Give 'em What They Want
Author: Elena Fawkner
People go online for many reasons. Some "surf", just to see what's
out there, but most are much more specific in their objectives. They
want to know about something and they turn to the Internet to find
what they're looking for. At its most basic level, what is the ONE
thing that 99% of all website visitors are looking for? You got it ...
information.
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That's why "information is king" is such a constant refrain, it's why
e-books have become such a popular medium for both author and
reader (instant sales, instant access) and it's why everyone, ANY
one, has the opportunity to make money with their computers.
This is not yet another article rehashing the benefits of creating
an information product (you know that already, already) and it's
not YET another article regurgitating the same old marketing
principles (you know you need to get the word out about your
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--------------------information product and there are no end of useful resources out
there to tell you exactly how). What this article is about is what
your information product should be about.
Although it's true that the Internet audience is so vast that virtually
any subject matter will have a market, actually finding that market
may not be so easy. Or, let's say that you know you can put words
together, you have a broad base of experience to draw from or you
know you can find out what you need to know about a particular
subject in order to write an information product about it.
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---------------------Well, here's something to consider. Instead of following the
traditional path of deciding what you're going to write about, writing
it and then going about finding people who are interested in reading
what you've written, how about researching the market and finding
out what people want to read about BEFORE writing an information
product to meet that need? The advantage of this approach is that
you know your market exists before you start writing, you can find
out about your market and what it is they really want to know,
meaning you can write a highly relevant information product responsive
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--------------------to that demand and, just as important, as you will see, you know
exactly where your market is and how to reach it.
Let's start at the beginning. I bought Web Position Gold a couple
of weeks ago. I wanted to use it create doorway pages that would
rank well with the search engines, drive traffic to my site, yada
yada yada. Yeah, so? Well, most uncharacteristically, I decided
to follow the instructions. The first step was to "target keywords
you think people would type in the search engines to find the type
of products or services you offer". Well ... DUH. But, just for the
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--------------------hell of it, and since I was, after all, following The Instructions,
I decided to read the "Choosing Keywords" topic "for more
information on choosing effective keywords!".
Here's an extract:
"Target the wrong keywords and all your efforts will be in vain.
Choose the right keywords, and you'll see your traffic skyrocket.
Therefore, think long and hard on what keywords people are likely
to use to find you. ...
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---------------------"The question to ask yourself is how do you really know if you're
optimizing your pages for keywords that Web surfers are looking
for? There are several good techniques you can apply to
determine what people might be searching for ...
"However, the best way is to stop guessing and actually SEE
what people are searching for."
I followed this advice and tried the keyword generator service
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--------------------they recommended (see below for links).
Now, remember, at this point all I was trying to do was to come
up with a list of keywords relevant to the subject matter of my
site that I should target with doorway pages to drive traffic to my
site. I signed up for a one-day membership with Word Tracker for
something like $6. Amazingly enough, I followed the instructions
there too. I ended up with hundreds of potential keywords to target,
all of which were actual search terms entered by users over the
past 60 days.
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--------------------Although all of the keywords I expected to find were there (and well
serviced by my competitors I may add), right there, at the top
of the list for each search engine, were some keywords I would
NEVER have thought to target and neither, it appeared, had my
competitors.
Here's the stats (I'm not revealing the keywords themselves for
reasons which will become obvious if they're not already):
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---------------------Keyword Number* Competing*
#1 238 1
#2 268 14
#3 2,399 184
#4 556 21
* The Number column represents the number of times this
particular keyword has been searched for within the past 30
days. The Competing column shows the number of competing
sites targeting that keyword.
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--------------------Now, this information is fine and dandy for doorway page creation.
Just target the keywords that are highly sought after with relatively
low competition (there is a Keyword Effectiveness Index number
also provided which "compares the 24 hour result with the number
of competing web pages to pinpoint exactly which keywords are
most effective for your campaign". The higher the KEI, the more
popular the keywords are and the less competition they have),
create doorway pages that target these keywords, submit them
to the search engines and, assuming your pages are structured
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--------------------to rank well with the particular search engine involved (which is
where Web Position Gold comes in), you should be able to get
a reasonable ranking.
But for me, the true revelation was discovering a subject matter
sought by a significant segment of my market but which was largely
being ignored by me and my competition. In other words, I had
discovered an all-important niche market. The subject matter
involved is very specific and narrow. It is a simple matter for me to
research this subject and create an information product to meet
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---------------------this demand. Which, of course, I intend to do. And which, of
course, is why I'm not telling you what it is!
And, once I've created my information product, how do I reach
my market? Simple. I use the very same keywords that I know
people are entering to find my product, create doorway pages for
those keywords and voila! ... a targeted information product to a
targeted niche market. My market may not number in the
thousands every month, only the hundreds. But of those hundreds,
a significant proportion are highly motivated to purchase my
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--------------------product because, as the above analysis shows, they have a
need that is currently not being met. What would you rather have,
500 prospective customers, 20% of whom actually buy from you
(100 sales) or 5,000 prospective customers, 1% (if that) of whom
actually buy from you (50 sales)?
Targeting your niche means narrowing your focus, devoting your
energies towards a smaller but more highly targeted market.
What you lack in terms of sheer numbers of prospects you will
more than make up for on your bottom line.
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--------------------So, bringing it all together, start with a broad subject matter that
you know something about or that interests you enough that you
can acquire the requisite knowledge within a relatively short period
of time. Follow the steps that I went through with the keyword
generator and see if, like me, you can identify a niche market that
is underserviced. If so, create an information product that satisfies
that unmet need and promote it by targeting the very same
keywords that you used to identify the niche in the first place.
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---------------------Do this and, unlike the millions who have devoted their life's work
to writing information products about Internet Marketing, you can
actually stand a chance of making a valuable and original
contribution to the body of work available on the Internet today
and get paid real money for your efforts.
About the Author
Elena Fawkner is editor of A Home-Based Business Online ...
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--------------------practical home business ideas for the work-from-home
entrepreneur. http://www.ahbbo.com
...