Blogging is easy. At least it is if you have any interest in writing. You don't need any other special skills really...... If you just want to blog.
Blogging successfully is a completely different beast all together. But, what does that really mean? The idea of being a successful blogger will differ between individuals. But, in general the essence of what makes a good blogger is the same. A successful blogger is one who is able to keep up with the times in his or her own demographic. One who stays a little ahead of everyone else, in order to produce fresh posts that are different from anyone else on the blog. A successful blogger understands that there is more to blogging than just writing an occasional post. In fact, that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Showing posts with label Blog Topics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blog Topics. Show all posts
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Keyword research tools and variables to consider for beginner bloggers
It is a problem I deal with every single day when working on my blogs. And that is keywords and keyword research. And although I have quite a bit of knowledge on the subject and I understand the principals behind it, even for me, I find it to be a struggle when deciding on keywords. Today, at blogging for beginners I would like to spend some more time on the subject. I know I have talked about it a few times, and I will continue to talk about it, until I feel I have completely exhausted the issue.
And for someone like me, someone who can ramble on and on about almost anything that I have a little interest in. This may take a while.
In particular, today I would like to delve a little deeper into good keyword research and some of the tools I implement in building a solid core of keywords to use as my jumping off point for my blogs. And really for any content I may be planning to add to the internet. Because keywords are not just unique to bloggers. They play a role in all forms of internet content. And should be a key factor in deciding on topics that you would like to talk about on the internet.
So, just to refresh everyone. Keywords are the words that search engines use to help classify your content. Keywords are the common words that internet users will type into the search engines in order to find specific information on a certain topic. Some keywords are searched more often than others, some keywords have MUCH more competition than others. And it is all a big balancing act between ad cost and supply and demand. While there is not necessarily a direct correlation between keyword competition and search frequency, there is almost always a direct link between keyword ad cost and competition.
Keywords like loan, and money are high ad dollar keywords, this means that these words are highly competitive and that chances of a blogging beginner cracking into page one on the search engines are really really slim. This leaves us searching for the perfect balance of competition/ad cost/and search frequency.
And one of the primary places I do most of this research is with Google's Adword Keyword tool. With this tool, you can see how many times a specific keyword is searched, along with what google charges for that keyword. For individuals who are trying to make money through advertising, these are important bits of information. Through those to pieces of information you can assume what sort of value that specific keyword will have to you if you advertise on your blog. The Google charge is not a representation of what you will earn per ad click, being a third party advertiser, you only receive a portion of that cost.
Basically, you want keywords with high ad rates, high traffic rates, and low competition. And that is much harder than you may think. Competition is fierce in most instances. Meaning something will have to be sacrificed.
There are options here though. If you would prefer the high traffic count at the cost of ad rates, look for that, if you would prefer low traffic volumes for the home run hits on your ad dollars, then you can go for that. But even at lower traffic volumes, if the keyword has value, you will have competition.
In most instances, for someone who is just starting out with all this. I would recommend you look for keywords that are highly searched but have little keyword value. Because this in turn usually brings less competition.
So, what do you really need to be looking for?
Usually keywords that are worth less than a dollar, and are searched between 500-2000 times per month is a good place to start. But even after you find these keywords, there are more steps to consider when deciding on keywords.
After you have found a keyword, google-it. This is going to give you some insight to your competition. What are we looking for here is, the total results of websites that appear on the page. This will vary greatly, from a few to millions, lower numbers are always good, as long as you followed the first step and found words that are actually searched more than a few hundred times per month.
The next thing you need to look at is the top 5 sites that appear in the results, because these are your primary competition. Can you beat these sites or at least compete with these sites? There are a lot of variables that will help you determine that.
First thing you will want to do is find out what each of the top five's page rank is. Remembering that anything above a 4 is going to be hard for you to compete with. Sites that are highly popular, or sites that have been around for a very long time, or Wiki's will always pose a serious problem when trying to compete for top spots.
After you have these sites page ranking, the next thing you will want to do is visit them. Take a look at the page and try to understand why it ranks so well, look for the keywords withing the content, read the page and just get an understanding of the approach that the page takes to the specific keyword. sometimes you will find that the site doesn't seem to be targeting that specific keyword at all, it just happens to be a very strong site and naturally will rank well for that specific keyword if it is included somewhere within the page.
