If you created a website based on a Social Networking Script -- did you do your research first?
Research can make or break a website. I'm not talking about a few hours of doing some searches or looking around myspace.com to see how THEY are making money. That's a terrible way to spend your time and money.
First thing's first... Niche Market Research. What have you decided to base your SNC (social networking community) on? I would hope it's not on "dating" or "african american dating" or "asian dating", etc. that's just entirely too general.
I've seen entirely too many wannabe entrepreneurs destroy their budgets by thinking that everything else is important, except their market research.
I hate the term "Market Research" because it sounds like you need a Masters Degree from Wharton or Harvard to even think of using the term "Market Research". But the truth is - you simply need to know how to use a few tools to do some research.
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- Google.com
- Google Groups
- Google Trends
- MSN AdLabs
- WordTracker
- Keyword Spy
- etc
The first thing you need to learn is the art of digging. That's right... but we're not talking about those crazy dreams about burying your mother in law! ;0)
We're talking about digging for more information.
Digging is simple. Let's say you want to create a website dedicated to Las Vegas singles. How much competition do you have in this niche? Do a search for "las vegas singles" on google.com and see how many results come up. A lot? Well... let's find a better niche! This is where we dig...
How about "Latino Las Vegas Singles" ? I'm guessing there's a much better market!
Let's keep digging though... can you figure out a better niche that gets enough searches and traffic that you can make money from? Just remember that we're not looking for a "niche" that has too much competition.
Is the niche market hungry? This means - is there enough willing users out there that we can make a successful website out of?
Keep digging! We need to check latino single forums, latino las vegas communities, etc. this is our research. And if we spend enough time - we're going to become knowledgeable in this market. Once we become knowledgeable - we make more money, right? Right...
Let's pretend that you've discovered that this market is very lucrative and is in dire need of a community.
By the way... notice we didn't start with "latino singles"? This is just way too general. This market is too swamped and even though there's more money here - it's not enough for us. We need our very own niche. This is why we're smart and we do out research correctly.
Now that you know your market a little more - what about keywords? This is where you need to use a product such as AdTool that will allow you to do research for keywords and give you a great return on your AdWords campaigns.
Just remember RELEVANCY. This seems to be the second biggest problem I've seen with new website owners... lack of research and absolutely NO relevancy. From Keywords to ads placed on the site. If your keywords are for "latino singles" and you've chosen "latino las vegas singles" - guess what? Traffic is not going to be as good... but if it were "asian singles in los angeles" or even "singles in los angeles" - you're now breaking the relevancy rule! This is not the traffic you need - nor should it be what you desire. This is especially true if you're spending money on Pay Per Click campaigns.
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