Frank Donnelly › Comments

Hello fellow strugglers, I'm also trying to work out a niche. I have two ideas - photography and business/life coaching. Are these too broad for this exercise? - Anfernee C

Anfernee, I looked at the coaching niche early on, weren't enough searches to make it worth it. But you might find different... - Isha (Marysia)

Thanks Marysia. Yes, I'm looking at other niches now. - Anfernee C

I'm looking in renewable energy, - Frank Donnelly

That's my understanding of it Frank. Actually other way around. Best keyword can be a niche. - Russ

Your best keyword should be your niche as the keyword phrase comes first .... if you are interested in a niche but can not find the right keyword phrase then you need to move on - Mark South

Probably... Just depends on the niche. You wouldn't use automobiles as your main keyword for a niche... You would use cars. So be wise with this. - Luke Martin from twhirl

I want to drive traffic to an online store that sells ebooks on online marketing. - Frank Donnelly

There are two ways to go about it. One, which I consider a bad option, is just to lead your traffic to your eStore home page. The other one, which might work a lot better, is to point your traffic to an specific product within your eStore. Consider it as selling your products instead of the affiliate product. You can do the rest of the 30dc the same way - Jorge Blanco

Why is it the perfect time? - Frank Donnelly

Business is booming here, but I am in network marketing so it's a different field to most of you guys. - Greg Martin

Has anyone ever tried dropshipping? - Frank Donnelly

Very low initial outlay, people are shopping more online, lots of good quality free or cheap coaching. - Pearson Brown

Frank check out the article by Howie Schwartz in (StomperNet's) The Net Affect titled "Quit Your Job! Why Regular Jobs are No Longer Safe". Now is as good a time as ever. - James Purefoy

Flower Farm, Mandalong, NSW Australia (don't mention the cricket!) - Kim Baillie

Gold Coast Australia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Greg Martin

East London, UK - Andy Roberts

Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia - where all that great RUM is made!! - Sharon Fleming from twhirl

Plymouth, UK, where the best gin in the world is made ;-) - Lisa

Vancouver, Canada. Land of fruits and nuts! - Glenn Palmer

All these fabulous foods and drinks - Kettering is the home of Weetabix! Ha. - san

Killaloe, Co. Clare, Ireland - Frank Donnelly

Middletown, NJ USA - uhhh, famous for ummmm, ummmm, thinking.....okay oh yea - Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi - we make great rock n roll LOL! - Elizabeth

I love Gin, I love Gin. It wasn't Plymouth Gin tonight, but work paid so it was sweet! Middletown is the city of ROCK! How can you umm about that!! - san

Waterloo, Belgium. Where Napoleon Lost his Empire. - Juan Pablo

Merthyr in Wales! - Catherine

Well if we're playing "home of" games I'm here to win! London, home to the centre of the universe! (and my little bit of London - Hackney - home of erm... hackney-cabs) - Isha (Marysia)

I'm not following you (sorry), but I'll play: Portland, Oregon, home of most excellent microbrewed beer, Everclear (a band), Bill Plympton and Will Vinton (great but strange animators)! - LJF Wolffe

I should probably add that Plymouth's lesser claim to fame is sailing point for the Pilgrims and home to the Mayflower Steps - Lisa

Hackney Carriages - did you know that technically they should all carry a bale of hay in the boot? It's an old English law, but true! - san

That looks like another fabuloso plugin Mark. You are a mine of generosity - thanks! - Isha (Marysia)

Yes it looks great, does it tell you how to manage affiliate links which has a lot of html code linking you to various affiliates, I presume you need more than just the url of the banner? - Frank Donnelly

I tried to use the Minimal theme that seems to have extra areas for ads but I couldn't find how to access them so had to dump it http://demo5.theme4wordpress.com/... The words you see in the Adsense and Sponsor boxes show in the published blog. Shame, because it's a nice-looking theme. Perhaps someone will come along and tell us how to use it... - Isha (Marysia)

For affiliate links there is MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate http://www.mbpninjaaffiliate.com/ - its a plugin you have to buy however, or there is the free wordpress one WP Affiliate http://www.seoadventures.com/wp-affi... - Mark McGimpsey

