In a recent mailing to my subscribers, I mentioned a great blog post by Jim Morris debunking a major myth that people can determine the profitability state of a market solely by doing enough keyword research to make such a confident opinion; in other words, “if a lot of people search for something, the probability is some people are going to buy it”.

In summary, Jim has 2 central messages to the fundamental difference between market and keyword research:

1) Keywords are also found outside the search engines, i.e. on the bus, in shopping malls, airports, newspapers, magazines, advertisements etc.

2) Keywords found outside the search engines give a stronger indication of a real market precisely because advertisers pay for ad spaces in these places, and at the end of the day, they too want to make a profit.

Years ago, I heard a famous Internet marketer said, “If a surfer put in a search term with at least 3 keywords and more, including brand name and other specifications, ready buyer interest is indicated.”

This statement may and hopefully still be a significant factor today, but it is only one of many factors. I would like to express my take on market and keyword research as a companion piece/extension to Jim’s immense wisdom and look forward that you can take away some ideas here.

Well first and foremost, if you’re in the business of making money, it is perfectly right to say before you set up a website or blog, you first enter a market. During my social networking rounds, I’ve seen blogs that seriously reflect how knowledgeable the blogger must be about the subject matter. Unfortunately the blog is just that: a platform to dispense free information. There’s not even the slightest intention to build a list or do some affiliate marketing.

What’s the difference between market and keyword research? Market research explores and digs out keywords related to an industry or niche. Keyword research examines the monetary value and search performance of EACH keyword.

Once I told a property agent that in order to fill enough ongoing content for her site and fully express her professional knowledge, she must conscientiously recall the keywords of her profession: housing loans, real estate, HDB (Housing Development Board) flats, maisonette etc. What are the keywords you have to deal most in your profession on a daily basis? Write them down. These keywords come together as composites to form the single market identity, which in her case, is property.

To examine each keyword, she can use SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool, WordTracker which has the new feature of showing each keyword’s Google trend and the ever popular AdWord Keyword Tool. Increasingly there is likely going to be more free keyword research tools and tutorials on how to go about it (search “keyword research” at YouTube).

What we do have is an abundance of keywords out there. The real challenge is which market to invest our time and energy in. In fact, entering a market requires a whole different way of “assessing a situation”.

Double Your Dating (DYD) has fascinated me a lot with its single page opt-in entry point. What you see on its home page is like the tip of the iceberg and underneath the ocean is one huge massive mountain of ice. It is in the dating niche; it is also in a dating sub-niche. These 2 benefit points show:

* How to use “secret” body language to keep a woman’s attention.

* How to approach a new woman that you’d like to meet—and exactly what to say to start a conversation without “pick up lines”.

If dating as an activity is an A-Z process, DYD has narrowed down its USP as the initial stage of making that first impression.

Now this is not the case where a dating sub-niche is more lucrative than the rest since it’s making like $8 million a year. I don’t know if there’s a proper name for this sub-niche. People had set up all kinds of impressive Wikipedia-like information portals and hardly made more than a month’s job income. DYD does employ Internet Marketing strategies, but more importantly, it has done what marketers had advocated all along: drill down to sub-niches to better target buyer demand and also define the USP or problem accurately without total disengagement from the main niche. Perhaps the second half of the bold statement (in red) wasn’t emphasized more clearly elsewhere.

What I know about marketers’ fear of entering sub-niches or evaluating “market size” is they would ask themselves, “If the market is this small, would I be stuck with this quantity of market demand?” It’s all the ‘fault’ of the search numbers churned out by keyword tools that influence how marketers determine a ‘size’ which leads them to think, “If I serve this 1.3% of prospects (based on so-and-so golf keyword), I’m going to miss out 98.7% of the whole golf market.”

There is absolutely no basis for a scarcity mindset! Just make sure you do not disengage from a main niche. Let me quote 3 examples.

