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Brainstorming and Niche Clusters - 50 Affiliate Site Challenge Update
May 17, 2006
I'm still building up my list of niches for my 50 Affiliate Site Challenge, and have 30 niches picked out so far.
I've been over at Wordtracker almost daily (every winter I hem and haw and then plonk down my money for an annual subscription, and usually about two or three months later I'm really appreciating the decision).
I guess I'm not really an "early adopter", because the new Wordtracker Keyword Research tool has been in beta for a few months at least, and it's only been since I started on my 50 sites challenge that I actually decided to give it a whirl. I've always done my keyword research before using the Wordtracker Keyword Universe.
Well, all I can say is, I'm glad I gave the Keyword Researcher a try because it is so much quicker than the old way of doing it. You are allowed to do 250 competition searches daily, and the Keyword Researcher tool is so fast in comparison to the Keyword Universe way, I was actually using up a large part of my daily competition search quota. (Each batch of 100 keywords per search engine counts as one 'competition search', so you can run a competition search on 25,000 keywords daily.)
I began each research session by using the Keyword Researcher as a brainstorming tool. It lets you input a number of "seed" words and pulls variations for you, according to conditions that you specify.
I picked out various seed words by going to Froogle, which displays a list of recent searches - you can keep hitting refresh and get a new batch of searches each time. Since Froogle is an online shopping search engine, the searches are all products. Give it a try - it should jumpstart lots of ideas when you're niche-hunting.
Anyway, after I got my initial list of variations of the seed words, I'd run it through the Keyword Researcher evaluation mode, which is the competition search, and then I'd look through that list to see what keywords had higher KEI.
What I discovered was that within each broader niche I was finding a lot of smaller, tighter niches containing a number of words with higher KEIs. Some of these smaller niches looked like they would work well together on one site, but I also ended up with a number of similar niches which I think will work well as individual sites.
So now I have bunches of niche clusters in my list of niches. I like the idea of niche clusters because each niche is similarly themed to the other niches in the cluster, so you can do some cautious linking between your sites.
(I wasn't sure if you can give the Keyword Researcher tool a try by signing up for the Wordtracker free trial version, so I signed myself up for it and unfortunately, you can only work with the Keyword Universe tool during the free trial.)
So here's my update: I also began one of my datafeed sites earlier this week. And I have 30 other niches picked out. Out of the remaining 19, I'll probably have about ten or twelve more datafeed sites going. I will start buying more domain names later this week.
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Posted by BJ at 08:54 PM in 50 Affiliate Sites Challenge, Brainstorming and Idea Generation, Niche Marketing | Permalink
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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Brainstorming and Niche Clusters - 50 Affiliate Site Challenge Update:
» Keyword and Niche Research Using Froogle and Google Trends from $250/Day
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Tracked on May 18, 2006 9:40:27 AM
» Keyword and Niche Research Using Froogle and Google Trends from $250/Day
In a recent blog post, BJ revealed a couple of the methods she uses for keyword research and niche finding. The first, Wordtracker, is an old favourite of most SEOs but how many of you have tried out the new Wordtracker Keyword Research tool?
I ... [Read More]
Tracked on May 18, 2006 9:44:47 AM
Comments
BJ,
You could also run your Froogle ideas through Google Trends (which also gives a list of recent searches) to get an idea of search volume, seasonal and regional trends.
Posted by: Peter | May 18, 2006 7:08:08 AM
That's a great idea, Peter. Especially good, too, if you're trying to decide between two niches - it gives you a comparison, doesn't it?
Posted by: BJ | May 18, 2006 5:07:17 PM
I find it very useful for base-lining niche's. I also use dmoz to brainstorm niche's and Google Trends to compare micro-niche's within a broader niche.
Posted by: Peter | May 19, 2006 6:57:25 AM