For Minimal - If I don't miss my guess there will be a series of files something like 250x250.php in the theme accessed through the Theme Editor which you will have to manually cut and paste your code to. Each file will be for one add slot. - Mark McGimpsey

Thanks Mark - thought it'd be something like that. I'll leave it till I have more experience - this is a pretty heavy learning curve already for me - Isha (Marysia)

I was looking at that theme last night, pity about those words staying in the box. So basically we can only use the spaces provided on the WPD themes? - Frank Donnelly

Unless you feel confident about using the plugins that Mark has recommended. - Isha (Marysia)

I did miss my guess - I just downloaded Minimal for a look. The sidebar.php files have a place for you to add the link and for the images you would have to substitute (images folder) with your own. This would be a manual undertaking it seems and perhaps not quite doable for a new person. - Mark McGimpsey

Thanks for that info Mark. - Isha (Marysia)

Thanks Mark, I will go through the themes again to see if there is a generic type theme. - Frank Donnelly

I don't have a free account, but if this is a limit on the posts via the WPD interface, then you just revert to the normal WP Admin dashboard and post from there. - Mark McGimpsey

WP Admin is better anyway. The WPD dashboard is too limited generally. The only thing I really like on it is the %IMAGE% way of embedding pics and even that isn't strictly necessary. - Glenn Palmer

I've moved to Word Press too, its much better than WPD and its quite easy to use - Catherine

Personally 9 times out of 10, I use the Admin dashboard myself simply because of other plugins such as Photodropper and Zemanta appear in the 'write post editor', and you can save as a draft which you can't yet do from the WordPress Direct dashboard. As an initial install though, WPD is superb. - Mark McGimpsey

Initial setup of wordpress is a snap. The tough part is figuring out things like which plug-ins to use and difficulties with themes. - Glenn Palmer

Try creating your blog at wordpress.com and not Wordpress Direct, you will get full options then. You will get alot less plugins though... But it is well worth the effort. - Luke Martin from twhirl

I thought you couldn't market on wordpress.com . . . am I wrong (again)? - LJF Wolffe

I disagree Luke. Use WordPress Direct for the install. If you don't you just throw away all the advantages of the optimised SEO install. If you don't like the theme then chose another. If you go outside of the WPD themes then you take the chance that a security issue with the theme may stop some of the WPD software from working. What you are saying here Luke is contrary to the #30DC teaching and would not be in a new persons interests. Sorry to be blunt. - Mark McGimpsey

For a total newbie WPD is best for sure. More experienced people could simply copy the plug-ins directory from the WPD install to the new setup. I'm not aware of any security problems caused by themes. - Glenn Palmer

Sorry I should have made that clearer. I was referring to some themes that are not widget enabled, and I think (I may be wrong) that the WPD themes have extra .php pages for the sidebar setup. Also the WPD themes are pre-configured for example in the permalinks which I think isn't in a standard install. Ed Dale didn't advise using WPD for any other reason than he believes it to be the best initial install available. - Mark McGimpsey

This is a bit like getting an exclusive recipe for a great cake, then making it a mediocre one by thinking you can improve on it. I don't know more than Ed Dale, Dan Raine, and Bob Sommerville, so why try to do it differently? - Mark McGimpsey

By the sound of it, WPD is the worst tool that you could use... 25 posts, that's a histerically low amount of posts that you can use... I wouldn't use it if you paid me. I would start recommending it if they took of the 25 post limit for free users. - Luke Martin from twhirl

Thats only 25 posts through the WPD interface - it doesn't stop you posting as normal through the WP Admin dashboard. - Mark McGimpsey

Ed and the rest at 30dc are the best! My point was simply that a more experienced person could duplicate the SEO in a standard WP install to get around some WPD limits. That is all. Don't intend to flame or criticize anyone and therefore abandon this thread. - Glenn Palmer

There are so many ways to use WPD - remember its a install system - you can use it to set-up and then use other tools to manage - which is really cool. Once you get experienced - i would get someone to design up my own theme - but thats way down the track - Ed Dale

