Keyword Selection for Affiliate Sites: Make Money or Branding?
Keyword research has been covered previously on AffBoom Affiliate Marketing Tips Blog and I am also giving away a FREE keyword research tool over there. However, I still receive questions from new affiliates on which kind of keywords to target.
Basically, these affiliates are often confused about the selection between two types of keywords for their affiliate sites – branding keywords and keywords that will directly lead to affiliate commissions.
In this advanced affiliate marketing tips article on keyword selection, I am going to show you the two different kinds of keyword and when to target them using your affiliate sites and search engine optimization skills that you possess.
Keyword Selection to Make Money
Most new affiliates want to earn some dollars just to prove to themselves that affiliate marketing is real. Well, money will not come unless you target the right buying keywords.
In my market viability research tutorial, I explained thoroughly on what are buying keywords and a few ways which you can use to filter them out from a pile of keywords that you have collected from your keyword research.
Put yourself in the shoes of an online shopper. In the following list, I will show you some of the prefixes or suffixes of search phrases that online shoppers with different levels of urge to get a product will search for.
Confirmed Money Spenders:
Confirmed money spenders already have their credit cards out and most of the time, they are just looking for cheaper bargains so that they can stretch their dollars further. Most affiliates ignore these bargain hunters, categorizing them together with ultimate cheapskates (explained below). In fact, they are the ones most likely to swipe their credit card.
Suffixes/Prefixes in Search Phrases: cheapest, price comparison, buy, deals, coupon codes, discounts, urgent sale, bonuses, free shipping, etc.
Likely Shoppers:
These shoppers are ready to purchase online but they face certain problems such as with shipping policies, payment methods or shipping durations with the merchants that they already know. They are now looking for new options to get what they want.
When web users know what they are looking for but not exactly sure where to get them, they fall in this group. As an affiliate, if you are able to show them where to get the products that they desire, it is likely that they will check your recommendations out. However, due to the unfamiliarity, they might not make the purchase right away.
Suffixes/Prefixes in Search Phrases: visa debit card, paypal, shipping, delivery, <geographical destinations>, auctions, seller, merchants, store, shop, etc.
Researching Shoppers:
You can label researching shoppers as skeptic shoppers. Normally, they will carry out a lot of extra searches to validate the claims of a seller or merchant. They want to find out what others have to say about a product. Due to the skepticism that they have, you are required to put in a lot of effort in persuading them to swipe their credit card.
Suffixes/Prefixes in Search Phrases: <product models>, ratings, critics, reviews, comments, scams, recommendations, etc.
Ultimate Cheapskates:
My advice for affiliates is not to target these keywords on your sites unless you are trying to earn from CPM ads (due to the high volume of search) or freebies/trial offers (you can get these offers from Hydra Network, Market Leverage and NeverBlueAds).
These people are not going to spend any money on the Internet and they probably don’t have a credit card.
Suffixes/Prefixes in Search Phrases: free, freebies, giveaways, trial, torrents, hacks, cd keys, crack, rapidshare, megaupload, etc.
If you are able to spot any suffixes or prefixes in the first three categories during your keyword research, mark them down immediately. These are the keywords that you should target in order to make money.
As for the other suggested prefixes and suffixes suggested above, you can create separate pages to target them. Even though their search count is not significant enough to be listed by various keyword research tool, there are definitely people out there searching for them.
Use your creativity or do some research on your potential competition to figure out search phrases that web users use when they conduct their search. Based on the categories that I have explained above, determine whether to add them to your list of buying keywords.
Keyword Selection for Branding
When you are trying to brand your affiliate site, you should also aim top search engine rankings for non-buying terms. By doing so, apart from potential buyers or shoppers, you are also welcoming knowledge seekers to visit your site.
Target and optimize your site for as many terms, broad or long tail, within your niche, based on the keyword research that you have carried out. Your aim here is to capture as many site visitors as you can.
When you are targeting keywords for branding purposes, you shouldn’t have a hard presell copy as a landing page for search engine traffic. Try to add value by providing relevant information.
Your aim here is to get them to read your articles and to get them interested in your site. There is no point showing them a store page of the Build A Niche Store script when they don’t want to buy stuffs.
Make Money from Branding Keywords
Branding keywords cannot generate direct affiliate commissions but you can always generate indirect affiliate commissions with it.
Embedded Affiliate Text Links: When you provide value to your site visitors by showing them what they are looking for, they will definitely pay attention to your content. When this happens, there is absolutely no problem for you to embed a few affiliate links within your posted information.
Information helps to build rapport with your site visitors. Even if they don’t convert during their first visit, they might subscribe to your RSS feed and convert on the second, third or fourth visit.
Email Marketing: Incorporate an opt in form into your affiliate site once you start to receive a steady stream of traffic. An opt in form, usually provided by email marketing services like Aweber, allow site visitors to become subscribers of your email list.
In the email series that you are going to send out, insert a few affiliate links of related products together with free contents. Your email list subscribers are more likely to convert compared to the visitor that visits your site for the very first time via branding keywords. This is because you are providing them with more free content and trust is slowly building up.
Any Question on Keyword Selection?
The above are some of tricks on keyword selection that I would like to share with you on this affiliate marketing tips blog.
Do you have any questions or ways in which you can improve the methods that I use above? If yes, please voice it out in the comments section below and I would love to give you a reply. 
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