In this weeks post I am going to stick to the theme of working smarter and not harder, and I am therefore going to show you a very simple and effective way that you can leverage the work of your competition, and also get some very valuable links from .edu and .gov domains.

Building back links to your website is absolutely key when it comes to getting good search engine rankings. However if you have spent any time doing this you will realize that it can be hard work.

However there is are free ways that can help you see what your competition have done, in regards to back linking their sites, and that is by using search strings in Yahoo.

The first thing you want to do is get a few url’s of your top competitors and for example purposes let’s use this site: www.barkbuster.com. What I would do is then type this into Yahoo: link:http://www.barkbusters.com

Below is a screen shot with an example of some results:

Keep in mind that when you are searching like this, if you are searching for a professional well established site, you will find that a lot of the links, .edu and .gov included, are natural links and therefore it will be tough for you to get links from these sites.

However if you search for a typical affiliate websites back links then it is a safe bet that these links will be all forced and therefore there is every chance that you can go off and create a link there also! What I mean by forced is the website owner went off and created them, so they didn’t just get linked to naturally from other sites.

Government and Education Links

Not long ago I did a post on how to search for blogs and forums that were on .edu and .gov domains, which I hope you found helpful, and below is another example of how to to this. All you need to do is type these strings into Google:

site:.gov blog

site:.edu blog

You can also add you niche keyword before the word blog to find specific blogs to your niche , but to be honest I find this narrows the search field too much so I rarely do it.

By typing this into Google the results are for government and education domains that also have a blog. Where there is a blog there is often comments, and that is where you want your links to be.

Oh and if you are really lucky you might find a military domain to get a link from: site:.mil

Now you may also want to find forums on these domain also, so one way to do that is to search on:

inurl:edu forum

inurl:gov forum

What you have to realize is that finding these blogs and forums that will allow a link to your site can take time, but you have to remember that these links are worth A LOT more for your search engine results than regular links.

Also if the links you do successfully place are ‘No Follow’ then don’t be discouraged, because many leading SEO experts agree that ‘No Follow’ from these trusted domains still getting indexed and help your sites rankings.

My last point before I finish this weeks post, is that once you find a site that you want to post a link on, make sure you use the Google Advanced Search technique that I talked about a few weeks ago. If you missed it then here is the link to that post: High Page Rank Links

These are just some ways of searching for back links, there are many more, but this should help you find some useful links for your sites.

Have a great day!

Matt

I hope you are all well and enjoying 2010 so far!

To kick things of this year I thought it would be a good idea to share, perhaps one of the biggest lessons that I have learned in my online marketing career, and that is to work smarter and not harder.

So, in this post I will be sharing with you some tricks that you can use, to ensure that you get the most out of your marketing, and work smarter than the bunch!

I see a large number of newbie internet marketers, in their over zealous enthusiasm to make money online, race in, head first and build websites that target any keywords they can think of.

Next they virtually burn themselves out doing SEO or burn their bank accounts out on Google Adwords, and sadly often to little positive effect.

One of the major reasons behind this, is that what most people fail to realize is that even if you have two keywords that get the exact same search volume, and are both directly related to the niche, and even be quite similar, they may not necessarily convert to sales at the same rate.

So with that said, it is a good idea if you’re an SEO marketer like myself, to test your keywords before you launch into a full blown SEO link building frenzy. This way you make sure you are targeting the highest converting keywords.

To do this you can set up a Google Adwords campaign and send traffic to your pages, using the keywords you are considering targeting for SEO and see what the results turn out like.

Some of you might not want to do this, as it can cost you anywhere from $50-$300 to test, but what you need to factor into the calculation, is that if you are targeting a keyword that converts at three times the rate of another one, then you will actually be saving money in the long term.

If you do have the cash to spend, another way to do this is to use PPC Spy tools and see if other marketers in your niche are using these keywords, and also what others, and for how long.

However I always like to make sure there is a free option available for everyone, and there is, that being your common sense!! You can have an educated guess at what keywords will convert to sales better than others, by just thinking about the mindset of the person who is typing that keyword into the search engine. I have mentioned this point before but it is so important that I really need to stress it again and again.

I like to refer to this as, how far down the sales line the person is. For example if they are ripe and ready to spend, then they might be typing words like: Buy XYZ, XYZ Review, XYZ Product, Best XYZ, XYZ Scam.

Obviously XYZ  stands for the niche word, here’s an example : Buy Forex Trading Software.

However using the above example, the keyword: ‘Forex Trading Software’, would not convert as well as say: ‘Buy Forex Trading Software’. Its not that difficult to spot a keyword that a person, closer to pulling out their credit card, ready to buy is typing into the search box. However you would be surprized how many people just focus on the search volume, and don’t use their common sense, and consider the conversion rate.

One last point I want to add also, is that if you are working with a network that assigns you an affiliate manager, then do not be shy to ask them for as much information as you can, because they often have great statistics on how well different offers are converting on their network, and believe me this info can be like gold!

So in summary, one of the biggest lessons I learned in my career as an online marketer is to target keywords that convert. In fact with some really great converting keywords, you might only get 10 visitors a day only, but it can be the equivalent of 100 from another keyword.