I had never used WordPress before 30 Day Challenge in August. I could not imagine trying to learn all of that in addition to EVERYTHING that they are trying to teach you. Now that I have set up several blogs...I STILL use it for the install ease and all my blog being under one "roof." It is well worth the price of my membership to not have to bother with knowing all that other... more... - Wendy Merritt from twhirl

It is an easy way to be introduced to wordpress, but basically you are giving them access to your server. Every single plug in is available, along with tutorials on the plug ins. Personally, I do not like the way some of them worked anyways. They are going to change their business structure based on a blog comment. Yeh right. It's an attempt to force free users to upgrade. Paid users will leave shortly once they learn how easy it is to upload your own widgets. - Brian McClure

Well, yes of course Brian. How else would the software do the automatic install? I'm not exactly a newbie with installing blogs, and yes, I have used Fantastico (which was and still is a great tool), but WPD is better. Also yes, I add more plugins, but that's the whole idea - you have what you need to get going and the rest you can add to your own taste. No, I don't agree paid users will leave for the reason you give, but they might once they get all the blogs they want up and running with content. - Mark McGimpsey

Interestingly this thread is turning into a smaller version of the one over on Mashable. - Mark McGimpsey

Is this 25 post limit a limit on the blog, or just a limit on the auto posting software? I definately have over 30 posts on my blog, but some were posted from the wordpress backend. - Riaan from twhirl

Just on the WPDirect program. - Mark McGimpsey

I'm a newbie and was wondering would I be better off using blogger rather than WPD, that 25 post limit is a pain, as I don't want to spend money unless I make money and it might take more thn 25 posts. Can you have banners adds on wordpress.com. - Frank Donnelly

I've be looking for a theme on renewable energy but can't find one, can you change the picture on particular themes or would it be easier to go with a theme with no pictures? - Frank Donnelly

It's easy to change the header pictures. Just crop one to the exact same size, name it the same as the header in the images (or img) file and overwrite the original by FTPing it into the folder. - Mark McGimpsey

I'm not a teckie so I might continue looking through the themes. - Frank Donnelly

yea someone hurt their feelings so they turned it into an excuse to begin charging all the freebies. Silver membership is more expensive too. - Russ

So is it free for one blog, because at this stage all I want is a free blogging platform, I got some email about some negative press they got. - Frank Donnelly

I don't have a business, but I'm interested in home improvement and reducing energy costs, so I'm looking for related long tail keywords for this. - Frank Donnelly

That sounds like a market to be in right now -- lots of people will be looking for this info. Sounds like a good idea! - LJF Wolffe

Perhaps the question should be, how can I use Searches and seot to my benefit? And to answer that question... you can gain more information on searches and seot in the little black book :-) - Mark South

OCI is working fine for me, it takes a while, that is why in the 30DC they explain how to reduce the number of keywords way down before you want to get the OCI http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/members... - Mark South

It also helps if you do it one step at a time, i.e tick one box, get the data, tick the next, get the data etc. Ticking too many boxes in one go can cause Google to freeze the data flow..depending on the amount of keywords as Mark has already said. - Mark McGimpsey

Is OCI important in keyword analysis, as it hasn't work all week for me. - Frank Donnelly

You can use Market Samurai free for 40 days and see what you think Frank. I should think that its price will keep going up: http://www.marketsamurai.com/ - Isha (Marysia)

Frank, in the 80's we had an expression.... "read the book" Your questions seem to be pretty good ones... but most are answered in the 30dc... it works if you work it.. MS is discussed in the pre-training. I have read one of your articles it is pretty good content from what I see... little concerning that you are teaching SEO:-)... but to each his own - Mark South

Is it possible to go into huge business like weight loss with a good long tailed keyword, if so then is shouldn't matter what size the niche you going into as long as the keyword is a good one and the numbers add up. - Frank Donnelly

It is all relative, with a huge market, even a long tail keyword might get enough attention for you to consider marketing it under the 30DC way. I consider it a great strategy, gather enough long tail keywords in a niche or mega niche and you can start building a tribe around it. - Jorge Blanco

