Have you ever had trouble finding the perfect topic to blog or video blog about? Or have you ever had trouble coming up with the right kind of keywords to target for your specific blog posts?
This is a question that’s been plaguing me for a long time now, and just recently I’ve had a really cool “aha” moment after hanging around the magazine stand and reading an amazing new book.
Inside today’s video I reveal how it may be possible to do well in either main stream or obscure topics – each topic area needs it’s own unique strategy. And my video explains all that…
NOTE: The ideas inside this video are a “work in progress”, and I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on what I have come up with. With all of us chipping in on the discussion, I am sure we can come up with some amazing new insights that could lead us all to being even more successful online! Go on… leave your comment as soon as you’ve watched the video!
Staying visible after the floods…
Gideon Shalwick
Transcript Of Today’s Video
Click Here To Read The Transcript
Hi!
A few weeks ago, you might have heard or seen me fleeing the country because of the floods here in Brisbane. I had to go over to New Zealand because the Brisbane River came down with a fury that we haven’t seen for about a century or so. So I got a little bit scared because we live close to the river here in CBD of Brisbane City and I decided to bail and go to New Zealand where my family was visiting.
While I was there though, I came to quite a few interesting conclusions. When I was at the airport, I saw the magazine stand. And it was just fascinating looking at the topics of magazines that were there, the mainstream type of topics.
Also while I was traveling, I got a copy of this book, The Longer Long Tail by Chris Anderson. It’s a revised version. The first version was The Long Tail. So this is the revised version of the original one. Amazing, amazing book if you’re operating online.
And by looking at those magazine stands at the airport and combining it with some of the ideas that I learned about inside this book, I got some very key ‘aha’ moments specifically related to how to find the best possible niche or topic to blog about or video blog about for your video blog or blog.
What I want to do next is go to my computer and show you on the screen how all these works and how all these ideas are coming together to help you get the best possible niche or best possible topic for you to blog about. So I’ll head over there now. And I’ll talk to you when I’m on the screen.
—-
You’re probably wondering, what on earth is a Long Tail? Now Chris Anderson talks about it in this sort of context. If you can imagine a graph looking something like this where you’ve got a horizontal axis and a vertical axis. And you can draw a distribution or a graph looking something like this.
This represents the distribution of anything like products or topics. For example the magazines that you saw in the magazine store that I saw at the airport. It would have a distribution something like this. And you’d have something like this, where you’d have on this side of this line. Chris doesn’t actually label this, but this is your mainstream kind of topics. And over here is what you call the Long Tail, for obvious reasons. The Long Tail — okay, because it has this massive long tail.
Basically, what he’s saying is that these mainstream type of topics, this is what physical stores are able to store on their shelves that they simply just don’t have the space to store all different topics. Say for example, the magazine industry. They can’t store all the different magazines. They can only store certain type. And that’s why they pick the mainstream because they’ll be the most profitable.
Because we have the internet now, this thing called the Long Tail, where there’s essentially no limit to the number of different kind of topics that you could have in any kind of field; for example, the magazine one. You can have an infinite number of topics and niches for magazines when it’s online.
So what Chris figured out, or what he’d identified at least, was that the traffic, or the business or the volume that you can get in this Long Tail can sometimes be equivalent or close to equivalent to what you might get here in the mainstream.
This is very, very significant because if you’re a blogger or a video blogger, depending on which niche you’re going to be targeting or which topic, the strategies that you are going to be following to dominate that niche or topic will be very, very different depending on whether they’re on the mainstream or on the Long Tail. So let’s look at that in a little bit more detail.
Say for example, your main topic that you’re targeting is in the mainstream and it happens to be one of the main mega niches, say for example, like the Health. Let’s say you’ve targeted the Health niche. Mega niches are things like money, health, relationships. Those three, and a bunch of others. The kind of topics you would see on the magazine stand. Those are the sort of mega niches.
