If you'd like, open up some browser tabs (or windows) so you can follow along with this lesson. In one tab, open up:
Google Keyword Tool
In another tab open up the Google Search Engine.
The following information is taken from what I wrote to an artist friend of mine who was wanting to sell his paintings online:
If you have a particular area that you have an interest in, start with
Google Keyword Tool
Just enter a "keyword," an area that may be of interest to you. There are other tools like "Wordtracker, Nichebot, etc. You can try those out too.
Type in the keyword "paintings" using the keyword tool and see what you get for that search term (and related terms). Around 143,000 searches done a month for just that term. Doesn't tell you much though. Now, look at all the other searches done relating to the term "paintings." Gives you a better idea of exactly what people are searching for. If you click on those terms it will take you even further into a niche (which then gives you a "long-tail keyword" that can be used for affiliate marketing.
The secret of getting high placement on the search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. is to understand the use of targeted "keywords" in the content of your website or blog. I don't know how much you may already know about doing targeted keyword research so I'll explain the fundamentals here. I'll use an example.
Go to the Google search engine and type in a search for "painting". The search results come up with 21,400,000 web pages (the "results" can be seen at the top of the page). Way too much competition for that search term.
Now type in "ship paintings". Be sure to include quotation marks. The results now are 8,610 web pages. Much more easy to compete with that keyword term. But let's see if we can dig further into a niche that may be even more targeted.
Type in "sailing ship paintings" (be sure to once again include quotation marks). 432 results!! Very easy to compete with. Do you understand the idea? Now the keyword tool shows that there were about 100+ searches a month for that term. A very small niche and not enough searches for my taste, but it takes a little more research to find out what kind of sailing ship paintings are popular. I usually look for 500+ searches a month with less than 5,000 search results (using the keyword phrase in quotations in a google search).
The reason to use quotation marks with the keywords is that it will give you that exact phrase that people use. Otherwise, without quotation marks you will get in the search results terms like "painting ships" or just "ships" which you do not need in your results.
For "sailing ship paintings" 432 results means that there is low competition for this phrase, meaning that if you were to advertise your "sailing ship painting" through articles you can easily get high placement on the search engines for free.
Also, take note of all of the paid advertisements on the right side of the google results. Those advertisers are paying out money every single time someone clicks on their ad. It's called pay per click advertising. It also shows that there is significant market for this type of painting.
What I'm talking about with article writing is getting free advertisements through the "organic search results" that you see on the regular listings. The idea is to get on the first page.
For articles, use the keyword phrase in the title and a few times in the body of the text. Google is very smart so you do not want to just stuff the article with keywords. Content and good info is super important. The ad can be anywhere from 200-400 words. I also use Craigslist. Craigslist is great because not only does it show on the site itself but the ads will show up on Google searches. The only thing is that you cannot use affiliate links. The way around it is to link to your own site page and then link to the affiliate site. With Craigslist, you can keep the ad fairly short and simple. Just remember to use the keywords in the title and also a few times in the content of the ad.
I also use Squidoo. Here's a sample of my squidoo site:
http://www.squidoo.com/easywebsitebuilderreview/
I have a blog called "Accessing Your Higher Self". (http://accessingyourhigherself.wordpress.com) Do a google search for that term. No need to even use quotation marks because I optimized the site for that keyword phrase. My site is on the first page. It's a wordpress blog. As of today it is in position #2 out of 6,000,000 search results without the quotation marks. It is a super targeted keyword that I use and gets about 6-20 visits to my site every day. May not be much but I just started the blog in July.
The resource that has been most helpful to me has been "Wealthy Affiliate."
The above link is my affiliate link to their site. I promote it because they have been extremely helpful. The owners, Kyle and Carson respond to questions that I might have. They also have a forum that is quite active (and friendly). They have modules that step you through the process. Most of what I learned about affiliate marketing was from Wealthy Affiliate. I have been a member since earlier this year and continue to learn from them. The subscription is $39.95/month. For that price you also get 3 hosting accounts, a website builder (Site Rubix, which requires no HTML skills) and all the lessons module you'll need for affiliate marketing and more. Sorry if I'm sounding like a salesman, that's not my intention :-) For me it's a pretty good deal. They also have keyword search tools and… really the whole package. Check it out for yourself and see. The members are very helpful, and most of my questions are answered through the forum. Whatever is not answered, I go straight to Kyle or Carson.
Anyway, would love to hear how you've been doing. Let's meet for a cup of coffee sometime if you're up for it.
I know this is a lot of info but it's something that's been fun, and the sales are starting to come in. Not enough to live on but I see how the mechanism works. I think if you have any networking skills and marketing sense, you'll do quite well with it. It's not complicated once you get in to it.
Here is a sample of some of my sites:
http://manakastudios.com
http://accessingyourhigherself.wordpress.com
http://yourhappybirthdaywish.com/
I also write articles (which is important to generate traffic to your sites). Here's an example from Ezinearticles.com.
Anyway, hope this helps. Let me know if you want to meet sometime!
