Going to the Dogs with Keyword Research

Introduction

The purpose of this short blurb is to show some keyword results from JAAXY for the dog and cat accessories markets. Over 36% of households in the U.S. only, own dogs. Over 30% own cats. Some own both. There are over 43 million households that own dogs and over 36 million who own cats. The average number of dots per household is 1.6 and the average number of cats is 2.1. (Source)

The dog and cat markets are huge so a niche is required. You might focus on dog training. Another good dog market would be dog problems. Another might be dog kennels. If you focus on dog problems, for example, you might prepare your own product to solve a particular problem such as incessant barking, aggressive behavior or dog medical problems.

You have heard of the ABC keyword search method. For example, you go to Google search and place Dog A in the search box. You jot down the keywords that come up. These are valuable keywords because they are based on what people are looking for on Google.

By the time you get to Google Z, you have a lot of keywords. These will suggest markets for you to enter.

Now don’t stop at Google. Go to eBay and do the same, then Amazon, then other sites that you have an interest in. One very important one which is seldom mentioned in relation to the ABC Method is YouTube.com. There you will see the market in action.

You can search any of the keywords on the following list to get more keywords.

You also can do research on competitive sites, determining their keywords and their popularity. (Reference on Subject)

Keyword: Dog Accessories

Keywords Monthly_Searches /Estimated_Traffic/ QSR /SEO_Power
dog accessories 7935 1349 348 2 (high searches, high traffic for 1st page Google, moderate number of competitive sites, low SEO power for your articles)
teacup dog accessories 72 13 17 96
princess dog accessories 8 2 16 87
big dog accessories 88 15 49 96
dog accessories online 1078 184 187 81
online dog accessories 24 5 80 96
leather dog accessories 32 6 91 96
pet dog accessories 48 9 136 95
dog accessories pets 16 3 72 96
female dog accessories 56 10 17 96
dog accessories dogs 24 5 90 96
dog cage accessories 104 18 56 94
dog hair accessories 128 22 104 93
toy dog accessories 75 13 58 95
luxury dog accessories 160 28 164 85
cute small dog accessories 40 7 16 100
cheap small dog accessories 24 5 12 100
tiny dog accessories 48 9 22 97
juicy dog accessories 16 3 7 97
coach dog accessories 80 14 37 96
juicy couture dog accessories 48 9 32 100
nfl dog accessories 32 6 8 97
cute dog accessories 75 13 130 94
fashionable dog accessories 56 10 54 95
dog accessories wholesale 75 13 52 95
led dog accessories 32 6 27 97
hunting dog accessories 128 22 67 94
dog accessories car 64 11 41 96
disney dog accessories 40 7 10 97
dog kennel accessories 160 28 84 94
small dog accessories 185 32 111 93
designer dog accessories 189 33 175 85
quality dog supplies 40 7 242 82
quality dog beds 114 20 224 80
quality dog collar 56 10 158 86
quality dog collars 144 25 218 80
best quality dog beds 40 7 56 99
quality dog kennels 64 11 214 81
best quality dog collars 32 6 26 100
high quality dog food 598 102 301 15
quality dog food 3571 608 298 49
good quality dog food 139 24 259 58
best quality dog food 781 133 198 85
quality dog bed 48 9 219 82
premium quality dog food 275 47 284 57
a quality dog food 3571 608 272 52
dog accessory 118 21 276 49
quality dog toys and accessories 0 0 8 88
small dog clothes and accessories 79 14 55 96
affordable dog clothes and accessories 293 50 13 95
toy dog clothes and accessories 64 11 14 97
dog toys and accessories 56 10 260 59
puppy toys and accessories 88 15 11 99
dog clothes and accessories small dogs 24 5 1 95
dog clothes and accessories for small dogs 24 5 8 94
dog clothes and accessories 341 58 190 86
dog food and accessories 24 5 105 98
dog clothing and accessories 160 28 216 83
dog apparel and accessories 112 20 182 88
toys and accessories 471 81 327 13
dog clothes and accessory 72 13 23 99
high quality dog toys 72 13 125 97
quality dog toys 32 6 223 82
dog toys and aggressive chewers 4243 722 0 90
dog toys and treats 89 16 300 59
dog toy and treat 80 14 88 98

Keyword: Cat Accessories

Keywords Monthly_Searches /Estimated_Traffic/ QSR/ SEO_Power
cat accessories 882 150 345 6
pet cat accessories 24 5 82 96
luxury cat accessories 56 10 30 96
cat pet accessories 8 2 77 86
cat accessories luxury 24 5 20 97
cat accessories pet 24 5 82 96
arctic cat accessories 605 103 134 90
cheshire cat accessories 72 13 38 96
cat accessories sale 40 7 14 97
cat accessories cats 8 2 53 86
halloween cat accessories 86 15 43 96
cheap cat accessories 152 26 18 95
unique cat accessories 8 2 23 87
cat accessories clothing 48 9 21 97
hobie cat accessories 72 13 28 96
discount arctic cat accessories 40 7 9 100
arctic cat accessories atv 56 10 24 99
kitten cat accessories 16 3 — —
cat accessories online 238 41 — —
designer cat accessories 72 13 31 96
personalized cat accessories 80 14 7 96
arctic cat accessories catalog 93 16 28 99
dog cat accessories 75 13 83 95
asos cat accessories men 24 5 0 100
cat accessories uk 152 26 24 95
cats accessories 136 24 272 49
atv arctic cat accessories 16 3 — —
pet accessories cats 88 15 62 95
arctic cat accessory 160 28 58 94
cat accessory 40 7 292 51

John

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Target Markets for Niche Marketers

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What is a niche market?

