The Inherent Risk of Chasing Search Demand
On the BANS Forum, I went into a fairly detailed discussion about dissecting a niche market for the N1Way Guide, and the methods I use myself. There were three or four other people involved in the thread, and when I posted my view, I included a detailed example, as well as a domain and niche market that was wide open for the taking. The domain I suggested was registered within 5 minutes of my post… but when I asked about who purchased it, there was never a reply. My intent was to actually take it a step further and provide them with a very detailed build blueprint, and info on how to get the most out of the site.
Since the buyer remained quiet about it… I will instead provide more of my own insight here. What I won’t provide however, is a link to the site or the domain name. If they choose to be involved in this discussion, that’s completely up to them…
Example of Why Chasing Search Demand is a Waste of Time!
Almost all sales activity is based off TeraPeak 90 Day Metrics. As I have said often, if you aren’t using terapeak… you are not even in the game!
The person, whoever it is, that grabbed the recommended domain and built the site, has made a crucial mistake in their research. He chased “Search Demand” first, versus paying attention to what really matters, the products people are buying, and THEN using search demand and SEO to get people TO those popular and higher volume of sales products!
What he has ended with… is a site that has great reviews of products that may rank well in search, but don’t sell! Literally!
Here are a couple of the [brands] and [products] the person chose to target on the site, and the reasons why they were wrong:
ADR Rims & Wheels (Brand)
On first glance in search, you would think you stepped in a goldmine! There is a high volume of search and once you get to the product level, there is very little competition… Good right? Wrong! The two products the person has chosen to review, ADR M-Sport and ADR Spartan, have very little sales volume on ebay in the past 30 days! ADR M-Sport has only sold $1200, and ADR Spartan, $900.
Akuza Rims & Wheels (Brand)
Same deal… when you look from a search perspective, they have great demand and very little competition at the product level! Again… you have ANOTHER product you can rank #1 in search for, easily! The problem is… in the last 30 days, not one person has bought even one of them on ebay! $0, null, zilch. So you may well rank first for the item, but what good is it if nobody is buying them?
The Total Earnings Opportunity
Instead of tearing apart every brand and product the person has chosen to target, which I assume, was based on search demand… I went ahead and looked at the TOTAL SALES Opportunity based on the roughly 25 exact [BRANDS] of PRODUCTS the person is targeting:
- Total Combined Sales: $46,000 / month
- Total # of Products with $0 Sales in 30 Days: 16 (Yes, that’s 16 product reviews of items that NOBODY has bought in the last 30 days)
While it may be a GREAT thing to target phrases in SEARCH with high volume and low competition, who really cares if you rank #1 for a popular term, when nobody is spending money on them?! In my post on the BANS forum, I started suggesting a few categories and products, based on 30 days of TeraPeak Sales:
Brand: XXR Truck Wheels and Rims
- XXR SportMax Wheels – $8400
- XXR 006 Wheels – $6600
- XXR 513 Wheels - $9600
- XXR 518 Wheels – $4600
In reality – XXR is actually just an OK brand to target, but by itself, the exact PRODUCTS deliver more sales opportunity that 16 of the other reviews already on the site!
OK – So What’s My Point?
I often read page after page, blog after blog… about chasing the highest search volume with the least competition. While that is a Integral PART of the process, its NOT how you build a site! Ranking well for a product that nobody is buying is no different than ranking for abstract phrase nobody really searches for! It gets you nothing.
If you build your own site based off search volume, search demand, search competition, or the ranking for the EASIEST targets – you really need to check your targets first!
Alot of folks have emailed me and asked for more information about RankSpankers. All I can really say is that RankSpankers is a teaching site that walks through EXACT processes, step by step. It’s not a get rich quick scheme and it’s not a shortcut to fame… what it does do however, is show you step by step, SOLID practices that can be used to plan and build ANY website!
One of the launch training modules shows:
- How to FIND the EXACT Brands to Promote
- How to find the EXACT Products within those BRANDS
- How to PowerRank your Brands and Products
- How to Build Your Own Site Blueprint
- … much more…
… and that’s just ONE of the modules! Others include page structure, optimized url structure, on and offsite SEO, and much more!
If you have yet to sign up for launch updates… do so now! I am still on target for a October launch of the site… Incidentally, RankSpankers will do you no good if you aren’t using TeraPeak… it is the ONLY paid tool I even use anymore!
Hi Mark,
Hope you are feeling better and have conquered that nasty flu bug!
It’s a shame that the person who registered the doman and built the site didn’t pay closer attention to what you were saying (must go and chastise him on the thread!). It’s more crucial than ever to drive targeted buyers to eBay with the new QPC payment structure kicking in next month. Guess he or she will find out the hard way, eh?
