Confidence Lacking? Limit Your Competition
January 14th, 2008 by CourtEvery time I see a newbie start a blog that has make money online or internet marketing in the title, it makes me pretty sad. Why? Because selecting those keywords will only do one thing to aspiring marketers - it will make them think that search engine optimization and keyword sniping are impossible.
The truth is, it’s actually pretty easy to get ranked for most keywords. Sadly, most newbies pick the hardest ones on the planet and then wonder why their efforts don’t make any difference. Guys, why would you want to compete with the best people on the internet when you’re just starting out? Here’s a better question - why are you surprised that you don’t have any confidence?
If you want to become a decent tennis player do you really think would be in your best interest to play Roger Federer every day? Cocky people would say heck yes it would be good to play Roger all the time, until they actually played him and found out that they couldn’t even get the racket on the ball. If you never even get to hit the ball, how are you going to get better at tennis?
Ok guys if you really want to do yourself a favor I want you to go through a very basic exercise. Use Wordze or Wordtracker free to find a keyword today. Now guys it doesn’t matter how much search volume this keyword has. The whole point of this exercise is to find a keyword that has very little competition so that you can get ranked #1 in Google - on purpose. If this keyword has even 20 searches per day it will be the most valuable thing you will ever do.
To find out how much competition this keyword has, I want you to search for the keyword in Google with quotation marks around it: “your keyword here”. You will only go after a keyword if it has less than 5,000 results in Google.
Now once you have your keyword, you will do one of two things. You can either buy a domain (I use ProudDomains.com) to set up a WordPress blog, or you can set up a Blogspot blog. I personally would buy a domain but for this exercise it’s perfectly fine to set up a blog on Blogspot.
Once you have a small site set up, I want you to follow the principles of keyword sniping. Getting a site ranked #1 in Google will help you to see that you actually know a lot more than you thought and will give you the confidence that you need to take on a heavier keyword.
When I first started doing this stuff, I chose a keyword that was very competitive. It took me almost a full year to get ranked for that keyword, and I didn’t know if I was doing it right during that entire time period. I can’t tell you how much I wish I would have started with something less competitive. It would have helped me to better understand the concepts behind search engine optimization.
Guys I really hope that you will buy into this exercise. It’s impossible to do any testing if you’re hovering above page 50 for competitive keywords and I want you to start believing that you can do this! Get started and I would love to hear from you if you get involved with this stuff.
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January 14th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Hey Court,
What do you think about using misspelled keywords? Any advice for sniping a keyword that is a misspelling of another keyword?
January 14th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Mispelled words is a great idea. Check out this site that searches ebay for mispelled words:
http://www.auctionintelligence.com/
January 14th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I’ve had it work for me before Fred but I’ve never dedicated an entire site to one before. I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Yeah, not only is internet marketing full of competitors, they are the smartest competitors in terms of SEO! If you just pick the right niche though, SEO can be simple.
I don’t get much SE traffic for my internet marketing blog, but for lots of other niches, I can actually watch my pages show up in Google on the first couple pages and then move up to the top spots
January 14th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Good advices for newbies.
Thank you very much because Im newbie star!!!
January 14th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Props to you, Court:
I understand that the point of this exercise is to prove that anyone can get to the top of the SE with a low-competition, low-searched keyword…
But, when I achieve my goal, what do I do then?
Is it worth trying to monetize this site?
And something I’ve always wondered…suppose I “out SEO” other sites in the SE, how do I compete with a professionally “tricked-out” deep-pocketed corporate site with a huge amount of content, graphics, etc.?
January 14th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
I also wanted to thank you for the “heads-up” on the WordZe free trial.
I jumped on it right away…Thanks again, Court.
January 14th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
“Every time I see a newbie start a blog that has make money online or internet marketing in the title, it makes me pretty sad.”
not everybody starts a blog to rank highly.
they are great tools for networking and shooting the breeze also.
I started 45n5.com in 2005 just to have a place to chat about what i was doing to make money online and find a few like minded folks.
January 14th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Mark you’re anything but a newbie.
They really are great tools for networking. My entire site is dedicated to teaching people how to make money with the internet though Mark and with that perspective in mind there are about 1000 directions that people should go before they try to start a site like ours!
I get the feeling that quite a few people are trying to hit the big time by using the John Chow method and that is pretty hard to do in my opinion.
January 14th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
for sure I think the john chow wannabees are dead in the water
January 14th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Court,
You are so right and people in this blog need to listen and take action. You have laid all the ground work needed. Pick a term and go for it.
January 14th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Got to tell you Court. I am taking your advice. I have set up one site slready for the purposes of sniping, and I am getting ready to put together another one. Great advice. Hope people take it to heart.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Court,
How is it that one can be #10 on “page one” on Google for a keyword that receives over 2,000 searches per day and get only a few clicks per day?
I’ve always thought that page one for a keyword getting that many searches per day should bring more hits than this.
Keyword was found on wordtracker and wordze.
What gives?
January 15th, 2008 at 9:29 am
jimmy you can have a drop of 10% or more per spot do he math. I have found that I try to be top five on page one if not I look at it like I am done.
