Strike It Niche Case Study

So I decided to follow the action steps laid out in Strike It Niche and record my experiences here. Here's my experiences so far, step by step:

Step 1 of the "Quick Start Action Plan" is to select your business blueprint. I've decided to go with the "beef and steak" blueprint.

Step 2 is to decide how my business will be unique. I'm sure this step is probably more important than I think, but I didn't do much work here. The main thing I'm planning to do to make the site unique is that it's a blog rather than a static site, and with any luck, I'll be able to form a real community of steak and beef lovers around the blog. That's my goal, anyway.

Step 3 is to expand my keyword list using SiteBuildIt and Wordtracker. I'm using the Google Adwords Keyword Sandbox for this, and if I need more keywords, I'll hit Overture and also think about subscribing to Wordtracker again.

Step 4 is to select a domain name. Come on by and visit my new domain, http://beef-recipes.blogspot.com/.

Step 5 is to select a site building tool. I'm using Blogger.

Step 6 is to evaluate and join affiliate programs. I think I'm a member of Omaha Steaks, and I'm sure there are some beef recipes available over at Clickbank. I can probably find some type of Atkins-diet related affiliate program to shill too.

Step 7 is to create content. This will be an ongoing process, since it's a blog.

Step 8 is to submit the URL's to the major search engines and directories. Other than DMOZ, the links given here to submit to are outdated. Although I could submit to Google, I'm going to let Google's spiders find me naturally.

Step 9 is to submit to MSN's pay-per-inclusion. Again, outdated stuff. I'm just going to wait for their spiders.

Step 10 is to add Google Adsense to the pages, after I've created 25+ pages and am receiving 100+ visitors per day. If I do my job correctly, I should have that many posts in a week or so. I'm not going to wait for that much traffic to actually launch Adsense though.

And that's where I'm at with my Strike It Niche project so far. One thing I did find funny was that one of the 15 suggested keywords was "steak cheese pictures". At first I thought that this had something to do with Philly cheesesteaks, which I love, and I did a search in Yahoo, and the first site that came up was a steak and beef affiliate site.

But the 2nd site was an adult site called Steak and Cheese. People looking for "steak and cheese pictures" are probably not looking for a site with beef recipes. A fine example of why you should research and think critically about your keyword research.