John and Pat Jones in the Tetons back when we were able to do such things together.

The simple answer to that question is that a niche market is a small section of a larger market. That doesn’t tell you much. As a marketer, you want to know a market that you can hit and make a profit.

In other words, you want to find a place in the market place where folks with money in their products are hanging out.

Let me say also that a niche market can appeal to many people at a given time. As a market becomes more popular, the competition takes over and you need to move on. Also, a niche market can fade with time, sometimes quickly.

An example of a market being affected by politics is that the gun retailers built up there inventory of assault rifles because they thought that Hillary Clinton would win the presidency and buyers would flock to their stores before President Clinton could ban assault rifles. Trump won the election and now you can probably get a big discount on an assault rifle.

Guns is not a niche market but there may be a market within guns that is a niche in that certain people will put out there money only for a certain type.

That is like when you are fly fishing for trout. When I was a boy my father took me and my younger brother to Yellowstone Park fishing. We got to know what it took to catch Cutthroat fish on the Yellowstone River. I was up there one day and I stopped in the tackle shop and bought up a bunch of Black Woolly Worms. I walked up to the bend in the river above Fisherman’s Bridge and saw that there were fish in the river at the bend. Sometimes they were there and some times they were not. There were also a lot of fishermen there. I quickly caught my limit of five fish. The question of the day was, “What did you catch them on? I quickly sold my fly collection for one dollar for each fly, earning $0.75 on each fly. I told them how to use the fly and left a bunch of happy fishermen (and women).

My point is, that niche buyers, like fish, can be very picky.

Know Your Market

I’ll get to the market in a minute but first it is very important to Know Your Buyer.

I knew that the tourist fishing on the Yellowstone would not be catching fish. I knew when they saw me catching trout that they would become buyers.

To know your market and your buyers, You Must Be Part of the Market. You can learn your market in a number of ways such as forums on the Internet, study at your local library and by reading niche magazines. Niche magazines often have a classified ad section where you can see what people are selling and presumably buying. If an add runs more than three months straight in a magazine, people are probably buying.

I might mention that purchasing ads in magazines is not very profitable unless you are in a niche magazine. I once paid $830 for an ad in an older magazine that had just added a classified section. The circulation was over 8 million (readers). I used statistics like if only one in 10,000 readers bought, I would do quite well. “He chose poorly,” as the Exemplar Knight said in a movie when one got to eager in choosing the Holy Grail.

Some Niche Markets

If you click on the heading, you will see some niche markets for 2017 at https://www.ecomdash.com/ecommerce-niches-2017/

Other markets could be based on your hobbies, interest, experience or education. Some general niche market areas are:

Making Money (lots of competition)

Expensive Hobbies

Health and Beauty

Relationships

Then What?

You probably had making money in mind (not the money making niche) when you started the search for a niche market. If you know your market and customer, you will be able to pick major products and accessories for those products (don’t forget accessories).

My family have always been product marketers, products that we manufacturer or have drop shipped to the buyer. However, many are affiliate marketers and do well (more don’t).

To make money on the Internet or any other business, you need your customer to keep buying. Unless an affiliate marketer has a mailing list, he never knows who is buying. That means the buyer has to signup for the list before he goes to the vendor site.

The affiliate marketer can sale to his list but the vendor will already have the jump on him, making most of the resales.

Vendors are not always reliable. Amazon recently changed their commission schedule which it seems is dropping the profits of many affiliates. Companies sometimes drop there affiliate programs. An affiliate marketer must not keep all his eggs in one basket.

Business Is Business

If you are new to business, get some training. Go to SBA.gov for much useful information and it won’t cost you one red cent. Also, to start a new business, many free courses are offered by colleges and local fraternal organizations and by your local Chamber of Commerce.

Keywords and Can Help You Find a Niche Market

Long-tail keywords can bring in more business. They are more descriptive: Dog, Labrador Retriever, Laboratory Retriever Breeder

You can look around you and see local trends. You can watch advertising and news stories. You can go to Google Trends to see what is hot. Google also offers a FREE Online Digital Marketing course which I greatly recommend.

Using an online keyword tool can lead you to profitable niche markets. Google’s Keyword Planner is especially good. JAAXY is the tool designed for Affiliate Marketers by Wealthy Affiliate University. I’m in my 10th year at WA.

John

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Google SEO Training

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Why not learn Google SEO Training from the horses mouth? Who knows more about getting your website setup and ranking high than Google?

Isn’t it true that we get tons of information from gurus and others who entice us with information, sometimes free, sometimes at a price, to get our names on their mailing list.

Their information may be useful, even great, but Google is always changing the criteria for website ranking and they update their free training as needed.

Google has a major interest in seeing that your website is relevant, that is directly related, to what people are looking for on the Internet.

