SE Ranking Heeeelp!

[ChadHamilton]

Hey everyone, my first post on your site here. I'm brand new to everything and haven't made any moves yet as I have'nt grasped the real potential of any of the domainers paths available.

I am mainly interested however (with my current knowledge) in developing sites and using affiliate links. I've done a lot of reading on seo and understand some of the fundementals (in theory), but I am having a hard time becoming convinced that a site I create will actually generate enough traffic to create an income.

I have found what I believe are some great available domain names which are in themselves good keywords though have'nt actually checked. (Ex. houseboatsales.com, wholesalechildrenswear.com, salesappraisal.com etc...

My questions:

1.) How would these sites if developed compete in search engines with all the others trying to rank on those exact words? I know using seo principles like all the rest, however I'm far from an seo wiz so, does having the exact search terms as my actual address put me at some overwhelming ranking advantage over the others?

2.) If not, which I suspect, HOW DO I optimize and from where should I try to get traffic from? Accidental type-ins to the address bar? I haven't tried with houseboatsales.com, but I have typed a couple search terms into the address bar and never came to a site with those exact terms as it's domain name. Mostly they were only half relevent to the terms.

I know this forum is FULL of info and links to sites where I can learn optimization. I am perfectly willing to do my homework, I'm just a little confuse about the real possibilities and how to go about all this strategically speaking.

Any imput, advise, or direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[bentong]

keyword in url is really an advantage. basically, you will rank on the top spot if you search for your actual site address..

Here are some forums wherein you can learn more about seo..
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/
http://www.webmasterworld.com/

 

[ChadHamilton]

Thanks alot bentong, it's nice to know some of you are willing to read and answer some of the dumb questions from us newbies. Worst for me I'm new to web design, optimization, domaining, and all their many sub-catagories of much needed information. I've been reading for a week now and like with most things, the more I do know, the more I realize how much I don't know. I've never even puchased a domain name much less built and developed a site, but my interest is very high so I'll keep on reading till I feel confident I want to buy a particular domain for a reason I understand.

I see many names available which seem as if they would generate type-ins or buy-offs but the fact that they are being dropped without any bids tells me I'm still much a novice in my thinking. Ex... salesathome.com
campgearsales.com
knifewholesaler.com
houseboatsales.com

So,...still yet, many ??????????????????????????????????????????????'s. Thanks again.