The idea behind keyword sniping is to look for keyword phrases of three or more words which are relevant to the product being sold. These phrases are known as “long tail keywords”.

Many people also misunderstand what is meant by the term “long tail keywords”. They are not simply keyword phrases that are long. The term is based on a graph of phrase popularity versus search volume.

Imagine a graph where low-to-high search volume is on the vertical scale and high-to-low phrase popularity is on the horizontal scale. On such a graph you’ll see that the most basic and popular one or two word keyword phrases have high popularity and high search volume (and TREMENDOUS competition). But the longer and more specific keyword phrases tend to have much lower popularity and much lower search volume (and much less competition).

Take the phrase “weight loss” as an example. It would be impossible to achieve page one status on Google with this phrase because it has 347 million competitors. If you lengthen the phrase, however, the competition goes down dramatically. For example, the phrase “weight loss after pregnancy” has 43,600 competitors as of this date. Moving further down the scale, there are only 8 competitors for the phrase “weight loss programs after pregnancy”.

If you recall the graph we talked about earlier, you would see a “suicide ski jump” type curve. It would start at the top left with the broad one or two word phrases and continue steeply downward as we go through the longer, narrower, more specific keyword phrases.

It’s the position of these narrow, specific phrases on the “long tail” of our imaginary graph that gives them their name. They are essential to making money quick on the Internet, because they are very numerous, and they each have very small competition.

It’s also true that each one has very little search volume. But if you string enough of them together in an article marketing campaign, you stand a good chance of ranking on the first page of Google for several of them. Add the combined small search volumes together for each of these long tail keywords, and you can get fairly decent traffic.

That’s the theory. Does it work? This is where instinct, intuition and experience each play a role. It is also where most people misunderstand which phrases to target.

You must understand that unless your phrase appears on the first page of Google – preferably above the fold – you will get ZERO traffic. In this regard, just calculating search volume versus competition isn’t enough. You also have to study the top ten competitors for each of your long tail phrases. For example, if each of the top ten has a Google PR of 4 or better and many high quality backlinks, you will find it very hard to get on that first page.

Those who are experienced in “keyword targeting” are able to do this. They can pick out the phrases that have a good balance of competition versus search volume, yet can compete for a slot in the top ten.

How do you do that? In a future article I will address some of the tools and parameters that successful keyword snipers use.

Learn more about KEYWORD SNIPING. Stop by David Hirsch’s site at www.MakeMoneyWithComputer.org where you can find out all about THE GOOGLE SNIPER PHENOMENON and what it can do for you.