Does being the first person to a keyword help?

Hey,

The industry I work in has new products that come out at least once or twice a year. The rankings for the current products are quite stable and relatively hard to break into.

If I started planning to rank for product keywords before the products are released (and while they're pretty easy to rank for), would it have an impact on whether or not I stay in the top 10 for that keyword? My DR is fairly strong so there wouldn't be any issues in ranking for it early, I just want to know whether your history on a certain keyword impacts your ability to stay there?

Thanks!

This is called as launch jacking and it can be very profitable, yes.

Being there first will have an impact, however, if your competitors produce better optimized content or out-link you, you will get out ranked.

Yes it is

Yeah, it gives you a little boost of authority (on the topic) too because you were "talking about it before it was cool" but eventually you can get outranked (relatively quickly). But the point of it is the massive profit potential at the beginning even if it is short-term.