SEM Tycoon

**Dural** · 09-24-2006, 03:54 PM

All right, I'm new to this business model, so please bear with me here, but I've found a niche with the following stats:

Average Monthly Searches: 76,000
Average CPC: $11
Search Results in Google: 5 million
Incoming Links to #1 Site (Yahoo): 11,000
Incoming Links to #4 Site (Yahoo): 3,500

I did some research into the back links for each site on the front page, and they are almost all reciprocal links through some kind of link exchange. Very few one-way links.

The search term refers to a very specific and complicated service. Most of the top links are national service providers, who are clearly hiring some rather outdated SEO help.

Only a few of the sites have content. Interestingly, I'd guess almost none of the people that search for this term want to know how it works. Rather, they are looking for a service provider.

If I put up a site, I would probably monetize through Adsense and maybe try to set up affiliate relationships with some of the service providers. Only, I don't know how well it would sell, considering the service costs several thousand dollars a pop.

Anyway, does this look like a good niche to go after?

The only potential problem I see is pulling in links. The term is a boring and highly specialized topic, so I don't see it doing well on social bookmarking sites. I might be able to get a few blog mentions, but I think it's going to be tough.

I could buy my way into a topical link exchange for about $500 per month that would funnel a couple thousand relevant links my way, but I'd hate to be permanently dependent on something like that.

Any suggestions?

-Jon

**briansol** · 09-24-2006, 06:53 PM

$11 a click? i thought those days were gone. Hell, i haven't seen 50 cents a click in 2 years....

IMO, jump on it while you can.

**imported_illusion** · 09-24-2006, 08:33 PM

But you might be stripped from Google. I remember reading somewhere, I think it was on this forum. Where someone was getting 7-8 cents a click yet the price was around the $5-6 mark

**imported_mattd** · 09-24-2006, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by briansol

$11 a click? i thought those days were gone. Hell, i haven't seen 50 cents a click in 2 years....

IMO, jump on it while you can.

Depends on the ads I guess. I reguarly get $0.8 clicks, as well as the occasional $1.5 for all IT based stuff.

This niche sounds ok to me anyway - just throw a site up if I were you. Sounds like its ripe for the taking.

**ndaru** · 09-24-2006, 09:51 PM

Quote:

$11 a click? i thought those days were gone. Hell, i haven't seen 50 cents a click in 2 years....

Maybe Dural was talking about bidding on Google SERPS, not Google Adsense. They're both separated and can be quite different in terms of bidding price for the same keywords.

**Dural** · 09-24-2006, 09:54 PM

I got the $11 per click from the Google sandbox thingy and overture. The top bid is about $13 for the keyword. Second is about $11. And on down. Most of the ones on the bottom are about $8.

**imported_illusion** · 09-24-2006, 09:55 PM

Care to explain what bidding on Google SERPS means ndaru? SERPS means the place you are in Google's rankings, how can one bid on that? SEO gets you that spot

**Dural** · 09-24-2006, 10:00 PM

That's what I was thinking, but didn't want to sound ignorant :-)

**The Fat Boy** · 09-24-2006, 11:12 PM

http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/sea...er=userbidtool

**ndaru** · 09-25-2006, 04:50 AM

@illusion

It means how much you bid for your ads to be shown at the right side of Google search result pages (SERPS).

People tends to bid higher for SERPS and lower for Adsense (or so I hear).

**MonkeyBiz** · 09-25-2006, 05:33 AM

$11 click is max bid for an overture search listing

you may only back a buck or two off the term in reality

**Dural** · 09-25-2006, 10:28 AM

That's not bad, if I can hit #1 for the term on Google. 76,000 searches per month.

**MonkeyBiz** · 09-25-2006, 11:15 AM

That isnt realistic. Even those tems with only xx,xxx searches can be quite competitive

**gopher292** · 09-29-2006, 11:08 PM

webuser: I have a program that takes a dictionary and runs it through overture, checks competition for each and the top 5 pageranks and filters the db. I've found niches with about the same amount of traffic and less competition.

Dural: If you think you can get a site in the top 10 without spending too much, I'd say go for it. If that's overture stats, a #1 Google position's worth about 85k/mo. (http://seoblackhat.com/clicks-by-search-rank.html). 85k/mo * 5% CTR (assuming PPC monetization) * $1/click = $4250/mo.