What you can do is you can actually zoom in on this. The Health niche will have its own distribution. If you zoom in on just the Health niche now, you would see a similar distribution for just the Health niche. It will have its own little Long Tail over there. The strategy that I think you need to follow, for this kind of thing, if you want to be ranking for posts in search engines and if you really want to be dominating, is to target keyword phrases in the Long Tail. So this is your area of focus. Let’s just get this so that you know this is what I’m talking about. So this is zoomed into the Health niche.
If you’re doing something like that, if it’s a mega niche, if it’s one of the mainstream topics that you’ve targeted, you’ll have a much easier time to try and rank for these Long Tail type of phrases. The reason is because the phrases in the Short Tail of the mainstream for this mainstream topic, is going to be extremely competitive. It will be very hard to rank for those. So to be able to get noticed on the internet, your strategy would be to focus on these ones here.
So that’s for mainstream topics.
Now what if you selected a topic in the Long Tail? Say for example, something like Dog Breeding or something like that. Once again, if you zoom in on this niche topic or this Long Tail topic, you’ll see that it also has its own different Long Tail distribution. Of course, the traffic that you will get from this one compared to this one over here will be much smaller. But this is why your strategy needs to be different.
So you will also have a Long Tail here but then also your more popular terms for this topic. Now what I think for this Long Tail kind of topics, your focus needs to be over on this side. The reason for that is because the traffic you’ll be getting over here, from this Long Tail, the Long Tail traffic on this already existing Long Tail is going to be very small. It may not be even worth trying to get the traffic from these different sources here.
So you’ve got to be better off trying to focus more on this more Short Tail kind of terms for this kind of niche. Let’s just draw a little picture here. I mean a little arrow to make sure you understand.
So this, for example Dog Breeding. The Dog Breeding niche which may not be one of the mega topics and this one over here might be the Health niche. I hope you can see the difference in approach here to help you get success depending on which topic you’re selecting to either blog or video blog about. So let’s just go over that again.
This is where you have your focus for these more obscure ones. For the mainstream type of topics, if you have one of the mainstreams or mega niches, either you can target the Long Tail keyword phrases in that niche or in that topic. You are going to rank easier for them and over time you will be able to build up a similar kind of traffic as you might get for those the Short Tail traffic.
If your topic is not a mainstream type of topic, in other words, if it’s not the topic that you can see on the magazine stands of a local bookstore, then your strategy will be different. Then you target these more popular keywords because it will be easier for you to rank for those keyword phrases.
This is what I think. What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts. I haven’t really fully tested this. This is just a brainwave that I got and I would love to hear your thoughts on it and tell me what you think.
Let me give you a new example here just to make this crystal clear.
For the Health industry, someone might have a very niche blog, say for example, How to Get Rid of Pimples with Organic Methods. That’s kind of very focus. It’s really targeting this smaller Long Tail type of keywords with less topics. And the Dog Breeding, the difference here would be targeting keywords like Dog Breeding, for example.
I hope you can see that. This is more of a Short Tail kind of keywords and you might focus on something like Get Rid of Pimples with Organic Methods. So it’s a much more long tail type of keyword that will be getting this kind of traffic here.
I hope it makes sense to you. Leave me a question if anything doesn’t make sense. I’m still developing this idea. But I would like to hear from you what you think about this. And I might do a few more videos on this a little bit later on. Let me know what you think.
—-
So what did you think of that? I hope that was interesting to you. I hope that was helpful to you and useful that you can use it for your own business immediately right now. That’s what I like to do with these videos. I wanted to create information for you that is immediately useful in your business. If you have a niche already or a topic, think about in terms of those mainstream topics and these Long Tail topics. How does that affect you right now if you’re new in this business? What can you do to make sure you pick the best one and follow the best possible strategy?
Tell me what you think. I would love to hear your thoughts. Please leave your comment below this video. I would love to hear from you.
Also if you haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet or for my free report, my Rapid Video Blogging report. It’s 92 pages of solid content that teaches you how I use online videos to make a full-time income. Just go to RapidVideoBlogging.com to get your own copy if you don’t have one yet.
Thank you for watching and I really look forward to talking to you inside the next video. See you!
