All New CommentMILK Version 1.0COWpetition Week 1 Q&A
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Over the past week we have taken you through the initial planning, preparation and research of creating a new blog. We have done our best to provide as much detail as possible, as it is our goal to make this cowpetition a total learning experiance for you.
Yesterday we requested that if any of you had questions about the pasts weeks posts to please put them into our little skribit widget in our side bar (we took it down about an hour ago) and we would review them in this post. A few of the questions related to the past weeks topics and a few touched on topics we had not discussed yet, below we answered as best we could but a few will have to wait for answers 
1. Where did you get so much content in such a short term for the games review blog?
One of the main factors that was so influencal in the creation of this blog was it had to be a topic that we had a lot of knowledge about. With such a short time frame (only 30 days) we had no time to do initial keyword research just to figure out what to write about, so we picked a topic that we knew the market and what topics to write about.
We then divided up the content and decided what we could write and what we would need help with. Then we posted in top gaming forums and on craigslist for interested writers.
Posting this into Elance or Mechanical Turk was not an option because quality was extremely important and we did not have time to review and edit all the content.
2. So much content for your website in a couple days? How did you do it and how do you keep up
When you pick a market that the writers are passionate about, it is easy to create a lot of “high quality” content fast. This is the challenge when you to research a niche you have no interest in and try to write content, you spend days researching and struggle to write because you have no interest in the topic. You may even try to outsource the writing but the problem is you are asking people to do that same thing, create content on a topic they most likely know very little about.
This is one of the reason we so strongly recommend the first time you build a blog you stick to a topic you are familiar with. It takes a lot of the work out of the initial research and development.
3. Whats the best way to determine traffic for a keyword?
There are essentially two areas to consider here, “Top Level Research” and then “Long Tail Research”. For this past week we really only focused on the Top Level Research. This is the initial research you perform when investigating a niche and look at the overall big picture traffic potential of the entire market you are investigating. For this type of research the best initial tool for determining traffic, in our opinion, is Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends). The only problem with using this tool is you need to have a base point of reference to compare against.
For example, by entering “Video Game Review”, the data we get is…
Which really tells us nothing other then it is fairly consistent with a slight increases near the end of the year every year, which directly relates to the Christmas shopping season. The problem is we have no idea what so ever what the level of traffic is, it could be 50 visitors a day or 5000 and without a point of reference we have nothing to compare against.
When you have a point of reference however, you have something concrete to compare against and the information it reveals is fantastic. For example, we know that the term “John Chow” delivers about 70 to 75 clicks a day to our blog and we are ranked between one and two for this term in Google. So with this information we know we can use this is a base point to compare against other markets. So by now entering the two terms together “video game review, john chow” we get the following graph…
From this we can see that the term “video games review” gives us what appears to be 3 or 4 times the traffic at certain times of the year, which means a top ranking could expect approximately 230 visitors a day for this term. Then once we know this number we then look at the competition for the term and start digging for sub terms (long tail).
Now as stated earlier, this is not effective for all traffic estimates because once you know the term you are looking for then you start looking for the “long tail” terms and that means terms that have a lot less traffic and the issue with that is Google Trends does not track well terms that do not have a good level of traffic… in other words, top level terms.
Boy we hope that makes sense. Also we will be getting into the long tail research later this week.
4. How do you find JV contacts?
The four easiest ways that from our experiance works best for finding JV contacts are…
Friends: When you are in the business of making money online, friends come in extremely handy, especially when you know the markets they are involved in. When you know who the players are in different niches, it makes getting started a lot easier.
Forums: These are where some of the best research can be done. Find forums that have a lot of activity and find the people who are posting the most. Usually these people are highly respected in these forums and a lot of people listen to them. PM these individuals and start a conversation with them, let them know what you got going on and find a way to work with them.
Products: ClickBank is a very easy place to get started but you can also just look in the search engines. Find products that target the same market you are in but are not competing and look for contact methods on their site. Do not just use an email address, if there is a phone then use it… talking to them over the phone is always better then emailing.
Newsletters: Search in Google.com using your main keywords with the word newsletter or ezine. For example “Video Game Newsletter”. Look to see if they offer advertising or accept content from others, then contact the owner and see if you could work out a win/win agreement.
5. I am still confused on what LSI is?
Sorry, but this one is going to be dedicated to a single post by it self.
6. What theme and plugins are you using?
This question will be answered this week when we talk about setting up your blog.
7. What’s the maintenance plan?
After your bog is built, this is what keeps it alive, there wil be a few posts dedicated to this topic next week.
PS –> Stay tuned to your email tomorrow, we will be announcing the first COWcast details. Also, we will be getting into more detail on how we found and contacted JV partners and what the response rate was. After that we will be getting into setting up your blog and researching the long term content and then revving up the promotion engine.
Hope this post cleared some things up
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Thanks cow, got my answer. Looking forward to the CowCast
Marvins last blog post..Watching Your PageRank Soar from 0 to 10
Good to hear
As usual, good stuff. Getting content writers from other forums is a good idea. I will try that right away for my topic (female entrepreneurs). I find on my blog that the weekend surfers really dig the articles and I want to be able to post new ones regularly. Useful tip.
Keep up the good info. Myself (and I suspect everyone else) is getting a lot out of your posts. Thanks.
Together, we are stronger.
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman
Vicki Flaughers last blog post..Killer, The Mighty Donut Hunter: A Story of Passion, Focus and Determination
John, did you pay the writers for the game reviews?
