Probably the single biggest mistake I see new marketers make online is attempting to target too broad of market. The concept of "niche" is not well defined in their mind. There marketing perspective is based upon their experiences with respect to the television, radio, and newspaper advertising they have been exposed to.
Online marketing is different. Not only is it cost effective to target extremely small niches, it is usually the ONLY way an inexperienced marketer can begin getting at least some traction online. Paying for traffic is usually not an option, nor advised, in the beginning marketer's new career. Therefore, search engine traffic is the most attractive option.
Nothing in past marketing history compares with the targeting ability of search engine marketing. Now days we can focus on and offer searchers EXACTLY what they are looking for...down to the very exact phrase they have in their mind.
Talk about targeted marketing!
However, in nearly all cases, beginners subject themselves to impossible levels of competition by choosing areas far too broad. I always like to remind them that it is far better to have a small piece of a small pie than zero from a large one. And that is what they usually get when attempting too large of area; there is no such thing as a "trickle down theory" in this regard.
No matter what level you are right now, if getting traffic to you site is an issue, give your marketing method an honest evaluation. Are you attempting to go to broad? If I had to bet, I'd say that answer is "yes" over half the time.
A strategy I often use is to look at my Google analytics for a given site and take notice of the many "one search" keywords searchers used to find the site with. For example, Cactus Canyon had over 1000 visits last month with keywords that were only used once by one visitor. (This is normal for all sites with plenty of content.)
I usually find a few gems of information in that list. Often there are patterns of keywords I can see which lead me to ideas of how to further narrow my marketing with new optimized content.
Always remember, all things being equal, it is MUCH easier to gain 1000 page views of new traffic via low traffic and low competition long tail keywords than it is to try and target larger and more popular ones. I can't emphasize that enough.
You might have heard me describe before the guy who makes four to five thousand dollars per month selling plans for building houses out of straw bales. NEVER under estimate the power of micro niche marketing!