Now keep this in mind trickle traffic in a high CPC arena can be more profitable then 20k hits a day.
January 14th, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Court,
Often, when someone first starts out with a blog, they know nothing about SEO and keywords. Just mastering the blog platform is a big feat. Hopefully they will be lucky enough to find blogs like yours and start down the path to success.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
The whole niche thing is so very simple. The thing as Court has said before is the fact that people question what he tells you works. If you do everyday if only for 30 mins a day what he tells you will get you links and traffic then you are set. Its not an overnight thing, but it is also not that hard as people think.
A niche blog does not need a lot of visitors. The clicks can be very high. And if this is the case you only need 100 or fewer visitors per day. This is why it is good to start very low competitively as Court has mentioned. This will start giving you confidence.
January 15th, 2008 at 12:49 am
I’m new to this blog, so I was wondering, what does “sniping” mean, and what is SEO?
January 15th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Sushi there’s a link above that takes you to an introduction to keyword sniping. Click on ‘keyword sniping’.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:48 am
Great post Court,
I have learned many useful resources from your blog. Thanks for sharing this information and hope to read more from you.
January 15th, 2008 at 5:12 am
Hi Court,
I set up a niche blog before Xmas and posted about 6 posts to it and then left it because I was busy with other things.
After reading this post I quickly checked my ranking and what I found was amazing. The search term I used is searched 983 times a day and I now sit proudly on 1 in Yahoo and 1 in Alta Vista. Google is at 40 but with my SEO I will have it on page 1 in no time.
Thanks for reminding me to get back onto it.
January 15th, 2008 at 7:22 am
Monika that is so cool
Way to go! We all need to feed off each other and take action. The longer we delay the more people are going to jump in and take it away.
983 times a day? Wow!
January 15th, 2008 at 8:17 am
It is logical that it hurts to have to change long held ideas of page ranking and other such useless criteria. This is very good advice and what Monica says, says it all. Great post.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:21 am
How do I find out how many times a keyword is searched daily?
January 15th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
It gives you a pretty good idea on how many times a day keywords are searched. Court may have other sites to share as well.
January 15th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Court,
First of all thanks for all the great information on your site. I just recently found your blog and have found great information in it.
I also have taken your challenge, found a phrase that didn’t seem too competitive, purchased a domain, and am posting content as you described in the other postings you referenced. We’ll see what happens!
January 15th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Court, thanks again for all the great info. I started a niche blog and got it up at the beginning of January, so I know it’s still early. However, I rank below 500 right now for my keyword. Do you think I just need to keep building links, or do you think I am sandboxed? I did start with a brand new domain rather than a pre-owned one (and I’m already regretting it!).
January 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I would need to know the keyword and domain to make that analysis!
January 15th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Court,
Well, this post kept me up last night just learning…I am starting a blog and this type of information is very valuable. Thanks,
-scott
January 15th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Hello Court
Just a couple of questions for keyword sniping:
1. Is it more important to get a .com domain even if the keyword in it is not as ideal as a non .com domain with ideal keyword?
2. Do you face the problem of google bombing with the keyword sniping sites? How do you deal with it?
Thanks for all your incredible information.
cheers
mbm
January 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am
http://courtneytuttle.com/2007/07/03/how-to-google-bomb-without-google-bombing/
January 15th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Court how could I go form page 1 to gone in the last 5 hours? I dont get it
January 16th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Don send me the keyword and URL and I’ll have a look!
January 16th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Court email sent to you , thank you
January 15th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Hey Court - I think you make some really good points. Especially about getting some great confidence when you get your site up on that first page of Google.
I had that experience today on a site I have been working on for about a year… I was so surprised to see it there as it is a domain forward of a site that is duplicated about 10,000 times with very little difference, but there I was for one of the most competitive words out there… Insurance this is so neat
Enjoy your blog - keep up the good work!
January 16th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Would “Computer insider” be a good keyword?
January 17th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
I had recently found a product that seemed to have little information available on it — who sells it, how to use it. I queried Wordtracker and it got decent traffic. Queried Google and saw low competition. So I found some sellers with affiliate offerings and have set up one website and working on the blog. But I happened to notice that keyworddisovery.com has completely different results. Who do you believe when different query tools give you drastically different results. Since I’ve already done most of the work and given your point about using a low competition keyword as a project, I’m going to continue. But now I don’t know whether to expect a steady stream of visitors or 2 people a month, ha ha.
April 14th, 2008 at 1:26 am
keyworddiscovery.com says they get results from 180 search engines, whereas Wordtracker free says “Every day, on average, we collect about 3.18 million search terms from Dogpile.com and Metacrawler.com, who according to Netapplications.com account for 0.63% of searches across all engines. By combining these two figures, we estimate that the total daily searches across all engines is 504.0 million”.
Looks like maybe Wordtracker results could be the not-so-good ones because of their extrapolation from a very small percentage.
I don’t know if their paid service is better (uses larger sample) or not.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:55 am
[…] an attempt to prevent this common practice, Courtney Tuttle writes an article urging his readers to limit competition in the search engines by avoiding overly competitive […]
January 18th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
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