The last step for right now that I want to talk about it checking the quantity of inbound links that the specific page has. The easiest way I have found to do this is with Yahoo's Site Explorer. With Site Explorer you can copy and paste the URL, and it will count backlinks. Remember, backlinks can be tough to come by, the higher number of backlinks a specific page has, the more backlinks you are going to need in order to be competetive. This number can vary greatly also, from a couple, to tens of thousands. So, be very wary of what you are getting into by choosing a specific keyword.
Another very nice thing that site explorer tells you, is where the links are coming from for the specific page. This gives you the chance to use some of those sites for backlinks yourself. so check them out, look to see if there is an opportunity to comment and add a link.
So, bottom line here is, "keyword research" is critical in the success of your blog. Going after the big dogs right out of the gate is going to lead to failure. No doubt about it. Find words that you feel you can handle and don't be afraid to start small and work up to the bigger words.
A common practice I try to use is, I base my blog's primary keywords around words that are searched more frequently, and from that, I write posts with keywords that are easier to achieve, in the hopes that I will pull readers through the back door of one of my older posts. It is a method I find to work, and one you may find useful also.
Well, that is it for today, I hope you enjoyed this blogging for beginners presentation and I hope to see you back soon!
And for someone like me, someone who can ramble on and on about almost anything that I have a little interest in. This may take a while.
In particular, today I would like to delve a little deeper into good keyword research and some of the tools I implement in building a solid core of keywords to use as my jumping off point for my blogs. And really for any content I may be planning to add to the internet. Because keywords are not just unique to bloggers. They play a role in all forms of internet content. And should be a key factor in deciding on topics that you would like to talk about on the internet.
So, just to refresh everyone. Keywords are the words that search engines use to help classify your content. Keywords are the common words that internet users will type into the search engines in order to find specific information on a certain topic. Some keywords are searched more often than others, some keywords have MUCH more competition than others. And it is all a big balancing act between ad cost and supply and demand. While there is not necessarily a direct correlation between keyword competition and search frequency, there is almost always a direct link between keyword ad cost and competition.
Keywords like loan, and money are high ad dollar keywords, this means that these words are highly competitive and that chances of a blogging beginner cracking into page one on the search engines are really really slim. This leaves us searching for the perfect balance of competition/ad cost/and search frequency.
And one of the primary places I do most of this research is with Google's Adword Keyword tool. With this tool, you can see how many times a specific keyword is searched, along with what google charges for that keyword. For individuals who are trying to make money through advertising, these are important bits of information. Through those to pieces of information you can assume what sort of value that specific keyword will have to you if you advertise on your blog. The Google charge is not a representation of what you will earn per ad click, being a third party advertiser, you only receive a portion of that cost.
Basically, you want keywords with high ad rates, high traffic rates, and low competition. And that is much harder than you may think. Competition is fierce in most instances. Meaning something will have to be sacrificed.
There are options here though. If you would prefer the high traffic count at the cost of ad rates, look for that, if you would prefer low traffic volumes for the home run hits on your ad dollars, then you can go for that. But even at lower traffic volumes, if the keyword has value, you will have competition.
In most instances, for someone who is just starting out with all this. I would recommend you look for keywords that are highly searched but have little keyword value. Because this in turn usually brings less competition.
So, what do you really need to be looking for?
Usually keywords that are worth less than a dollar, and are searched between 500-2000 times per month is a good place to start. But even after you find these keywords, there are more steps to consider when deciding on keywords.
After you have found a keyword, google-it. This is going to give you some insight to your competition. What are we looking for here is, the total results of websites that appear on the page. This will vary greatly, from a few to millions, lower numbers are always good, as long as you followed the first step and found words that are actually searched more than a few hundred times per month.
The next thing you need to look at is the top 5 sites that appear in the results, because these are your primary competition. Can you beat these sites or at least compete with these sites? There are a lot of variables that will help you determine that.