I listen a lot to guitar music published by Windham Hill and Narada so I know some of the most beautiful tunes are played by guitarists using the fingerstyle or finger-picking technique (not using picks, not strumming). Although the phrase “fingerstyle guitar” is woefully missed in daily search statistics (according to WordTracker, only 49 daily searches. Perhaps not many guitarists know the technique name), I passionately believe guitar owners should learn to play using this technique and this applies widely to the whole guitar world.

Or how about “How to train your dog into a guard dog”. Small niche? Think again: You have effectively crossed over into the dog training market, the home security market and possibly that market of people concerned with housebreaking issues, if they don’t mind having dogs as an option.

Recently I came to hear about wine investment and in terms of search results and search demand, both have very low statistics, but this is going to be lucrative and anyone who is interested in investment programs would likely want to discover what’s this about too. Based on the information I had gathered, I know I’ve become enthusiastic because of the gut feel I have.

And I think that is all the requirement there is to entering a market: a final gut feel or impression after the evidence is accumulated. I haven’t said that you would be stuck with selling just info-products. Interestingly, such sub-niches provide great opportunities to promote high-ticket items like workshops and investment packages. I recall Dr. Mike Woo-Ming mentioned he was once interviewed on MTV because he published information about an obscure finger condition acquired from twiddling the video game console without resting, thus opening up a new door of opportunity.

All these show that keyword statistics have very little bearing on markets. They only give you a very good idea what is to be expected. It’s perfectly normal a surfer won’t buy a thing immediately after putting in a search term with at least 3 keywords and more because the human mind does not think one-track. A classic scientific study published that the mind flashes tens of thousands of thoughts within 24 hours. While you’re asleep, the mind is still working subconsciously, so what gives?

To start spotting for markets, train your eyes, ears and mind to look for industry, product and service-based keywords. You can get the best clues from categories in article directories like Ezine Articles and Article Dashboard.

Train yourself to make distinctions and correlate between generalized and specialized keywords. Example: general – guitar, specialty – guitar polish, general – golf, specialty – business golf etiquette. When you feel you have what it takes to create enough content, create specialized sites. In other words, be specialized as far as possible. 2 positive outcomes arise:

1) It’s easier for you to forge joint ventures when you can complement a fellow marketer instead of being the same as everyone else.

2) It’s easier for you to dominate the market. Think of it another way: enter a market like you would fill a gap between 2 entities.

The second point reminds me of the word ‘entrepreneur’, which apparently originates in French. The word can be broken down as:

Entre – Enter
Pre – Before
Nuer – Nerve center

An entrepreneur is someone who enters a business—any business—before others, to form or substantially change the business nerve center. You can say changing the ‘nerve’ has to do with tampering with core conventions and practices. Isn’t that what DYD does?

There’s no better person to exemplify entrepreneurship than Richard Branson himself, who just entered—or rather, create—the “space travel” market with Virgin Galactic.

Another way to enter a market is via product research which Jim Morris has mentioned in his post. If there’s already a product, there MUST be a market and ready buyers. Check:

1) The categories at Amazon.

2) eBay Pulse. eBay also puts up a PDF report of their hottest products each month.

3) Affiliate networks like ClickBank, PayDotCom, Commission Junction, RegNow (software and business), Affiliate Future, Plimus (software and business), Associate Programs, NicheBOT affiliate directory, ClixGalore, LinkShare, Click2Sell and Shareasale.

4) Cody Moya’s Niche Products Package

Other avenues include tapping into conversations at Google Answers, Yahoo! Answers, Google Groups, Yahoo! Groups, MSN Groups, MySpace Groups (click on ‘Groups’) and niche forums, niche market reports and free daily niche updates.

I list out some types of market opportunities and choices:

* Specialized health problems
* Specific financial challenges
* collectibles and hobbies
* People finding people…not just MLM, but also online dating and other forms of community building
* self-development (workshops)
* Corporate training (workshops)
* Relationships
* Seasonal/ethnical topics: festivals, Christmas, Chinese New Year etc.

That’s all I have to say. I leave you with the words of Richard Branson. Once you arrive at a conclusion about a possible market situation, “screw it, just do it!”