If a searcher wants to know how to select a variety of carrots to grow and how to plant and care for them, then he is not interested in how to cook cabbage.

If your site focuses on how to grow carrots, then you will have a high ranking site IF the information is useful, the information is accurate, if the information is extensive and if others are visiting your site. They will check hour outgoing links and they will make sure they are relevant to your topic. Don’t link off to some Amazon product that has nothing to do with carrots. Don’t link to a reference site where the topic does not relate to carrots.

Google will want to know if your site is readable on cell phones, iPads, all computers, etc. They will teach you how to find a WordPress theme that does just that.

All you have do do to take the course is to click on the following link. I have placed the topics too but once you get to the course, the sub-links will be there.

Don’t just read this course, work the course. That is, do what it says to do. Google is always changing things but it all has to do with making our websites relevant to what the web searchers want: Relevance.

Take the course

John
Internet Business Tool Center

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Sorry To Burst Your Bubble: The Long Tail Keyword Myth

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Sorry To Burst Your Bubble: The Long Tail Keyword Myth

long-tail

I promised Wesley Parker, the author of the above article that I would post it here.

You will learn some things of value in your marketing activities.

John

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Long-tailed Keywords and the Buying Cycle

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FTC: Sometimes we link to products, such as at Amazon, for which I may be paid a small commission. This is Never of Cost to You. John

Long-tailed Keywords

Long tail keywords are three and four keyword phrases which are very, very specific to to some service or product. A customer uses such a highly specific search phrase at the end of the buying cycle when they are looking for exactly what they are actually going to buy.

Again, when a searcher on the Internet uses a long-tailed keyword he often is after a specific product which is going to purchase. For example if he puts “canon powershot camera 42X magnification” into his browser’s search bar, he wants to buy that camera.

The Buying Cycle

The buying cycle goes like this:

1. Awareness of a problem or product.

2. Consideration to solutions or products.

3. Purchasing of a specific product or solution.

Here is an example:

A lady goes into a farmers market. She realizes that her refrigerator is empty and that she needs some vegetables. She grazes the stands at the market, squeezing and smelling vegetables. She is considering what she will buy. She sees some firm Fuji apples and she tells the offender to put 5 pounds in a bag. She could have gone to her computer and searched buy firm fuji apples online. She could purchase them there.

Let’s take a look at fuji apples.

We place “fuji apples” in the search bar of JAAXY.

fuji apples

Now let’s look at Google Suggest:

fuji apples 2

Amazon Suggest:

Amazon Suggest brings up a dozen long-tailed keywords with fuji apple. I could not snip the frame as the drop down menu always skiddadled when I tried to caputure it.

Ebay Suggest gave the same problem as Amazon. The drop down menu went away. No long-tailed keywords for fuji apples came up so you coud buy apples, but you could buy a fuji apple tree.

What Is Low-hanging Fruit?

In keyword research, low-hanging fruit is the keywords that have less traffic but little competition. It is often easier to get good search page rankings by gobbling up the low-hanging fruit.

Learn How to Do Keyword Research at WAU

John

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JAAXY And Affiliate Marketing

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(Note: The FTC requires me to tell you that some links in this site may result in me receiving a commission from a vendor. That hardly ever happens but I am grateful for any commissions that I may receive. John)Introduction

Affiliate marketing is one big pain in the rump. Things that can go wrong are:

1. In affiliate marketing a niche market is needed, a small market within a larger market where the people have money to spend in that niche. Too often a market that is too broad or has few buyers is chosen. A marketer can work for many months before he realizes that he has chosen a dud.

2. Google has always hated affiliate marketers. A change in Google’s algorithm can wipe out a whole sector of affiliate marketers. Numerous affiliate marketers have been wiped out by Google.

3. A large amount of traffic is required to earn a small amount of money as an affiliate marketer. To gain the favor of the search engines, a site must have relevant information to keyword searches being made. The information must answer the question that the user of the search engine is looking for. The information must be useful and provide a solution to a problem. Often websites fall far short of this goal.

4. PPC or pay-per-click marketing is difficult because of the high price for keyword clicks. That makes it difficult to obtain a return on investment.

5. Companies offering affiliate programs sometime shut down their programs and leave their affiliates with no income. Affiliates have to protect ourselves by having more than one affiliate account. This means that he has to spread himself them just to keep things going.

I never have liked affiliate marketing. My family prefers to market real products, products that we create ourselves. The reason is that our profit margins are much higher and it is much easier for us to control the competition. Is true that you can get knocked out of a product market by the competition, but you can always offer better products.

Where Does JAAXY Come In?

To succeed in affiliate marketing, you need to do keyword research. I use the JAAXY keyword tool because it is designed for affiliate marketers. It is not a free tool so I pay for my subscription by recommending JAAXY to others. I could use other keyword tools but I prefer JAAXY.

Where to Use Keywords

You should use keywords in:

1. Domain names

2. Article headings

3. The first and last paragraph of an article.

4. And abstracts and descriptions.

Take Your Time in Doing Keyword Research

When you do keyword research, think about the visitor that is coming to your site. What are the needs and wants of that visitor.

