The primary use of the internet is information seeking.
When people have a question, a problem, an interest or a curiosity they use
the internet to fulfill their need. Your goal is to become the resource
they turn to. They look for specific information in a targeted field -
the goal of this step is to create a concept that will meet these criteria.
A key to success in this vital first step is keeping records of your research. A great way to do this is with a Microsoft Excel file that records our topics, demand for the topic, supply of the topic and opportunity. You can use the free Build and Earn Concept Analzyer provided by Build and Earn or create your own database. When creating your own, you'll want to make a table with the following headings for columns: search terms, overture demand, competition & supply, Average Unit Rate and Opportunity Index (in that order).
Brainstorming
Start with the big picture. What industries, categories, and subjects interest
you? Your website is content driven so you'll need to select categories in
which you have some knowledge. Open a text document and make a list of broad
categories that interest you (ex. sports, automotive, cooking) - underline
these. Under each broad category list as many subcategories as you can (ex.
baseball, spoiler kits, Indian food). One of the best ways to get the ball
rolling is the old fashioned way - yellowpages, encyclopedias and the "how-to"
section at your public library. They are priceless.
Once you have a handful of general topics you would like to pursue - print, save and close this document. Now we'll look through our customer's eyes and see what type of information they want.
Overture Demand
In a new window, open Overture's Keyword
Selector Tool. Overture tracks what is typed into search engines and how
often. We'll take each item on your list and see specifically what people
are searching for in your selected categories.
Take each item from your printed list, type it into the Overture search box and press enter. Overture displays a report of search terms using these words and how many times each term was searched in the previous month. In business jargon, the number of times people search for a given term is the demand. We want to find keywords and search terms with high demand. More specifically, we want to pinpoint targeted searches where people are seeking specific information - not broad categories.
Type in every word you can think of that relates to your categories and subcategories and record your results under the "Overture Demand" heading. While something may have only been searched 1,000 times it may still be worth recording - although it may not make a good website topic it might make a great webpage within your site.
Overture is also a great tool to help you brainstorm! We can't predict what topics people will search for but we can get a pretty good idea based on search history.
Competition & Supply
Now we know what information people seek within our interest areas. However,
there is always competition . We need competitive analysis to find where our
best opportunities exist. Open a search engine like Yahoo!
Or Google. Type the search
terms from your Overture Demand category into a search engine with "quotation
marks" around each term. For each search, the total number of results
is displayed.
In business jargon, the number of results for each search term is the supply. More results = more competition. Record the supply for each search term in your category titled "Competition & Supply". Don't be disenchanted if the supply outpaces the demand - it usually will. While the number of overall results is important to us, the top 10-20 websites are your real competition.
Visit these pages. Make notes on the content, design, structure, features and any ideas you may be able to utilize in your own site. Note keywords where the top sites are average or poor and make note of these opportunities. If someone else can't provide quality content for these information seekers, you will!
Average Unit Rate
One of our main revenue sources will be pay-per-click advertising. Companies
will pay us to generate leads (via clicks) from our website. Obviously, a
company selling mortgages is likely to pay more for each lead (or click) than
a company trying to sell books.
This is an important element to our equation. Overture provides a tool called the Overture Bid Tool that allows us to view what advertisers are currently paying for clicks based on selected keywords. Take each search term from your database, see what the average payment per click is using the bid tool and record it in the column titled Average Unit Rate.
Opportunity Index
The potential for your idea is based on all these factors - overall concept,
demand, supply and average unit rate. If you're using the free Build and Earn
Opportunity Analzer the Opportunity Index will automatically be calculated.
This statistic tells you (considering demand, supply and average payment per
click) which search terms have the best profit potential. To calculate this
statistic yourself the equation is:
Opportunity Index = (Demand / Supply) * Avg Unit Rate
Choose Your Concept
Theoretically, the targeted keyword phrases with the highest Opportunity Index
are the ones we should pursue. In reality, this statistic is only a guideline,
not a rule. It's a number that tells a story. While this excercise can be
extremely helpful, don't put all your eggs in one basket. Think about what
this number means, how it relates to your interests, abilities and the real
world.
You're now armed with some valuable tools to choose a successful concept. The idea may leap off the page - eureka! Or, it may take you a few days or weeks to find your golden egg. How will you know if your idea has the potential to be successful?
Learn by example - through the failures and success of other web entrepreneurs. Visit website review forums, view other peoples' websites and read the feedback they've received. Your intuition for noticing what makes terrible sites so terrible and what gives others great potential will be a valuable skill in your website endeavors. One of the best is at AssociatePrograms.com.
If you're still stuck, don't worry - the fact you've sought out this website indicates you're well ahead of the curve. Keep plugging away and when you're ready to continue, it's time to Choose our Tools in Step 2.