This is part 2 in my case study on the Five Figure Niche Network. I will cover how I research and buy keyword domain names in this segment. See Part 1 Here.
Finding the right domain name:
In my attempt to build a network of niche websites that earn five figures of income every month I need to first start by buying domain names based on specific niches I wish to build websites around. I prefer to only choose topics that I care to research and write about so that if I decided to write the content it will be more enjoyable; however, this time around I want to try and outsource most of the writing (which I’ll cover in a later part to the case study). In either case I prefer to buy keyword rich domain names if I’m going for niche websites as my goal will be to rank for the keyword that is within the domain name. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
If I want to build a website that focused on Cotton Candy Machines what do you think would be the best domain name to build a website on for that topic? How about cottoncandymachines.com or cottoncandymachine.com? Duh. The reason for this strategy is because search engines give a ranking bonus to exact match keyword domains (Main TLD’s only so don’t go buy .mobi and other worthless crap extensions). Now before I get too far ahead of myself let me determine first if people on the internet actually search for cotton candy machines to see if it’s a worthwhile niche to pursue…
Keyword Research:
There are paid tools available that offer more advanced features for determining search traffic, but I because I got my start using the free ones I’ll show you those instead:
The first one is offered by SEOBook which is run by Aaron Wall and found here. He has a paid monthly training program which I’ve been a member of in the past, but fortunately his keyword research tool is still free (you do need to register for a free account though)
So what I’d search is simply “Cotton Candy Machine” and “Cotton Candy Machines“. The number of estimated searches for these terms is shown below:
I like to go after keywords that are searched around 100 times per day or more (when possible) so based on the data things look good so far. I then like to use Google’s free Adwords tool next to ensure the numbers appear to be around the same level and just to get an extra data point:
Make sure you use the drop down menu on the right and change it from the default “Broad” to “Exact” as this will give you an accurate estimate of the number of people who searched that exact phrase which is all I want to know at this stage of my research.
Looking at the above data it should be obvious which is the better domain to go after – the singular phrase Cotton Candy Machine because there is considerably more search traffic for that term. Again, before we get too far ahead of ourselves let’s look at the competition for that keyword. The trick here is to go after keywords that not only receive a lot of search volume, but that also happen to have very little competition for (this is often a difficult thing to do).
Keyword Competition Analysis
Doing a quick search of Cotton Candy Machine on Google yields the following results:
These are your primary competitors. Now what you need to do is determine how many links these websites have. This will give you a better understanding of how many links you’d need to get pointing to your cotton candy machine website to outrank them (just remember it isn’t an exact science). I’ll turn to SEOBook again and this time I use the SEO for Firefox plugin.
CottonCandyExpress.com is the current #1 rank so I simply install the plugin, restart firefox and visit the domain name. Here is the data we find:
So they have only 379 links via Yahoo’s site explorer, 3 DMOZ Links and 1 Yahoo Directory link which isn’t that many links. The domain and presumably the website have been around since 2005 (based on the copyright info in the footer). I believe Google has established a lot of trust for the domain name, but the number of links pointing to the site is so low it is possible that I could outrank them. Keep in mind that any domain name I buy may be put into the sandbox by Google temporarily which means it would be unable to rank for any keyword until after a period of time lapses (many people believe 6 months). So what I’m saying is that even if I were able to buy cottoncandymachine.com which was also registered in 2005, it could still take some time before ranking for that keyword. Well, now that we have researched a keyword determined the competition isn’t insurmountable let’s go back and see if we can buy it.
Acquiring the domain name:
As expected the domain name cottoncandymachine.com is already registered. Sadly (for myself and you) most keyword laden domain names with any substantial search traffic have all already been registered years ago by visionary domainers. After searching the WHOIS information I can see cottoncandymachine.com is registered to a business called Name Administration based in the Cayman Islands. Based on my domain hunting experience I know this is a domain name owned by the legendary domain name investor Frank Schilling who happens to be notorious for not selling domain names unless he is given an excellent deal. Even then good luck ever getting in touch with someone at Name Administration unless you lead with an email offer of a very high price. So in this case we’d need to look at the .net or .org extension instead or perhaps go for another cotton candy related keyword.