Let’s say your visitor is in the niche area of expensive hobbies. The niche is golf shoes for men. The name of your domain has “golf shoes” in it. You need information on your site that will leave your viewer to a solution to his problem. Keywords that do not do this are essentially worthless. You need a keyword that has a significant number of searches every month, that will bring you a significant amount of traffic, and has few competing websites. In other words, you want JAAXY or your keyword tool to give you a green light. If you are writing an article, JAAXY you will want a score of about 90 or above.

Doing a search for Men’s Golf Shoes in JAAXY, I get the following:

Golf Jaaxy

Note that there are plenty of good keywords here that can be used. However, that is not always

Learn the ABCs of Marketing on the Internet

the case. You will have to spend some time digging much deeper. The ABC method (available on JAAXY) can help. You can also use the ABC method on Google and Amazon and Ebay, etc.

You want buyer keywords so don’t overlook Amazon and Ebay.

30 Free JAAXY Searches

Conclusion:

I have a number of friends at the Wealthy Affiliate who are making good money through affiliate marketing. Many are still struggling. All new businesses struggle in the beginning. The new owners have to learn the ropes and they have to gain the following. Gaining the confidence of your readers, the visitors to your website, is the key to success. That means say you must learn how to do keyword research and to be persistent in what you are doing.

A number of people that I know of started out in affiliate marketing and have since branched out into other areas. You do want to create your own world, don’t you?

There are a number of websites that will start you in affiliate marketing at no cost. I am in my ninth year at Wealthy Affiliate and they do have a free starter program.

John

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Some Hot Niche Markets for Right Now

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Introduction:

Steve and his wife

My friend, Steve whom I’ve known for about 8 years at Wealthy Affiliate has been sharing his “secrets” of success with members there for some time. He just the other day put up an excellent article giving some hot niche markets. He not only list the markets, but the products that go with the markets. He also gives the results of the keyword research he did to find the niche markets. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE!

Here are some of the resources that he used:

Jaaxy
Google Trends
Google Hot Trends – See what people are searching for right now.
eBays Product Viewer – A live feed of what’s being bought right now at eBay
Amazon’s Movers and Shakers – Incredibly useful product trends
Trend Hunter – Find hot niches you’ve never heard of here

What Is a Niche Market?

This market is a smaller part of a large market that can be targeted more easily to generate Internet profits.

What is affiliate marketing?

For the niche markets that Steve mentioned, he has listed products for which he will receive a commission if someone follows the link to the supplier (such as Amazon). Affiliate marketers compare products, provide useful content to those looking for product, and links to sites that provide the products. The choice of products is left up to the reader, however, if the affiliate marketer uses the product, he can provide his experience with the product and recommended it.

What is keyword research?

Folks searching the Internet use some search terms more than others. They may be a single word or a phrase. The search engines keep track of these keywords and phrases. By doing a keyword research, you can learn how frequently these keywords are used and how much competition there is for the keyword or phrase (number of websites).

What is essential to market on the Internet?

1. The niche market for which you have a passion and knowledge (or a desire to gain knowledge).

2. The ownership of a web domain. The main name should be chosen based on keyword research such as those recommended by JAAXY. It should be a .com,.org or.net and should be short, if possible, and not contain hyphens.
3. Relevant content must be placed on the website in post or pages frequently. The content should be related to keyword research to help searchers on the Internet find the information that they are looking for. Articles can be as short as 400 words but it is usually better than articles contained 1500 or more words to establish the expertise of the writer. Longer articles contain more details and are more useful than short articles.

4. SEO (search engine optimization), social marketing and various forms of advertising should be used to promote traffic to the website. If there is no relevant traffic, there is no profit.

5. Outgoing and incoming links to and from relevant sites (such as Wikipedia) should be used to help promote the authority of the site.

Where to find products to promote?

There are many affiliate marketing networks that provide products to promote. Amazon.com, CJ.com, Clickbank.com (digital products) are examples. You can also sell products from your side rather than just to promote has with affiliate marketing. I sold flagpoles and books for many years. Two of my granddaughters make and sell baby clothing (they have about 10 employees). One granddaughters and her partner imported a special leather from China and make baby changing mats (she is starting another business but she hasn’t told me what it is probably because she has not yet determined this.) My son used to sell flutes and whistles that he sold his business last year (Irishflutesstore.com) to provide time for a new business at he started a few years ago. He now runs homegrownherbalist.net). My son has a veterinary business it is DVM. He has to monitor his time usage. (My role has to help my children and grandchildren build websites and to teach them some elements of marketing. They are quick learners and very bright so they have left me behind in the dust.)

About Steve

As I mentioned, I have gone Steve for eight years. Here is what he says in his biography at Wealthy Affiliate University:

“My name is Steve.

“I run a website called I’ve Tried That.

“I started it in 2007 as a way to document the scams and save people from losing their hard earned money.

“I joined Wealthy Affiliate in 2009 to check out the site for a review, and I’ve never left.

“Since joining, I turned my website from a hobby into a full-time career: all thanks to the training and support offered here. It really is the best training resource on how to build a business online.

“I’m never leaving.”
Steve and his wife recently flew to Hawaii to meet Dom and his bride to be to attend their wedding. Dom has been a member of WA for some times and runs a site called humanproofdesigns.com. Dom has been living in Taiwan for some years, but after the wedding, they moved to Canada.

The wedding venue was made possible by the success of these two affiliate marketers.