That’s all from me, so remember to work smarter and not harder in 2010 by choosing your keywords carefully, you’ll thank yourself in the long run.

All the best

Matt

In today’s post I am going to be showing you a little trick for finding hot niches for affiliates, that focus on physical products. However the best part is that I am going to show you a great free tool from Google (no its not the keyword tool, but we will use it) that will make this process a whole lot easier.

What most affiliates do is focus heavily on Clickbank products, and this is not a bad thing, however the competition can be fierce in some niches. The great news is that you don’t have to stay in Clickbank, there is a HUGE amount of other networks that sell physical products which you can be an affiliate for too.

I have found that moving away from Clickbank can mean a lot less competition, which is always nice.

First of all, you will need to go the Google keyword tool and then click on the “Searched-based Keyword Tool” tab, see the image below:

The Search-based keyword tool is a free tool that is supposed to be used to enter your website into, and Google will provide some more related keywords for you to bid on in adwords. However you can also use this tool to find untapped niches that you can market in as an affiliate, either using PPC or SEO. All I can say is that this sort of market intelligence is absolutely priceless…yet you get  it given to you for free!!

When you open the tool, you will then want to scroll to the bottom of the page and click the link that says: “or see top keywords across all categories”

Here is a screen shot to help you:

Then you will be taken to this screen, where you can browse categories of potential niches

You will notice that Google has kindly categorized niches for us, and when you open one up, by clicking on it, you can then drill down further and see more sub niches inside these larger ones.

This is some extremely valuable data for us as marketers, because Google are telling us what the hottest niches that people are searching for are, and they also show you, on the right, that people are spending money on these keywords, which is a healthy sign.

Now that you have a complete list of potential niches, that we know people are searching in, all we need to do then is go back to the Google Keyword tool and type some of these phrases in, and see what the results are.

For example purposes, I found the word “digital tv antenna”, so I typed that back into the Google keyword tool and I soon found more related keywords, such as “digital tv antenna reviews” that had a phrase match search volume of 1300 a month. Now that isn’t the greatest search volume, but it is a buying keyword phrase, so I know it would convert well.

What you then need to do is work out how competitive that phrase would be if you were going to build a simple website to promote it. You can do this by typing that phrase into Google itself in quotes and seeing how many competing pages there are. To do this just type your phrase like this into Google: “digital tv antenna review” .

How competitive is too competitive? Well that depends on your SEO skills, however as a rough guide if there is more 50,000 competiting pages when you type the word in quotes into Google, them maybe try another one.

Of course judging competition on the amount of competing pages alone, is not the greatest way to tell. Therefore you may also want to analyze the top 10 places in Google and in particular the top 5 and see what they are like.

I am not going to go into that now as I have covered this in previous posts and videos, however here is a quick checklist of what to look for: Page Rank, Back Links, Age of Domain, On Page SEO, and as a very rough guide, if you see a lot of authority sites like Amazon, and they are actually purposely trying to rank for that phrase, then that’s not so good.

When I say purposely trying to rank, I mean they have that exact keyword phrase in their pages Title tags, H1 tags, and meta description. Now I realize some of you reading this post might not be sure what I am talking about, so I encourage you to be proactive and do a quick Google search and learn what these terms mean, as it is crucial to know these basics of SEO.

Once you have found a niche and some keywords that you feel you could target, you will then need to see if you can find an affiliate program that you can join to promote products in that niche. You can do this by typing the niche word + affiliate into Google, so for example: “GPS + affiliate”, and searching this way. Or you can use the Amazon market place and simply place an Amazon widget on your site (see Amazon affiliates for more on this).

Well that’s all from me, I hope this has helped you to find ideas for more niches and products. Just remember when you are targeting keywords for SEO, make sure you take your time to find ones that you have the ability to rank for, and also words that have a high level of commercial intent, such as “reviews”

All the best,

Matt

]]> http://mattsmarketingblog.com/niche-research/finding-a-niche-with-google-tools/feed/ 44 http://mattsmarketingblog.com/niche-research/finding-a-profitable-niche/ http://mattsmarketingblog.com/niche-research/finding-a-profitable-niche/#comments Sat, 08 Aug 2009 05:46:29 +0000 Matt Carter http://mattsmarketingblog.com/?p=338 Hi guys,

Whether you’re an affiliate or selling your own product, it is important to know what to look for or include in a sales page in order to be successful.

Most affiliates who promote products from the Clickbank Marketplace tend to just jump on board high gravity products.

Sure this is a pretty good way to tell that a product is selling but then you will face the issue of higher competition. So why not learn the skills to assess a low gravity product, that has potential to sell, and where the competition is not as fierce. This can be a smart approach for some easy wins and great commissions.

So in this post I am going to provide an overview of crucial aspects to look for when considering promoting a new product, and of course these same principals apply if you are creating your own product too.

If you are in the Clickbank marketplace low competition can be indicated by low gravity, but it is vital to take a very close look at low gravity products before deciding to promote them, to make an assessment of the likelihood of them having a great conversion rate.

