Don’t Always Trust A Guru (and my newest site revealed)…
Recently an IM guru (who I consider a friend) came out with a series of videos on running a profitable campaign. Now, I am not saying who, and above all, I still respect and admire this person greatly, so I don’t want this to come across too negative because their intentions are in the right place.
Anyway, the first video was about keyword research. I was a bit dissapointed to find that the primary way they said to find good keywords to rank for was to do the quote search and the “intitle” search.
If you get under 50,000 results in quotes and under 10,000 results for intitle, it could be a good keyword is what was said.
And that was it.
So, as I was in the middle of creating my new site, I thought I would ditch my usual method of keyword research (found in this post and emphasizing looking at average page rank of the first 10 results) and give it a whirl.
These are the results I got…but first let me tell you about the new site I was building.
I got to thinking about how I could really add value. And I mean REALLY add value to peoples lives.
Well, I thought about it for a while and realized how silly it is for me to try and market all the things I market – double chin exercises, guitar courses, anxiety treatments, registry repair software, boil treatments, emetophobia and on and on.
First, I don’t know squat about most of this stuff, so first I have to spend time learning. And second, they don’t really get me all jazzed up to write about, so they get boring after a while. And finally, am I REALLY trying to add value or make a buck selling e-books and miracle potions?
So, as amazingly stupid and simple as this sounds, I came up with the idea of doing something in the profession my offline business is in – accounting. Not the most exciting, but I do it every day, I know it inside and out, and I truly get to help people solve problems. And most important of all – I KNOW exactly what their problems are (this is crucial).
So I came up with www.learnquickbooksforfree.com. I won’t go into the details of why this is a problem for business owners, but basically I recorded 14 videos on how to use Quickbooks. It’s about 7-8 hours of video training, all completely free. And I encourage people to email me with their questions.
I could not find free training like this anywhere online. So, it really, truly adds value to people.
And its a simple opt-in list where I can build a relationship with my subscribers. Check out this email I got from one subscriber about the site and the help I gave her:
Mat,
You are amazing. I have gone to many sites and forums seeking an answer for this reimbursement issue, and I always seem to get confused and not really get my question answered. You have explained my options below and I see it so clearly and it seems so simple.
I will be using option 1 which is easiest for me to do. You have saved me a lot of time and frustration. The greatest thing about this is that I feel confident and I am now very excited to continue to populate quickbooks with my information and see my final reports. I wish you could understand what it means to users like us to find someone like you who is so knowledgeable, but more than that, is the fact that you are willing to share this information and devote your time for no cost, in today’s world. You are truly amazing and different.
Happy 4th and I know that I will have another question soon.
Thanks again!
Is that awesome or what!! That makes you feel good and is truly adding value to peoples lives.
So, thats my new site, and it is a simple Wordpress template I found free. I paid $10 for the domain and spent time on the videos. I plan on getting subscribers, building the relationship, and presenting offers on any one of the 1,000’s of business affiliate products out there (for example, a Stamps.com CPA offer pays $50 if they sign up for a 4 week trial!).
Now back to my keyword research fiasco.
My first keyphrase I chose was “free quickbooks training online” and here are some stats:
1. Between 1,300-1,600 searches per month
2. 369,000 search results
3. 39,000 quote results
4. 157 intitle results with quotes
Should be a slam dunk, right?
Final data:
5. Average page rank – 3.6 (yikes!)
So, I did 1 video, submitted to about 15 video sites, like Youtube and Metacafe. I wrote one article and submitted to about 25 social sites and I have built maybe 40-50 backlinks to the site.
See if you can find me ANYWHERE in the regular search results. Good luck, I can’t be found on at least the 1st 5 pages. Do it in quotes and I’m number 1, but people don’t search in quotes.
But I have 22 subscribers so far – and they literally have ALL come from Youtube.
I know, I know, one keyword can’t determine whether or not looking just at quotes and intitle is the best or not. BUT, I’m telling you, you can’t always blindly trust a so called guru, and you have to know what works.
In the case of keyword research, look at average page rank – that will be the best indicator of if you will rank quickly and high or not (remember www.bamboopatioshades.com? It’s still ranked number 1 and I have done NOTHING to it!).
