SEM Tycoon

**Bookworm-SEO** · 07-14-2006, 01:24 AM

I initially posted this in another thread, but Lee suggested I start a new one for this, so here goes...

"How about starting an "ask lee" thread where people ask you monetization questions and such.

In fact, I'd like to start right now. Both you and Jon (aojon, mook-jon, whatever jon he takes a leak in) have said repeatedly that research is the key to your success. Neither of you have said what you research though! How's about offering some sort of checklist of things to research, and some tools to go about conducting that research? Expand on the scientific business method, if you know what I mean ... "

**Bookworm-SEO** · 07-16-2006, 01:49 PM

Uhh, Lee? I thought you asked me to start this thread?

**Karl89.co.uk** · 07-16-2006, 02:40 PM

Atleast give him a little bit of time to respond.

**amarquart** · 07-16-2006, 02:52 PM

I like it. A lot of commitment on Lee's part, but I am sure he could use it to his advantage. Say, on his podcast, feature questions from earners forum posters. I am just shooting from the hip here.

**dicetomato** · 07-16-2006, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amarquart

I like it. A lot of commitment on Lee's part, but I am sure he could use it to his advantage. Say, on his podcast, feature questions from earners forum posters. I am just shooting from the hip here.

Yeah, I enjoy the Won Do Li show quite a bit

.

**LeeD** · 07-17-2006, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bookworm-SEO

I initially posted this in another thread, but Lee suggested I start a new one for this, so here goes...

"How about starting an "ask lee" thread where people ask you monetization questions and such.

In fact, I'd like to start right now. Both you and Jon (aojon, mook-jon, whatever jon he takes a leak in) have said repeatedly that research is the key to your success. Neither of you have said what you research though! How's about offering some sort of checklist of things to research, and some tools to go about conducting that research? Expand on the scientific business method, if you know what I mean ... "

The research I do typically has to do with finding the right niche. I do the following when digging deeper to determine if a niche is solid and something I can successfully break in to:

1. determine main keywords for the niche using overture, adwords tool, or the like
2. go through first 2-3 pages of search results in Google, Yahoo, and MSN and see who is ranking for the top terms and why
3. figure out what the already successful sites are doing and determine if I can improve upon it or go at it from a different angle
4. check out the PPC bids and competitiveness
5. look in to available domains
6. see how competitive the top keywords are

That is a quick run down. I will add more as I think of them, but it is Monday morning and I just got back from a week long vacation...plenty of catch up work on my plate today!

**imported_mattd** · 07-17-2006, 10:37 AM

I have a bit of a short question for people making a fair wedge of cash. I suspect the answer varies wildly!

Anyway, someone on here recently advertised "some" of their domains they had for sale that they wanted to develop but didn't have time. This list was huge! So for those of you making more than say $300 a month, how many sites do you have?

Does most of your income come from a few high-traffic sites, or is it spread out around smaller lower traffic sites? And if you dont mind, what is the sort of average traffic you guys get?

I always imagined people with maybe 5 or 6 big sites - seeing that big list raised an eyebrow!

Thanks

**jSonic** · 07-17-2006, 10:46 AM

I'd imagine Lee will end up with a huge pile of questions here..

**xboxundone** · 07-17-2006, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mattd

So for those of you making more than say $300 a month, how many sites do you have?

Does most of your income come from a few high-traffic sites, or is it spread out around smaller lower traffic sites? And if you dont mind, what is the sort of average traffic you guys get?

I always imagined people with maybe 5 or 6 big sites - seeing that big list raised an eyebrow!

This will vary depending ont he person and what type of promotions they do.
As some people setup sites to promote just one offer or maybe one niche... but as you can imagine if they setup sites just to promote affilite offers the amount of sites they have can be large...

But if you look at people that earn money buy building websites/communities most of these types would have fewer sites as more time would need to be put into developing then.

For me i have a mix of sites for affiliates promo only and "regular" websites. I own over 45 domains... about 10 are unactive or just have a generic page. so 35 active domains.... traffic wise range from as little as a few visitors 30 to 50 a day on some sites to as large as several thousands ( i don't have any BIG mega traffic sites) but what i do works for me

.

**xboxundone** · 07-17-2006, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lee

The research I do typically has to do with finding the right niche. I do the following when digging deeper to determine if a niche is solid and something I can successfully break in to:

1. determine main keywords for the niche using overture, adwords tool, or the like
2. go through first 2-3 pages of search results in Google, Yahoo, and MSN and see who is ranking for the top terms and why
3. figure out what the already successful sites are doing and determine if I can improve upon it or go at it from a different angle
4. check out the PPC bids and competitiveness
5. look in to available domains
6. see how competitive the top keywords are

That is a quick run down. I will add more as I think of them, but it is Monday morning and I just got back from a week long vacation...plenty of catch up work on my plate today!

