Creating Affiliate Sites

Last week we did some preliminary research, using the free trial at WordTracker. This week we'll look at more in-depth Keyword Research and Competition Analysis, and how to use that data to develop your website or advertising campaign.

Our example keywords were "tv" and "television".
You can see the results that we got from WordTracker in last week's issue.

Out of the initial results, the two keywords that stood out to me were "plasma" and "lcd". You'll remember that this research was prompted by my interest in the local media promotions of the new style televisions that are now available - and that we found affiliate programs for these types of TV's.

Now we are ready to "dig deeper" into PLASMA and LCD, so that we can determine how many people are searching for these products, how they are searching for them, and what the competition looks like.

Here is our revised list from the initial results, containing only the keywords that are associated with PLASMA or LCD:

plasma tv 2566
plasma television 340
plasma televisions 298

lcd tv 1867
lcd television 375
lcd televisions 349

Two things to note:

1) WordTracker shows us the approximate number of DAILY searches. Overture, or any tool using Overture's database, shows us the approximate number of searches done in a month. In addition, the numbers will vary as each tool queries different sources to gather this data.

This is NOT an exact science ;)

2) You should never use a "general" keyword in your marketing campaigns - whether you are promoting via SEO or PPC, or any other method. General words, such as "TV" or "television", simply do not convert well. Very specific keywords, or search terms, are much more focused - and more likely to attract an interested, and perhaps even pre-sold, buyer.

In fact, "sharp aquos 26 inch lcd tv" is a better keyword to use than just "lcd tv". The person that typed that into Google or Yahoo KNOWS what they are looking for, and now they are looking for more information or for the best deal. They are more than likely "pre-sold" on this exact model.

Obviously those specific or obscure search terms receive less searches per day or month than the more general terms. However, they convert MUCH better, so it's a good trade-off ;) But more about how you can use them ALL in your marketing campaign later - for now, let's continue the Keyword Research.

I'm going to start by looking into the LCD TV's, because as you'll remember, I was specifically interested in the Phillip's TV that is being heavily promoted on television lately...

I generally use Keywords Analyzer for more in-depth brain-storming, or I purchase one-day access to WordTracker. Since I already own the Keywords Analyzer program, it is easiest for me to start with - and in the case that I want to analyze the data to every extreme, I will also use WordTracker's paid service and then import those results into Keywords Analyzer. More on that later as well...

When I type LCD into Keywords Analyzer, this is what I see:
http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/keywords/lcd.html
(click to open the screenshot in a new window)

As you can see, KA shows me 100 related keyword phrases, as well as:

- Number of searches per month
- Number of results in the search engines
- Number of Adwords & Overture Campaigns

I can "dig deeper" by selecting any one of those keyword phrases, then right click on it and choose "new search". This will allow me to see 100 more keyword phrases containing the phrase that I chose from the main list.

I chose to look into "lcd tv", which has over 50,000 searches a month.
According to WordTracker, approximately 1,867/day.

These are the new results, containing the phrase "lcd tv":
http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/keywords/lcd-tv.html
(click to open the screenshot in a new window)

From these results, you can see that Sharp and Sony LCD TV's are very popular, and that there are many people coming online to search for Reviews. There are a couple of things you want to do, though, before you dive in head first and create a full-blown website to promote Sharp LCD TV's:

1) Analyze the Competition

and 2) Compare Affiliate Programs

Also, it's worth noting that there were a lot of interesting keywords in our research so far, and you can easily "dig deeper" into each of those and most likely come out with some really great results to work with. For the sake of this example we'll stick to LCD TV's - focusing on Sharp. You should keep all of your research data, though, as it may come in handy as you proceed ;)

Let's take a look at the Competition...

To dig just a little bit deeper, I did a search for "sharp lcd" within Keywords Analyzer. You can view those results here:
http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/keywords/sharp-lcd.html
(click to open the screenshot in a new window)

What we see here:

There are 4,994 searches per month for "sharp lcd tv".
There are 1,052 searches per month for "sharp lcd television".

There are 50+ Adwords Campaigns running for both of those phrases, but only 19-27 currently running at Overture.

Within Keywords Analyzer, I can highlight "sharp lcd tv" and look at the most commonly used URL's in those Adwords ads. I do this because I am curious to know if most of the advertisers are affiliates, and if so - if they are affiliates through the same merchant, or different merchants.

This would be a good place to find a variety of affiliate programs to research ;)

I saved those results so that you could see them as well:
http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/keywords/sharp-lcd-links.html
(click to open the screenshot in a new window)

I see plasmabay.com, bestbuyplasma.com, tigerdirect.com - and plenty of others. From here, you can visit each of those sites and take a look at the Affiliate Program that they offer.

You can also look at the Titles of those ads that are showing on Adwords for "sharp lcd tv":
http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/keywords/sharp-lcd-titles.html
(click to open the screenshot in a new window)

It's obviously very competitive (that must mean the advertisers are making money!!), so let's move away from Adwords and look at the SEO potential. Getting a top ten listing - for free - beats paid advertising any day of the week ;)

Again:

There are 4,994 searches per month for "sharp lcd tv".
There are 1,052 searches per month for "sharp lcd television".