Keywords = Niche - Frank Donnelly

Hi Frank - good question, as I went through the 30 day challenge I was not impresses with the "the team EXPLAINING the WHY'S of picking a micro niche" they do say how to... but yesterday I read "The Niche Marketing Black Book": which you get when you download MS. My eyes are now wide open.... I wish that book had been promoted more heavily in the early days of 30DC. After looking at it, let me know if you agree - Mark South

Common sense and traditional research is something most SEMs don't teach you. There's a lot more to it that keywords and number of results. That is a very small part. A Keyword does not equal niche - a niche is made up of millions of keywords, hence why you can't rely on just keyword research. - Chris

Keywords = Microniche. Watch the tutorials carefully, read the pdfs: download the pdfs by right-clicking the T on the right of the video title. Eg to the right of the "Keyword Research" link here: http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/members... - Isha (Marysia)

Hi Mark have you the link to "The Niche Marketing Black Book", I had it but it seems to have disappeared, thanks - Frank Donnelly

Frank, the page link in the URL says that I got it for filling out a survey(I don't recall), I would not want to publicly release that URL that might keep others from taking the survey, the reason they offer it... I received an email with the link 15 minutes after my MS Download email if that will help you find the info in your email account - Mark South

I agree on the previous comment about the themes, they have created a few problems - Darshana Makavita

Yes, most of them don't even work and you have to scroll through (and test) hundreds of them to find one that does. I am not bashing the program, I think it is a great idea and it launches wordpress blogs lightning fast -- however, if they have that many paid subscribers, I would expect some improvements to the software plus more features. I haven't seen any new features and most of the content modules don't work -- but I could be wrong. - Kelly Johns

I'm hopefully going find a microniche this week and going to try wordpress direct the free version, can anyone tell what themes they have used without problems, as this will save a lot of time,thanks. - Frank Donnelly

What sort of problems are you having? I have several themes in use, (granted I tweaked the graphics), but any issues such as duplicate widgets in the sidebar were quickly fixed by support mostly within 24 hours. I'm using Cosmo, Calm-breeze, Holidaez, and Gardener. You can see cosmo here: http://www.ultimatehealthandfitness.com also at http://www.healthyfoodsandeatinghealthy.com (both tweaked). These are old blogs re-themed with WPD. - Mark McGimpsey

The gardener theme I used to make a site yesterday for a local firm in Northern Ireland: http://www.flowerpotgardenersbelfast.com - Mark McGimpsey

Great question Frank. Rambling Soul 3 is working well for me, but it's a bit girly. Also, there's one thing to really be aware of - this one is only 2 columns wide and the text column has a fluid width (as opposed to a fixed width). I thought at first that would be good, but it ain't, because the lines of text are so e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y long that they have to be artificially shortened. So I'd recommend a 3-column theme if you can find a good one that fits your topic, or a 2-column theme with fixed width. - Isha (Marysia)

I've just suggested in the WPD forum that they start a sticky thread on themes that work, and themes that are broken http://forum.wordpressdirect.com/forumdi... - Isha (Marysia)

Hey Mark, great job on those sites, they look great. Some of the themes work great, others don't and you only really find out after you have been using the theme for awhile...my gripe is that every time I login to WPD to manage my blogs, I have to submit a ticket for something. They are WAY better now at helping out, but still, with 10,000 paid users, I would think a lot of these bugs would be sorted out, not to mention the interface has usability issues, especially if you are trying to manage 20+ blogs. - Kelly Johns

Themes that have worked for me are Wave Surfers 1.0, Blue Ace 1.0, WP Beautiful World, and Vintage Style. - Kelly Johns

Thanks Kelly. Everyone who blogs should if possible at least change their header graphic to something their own. All you have to do is keep to the same size, use exactly the same name and just replace it. (Found in the img or images folder in wp-content/themes/yourtheme/). - Mark McGimpsey

Yes I agree, that is a good idea especially when using these types of templates good tip. Question for you Mark, how long have you been using WPD and have you ever seen any noticeable upgrades to the system? - Kelly Johns

Since September. There have been requests for features to be added and to the best of my knowledge these are being worked on. The system only returns what is available (including poor quality home made videos people have put up on YouTube), so never auto post. You need to spend a bit of time and check what is being pulled in. I guess this is what people mean by it not working. You can spend easily an hour sorting through rubbish. - Mark McGimpsey

