Greetings,
First, if you've missed Lesson #1, then I advise you go back and review the forum thread with the same title (minus the "#2") preceding this thread. This lesson won't do you much good without Lesson #1
Here's a recap.
You are to:
1) Make a list of at least 15 things you know and love to do starting with the things you love the most. DO NOT leave anything out..no matter how trivial it may seem to you. The purpose of this exercise is to get you working with something you will be able to write about and you have a better chance of sticking with than if you're working with something you could care less about or know very little about.
2) Next, you are to take the top 3 to 5 things from that list and using those keywords go to Google Keywords Tool that is going to help you develop a list of associated keywords as well as get a feel for what's going on in that particular niche. THe more green you see next to the keywords, the more active it is. If you see NO green in the advertisers column, MOVE ON. If you see the bars full..you know there's money in the niche..and you just need to find it.
Your keyword list should contain about the top 20-30 single and multiple keywords (example: health, womens health, mens health, family health, health care, health insurance..etc..) There will be certain keywords that you will have NO chance to rank for no matter how hard you try, but within that group you will find some that you will have a fighting chance. It's a balance that you have to strike. you need a keyword with lots of traffic, but one that doesn't get too much because those are pretty much sewn up by the "deep pockets"
3) With your list you then head over to the WordTracker Keywords tool and determine what the monthly searches are for those keywords. Plug in the word or words and check the numbers (which are "daily" figures so x30 for a monthly total. You should NOT be thinking about keywords that run much less than 15,000 searches a month or you run the danger of being in a dead market. If the numbers seem TOO low, perhaps you've drilled too far into the niche. Example: "health" in my search gets about 7850 hits a day or 235,000 a month, where "mens health" gets 1435 daily or 43,000 a month, and "health for men" gets 8 daily and 240 monthly. The best set would be Mens Health or variations of. I would take Mens Health back to Google and run associated keywords from that set.
So that's pretty much where we left off from Lesson #1.
Now you're asking, what do I do with all these words? well..first off DON'T throw away that list, because it will serve you well when writing titles and posts for your content. It will be your guide, and if you stick to it, will help you to eventually rank for some of those words. Basically that means that when someone searches Google for "mens health" and you've been working hard and got your site to between #1 and #5 for those search terms, you are going to get a LOT of traffic. That's what this is all about folks..because once you have lots of eyes hitting your site, there is a whole WORLD of possibilities opening up for you, and none of this MLM "team building" please join my marketing promotion etc. etc.
Next is you are going to need to plan and design your site, and the VERY BEST way to do this is to go back to google, search on the words that you've narrowed your list to..and review the top sites (preferably other blogs) that come up. Get ideas from them and add them to your own, and on PAPER draw out your site design. Get a visual of how you'd like it to look, talk to others with experience and ask them what they prefer..two column, three column.. I wouldn't recommend 4 column or special themes just yet..at least not until you are a little more experienced.
While you're doing that you should also be looking at domain names and titles, and with your keyword list in mind you are also going to generate a domain name as short as you can get it, using good keywords relevant to your list. Your Title is not necessarily going to be the same as your domain, but it must contain some of the same keywords AND be relevant. Understand that Google has a duty to show relevant content to the searcher, and the more relevant (and of course the higher ranked) sites are the ones that get shown first.
My advice is that you have your own hosting and domain name, but additionally there are blogging networks that you can create a blog on for free, piggybacking on their framework and in some respects benefiting from their rank and traffic. Blogger comes to mind. My own SuccessBlogNet is another. Feel free to get a free blog on me. I or Diane will even help you get it set up!
This kind of system can bring benefits. but also some drawbacks.
First as a benefit..you aren't out any money at all. The name you pick becomes a subdomain or a subfolder from their main domain..so you end up with something like: http://menshealth.blogger.com/ or http://healthnews.successblognet.com/
That's not necessarily a bad thing, but in the case of Blogger.com, people have been known to have lost EVERYTHING because they failed to observe some minute point in the TOS (terms of service), and without recourse. When Blogger.com deletes your work its GONE. If you don't have back ups of the content..all that work just went POOF!
Incidentally, Successblognet has never nor will ever delete content from the site in such a manner.
The point is, you are at the mercy of the site you have your blog on. I personally prefer owning my own domain, and paying for my own hosting. It just works way better for me, I can afford the nominal sum, and I have enough experience with C-Panel and other things to manage quite well on my own.
The other thing is that with your own domain and hosting, you are then able to use the MOST POWERFUL blogging software available online today. WordPress.
It's free, and is included with every hosting account I've ever seen. It's a fairly simple install from the cpanel area (typically found in a folder called Fantastico along with a host of other programs and scripts)
This program can be installed on the root domain in "public_html" or if you already have a site on the root, into a sub-folder or sub-domain. Adding a blog to your existing site can bring advantages or maybe disadvantages depending on who you talk to. Research into anything you plan to do always provides you with a better idea of what you're doing, and I can't recommend more strongly to RESEARCH everything before you act or react or purchase.
Incidentally you can get great hosting and the best deal on domain names right here! Best Host Patrol Ah..ya. that's another one of my sites, and no I'm not trying to gain commercial advantage here. I'm selling domains basically at cost, and hosting about as cheap as you can get it. This is to your benefit, so take advantage of me. ;-)
The beauty of having your own..is that you have access to more themes (think skins, or appearance) than you could review in a week. There are also hundreds if not thousands of plugin programs that will enhance your site, AND if you have the money for it..there are paid plugins as well..for even more power and control.
I suggest sticking with the free if you are just new to the world of blogging.
Putting it all together is somewhat technical, but not overly so, and if you can manage to learn how to use FTP and Cpanel, then you should have NO problems at all. Learning these things is also very empowering and SAVES money ;-)
Well enough brain dump for today.
Lesson #3 will deal with creating content and (oh no) more research!??
To Success!
Tim.
P.s. Look. I don't want to bug you all..but I'm GIVING away FREE money! All you have to do is vote on some blogs, comment a few lines..and you have entries to win $50, $100, even $250!! and more prizes! What? don't you like to win things?? Your odds of winning are really great and get better with more votes and comments. Nominations close on the 15th. Get your name on the cup and benefit FOREVER with traffic if your nomination wins.
Go To BlogNet Awards!