We came across a recent on-line shopping report from WebPro News. It stated that a survey was performed to determine how on-line shoppers utilize the web to search for their products.
According
to
the
report,
over
88%
of
On-Line
Shoppers
use
Yahoo!,
Google,
MSN,
and
AOL
to
find
the
E-Commerce
outlets
for
the
product
that
they
are
looking
for.
So
what’s
that
mean
to
you?
A
few
things….
Once
again,
Yahoo!
Is
the
primary
shopper
destination
on
the
web.
But
you
already
knew
that…
When
your
searching
for
products
to
sell,
and
you’re
at
the
stage
where
it’s
time
to
determine
the
supply
of
the
product,
you
can
use
these
4
search
engine/directories
to
further
clarify
how
many
e-commerce
sites
are
actually
SELLING
that
product.
For
Example.
Let’s
say
you’ve
decided
to
sell
Tapestries.
You
know,
those
terrific,
woven
wall
hanging
that
have
embroidered
images
of
the
Crusades,
Jesus
Christ,
or a
Pony…
Your
first
stop
is
the
Yahoo!
Shopping
Network.
You
see
that
there
is
200
or
so
Yahoo!
Stores
selling
a
product
with
the
keyword
“Tapestry”
in
it.
Not
bad….
Now
lets
head
on
over
to
Overture
to
figure
out
the
demand.
Using
the
Search
Term
Suggestion
Tool,
you
see
that
21,000
folks
used
the
word
“Tapestry”
in a
search
engine
last
month.
Holy
Cow!
Too
Good
to
be
true?
Let’s
look
some
more…
You
head
over
to
Word
Tracker
and
use
their
KEI
Tool
and
you
see
that:
There
are
over
476,000
competing
sites
and
the
KEI
is
only
2.7
( We
want
100
or
better)
for
the
word
“Tapestry”
Well,
that
really
awful.
So
you
decide
to
move
on…
WAIT!
Not
So
Fast!
Now
it’s
time
to
take
those
top
4
search
engines
and
do
some
real
sleuthing.
You
type
the
word
“Tapestry”
into
each
search
engine
and
look
at
the
result
for
the
first
4
pages
of
each.
What
did
you
find?
The
word
Tapestry
may
be
contained
on
half
a
million
web
sites,
but
guess
what?
In
the
16
pages
of
searching
on
Yahoo!,
Google,
MSN,
and
AOL,
there
are
2
web
sites
that
sell
ONLY
Tapestries.
There
were
3
more
General
Home
Décor
Stores
that
sell
2 or
3
types
of
Tapestries.
So,
lets
do
the
numbers:
Of
the
360
website
that
were
in
the
first
4
pages
of
the
4
search
engines
(20
sites
times
4
pages
times
4
Search
Engines),
there
were
5
web
sites
that
sold
that
product.
What
gives?
Why
such
a
bad
report
from
Word
Tracker?
Well,
there
is a
Musical
Group
called
“Tapestry”.
There
is
an
on-line
Chat
Forum
called
“Tapestry”,
there
is
the
History
of
“Tapestry”
making….
But
only
a
handful
of
Stores
Selling
Tapestries…
That’s
why
you
need
to
dig
deep
and
get
dirty
(Seriously
though,
this
might
take
you
an
hour…)
Please
Understand;
doing
this
kind
of
research
will
help
you
accomplish
many
things:
1)
Products
that
seem
too
good
to
be
true
can
actually
turn
out
to
be a
fantastic
selling
opportunity
if
you
focus
on a
very
particular
market
niche
2)
By
narrowing
your
market
even
further
(say,
Medieval
Tapestries)
you
can
reduce
your
competition
to a
greater
degree.
3)
Even
if
there’s
only
a
small
amount
of
competition
in
the
Yahoo!
Shopping
Network,
the
other
Internet
Shopping
Portals
can
be
hiding
hundreds
of
other
competitors.
Ask
yourself,
if
there
is
nobody
selling
it
with
a
Yahoo!
Store,
is
it
because
there
is
already
too
much
competition
elsewhere?
Okay,
one
last
little
competition
nugget.
Is
there
anybody
bidding
on
the
general
keyword
(On
Overture)
for
your
product?
Let’s
use
an
example
from
A
Squared
Armory…
Remember
how
we
bid
on
the
keyword
Narsil?
(That’s
the
“Sword”
from
Lord
of
the
Rings?)
At
the
time
of
the
writing
of
our
Book,
NO
ONE
was
bidding
on
that
keyword…
A t
first
we
thought
“Uh
Oh,
nobody
cares
enough
to
bid
on
it
so
it
must
not
be
selling
for
them…”
WRONG!
We
sell
about
$1,250
a
month
worth
of
that
“Sword”…
Here’s
what
we
did.
We
looked
to
see
how
much
money
people
were
spending
for
an
Un-Focused
or
Broad
Keyword,
like
“Sword”
Sure
enough,
bidders
were
driving
the
price
of
that
keyword
as
high
as
45
cents.
What’s
that
tell
you?
For
starters,
people
would
not
be
bidding
on a
keyword
consistently
unless
it
makes
them
money.
That
means
there
is a
market
for
that
product.
Two,
those
bidders
are
telling
you
something.
They’re
saying,
“Yes,
this
industry
is
worth
bidding
on
traffic
to
get
customers”
That
means
they
are
probably
making
money…
They
are
also
saying,
“We
have
no
idea
how
to
compete
in
the
niche
markets,
and
we
are
guessing
what
keywords
to
bid
on
and
we’re
going
to
try
to
get
as
much
general
traffic
as
we
can
by
bidding
on
the
broadest
term
possible…”
It’s
sad.
But
you
will
not
make
that
mistake!
Remember!
Little
Industries
(Fuzzy
Seat
Covers)
inside
of
Big
Industries
(Automotive
Accessories)
is
where
the
moneys
at!
You
need
to
get
the
educated
shopper!
Get
the
shopper
that
is
looking
for
a
product
that
has
an
adjective
in
front
of
it!!!
“Medieval
Tapestry”
“Roman
Tapestry”
“Religious
Tapestry”
“Battle
Ready
Sword”
“Sword
from
Lord
of
the
Rings”
“Cheap
Sword”
“Blue
Fiestaware”
“Rapid
Weight
loss”
“Low
Carbohydrate
Recopies”
“Steel
Toed
Work
Boots”
and
on
and
on…
***********************************
Let’s
wrap
this
all
up.
1)
Do
your
research
on a
broad
scale!
Check
the
major
shopping
portals
for
your
product
keywords
2)
Then
look
deep
into
the
SPECIFIC
products
(And
Keywords)
people
are
searching
for.
3)
Concentrate
on
Marketing
to
those
SPECIFIC
products
and
KEYWORDS
–
Model
Numbers
(Sony
STRDB
1040
Receiver),
Colors
(Purple
People
Eaters),
Genres
(Gothic
Tapestries),
etc.
4)
Spy
on
your
competition!!!
Remember,
Word
Tracker
and
Overture
DO
NOT
differentiate
Keywords
from
Store
Fronts.
That
information
needs
to
be
searched
by
hand,
by
you!
If
your
disappointed
or
elated
about
the
results
of
your
product
search
from
either
of
those
two
services
make
sure
you
dig
deeper,
find
out
whose
actually
SELLING
those
products!
You
might
be
surprised
to
find
that
a
market
is
ripe
for
the
plucking,
or
rotten
for
the
effort.
Shop
You
Soon!
Andy
and
Audrey