Trying to do a search on Terapeak has always been confusing for me and I am looking forward to learning the best way to find best products to target via RankSpankers.
Caro
Mark,
One could argue that with the new QPC model for ebay that if these products can return as high or higher of a payout via Chitika or Adsense then there is still a lot of merit to building sites off search demand.
I am trying Terapeak based on your suggestion, but I am certainly not of the mindset that if you are not using it that you are not even in the game…that’s pretty strong verbiage.
It’s like soup. No single ingredient alone will determine the quality of the soup but rather several items working together to produce the very best that it can be.
If Terapeak sucks..then you owe me a beer.
My 2 cents.
@Caroline – The cold is still kicking me Caro, haven’t had one this bad in awhile! Hopefully it will break soon… I feel useless!
@Hammer107 – I agree – there ARE good sites to build for other ad models, I have a few of my own that target search, but in this case, its monetized with ebay auctions…
In ref to TP – I have to say it has opened many doors for me in markets I wouldn’t have ever considered, based on sales alone. Once before, I know we somewhat debated the TP data as being skewed by loyal eBayers… and I do understand that view as well.
I use 90 day data for sales trends to qualify a market. (Must sell +100k/mo)
I use 90 day data for to qualify and rate a brand
I use 30 day data to qualify and rank specific products.
After I have the BEST products and BRANDS – Then I figure out how to get buyers to them!
Mark
It’s like peanut butter and jelly. You need both.
You need search demand and you need sell through on ebay to be successful as an EPN affiliate.
Oh man, that really irks me about the way someone ran away with your idea. Just goes to show that a little information can be dangerous. That’s why so many people (including myself at times) are so reluctant to share exact details for fear of someone ripping off their idea. Makes conversation difficult sometimes.
I like the idea of TP, but not ready to sign up just yet due to budgetary constraints. From what I gather, and aside from the number of days the data goes back, it sounds like you can glean from the completed listings on ebay, but with a little more punch?
@Hammer107 – Exactly!
@Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.com – No, dont mistake it… I actually WANTED to supply the info as well as the domain name, and used it as an example of digging into a niche market with very little “Niche” demand… but pulling it together with the actual PRODUCTS that consumed the niche itself.
Mark
@Mark – Oh I was just making a generalization about the way other people speak to one another without revealing their niche. You, on the other hand, are a courteous and smart guy who is willing to help other people by sharing his experience.
Mark S…I can tell you that in the 2 days that I have had Terapeak I can see the value in it. It has some features that you don’t find quite so readily available in Google and I have to agree with Mark H that Terapeak provides data that eliminates some of the clutter that search could provide.
In a niche I am currently building a site around I have already found 4 products that I did NOT find via the Google tool that have a large ebay audience and when backtracking…..have a decent search counts as well and it’s a 1500 dollar item.
So….at 200 bucks a year (if you prepay) then on this product alone I would only have to sell 3 or 4 of that one product in a years time to recoup my investment under the current system. When QPC takes over I will probably need to sell 4k of them but that’s another story.
I have to admit..I am rapidly becoming a fan of Terapeak.
Thanks for the insight, Hammer107. Hmmm, maybe I could arrange the funds for at least a month to get a feel for it. If I do, then hopefully it will reaffirm the niches I’ve already looked into before I proceed with building them.
Superb post, makes real sense, supply and demand.
I too will be signing up to Terapeak.
I signed up to TP through an earlier reccomendation from Mark and i’m glad i did.
I suppose the old saying “throw enough s@*t at a wall and some is likely to stick” when taken in the context of building niche sites, TP will certainly help in your research towards making a higher percentage of them stick!
Okay, I’m sold. I’ll be signing up to TP soon.
I treat reviews of poor selling products the same as I treat product guides. They are on my site to provide additional information to my visitors, and also to help demonstrate to the search engines that my site is an “authority” in the niche. Of course it all depends on the niche.
If there are enough profitable products in a niche to fill out a site with plenty of reviews, then I don’t bother with less profitable product reviews. However if I find a profitable niche that doesn’t have enough profitable products to completely fill out a site, then writing reviews for some of the other products is a good source of additional content.
@Jonny – Agreed. Also here’s an idea for anyone just starting out who’s leery about spending $25 per month for TP. What those people can do is sign up for TP for one month. During that month, find and then completely research 10 niches. Then cancel your TP membership and go build and promote sites in those 10 niches. Once the profits start rolling in from them, you can sign up for TP again. Only this time since you’ll have an income stream to fund the monthly membership cost, you can remain a member indefinitely and use TP to build your niche empire.
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