The Lost Cycling Dude's Internet Journey

Ok, so it is a little strange that the launch is article #3.  However, we have gotten to cover some excellent ground surrounding brainstorming and keyword selection in those first two videos.

After all, Keyword Selection is the most important part of this gig.

What is Niche Rivalry?

It is an awesome, “hair-brained” idea to see what happens when two people go head-to-head in the same niche.  In a post-panda world there are a lot of questions about what techniques work best.

We plan to answer some of those questions.

Here are the rules:

1. No outsourcing of content on site.  (Outsourcing for backlinks is ok)
2. All original content
3. No paid content

And, of course, full reveal.

Our Niche Selection

The first thing we did was  decided on a keyword.  I mostly left that up to Wes, after all he had both Market Samurai and Longtail Pro to rely on, and has already proven that he is an expert at choosing profitable niches.

He presented a few ideas, and we decided on the term tailgating.

The Monthly Traffic For the Main Keyword Is Good (Click to Expand)

It looked good.  Good traffic.  Low competition.

The dollar signs were already dancing.

Just before we announced the rivalry, Wes pointed out that the term had some major flaws to it.

Here’s the big problem. It’s seasonal.

Look at the trend graph from Google Insights

We could spend all year trying to rank our sites, only to make 4 months of income.

Additionally, the term ‘tailgating’ is also related to people’s driving habits. And so we would not only be competing against tailgating sites, but also sites devoted to people’s poor driving habits.

We decided to make a last-minute change.

We decided to go with a kitchen-oriented site. Wes suggested “Kitchen Organization” which is an excellent, albeit boring, niche.  I pushed back, wanting to go with something “cooler” like Kitchen Appliances.

Then, we wondered is we should just go broad. Maybe just do “kitchen” as the overall theme. The problem with going too broad is that the site can lose focus. A site really needs focus, if for no other reason then to tell Google why it exists.

So, now we are going after Helpful Kitchen Gadgets — but not necessarily that keyword. Quite frankly, that term (“kitchen gadgets”) is something that would take enough effort to rank for, that I’m just not inclined to spend a lot of time on it when there are so many excellent long tails to chase.

However, “Helpful Kitchen Gadgets” enable us to focus on items — and tips — that improve the kitchen experience.

So, there’s our niche. Let’s just hope cooking skills are not a prerequisite.

Q