Turns out that the figures are 10,000 total users, 1000 paid users. See Marty Rozmanith's first comment here: http://mashable.com/2008... - Isha (Marysia)

Not to shabby when you realise the basic membership fee per month is around $97 if I remember correctly - (and I'm a paid member too lol). - Mark McGimpsey

I'm paying a helluvalot less than that, as someone who bought early. I think $37 - Isha (Marysia)

When was it that cheap? - Jorge Blanco

I bought on 1st September. - Isha (Marysia)

Just remembered - I think I was the last person to grab it at that special 30dc offer price - silver membership. - Isha (Marysia)

With mentions all over the web, ie TechCrunch, it could be 10k paid users. - ZoekmachineGuru

No, it's 1000 paid users. It's in WPD's email to us of No 23rd. And also in that mashable comment of Marty's. - Isha (Marysia)

In regards to word presssdirect themes I found the best thing to do is just pick a theme any theme then when it is all set up just ftp your preferred theme very simple and quick - Russell James

James, when you do that does it pull in all the WPD add-ons & SEO stuff? - Isha (Marysia)

Very little, couple $. Only spent on Mkt Samourai, but improving over the last few days - eMarketing Hubs - nat014

What kind of niches have ye gone into? - Frank Donnelly

Its a biz opp niche, but aren't all niches from clickbank and amazon affiliate systems. - Frank Donnelly

Frank, I recommend you go through the early 30dc videos or pdfs again, because they explain very clearly what a niche and microniche are. There really is no short-cut way to avoid studying the training material - honest. - Isha (Marysia)

Recurring income is a great idea, lots of IMers recommend it -- but there are lots of them for all sorts of niches. I think the concern here is putting the product before the market, instead of finding a 'hungry mob' and then finding stuff to sell them . . . - LJF Wolffe

Yes - a product isn't a niche. - Isha (Marysia)

Hmmm, I have not heard of paying a fee to get commissions. Please provide more information if you should run across such an offer. I run several eBay related niche websites that pay monthly commissions. There is no fee per se but of course there is a one-time charge for the software and a monthly fee for the hosting service. Check out http://www.lisyseng.com if you are interested in investigating this further. - Gary Utz

I believe he's talking about sites/clubs with a monthly fee -- his customers join the club, and he gets a percentage for as long as they pay. No fees for him involved. Am I right, Frank? - LJF Wolffe

I believe you would be talking *membership sites* A lot of niches can have a membership program.If you as an affiliate refer/send visitors to the site and they sign up as a member, you receive a commission/percent of the payment that person pays each month as long as they stay a member - Ron"micronet"Harwood

What kind of niche do you have? finding it difficult to find one. - Frank Donnelly

military transitions, resumes, etc. If you find it difficult...you need Markt Sam! - kathy malone

You have a few niches so? - Frank Donnelly

I have several niches....my niches have niches.....I usually start by listening to people and discovering what hurts their head, then ask myself how I can provide a solution for them. - kathy malone

IMHO ... you dont have to start an "expert" but you do need to set your goals to become one. Lets take Ed as a classic example ... if he was not perceived as an "expert" do you think so many people would be doing the 30Dc. Lets say he was a self-declared "newbie" ... How would that have effected your mind set prior to joining? However, I prefer to exchange the term "expert" for authority. - micmol

I seem to remember Ed using his own website as an example at some point. The niche was wedding centerpieces. Now, I'm just guessing but I think that Ed is probably not an expert in wedding centerpieces but chose it because the numbers were good and the topic was tolerable. - Bridgett Raffenberg

So basically use google reader or market samuri and comment on content? - Frank Donnelly

Can you keep posting under your 3 blogs or is there a limit on it? Just wondering. - Frank Donnelly

Weebly.com may be a good option for you. I use them often. - VictoriaNTC

Install wordpress in your own host. It's very easy if your host has cPanel - Valo Productions

I recommend blowing $10/mon on HostGator. Unlimited sites is a good thing . . . - LJF Wolffe

What do you think of HostMonster? I've been using it for more than a year now and I haven't had any troubles - Jorge Blanco