First thing you will want to do is find out what each of the top five's page rank is. Remembering that anything above a 4 is going to be hard for you to compete with. Sites that are highly popular, or sites that have been around for a very long time, or Wiki's will always pose a serious problem when trying to compete for top spots.
After you have these sites page ranking, the next thing you will want to do is visit them. Take a look at the page and try to understand why it ranks so well, look for the keywords withing the content, read the page and just get an understanding of the approach that the page takes to the specific keyword. sometimes you will find that the site doesn't seem to be targeting that specific keyword at all, it just happens to be a very strong site and naturally will rank well for that specific keyword if it is included somewhere within the page.
The last step for right now that I want to talk about it checking the quantity of inbound links that the specific page has. The easiest way I have found to do this is with Yahoo's Site Explorer. With Site Explorer you can copy and paste the URL, and it will count backlinks. Remember, backlinks can be tough to come by, the higher number of backlinks a specific page has, the more backlinks you are going to need in order to be competetive. This number can vary greatly also, from a couple, to tens of thousands. So, be very wary of what you are getting into by choosing a specific keyword.
Another very nice thing that site explorer tells you, is where the links are coming from for the specific page. This gives you the chance to use some of those sites for backlinks yourself. so check them out, look to see if there is an opportunity to comment and add a link.
So, bottom line here is, "keyword research" is critical in the success of your blog. Going after the big dogs right out of the gate is going to lead to failure. No doubt about it. Find words that you feel you can handle and don't be afraid to start small and work up to the bigger words.
A common practice I try to use is, I base my blog's primary keywords around words that are searched more frequently, and from that, I write posts with keywords that are easier to achieve, in the hopes that I will pull readers through the back door of one of my older posts. It is a method I find to work, and one you may find useful also.
Well, that is it for today, I hope you enjoyed this blogging for beginners presentation and I hope to see you back soon!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Do not lose sight of your primary blog topic - focus is key to successful blogging
Today I want to spend a little time on blog topics and the importance of staying pinpoint focused on your topic, and primary keyword selections. Because it is all too often that I see blogs that are all over the map. That the author has been unable to stay focused. There are many reasons for this. But the reason I believe is the most common is the lack of information about the blog topic.
Many people, who are beginning to blog, do so because they have an interest in expressing their opinions about a specific topic. The problem with this is, once your opinion is out there, you have nothing left to talk about. You can mindlessly drone on about the same thing over and over again, but this doesn’t solve anything, this will actually start to annoy your readers.
So how can you find something that you are knowledgeable about, something that you can obsessively write about and consistently have something new to share with your readers? You have to focus on things that you are more than just interested in; you have to focus on things you truly have a wealth of knowledge about. You have to spend hours learning and reading and improving your own basic knowledge in order to take that information you have learned, and jumble it all up in your mind, put your own spin on it and spit it back out on your blog.
Now, don’t get me wrong, what I just said sounded a bit like I am telling you to read what others write and just regurgitate it. That is not it at all, I am telling you to learn, to practice what you learn and to put your own spin and level of importance on it, then tell others. Having a unique spin or opinion on what others are constantly repeating is what will set you out in a crowd. This is what should be your primary goal when writing your blog posts. This coupled with the fact that you are staying with your primary topic.
Like this blog. I am always going to write posts that will be informative and will give my readers new insights on what it takes to become a successful blogger. I am never going to write an article about celebrity gossip or ant reproduction. Although the ant reproduction thing is kinda an interesting thought. Anybody who finds me on this blog is not looking for that, and that is not what I want him or her to find. If they stumble onto an article that has little or nothing to do with my primary target, there is a very good chance I have just lost that reader forever.
So, even though I am here talking about remaining focused on your primary keywords and topics, I have to admit something. The very thing that brought me to the world of blogging is the one thing that makes blogging so difficult for me. See I have the attention span of a three-year-old. Staying focused is my weakness, but it is what made me start a blog. I saw one, thought it was neat, realized I could do it for free and went at it! It was a complete failure. I wallowed through it, writing about this and that, with no real direction and do you know what happened…absolutely nothing! Nobody came. I gave up on it. I lost hope. But being the type of person I am, I started learning. Learning about blogging, reading blog posts much like the ones I am putting here on blogging for beginners. I started building up my knowledge base, and I tried again. And do you know what happened…Almost nothing! Yep, second attempt is still up and running and I post to it at least once a week, but the topic is so wide ranged that I will probably never rank well for any specific keywords. But I know that, I write on that blog in a way that it will just not get the traffic. And I am ok with that.
