I’ve received a great response so far on my little Squidoo Quest and am noticing some repeated questions on keyword/topic research so I feel that we should dedicate a few posts here to talking about it.

Here’s my general philosophy on researching new squidoo lens topics (or new niches in general)

  1. Don’t focus on just ‘one’ keyword to the exclusion of all others - I find this takes a very narrow minded view towards what you want to accomplish and doesn’t really result in the outcomes people are looking for (namely, traffic, attention, conversions, etc)
  2. You don’t need monster niches – There are plenty of people that search for specific models, styles, etc that there is no need to target a monster market unless you have a monster budget. For example, instead of going after everyone that wants to buy an appliance, focus on a specific brand of dishwasher.
  3. Target Buyers – Unlike most of the people reading this, nearly everyone spends less time on the internet then you. They aren’t up on the latest SEO news or conversion metrics or any of that stuff. They want to find something they are looking for, get good information about it, and buy it. Writing your content to focus on these people will astronomically increase your conversions.
  4. What is available? - Although Amazon has pretty much everything for a lot of verticals it is more ‘broad’ then ‘deep’ in some. I’ll often pick new topics based on what advertisers on some of the affiliate networks look interesting or cool instead of what some research tool tells me I should.
A lot of people treat keyword research like it’s some kind of huge scary monster and if they choose wrongly then they will never succeed. I would argue that the best way to succeed at researching keywords is to choose wrongly a lot and learn something from the experience.
I’ll follow this up with some more specific examples of exercises I do to help me decide if a niche is right for me and my efforts.