Are all affiliate marketers as successful as Dom and Steve?

Unfortunately not. The problem is that people that’s try to make money on the Internet don’t realize that they have joined the business world where there is stiff competition and specific knowledge is needed to succeed. Dom and Steve had no such knowledge when they started up some eight years or so ago. They gain that knowledge to at wealthy affiliate.

What is required to succeed in an Internet business other than knowledge?

You need a business plan and the simple way to generate business plan is to go to SBA.gov and follow their instructions and build your plan right there. It won’t cost you one red cent. You will want to continually update this plan to succeed in business. When I worked in the industry, I updated my company’s business plan every five years, but I made changes in the plan much more often.

Conclusion:

Make sure you that you read Steve’s article thoroughly.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE!

Take one of the niche markets that he has developed and sketch out your business plan. Buy a domain and build your website. (A lifetime free membership at Wealthy Affiliate will show you how to do this.)

You can find me at WA: I’m tjbooks there.

John
John T. Jones, Ph.D.

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Make Money Online Fast

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Images add to your site’s value.

Introduction:

That’s a common question on the Internet: How can I make money online fast?

The fact of the matter is that I have seen a number of people do just that. On the other hand, I have seen many who have thought they could make money rapidly on the Internet who have completely failed. For example, affiliate marketers have a hard time earning money at the start. It is like any business, you have to build it before you make money.

You Need a Product

From my experience, you need a product to make money rapidly on the Internet. For example, my wife’s caregiver’s son used my soldering iron to engrave a pattern on a small board to which he added small hooks. This device is to hang keys on when you got the door. Then you can find them when you got again. He went to at ETSY.com and listed his product which he sold immediately. He has made many such boards sense and they always sell quickly.

To my granddaughters make full-time incomes by selling their own products. They are supporting their families while their husbands are in college selling baby clothes.

Another of my granddaughters has a partner. They bring in special materials from China and have them manufactured locally here in the states, another line of baby products.

My son has an herb business: http://www.homegrownherbalist.net

Things You Can Sell

From your own site or a site like ETSY, you can sell things such as: clothing and accessories, craft items and tools, wedding supplies, entertainment items, home and living items, kids and baby supplies and vintage items. You can easily find other sites like ETSY.com on the net. Just follow the guidelines so that you don’t get kicked off. You can gather stuff at yard sells or from your home or garage and put them up on Etsy.com or on Ebay.com.

You Can Sell Your Services

Some folks like artist and writers and website designers and copywriters and such, offer their services on sites like fiverr.com. Jobs are usually completed within a matter of hours and the pay is instantaneous at the end of the job.

Become A Dealer

If you can, set up a dealership for products which you ship yourself or that you have drop shipped by the supplier. I sold books and flagpoles for years being a dealer. I never touched the actual products. They were drop-shipped by the suppliers.

The Traffic Problem

If you sell from your own website, it will take time for you to build up enough traffic to earn income. Sites like fiverr and ETSY bring in instant traffic. Sometime back, I went to bizland.com and set up a web store using their services and I had no trouble getting traffic. I would have if I had gone on my own.

The Amazon Fulfillment Program

If you’re an experienced business person, you might bring in products which are sold for you by Amazons trough the Amazon Fulfillment Program. I don’t recognize recommend this for novices.

Keywords Are Important

Whether you are writing descriptions of your products on your own website or on a site like Etsy.com, you will be in need to use keywords and keyword phrases that buyers are using. If you are writing articles that go along with your website such as when you have your own website, you will need to use keywords in the title of the articles and also sparingly throughout the article. I suggest that the keyword be used in the title, in the first paragraph and in the last paragraph. Do not stuff your article with keywords for the search engines or you will not Make Money Online Fast.

John

John T. Jones, Ph.D. Buhl, Idaho

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My Internet Success Coach

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John T. Jones, Ph.D. Buhl, Idaho

Introduction

I have been either selling or promoting products on the Internet for many years. Eight years ago I joined a community with a mutual interest in Internet marketing, specifically affiliate marketing. You know this community as Wealthy Affiliate. My Internet success Coach is not one individual, but the owners and the top moneymakers at Wealthy Affiliate who are always willing to help others. (No matter how long you been in business, you always need the help of others.)

I have always been more interested in selling products on the Internet rather than promoting other people’s products. It is the same way with my son and several of my grandchildren. The advantage of selling products, products that you have control over, is that your business will usually not be swept out from underneath your feet.

Many of my friends make good incomes with affiliate marketing. May I list a few things that I think are wrong with affiliate marketing:

1. The product is not yours so you do not have absolute control over it.

2. You are regulated by an affiliate program. Sometimes affiliate programs are removed by the vendor and the affiliates are left hanging high and dry. This doesn’t happen that often, but it does happen.

3. All relations with the customer are controlled by the vendor and not by the affiliate marketer. The blunt fact is that the vendor takes your customer. The vendor will pay you a high commission to grab your customer to whom he will sell over and over again.

If you are in affiliate marketing I suggest that:

A. You don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. Many affiliate marketers have a fairly large number of niche market sites. (A niche market is part of a larger market which can lead to higher profits.) It goes without saying that you should have relationships with a number of different vendors.