So after that, I started my third blog…It took off. I was getting more and more hits every single day, and I was writing and writing away. Things were looking good, but then a crazy thing happened. I ran out of stuff to say. I even pleaded with my readers to ask me questions or give me suggestions, so I could find more things to write about. But I got NOTHING! Nobody was commenting. The blog was not interactive, readers were there with the sole purpose of finding information and they were using the blog as a way to find that information, often that information was on other sites. And all I was doing was linking them to the other sites. Chalk it up to a bit of a failure. And why? Because I didn’t have the adequate knowledge to stay on topic.
First attempt was lost because I could not stay on topic
Second attempt will remain what it is because although I do a better job of it, I do not always stay on topic
Third failed for lack of knowledge about the topic
So understand something from this. And this is key. Laser like focus is of primary importance when you decide to start to blog. If you want a blog that is successful and that brings a bulk of your readers from search engines you need that focus to be sustained over a long period of time. This is not a process that will happen overnight. This is not even a process that will happen in a couple of weeks. But an ever-consuming process that has to be maintained over the lifetime of the blog if you truly want to see your readership constantly moving in the right direction.
It is really funny to me that I think a couple of times within this post; I lost focus and went off on a tangent…. What can I say, I never really learn!
Thank you for reading blogging for beginners and I hope you come back soon!
Many people, who are beginning to blog, do so because they have an interest in expressing their opinions about a specific topic. The problem with this is, once your opinion is out there, you have nothing left to talk about. You can mindlessly drone on about the same thing over and over again, but this doesn’t solve anything, this will actually start to annoy your readers.
Now, don’t get me wrong, what I just said sounded a bit like I am telling you to read what others write and just regurgitate it. That is not it at all, I am telling you to learn, to practice what you learn and to put your own spin and level of importance on it, then tell others. Having a unique spin or opinion on what others are constantly repeating is what will set you out in a crowd. This is what should be your primary goal when writing your blog posts. This coupled with the fact that you are staying with your primary topic.
Like this blog. I am always going to write posts that will be informative and will give my readers new insights on what it takes to become a successful blogger. I am never going to write an article about celebrity gossip or ant reproduction. Although the ant reproduction thing is kinda an interesting thought. Anybody who finds me on this blog is not looking for that, and that is not what I want him or her to find. If they stumble onto an article that has little or nothing to do with my primary target, there is a very good chance I have just lost that reader forever.
So, even though I am here talking about remaining focused on your primary keywords and topics, I have to admit something. The very thing that brought me to the world of blogging is the one thing that makes blogging so difficult for me. See I have the attention span of a three-year-old. Staying focused is my weakness, but it is what made me start a blog. I saw one, thought it was neat, realized I could do it for free and went at it! It was a complete failure. I wallowed through it, writing about this and that, with no real direction and do you know what happened…absolutely nothing! Nobody came. I gave up on it. I lost hope. But being the type of person I am, I started learning. Learning about blogging, reading blog posts much like the ones I am putting here on blogging for beginners. I started building up my knowledge base, and I tried again. And do you know what happened…Almost nothing! Yep, second attempt is still up and running and I post to it at least once a week, but the topic is so wide ranged that I will probably never rank well for any specific keywords. But I know that, I write on that blog in a way that it will just not get the traffic. And I am ok with that.
First attempt was lost because I could not stay on topic
Second attempt will remain what it is because although I do a better job of it, I do not always stay on topic
Third failed for lack of knowledge about the topic
So understand something from this. And this is key. Laser like focus is of primary importance when you decide to start to blog. If you want a blog that is successful and that brings a bulk of your readers from search engines you need that focus to be sustained over a long period of time. This is not a process that will happen overnight. This is not even a process that will happen in a couple of weeks. But an ever-consuming process that has to be maintained over the lifetime of the blog if you truly want to see your readership constantly moving in the right direction.
