June 16th, 2008 
Researching keywords for your affiliate campaign can be a pain in the… butt… In fact, most new affiliates find that this is the step they have the most problems with when setting up a new campaign in a new niche. Does keyword research have to be hard? Does it have to suck the very life out of you every time you load up Wordtracker or Wordze? Of course not! This post is going to guide you through the steps to creating a well thought out and well planned keyword list!
Step One: Researching Your Niche!
One of the most common mistakes I see affiliates make is researching keywords for a niche when they know nothing about the niche they are gathering keywords for! Understanding your niche is an important step to creating a keyword list that will help you rise to the top in any given niche. Each niche has their own lingo, slang, or sayings that are specific to that niche. Without researching your niche, you’re not going to type in these words in whatever keyword tool you’re using!
Before you even start researching your keywords, you need to make sure that you understand all the terminology for that niche, understand what different sayings mean, etc. Without this knowledge, you will most likely fail!!!
Step Two: Understand How Most Affiliates Research Keywords!
The next thing you need to realize before you even start building your keyword list is the fact that most affiliates, I’d say about 90%, open up a keyword tool and start typing in generic keyword phrases for their niche in order to build their keyword list. If you do this as well you’ll end up bidding on the same exact keywords that 90% of other affiliates are bidding on!
Be creative, think of other ways people might be searching for your product or service! Are there terms you discovered in step one? If so, use those terms instead of the generic keywords that every other affiliate is using! Is there another type of audience closely related to your niche that you can target? Think Outside of The Box!
Step Three: Start On Paper!
When I first start thinking of keywords for a niche, I don’t just open up a keyword tool and start punching them in as I think of them. I first brainstorm my keyword ideas on paper or in a notebook. The reason I do this is so I’m able to look at my sheet of paper and know exactly which search terms I have already used.
This also allows me to focus on making sure my list contains a ton of various keywords and keep my searches as broad as possible allowing me to cover all the bases. Keyword tools are there to help you, but they can’t replace your brain! USE IT!
Step Four: Take Your Time!
Instead of timing yourself and seeing how quickly you can get done gathering your list of keywords, I challenge you to see how long you can gather keywords before you get so tired of doing it that you swear you’ll never use one again!
Again, keyword tools are made to help you get your job done faster, however, if you move too fast you’ll miss out on a ton of keywords because you’re in a rush! Slow down and think while you’re building your keyword list! Think about each keyword you type in and see the results the keyword tool gives you, don’t just add them to your list and go.
By giving yourself a minute and looking through the list as you go, you’ll most likely see a keyword phrase or two that will pop out and make you think of another keyword phrase. By doing this, you’ll turn a list of 10,000 keywords into 50,000 keywords!
Step Five: Make Sure You Actually Use Analytics!
So, you’re proud of yourself because you did everything you were told to do including installing analytics on your site. However, have you actually ever logged into it and taken a look at more than just how many visitors you had for the day or month? Most analytic tools will allow you to see what keywords people are typing to find your site organically in the search results!
By checking this out, you’ll find keywords to put into your keyword tool to expand and grow your campaign even more! Make sure you use this tool to it’s full advantage or you’ll miss out on some great keywords you could be bidding on!
Conclusion:
Keyword research doesn’t have to be a hard and difficult task. However, it shouldn’t take you a couple hours to build your keyword list! Make sure you take your time and do it right the first time and use the tips above and you’ll come out on top with a keyword list that 90% of affiliates aren’t using!
Do you have any other suggestions for keyword researching? Anything to avoid? Let me know in the comments!
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I try to make sure I spend a few hours on researching keywords. Every possible keyword I can hit, I try to have in a list. Good post Derek.