B. Be patient. It takes time to establish your market when you are an affiliate marketer. It’s almost imperative that you have a mailing list gathered from visitors to your site. (You might have to bribe them to get them to sign up for your newsletter or mailing list.)

C. Your customer will not be able to touch your product. If he or she goes into a store, she can pick up the product, smell it, even taste it, and she can buying it against the wall if she wants to. You absolutely must be the eyes, ears, nose and fingers of your customer. Therefore you must know your product extremely well and you must display it by excellent photography from a number of different views to your customer. It is far better to own the product if you’re trying to promote. Then you can recommend it firsthand and even worn your customer if the product has any shortcomings. In other words, you must be the expert. I can’t over emphasize that one fact.

D. Join Wealthy Affiliate so that you always get updates and the help you need.

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

I said that my family sells products. I used to sell a lot more products than I do now because I dropped several product lines. I was a distributor for money-making books (technically, I still am). I sold books that I owned. I sold flagpoles and flagpole accessories. But I’m an old man, and I no longer sell products to any great degree and I don’t have to package them up and ship them off.

My son is a veterinarian but he supplemented his income since he has 15 children many of which are still in college or school. You can take a look at his business. It is: http://www.homegrownherbalist.net

Two my granddaughters in business together. They design and make their own products and they have about a dozen employees. They make and sell baby hats.

Another of my granddaughters is in business with a friend. They import special materials from China and manufacture baby-changing mats from them. She is going to start a new business on her own but she is not revealed to me what it is.

All three of my granddaughters are married with children. Two of them still have husbands that are in college. They provide the total income for their families. One of them bought a new car the other day. I often can you do that when you’re in college or supporting a spouse college? They do make very good incomes.

How Can I Sell Products That I Don’t Manufacture Myself?

That is what I did. In one of my book businesses, I sold the books and they were drop shipped by my friend in New York who wrote the books. (I have written a number of books and novels myself. You can find them under Taylor Jones or John T Jones, PhD.)

I also had my own book supply from which I sold many books. I do keep inventory on these books and make sure that they were properly stored to prevent any damage. I got an order, had to find the book and pack it up and ship it. I sold through the Alibris.com and Amazon.com who handled the transactions.

You Can Be a Distributor

I was a distributor for a flagpole company. I dealt with the customer and I handled everything but the shipping of the product. The product was shipped by the manufacturer directly to the customer. This is called drop shipping and many companies will drop ship products for you.

You Can Sell Locally Manufactured Products

Even if you live in a small community, you will be surprised about how many products are actually produced there. If you contact those who are creating products, you might be able to sell them directly yourself by purchasing wholesale and selling retail. They might even drop ship for you or manufacturer to your specification. Just remember that you should have in the forefront of your cranium that you want to control of your own products and it would be a great idea to produce them yourself.

Amazon Fulfillment Program

You can import product at low cost from China and other countries. You can have these products shipped directly to you or directly to Amazon. It is your job to write the sales pages at Amazon and to get people to review your products so that others will purchase them. Everything else is handled by Amazon and you can become well-to-do in a short time.

So, if you are like some of my friends, and become well-to-do rapidly, you probably can become bankrupt rapidly. There are risk involved. There can be problems in guaranteeing the quality of the products you are selling. They might even be lost at sea. Amazon might get angry with you and kick you off their site. My friends that are in this business are very experienced marketers. I don’t suggest this process for the uninitiated.

Beware!

You Really Can’t Get Anywhere If You Don’t Take Some Risk

If you’re going into a risky business such as Amazon’s Fulfillment Program, then do your homework. Get advice from business people. Study what is going on in the marketplace. Learn the ins and outs of Amazon. Hire a professional photographer to take pics of your products from every angle. You might even want to hire a copywriter who will be able to sell your products much more efficiently than you can yourself.

Many Home and Storefront Businesses Are Converted To Internet Businesses

I know a number of people who have taken a home or manufacturing business or a storefront business onto the Internet. I have helped a number of them do this. Friends of mine in the Midwest were selling doll parts from their home. They had a mailing list. When they created a website and told their customers about the site, their business quadrupled overnight.

My son sold Irish flutes and whistles from his home. He is a veterinarian but for the reasons I explained earlier, he needs extra income. I helped him put up a website and he emailed his large email list that he had the site. The information literally flew around the world. He made new contacts worldwide and pretty soon was representing all of the Irish flute makers. He recently switched to the herb business and sold: http://www.Irishflutestore.com

In earlier days, a young man who had an interest in juggling started an Internet business from scratch. He built a store on the net and had almost instant success.

It’s All about Passion

Why would I say that? Because if you don’t have passion about what you are doing, you will soon lay off and stop doing it. This is a major reason for failure on the Internet.

If you get to strung out, chasing one dog and then another, you soon will lose interest in dogs.

It’s that all important passion for what you are doing that brings success. That is one reason that hobbies make good niche markets. You’re already fired up!

If you have some particular interest that you would get up early in the morning to pursue our go to bed late at night to make it last longer, that can bring you success on the Internet.

I know a pair of ladies who went into business together on the Internet. They did not make any money the first year but they stuck with it and were in the money the second year. Some Internet businesses become profitable after a few months. I think a lot more become profitable after a few years if at all. (It is difficult to find out how much affiliate marketers make. Most fail!)

