4 principles for selecting good keywords

One of the starting points of any online marketing efforts is selecting good keywords. My venture into niche blogs is no different. As I tried different methodologies for selecting good keywords, I developed 4 principles for doing so.

Demand
Google Keyword Tools allow you to see monthly search volume for any keyword which is a good proxy for demand. I have learned however that high demand is not sufficient. We need what I called high desperate demand. This refers to people who needs a solution now, rather than just browsing for information. Such keywords will help you to convert users to sale much more effectively. We will take a look at an example in later paragraphs. They key thing is to select keywords that have some decent monthly search.

Supply
Just key in your keyword into google search and you can see how many competing sites are there for your keyword. The lessor the number of competing sites, the lessor your potential competition will be. Beyond this, pay attention to the top page result. See whether these sites have been optimised and whether the content there is relevant. Keywords that give a less relevant top page implies you have a good chance to create relevant content and dominate the top page.

Intention to purchase
A good keyword for niche blogs should have high buying intentions. I don't select keywords that are mostly for people looking for information. Rather, I tried to pick those where users are actually looking to purchase something.

For example, let's look at baby sleep, which is what I am currently working on right now. Some good keywords might be: baby sleep tips, baby sleep information, baby sleep facts etc. However, these are not desperate keywords. People using them are looking for information, rather than desperately trying to find a solution. For this category, desperate keywords might be things like: make baby sleep, putting baby to sleep, baby sleep solutions etc. If you compare the two lists, there is a subtle difference, which might explain why some sites convert better than others.

High revenue keywords
Since the amount of traffic we are getting is defined by the monthly search volume, the only other way to improve revenue is to select keywords that have high CPC or affiliate products that have high payoffs. This is done by usually looking at Clickbank to see what products sell the most and whether they have high commissions. Alternatively, you can also skip over to Google keyword tool and see what is the average CPC.

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6 key elements to creating profitable niche blogs

Continuing from my previous post, I want to outline the 6 key elements I am doing to build my niche blog. Each of these element has much more meat to it, which i will go into for my future posts. Now, I want to simply sketch out what I am doing to give you guys a broad picture first.

1. Keyword research
One of the most element in niche blogs is picking out a niche. Rather than thinking of random ideas, there is actually a well defined methodology using keyword analysis. To understand this, you can imagine the Web as a constant flow of information. People are always looking for something on the Web. These keywords not only help you identify what are people looking for, but also serve as funnels to channel these flows to you. A good keyword research is like building a blueprint for a good funnel system. You need it to build your niche blogs.

2. Finding the right domain
Related to keyword research is finding the right domain. Your domain should contain the keywords that you are targeting. That is a good way to increase your relevance in the niche. However, good domains are getting scare. You need to know how to efficiently search and get the domain you need.

3. Setting up the blog
This is the easy step. I am experimenting now with both Blogger and Wordpress to see which is more suitable. Currently, Wordpress seems to be the better choice. One thing worth noting is the theme to use. Keeping the theme simple and optimized for adsense or other affiliate products is important. We don't need flashy themes for niche blogs.

4. Getting your blog indexed
This is a critical step to begin directing traffic from Google to your site. You can wait for it to happen naturally if you desire but if you want quicker turnaround time, there are a couple of steps you need to do. More importantly, you must recognised that more and more content are getting created everyday so getting indexed will be much harder. I will share what I learn here for the following posts.

5. Creating the content
The key thing to note about creating content is this: posts must be keyword optimized. This does not mean spamming your posts with keywords. Rather, you must research on what are the second level keywords that will support your main keyword and build posts around them. Tags must also be optimized in this way.

6. Creating the revenue streams
There are numerous tools and affiliate programmes to give you revenue. I personally used Adsense, Amazon and Ebay as they are easy to work with. I am learning now not just to use them but to optimise their usage. Take adsense for example. There is a lot of research out there regarding their placement, their font size, the type of ad unit used etc.

Each of these elements has great depth in them and I will be covering them in future posts. If you find any of these interesting, do drop a note to indicate what you want to read more.

Cheers!

Starting from basic

I have been very quiet for the past week as I am embarking on something new. For the past 2 years, I have been talking about abstract concepts and new ideas that need lots of experiments to get right. After 2 such years, I feel that I am getting out of touch with what is real. It is easy to sit here and blog about wonderful opportunities but another thing to realise them. With that in mind, I decide to go back to basic.

The web has its own set of business rules and engagement. I want to do something simple that lets me relearn these rules, both in theory and in execution. I don't want to spend time developing technology or products. I want to go right into business. That is why I decided to go into niche marketing.

There is nothing breakthrough about this. It is simply discovering unique niches i.e. the Long Tail, that are looking for good information and fulfilling them through simple blog sites. Through this simple plan, I am relearning lots of stuff such as keyword research, affiliate marketing, effective outsourcing, and tons of other stuff. These are the nitty gritty of an online business and I am loving the fact that I am doing them all.

