When I started my career in internet marketing there were people all over the place talking about "long tail keywords".  I always got this picture in my mind of an animal with a really long tail.  Then I read this book by Chris Anderson called "The Long Tail", and the concepts just clicked into place for me. 

Long tail keywords are more than just long phrases.

Let’s take a look at what wikipedia has to say about the long tail.

The phrase The Long Tail (as a proper noun with capitalized letters) was first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article^[1] to describe the niche strategy of businesses, such as Amazon.com or Netflix, that sell a large number of unique items, each in relatively small quantities. (emphasis mine).

A long tail keyword then is simply any keyword that is specific to the long tail itself.  For example, A business like Netflix rents plenty of blockbuster hits, but its core business is in the long tail.  They have a huge catalog of old movies, and these old movies make up 80% of their business.  So, "The Goonies" may only get rented a handful of times in a month, but if you add that up with 10s of 1,000s of other titles that people may rent only once or twice, you suddenly have a rental empire.  Then in this example a long tail keyword would be something like "Gene Wilder’s Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory".

How to profit from long tail keywords.

Google loves what they call relevancy, and they reward it.  There are 1000s of searches every month for specific product types and solutions to specific problems.  However, a lot of businesses are set up  to take advantage of more generic search terms.  This gives you a great opportunity as an affiliate marketer targeting niche markets to profit.

I’m not going to get into a lengthy discussion about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) here, but when you focus a specific page in your website on a longterm keyword, it will begin to show up in the natural search listings for that keyword.  Then when someone types in "Gene Wilder’s Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory" your page will show up in the search engines.  Then if you have an affiliate link say to Amazon for the movie, you will make a commision every time someone clicks on your link.

Long tail keywords can be very lucrative if you utilize them correctly.

To your affiliate niche marketing success!

Heather

P.S. I learned niche affiliate marketing at Wealthy Affiliate University.  It’s the best place to get the skills you need to succeed IMO.  When you get there look me up, my name in the forums is HnoelH.

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