Had my first idea for site but scared of jumping in?

[TeDWooD]

I have finally had my first idea for my site, its not the usual e-book sell or landing page one. Its a full idea and could cost me a lot of money and time. I want to learn as much as i can about traffic and keywords but don't want to procrastinate. I really want to do this!
I need some advice on how to go about it, I don't want to make huge mistakes that i will hugely regret later on by jumping in as soon as possible.

 

[Ron Bechdolt]

Can you give us a little info on what area you are aiming for? That would help in giving advice,

 

[Linda Buquet]

Don't give us the exact niche, just the primary product category.

 

[TeDWooD]

Obviously i don't want to give away much information since i haven't started but it retailers such as game and play.com. Its not a specific niche just the entertainment area and others. Since i am new to affiliate and web development what really should i do for a new idea?
I have an overall plan of what i should do.
1.Brainstorm Idea.
2.Market Research.
3.Gather Information
4.Get a Domain Name.
5.Build Suitable Site.
6.Get Hosting.
7.Launch Site
8.Build a Community.
9.Build Backlinks and Keywords and Articles.
Im trying to avoid outsourcing as much as possible since i am quite handy with applications such as flash cs4 and photoshop etc since im on a games design course in college.
The main question is though how much should i learn before i act?
Such as simple affiliate things....?

 

[VPNTyson]

Give yourself a deadline for each of part of your plan, stop posting on forums, and go build it!!

Seriously, make a timeline and stick to it. Don't wait until you have all the pieces perfectly lined up. That will never happen. Start building, then you will notice things you can go back and improve upon. There's a reason why writers just starting writing, then go back and do revision after revision until eventually they've got a bestseller. The perfect novel is never laid out in its entirety first...it grows organically, each written thought leading to a new idea...

Oh, and register your domain name ASAP.

 

[Trafficman01]

If you are looking at securing search engine traffic than I would most likely look into keyword research first. Then build your website around the keywords you plan to promote. It makes sense if the desired outcome is targeted traffic as a properly optimized website will yield years of positive results.

 

[rdennis103]

Some Advice...

I have an overall plan of what i should do.
1.Brainstorm Idea.
2.Market Research.
3.Gather Information
4.Get a Domain Name.
5.Build Suitable Site.
6.Get Hosting.
7.Launch Site
8.Build a Community.
9.Build Backlinks and Keywords and Articles.

Don't take too long with this, as someone else quite rightly posted earlier.

While doing your research, have a look into Amazon's Associate Program, I make sales everyday through them.

Im trying to avoid outsourcing as much as possible since i am quite handy with applications such as flash cs4 and photoshop etc since im on a games design course in college.
The main question is though how much should i learn before i act?
Such as simple affiliate things....?

To be honest, Flash and Photoshop knowledge is really cool, I was a programmer for many years.

You really don't need to know any of these things these days, blogger sites for example, are FREE and use the WYSIWYG interface.

TIP Keep asking questions here and we will do our best to help you.

 

[harrysmith]

If you are selling some product online make sure you have sound knowledge of online order processing and transaction, get your website hosted on secure server and try to have dedicated SSL certificate installed for your domain name which will prove safe and secure financial transactions.

 

[kikoman]

Yeah you better act quick, sometimes you think you have an original idea but then you realize somebody else already came up with the same idea.

 

[victorm]

do your market research first.
traffic volumes, industry conversion rates, competition - they all matter. might be the most wonderful niche ever and still have insufficient volumes to make it viable. on the other hand, the players you mentioned have behind a trail of affiliates left without a niche once they started making real money (my business was among them, a couple of years ago). make sure you have alternatives and first of all OWN first page in SERP before you give them a hint of what you are doing. these programs can buy far more media than you and suck a niche dry once they set their eyes on it. Amazon is a good alternative. Another thing is to build a personal relationship with the AM on each program and try to become really close - it is a lot easier to borrow ideas from an affiliate without a face.

 

[harrysmith]

You should go with a niche you have sound knowledge of and would like to work on. NO matter your idea is brand new or is widely popular and used. Just don't concentrate on making money but do what your heart speaks & love to do.
Just wanted to add my 2 cents !!!

