How I Got Rich

Google Keyword Tool Strikes Again

Nearly all my niches look good on paper with well priced products (£20-£100) and 20,000~ exact searches a month.  However once I get the sites to number one in Google I quickly realise that either the Google Keyword Tool was misleading with its estimate for exact match searches or no one wants to click on my sites or that the click through rate for being number one in Google is less than 5%.

Take one of my earlier sites for instance.  Last month it is reported by the Google Keyword Tool to have gotten 18,100 exact match searches but during that month it only got 529 unique visitors which is less than 3%.

I know the Google Keyword Tool is not renowned for its accuracy but surely this is way too out for it to be of any use?

I have checked my other sites and nearly all of them get around 5% of the figure quoted by the GKWT making them a waste of time as the traffic is so low!

How do you check that a niche is actually searched for?

I’m Back!

It’s been a while since my last post (about 25 days) and a few people had gotten in touch to check if I was still alive and doing affiliate marketing.  Well I am still going, I went away for a week but apart from that have been plugging away quietly.

How Are Things Going?
Sales are doing ok for this month and I should do better than last month but not up to the level I was a few months ago.  I got a bit disheartened at the start of the month but have been putting in a lot more work of late, updating older sites, making new sites etc.  My older sites are starting to rank well with a lot in the number one position in Google for their main keyword.  However this doesnt guarantee traffic or sales and some of my sites that are number one still get very little traffic and few if any sales even though they get 5-10k exact seraches according to GKWT.  This is why I have so far been making lots of sites.  Waiting for one of them to take off as until I have got a site up and running I don’t know if it will bring in any money or not.  Still not got an eye for spotting a good niche.

Big Site
All the advice I have had so far has been to make a bigger, more general site that I can focus on rather than having lots of little sites to distract me.  So far I’ve been wary of putting all my eggs in one basket (especially since my choices so far have been so hit and miss) but as my other approach isn’t really paying off I am going to give it a go.

I’ve picked my niche, almost got a name for the site and should be ready to go at the start of November.  I will be building it around WordPress for now but have some planning to do of how to structure it.

Getting a New Day Job
As some of my regular readers may know I gave up my day job a few months ago to come to Thailand.  My earnings were going up month on month before I came out so I thought they would continue to increase and soon be enough to live on out here without getting another full time job.  Alas they did not and since my earnings started to go down I’ve been looking (a bit half-heartedly) for a new job.  Part-time would be ideal but there is not much on offer out here and due to the strict immigration laws teaching is really the only option for a farang and there are not many part-time teaching jobs on offer.  Hopefully my earnings will rocket and I will avoid going back into working for the man.  I think £650 per month would do me nicely out here and allow me to focus on really putting my all into Internet marketing.

Anything exciting been happening in the world of affiliate marketing in the last month or so?

Are you all ready for Christmas (I’ve not done anything which I am sure I will regret)?

Seasonal Sites

My site that brings me the most income is a seasonal site that performs best in the warmer months.  As the UK summer is coming to an end the visitors to the site and therefore the commission the site brought in has dwindled.  The site is still ranked number one in Google.  As winter and Christmas is fast approaching it is definitely time to start getting sites for that season up and running and well ranked in Google.  I’ve haven’t got any sites for that period yet so will be trying to set a few up.  I’m not really sure what people will be buying more of in the winter and in the run up to Christmas apart from food and presents.  Hot water bottles perhaps?

Here is a graph showing the traffic the site I mentioned has got in the last 12 weeks, you can see it’s on a downward trajectory.  Hopefully it will still make the odd sale throughout the year and return to form next summer.

How Many Hits Do You Get When You’re Number 1 in Google?

I’ve had a look at a couple of my sites which are ranked number one in Google.  I wanted to find out what percentage of the total number of searches a site gets when it is number one in Google.

One of my sites that is number of a search term that got 22,200 local exact matches in May got 140 hits from Google users searching on that term in the last seven days. This works out as 3% (140 as a % of 5012 = 3% (rounded up)).

Another keyword got 5,400 exact local matches for May which is 1,219 in 7 days. This site got 56 visits from Google users searching on that keyword string which is 5% (rounded up).

Has anyone got any comparable data?

update: another one of my sites is now number two in the Google serps with no ads above the number one site.  The site is optimised for a keyword that got 14,800 local exact searches last month.  It is not a seasonal item so should be similiar this month.  In the past three days it has had an average of of 5 clicks a day from Google.  This works out to a 1% click through rate for a site in number two position.