If you don’t write content that people want to find then you will not get anywhere affiliate marketing…
But how do you find out what people want answers to, or be entertained by….
You do this with keyword research…
Keyword are queries entered by users to find information (informational keywords), find a site ( navigational keywords), compare products (investigational keywords) or buy products (transactional keywords). These keywords and phrases can be used to sculpt content to satisfy these users demands and SEO( Search Engine Optimization).
When starting to create your affiliate marketing blog, then you need to get to know your audience and what they want.
One of the easiest ways is to find out what questions they are looking for in their niche online.
What are keywords
According to the dictionary a keyword is ‘a word or words of great significance’…and i agree.
When you start an affiliate marketing business then you are trying to find a buying niche, one that will spend money and has a lot of members.
And ideally you have an interest or experience in…
This way you have a head start over someone who has no knowledge of how to talk to your niche and what they are looking for.
They will need to do a lot of research to find out the information.
You, on the other hand, who are part of the niche – say your niche is Thai cooking…
You already know that you will be looking at cooking utensils, cooking books, cooking courses, possibly spices…
If you already cook Thai food then you have insider knowledge you know the intent of the searcher.
You maybe know how to balance the food with the five ingredients…
If it is too hot then add more brown sugar and lime juice….
And balance the taste again….
So typing into google questions about Thai food you will quickly find, or even know, the answers to most of the questions…
And these questions are the basis of keywords ( keywords can be one or more words)
‘how to tone down spicy Thai food’
‘how to tone down pad Thai’
but why would you need these keywords….
Why are they important
If you just go ahead and create content for your site – it maybe fantastic content.
But if no one is searching for the topic or keyword of your article then it will not be found.
Google, as a search engine will scan your site and look at all your blog posts.
It will examine all the words and try to determine the topic and sub topics.
Some words are used more often – so they must be important.
And other words support this.
So google builds a list of relevant SEO keywords your article can be returned as a result of certain query words.
There are other ranking factors to take into account – but a lot of these you have no influence over – or they need time, which again you don’t control – you manage the ones you can change….
So why not turn it around and find the query words that are important and write articles that include these – then you have a fighting chance of being returned as one of the page one results…
And the end result of your hard work should be to rank as high as possible in the search engines result pages or SERPs.
Should a newbie be interested
As a newbie blogger or affiliate marketer you really need to be interested in the right keywords – and how to use them to your advantage.
The reason for this is to rank highly.
Getting onto the first page – or even the snippet is a prize most are looking for.
And at the beginning, as with other jobs, you start at the bottom.
So you pick up the scraps the authority guys can’t be bothered with, the ones with low traffic.
How do i know there will be low traffic.
There are keyword research tools that harvest the queries from people typing into search engines.
So they have billions of results and how many times it is entered a day or more probably a month.
And as a newbie you want to look for what is classed as ‘long tail keywords’.
These are keywords or phrases that are targeted at one narrow topic.
From your point of view, they are easily answered – you can create an article about this keyword and think about what the person asking the question would go on to ask and pre-empt these by answering them…
This way you can build up your site with useful, helpful content and get known for it with visitors returning.
Some places to find keywords
Keyword tools exist to help you investigate the niche and find out what they are looking for.
You can type in a seed keyword and find out what questions are being typed in.
Staying with the example above of Thai food – this would be a good seed word.
So to start off with questions – into google you could type Thai food- and besides it thinking you are looking for takeout food if you scroll down then you find some questions people ask like :
- what is the most popular Thai food
- what does Thai food consist of
- what does Thai food taste like
- is Thai food healthy
These are now starting to be useful keywords that you can see what the competition is like in google or try out keyword tools to find out more information.
Free
There are a number of free keyword tools, but as with most things free they come with limitations…
They will either just give out keywords – like keyword shitter (pronounced sheeter…)
Or be limited in the information that is given back
Like the number of results from the free version of ubersuggest.
But at least ubersuggest have search volume figures.
But here is a list of 10 keyword tools that have free functionality, but maybe limited as they have premium versions…
- google keyword planner – free ( need an account)
- Answerthepublic – 2 searches a day
- keyword shitter2– loads of keywords only
- Ubersuggest – limited results
- Serpstat – limited results
- Lsigraph – limited results
- Keyword.io – limited results
- Soovle– free
- Niche lab pro – limited results
- Keyword finder – wordpress plugin
Premium
And now we go onto the big guys…
If you are just starting out then the last thing you want is to pay out for a monthly service that maybe sitting there
unused for days or even weeks.
Once you have got a bunch of keywords and investigated them – then the next stage is to create the content ( after research) which takes time and you may not be using the keyword tool for a few days or even weeks ….
But a good keyword tool – either as a one off or monthly payment can really help add value to your content.
If it has a related searches or google questions feature then you can find extra information google thinks is very relevant to your keyword and incorporate it.
So 10 paid services are
- ahrefs
- serpstat
- Long tail pro
- Keyword researcher pro
- semrush
- kwfinder
- moz
- ubersuggest
- spyfu
- Twinword Ideas
- Jaaxy
Ok so i added an extra one – just to add a little more value
Do you need a keyword tool as a newbie
Well .. yes and no .
You can get a lot of information for free, but you pay for it with time.
So if you can spend a bit of time learning how affiliate marketing works and what you need to do then you can use this time to learn your keyword skills.
One platform that has a bundled keyword tool with its premium affiliate marketing training is wealthy affiliate.
So if you are looking at Jaaxy as a keyword tool then definitely look at the wealthy affiliate training program – as you will be getting a lot more for your money that just training and a keyword tool – it is an all-in-one business package.
You get hosting, free Siterubix sites to build and get used to the training and follow along.
You get a massive community of like minded people who are all on the same journey at different stages – so you should never get stuck.
And the all important Jaaxy lite keyword tool.
It is a very fast user friendly keyword tool – very easy to use.
It finds low hanging fruit ( low competition low avg) keywords with ease allowing you to create content that has a chance of ranking highly.
So it is worth having a look at what is available – and it is free to have a look around and the first level of training is free as well….