Are You Choosing The Right Keywords

So most affiliate marketers know about keyword research,or so they think. It's about finding a keyword that is searched for frequently with few competing websites. Right??

Well maybe not

There is one crucial ingredient missing from this formula

The missing factor is 'Searcher's Intent'

There is no single subgroup of searchers intent that is appropriate across the whole range of methods of making money online

Let's look at the different categories of Internet users

Killing time.

These people are bored.
They are looking for nothing and hoping to find something.
They are not ready to buy anything.
This is not appropriate traffic for your persuasive, cleverly written affiliate sales pitch.
They use general keywords and are more suited for AdSense type sites

Curious Cat.

These guys are interested in finding out more information about a topic but have no interest in buying.
They just want to know.
Tend to use keywords that include 'what is' or 'definition of' or just the general keywords.
It's interesting that they often use pretty long tail keywords but this is a situation where long tail does not convert to sales
Again ideal for AdSense sites

Getting Warm.

These surfers are considering buying a product at some stage in the vague future.
They know they need to buy that new plasma screen TV but are not quite sure what brand or when or where they want to buy it.
They are still at the market research place in there minds.
Keywords used are a mixed bag.
Some general e.g plasma TV and some more specific i.e Sony plasma TV.
The buying keyword prefixes e.g 'cheap', 'discount', 'sale', 'outlet'; tend to feature here
They sometimes use highly specific product specifications and those that do are closer to moving into the credit card wielding category.
This is the crowd you want to throw your sales pitch at, especially the subgroup who are ready to make the change to buyers.
These people and the keywords they target are ideal for affiliate marketing.
They are still open to persuasion and can be converted with a good pre-sell

Credit Card Wielding.

They are ready to buy.
They know what they want, where they want to get it from and exactly how much they are willing to pay.
They tend to use the exact product name that they are looking for, specs and all.
They do not browse for long.
Because this crowd have already decided, they really are not as easy to convert as the getting warm crowd. They have decided about getting the product from Amazon for example. You really need to have a good, concise and slick sales pitch to get their attention if you are not Amazon.