I’ve been busy over the past 3 weeks with several things:

1) Developing a website for a restaurant

2) Listening and analyzing all the pod casts and presentations from the Thirty Day Challenge

3) Putting into practice the keyword-finding tactics explained in my previous post

Fortunately, I’ve managed to complete all of the above, and with time left for Christmas shopping and preparations!

Today, I’m going to share my findings for the 3^rd item – identifying potential keywords that COULD be used to sell affiliate products online. You’d want to find keywords that aren’t already too competitive to optimize. In a nutshell, these keywords should fulfill the following criteria:

• Word Tracker results of between 80 – 100 searches
• Significant estimated search volume (between 100 and 500 searches / day) based on
  comparison with male yeast infection keyword on Google Trends (refer to How to identify niche items to sell online)
• Google the keyword and analyze the search results. Ideally, there shouldn’t be too many Web 2.0 websites listed for this keyword.
• Google the unique keyword (enclosed in quotes). You’ve got a good keyword if there are less than 30,000 search results.

Now, here comes the tedious part. The folks at Thirty Day Challenge cited several keyword idea sources: Google and Yahoo Groups, EBay, Yahoo! Answers, Technorati, EBay Pulse, Google Trends, and your local supermarket. (Read How to generate ideas on what to sell online?)

I’ve reviewed all these, and frankly, only Yahoo! Answers and Google Groups worked for me. The rest of the sources gave me input that were far too generic, too competitive or just downright irrelevant. For instance, iPods and Nintendo Wii were really popular on eBay Pulse and Google Trends. There are two problems here: 1) These keywords are extremely competitive till the point that it is difficult to find a niche, and 2) There are too few affiliates selling digital products for these items.

Over at Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers and Google Groups however, things took on a more social flavor. These are REAL people seeking for answers. By analyzing their questions, you’ll nail down the keywords used in their questions. High subscriber groups or forums highlight popular hobbies and interests. Your aim is to suggest products that would meet these needs.

Obviously, it’s easier if you look at genres or categories that would appeal to you. For instance, if you have a personal interest in sport fishing, writing about it in your promotional blog, or promoting a sport
fishing affiliate product would be easier. Evaluate your work experience and list out topics or areas you are knowledgeable in. Don’t worry if you aren’t an expert. There are loads of resources over the Internet you can use to help fill in the gaps.

As for me, I identified several niche keywords that met the criteria above, and which I could write about. I have used one of these keywords are used in the name of my blog that I created at Blogspot. Also, I have written 3 articles that optimizes this keyword, which are all posted into this blog. Just within a week, I have managed to rank 11 and 12 on the Google search results for this keyword. All I needed to do was to make sure that this keyword was in the:

• Name of my blog (if you have a key phrase, use dashes between words)
• Title of the post
• First paragraph (bolded or italicized)
• Body of the article whenever possible, and
• Last paragraph (bolded or italicized)

Naturally, I’ve also utilized some social networking and other Web 2.0 tactics to help pull traffic to my website. I’ll reveal more about this in my Part 2 of this post!