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Very informative video Gideon. But the concept is a little difficult to understand. I think it takes a little time to understand and implement this, and its gets better as we understand and implement it more.
Great observation and strategy I must say.
Looking forward for more Gideon.
Hey Prajwal
Yeah it can can get a bit tricky! I probably did not do a great job at explaining – of course I wanted to keep the video short, but because of that I had to leave a few things out.
There is one key thing I left out that I may talk about more inside one of my next videos. And that is all about going in more depth if you are targeting a long tail topic.
One natural outcome is to OWN that topic by creating HEAPS of different products that target both the “short tail” as well as the “long tail” of such long tail topics.
But more on this later…
Gideon
Looking forward for your future videos on this concept Gideon……
Awesome video as usual buddy.
Glad you weren’t too affected by the floods.
Also, I’m loving the new website – is it still Thesis?
Cheers,
Tom
Hey Tom
Thanks! Yes it’s still in Thesis – but my designer had to jump through quite a few hoops to make it happen. It’s all done with the custom.css file though… uhm and maybe a couple of other files to make things work out.
Talk soon!
Gideon
Hi Gideon,
It makes perfect sense and in fact I have seen this work – I have a site on sustainable energy options in Australia and a site about photography. The photography site has some great content but gets no traffic where as the niche topic gets a lot.
The bit I think a lot of people have trouble with is gaugeing what is considered a niche topic on the web. It could be cool to do your next video as a case study and work through the Google keyword checker to find if something is really a niche. I reckon you could choose a segment of photography – say stop frame animation and you would potentially still be drowned out by all the passionate photographers out there. It is really hard to categorise and a case study would really help to put things into perspective.
Cheers Rich
Gideon,
Even in the wake of major flooding in Brisbane you have been able to focus our attention on long tail strategies in a new and unique way. From magazines to white board, your visuals showing long tails within long tail niches makes perfect sense. It has helped me to look at my keywords and niche differently this morning as I go about consolidating my efforts online.
Thanks again,
Joy
Great video Gideon. So would you say the main articles in a magazine would be the main keywords of the niche and the subarticles would be longtale keywords?
Thanks G
Hey Glen
Well, as a starting point yes, the topics at a physical magazine stand could be a good start, and maybe even cut-off point for all the main stream type of topics.
The line between the short tail and long tail is quite blurry though, and one would have to do quite some research to truly find out where that line exists.
But I just really use these kinds of things as indications, and then apply a bit of common sense to make it all work.
Gideon
Gideon, I read the book on the long-tail conept and I think you are right. Those of us just starting have to compete in special ways and this is one of them.
First off…I’m thrilled you and your family are safe from the floods.
Very interesting strategy. I like it.
Are mega topics more constant or would they change with changing trends? For example, social media? Is that mega topic or a long-tail topic?
A specific example is my “how to write a book” video series. Many people have produced video’s on the topic. What I should have done was use keywords that was more specific: “how to write a how to book”?
Hey Pat
Hard to say about the Mega Topics across the range… but of course some of them will always stay Mega… eg Health, Wealth and Relationships – those three are so well rooted in our psyche, I would find it hard to think they would ever not be mega topics.
Social may be a mega topic for now… but think back two years – back then it was still very niche and only for geeky kinda people. Now EVERYONE is using Facebook and Twitter. It’s truly gone mainstream!
But I guess the question is… for how long will something like social media stay main stream? Hard to say… but by the looks of it, it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future.
The trick is to find keyword phrases that still gets enough traffic, but at the same time is easy enough to rank for
Gideon
Thanks Gideon, this is a great breakdown of how to target specific keywords. I have found it really useful to use Market Samurai for this purpose, as I am surprised by how competitive even long tail keywords can be, especially in the I.M. market. What I have learned is that it’s always a good idea to assess SEO competition for any keyword–long or short tail– before targeting it by writing blog posts and doing videos.
continued success,
Kevin
I read Chris Anderson’s Long Tail 2 years back and was also able to draw the link of his idea to applying it on SEO by focusing on long tail keywords. But my focus has always been on looking at the mega niches and focusing on their long tail. I found your video explanation and charts refreshing as it provided the other perspective on the importance of zooming into the long tail itself to find topics, but focusing on the front part of these long tail topics. Thanks!