Nice one, everything makes sense. I really like the part about finding writers in forums and such that are passionate about the topic. It’s definitely much harder to write about something you have no passion in, and if you’re asking other writers to do the same….you then have to proofread their content.
That was a smart move, one I’ll put in the mental toolbox for future projects.
JK Swopess last blog post..cows, daydreaming students, sly guys, big clocks, airplanes and marketing?
Waiting to the cast… the COWCAST…
Also i saw Garry’s blog on debt consolidation…
Must say that he chose the topic which is highly priced…But kinda boring to me!
Rockstar Sids last blog post..Facebook to attack its 70 million users
Cool tip. I never really could make sense of google trends relating to my niche, but now that I have a reference point (thanks john
) So for me, Google trends just changed from “interesting” to “useful”.
I needed a bit of adjustment going for the “big words” cause most search terms I tried don’t have enough volume. But I totally see that this makes much more sense than just looking at the long tail keywords the way I did till now.
Richards last blog post..The Easiest Info-Product Creation Ever (Really)
This was a great post and the fact that content comes easy if you like the subject.
Excellent posts John…. thank you so much!
I really like to read each post you make.
Keep up the good work!
Moooo…..
MESs last blog post..Adsense Secret 4 new ebook!
thats a huge compliment.. thank you!
Howdy John!
Really cool info you’re sharing on this blog. This particular post hit something home…really hard! You’re right, it’s a major challenge to write about topics we are not experts in or particularly passionate about. And getting freelance writers ease the pain…but the quality of writing is not that good because they too are writing about topics they know nothing about.
My question is - would you be kind enough to explain the ways in which you get passionate/experts on topics…and more importantly…what is the “actual” offer you make them? For e.g. do you say it’s for blog posts? Do you specifically state that you will own the complete rights to the work? And how much do you pay per blog post? Just a rough idea.
For.g. If I wanted blog posts ranging from 250-500 words…what would be a good offer. I’m trying to figure out how “you” actually go through the steps to attract someone to do this writing work ( bearing in mind they are typically NOT people who write articles as a job etc)
I had once found a woman who was answering tons of questions in a specific topic in Yahoo answers etc and had great quality…and she was just writing and helping out of her passion. So I offered her a deal to do basically the same…the only difference being that should now get paid for it!!
Her response was - she felt nervous about being able to write articles for me…she wasn’t confident etc. She had this reaction because she wrote out of passion and interest in the topic. The minute I offered money..she mentally figured that she has to “up” her game if she was going to be paid, and freaked out! IF she only knew that what she was saying for free was worth much more than what I usually get from freelance ghostwriters.
Could you shed some light on “exactly how” you convince the so called “forum junkie experts” to get on board to write for pay.
Sorry for the long post. But your answer may help me and others have a REAL breakthrough towards creating good sticky-content blogs/sites.
Thanks!!
We will dedicate a post to this topic
Muchos gracias John
Look forward to that post.
I’m also extremely interested in the answer to this question. How much is a good pay rate, and what’s/where’s the best way to get the word out that you’re looking for writers. Definitely looking forward to a post on these issues!
Jasons last blog post..Quick Update on Trend Spike
Forums are a brilliant source of information.
Some people may write for free just to have their name mentioned.
IEarnWhileISleeps last blog post..Where Is The Real Money In Blogging?
I think video game reviews is a good topic, though i wasn’t expecting that. Being a gamer, a mom to a future gamer (thanks for that mario kart review, btw - from a 2-yr-old’s mom) and a partner to a gamer, I know how people will read every bit and piece on the net about their game-of-the-moment, and wont stop til they find what they’re looking for. It’s dynamic too, updates, patches and expansions, exclusive beta tests (closed and open), paid game testers… the list goes on. It’s a lucrative niche.
My own mmorpg site got 10 times more traffic in the week that I launched it than my romance site got in 4 months, just because it’s tournament season. The traffic is mind boggling! The best part is, all you have to do is learn the games more than the others, which isn’t work at all.
You have at least one avid reader from this household, and one kindhearted credit card wielder who has a soft spot for gamers.
evilwoobies last blog post..Online Dating How To
It’s interesting to see how you’re dealing with the competition. Who would’ve thought that so much research and skills are being put in
I guess I need to learn from the “COW” 
-Mike
Mike Huangs last blog post..Preventing Burn Out by Finding Motivation
In regard to deciding on a domain, I notice that most people are trying to get “.com” domains.
Is there any reason to prefer one domain extension over another?
What are the specific use restrictions if any placed upon the varioius extions available today?
It is my understanding that it does not matter about any particular extension. That the priority is to get a domain name that shares the keyword you are promoting, at least that is what others in the industry espouse. Is this an accurate statement? Could you enhance this thought a bit.
I have been learning about internet marketing for only about 3 months now. I may be in the stage of procrastination and extended continuing research, don’t recall the term you used.
I have signed up for many guru newsletters and auto emails. In the beginning I was getting one point of interest here and another there. Now It seems I am getting overwhelmed by emails like this; so I will have to be discontinuing many such. I will only be accepting those like yourself who have presented themselves, like yourself, as true professionals in internet marketing.
While some of the packages that are being offered are extremely exorbitant for my means, I will implement these ideas and maybe one day be able to afford to participate is such relationships as offered in these packages.
Thank you so very much for this wealth of information.
I look forward to meeting you.
In true regards,
Dave