Keyword Research Marketing Insight - Don't think the inmates know how to unlock the sanitarium gates...

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/)

Marketing Insight:
Escaping the sanitarium profitably with your keywords
-- don't ask the inmates for directions.

Sometimes I get fed up with people who use advertising as proof that people are buying or not buying stuff in any particular niche.

I've been doing a heckuva lot of research on keywords recently and can tell you this - advertiser are generally clueless about what people are going to buy. And they are caught up in this insane addiction to buying advertising as a way to get leads which will convert to paying customers.

The reason I say this is I've pulled in my Ranktracker files from Google adwords KeywordExternalTool and found that there are some fascinating keywords being used that have a lot of advertising competition, but no one is actually visiting these sites. True.

Now, this doesn't say all advertisers are this way - but when I've now run into the fourth or fifth "authority" saying that you look at these sites which tell you what advertising is being bought as an indicator of whether people are buying products in that area - and I say "BULL".

If you want to see if people are buying that product, check out eBay with one of the free analysis tools out there. This will tell you if there is a real buying market for it. Now, eBay is a bit different from Google, as people who are looking (google) aren't necessarily buyers (google and ebay). But if you use Terapeak, you can see over the last two weeks (for free) if anyone is looking for a product in your category and what types of products (and prices) they are willing to pay in an auction. (One caveat - auctions are for 1] Collectors, and 2] Bargain Hunters. So prices are unreal here - both too high and too low.)

Right now, I don't know of any other area where you can find out actual sales data. You want to be able to look at the records of buyers buying. Terapeak and HammerTap both license eBay's database records to generate their data. Another source would be WorldWideBrands - even though their entry is rather high, even for a lifetime subscription. But they can tell you the rough value of an area and whether there are buyers for that product. WWB does have an online trial where you can check out your keywords in a limited degree.

Oh - but you could check out Clickbank, which does (in a round-about way) give what is selling and you can work out roughly whether you could actually make money at that stuff. Also has return rates (as some of those digital products aren't worth the digital paper they're printed on...)

But when someone tells you to see if people are advertising as an idea of who's buying what - just smile and nod and thank them - then go right on by. Because those people are probably going to be there for a very loooong time. And you should be out in the real world earning money by the carloads.

So:
Places to find out if someone is actually buying products for your niche:

• Terapeak
• WorldWideBrands
• Clickbank.

Good Hunting!

Use Reverse-Cialdini to Stop Telemarketers

Cialdini's data is enough to stop telemarketers from exploiting you.

The trick is that the 6 points Dr. Robert Cialdini mentions in his "Influence" classic - if known by the individual and consciously used - explain all sales pitches, advertising, and sales campaigns. And if you have studied them carefully, will actually start to free you up from the "Sheep-think" which too often paralyzes our decision-making.

But all, yes - all, advertizing and sales pitches have most or all of Cialdini's 6 points in them. And they are all designed to hit those beloved Madison-Avenue triggers which tend to make us respond in one way or another.

The advise is to get his book (which has far more useful examples than these short lists which are broiling around on the Internet). Then study it completely (the 4th edition even has quizzes at the end of each chapter.) And be prepared to start re-evaluating your purchases (and how you vote for what).

Oh yes, you'll save quite a bunch of dough doing this as well...

Small business marketing idea - last resort advertizing...

(photocredit: PEEJ0E)

Small Business Marketing Keyword Idea -
how to make your site more profitable for adsense.

Was just fooling around with RankTracker and Google's ExternalKeywordTool and found a very interesting point you can put to use.

Toward the end of the 30-Day Challenge, they suggest that if you are getting traffic, but no viable sales/conversions, you can simply turn the site over to Adsense and start making money at it (and then start over with your niche research - both 30 days older and wiser).

Well, I found an approach to getting advertisers to flock to your site.

Simply use Google's Keyword Tool in reverse. Now I have several times advised staying away from buying PPC because it's not all that efficient a way to get traffic to your site, plus the initial outlay is quite high - you could burn through your budget at an incredible pace. However, if you've created a high traffic site for a niche which doesn't have buyers in it, why not do these guys a service?

On Google's Keyword Tool page, look up your site's keywords and then look to see which ones they are paying the most for. Then simply revamp your page's SEO (title, headers, etc. ) to take advantage of these. Now, you don't want to change anything that is getting you traffic, so you keep in the keywords which they are looking for. But it doesn't mean you can't add in additional keywords which are higher paying.

And of course, you make Adsense ads the key thing on the page, under the title and heading, but before the content. Your text can actually wrap right around the adsense ads (that's to the right of the ad) so you pull attention to that adsense block.

This of course is violating everything I say about how to best serve your clients. But if you aren't getting sales, it's your farewell to that page and maybe that site - if you plan on selling it. People are coming for the content and the adsense is now a form of that content.

But learn your lessons and set up pages which actually convert to sales of your own products or affiliates' or both. Meanwhile, make any scrape of income from PPC Adsense - but my advice still stands: unless you are inordinately endowed with left-brain brilliance - stay away from buying PPC. You can sell adspace all you want, though.

Have fun with this!