A Little Keyword Research Can Go A Long Way

Today we have a guest post by Morgan Linton of Domainvestors.tv and Linton Investments, here is a bit more about Morgan:

Morgan is the publisher of Domainvestors.tv a blog about Domain Name Investing with a focus on Video. Morgan is also the Founder of Linton Investments, a Domain Name Investment company in Los Angeles, California. Morgan has also written a popular book about Domain Flipping available from DNFlipping.com.

Many people know that using keywords and anchor-text can go a long way towards improving your search engine ranking. What most people fail to realize though is that it is not just picking any keywords, it is picking the right keywords that will bring solid targeted traffic to your website or blog.

So how can you identify which keywords your target customer is looking for? It's not as hard it you might think but it does take knowing how to use the right tools. The first tool you want to look at is the Google Adwords Keyword tool. If you don't know what this is - get ready to meet your new best friend. The Google Adwords Keyword tool is like a Google cheat sheet. It gives you data on how many people are searching for a particular keyword (or keywords) on Google every month. On top of this it also shows you which related keywords are most frequently searched so that you can make a top ten list of the most searched keywords relating to the keywords in your domain name. 

Here's an example. Suppose you own the domain name Kayaking.org - you would use the Google Adwords keyword tool to determine what keywords related to Kayaking have the highest search volume on Google. In the case of Kayaking - the top five related keywords are (in order of search volume) - canoeing kayaking, canoe kayak, kayak fishing, sea kayak, and ocean kayak. Do you think this would have been the five related keywords you would have guessed? This is a step that many Domainers forget - they assume that they know what the most popular keywords are when they haven't taken the time to do the research. In the case of Kayaking there could be thousands of related keywords, but only five that get a bulk of the searches - these are the keywords you want to use in your text and anchor text within your site. 

Suppose I decided to guess the most popular keywords and picked "kayaking trip" as one of my anchor text phrases. I use this keyword phrase instead of "canoeing kayaking" because who the heck would think of that? Well "kayaking trip" gets around 4,000 searches on Google a month, "canoeing kayaking" on the other hand gets around 450,000 a month - pretty big difference don't you think! This research only takes a few minutes of time but can go a long way towards allowing your domain to rank well for keywords that people are actually searching for. 

Another great keyword research tool you can use is Wordtracker. While this is not a free tool, it is an excellent way to research keywords and determine which keywords are the best fit for your site. Wordtracker goes a step further than the Google Adwords Keyword Tool by providing even more detailed keyword data and an entire academy for learning more about how to use this data to improve your search engine ranking. Wordtracker even has a cool plugin for Firefox called "SEO Blogger" that will allow you to do your keyword research in a separate panel while you are writing a blog post. 

Whether you use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool or Wordtracker you will find-out very quickly how a little keyword research can go a long way. Remember, organic traffic is the best traffic you can get, not only is it free, but it is targeted traffic, so take your time, understand your keywords, and dominate the search engines!

Today is a guest post by Morgan Linton, here is a little background about Morgan, most of you are probably already familiar with Morgan but just in case....

Why Do You Buy Domain Names?

Why do you buy Domain Names?  That is a question I have asked myself before. Now to be clear, I buy them for one reason, to make money online. There are very few domains I buy without a purpose, it should either have keyword potential for minisites or immediate resell potential which is why I probably have always been so adamant against brandables with no immediate keyword value or generic potential. 

After I read the post on Domain Name Wire yesterday concerning making For Sale a larger option on parked pages it made me think a bit about why people domain and the various models they use to make money (or attempt too).  I think in many cases domainers are a mix of the various models below. Which model do you fit?

High End Speculator - This domainer model buys a name based on pure speculation of moving the domain at a higher price, normally at a significantly high ROI. This person does not focus on hand registration of domain names but rather on picking up premium names and moving them.  This is the pure Domainer model as I see it.  This model needs bigger For Sale signs:)

Hand Registration Flipper - This model works well for getting started, picking up domains on the cheap and flipping them for 2, 5, or 10 times the registration cost within a few hours, days or weeks. This is a great way for people to get started and move upmarket on domains. Normally these are sold on the forums.

Minisite Domain Flipper - Domainers doing this buy domains, put minisites on them, and then flip the domain based on revenue/traffic multiples. This works well for people looking to buy revenue names and do not want to necassarily develop them.

Passive Income Domainer - This domainer type buys domains not to sell but to create an income stream from the parking (or affiliate) income generated. This domainer really does not care about for sale signs and is more concerned about creating a stream of income that requires little upkeep or effort per day.  If they happen to get an offer great, but their point is streams of income.

Site Developer - These domainers buy quality domains to develop into fully blown out websites, each domain purchase is for a specific purpose and has a specific business model associated to it.  Some would say that this person is not a domainer although more and more you see people talking on the forums about this site being sold or that sold being sold, but if you look deeper it was not a domain it was as developed site. A crappy name that gets developed into a successful site and gets sold at a high price is not a DOMAIN  being sold it is a BUSINESS being sold.

Domain Collector - This person just likes to pick up domains to acquire items and have them, in many cases they may not realize this (sorry if you realize this is you after reading). They really do not focus so much on the revenue or domain selling aspects as much as acquiring large quantities of domains.

Expired Traffic Domain Flipper - This person buys expired domains that have traffic from sources such as backlinks, may have Google Pagerank, and normally has revenue associated to it. They make money moving these names based on revenue multiples and do flips after a few months. They can use this money to reinvest in more revenue names or invest in quality generics.

What model are you? 

I am sure there are many other models that could be defined.  As much as I think bigger for sale signs are great for many domainers in some cases the focus may not be on getting the name in front of the buyer but may be on finding ways to increase CTR or PPC values.

I just put up a new poll, vote for what type of domainer you are.

On a separate note, I have a buyer looking for Blog name, should be something focused on training bloggers , blog webinars, how to make money with blogs, something that matches those topics.  Needs to be a .COM and price range is in the $100 range. Please use my contact me form if you have something.