Wrap Up:
So as you can tell there are a variety of steps I like to take while researching keyword domain names to buy. Some people prefer to buy brandable domain names like cottoncandyexpress.com instead and build a business from there. I don’t think this is a bad strategy and in fact in the long run it can be better, but just remember it is more difficult to rank for a keyword that isn’t your domain name than it is to rank for a keyword that matches the domain name i.e. cottoncandymachine.com. So if you’re trying to build a ton of niche websites like me then the more help you can get from a quality domain name the better. The downside obviously is that as I mentioned before many of these keyword rich search phrase domain names are already registered, so you have to be prepared to pay out good money to domainers for these types of names.
What do you think of my tips for researching domain names?
This is just the second of many parts to come. If you learned something be sure to subscribe to my RSS feed (or email updates) and you should also follow me on Twitter. Also, quick reminder to follow me on Twitter because I’ll be posting the contest giveaway for the PHPzon plugin shortly.
Really clear direction to choose great domain name. I am now in my way to create some niche blog so this article really help me — especially the research back link part. 😀
.-= Dana @ Blogging Update´s last blog ..HostNexus: A Cheap Web Hosting =-.
Hi Chris,
Great post! I absolutely love all of the detail you went through, extremely helpful and interesting!
One question: Could you explain more about Google’s sandbox? What is it? I’ve never heard of it before. I would imagine they don’t put every site in there?
My one small recommendation for you is on the screenshots. Snag-It, is a pretty awesome piece of software that I use for screenshots: http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp
Thanks again,
Jason
.-= Jason´s last blog ..To Teach English in Korea? =-.
@Dana, just remember that many of these domains will be taken and if they aren’t try to think to yourself why they aren’t i.e. Is it not a good niche? or did I truly find something?
@Jason, Yah basically know that your efforts may pay off while building links to the website in Bing and Yahoo but Google may keep you from ranking for 6 months or more (the number I hear). There’s a lot of myth behind the idea of the Google Sandbox, but it makes too much sense for Google not to stop new sites from ranking in the beginning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_Effect
I can’t confirm based on my own testing if this would apply to domain names you bought later. i.e. I bought a name from someone that registered it back in 2002 and it still took me a while to rank for the term.
Also – I use the Firefox plugin screen grab for screenshots but those images were just print screen + photoshop crops. What was the issue with them?
That’s a great plugin! I hadn’t seen the SEOBook plugin and have been trying 3 or 4 other ones that just didn’t fit the bill. Thanks for the share and a great write up about keyword domains. Don’t forget that while your domian might rock — your content is what gets the authority 😉
.-= Jimvesting.com´s last blog ..Welcome to the New Face of The Net Fool� Jimvesting dot com! =-.
SEOQuake is good too.
.-= ProMovieBlogger´s last blog ..How to Set Up a Movie Website Sidebar: For Profit =-.
Hey Jim, that’s true and to be honest most of the very good domain names are already taken (which is partly why I don’t mind divulging the information above) but this should help people decide that that $10,000 perfect keyword domain purchase shouldn’t seem that expensive after all.
I am not familiar with the SEOBook but I think that this would give me an edge next time on getting a domain.
Since we are talking about domains, do you have any experience on using .biz before?
.-= Palabuzz´s last blog ..Raven Villanueva is still hot! =-.
.biz doesn’t get a bonus (that I’ve seen) don’t waste your money. With that said I’ve still seen keyword domains with crappy extensions rank highly in the SERPS
i.e. search “black friday” in Google and you’ll see the number one result is blackfriday.info
So I’m not saying it can’t be done, just saying that sticking to the main ones should work out better.
[…] #4. How to Research and Buy Keyword Domain Names […]
one observation, and something that could grow you blog further is if you take into account a global audience, many internet marketing bloggers assume everyone is in the US (big wealthy population of course who love internet marketing) but then how about the rest of the world, there are a few people out there.
So for example when you talk about a wordtracker method and someone abroad uses that – is it giving just US results? Could you clarify that in your post .