The fact of the matter is that most Internet businesses fail. To have the persistence that is needed and the desire to learn continually. Technology changes in marketing changes can frustrate Internet business owners. Sometimes you have to realize that you can’t do everything and that you need a hand. Many cannot keep up with the writing required. The simple solution is to have somebody else write for you. (I do this at times.)

Why spend two hours designing a banner or a logo when you can have someone on fiverr do it for five dollars? How valable is your time and where should you be spending it?

You Have To Keep That Day Job

That’s the problem! You have to keep working to feed your family and make the car payments. That means you have a limited time to pursue your Internet business. But let’s take a look at that.

Suppose you get up in the morning one hour earlier and you go to bed one hour later. You spend four hours on Saturday and four hours on Sunday working on your business, that could be two hours in the morning and two hours at night.

What have we gained other than a lack of sleep? We gained 10 hours during the week and we gained eight hours on the weekend. To be at half time, or 20 hours, we need two more hours. Where do we get that?

If you have a portable computer, or the availability of a computer during your breaks and lunch periods, you can easily grab two hours during the week. Now your objective is to create twice the income in those 20 hours that you do in 40 hours on your day job.

Now what can you do?

You can quit your day job!

You will now be working 40 hours a week in your new activity but you soon should be earning as much as you would in 80 hours on your day job. Many folks I know are doing just that even with affiliate marketing.

With increased income, many folks who are earning a living on the Internet have time for travel. However, they don’t stop working. They take a computer with them so they can work wherever they are. They are working for two reasons. First, they must mind their business, and second, they love their business.

One of my friends and his bride-to-be recently flew from Taiwan to be married in Hawaii and another friend and his wife visited them in Hawaii and attended the wedding. What paid for all of this travel? They are both affiliate marketers.

One of my friends who is now deeply involved in the Amazon Fulfillment Program earned $500,000 through affiliate marketing while he was in college. This completely relieved the burden from his single-parent mother. I think that is about what he heard in his first six months in the Amazon fulfillment program selling yoga mats and such.

He’s a bloomin’ genius and I’ve tried to get him out of being so Internet oriented but he has some restaurants that he has opened up because he is a health food nut and wants to keep others healthy I expect him to expand until he owns General Motors. At least that is what I keep telling him..

When he was in college, making money on the Internet was easy. You could use PPC marketing which gave you instant traffic. Google has pretty much destroyed that practice because they hate affiliate marketers but continually take their money.

The owners of Wealthy Affiliate earned their way through college individually through affiliate marketing. Kyle earned enough money after only six months to support himself. After one year, he went full-time. Later he joined with Carson to create Wealthy Affiliate University, the premier affiliate training site on the Internet. Recently, they added lifetime free membership to their program.

Back when you could do such things, a young man in the New Zealand put a banner on a website which produce $50 each month so he created a lot of websites and hired English majors to write the content for them. He rented an old multi-story home to house his staff and he soon was making more money than his father was in his full-time government job as a professional analyst. He founded Affilorama, a training site with much free information.

Stay Away from the Gurus

Don’t Let the Gurus turn you up side down and shake the coins out of your pocket.

There are a lot of would-be trainers on the Internet who are simply scam artists. They have what is called the sales funnel. They give you a free gift, a worthless e-book, charge $24 for the next one, say you need one more which they sell you for $69 and then a program with lots of videotapes which cost $269, and then offer you consulting to make you rich.

You don’t you don’t come up rich! You come up broke or deeply in debt from maxing out your credit cards.

You Can Start a Business Locally

To start a business locally, a storefront or a franchise business, start with your local Chamber of Commerce. They will put you in contact with training programs and local institutions such as banks and clubs and with local universities and colleges.

If you take a free business startup course and at your local college or at a library are at a bank, there is a very good chance that the teacher will be a retired businessman who is contributing his time to helping others get in the business.

Go to SBA.gov and take advantage of their free programs. One important thing that you must do is to create a business plan. You can do this at SBA.org.

Don’t worry about your initial business plan being perfect. It is a living document and you will change it many times. An industry I always wrote a five year plan which I updated as I went along and completely rewrote every five years.

Maybe A Franchise Is the Thing for You

If you purchase a franchise, that is if you can raise the money to purchase a franchise and have the initial investment available for property and such, then the franchiser will guide you completely through the process and get you operating. You will find that there is a little faucet stuck into your business where the franchiser can suck off some of your profits.

When I moved to Ames Iowa in 1966, the first thing I noticed was that there was no McDonald’s. But I was a poor engineering professor and thought that I could not get into such a franchise. I would need the $50,000 franchise fee plus the capital to get going. What I didn’t know was that I could have done it.

I left Ames in 1974. About two or three years before I left, my neighbor went down to the bank and said that he wanted to start a McDonald’s franchise. They coughed up the money and he was in business.

I was too dumb to do that. He may have had a guaranteed SBA loan from the bank. I never asked him. When I was in Iowa, I did some engineering consulting with a firm who was operating on only the funds from an SBA guaranty Bank loan. I was paid by the bank directly.

Unfortunately the new owners didn’t know how to run a business and they went kaput. If they had done the one thing that I had told which was to hire an experienced manager to run the day to day affairs of the business, they would’ve been very successful because they knew exactly how to market the business.

