VARIABLE #3: DEMAND
Demand is the secret sauce to the online visibility equation.
DEMAND (TIME + MONEY) = ONLINE VISIBILITY
In the not so distant past, the venerable web marketing guru Danny Sullivan commented at SES conference in Chicago that when it comes to web marketing “it is much easier to have the search engines pull your product or service....then trying to push it”. Just face it, some services or products are in more demand than others. And some industries are inherently more or less complicated. If you are trying to promote a website for general keywords related to mortgages, real estate, Viagra, etc you are likely going to have demand variable that is less than 1 ( < 1 ). This variable will unfortunately lower the return on your efforts involving TIME and MONEY. So for instance your product/service demand is 1% then your equation might look like something like this
($100000 x 200 hours of work) = ONLINE VISIBILITY RETURN
Not to be discouraging, but just realize that if you have a low demand service/product you will end up investing more time and money. You may also have to focus more a certain niche for these markets. For example, you may next to impossible for a newbie to get ranked on the first page of Google time getting ranked on the first page for "New York Real Estate". Considering your brutal competition your demand variable is going to be very low for this phrase. However if you try promoting our website for "Ashland New York Real Estate" (Ashland is a small city in NY state) your are much more likely to get higher returns and placement for this specific phrase.
Also don't forget to mention hot topics that are being noticed by the media/public. Have you found the cure for cancer? Did Oprah endorse your book/product? Do you have something special that none of your competitors can offer (and your customers truly want). If your answer is "yes" than your demand variable will increase exponentially. So the little money/time you devote to a high demand service/product will be significantly multiplied.
The tricky part about demand is that business owners often overestimate the true demand for their service or product. You need to seek unbiased information about popular your service/product is.
You also need to protect yourself against copycats, imitators and knock off artists. If you have a great idea make sure to file for a trademark/service mark immediately with the United States Patent and Trademark Office
So you may be saying to yourself “well I get your point....so now what?”. Well every situation is different. Our best advice is to accept the fact their are NO SHORTCUTS to success in web marketing. Stay optimistic because you will eventually get what you pay for. However watch out for charlatans/fly by night gimmicks that promise your website "a 100000 visitors for only $29.95". True SEOs understand the value of white hat optimization.