How much do you think WPD really counts in the SEO arena? I am wondering if I am ok (SEO-wise) with a wordpress blog ??? I am already paying for hosting at HostGator (who has great customer service by the way) so hosting it is at no additional cost to me. - Bridgett Raffenberg

I guess if you know how to set up a a search-engine optimized blog yourself you don't need WPD. You should be familiar with all this keyword in HTML-Title etc. stuff. - Michael Netsch

WPD did offer 15 sites for $47 please don't tell me they did away with that. Check that out. - Russ

The silver membership does give you 15 sites, but they'll only host 3 of them . . . - LJF Wolffe

Silver membership is $67/month but if you are willing to pay 6 months in advance it costs $47. - Michael Netsch

I agree with Valo Productions - I have just installed a Wordpress blog on a server hosted by Zen Internet, using cpanel. Costs me about $8 per month. - Terry

Jorge said it... and is right though you have a store with a lot of Items... each item may be a micro niche.. Probably a tough market to find a good niche in.. anyone who is selling SEO services or information probably has a pretty good Idea how to get and keep top rankings for most niches - Mark South

Just found a product on lawns, I like gardening I might go down that route. - Frank Donnelly

So online marketing could be like using guitar in the 30 DC and working my way to the micro niches using market samuri? - Frank Donnelly

It's much harder to find a keyword if you've already plumped for the microniche. The 30 day challenge is the opposite way around. Online marketing as a niche is a real no-no for the challenge. We're looking for a microniche (or microniches) where you have a real chance of success so that you can test it for commercial viability. Not only have you decided on a niche instead of a microniche, but it's the very one where competitors already know how to rank & get traffic! - Isha (Marysia)

Frank, if you want do the 30 day challenge you want to start again following the instructions as taught. Otherwise you'd be shooting yourself in the foot. When you know how to do it all and have had success with a viable microniche or two, then you'll have learnt the techniques you need to use & can try something more ambitious. - Isha (Marysia)

“My niche is a home based business opportunity that teaches online marketing, but I'm finding it extremely difficult in getting a good keyword.” Sorry Frank but this is the funniest thing I've read online for years. Goodluck. - micmol

Think about what you would search for or what you would scan the results for to decide whether to read the content or not - that may give you a faster route to a microniche if you want to stick to this area. - Kim Baillie

Hi Kara, how did you put that in here? - Frank Donnelly

http://www.flickr.com/photos... is the flickr link for better viewing :-) - Kara

Frank - I first pulled up the SEO Competition with Market Samurai. I clipped the results using SnagIt and pasted that into Word. I then added the text above and clipped everything using SnagIt and saved it as a .jpg - I also posted it in Flickr. Not too bad for my first time! - Kara

Domain links - if I understand you I mentioned what they were above. - Kara

I have to be frank and say that I really don't like the look of this. Those backlinks at #7...! And it's way over the 30dc SEOC limit, which makes it even harder. And the click-thru rate doesn't look great... It's really not what you're looking for if you're doing it the 30dc way. - Isha (Marysia)

s thomas, if you click on it you see a bigger version. - Isha (Marysia)

No, meant domain links linking to the sites in the green and pink table...... wondered if they had been taken into consideration during the decision? - Inspired Writing Research

IIRC, domain links are much less important than page links . . . - LJF Wolffe

Thank you! - Inspired Writing Research

Kara, you might like to look at this: http://www.wordpressdirect.com/ote2con... The interesting bit for you starts just over 4 1/2 minutes into the first video. It's from the recent Over the Edge conference - these are experienced IMers talking with Marty of WDP. - Isha (Marysia)

The competition in this niche looks pretty stiff - remember Google likes old domains, and you have some that are 10 years old here. But you might want to try adding a word or two to your phrase to look for something a little more "long tail." - Tom Landini

I had to do some rethinking as I went for a keyword which looked great and I built a site, only to find that what I thought people were searching for with the keyword was different to subject I had built my site around. - Mark McGimpsey

I feel I need to second that -- my first 30DC blog was for a phrase that looked great . . . until I got into it and realized that everything under that phrase was a sales post, and no one actually wanted to read about it! Definitely take a look at the types of entries under any keyword -- it might not be as great as it looks! - LJF Wolffe

