Smarter SEO: How to Own ANY Niche

Just ten years ago if you wanted to profit in a niche market it was typically an expensive and risky undertaking. First you had to do the research to see if the industry was big enough to support you. Then you would setup a shop of some sort, whether it was a storefront, mall kiosk, or kitchen table, run a mail order company and tons of little classified ads to bring in the business. It usually took at least six months to see if a profit was likely in your future and finding good suppliers for specialty items could be just as demanding as selling the stuff you managed to get hold of. Thanks to the Web, those days are long gone.

Today, with a little basic information and $50 you can have a nice niche thing going. Or with that same $50 and some hard won insider tips you can OWN any niche you want. That is what we will focus on.

First things first, spend wisely. Setup a budget early on and find ways to stay within it. Use free tools whenever possible and when you do need to spend money on something, make sure it is a bargain. Okay, now for the good stuff. Let us start with finding our keywords.

Part One: Finding Keywords
Finding Keywords 1:
We can use a free tool to do this part. Go to Google Keyword Tool and type in a common word or phrase that describes your niche (check the Use synonyms box to get the best variety of results.)

Finding Keywords 2:
Now click on the "Approx Avg Search Volume" header to sort by the average monthly volume. You are going to take each of the search terms that look like good possible keywords and run a search on Google for them. But let us keep track. Take a sheet of paper (or Excel doc) and jot down the keyword, then the "Approx Avg Search Volume" and finally the number of pages returned on Google.

Finding Keywords 3:
When you have that information for a good handful of keywords you want to come up with a success potential ratio for each. It is easy. Just divide the "Approx Avg Search Volume" by the number of pages on Google. This is your success potential ratio. The higher the number; the better.

Example A: Approx Avg Search Volume (6,500) / Matching Pages on Google (100,000) = .065 is your Success Potential Ratio

Example B: Approx Avg Search Volume (9,750) / Matching Pages on Google (233,000) = .042 is your Success Potential Ratio

Example B has a lot more searches performed but with even more competition than A. Long story short, this means the keyword from Example A is likely our best bet to target.

To be continued..