It is really funny to me that I think a couple of times within this post; I lost focus and went off on a tangent…. What can I say, I never really learn!
Thank you for reading blogging for beginners and I hope you come back soon!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Using Longtail keywords for blogs
Many of you who read this may not even understand what keywords are, let alone using longtail keywords for blogs. So, being that this is "blogging lessons for beginners", we will start at the beginning.
Keywords are words that Google picks up on to determine search engine results. What I mean is, Google and all other search engines have tools called spiders, spiders crawl websites and blogs and anything else they can find on the web. They use the sites URL, Description, Titles, and Content; they determine what are the primary keyword targets for that site.
So, what does this actually mean to a beginner blogger? If your site has no real purpose other than talking about yourself, it means nothing. But for most bloggers, we want to be found, and we want to be read. And whether your niche is video games or making money online, or anything else you can think of, when a person searches through a search engine, our goal is to show up on that first page of search. Because anything after page one is a crapshoot. Most Internet users will not search past the first couple of pages.
So, this brings me to my real issue, Longtail keywords. Single word keywords like Money, or Loans or Football are killers. Try searching those types of things in google and you will get some real powerhouse websites. Chances of a little old free blog to show up for keywords like that are almost non-existent, but never fear, this is where long tail keywords will work for our blogs. Take this blog for example:
This site is for about blogging when you come right down to it. But what happens if you search the term “Blogging” in google? This is what happens. You get over 49million results and the top 10 are:
Wikipedia.org, Page rank (7)
Blogger.com, Page rank (8)
Blogspot.com, Page rank (6)
Problogger.net, Page rank (6)
Problogger.net, Page rank (5)
Wordpress.org, Page rank (6)
Marketingterms.com, Page rank (5)
Wordpress.org, Page rank (9)
Thoughts.com, Page rank (6)
Guardian.co.uk, Page rank (5)
Top 10 spots are almost unbeatable. I guess if you worked incredibly hard, you may break into the bottom of that list. But I doubt it. Not very likely at all.
We will talk more about pageranking later, but understand this first and foremost. Even really popular free blogs rarely break pagerank of 3. Now page ranking is not everything, but it is a big deal. And for most of us free bloggers out here, we have to be in a market with sites that rank no higher than a 4 to be competitive.
So, Just calling my site a blogging site was not gonna work for me, so, how about I try something else. I figured since it was gonna be a learning type blog, we would go for terms that the average person my use to search when trying to learn to blog. “How to blog” is a though, what happens?
456,000 results, way better than millions
page ranks are 2’s, 3’s and 4’s with a couple 6’s and an 8 in there. Better, not great.
So I went a little further.. Now I am giving away my keywords for this site but, whatever…
Blogging Lessons for beginners
And
Blogging for Beginners
The first one, has 8 results. This is perfect!!!! But problem is, it is not a highly searched keyword, and that is with it in “” meaning it has to show up just as I search it, but I will take it!!
Second is still perfect for me.
36,800 results
the highest site is pulling a Page rank of 6, but that is in the first spot.
So, longtail keywords for blogs is very, very important if you have any aspirations of ever being found. This does not mean that as soon as you add a specific set of words you will be indexed for them, not at all, it is a process, you need keyword density and you will need lots of content before google will even consider your blog as relevant.
My main point with this post is, when you are writing on the internet, quality content is very critical, people still want quality, but, it is also important to remember that keywords are also critical, and choosing the right keywords are very important.
And while it is really tempting to shoot for the stars, it is ok to go after small fish.
Keywords are words that Google picks up on to determine search engine results. What I mean is, Google and all other search engines have tools called spiders, spiders crawl websites and blogs and anything else they can find on the web. They use the sites URL, Description, Titles, and Content; they determine what are the primary keyword targets for that site.
So, what does this actually mean to a beginner blogger? If your site has no real purpose other than talking about yourself, it means nothing. But for most bloggers, we want to be found, and we want to be read. And whether your niche is video games or making money online, or anything else you can think of, when a person searches through a search engine, our goal is to show up on that first page of search. Because anything after page one is a crapshoot. Most Internet users will not search past the first couple of pages.