 

[TeDWooD]

Thanks Guys some great advice here.
Victorm had a good point about the market research.
Do you know where i can find the tools for ; traffic volumes, industry conversion rates, competition?
That would be greatly appreciated.

 

[victorm]

I'll try to give you some ideas, but please do your own research - there is no "best" or "ultimate" method for doing this, as far as I am concerned.

When it comes to using/buying tools, I recommend first of all you learn how to do every aspect manually and then start using a tool. If you do not understand the assumptions made in doing traffic projections, you risk taking the results these tools give you too seriously. At best, they are offering guidelines - the only proof comes from actual implementing and testing of your campaigns.

Traffic - you can have a look at AdWords' traffic estimations, but keep the pinch of salt close. I found it unreliable at best, although it can give you an idea if a certain kw is promising or not. More on testing volumes for real later.
A good tool to get the bird's eye view on a campaign is Market Samurai. You'll have to purchase it, so think twice whether it will pay back or not.

Industry conversion rates - this is a tough one, since it depends heavily on how targeted your traffic is and the quality of the landing pages. Again, testing with real campaigns is the only proper means to tell. With affiliate networks you might be able to see the PPC of a program, sometimes the CTR as well. Again, these figures are very relative - one of the networks I work with counts bots hits on redirects as clicks, which hides the real CTR.

Competition - good one; I would rely on Google searches there for the keywords you target (try the keyword in quotes, intitle:keyword, inurl:keyword). Market Samurai also gives you an idea of what they are doing. SiteExplorer from Yahoo should be able to show you what backlinks they have. There is also KeywordSpy, which tells you more about who's doing what on AdWords (the full service is subscription-based). These should get you started.

As promised, here is an idea on testing *real* search volumes on Google. You will need a second AdWords account, that you are prepared to sacrifice if required (careful, they do not grow in trees). Setup a campaign for the keywords you target, but write unappealing copy. Run the ads on Google only (not on their partner networks). It's tricky - it should be good enough to get accepted by Google as relevant, but poor enough to keep punters from clicking on your ads (hint - advertise products at exorbitant prices). Run the campaign with really hight bids (5-20USD/click) for a short period of time - 24-48H max. Be careful and do not leave too much money in your account - these tests can be very costly. Sometimes I get hit with 150-200USD for such an experiment.
The total number of displays you get will be close to the total number of searches G had that day for your keywords (they are greedy too).
Be careful using this - the account will have no conversions, hence Google will rate it poorly in future campaigns.
DO NOT DO THIS WITH YOUR MAIN ADWORDS ACCOUNT!

I hope this helps you. One last thing, for anyone else planning to flame the thread - please do not disturb our host, she was kind enough to make this possible and we should behave properly.

Thanks Guys some great advice here.
Victorm had a good point about the market research.
Do you know where i can find the tools for ; traffic volumes, industry conversion rates, competition?
That would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TeDWooD]

I encountered a problem... I found a site that did what i wanted to do.... but more, from using intitle:keyword. It at the moment isn't making much money but i think it has just started. To be honest i was quite upset when i found out, but i have many other ideas i can capitalise on. Since im on a games design course i think i should stick to my roots and possibly make a game site and refer products from there. I badly want ?3000 for my car , i wont stop trying though .
On to project 2 now, except this time with a bit more emphasis on something called competitor research ...sigh.

 

[Niche48]

First...relax. Your first website is going to be your training ground

Do not be afraid of messing things up. Most of us did when we first started

Get a domain name that contains one of your primary keywords

Next find the keywords that are relevant to your niche and see if you can categorize your website using those words
Then start posting content

The earlier you get your website up, the sooner you will start getting traffic

The site does not need to be complete before you out it up. Write about 5 pages, upload them and then you can continue adding and editing content as you go

I have been in this for about 3 years now and am making a decent amount online but I tell you I learn something new almost every day

Get starting and have the mindset of wanting to learn and edit things as you gain more knowledge and experience

Good luck