10 Key Aspects of a Great Product

1.) Scarcity

It is a well known fact amongst experienced online marketers that the use of scarcity increases sales.  A lack of scarcity can reduce sales by up to 40%, so it is a vital ingredient to look for in a product.

Scarcity can be used in a variety of ways, however the most popular being time based. A great sales page may state that the price has been reduced until a certain time and will be increasing soon.

If you have been online for sometime you can become accustomed to this tactic, and think to yourself that this doesn’t work, and falsely assume other people also think this tactic is bogus. However this is the trap that a lot of people fall into when they gain more experience.

The problem is that they forget what the average Joe thinks, because the fact is that testing shows that this type of scarcity actually works, so be aware that not everyone thinks like you do! So with that said a great product will employ scarcity in their sales page.

2.) Benefits and NOT Features

You would think this is a no brainer, but you’d be surprised at how many products on Clickbank try and sell their products on the features and not the benefits.

Benefits selling is a proven tried and tested sales technique that works! So why are some merchants neglecting to do this? Perhaps a lack of experience or understanding of key sales elements, either way feature based selling does not work as well as explaining the benefits to a customer.

Here’s an example for you of a candle making site that is selling on features:

This is an ebook that teaches people how to make candles, and if you look at the line I have highlighted in yellow, not only will you notice a grammatical error, but the focus is on features. Now I don’t know much about candles, however to illustrate the point, this could have been written in a benefits orientated way, like this example:

“3 very clever tricks for using wicks that will allow you’re candles to burn twice as long”

Here’s a good example of a Spanish product that sells on benefits:

As you can see this example tells me that I will be able to watch Spanish movies and actually understand them, which is a great benefit, rather than saying there are 30 great audio lessons.

3.) No Table of Contents

For some reason you will find ebooks that decide including a table of contents on the sales page is a good thing. Don’t ask me why!! I assume it has come from the fact  that Amazon have the ability for customers to view inside their books. However notice that Amazon don’t make this link very obvious.

This again is trying to sell a product on its features, and as mentioned above is not the best approach.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

4.) Testimonials

I always make sure that a product that I am selling has testimonials on the sales page. Some people respond extremely well to testimonials. Just so you know this type of personality is known as ‘Amiable’, and  people who lean strongly towards this trait will buy products a lot faster when they can see that other people are having success with product already.

5.) Avoid Adsense

If you see a sales letter that has Adsense or a Google search bar included then this usually means that the merchant is struggling to make sales and therefore is trying other ways to monetize the site. Alarms bells should go off when you see this happening as you do not get any commission from these ads, yet you’re the one driving the traffic!!

6.) Strong Headlines

A great sales letter will have a powerful benefits driven headline. This is absolutely crucial, as a poor headline will not encourage the reader to carry on and read the page. If you are paying for traffic as an affiliate a page with a poor headline can reduce conversions and of course your profits as an affiliate

Here’s an example of a great headline:

7.) Strong Guarantee

If you are promoting a Clickbank product they are required to have a 60 day money back guarantee. However if creating your own product, or perhaps an affiliate through another network, then make sure the product offers a strong money back guarantee, as this increases conversions significantly.

8.) Great Look & Feel

I know the old saying goes “Don’t Judge a Book By Its Cover” but I will be honest and say I think I still do to some extent. If I see a sales page that has graphics that look like they were made in the 1990’s then I just don’t get the same reassurance about the product. So as part of your assessment of a good product consider the look and feel and what your first impressions are.

This page looks pretty good to me!!

9.) A Little Help From Amazon

Another point and perhaps one of the most important, is to check that a niche you are considering is selling already.

A great way to do this is to go to Amazon and search for books in that niche, and if you find ones and their are positive comments left on them (that are in at least in the double figures) then this is a good sign and means this is a healthy niche.

You could then consider promoting an E-book on Clickbank with low gravity, if of course it passes the screening of the previously mentioned points above, or you could make your own product.

10.) Exit Grabber

You may be one of those people that hates exit grabbers, however the fact is that they do increase conversions, and therefore although not essential, is something to consider as another great aspect of a strong product.

11.) Do the Maths

I know I said 10 points, but I just can’t help but add this extra one and make it 11.

Make sure that the product has a decent enough payout for affiliates. Some merchants are wise and payout 75% commission, and this is a great thing, especially if you are paying to drive traffic to a merchants site. Products that have lower commissions mean the margin for profit when using PPC is smaller.

This is something that you NEED to consider if you are focusing on PPC, because if your commission is $25 and you work on a 1% conversion rate, then just to break even you can’t spend more than 25 CENTS a click. However if your commission is say $30 dollars then you can spend 20% more on clicks to break even.

Now of course you want to be in profit don’t you, so make sure you do the maths before launching into a new campaign.

Summary

I have listed these 11 points to help guide you when choosing a product. If you are a Clickbank affiliate following these guidelines can help you assess if a low gravity and hence low competition product, has potential to be  a cash cow for you.

If you are making your own product then you should make sure your product has these aspects to encourage affiliates to get on board.

However please keep in mind that a product doesn’t necessarily need to have ALL of these points, but the more the better!

Happy selling.

Cheers

Matt