So, for those wondering what am I up to, that is what I have been busy with. I will posting about this more in the future. If you have no interest in that, I apologize for my shift in my content and thank you in advance for your past attention if you decide not to follow this blog anymore.

Can we use the GasBuddy model to create efficient economies for other industries?

I just finished reading "Content Nation" and it is a nice book that summarises a lot of what we know. I particularly like the rules that encapsulates the spirit of what each section is about. One such rule states that:

Empowering anyone to understand supply and demand builds efficient economies that benefit the most people

This is a thoughtful statement and the example given is GasBuddy, which is a website that enables users to learn about gas prices in US and Canada. It is a simple and powerful illustration of the kind of information that reveals demand and supply. Umair Haque talks about creating more markets. Revealing demand and supply is the perquisite to doing so.

Now, which industries do you think is in desparate need for a GasBuddy equvialent? On top of my head: Health Care services, Legal Services, Photography, Financial Products, Medicial drugs etc.

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The next generation of edge feeders

Fred Wilson talked about edge feeders in 2005:

Flickr is an edge feeder and the best one I know of. I could take my photos and simply post them to my blog. But I don't do that. I put them on Flickr and then from Flickr, I post them to my blog. Flickr makes that dead simple. But they also give me a badge to show aggregated photos. And they let me post other's photos to my blog. They are the photo feeder of the blog world.

Blip.tv, vimeo, and youtube are the video feeders. I could post a video directly to my blog, but I don't. I post it to vimeo, youtube, or blip.tv, and then from there I post it to my blog. These services are rolling out lots of video specific blog integration techniques that will make it even easier to be a video content creator living on the edge.

Delicious is a link feeder. I could post a linkroll to my blog, but I don't. I use delicious to host all of my links, and I use a tag (mine is linkroll) to feed my linkroll. Delicious makes it easier to be a link content creator living on the edge.

Add to these are newer services like slideshare, scribd, last.fm, zemanta etc. Edge feeders are very powerful businesses as they are viral in nature. If a blogger embeds one of these in his blog, and if his readers like it, they will also embed it in their blogs, spreading the service wide and fast.

To me however, these are first generation edge feeders. They feed the personalised media channels that services like blogger, tumblr and twitter have enabled. How they serve it is very similar to how traditional media is broadcasting its content: mostly one way and lack of real interactivity.

Now, we are seeing the next generation of edge feeder like prezi. It torn itself away from our accepted definition of how powerpoint should behave and adapt it for the Web world. It turn linear sequenced slides into notes that jumps around, back and forth, in and out. What this does is creating a fun product that is both entertaining to use as well as leveraging on the medium to which it is created for. To me, that is how the next generation of edge feeders should be.

Are there opportunities then to reinvent the current edge feeders? To have a prezi for each type of media?

Simple idea: A personalised techmeme based on blogrolls

As an fund administrator, I need to keep up with the latest developments in the industries that I am responsible for. Hence, I always on the lookout for good blogs to follow as well as new ways to keep myself updated. Recently, because of helping a team in the ebook sector, I have been following on the developments in the book publishing sector. Yesterday, I stumbled upon a book publicity blog that has these relevant links on its blogroll.

Currently, I need to read those links, one at a time, to assess whether I should follow them. There are a host of problems with this approach. Firstly, it is too time consuming. Imagine I have to repeat this process for every new industry I need to learn and the problem becomes magnified. Also, there are a lot of dead links. Finally, I don't know which one of these links are the most visited by the blog author.

There is service called blogrollr that I think solves part of these problems. What they do is to track your browsing activity and create a dynamic blogroll based on the most visited blogs for that day. Go to Fred Wilson's site if you want to see it in action. It elegantly solves the problem of dead links and lack of recommendations.

However, I still need to read the links one at a time. I need a service that takes all these links as inputs and create a personalised techmeme for me to read and browse. Maybe blogrollr will evolve that service or maybe they can have an API for others to build it.

The context for real time search

Vertical search used to be a hot topic in 2006-07, with search being applied to horizontal industries like travel, B2B (see this article for a big list of such search engines), products, health, people etc. Read this 2006 readwriteweb article for a good refresher. In 2009, many of these vertical search sites are still around and are in fact, prospering.

Now, with real time expanding the perimeters of search, will we see similar verticals being pop up? That was the question I kept asking myself after talking to a couple of entrepreneurs who want to build alternatives to Twitter search. They argued that real time search shouldn't be confine to what Twitter provides. There is room for different forms of search that build on real time conversations.

This sounds reasonable to me and is worth supporting to explore how real time search will evolve. Currently in the real time search arena, we have general search companies like Topsy, Collecta, Crowdeye as well as vertical search like Twitseeker (for people search), TwitterJobSearch (for job serach), PicFog (for image search) etc. There is no clear winner yet but it is informative to watch how these services evolve.

