An Interesting if Accidental Discovery Using Google Adwords Tool

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   Gordon Hamiltonposted 13 years ago

   I only started regular use of the Google Adwords Tool fairly recently, in direct response to excellent advice given right here on Hub Pages. A couple of weeks ago, I started thinking about how many people search for things that I remember from my childhood, that are not nearly so often referred to today. I have been playing around with the site over the past few days, searching for things I and many others will remember and have found some incredible results.
   
   I am obviously not disclosing my precise searches but an excellent example (I hope to publish the Hub in the next couple of weeks! ) is something I remember loving from childhood, which has around 150,000 global searches and shows no level of competition whatsoever. There are obviously no guarantees of success but thinking of things which were popular many years ago, pre-Internet, can produce staggering findings. Just because they are no longer fashionable doesn't mean people are no longer searching for them. I already have a list of ideas for future Hubs through this experiment.
   
   You can apply this to virtually any topic. If you are perhaps only in your twenties and struggling to come up with ideas, think about things your parents talk about or talked about. Set aside a couple of hours to try this out on your subject of choice, firstly brainstorming with an old-fashioned notepad and pen and secondly using the tool and you may find some amazing ideas for ultimately very successful Hubs.
   
   Good luck!

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      Jason Menayanposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Nice tip, Gordon!
      
      Finding those niches where lots of people are searching, but there's relatively little content being served up to address them, are great for high-quality Hubs. Good luck!

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         wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         No, it's NOT a nice tip!  He should have just posted them.  Or at least emailed them to me.
         
         Seriously, that is a good idea; I'm going to have to put some thought into my childhood.

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      Neerizzleposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for sharing this, it's actually a really good idea! I don't know how good of a use I can make for this as my childhood was mostly during internet times but I'm sure many others will find it beneficial. Thanks again!

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      Quilligrapherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Mr. Hamilton,
      I’m a SEO dummy and I have a question, which you might be able to answer for me.  Do keywords with little or no competition result in google ads having relatively low Ad-sense click revenue?  Or, am I confusing keywords and tags?

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         janderson99posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Generally Yes, BUT
         
         It depends what you mean by competition
         => In the Google tool it means the number of advertisers competing to advertise for that word
         => In a Google Search it means the number of pages Google can find that use that keyword
         => For keyword competition, in the sense of the quality of websites competing for the keyword, it depends on which tool you ask. Generally it is a formula based on page rank, number of backlinks and whether or not the keyword is included in the Title, Description etc.
         
         For A1 Niches it is a percentage score based on all these things - Low percentage for low competition
         
         || Price per click CPC || Keyword || Competition Strength (%) || Visits ||
              /                                        /                 /                                                /
         1.08, chartered accountant salary, 28, 5400   
         => low competition,  moderate CPC, high hits
         
         0.23, simple electronic circuits, 29, 1000 
         => low competition, low CPC, moderate hits
         
         3.63, quorn business travel, 29, 110 
         => low competition, high CPC, low hits
         
         The last one has low competition, but high CPC with low traffic
         
         

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            Quilligrapherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you, Mr. Anderson, for your helpful reply.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Sorry to burst your bubble, Gordon, but you've totally misunderstood the meaning of the "competition" column.
      
      If there is no competition whatsoever, that means there are no advertisers interested in placing ads.  That means you can expect little or no Adsense income from that topic.
      
      If you have HP Ads, however, it could work well, because HP Ads pay on impressions not clicks.
      
      JAnderson explains it well in his post.

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         Will Apseposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Whether Gordon has misunderstood 'competition' or not hardly matters.
         
         It is still a good idea.
         
         All you need to profit from the HP ads is traffic. If you can get this by writing about stuff you are interested in, it sounds ideal.

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         Quilligrapherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         It seems you confirm my first impression that low keyword competition results in lower Adsense revenue.
         Thank you.

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   Jenna Popeposted 13 years ago

   Very cool!!

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   Matty Saysposted 13 years ago

   Hi Gordon, this is a good idea.  The one thing that I would suggest, however, is to try searching for the terms in search engines, after using the Adwords tool.  I find that sometimes, the Adwords tool will say that there is little/no competition, but when I put the term into Google, Yahoo, Bing etc., there will be millions of search results.  I don't know what they mean by "competition," but it's more than simply a numbers game.  Best of luck in your quest and keep us posted, when you find the successful niches!

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      DreamsInBloomposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      What Google means by "competition" refers to people who are bidding on those keywords. For example, there may be 1,000 people bidding on the term "blue widget" and those who bid the highest will get people to their website when people click on that ad. But maybe only 12 people are bidding on the keywords "green widget." The main purpose of the Google keyword tool is for advertisers, not publisher and writers (we just take advantage of the Google keyword tool too).

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         SuperheroSalesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for clearing that up.  I was also confused about the term "competition" on the Google keyword tool and thought it meant there were not very many sites on the subject.  This is good to know!

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   LuisEGonzalezposted 13 years ago

   Nice tip, although I must tell you that I have been doing something similar for well over 7 months but my topics are dealing with photography. Using Google key words I search for terms, ideas, topics, subjects, projects and so on that were hot or at least discussed back in my college years and all dealing with my interest. Another good suggestion if I may is to signup for Google alerts in whatever topic you choose. The service is free and you will be emailed regular updates regarding anything that deals with your chosen topic.

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   Victoria Lynnposted 13 years ago

   Great idea! I'll have to try that.

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   amazingchildposted 13 years ago

   Fantastic tip!
   
   And now I have to follow you to find out what this mystery item is? Is it Monchichis? No? Bummer.

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   Will Apseposted 13 years ago

   The nice thing is, we now have a really supercharged platform on Hubpages. We can go after high competition keywords.

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   recommend1posted 13 years ago

   This is a really good tip - but doesn't it mean you just get  OLD visitors

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      shoganposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah!  And they have trouble finding and clicking on the little ad links! 

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         Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         recommend1 and shogan:     All right, you people.  Knock it off with the "old" remarks!!!!!           You'd be surprised what we first-generation Hula Hoop users and Chatty Cathy friends are capable of.    

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            recommend1posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Now if yhou really understood the meaning of old then you would also have a photograph of yourself with John Lennon and Paul McCartney on the day their first number one hit announced !  or one of you standing by one of the worlds first computers in its own BIG building - or how about one of yourself waving the Brit flag on the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth ??
            
            You kids !!!

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               Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Ah.  Well, I feel much younger now.  My parents never would have allowed me to do more than watch the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show (and later, of course, wear Beatles sunglasses and collect Beatles trading cards).  (I hope I don't get thrown off HubPages for being too young to be on here.        )

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   AEvansposted 13 years ago

   Great advice! I am checking Google Adwords now.

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    Katya Drakeposted 13 years ago

    It is a good idea. I have a friend who is a specialist in internet marketing and he actually advised his students to use Google Adwords for that reason. You have to make sure that the info you share on that topic is quality for it to benefit you but it definitely can benefit you.

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    sofsposted 13 years ago

    Janderson, you must have a heart of gold to freely dispense with your findings. I wish you the very best.

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    Dolores Monetposted 13 years ago

    I am thinking of hubs on Fizzies, Bob-a-Loops, and Davey Crocket hats (or was it Daniel Boone hats), haha.

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    tlpoagueposted 13 years ago

    Thanks for these interesting tips! I wish you the best of luck in your findings. It sounds like your hands will be busy for awhile. I am looking forward to reading them.

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