Ah I am so glad you got that bit! Cos that was really what this video was about!
There’s another person down here who did not get that point and made a snarky remark… perhaps they can watch it again and get the same insights as you and I have now…
But there is even more to this that I have not even had time to go into yet…
Gideon
You said that Health, Money and Relationships are three mega niches and that it’s difficult to rank in them. Well, it’s no wonder, really . . . what else is there? I can think of little else I’m interested in . . . but the long tail approach to targeting these topics is fascinating and may provide an opportunity to break into a mega niche. I also appreciate you saying that going after the long tail in a small market might be a waste of time. I think you’re on to something here, Gideon, and I appreciate the clarity of your message about these two strategies. It will be interesting to put it to the test. Thanks.
great video,
What size of news stand are we talking about?
if I go to a smallish shop or kiosk then I don’t see dog breeding mags for sure, if I go to a bigger newsagent on the High St in fact I do see one on dog breeding!
I guess it proves at least there is a market and it wouldn’t be that competitive as there is only one dog breeding mag as opposed to 20 health ones.
Sorry to be so literal!
jules
Great observation Jules!
I think the smaller the shelf space, the more main stream the topics will be, because the shop owner has to decide which mags will be most popular and hence the most profitable.
So, for larger stores, they may go into more “long tail” type of topics.
In saying that though… I reckon the variety and complexity is only increasing all the time, which can move the short tail cut-off line more to the right, creating other kinds of opportunities…
Gideon
Does ‘Baby Boomers’ fit into the mega niche category? I’ve thought so, but what do you think?
Perhaps Marguerite!
Although… what specifically about Baby Boomers? Their health? Their wealth? Their relationships?
See how you can drill down?
For the mega niches you can drill down more than with the smaller long tail niches of course.
Gideon
Love the concept .. await more detailed follow ups
Great video here Gideon. What are you using to draw? Is it something other than a mouse?
As for the question, I’ve found that the more niche I’ve gotten within the fitness niche the more targeted traffic/conversions. However, I’ve also tried going extremely niche chasing super long-tail and have received minimal traffic that actually didn’t convert as well.
I’m going to test this out in a few other niches I have sites geared to. Thanks!
Chris
I use a program called FlySketch on my Mac, along with a Bamboo Wacom drawing pad and a special pen
Amazing teaching tool!
Sounds like you’ve had some great results! Fantastic! And all the best for your future results!
Gideon
Hi Gideon,
First, great to hear that your family is safe during the inclement weather. The explanation of long-tail keywords was a good illustration of the concept of what the book explains. However, I am somewhat disappointed as the video post is currently titled, “Blog Topics That Make Money” – I was expecting a discussion about various topics related to successful blogs and/or relevant case studies, not a discussion about long-tail keywords. Perhaps, “Find Blog Topics Using Long-Tail Keywords” would have been a proper title.
Hey LA Blogger
I have to get your attention somehow right?
Just kidding!
Actually, if you think about it, the title of this video suits perfectly the topic that I talked about. Once you truly “get” how the long tail works, it can help you make some great money!
Gideon
Hi Gideon,
Very well done lesson. I wonder how I can start a blog with my third party website. Since I am an affiliate for many different products on one website, having a targeted one topic blog seems difficult. Any ideas?
Hmmm… tough question because I really like the idea of focus.
If I were to start from fresh, I would do one of two things:
1. Start a blog on a short tail niche, but target like crazy the long tail keywords for that niche, and make this my sole purpose in life.
Or
2. Start many different blogs on many different long tail niches, and find a way of creating great content for each of them without working myself to death. In other words, the focus here is on creating variety, as apposed to one single presence.
Gideon
Hey Gideon, I’ve always been one for the BIG picture and this video post is definitely one of those. Interesting that the shape of the graph is the same for the long tail end and yet, the revelation is that the focus then changes. Thanks
[..YouTube..] Makes perfect sense to me mate. Now all I have to do start doing instead of just watching.