So, this brings me to my real issue, Longtail keywords. Single word keywords like Money, or Loans or Football are killers. Try searching those types of things in google and you will get some real powerhouse websites. Chances of a little old free blog to show up for keywords like that are almost non-existent, but never fear, this is where long tail keywords will work for our blogs. Take this blog for example:
This site is for about blogging when you come right down to it. But what happens if you search the term “Blogging” in google? This is what happens. You get over 49million results and the top 10 are:
Wikipedia.org, Page rank (7)
Blogger.com, Page rank (8)
Blogspot.com, Page rank (6)
Problogger.net, Page rank (6)
Problogger.net, Page rank (5)
Wordpress.org, Page rank (6)
Marketingterms.com, Page rank (5)
Wordpress.org, Page rank (9)
Thoughts.com, Page rank (6)
Guardian.co.uk, Page rank (5)
Top 10 spots are almost unbeatable. I guess if you worked incredibly hard, you may break into the bottom of that list. But I doubt it. Not very likely at all.
We will talk more about pageranking later, but understand this first and foremost. Even really popular free blogs rarely break pagerank of 3. Now page ranking is not everything, but it is a big deal. And for most of us free bloggers out here, we have to be in a market with sites that rank no higher than a 4 to be competitive.
So, Just calling my site a blogging site was not gonna work for me, so, how about I try something else. I figured since it was gonna be a learning type blog, we would go for terms that the average person my use to search when trying to learn to blog. “How to blog” is a though, what happens?
456,000 results, way better than millions
page ranks are 2’s, 3’s and 4’s with a couple 6’s and an 8 in there. Better, not great.
So I went a little further.. Now I am giving away my keywords for this site but, whatever…
Blogging Lessons for beginners
And
Blogging for Beginners
The first one, has 8 results. This is perfect!!!! But problem is, it is not a highly searched keyword, and that is with it in “” meaning it has to show up just as I search it, but I will take it!!
Second is still perfect for me.
36,800 results
the highest site is pulling a Page rank of 6, but that is in the first spot.
My main point with this post is, when you are writing on the internet, quality content is very critical, people still want quality, but, it is also important to remember that keywords are also critical, and choosing the right keywords are very important.
And while it is really tempting to shoot for the stars, it is ok to go after small fish.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Blog topic Ideas – Niche Blogging
One of the first steps for any new
blogger will be to brainstorm for BLOG TOPIC IDEAS, or NICHE BLOGGING. It will be something you will spend a lot of
time doing through your entire blogging career. For some of you, it will probably become an
obsession of sorts. For others, it will
be like pulling teeth. It is monotonous,
time consuming research into words that relate to the overall theme of your
blog.
This is a huge topic for new
bloggers. It is an important thing to
consider from the moment you decide to make a blog of your own and it is
something you will always need to consider, if your goal is to get steady,
organic traffic from search engines. And
it is your first lesson, in not only how to blog, but general SEO tactics most
bloggers employ in order to develop a popular blog.
Being that the topic is big, I am going to attempt to break it up into sections on the process I would use when deciding on Keywords, Topics, niches and themes for my own blogs.
 |
| Bright Ideas can become great niche blogs |
Step #1-Why do you want to blog?
The first course of business when
starting a new blog will be to decide why you want to make a blog. Will it be for personal use, similar to a
diary, maybe a place for your friends and family to come and see what is
happening in your life, if so, you can stop reading right there, this post is
more about the importance of laser like focus surrounding a specific group of people
that you would like to be able to find your blog, using conventional search
engine phrasing.
If your goal is to get pull readers
to your blog from search engines, whether that is just to share information, or
with the expectation of monetizing your blog and earn extra income, will be
your choice.
First step out of the way, now we
can begin learn how to decide what to blog about.
Step #2-Deciding what to blog about, or choosing your niche.
This step is still tough for
me. Most people that teach blogging will
tell you to brainstorm all your hobbies and interests, things that take up most
of your time, and choose from them your topic to blog about. It’s a good game plan, but it was rather
humbling to me when I first did this and found very little of substance that I
would like to spend countless hours, writing about.
