Panning for Gold

Being an owner / operator of a web site in 2008 is like prospecting for gold in Californian Gold Rush of 1849. The big companies have their mines in all the best places and large workforces to exploit every vein. Leaving the independent prospector to pan for gold in the rivers. Its hard work and you spend your day panning for tiny bits of gold that are worth a few dollars but if you are smart, then after a few months you will have a small pile of gold. Keep working and that pile will keep growing and growing.

The Internet is a very competitive place. If a keyword is getting more than a few hundred searches a day, someone will be targeting it with search engine optimization. Many keywords, especially in ‘adult' markets are targeted even if they just attract a handful of searches a day. Not all your competitors are even out for financial gain; Government information sites, Wikipedia and bloggers who are doing it for reasons other than the money.

All these people are after the same visitors as you are so don't expect instant, easy success.

The secret is to start small. Aim for the least competitive keywords that no one else is interested in because the number of searches are low. There are a number of reasons for targeting these low earning phrases, but the main one is the speed of results. On prime keywords it can take months or years to show up 1000th in Google's results, let alone 1st. On easy keywords you will show up in days and if you remember the Once Per Paragraph rule, you will be top ten or twenty very quickly. This reduces the time between trying an idea and seeing the results. The shorter the time, the faster you learn and the sooner you can move on to keywords that will earn you serious money.