And check the phrase-match searches using the Google Adwords free Keywords Tool: https://adwords.google.com/select... MS shows broad-match search results (phrase-match search results are coming soon for MS). If it's a 2-word keyword you want to check for your keyword & also the reverse of the keyword, and if it's a 3-word keyword there are 6 phrases you want to check. Then look at the SEOC matrix too: there are a lot of posts & threads on the forum that are useful to study re the matrix. - Isha (Marysia)

I'm finding the keyword search confusing, what would ideal numbers be like? - Frank Donnelly

What you've given us already is good. - Mark McGimpsey

LJF you wrote "Definitely take a look at the types of entries under any keyword -- it might not be as great as it looks! I don't understand what you mean by "look at the types of entries under any keyword" - are you talking about finding content under that keyword? Would you clarify for lil ol me ;-) Thxs - Elizabeth

Mark - thanks for the insight on Google insight ;-) However, I don't really understand how you would see what people are "actually searching for" using this tool? As I am understanding Insights I am only seeing trends for the keyword and other related keywords but I don't understand how you would extrapolate the info you are speaking of. Geez I need to spend time after school with a tutor :-( Just not getting this keyword stuff. - Elizabeth

I mean actually do the phrase match thing in google and look at what comes up. Are they discussions or ads for goods? My example is "blue cobalt glass" (no one in their right mind would steal it) -- there are "I'm looking for" and "I have this to sell" entries, but the only discussion spot there is the blog I started! I should have paid more attention B4 I bought the URL; then I would have expected the 3 visitors a day and no sales. I relied on MS, and should have had a better look around. Does that help? - LJF Wolffe

Yes indeed it does! I am hitting the same wall here with mine. 98% OCI but what that really means is "who cares what you have to say, thanks for the look about, think I'll head back over to the big guys cause it looks like you just want a measly $1.10 for sending me to them anyway and why should you make all that money from my click" Okay, got that off my chest LOL Thanks for the clarification LJF! - Elizabeth

Ok I'll give you my example. I reached the first page as high as Position 6 Broad Match. Currently I'm at 15 BM and 7 Phrase Match. MS showed Daily: 2433 SEOT: 1021 SEOC: 15700 SEOV: 2421.81 except after all the work I learned about GoogleInsights which showed me that the majority of searches were from Florida about a Theme Park. Even Adwords failed to get any worthwhile clicks. Wrong site theme I'm afraid. (Post edited as the site I gave is now deleted). - Mark McGimpsey

Excellent info Mark - thank you for sharing your particular site info; It was a great example. I see what you mean and how the territory information in Insights would have been helpful. - Elizabeth

You're welcome. I felt a real idiot when I realised what had happened. I only wish I had found out about GoogleInsights earlier, but I'm not sure how long the program was on the go. The site is only up since the 20 September so it shows how tops WordPress Direct and the 30 DC training really is. I even did my own tweak of the original theme. - Mark McGimpsey

Lol - I'll bet my traffic goes up now - for a while at least. - Mark McGimpsey

For sure Mark! :-) - Elizabeth

Is GoogleInsights free and can Market Samuri do the same thing? - Frank Donnelly

Yes, Google Insights is free -- and Market Samurai does some of it, but not nearly in as much detail. That's why the two complement each other so well! - LJF Wolffe

I'm finding it a bit confusing. - Frank Donnelly

Let me see if I have this right: Your keyword is a corner of your niche. Niche: crochet (as an example); subniche: crochet hooks; possible keyword: wooden crochet hooks. As you corner your keyword, you move up in your niche and subniche. Is this clearer than mud? I hope so . . . 8-} - LJF Wolffe

Google Insights is here: http://short.to/8dj I've put some terms into it so that you can see how it works, and you can replace them with your own words or phrases. You'll see that it gives more information than Market Samurai's Trends column. You'll find it's worth watching the early training videos several times & perhaps printing out and marking the pdfs that go with them (to the right of each days intro video, marked T). Some good video on the Noble Samurai site too that you might find helpful. - Isha (Marysia)