People in the rest of the world might be going for a local domain not to compete with the .coms and rate higher on their own google (.co.uk ,fr) etc Also if they buy a .com based on US stats but don’t host in the US they will be at a disadvantage I would imagine.
so if you dropped in a few country names /acknowledged a global audience you could also get seo rankings on that and be different from loads of other blogs = more traffic
just a thought I am no expert
ps just found your blog and like it
.-= jules´s last blog ..How to shoot Flip Video =-.
one thing i dont get.. you mention if results are similar?
so wordtracker above says 369 for cotton candy machine so 369 x 30 = 1170 month but google is saying it has 49500? so how is it similar
thanks
tim
Hey Chris, when might you have an article on outsourcing content? This I’m very interested in doing, but I’m not sure where to start or what services are good to us. Thanks!
.-= James´s last blog ..AK Anne Klein Greater =-.
Hey James,
Actually I wrote one here back in April:
https://upfuel.com/how-to-outsource-content-creation-effectively/
I’m still new to it though so I may be going about it the wrong way.
Oh, excellent. Thanks Chris, I’ll check it out.
.-= James´s last blog ..AK Anne Klein Greater =-.
Chris,
Tough luck coming across one of Frank Schilling’s domains but I see you know him well or at least tried to buy from his company before since he is really hard on selling his domains unless you are willing to pay top dollars and I mean really top dollars.
Going after .net or .org was the right move while .info also can do the trick. Before I start any new project I always check for the primary keywords first even If I’ll have to pay more (as long as I can see it really worth the asking price if it’s up for sale).
I read several posts on your blog and I really loving your in-depth, easy, interesting style of writing.
Congrats on your Amazon success and best of luck in achieving your goal.
Finally, I’m sure that your blog will spread around really fast and it would be one of best IM blogs as long as you keep writing useful posts.
Thanks,
Sameh
Thanks Sameh! Yah I run into him all the time and it’s super annoying. He has too many domain names. It’s almost as if he should either start selling more agressively or hire developers to turn the best ones into real properties.
thanks for your great article
I have a question
does a domain with a dash in it matter a lot ?
thank you.
From what I’ve heard – dashes ruin it. But I could be wrong because I personally have never tried a name with dashes.
One of my sites, film-book.com (obviously has a dash) and it has a page rank of 4. I do not think the dash hurt the site.
Yah, you can overcome the dash. I just like to do it as easily as possible and without the dash it’s easier (IMO)
edward, from my own experience and form the SEO perspective dashes doesn’t hurt but going with no-dashes domains is better because of brandability and traffic leaking. IMO
Thanks,
Sameh
There ya go, thanks for chiming in Sameh!
I think your tips are good. To quickly check the availability of a keyword, I go to http://www.Ajaxwhois.com. I get my heartbroken there often because the keywords are already taken. On the flipside, I get my questioned answered quickly.
What is you index barometer? Mine is 50k or less. The seobook info. was great, too. I did not know about this source.
Elon Bomani
http://www.elonbomani.com
http://www.mlmmysteries.com
.-= Dr. Elon Bomani´s last blog ..Facebook Is Dominating Google =-.
Hi Chris. Great detail on picking keywords ! I had a question about monetizing. If you’re developing Amazon sites for example, would you limit monetizing to Amazon product links? Or would you also have some Adsense ads on the page? On the one hand I can see that Adsense might allow visitors to click off to other sites and they might not hit the Amazon site on a click through. But on the plus side if the visitor isn’t ready to buy through Amazon at least maybe you’d pick up some Adsense revenue.
What do you recommend?
Thanks!
Sandy
I use a combination of both and test to figure out which works best… it’s key to keep testing. What works for me may not work for you in your niche.
Chris,
Thanks for sharing. My own process of researching domains follows similar steps to yours – that is, Google keyword tool, exact match domain, strength of competition.
I tend to do google searches such as AllInTitle and AllInUrl to ascertain SEO competition. I also use a couple of third part applications (won’t mentioned them here) that help save a lot of time during the research process.
Kelly
Hey Chris
What about domains with the, buy, at the begining or store, site at the end. .coms
You mean something like buytvs.com? I don’t like domains like that.
I used your article again Chris. I keep coming back to it. Great information. I hope the domain name I came up with will work.
Well written, Chris. I exactly researched the same way and the result was tremendous. Also, it was just an experiment but Google had one of my site sandboxed and I never understood why? I just extracted some very important points from your post.
[…] addressing how travelers can make money while traveling, such as consulting from the road, creating niche marketing websites, or even working in a hostel.This article will not discuss any of those, but will rather […]
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