Makes perfect sense to me mate. Now all I have to do start doing instead of
just watching.
Gideon,
Happy to hear you all are safe, hope your area returns back to normal as soon as possible.
Thank you for the book review, your analysis is very insightful and this topic really needs to be explored more. I’m heading over to Amazon right now to check out the book!
Thank you again,
Theresa
PS: I look forward to your next video on this topic.
[..YouTube..] you rock Gideo on your tips!
you rock Gideo on your tips!
[..YouTube..] thanks Gideon very helpful
thanks Gideon very helpful
Great video Gideon. A quick search led me to this page with some charts that support your theory. Maybe you and your readers will find it useful.
http://www.calculatemarketing.com/blog/techniques/benefits-of-long-tail-keywords/
Hope you are staying dry!
[..YouTube..] Thanks Gideon … great Video, really appreciate it … when is the video blogging course available again?
Thanks Gideon … great Video, really appreciate it … when is the video
blogging course available again?
[..YouTube..] Sweet video Gid
Sweet video Gid
One of your best overall YT videos, Gideon. Very well done.
I thought that was a great representation of a very helpful idea. I just love when concepts are demonstrated visually like that. You transferring your idea in a geometrical pattern was awesome – a concise explanation of an intriguing idea. I’m definitely going to use the idea in my blog. Thanks.
[..YouTube..] Very helpful video with tricks and tips I haven’t heard before!
Thanks!
Very helpful video with tricks and tips I haven’t heard before!
Thanks!
Thanks Gideon. Your videos just keep getting better and better. Lots of value. Thanks for sharing. You do very well communicating big picture ideas.
I think the long tail will be continue to grow in any niche. The internet allows the most micro of niches to build community. Even if only 2 people care about the topic, they can find each other as long as 1 is a content creator.
Quick question for you. What program where you using to illustrate your “Long Tail” screen capture video? I like how simple it is for drawing.
Hey Chris
I use a program called FlySketch on my Mac, along with a Bamboo Wacom drawing pad and a special pen
Gideon
Hey Gideon,its nice to know you and the family are safe. I always enjoy your contents thanks again for such a wonderful training and I will go check the book out asap.
Regards
Grace
[..YouTube..] This was very helpful and timely, as I am researching more long tail kw for a specific niche blog.
This was very helpful and timely, as I am researching more long tail kw for a specific niche blog.
[..YouTube..] I think its a matter of focus; for instance Health, Wealth and Travel are a long tails of something called “Life” or “Personal Development”. Overtime the long tail changes based on the population and their interests and the internet communities. But look at the vlogger Steve Pavlina: he took the opposite approach and found his major keyword from the Mega Niche which overlaps the larger niches and long tails(His Keyword was Personal Development) His Blog: Personal development for smart people.
Glad your OK that reminded me of my flight from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. I am glad your OK
NOW (rolling up sleeves) instead of pointing the longtail to the mainstream content… what about crating “mini sales” ? Mini series of written / video or even audio documents.
i.e. How to Take Care of Your Beagle Puppies >>offer a low priced guide/video >> upsell to a main product with a discount because they are already a customer now at a lower price.
The LSU method
Longtail>>Short Sale> Upsell (at a discount) main products/services
Darren
I think you “get” what I was trying to say here, even though I did not explicitly say it!
That is the exact strategy I am recommending to Jay Jay from my other project at http://www.FreeMagicLive.com – that is, create LOTS of smaller products targeting more long tail topics, and then upsell to a larger more expensive program.
Gideon
Gideon,
Glad you and the family made it thru the flood intact.
There is a saying in niche selection online classes which is pretty standard….go deep Not wide…or Niche your niche….General Topic and then narrow down which you explained in a very effective way with the graph.
Thanx,
KatrinaMarie
Hello Gideon,
You’ve had some interesting weather, to say the least. Glad to hear you’re safe. Here, in the U.S. midwest we are experiencing a major winter storm; lots of auto accidents and power outages. Candles are ready just in case.
