Looking for ideas or need advice in a new market? Keyword research, market competition, size of the market - can all be discussed here.

Keyword Research Warning
kurt
Posts: 361
Joined: 10 May 11
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13 Mar 14 11:14 pm

Keyword Research Warning

I did my keyword research exactly 1 year ago for one of my sites. I can see that at the time, Traffic Travis rated a couple of the keywords as "Relatively Easy" to rank for. And now, 1 year later Traffic Travis is rating them as Difficult to rank for. The median page rank went from 2 to 3 for those keywords, and they have a lot more backlinks now.

That sucks because I haven't even got my articles online yet. I was waiting until I got done with the articles for another site. I wanted to put them both online at the same time since I don't have any income. I figured if I put two sites up the same time then between the both of them they would surely bring in enough money to cover my monthly hosting cost.

I can't believe they went from easy to difficult so fast. Anyway, learn from my mistake. Don't procrastinate. Don't wait too long after doing your keyword research before getting your articles online or you may regret it. Good thing I went back and checked my keywords again or I might have put my articles online and wondered why I couldn't rank for any of them. Now I have to do my keyword research all over again. :(
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cecille.l
Posts: 6369
Joined: 25 Feb 11
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14 Mar 14 2:03 am

 Hi Kurt,

I'm sorry to hear that. I can understand how frustrating that can be. A lot can happen in a year, and the niche you're into may have gotten more popular or in demand for the past year. Hence, the change in the competition.

I think this is one of the reasons why Mark always says " Take action with what you've learned" after each lesson in Affiloblueprint. You need to take action right away, before something stops you or something changes.

On the positive side, at least you still have your site, and you've found out the change in difficulty so you can still make the necessary changes.

Thanks for sharing and have a great weekend!
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Cecille

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marketsearch
Posts: 30
Joined: 12 Jul 13
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18 Mar 14 6:00 pm

 That stinks. I understand the work that you put in. They are always changing things...
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brad9
Posts: 70
Joined: 01 Feb 13
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21 Mar 14 3:19 am

 That's awful. This is definitely a business that changes so quickly it can make one's head spin. I'm glad we have these forums so that we can learn from others & help each other out. Good luck with the new research!
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sunil
Posts: 192
Joined: 07 May 11
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04 Oct 14 11:46 am

 It just makes me wonder the purpose of doing keyword research. After all, its to find those golden keywords and write topics around them to get free traffic. It seems like these golden keywords are not going to stay golden forever. Those words that were easy to rank for are no longer easy now and the hard words may have become easy now. Thus you could be missing on that.

Having said that, what's the point of doing keyword research then, let alone own a keyword research software like Traffic Travis? Doing keyword research itself is a very strenuous process, and you have to do it the right way. If not you are wasting all your time, money and effort.

Even if you did it the right way, how successful can you get in getting that extra free traffic to your site? Most of the time, it isn't the case. Frankly speaking, LUCK really plays a huge part here. I'm sorry about being pessimistic here. Its just the reality it is.

I've joined the Affilojetpack program since 2011 and I've not unlocked any niche yet. I have to do a good keyword research beforehand and that itself is very confusing, misleading and have discouraged me so far.

I really did keyword research before for an affiliate site I'm owning currently, found some good keywords and wrote content around it. I hardly got any traffic nor made any money. I'm really stuck with this whole thing here.

Is there any training on how to use Traffic Travis or Market Samurai to do a good keyword research on Affilorama?
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Site Admin
aletta
Posts: 3392
Joined: 09 Jul 06
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05 Oct 14 8:03 pm
I've joined the Affilojetpack program since 2011 and I've not unlocked any niche yet.


This is really disturbing for me, Sunil! You've missed out on three years of growth because of analysis paralysis.

All the niches in AffiloJetpack have a huge amount of money to be made, and most of them are such massive niches that even if you just zero in on a tiny tiny corner of that niche, you'll still do really well.

My own personal opinion (because I also got stuck in this paralysis back when I first started) is that focusing on keywords in the early stages is not productive if you have a tendency to over-analyze. You just get stuck, and you don't do anything for three years :)

What I like to do is look at the affiliate products I'm promoting, look at the problems they solve, think about the kinds of people who would have those problems, and then create content for those people.

I look in forums where people are talking about my topic and see what kinds of people I come across. I read blogs related to my topic and see what sort of topics get discussed quite often.

These are much more constructive uses of my time than poring over keyword data, because I actually get a feel for what my audience needs, and I can focus on providing it.

I only ever look at keyword data once I've zeroed in on some good topics for creating content. I'll go in and see if there are any keywords related to these topics that would be easier pickings than others, and I look to see how much interest there actually is in these topics.

If you find yourself getting stuck on keyword research, don't do it! Look for the problems, and try to understand your audience. Create something they will actually like. Not just half-hearted articles with a few keywords shoved in there.

Put as much effort into creating your content as you put into your keyword research and you'll be golden!
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sunil
Posts: 192
Joined: 07 May 11
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06 Oct 14 5:20 am

 Hi Aletta,

Thanks for some inspiration there. Haha! I've not been doing anything for the past 3 years. It was probably multiple distractions. I was doing affiliate marketing and still am after joining moreniche which is a health merchant. Ever since then, I've been doing pretty lots of stuff on it.

I also joined Sara Young's 'Insider's Profit Club' course but much to my disappointment it was of no avail. I did not make any money following her methods.

When I looked through Mark's niche earlier in 2011, they were too huge for me and I found it difficult to find a sub niche. I almost wanted to unlock the dog training niche and somewhat followed Mark's method of doing keyword research for a particular breed to find out its market strength.

I was disappointed that there is too much competition in this niche. So, I decided to go on to the health niche and decided to work on the acne niche. This niche is also a huge one, but I really got to start somewhere.

I only made a handful of sales though. Now I just returned back to Mark Ling's course again. Back then I was pretty speculative. I still am. There are lots of work to be done even before you think of entering that particular niche. Even finding a suitable domain name has to be done carefully.

I can't just dive into it just like that. Anyway, Aletta, I'll try to work on your tactics and get something out of it. What you say pretty much makes sense than doing the daunting keyword research.

Thank You! :)
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daddynanny
Posts: 5
Joined: 24 Apr 09
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27 Oct 14 5:15 am

 I don't do keyword research anymore for more than 2 years now. I began trusting my own keyword "gut" and finds it more effective than following any keyword suggestion tool out there. Additionally, I don't depend on Google search results for traffic, although I still get a lot from it. Being active in social marketing has been my main focus in recent months. It's real work but is a lot better than a 9-to-5.
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elyfields
Posts: 275
Joined: 11 Aug 14
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03 Nov 14 5:52 am
aletta wrote: If you find yourself getting stuck on keyword research, don't do it! Look for the problems, and try to understand your audience. Create something they will actually like. Not just half-hearted articles with a few keywords shoved in there.


Hi,

May I ask anyone:
1. How long would you find your 'angle' on your niche?
2. How long would you create your list of 'first 30-50 keywords'?

I think I'm just conscious of my pace with the lessons, apparently. I wanna 'take it slow but as fast as I could'.

Thanks in advance and cheers,
Ely
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Last edited by elyfields on 03 Aug 15 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
 

Ely
 
peria1949
Posts: 7
Joined: 20 Nov 09
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03 Nov 14 8:50 am

 So many things have changed in the past year or two making things difficult for those aspiring to get free organic traffic.

Study shows that new keywords appear in almost every niche that keeps things in a state of flux.

In your case I think you are at fault because you delayed so long that your potential competitors overtook you in link building.
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