Great points but one suggestion i'll make in addition is whatever your target is FIND OUT how many times the topic is searched for!!!! early on i built a great site and actually took me a LONG time to get it up and going ranked great for keywords i was target between 1 and 3 on all SE's but then i wondered why little to no traffic..... come to find out it only was searched 10 times a day... now i got 5 of those ten... but the target wasn't for sales etc... so return was very low... so i learned my leason make sure the investment and time put in will be returned by targeting something that has a decent search base.

**Bookworm-SEO** · 07-17-2006, 07:14 PM

Ah! Well now that stuff makes sense

Thanks a lot Lee. Actually, I did that sort of thing with my first affiliate website, though nowhere near the depth you seem to go. Did some keyword research, looked at the top ranking sites...

Oh, and Xbox, thanks also for responding. I know what you mean about the useless rankings. A blog of mine was number one... for something search about twice a year! I've optimized it for another higher traffic term now, and am beginning to see results (yahoo page 1, msn page 2, google 70s n 80s). I'm thinking perhaps the title tag is the problem? As that is what likely determines SE clickthrough?

I like how this thread is working

**Hobbit** · 07-17-2006, 10:31 PM

You're right Lee. My first ever site band of the week.com didn't get any visits via a search engine. Who the hell searches for 'band of the week' ? Maybe only because I wanted to know how well I was doing.

This seems like an interesting topic.

**Atomm** · 07-18-2006, 05:00 PM

What would you call a decent search base according to Overture? 1000 a month? Higher?

**moveforward** · 07-20-2006, 12:25 PM

Quote:

What would you call a decent search base according to Overture? 1000 a month? Higher?

It depends on the keyword phrase - if it is something generic then 1000 is very small. If it is something which is very niche and high paying click value such as "asbestos law suit" - it may be worth considering. Mix this in with some keyword arbritage and you might be on to a winner.

**abohart** · 07-20-2006, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobSheth

It depends on the keyword phrase - if it is something generic then 1000 is very small. If it is something which is very niche and high paying click value such as "asbestos law suit" - it may be worth considering. Mix this in with some keyword arbritage and you might be on to a winner.

What does the term "keyword arbitrage" mean, exactly? Sounds like another one of those buzz word that totally lose any meaning after the initial buzz.:closedeyes:

Allen
The Fishing Bobber

**moveforward** · 07-21-2006, 06:01 AM

Quote:

What does the term "keyword arbitrage" mean, exactly? Sounds like another one of those buzz word that totally lose any meaning after the initial buzz.

I know what you mean by meaningless buzz words - there are a lot of those about. However Keyword Arbritage requires some serious investigation if you are serious about making money online. I will try and explain with an example but it i'm sure some of the bigger Earners could do a better job.

I have a site called Blue Fuzzy Widgets .com. The site is just a landing page with some reviews and useful content about Blue Fuzzy Widgets. It also contains some well placed Buy Now links that are affiliated to some e-commerce sites selling the products. I make a 15% cut on every Widget sale which is has an average price of $100 netting me $15 per sale. So my end game is making a $15 sale. Now the important question is how do I create enough traffic to make one sale - this is where keyword arbitration comes in. Ideally I want to spend no more than $7.50 on keyword campaigns to create enough traffic for one sale. So the real art to this is buying up tons of keywords on Adwords, Yahoo and others - at the lowest cost ($0.03/click) and somewhat related Blue Fuzzy Widgets e.g. "Buy Blue Widgets" etc. At $0.03/click - this converts to 250 users which should convert to a sale.

So in a sentence, Keyword Arbitration, is buying up a large amount of relevant keywords from the search engines - at low cost - and converting them to a higher paying sale.

Hope that helps.
Bob

**Batesy** · 07-21-2006, 07:33 PM

Arbitrage is something I'd love to see more bare bones info about so whet my appetite. I find alot of the discussion regarding arbitrage is much more advanced than I am. I'd like a place to be able to really nail down the basics.

**jerome2900** · 07-21-2006, 07:53 PM

I am presently going thru those 6 points Lee made and came up with a few good niches to tackle, its amazeing how all the .com's are already taken and some are just a holding page; if only I knew a couple years ago what I know now, well anyway there's still .us,.tv.info etc.

Question: When you say "see how competitive the top keywords are " were you refering to r/s results/search ratio ?

**IsMaR** · 07-21-2006, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerome2900

I am presently going thru those 6 points Lee made and came up with a few good niches to tackle, its amazeing how all the .com's are already taken and some are just a holding page; if only I knew a couple years ago what I know now, well anyway there's still .us,.tv.info etc.

Question: When you say "see how competitive the top keywords are " were you refering to r/s results/search ratio ?

dont we all?

**bmcconn3** · 07-21-2006, 09:23 PM

Question:

I've never quite grasped the idea of driving mega loads of traffic to your site. I've tried to do research on SEO and the like but it just makes my head spin. I could really benefit from a step by step process. For Example, hypothetically say you just launched a new site umm.. ilovewater.com, you know alot about building websites and can build a site that visitors will like. So you build the site and find hosting and its on the internet. What would be the process that I would take to get visitors there. I realize this may be a induce a very broad scope of answers maybe more than you'd feel like writing about so just give me the most important ones.

Thanks,
bryan