Your video has helped me decide on a topic for my blog. Because I enjoy doing research, I’ve decided on a main stream topic that has a wide variety of subtopics to target. I feel that will keep it interesting for me, and hopefully for whatever audience there may be.
While I feel the video was informative, and it did help me choose a topic, I agree with LA Blogger (15) that the title was a bit misleading. Maybe I was expecting you to tell me what to blog about…just kidding. Maybe it could have been called Main Stream Vs. Obscure Topic Strategies. You’re the one making money and I have yet to even create a blog, so who am I?
Looking forward to much more great advice!
[..YouTube..] This is an interesting video and essentially what you are saying is to keep the mainstream topics in your mind, but also focus more on the long tail topics to really drill down and retain extra traffic from those smaller focused topics….
You described this very well on video…cheers!
This is an interesting video and essentially what you are saying is to keep the mainstream topics in your mind, but also focus more on the long tail topics to really drill down and retain extra traffic from those smaller focused topics….
You described this very well on video…cheers!
[..YouTube..] Hi Gideon. Glad you and the fam are ok after the floods. I will test your theory out. Although my niche of “Happy News” gets a lot of hits in search results…it is truly long tail. Thanks for the video.
Hi Gideon. Glad you and the fam are ok after the floods. I will test your theory out. Although my niche of “Happy News” gets a lot of hits in search results…it is truly long tail. Thanks for the video.
Very interesting Gideon. I am familiar with the Long Tail (picked my copy at Brisbane airport too!). In chapter 4 it states “our culture and economy are increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of hits ….at the head of the demand curve, and moving toward a huge number of niches in the tail.” The question for marketers is how to identify the niche long tails. There are tools like Market Samurai that go some way in achieving this.
Very well explained about long tail key words in this post.
I will explore more of this with my work in the next few days and build it into my strategy.
Thanks for the insight
[..YouTube..] I got your rapid video blogging report and found it clear, concise and masterful… thank you for your generosity. We are in a more or less long-tail niche (non-denominational spirituality), and many of the keywords we hope to claim are not really that long. I was already vaguely thinking of it in the way you describe, but without the graphic description you provided, which helps create a focus. Keep up the good work Gideon, glad you came out of the flood alright!
I got your rapid video blogging report and found it clear, concise and masterful… thank you for your generosity. We are in a more or less long-tail niche (non-denominational spirituality), and many of the keywords we hope to claim are not really that long. I was already vaguely thinking of it in the way you describe, but without the graphic description you provided, which helps create a focus. Keep up the good work Gideon, glad you came out of the flood alright!
Great to see you are on the cutting-edge with information that is 2 years old!
Ha ha good one Kathy.
I’ve been using the long tail concept since it came out. But if you watch carefully, there is a new insight here that Chris does not cover inside his book.
Perhaps I did not explain it very well inside the video, but see if you can read between the lines ok?
Gideon Shalwick
Gideon,
Very interesting video about long tail traffic to blog’s and web sites.
I utilize the Google keyword tools to focus my article titles around keywords.
Feel free to view my most recent articles on my blog at=>
http://www.BCodyFrugalityAdvice.blogspot.com
View my web site at => http://www.BrianJCodyauthor.com
Follow me on Twitter at => http://www.Twitter.com/FrugalityAdvice
Great post. It is becomming harder and harder to find something worth blogging about, since everybody is already blogging about everything.
[..YouTube..] I’m not sure if I’m grasping the theory fully, but it seems to be a relationship between competition and maybe local monthly searches as researched on the google keyword tool. To simplify it my me, I’m hearing that a competition rating of 5 or below with a local monthly search of maybe 5,000 or greater?
I’m not sure if I’m grasping the theory fully, but it seems to be a relationship between competition and maybe local monthly searches as researched on the google keyword tool. To simplify it my me, I’m hearing that a competition rating of 5 or below with a local monthly search of maybe 5,000 or greater?
Gideon, Bit more interesting. LT book is in my Hot reading list. I was going to study very soon. And your video blog has made my work easy.