It’s So Time-Consuming

One thing that entrepreneurs are known for is the long hours that they work. They are not only starting a business but they are keeping up to date on technologies and business practices to keep their business vibrant.

One rule of thumb might be, if you are not completely enveloped by your business, you are not an entrepreneur.

You May Not Be Cut from the Right Mold

Some people are just not cut out for business. They cannot stay focused for a long time on the same idea. Albert Einstein said that the reason he was successful was that he was able to think about the same problem for decades (not his words and I’m too lazy to look it up).

Some just don’t grasp technology and business practices and they keep making the same mistakes over and over again. We can learn from our mistakes, but repeating them is not part of that process. In fact, we must make mistakes to move ahead.

More Thinking, Less Action

Especially at the first of any new business endeavor, getting contact with people who are in business and think out a plan to make that business succeed. This is the most important thing that you can do. Don’t just jump into some guru’s pocket.

If you are looking for a niche market to develop, then you must become part of that market. Hopefully, you will already be part of market. Bury yourself in the market by taking magazines and reading books.

That building down by the fire station that has a sign in front that says Podunk Library has lots of books and tapes that you can borrow. A good part of starting a business is reading. Your library will even let you read their magazines and the Wall Street Journal (maybe).

Changing Your Habits

It’s amazing how good we humanoids are at wasting time. If you’re devoted to your new business, you’ll need to abandon some of your favorite television program and texting with your friends. You can’t neglect your family, but you can organize your time better to make sure that the time that you are spending with your family is useful.

The Meanderings of an Old Man

I’m sure that you’re tired of me wandering this way and that in my trek to help you get into business. I just want you to avoid some of the pitfalls that I and many others have fallen into.

Work hard!

But work smart!

John
John T. Jones,Ph.D.

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Organic Search Engine Optimization Tips

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What is Organic SEO?

Organic search results are listings on search engine results pages that appear because of their relevance to the search terms, as opposed to their being advertisements. In contrast, non-organic search results may include pay per click advertising.

Organic content makes a site look interesting and informative to the search engines so they give it a higher page ranking which is optimization. If a person want to grow carrots, he wants information on how to grow carrots. He wants expert information. The more knowledgeable the writer of organic content is, the higher the page ranking.

Following are some Organic Search Engine Optimization Tips, but first:

Why Is Organic SEO Important?

Click Here for an article in Forbes on why companies should invest in SEO.

The fact of the matter is that even small Internet marketers, including affiliate marketers, can compete on the Internet by providing continuous quality relevant information to website visitors. This type of organic content is free to small operators, but even small operators sometimes purchase content from writers. That can be an economical investment.

High Page Rankings Bring Traffic to a Site

I asked Kathryn Wilmut to write this book for me. I served as editor. She knows a lot about social marketing so I wanted her knowledge.

There are a number of ways to increase traffic to a website. One is social marketing on Twitter, Facebook and other sites, for example. But fresh organic content is more effective as far as the search engines go. If folks are visiting your site because of quality content, are making comments, and clicking on quality outgoing links, that is what you are after. The search engines will give you that extra reward of bringing more visitors to your site by giving you a first page ranking. (Most folks don’t look past the second page. I do at time if I’m really digging.)

When searching for information on the Internet, folks use certain words and phrases. It may a single word like “horses” or it might be a long phrase such as “how to break a crazy horse.” The first single word entry brings up 15,800,000 entries. Single phrase brings up 34,400,00 results.

“Grow carrots” brings up 3,980,000 results. “It’s Grow carrots without soil” brings up 14,200,000 results.

Such words and phrases are called keywords and keyword phrases.

What Is the Role of Keyword Research in Organic SEO

Let’s go to a keyword tool and look at some of these words and phrases phrases. There are a number of free keyword tools on the Internet but I’m going to use the JAAXY keyword tool which was designed by Wealthy Affiliate University for affiliate marketers. However it works for any type of marketing on the Internet. Follow along if you like:

carrots

“Grow carrots” is not a good (exact) keyword. There are a lot of monthly searches, 3217, but there are too many competitive sites and so it gets a red light. The domains .net and .org are available but you don’t want them.

“Growing vegetables without soil” is good. About 96 monthly searches (I shoot for a minimum of 100), not much competition (I shoot for under 300) and all the good domain endings, .org, .net, and .com are available.

how to break a crazy horse

“Horses” is a lousy keyword but how to break a crazy horse is not except few are looking for it. We like over 100 monthly searches. But it is great other than that. Look at that SEO rating of 95!

If you followed along, you could read the definitions at JAAXY.

Choosing the right keywords, those with adequate monthly traffic, few competitive websites, a high SEO ranking (I like this in the 90s), domain availability can bring you success. I use a single keyword or keyword phrase in an article. I include it in the title, the first paragraph and the last paragraph (if I remember, I’m old!)

Conclusion:

I hope that these Organic Search Engine Optimization Tips are helpful to you. You should always talk to a niche market, a small part of a larger market. You need to know what questions folks have, their problems, and help them to find the answers.

If you are helping others, you are in the business.

John

John T. Jones, Ph.D.

Internet Business Tool Center

Buhl, ID

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