And there is something to TRULY adding value. For one, it makes you feel good, and two, you build trust MUCH, MUCH faster. Think about it in your campaigns – are you really adding value or just trying to make a quick buck?
Cool Tip To Find Untapped Niche Keywords
I got an e-mail yesterday from my buddy, Andrew Hansen, who created Firepow and PnP, with a great video about finding good, untapped niche keywords.
Watch his video below, it should help you find some good gold nugget keywords.
Enjoy…
Cool Trick To Find The Golden Nugget High-Volume Keywords
I am working on another video about getting your content ranked on the 1st page of Google and it will be some pretty cool, but often overlooked, stuff.
But I was thinking about this today – have you ever chosen your keywords, cranked out some content, and then gotten little, or no, traffic whatsoever – even if you are ranked on the 1st page? And the best part is that Google told you that this low competition keyword had like 5,000 searches a month or something?
It’s happened to me more than a few times! It’s frustrating at best, and all your hard work seems totally wasted. Bottom line is that the Google search counts numbers (as well as any other keyword research software results) are often totally wrong!
Well, here’s a cool trick I learned from someone (not all my idea, but I can’t remember where I heard it) a while back that can help you weed out the losers on the front end.
1. Sign up for a new Google Adwords account (if you already use PPC, get a different account for this because it will kill your CTR)
2. Create a campaign using the keywords you want to test
3. Set up an Adgroup for each keyword
4. Target your keywords only in [brackets] to get the exact matches, don’t worry about broad and phrase
5. Set your bid price high so you ensure you get on the 1st page
6. Write your ads completely different than what your target keyword is. You do this so no one clicks on your ads. For example, if your keyword is “learn bass guitar” your ad might be about “pink boa constrictor stretchpants” or something completely off the wall.
7. Point it to your website so the relevancy is high.
8. Check it in 24 hours to see how many impressions you got.
Doing this will give you a MUCH better idea of the actual search volume.
Now, a word of caution – be sure to check your account frequently to make sure people are not clicking your ads or you could get in trouble. Odds are that no one will since you made the ads unrelated to your keywords, but it will make you sleep better if you check.
And another thing – BE SURE TO TURN OFF THE CONTENT NETWORK, only focus on Google search.
Try it and see what results you get, you could save yourself a ton of frustration and time targeting the wrong keywords.
2 Secrets To Ensure Your Spot On The 1st Page of Google
There are 2 things I do every time to ensure my spot on the 1st page of Google. I don’t see many marketers doing this, which makes me understand why so many fail.
Related Blogs
Is Google screwing with you?
Gotta love Google, right?
When I started internet marketing a couple years ago, one of the first things I learned was to go after “low competition” keywords.
This meant to do a Google search of your keywords with the term in quotes. If I got under 5,000 results, use it. If not, move on to another search term.
Only problem was, I couldn’t find many. And any keyword I managed to find with under 5,000 results, didn’t make sense. There was no way people were searching for such odd ball terms.
Then I stumbled upon Google’s big lie…and my results started to change after I discovered it…
Want to know what it is?
Lean closer, so I can whisper it to you. I don’t want many people knowing about it…
The results they display are not actually the real search results.
What?!?
In my experience, they are drastically overstated.
How?
Try this little exercise and you will see what I mean:
Go to google right now and do a search for “get rid of tonsil stones” in quotes. When I do it, I get 1,350,000 results. So, if this is the case, I would automatically discard this term as too competitive.
Now, try this. Scroll to the bottom of those search results. Click on the “10″ for the 10th page of results. Keep clicking on the last number until it stops displaying results.
When you get to the end, how many does it show?
For me it’s 416 results!
Does this mean “get rid of tonsil stones” is a slam dunk keyword you will make money off of?
No, it doesn’t, because there are a few other important factors involved, BUT…
It does mean that instead of discarding this as a competitive keyword, you actually probably have a chance at ranking for it with some work. And this can open up a whole new world of opportunity for you.
Try it with your keywords and see what actual results you get, they may surprise you.
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