If you go to Yahoo.com and type "sharp lcd tv" into the search field, you'll see that the first organic result is SharpUSA.com

You can see how many "backward links" they have by typing:

link:http://www.sharpusa.com

... into the search box. Backward links are links pointing to that URL (not to the "site" but to that specific page, which in this case is the main page of the site) FROM another URL (or web page).

The number of backward links that you can obtain from relevant web pages has an effect on how well that page ranks in the major search engines. This is in addition to your "on-the-page optimization", so you'll want to make sure that you know how to optimize a web page correctly - and then you can work on gaining the number of Inbound or Backward Links that you will need to improve your ranking.

Back to our research, SharpUSA.com has almost 2,000 backward links. If you search for "sharp lcd tv" (without quotes) on Google.com, the 3rd result is: avdeals.com/sharplcd/sharplcd.htm .

We have to go back to Yahoo.com to find out how many backward links this URL has, because Google does not give an accurate number. In Yahoo's search box, you can type:

link:http://www.avdeals.com/sharplcd/sharplcd.htm

They show 31 backward links for this URL. You probably only see 3 of those results. You'll have to click "repeat the search with the omitted results included" to see them all. You'll find that most of those links come from their own domain (avdeals.com).

If we go back to Google and look at the 4th result for "sharp lcd tv" (without quotes), we find: sharp.co.uk/ . Again, we switch back to Yahoo and look at the backward links for this URL.

There are over 2,000.

So how is it that the 3rd page listed only had 31 backward links, yet ranked higher than the 4th page which had over 2,000?

Good question!

There are a lot of variables, including the on-the-page optimization factors, but one thing that we could look at is how relevant those backward links are, and what the anchor text of each link is.

Again, I should stop and say that I am NOT an SEO Expert. You'll want to give serious consideration to Sharon & Roy's class if you are interested in learning in-depth SEO strategies: http://www.iwon.net/seo/class-description/

Looking at that 3rd result (avdeals.com/sharplcd/sharplcd.htm) and their backward links, I noticed that the first one that Yahoo listed had an image linked to this page, with the alt text "Sharp LCD TV". This is what you call "anchor text" - it is either in the "alt" code of an image that is linked to your page, or it is the text that is linked to on a web page.

Most of their other pages contain a link that says "Back to Sharp LCD Main". Again, using the keywords "sharp lcd" in their anchor text.

Most of the backward links for sharp.co.uk/ are using the anchor text "Sharp" or a variety of other product names and keywords.

Just to go a step further, let's look at the 5th result on Google.com for "sharp lcd tv", which is: danchan.com/feature/2001/04/28/sharplcd/sharplcd.htm

Using Yahoo to look up the backward links for this URL, I find 149. Most of those, again, are from their own domain (danchan.com).

My (non-expert, super-quick) conclusion:

You could easily obtain a top 5 listing on Google for "sharp lcd tv" with 30-100 relevant backward links that use "sharp lcd tv" in the anchor text.

By "relevant" I mean that the links point to YOUR page from another web page that has relevant content (about sharp, or tv's or LCD)... that is not on your domain. A link from any other relevant site - to yours.

Yahoo results do seem a bit more competitive - especially with three large blocks containing sponsors links at the very top of their results page for this term.

Interestingly, you'll remember that Overture (which is PPC Ads displayed on Yahoo, among other major search engines) was less competitive than Adwords. So if I were to proceed with this project... I would optimize for a top ten listing on Google, and pay for sponsored listings on Yahoo.

Another point to make: Since Adwords is very competitive for this term, yet it is relatively easy to optimize for a top ten listing in Google's search results... you may do very well to create a Review page on Sharp LCD TV's and use Adsense to earn commission from click-through's to the other advertisers ;)

You can also go back and follow these same steps to research the keyword phrase: "sharp lcd television". Or any number of search terms that you run across in your keyword research.

There is a lot more that could be said here, but I'm about ready for a coffee break - how about you? :) Let's pick up here in next week's issue, where I'll show you how to use "Competition" to your advantage... and talk more about your Link Strategy.

Please keep in mind that the above keywords and details were only used here for the sake of example. Plug your own keywords in, in place of the ones used here, and you may have a brand new 'profitable website' idea by the end of the day! (That said, I am not planning to promote Sharp LCD TV's myself, so by all means - go for it, if you like!)

HERE ARE THE TOOLS THAT YOU NEED:

The WordTracker Free Trial

Keywords Analyzer ($14 Discount for SSWT Subscribers)

Basic Website Templates (These are NICE - only $5/ea)

Have a Super-Profitable Week!!

Lynn Terry, Site Admin
Lynn@SelfStartersWeeklyTips.com

p.s. Paul Short, Willie Crawford, Michel Fortin, Sharon & Roy Montero, Mike Merz and Becky Hagel make up the Panel of Advisors at Turning Ideas Into Dollars!, along with myself, and my partner Andre Chaperon.

If you would like to work one-on-one with ME, and with my own personal mentors in business, Turning Ideas Into Dollars is the place to be!

Creating Affiliate Sites, Part 2