Should I Quit?

S

Staccs

New member
May 14, 2010
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Hi guys,

I believe I have come across my first few mistakes in AM in the very early stages.

When doing keyword research via the Google Tool I had it on "Broad" instead of "Exact". This made the competition appear near empty and the search traffic 300,000/month.

After learning I should be using the "Exact" filter a week or so later it appears my main keyword still has a global monthly traffic of 40K, but the competition bar is filled. The keyword bring 2 Million results from Google.

Seeing as I am an absolute (broke) beginner and because of that this was a strict SEO project should I abandon it before I waste too much time working on something I'm really not that interested in (2nd mistake) and only targeted for the high traffic, low competition, which turned out to be false?

It's going to be hard swallowing the domain price considering I'm broke, could I sell it for anything at all? Should I try and compete anyways?
 


Don't rely on the competition bar too much. Do an actual search of your desired KW and see who the top 10 guys are. Do they have perfect on-page SEO? Do they seem like they know what they are doing? What are their backlinks like? Are they aged domains?
This will give you a better idea of your real competition.
 
The competition bar on the G tool is meaningless for organic. It's there for Adwords advertisers.

A better general idea of competition numbers is to put the phrase in quotes. What eat it, Murphy said is good advice because page 1 is really who you are up against.
Use Firefox, and install a plugin called SEOQuake which will give you some more info on 1st page competition like # of backlinks, PR, etc.
 
it's going to be hard to swallow the cost of a $10 domain? Yes, you should quit...on life. Oh, snap.

Seriously though, if you can't afford $10, get a paying job while you learn this shit.
 
Download SEO for Firefox for one thing. (At least that's what I use) Find out the PR and # of backlinks of the top ten spots in Google for your keyword. If PR is over 4, forget about it. (especially if your new to SEO and broke)

Here's a simple flowchart to follow when researching niches:

1. Does keyword get over 3,000 exact match searches per month? If Yes,
move to step 2.

2. Fire main keyword into Google. Do top 10 competitors have PR less than
4? Less than 500 backlinks? If yes, move to step 3

3. Register exact match domain (or close as possible) and begin backlink
strategy.

That's what works for me anyway. Someone more experienced probably has better advice.
 
Thanks guys. I'm going to dissect my competition tomorrow. Didn't know Google's competitive bar didn't really mean much.

For the record, I meant quit this niche, not AM :action-smiley-052:
 
The competition bar does mean something, it means there are paid advertisers bidding on that keyword...and that's a good thing if you're going for organic traffic.
 
@OP: Is your domain an exact keyword match? Is it TLD (.com/org/net)? Is it aged (did you buy it from someone who had already done stuff with it or is it new)?

These are things that will help with your SEO ambitions. If, after checking the competition according to grazie's requirements, it's high and the answers to the above are 'no,' then yes, quit the niche, or at least that domain.
 
pegasus2218 said:
@OP: Is your domain an exact keyword match? Is it TLD (.com/org/net)? Is it aged (did you buy it from someone who had already done stuff with it or is it new)?

These are things that will help with your SEO ambitions. If, after checking the competition according to grazie's requirements, it's high and the answers to the above are 'no,' then yes, quit the niche, or at least that domain.
Click to expand...

SERP Result 1
PR - 3
357 Indexed Pages
1,801 Links Pointing To Domain (This is backlinks?)
Created Feb. 05 2008

SERP Result 3
PR 4
156 Indexes Pages
528,029 Links pointing to domain
Created Dec. 30th 1996

SERP Result 4
PR 3
211,000 Indexed Pages
Over 400,000 links to domain

1. It has the keyword in it, not an exact match.
2. It's a .com
3. Brand new
 
Lucidity said:
The competition bar does mean something, it means there are paid advertisers bidding on that keyword...and that's a good thing if you're going for organic traffic.
Click to expand...
is it recommended, for pcc, to target keywords with ~100 monthly searches and no competition bar?
 
Staccs said:
SERP Result 1
PR - 3
357 Indexed Pages
1,801 Links Pointing To Domain (This is backlinks?)
Created Feb. 05 2008

SERP Result 3
PR 4
156 Indexes Pages
528,029 Links pointing to domain
Created Dec. 30th 1996

SERP Result 4
PR 3
211,000 Indexed Pages
Over 400,000 links to domain

1. It has the keyword in it, not an exact match.
2. It's a .com
3. Brand new
Click to expand...
Bump on this. Don't want to waste anymore time. Based of those number as a noob I think it's too competitive for a strict SEO effort. Am I right?
 
Staccs said:
Bump on this. Don't want to waste anymore time. Based of those number as a noob I think it's too competitive for a strict SEO effort. Am I right?
Click to expand...

WTF? There's a 13-year-old kid who just climbed Everest; what's your story?

Try to rank for this

DerpDurrDog.jpg
 
I'm not looking to take on the best which have a large lead for this keyword. It is not something I am passionate about, which was mistake 1, mistake 2 was not keyword researching properly which is has led me here.

My question is simple; is it realistic to overcome competition with those numbers using only SEO methods, broke AM, and making any money within the next 3 months?

I understand choosing something you are passionate about should be step 1, but it is often overlooked due to greed. It's too late to fix that so here I am. I'm willing to grind it out if these are not hard numbers to overcome and just seem intimidating to some one new to AM like me.
 
My question is simple; is it realistic to overcome competition with those numbers using only SEO methods, broke AM, and making any money within the next 3 months?
Click to expand...
yes. no. maybe.

Read this post http://www.wickedfire.com/traffic-content/92912-competition-research-questions.html#post878644

Now read this one from the same thread http://www.wickedfire.com/traffic-content/92912-competition-research-questions.html#post878825

Now make a decision.

You said this:
Don't want to waste anymore time. Based of those number as a noob I think it's too competitive for a strict SEO effort. Am I right?
Click to expand...
Sounds like you already decided and you want someone to tell you that you are right for giving up.
I have a number one result where the competion in the SERPs is tougher (a lot tougher) than what you've posted here (lower traffic volume, though). I registered the domain on a lark because I wanted to try something out. I didn't even know if it would make me money. I did some basic SEO initially, wrote my ass off, and forgot about it until a couple of weeks ago. Checked it, and was like damn, that's stuck at #1. It's still there.

Shit or get off the pot, but keep moving and don't wait for someone to tell you what to do...especially not whether you should pack it in and quit. If you have to ask a question like that, then you should've quit last week or last month, ya' dig?
 
Great advice. I'm going to keep it and follow you by example and 'write my ass off' this next week so I won't have to work on it for at least a month and possibly start another site which I am passionate about while the other can be left unattended.
 
Just go for it, you've already paid for the domain and that seems to have broken your bank.

Write the content - a lot at the beginning, then space it out to drip feed it over the next month. Do your basic SEO (there's plenty of advice here on how to do this). Submit your articles to directories/whatever other backlinking you're up for doing.

It may not get to #1 this month, or next month. But someday, someday!

Meantime you've learned a lot. Find another keyword/niche and build upon what you've learned. If you don't have any more money for domains/hosting (?) then use something free like Blogger.

Are you pushing a Clickbank product? Adsense?
 
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