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Learn to Make WordPress Niche Sites in 6 Easy Steps - Free Tutorial with PotPieGirl | Step 1 - “R” Is For Research

Step 1 - “R” Is For Research

Filed Under RICHER Niche Site Steps |

“R” is for research. Welcome to step one of the RICHER 6 Step Niche Site System! (If you are new to the site, feel free to start at the beginning so you know what we’re doing here. )

All great websites start with good niche market research and keyword research. Notice I said “good” research - not ‘great’ or ‘perfect’ research. With 6 Step Niche Sites, we don’t obsess over that stuff. We know that in time, as we follow all the steps for this WordPress Niche Site system, we will have all the research we need to make our sites great.

The key to great keyword and niche market research are these three things -

1. Do NOT get all caught up in the numbers and the data. Guess what? All those numbers could be horribly wrong (and a lot of times they ARE horribly wrong).

2. Nothing replaces the human brain. While thinking about a niche market, think about the things you would want to know about the niche - think about the things YOU would type into Google to find that information. Chances are, what you would type naturally is the same thing others WILL type to find your niche site.

3. When it’s all said and done, no matter what any other so-called guru tells you, keyword research and niche market research really all lead to one thing - giving you a healthy and educated guess. There are no ’sure things’ when marketing online. You may end up very surprised to see that sometimes the most off-beat niche, the one that does not have the super numbers shown in keyword research, will be the one that knocks your socks off.

While researching niche market ideas - relax! Have fun with it and try to not take it all so literally. There is NO right answer to ‘how many competing pages should a keyword have?” or “Should I search for my keyword with quotes, or no quotes around it in Google?”. Just relax - your brain will be the best tool you will ever own once you have that brain of yours trained to sniff out a niche =)

For the purpose of the RICHER 6 Step Niche Site System, I have made a niche website and an accompanying Squidoo lens (hold your horses, I will show you in due time…haha). I made this site so I could walk through the steps I take while creating WordPress niche sites and you can watch as they are done.

Quick disclaimer: this niche site is still very new. I created it in a few hours one Saturday afternoon. It’s not my best work but it suits its purpose here very well. I didn’t go hog-wild with it as I knew that my stats would get all screwy once I opened it up for learning observation. I also monetized it in various ways so you can see all the different ways you can make money with niche sites.

My Niche Website Idea

The topic of my WordPress niche site is ‘Aloe Vera’. Why? Here’s the thing about niche market research. Remember the time-old question, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg”? Well, niche research is like that for me - meaning that sometimes the monetization (affiliate product) comes first, and sometimes my keyword research comes first. In this case, the affiliate product came first.

I was trying out a new affiliate program that offered aloe vera supplements. The affiliate program also had a very nice resource center for their partners to use to help with promotion and sales. Within this affiliate resource area were lots and lots of pre-written articles. Ding Ding Ding! We have a winner! I’m telling you, if more vendors took the time to really offer their affiliates REAL resources (such as pre-written content and reviews), people like me would be having a field day promoting FOR them (and making MONEY for them, too!)

Anyway, that is the basis behind the niche market idea research I did for my example WordPress site. Since you’ve already read WordPress GoldMine, you already know all the ways to get niche ideas, follow market trends, and test their viability. I won’t re-invent the wheel… so let’s move on.

I have no doubt that some of you may be wondering….

Did I choose this niche just because the vendor offered pre-written content? HECK NO! That pre-written content is just the shiny thing that got my attention.

Now, the real research begins. I start all my keyword research at the free keyword tool at SEObook.com. In my humble opinion, you can spend lots of money each month on a fancy-dancy keyword tool and still get the same results you can get from a free one. I love the keyword tool at SEObook.com, I use it, I recommend it…. and if I ever meet that man, I will give him a big ol’ hug for making that tool free for all of us.

My Keyword Research

First thing I did was head on over to SEObook.com and enter aloe vera into the search box. When you try this keyword tool, you will see it returns a TON of information about keywords. Search volume on Google, MSN, and Yahoo - Google trends , Yahoo suggest and Google traffic estimator… and my favorite: Google Suggest. You can get an EXCELLENT look at the viability of a keyword from this research tool.

While doing your keyword research, try and choose a “dream keyword” that seems a little ‘far-fetched’, and then a follow up with a main keyword that has your main phrase within it. Then, choose about 5 or 6 runner up keywords. Confused? Let me show you -

For the sake of my example niche site, aloe vera is obviously my main keyword - HOWEVER there is a TON of competition for that broad phrase. I chose these keywords for my niche site:

aloe vera (my ‘dream keyword’ but some day I may want to really go after this phrase)

aloe vera plant (my main keyword based on traffic volume - notice my ‘dream keyword’ is withing my main keyword phrase. This will help me build my site in the chance that I ever want to super-optimize my niche site for the big league words.)