The big challenge to me is to think about the context of which real time matters and therefore how real time search matters. Emergence plays a big part. When you want to know emerging thoughts, patterns, trends etc, real time search becomes critical. Think about reactions to product launches, about the spread of virus, about unfolding of events like sports, weddings, disasters etc. All these are context where real time matters.

I am sure there is more context surrounding real time search. What are your views?

Quick riches versus long term value

Creating real value for the long term has been the basis for the ideas I have talked about in this blog. This is of course large influenced by the likes of Umair Haque, Taylor Davidson etc. However, this post by one of our incubators has let me wondering about the merits of such thinking:

take a winning formula and adopt it to a new platform. Almost seems like a cookie cutter formula for success, provided you can execute well.

The key for me is the definition of success. If your business is solely in it for the purpose of making money, then I think what Kenneth is saying makes sense. Don't be too fanciful. Take something proven, adapt it for the new platform or markets, and launch it well. Scott Rafer (during his unconfernce speech in Singapore) mentions similar things as well. Don't try to innovate too much. Do something dumb like directory services, data collection etc but make sure the market is big enough.

On the other hand, trying to create real value seems to require more experiments and innovations. Daring to push the boundaris and test new forms of thinking are essential to reshape outdated economics. The end might not be clear but at least there is something worth fighting for in the things you do.

Of course, both might not be mutually exclusive. You can copy a model that creates lots of value, liking developing a Hello Health for Asia.

What is your view? Am I making any sense after the long break?

Thanks for all your comments

I am finally back home after a wonderful break. Lots of new perspectives and stuff to share. Greece is really a beautiful country. I intend to upload some of my photos here once I got them sorted.

I wanted to return back to blogging again but a bad news greeted my arrival yesterday. My wife's grandma just passed away yesterday morning so I had to rush back to Malaysia to settle the funeral arrangement. It wasn't a pleasant return but it did get me thinking about lots of stuff.

Before I end, just wanted to thank everyone for their comments on my last post. Wasn't really expecting so many responses but they made all the difference in the world.

Taking a break from blogging and from everyday life

In recent weeks, I have found blogging to be quite tiring. I have not any new thoughts or inspirations to share and forcing myself to write for writing sake is quite painful. I have decided to take a 2 weeks break from blogging and spend them in the lovely country of Greece to reflect upon the future direction of this blog.

This is reflective of what I am experiencing from my everyday life as well. I felt that I have hit the limit of what I can learn and contribute in my current job. Maybe it is time to move on. Time to seek new learning experiences and to 'unlearn' what I have been thinking upon.

This blog hasn't got many readers but for those who bother to check it out regularly, I thank you for your attention. Your attention and your comments are what made blogging worth it. If you have ideas of what I can do in terms of blogging, do leave them in the comments although I would not be responding for the next 2 weeks.

It has been a fun ride so far but it is time to self reflect.

6 examples of mobile applications to enhance reality

One of the exciting things about mobile is its ability to enhance our understanding of the physical world by drawing in information from the online space. We are now just beginning to explore the possibilities but the early signs are already encouraging. Here are some of these interesting applications:

Sky Map	Ekin	WikiTude
Oedo Yokdi	Total Immersion	Invizimals

Sky Map
A new program called Sky Map uses not only GPS signals to tell users what stars and planets are visible in the sky at their location, but actually shows what celestial objects the phone is pointed at. Because it doesn't need to see anything, the program works if you point your phone through the Earth, so you can see what people on the opposite hemisphere might be looking at. You can also search for objects of interest, like Mars, and Sky Map will show you where to look for them.

Enkin
"Enkin" introduces a new handheld navigation concept. It displays location-based content in a unique way that bridges the gap between reality and classic map-like representations. It combines GPS, orientation sensors, 3D graphics, live video, several web services, and a novel user interface into an intuitive and light navigation system for mobile devices.

WikiTude
Wikitude is a mobile travel guide for the Android platform based on location-based Wikipedia and Qype content. It is a handy application for planning a trip or to find out about landmarks in your surroundings

Oedo Yokdi
"Oedo Yokai" is a book on the Japanese "Yokai" (Sprites and Spirits). It is a collection of "Yokai" stories associated with the areas near the subway stations of the Oedo Line in Tokyo, Japan. You can also summon Netsuke sculptures of each "Yokai" in the book and collect them at your leisure.

Total Immersion
Allows users to take images of cars and then manipulate the digital version of the cars including the ability to change colours and rotate the view.

Invizimals
This kid-targeted title uses the PSP Camera/Go!Cam (still unavailable in the U.S.) to find hidden monsters around their homes, which they can capture with real-life trap pieces, then trade or battle them against each other locally or online. The ability to cast spells like earthquakes by shaking the system, or lightning strikes from shadows players cast is particularly cool. It even has a very DS-like feature in which players blow into the system mic to create a snowstorm.