’t have to learn about the niche, you can focus on learning niche marketing and things like traffic generation.

For this example, lets go with a hobby. You happen to enjoy photography and have been an amateur photographer for many years. Your favorite kind of photography is taking wildlife photography, specifically animals in the wild. So, the niche could be Nature and Wildlife Photography. This would be a very good niche to explore because you are familiar with the equipment, places, tips for good photos, etc.. You know the products people are buying and what the hot sellers are and can start focusing on your Niche Marketing without having to learn about the niche.

2. Intermediate - Ok, so you’ve been involved in Niche Marketing for a while now and know your way around generating traffic, producing content and putting your Niche websites together. Now, you can go into choosing your Niche(s) at the intermediate level. Here’s the way I teach this level.

Pick niche topics that are Seasonal, Holidays, Topical and Newsworthy. These are great topics for several reasons. The first being that all seasonal and holiday topics happen at least once a year so, after building up niche sites you will have them for years to come and can continue to add content and products to the sites year after year.

Topical and Newsworthy niche sites are good as well because search volume on these type of niche(s) can spike time and time again. For example, if you choose the political niche, you have elections happening all the time and campaigning goes on for many months.

You can make broad niche websites with many sub-niches of the main topic. You could make a Political website and break it down into sub-niches - republican and democrat elections, presidential elections, foreign elections and so on. Celebrities are another newsworthy niche that get a lot of search volume.

3. Advanced - Ok, now you are a seasoned Niche Marketing veteran, you have quite a bit of knowledge of niche marketing, traffic generation, keyword research, etc.. Now you can move on to finding those “hot” high paying niches that you’ve been hearing about forever.

There are many ways to find high paying niches but the way I teach will give you a good strategy and works well. I recommend using Research tools, statistical analysis, tracking and testing and my favorite “your gut instinct”. That may sound strange but it’s worked many times for me.

Find a good research tool and learn how to use it. I recommend 2 different tools NicheBot and Google Insights (one is a paid option the other is free). These tools will allow you to find high paying niches based on things like search volume and competition. Both, very valuable to being succesful in Niche Marketing. Learn how to use the tools correctly and when looking for a niche make sure you dig deep into the keywords and find good long tail keywords with decent search volume.

When you are using advanced tools you will need to track and test your results to see if (a) the niche is viable and will make you money (b) your strategy is driving traffic to your websites. One of the best tools out there is Google Analytics, it’s free and it’s a tool developed by Google, the search engine you’ll be targeting, so why not go to the source.

Your “gut instincts”, again that may sound funny but it’s worth a shot. If you hear about something for the first time (like a new product or service) chances are not many people have heard about it either. The best way to do this is to subscribe to trade magazines (online or offline) and read about future developments and upcoming products,  you can get into a market early and dominate.

There you go, my 3 techniques for finding viable, good paying Niches. There is a little more involved to this but you will learn that as the more you get involved in Niche Marketing but this 3 Step process for finding the Perfect Niche is a great formula to live by.

Happy Niching,

Pat Lovell

This is a new blog dedicated to Niche Marketing, my name is Pat Lovell and I have been working in Niche Marketing for almost 10 years. I have been very successful using several different forms of Niche Marketing and I’m going to dedicate this Blog to teaching my tactics and strategies.

I will be teaching everything from Keyword Research, Niche Research, Traffic Generation, Expanding a Niche and much more. I’ve shown thousands of people over the last 4 years how to become successful using my techniques.

I’ve also designed a proprietary online software program that automatically builds niche websites around any niche you choose. Using my strategies and software, I can teach you how to run a very successful niche marketing network and help you on your way to earning the income you deserve.

I hope you enjoy the Blog and learn some strategies, tactics or techniques that you can put to use right away and continue to use for years to come. The most important part of my teaching is, I teach for long term passive income not “make money overnight” or “the quick easy money”. If you follow what I teach you will learn how to make residual passive income the right way and for years to come.

Pat Lovell