Then I chose:

health benefits of aloe vera

benefits of aloe vera

aloe vera plants

aloe vera supplements

aloe vera sunburn

aloe vera skin products

I did take these words and run them thru Google with the allintitle search operator and the allinanchor search string, too. When you type allintitle:your keyword phrase into Google search, Google will return all the sites it has indexed that have your keyword in their <title> tag. Also allinanchor:your keyword phrase will return all the web pages Google has indexed that have links BACK to their site with that keyword phrase as anchor text. Ladies and Gentlemen, these search results are your REAL competition.

While I take all the above things into account, and I DO look at competing niche sites, I do NOT let myself get over-whelmed by the competition. I hope you don’t either. The idea of building small niche websites is to get info out there on the internet and see how it does. If you shoot every idea you come up with down because there is competition, you will never get a single site online.

Also, competition is a GOOD thing. If there is no competition, there is no market. While doing your keyword research, keep an eye on the Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) for Google AdWords ads. If internet marketers are paying for traffic on certain keywords, there is a reason.

Along withAdWords ads seen on search engine returns, there will also be AdWords ads that will be available to be shown on YOUR niche site (if you choose to monetize with AdSense ads).

Helpful Reading:

Keyword Research 101 - From PotPieGirl

How To Choose Your Blog Niche

How To Find and Target Long Tail Keywords

Monetization of your Niche Site

While I started with a product for my niche site, there are many times I start with keyword ideas and I will need some monetization ideas. I use AdSense a good bit, but I also market a lot of Clickbank products. Try and find at least one digital product to promote on your niche site that has a decent commission. Do this now, during your research step. There is nothing worse than building a whole site and not being able to find a good product to offer with it.

When researching Clickbank products, skip the Clickbank marketplace - it is too doggone annoying to navigate and doesn’t really give you the information you need. Use CB-analytics.com. CB Analytics is a free service that gives the good ‘dirt’ on all the products available for sale on Clickbank. Once you get accustomed to using it and reading their data, you will find this tool very handy. CB Analytics also lets you easily find all the new products that are added to the Clickbank marketplace every day.

Step One Review:

1. Find a Niche Market Idea

2. Identify Keywords

3. Find at least one affiliate product to offer

4. Browse the competition

5. Commit.

Step One Thoughts

While it is very important to do thorough research BEFORE you even buy a domain name for your niche site, please do not get so wrapped up in the exact-ness or perfection of it all. The beauty of the RICHER 6 Step Niche Site System is that in about a month, you will have all the real and ‘perfect’ research you need to dress your niche site up for success. Don’t forget that WordPress is EASY to use, and anything you type today, can be changed tomorrow.

The over-all goal here is to have starting point niche data (entry point data, if you will), a decent product or two to promote, and then get something online. In a month or so, you will come back to this site, tweak it, and then do the ol “set it and forget it” thing.

Do not obsess over this first step. Whats the worst that can happen? You make a site and it barely makes $10 in a whole YEAR. That would suck, wouldn’t it? Sure, that part stinks, but think about this:

a) the site pays for itself.

b) you have built a site that will definitely have Page Rank after that year, and that site will give you a powerful location to link to your OTHER sites.

No matter what, this system is a win-win. You can’t fail unless you don’t try.

Tools to BookMark for Step One of 6 Step Niche Sites:

1. SEObook.com Free Keyword Tool

2. CB-Analytics.com

3. WordPress Guide



Comments

4 Responses to “Step 1 - “R” Is For Research”

  1. Saul on June 3rd, 2008 7:11 pm

    Jennifer,
    I have just luckily run into your “thesis” on 6 Step Niche Sites. I don’t know if it is new or old, just that it may have kept me from throwing in the towel after trying for two months to get started.

    What I want to bring to your attention is that the link to “SEObook.com Free Keyword Tool” at the end of step 1 points to “CB-Analytics.com.

    Keep up the good work
    Saul

  2. PotPieGirl on June 22nd, 2008 2:40 am

    Saul -

    So glad you aren’t ‘throwing in the towel’! Stick around and we’ll see if we can’t get something going for you =)

    THANK YOU for the fyi about the messed up link - all is corrected now!

Links to this Post

  1. Step 2 - “I” Is For Invest and Install | 6 Step Niche Sites with PotPieGirl
  2. Step 3 - “C” Is For Create | 6 Step Niche Sites with PotPieGirl

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