"Niche Selection Exercise" question

[4Success]

Lynn-

I've read your Niche Selection Exercise report and can directly relate to the New Zealand example (different location, but same idea). Could you expand upon how to create a site about a place that you love with the goal of becoming an expert? I don't know how to start out. I'm willing to do the studying, but don't know how to position myself initially since I'm not an expert yet. Also, what types of products might you promote and how would you find them? I assume basic travel guides and travel products (luggage, etc).

Thanks so much for your guidance.

Linda

[Lynn Terry]

Hi Linda,

Great question! For reference, the exercise is here: How To Choose A Niche

I would start with keyword research. Put in the general location - so in the original example: "new zealand". Find every single keyword phrase related to your topic. A quick look at our example location gives me:

new zealand wines
new zealand weather
new zealand news
new zealand trips
new zealand travel
new zealand vacations
new zealand ski vacations
new zealand luxury vacations
auckland new zealand

I would find every location (like auckland) and research that separately, making keyword lists for those potential site/blog categories.

You don't need to position yourself as an expert necessarily. Just grab a cool domain, then set up a blog, create your main categories, create drafts for each of your topical keyword phrases in the right categories, and then start researching & writing from there.

Initially you don't need to monetize. You could put Adsense on the site if you like, but you'd do well to just create a content-rich topical site or blog and work on getting quality inbound links to start. Once your pages get indexed and begin ranking, you can always add in monetization.

[4Success]

Thanks Lynn! Super helpful!

Can I ask a few follow-up questions, please?

1) Based upon the results of your keyword search above would you build a very general site with subtopics of wine, weather, vacations, etc. OR would you build a site specifically about vacations (since that shows up several times) and then build subtopics within vacations?

2) Would you build content one subtopic at a time or would you build each one simultaneously?

3) Lastly, this seems dumb but here goes, how do I tell if I am indexed? Is that just doing the search in Google and seeing which page your site shows up on? I'm not sure where to look for stats to see how I'm doing.

Thanks so much for your time and advice. You are invaluable and I greatly value your time and effort in helping new folks like me.

[Lynn Terry]

Based upon the results of your keyword search above would you build a very general site with subtopics of wine, weather, vacations, etc. OR would you build a site specifically about vacations (since that shows up several times) and then build subtopics within vacations?

To start, I would create a massive keyword list including everything I might want to include. I may narrow that down as I get closer to development, but during research I want to get a solid look at everything related. This gives me a birdseye view, so just from initial research I know I would probably include the current weather & current time in New Zealand in the sidebar of the entire site.

New Zealand Wines is a stretch. If I decide to include a category on my site, I may let another site owner (that focuses on that specifically) write the content for the page in exchange for a link back to their site. It would simply be as 1) an added value for my visitors, and 2) an internal page that links back to my vacation pages (as a lure to people who are interested in the wines, and possibly in the vacation spots). As a second option, I may write a short article on the general wine options and use that for article marketing or for a squidoo lens, as a means of securing a quality link back to my site.

My thinking originally was that there may be wineries or other "vacation spots" related to New Zealand wines, so I would definitely research that next - which is why it would go on my initial keyword list. Also, since NZ vacations cater to a higher end crowd, a checklist of must-try wines while you're on vacation there is not such a stretch.

Would you build content one subtopic at a time or would you build each one simultaneously?

Once I narrow down my keyword list, I would choose keyword phrases for categories - then organize the rest of the keyword phrases under those categories. I would set up WordPress, create each category, then create a draft post for each keyword phrase and put it in it's appropriate category.

From there I would write at least one post a day, alternating between categories - one for the first category, then the second, and so on until I have one article published for each category. This will make the categories show up in the sidebar, completing the site navigation. I would continue building out in that order, to flesh out each category each week.

[4Success]

Excellent Lynn!! Thank you so much. Great ideas about cross-linking with another expert and building up content for sidebar navigation! I'm off to research and write! Thanks again!

[4Success]

4Success

To check if it's indexed you type:

site:www.yourdomainname.com

Into google and see how many pages Google has added to their index. Indexing is just Google seeing your site and adding it to their database of websites.

Ranking is when they see your site as an authority on whatever a person types into Google. The more authority on that subject the higher the ranking.

Thanks for the clear explanation!