Thank You for valuable info Help.
[..YouTube..] @ExpatInvestors I am planning to relaunch Rapid Video Blogging within the next few months. But if you’re keen, please send me an email to support [at] rapidvideoblogging DOOOT COM and we can see if there are any spots open.
Gideon Shalwick
I am planning to relaunch Rapid Video Blogging within the next few months. But if you’re keen, please send me an email to support [at] rapidvideoblogging DOOOT COM and we can see if there are any spots open.
Gideon Shalwick
[..YouTube..] @Frilleon Thanks! Much appreciate your kind words!
Gideon Shalwick
Thanks! Much appreciate your kind words!
Gideon Shalwick
[..YouTube..] @timcoweb Sounds like those numbers are worth testing Tim
But they do seem about right (although I do not claim to be an SEO expert…)
Gideon Shalwick
Sounds like those numbers are worth testing Tim
But they do seem about right (although I do not claim to be an SEO expert…)
Gideon Shalwick
Hey Gideon. Thank s for all the info once again. You just keep on giving and giving.
Can you tell me where I can get the Facebook plugin for comments? I’d like to incorporate that into my blog.
Regards.
Hi Ivin
I used two plugins to achieve the result I was after.
One is the Facebook comments plugin here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/facebook-comments-for-wordpress/
And the second one is for adding the count of the Facebook comments to your overall comments count here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/facebook-comments-counter/
Gideon
So…….Let’s say you’re talking about the Health Care Industry. Major topics in the short tail would likely be common topics of interest, i.e., Cancer, aging, Alzheimer’s, et al. The short tail, then, would focus more on non-mainstream topics, or mico-topics concerning health, i.e., bunions, pimples, barnacles, et al. Have I got this right? Clearly, I’m new at this. Should have been a teacher……….Thanks for the wisdom.
[..YouTube..] While writing might not be too bad of a general market, writing M/M erotica is definitely on the ‘long tail’, and that’s my profession & market. My problem with this concept is finding what exactly the blog would focus on topic-wise to get the ratings you’re talking about. When you’re already far down that first ‘long tail’, I think having a super-focus on one aspect of your market could actually be detrimental (being at the ‘long tail’ of a ‘long tail’, like you said).
While writing might not be too bad of a general market, writing M/M erotica is definitely on the ‘long tail’, and that’s my profession & market. My problem with this concept is finding what exactly the blog would focus on topic-wise to get the ratings you’re talking about. When you’re already far down that first ‘long tail’, I think having a super-focus on one aspect of your market could actually be detrimental (being at the ‘long tail’ of a ‘long tail’, like you said).
Gideon,
I really love your thinking and how you seem to always trying to improve and analyze the world around you. Using a parabolic graph to represent markets and the infinite choices on the internet is fantastic.
I think your theory is correct . I think putting it to some subjects and testing it would be really interesting to see.
Put some examples to your use of the “long tail” and see where you think it would land. I started blogging in job search. Where would it fall?
[..YouTube..] @SeasonedCareerChange great idea to run some trials and then to report back on it here. Actually I have already done that quite a bit. Eg… search for “blog topics that make money” on google. At the time of this video, I get two results on page 1 of google. So, this strategy works. Those terms get less traffic than say “make money online”, but they are less competitive. So, I just need to target more of these kinds of long tail keyword terms.
great idea to run some trials and then to report back on it here. Actually I have already done that quite a bit. Eg… search for “blog topics that make money” on google. At the time of this video, I get two results on page 1 of google. So, this strategy works. Those terms get less traffic than say “make money online”, but they are less competitive. So, I just need to target more of these kinds of long tail keyword terms.
[..YouTube..] great idea to run some trials and then to report back on it here. Actually I have already done that quite a bit. Eg… search for “blog topics that make money” on google. At the time of this video, I get two results on page 1 of google. So, this strategy works. Those terms get less traffic than say “make money online”, but they are less competitive. So, I just need to target more of these kinds of long tail keyword terms.
Nice little intro to the topic, I think you have the right idea. I agree with Piotr on Facebook, that it can be tricky determining if your topic belongs in the main stream or long tail.
