A few years ago the process of keyword research was very time consuming and frustrating, requiring a lot of various tools and patience. Thanks to Market Samurai, keyword research can be done in minutes instead of taking hours. In this blog post we are going to look at another Market Samurai video. In the video Anthony discusses:

• Understanding the keyword research process
• The Four Golden Rules of keyword research
• How to use Market Samurai to generate a list of relevant keywords

httpv://youtu.be/qNatH5hBiqw

I love Anthony’s analogy of keyword research being like panning for gold, with gold nuggets being profitable keywords. The process of keyword research is very similar. Hopefully, you’ll know that niches aren’t really “chosen”, but discovered with both a combination of niche and keyword research. A profitable niche can be defined as an unfulfilled need usually driven by pain or irrational desire.

As Anthony describes in the video you begin by selecting a niche to explore which is the equivalent of choosing a river to prospect. You then generate a large number of keywords relating to your niche which is like scooping up a collection of rocks, dirt and sand. Then you can use a tool such as Market Samurai to filter out the good keywords from the bad. At the end of this process you will hopefully be left with a few ‘gold nugget’ keywords.

What makes a keyword profitable?

The best way to answer this question is to look at the four golden rules for identifying profitable keywords developed by the Market Samurai team.

The four Golden Rules are:

Relevance – profitable keywords must be highly relevant to the content on your website.

Traffic – they have good levels of targeted traffic.

Competition – they have acceptable levels of competition. Competition is a good thing, but you want to know that you’ll be able to reach top page ranking of Google.

Commerciality – they have a high level of commerciality. Remember, you are in this to make money.

Go and grab your free trial of Market Samurai now.

Today, I was going to spend the afternoon recording a review video of Market Samurai. Then, I started thinking it would really be better to have the creators of Market Samurai explain how their niche research software works and how it can benefit you. So I have decided to promote a series of Market Samurai videos on my blog. In this post we will look at an introduction to keyword research video.

The video is titled “Understanding Keyword Research” and looks at  concepts such as

• Understanding what online markets really are
• Understanding niches and how they relate to markets
• Understanding the role of keywords and why they are so important

httpv://youtu.be/5LaCuxui5kw

The biggest takeaway is this: ‘It takes the same amount of time and effort to build an unsuccessful online business as it does to build a successful business’.

The key factors that determine whether you succeed or fail online are:

(1) The niche market you select or discover
(2) The keyword phrases you target

It is essential  that you get both of these right. If you do, your online business will have the potential to produce an income stream that can completely transform your life. Likewise, if you get one or both of these factors wrong, you’ll probably become one of the many people who make little or no income online.

Anthony hits the nail on the head when he explains that the main reason people fail is that they do not spend the time up front to do the market research necessary to check if their business idea is viable. Most would-be Internet markers rush in, select a niche that appeals to them ( and not to a market), do little or no  keyword research and expect money to roll in once they have a product made and a site up. This is failure in the making.

To succeed online you need to research markets carefully and they identify profitable niches before you make any product creation decisions. Making money online can be easy if you target specific keywords in a profitable niche and follow a proven plan.

To learn more from Anthony or to take a 12 day trail of the software visit the Market Samurai Dojo.

Here are 6 money lessons Leo Babauta, my favourite blogger of Zen Habits, wrote for his teenage daughter (before she went off to college)  that I think everyone should learn and practice. Leo has found that living mindfully means not just partying in the moment, but taking care of things now, when they’re small, rather than when they’re huge. I tend to agree.

Let’s jump in and see how we can manage our finances better.

1. Spend less than you earn. OK, this is almost the only lesson you need, but it’s so important I’m going to break it down further. The biggest reason people get into financial problems is they spend money they don’t really have. Then you end up in the hole, and it’s hard to get out of the hole, and you work crazy hours to keep up with your spending, and you end up with a life that’s about nothing but trying to pay for all the spending on crap you don’t really need.So spend less, work less, worry less, be happier.

2. Don’t get into debt. If you spend less than you earn, you won’t be in debt, obviously. It’s easy, though, to get a student credit card and put things on there if you don’t have the money right now. You can pay for it next week when you get your check, right? That’s a slippery slope. Student loans are another tool for getting over your head in debt. They’re not the worst debt if you’re paying for a degree that’s going to earn a lot of money, but most of us English majors aren’t going to get an $80K per year job and shouldn’t take out $80K in student loans.

3. Savings is your first bill to pay. If you spend less than you earn, save the rest. Make the savings an automatic payment that happens every payday, and make it the first and most important bill you pay. Not optional. You’ll be glad as the savings grows, and especially when emergencies come up.

