subject: Find High Paying Keywords and Watch your Profits Soar [print this page] Getting Started Getting Started
You will first need to find a good keyword research software - one of the most popular tools in use is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, and it's free (if you've read my blog or my articles, you'll know that free is what I'm all about!).
At the top of the page is the search form. It has a field for "Word or phrase" and one for "Website". We'll be using the "Word or phrase" field.
Start Broad, Go Deep
First, choose a general topic - something really broad. Let's do an example. Just for grins, I'll try something insane (honestly, I'm making this up and doing it as I write) - Hmm... my wallpaper is a nice photo of a mountain... We'll try the word "mountain". Type mountain in the "Word or phrase" field, and you get 100 keywords related to "mountain".
Let's look at the results. I see several phrases that pique my interest:
mountain equipment
mountain hardware
mountain climbing
mountain climbing equipment
mountain gear
mountain climbing gear
mountain bike
These results, like most data for keywords, change frequently so your results may be different.
Now your fist inclination may be "mountain bike - I'll find a mountain bike company with an affiliate program and start writing articles about mountain bikes!" Sounds good - the Global Monthly Searches column (3rd column from the left) shows 8,100 searches per month. The competition graph (2nd column) looks a little high - you're looking for graphs with less green in them, but the best way to gauge your competition is to type the keyword (or copy and paste) into a Google search using quotes. The quotes will cause Google only to search for sites that have that exact phrase somewhere in the title, URL or content. IE: if you type "mountain bike" (with quotes), it won't find pages about children's bikes or "Bald Mountain" - it will only search for the whole phrase.
So let's go to Google.com and type "mountain bike" into the search field (with quotes). Click the Search button, and the result count (just below the search field) at this point in time, says "About 11,700,000"! Do you want to compete with over 11 million websites and articles? Probably not.
Let's dig a little deeper. We'll go back to the Google Keyword Tool and type mountain bike into the "Word or phrase" field (without quotes) and click the Search button.
Looking at this new list, I see "trek mountain bike" (lots of monthly searches, low competition graph), "mountain bike reviews" (even less competition), and now, we start to see brand names, such as BMX, Norco, Huffy... Some of the keywords with brand names in them have decent monthly searches and really low competition. Keywords featuring brand names can be a goldmine!
At this point, you might want to take one of those keywords with brand names and see if you can find an affiliate program to market. Or you may want to dig deeper - I noticed a couple of keywords pertaining to mountain bike shoes...
Conclusion
I've covered the basics of keyword research, and how to find high paying keywords that can bring traffic to your articles and ads, and commissions into your pockets! You've learned how to dig down and find the high-traffic, low-competition keywords that you need to get your content seen!
Finding high paying keywords is easy!
Find High Paying Keywords and Watch your Profits Soar