One way to determine this would be to use Google’s Keyword tool and check the number of searches and the competition. Low competition and low number of searches (that still reaches some “magical” number of being worth trying to target) indicates long tail.
I have started working on posts using with long-tail key words for my blog in teh green living niche. Too early to make solid conclusions, but the early results are promising.
Gideon, love your stuff, but you lost me on this video.
Hi, I think i see where you are going here but i think you are struggling to get across some key points. I was always taught never to draw a graph without the axis being labelled completely. What do your vertical and horizontal axis represent? traffic vs competition? Competition being on the vertical and traffic along the horizontal.
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Hi Gideon
Very informative video. I have a cooking video blog…about east Indian cooking (http://eateastindian.wordpress.com/)..So, my understanding is that it’s mainstream topic…and if i have a chicken curry video which is a long tail topic..what keywords can i target?…can you please suggest some long tail sub topics..???
Need more more more examples please!
Great video! I’d surely try something related to this. At the first sight, all of it makes sense though.
I wonder if there is some way to find those long tail keywords like adwords would provide us for the main stream/most competitive keywords?
Moreover, there generally exists a keyword limit so that is another bottleneck in this approach
wow.. nice video very informative
thanks keep it up
cogals
[..YouTube..] Thank you for the help man! It’s easy as the money making technique explained pretty well at ez-casino(dot)com…
So wild what is going on with the weather WORLDWIDE right now!
Sorry to hear that you were affected by that flood.
On a somewhat related note…
Magazines spend A LOT of time and money researching their market to discover what they want. Then they fill their magazines based upon what they find out.
READ the popular magazines in your niche.. and you have a steady flow of hot topics for your own blog and videos!
Thank you Gideopn for this enlightnening explanation about long tail keywords. It certainly makes sense.
Ros
Gideon you are absolutely right!
When choosing keywords for my small nieche business long tail keywords do not represent a large enough slice of readers. However, on some of the most “main stream” keywords in my small nieche topic can be competitive.
The challenge for me has been finding keywords which represent a balance between the two. I would love to see content about SEO for “Long tail” topic businesses as this is ongoing challenge with little to no information out there.
I find long tail keywords by doing the following:
Open my Google Analytics to the dashboard > Click Traffic Sources > Keywords
This brings a list of all the keywords that gained entrance to your site. You can then sort this data by “Bounce rate” “Conversion Rate” Or Revenue in $ terms (If you have E-commerce tracking on your Google Analytics.This gives you strong information about the behaviour of the readers who enter those keywords.
I am new to blogging and im not quite sure if my topic will work. I wanted to do something with video games like new releases, or video of gameplay. Im just not sure how to present it or create a blog. Also would the big ones like machinima or achievement hunter make for a far less audience for mine?
[..YouTube..] Thank u soo much plss sub to me i would be greatful
Don’t you think that long tail is difficult to target. The Long tail will have everything which doesn’t belong to the mainstream, which is just about anything.
Thanks for your clear explanation of the “long tail” which I have heard about and your so eloquently explain.
You are the best,
Reg Gupton
you’re implementing the commenting strategy really well Reg! Great to see!
I was sitting in Starbuck’s with a latte watching your videos. I believe in acknowledging good work by others. You would be one of these folks.
I’m not able to view this web site properly on opera I believe theres a issue
@lncjmcx you are correct. even my colleague ddnt tell me this secret easy way to make income online from my personal blog. get a load of this one of my friend is getting cheques monthly from her blogs and she is going for trips to europe and all : bit.ly/IxxnBW?=veqbhq
Sorry i know im being a bit slow im new to this, so i understand about finding your topic from the long tail but when you talk about keywords for these topics where exactly do i find keywords? do i get them from peoples blogs about my chosen topic? thanks
Great tips on blogging topics! Thx for sharing!
Very interesting. This is a variation of the split-testing strategy of
continually culling low traffic-generating key words. It serves to keep
one remembering to apply what we may learn to different scenarios or
contexts. Thank you.
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