Another option in finding blog topic ideas is an approach I favor. Find something that interests you, but something you are not necessarily pursuing currently. It will make your work much harder, you will have to learn and become proficient in your topic. It will require countless hours or research, and it surely is not for everyone. But for me, a researcher at heart, find it to be a rewarding experience.
The important thing to remember when
choosing your niche is that you will be studying the topic from every different
angle you can imagine, and attempting to find topics within your topic to write
about on your blog. And you will be
writing and writing and writing, so your subject should be one you really
like. It will become very tedious to
continue with a blog, if you reach a point where you have no interest left in
the topic.
Step #3-Focus your Topic into a Micro Niche
This is where you will start to
utilize some online tools in order to attack your topic with laser like
accuracy.
I will use an example:
Say you want to start a blog about
cars. First off, there are millions upon
millions of niches within that single word that you need to consider. The truth is, you will have little chance of
ever ranking in search engines with such a general term. So let’s start to pinpoint that topic a
little bit.
If you are having trouble at this
point, I would suggest a few different options to get some ideas:
Google: If you put the word ‘cars’ in the search bar
in Google, before you hit enter, it will give you some alternative options to
the term. Do any of these ring true with
you? Maybe one of those are a better
place for you to start. If not, hit
enter, and scroll all the way to the bottom of the page. At the bottom of the page is a list of
suggested related terms. Maybe one of
these are more interesting to you. Grab
it if you want.
Keyword Tool:
There are tons of keyword tools out
there. If you have a Google Adword
account you can use the Google Keyword Tool.
If you don’t, or you do not like it, there are other options. Keywordtool.io is one. It’s not going to give you search volumes
though, only suggested keywords for your broad term keyword. It will give you a list of more focused
keywords you can use for your blog niche.
If you would like something a little
more powerful, I suggest Jaaxy. It is
part of the Wealthy Affiliates network, which, I have to disclose, I am a part
of. You can set up an account with Jaaxy
and it will give you 30 keyword searches per month. It will give you monthly searches and
estimated traffic, along with some other useful information. Along with a list of suggested related
keywords to the one you enter.
As a rule of thumb for all this, you
will want a keyword, or Blog Topic idea, or Niche that isn’t too high, I would say,
under 3,000, remember, this is for your overall theme to your blog, all your
posts will be best if they tie back to this major topic in some way or another.
Another thing to look at during this
process is your competition. If you
search your topic in Google, using “” around the words, you will find sites
with exact matches to that search term.
You want this number to be low. I
like a quantity of under twenty percent of your total monthly searches. This means I would like to see 60 sites or
less turn up if the monthly searches are 3000.
This might be difficult with general keyword terms of one or two
words. More than likely you will be
looking for terms or three to 6 words long.
With these tools, I am hoping you
can find a niche that suits you.
Personally, if I was looking at the broad term, ‘cars’ my final choice
would have ended up being something like ‘Car Engines’ and the name of my blog,
would run along the lines of something like, How to Repair Car engines. Or Something
like Saturn Car Engines.
Step #4-Deciding on Blog Post Topics, Niches within Niches
Now that you have the basic
foundation laid for your blog topic idea, you can begin compiling a list of topics
you want to write about on your blog.
Generally, I like to grab a fairly substantial list and try to write a
post for every keyword I decide on. You
can use the same steps as above, using the keyword tool of your choice to start
drilling down into the keyword to find more focused topics. Here, you will want to find words with little
competition, that also have monthly search totals of 50 or more. The number seems low, and it is. You are just starting this blog and you will
want to start small if you want any early success. With time you can look for tougher keywords,
but I would recommend you start with the small fries first.
 |
| Blog topic ideas can be difficult to come up with |
In Conclusion
That is the basic process I go
through when I am searching for blog topic ideas, and in the bigger aspect of
Niche Blogging. It is going to be
important for you to start small when you are new, and looking for things to
blog about. It takes time to build
authority, and it takes more time to compete with blogs and websites that are
in your blogging niche and have been around for years.
Blogging is easy, but lifting an
engine is easy, but both require tools
and planning if your intent is to be successful.
Thank you for reading.
(This Post has been edited on: November 24, 2015)
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