4. If you don’t have the money, go without. This is a lesson most people (young or old) forget. You don’t actually need a car, so if you can’t afford to pay cash, don’t get a loan. You don’t need nice clothes, or a smart phone, or a fancy laptop or iPad or Kindle, you don’t need to go to nice restaurants or the movies or bars. If you don’t have the money, find free ways to have fun or get things done you need to get done.

5. Make a very very simple budget. It’s a scary thing for people who’ve never done a budget, but it’s not hard. List your income, then list your bills (and savings). If the bills add up to more than the income, eliminate some bills. Use a simple spreadsheet to do the adding for you. This helps you to know what’s coming in and going out.

6. Pay bills right away. If you have the money, pay the bill as soon as it comes in. You can usually do this online, but if not, it’s just a matter of writing a check, putting it in an envelope, and writing out an address — two minutes. Do this two-minute action immediately, so you don’t have to worry about it later. If you let the bill-paying get pushed back, it becomes a dreaded thing, and your bills start to become overdue, and then it’s much worse.That’s all you need to know.

- Lea Babauta, Zen Habits

The domain name you choose for your website is very important. It is one of the first decisions you’ll make about your online business, and it will be the name your customers associate with your website, business and products or services. The name you eventually choose and register will depend on the type of site you wish to create.

With niche sites the idea is to choose a name that is or contains your most import keyword – a keyword that people search that is not too competitive. Ideally, you want to get an exact match domain. For example, one of my sites targets the Japanese language niche. My target keyword for the site was “Speak Japanese Fluently”. Luckily, I was able to get SpeakJapaneseFluently.com. This is an exact match domain name. On this site I sell an intermediate Japanese language learning program which I decided to name “Speak Japanese Fluently” as well. So I branded both my site and product with a relevant keyword phrase. Currently, my site ranks number 1 on Google for the keyword phrase “Speak Japanese Fluently”. As you have probably guessed having a keyword as a domain name will help with the ranking on Google of your site for that keyword.

Unfortunately, in most cases you will find that exact match keyword .com domains  are very difficult to come by. If you find that the .com of your keyword is taken, see if .org or .net are available. Other than these three, .com, .org and .net, I wouldn’t use any other domain name suffixes.

If you can’t find an exact match domain name with .com, .org or .net then there are a number of things you can consider. You could add a modifier such as a letter. For example, if SpeakJapaneseFluently.com had been taken I could have choosen something like ispeakjapanesefluently.com or speakJapanesefluentlyx.com. It is important to note that while an exact match domain name with a modifier is search engine friendly it won’t always be user/visitor friendly. Remember, you are building your website and business for people, so you should find a balance between the SEO benefit of a keyword or keyword phrase in the domain and how people will interpret the domain name. Instead of a modifier, I recommend you add a relevant word to the domain name

For example this site’s main target keyword is niche marketing. I was unable to get this as a domain name. So I decided on “PrimeNicheMarketing.com” As this site is about helping people find one lucrative niche I feel the domain make sense and appeals to visitors as well as having some SEO value

If you are wanting to build a large site or a blog then you need to be a lttile more creative, but still include your target keyword. Your domain name should really spell out what your site, blog or business is about, but also be unique to make it easy to remember.

Here are some great domain names that are easy to remember:

http://www.problogger.net –  a site about blogging by a professional blogger.

http://www.zenhabits.net – a blog about about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of life.

http://www.searchengineguide.com – Latest news and tips on SEO

Domain Tips

• Consider your target audience when deciding on a domain name. Depending on your target market this could mean choosing names that sound professional, cool, current, active, cute and so on.
• Try to limit your domain name to three words. If you keep it short it will be easy to remember and type into a browser.
• Use pluralization when appropriate.  For example, container homes.com would better than containerhome.com for a blog about the environmental benefits of using shipping containers for building homes..
• Avoid using hyphens For example, http://www.pet-guinea-pig-care.com (one of my sites) doesn’t look very trustworthy does it?
• Avoid trademark names. You could find  yourself in some legal trouble.  It is also bad karma to
• Once you have decided on a domain name register it (buy it) as soon as possible
• Consider registering both .com and .net suffixes
• Get a second and third and forth opinion on your domain name. The idea you have may make sense to you, but not to everyone else
• Make an offer for a domain name you want. In most cases you are going to find the domain you want will already be take. However, there is nothing stopping you from making an offer to the owner of a domain.
• Avoid using words that are difficult to spell in your domain.
• Don’t choose domain names with words that join to form unintentional words such as “PenIsland.net” which can read “PenisLand.net”