Good keyword phrases allow us to compete in the heavy-hitter niches without having to go head-to-head with the heavyweights. The big niches have a wide selection of affiliate programs, content, and even graphics that we can use to build our websites. When we narrow the niche through the use of keywords, we’re still part of the big pie, we’re just working on a smaller slice.

So how do you find gret keywords? Here are three ways:

“Free” Method

Do a search on Google for “keyword research” and study the results. It will take some time. It’s worth it.

Make notes. Paper is fine. A simple copy/paste to OneNote is my favorite method of taking notes, but Wordpad works, too.

Practice what you’ve learned. This is a case when reading isn’t enough. Run through several niches looking for keywords. Again, make notes. If you find several related keywords that all look good in a niche where you might be able to make money, you’ve identified a good project.

(Note the word “free” is in quotes. There’s no such thing as free – you’re trading time instead of money.)

Almost Free Method

Register for the Thirty Day Challenge.  As part of this free course you’ll get a free 45-day trial of Market Samurai along with all the instruction you’ll need to get up to speed with it.

Market Samurai is one of my top 2 choices of paid keyword research tools, so this option is a no-brainer in my book.

This year the Noble Samurai team has added quite a few new features, so MS is really more than a simple keyword tool.

Paid Method

Sign up for Micro Niche Finder.

MNF is my preferred keyword research tool, and as you learn about keyword research on the web, you’ll see that I’m not alone in this. One successful campaign/page/product will more than pay for MNF, so in my book it’s a must-have tool.

The paid tools like MNF and MS do basically the same things as the manual searches. Their results might be a little more accurate, but even if that weren’t the case, they do the searches in a fraction of the time (MNF tends to be quite a bit faster than MS). This is important when doing keyword research because the more phrases you’re able to search through, the more likely you are to find the real gems.

OK, so we know how, but why?

With proper keyword research and identification you’ll be able to more quickly pull in targeted traffic.

If you use this information when you register your domain, when you build your content, when you write your articles, and when you build your backlinks, you’ll rank more quickly for the keywords that have good traffic and less competition. This means you’ll see results sooner with less effort.

Often poor (or no) keyword research is the key difference between those who succeed in IM and those who struggle without any successes.

Another Promotion-Free Zone

I realize this point of view might not be popular, but it’s bothering me, so I’m throwing it out there.

Each year, Ed Dale makes a point of saying that the Thirty Day Challenge is a month free of all promotions. They use the month to teach, and the other 11 months to sell.

I’ve had no problem with the other 11 months because the teaching has really be excellent.

By the time this challenge is over, I might be just as pleased with the content. Honestly, I don’t even mind the promotion that’s going on. However, I think they’ve really hurt their credibility by pushing the ideas of “free” and “promotion-free” during the pre-season and early videos – especially considering the non-stop barrage of affiliate “trials” and offers they’re pushing at us.

While it is possible to do this year’s challenge without paying a dime, most of the attention, instruction and hype has been given to three paid solutions.

• First, there’s Market Samurai. From what we’ve used so far, it’s a great tool and well worth the eventual purchase price (supposedly $67 for 30DC members). To be fair, they did also have videos showing how to manually do everything that MS does, but there was a great deal of hype and excitement surrounding Market Samurai (again, I think the excitement is deserved, but it’s still promotion).
• Next, there was Hostgator. They’re making at least $125 per signup through their affiliate link. This isn’t just some little thing to help defray the costs of putting on the training. It was a soft-sell, but selling is selling.I wonder just how many 30DC’ers purchased this hosting. They offer a free solution, but there’s even promotion happening with that (see below).
• Finally (well… there’s still another 25 days to go), there is Wordpress Direct. For free, you get a 30 day trial, during which you can create 3 blogs – all hosted with WD.For $1 (for the first month), you can have 12 blogs, and will be billed at $37+ per month after that. The $1 is a no-brainer – except that many people will forget to cancel or won’t be able to figure out how to cancel, etc. All of today’s videos were about Wordpress Direct. Ed hyped this from before day one. How many times in the nightly shows did he hold up six fingers implying something great was coming on day six?I feel for the brand new people. They didn’t even show any other way of accomplishing today’s tasks.Wordpress Direct is basically a front end for Wordpress installations. They have a built-in template directory as well as a suite of pre-installed plug-ins. For a higher subscription ($197+), you will be able to use some auto-content features, but short of that, it’s just Wordpress.Any experienced Wordpress user could do every thing that WD is doing for us in this challenge. It’s a shame that they are pushing this solution (with a healthy recurring commission) without also teaching a truly free method of doing the same tasks.

I’m kind of embarrassed that I pointed people to this year’s Thirty Day Challenge. I made a big deal about the idea that they might sell to us after it was over, but this month was all about training. They’ve let me (us) down.

“There is no cost for awesomeness,” indeed.

Last year Ed Dale and crew taught some pretty cool tricks, and from what I’ve seen in the pre-season, this year promises even more of the same.

For example, all 30DC participants will get 40 days of access to MarketSamurai – although it’s still in closed beta, it looks to be a really cool and powerful tool.

This year’s challenge is to make $1 by the end of August. It seems pretty weak for a goal, but it’s something that anyone should easily attain if they stick with the program for the entire 30 days.