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This complete system will create an Internet business for you that:

1. Attracts free website traffic

2. Generates income without creating your own product to sell

3. Continually increase the value of your website

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WHAT IS NICHE MARKETING 2.0
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It’s a fusion of web 2.0 technology combined with proven niche marketing strategies that’s pioneered by well-known niche marketing expert, Patric Chan.

The whole system comprises of…

1. The Niche 2.0 Site
2. The Niche 2.0 Site Solution Software
3. The Niche 2.0 Content Checklist
4. The Niche 2.0 Traffic Checklist
5. The Niche 2.0 Income Checklist
6. The Niche 2.0 Business Blueprint
7. The 6 Live Tele-Class Modules
8. And bonuses!

In it, he will show you a brand new niche marketing strategy that no one’s using.

Plus he’ll be giving you the software that makes this strategy work…and guiding you how to use it.

The knowledge you’ll gain and tools given to you will literally give you an unfair advantage over your competitors 0nline.

There are only 200 copies available. It’ll be sold out very fast because Patric’s subscribers and customers have been waiting 2 weeks patiently for the system to be made available!

At the same time, his affiliates are promoting the system to their list on the same date of the launch.

You see, the way in which niche marketing has been applied online will be different from now on, and Patric is ready to share Niche Marketing 2.0 idea and strategies that will make you more income in 2008.

Also download this 26-page report to find out the 6 key elements of Niche Marketing 2.0, which one of the elements is currently used by big time websites like Amazon.com and Itunes.com to generate millions of dollars online…

Andrew Fox, the affiliate with 2 Ferraris and a luxury yacht (a recent addition!) has just released a free report and he’s about to open the doors to his coaching program on March 20th. You ought to check him out at XFactor Affiliate.

Dylan Loh is no stranger within IM circles now. He makes more in a week than some people in America make in a month…or even 2 months. For some time, he has made a successful living selling Clickbank products, and has put his knowledge into a 46-page, instantly downloadable information product that can possibly have the reader making money within a few days.

“Clickbank Profit Machine” focuses on Dylan’s personal techniques for using Clickbank affiliate programs to generate Internet income. He has been using and refining his techniques for some time, and recently decided to put them together as a program which he has begun selling through Clickbank himself. Overall, it is a well put together product which provides a wide range of information.

Just a few of the topics Dylan Loh covers in this book are:

* How to start a successful internet business with no website

* The system that he personally uses to pick the most successful products

* How to use Google AdWords to produce even more income

* What traffic generators to use and how to use them

Perhaps this is in all probability NOT the world’s greatest Internet marketing guide (which I haven’t found yet anyway), but the content gets down to the essence and is a reasonable addition to the Internet business training of any budding online entrepreneur or beginner.

Earlier today I showed a clip of Mike Filsaime on stage. Here are some more showtime by other experts.

Product Launch expert Jeff Walker explains how he builds tension and creates momentum in a million-dollar launch:

Tom McCarthy reveals the only valid reason for crafting a vision/mission statement for a company:

Frank Kern, the ultimate I.M. dude who has a licence to wear T-shirt on stage, talks about projecting your core values for effective marketing:

Jay Abraham answers how to stand out in your market:

John Carlton reveals the best form of testimonials to publish in your sales page, giving you maximum social proof:

Gary Vaynerchuk highlights the importance of personal branding and mentions in passing the coming trend of Internet-only celebrity:

Now perhaps you are one of the many readers who felt you could have attended Strategic Profits ‘Live’. You can still turn back the clock by ordering the New Beginnings Home Study DVD Program which is essentially the full recording of the ‘live’ event. While the first batch of participants paid $2,000 EACH to be the very FIRST to hear these secrets, you now have a SECOND CHANCE to learn the strategies and techniques that make these successes possible…at $697! This offer stands valid until midnight, February 29, 2008. Please note this DVD set, which is more in tune with Internet Marketing, is different from the Maven Home Study System by Rich and Jay.

Rich Schefren’s Strategic Profits ‘Live’ Event is currently ongoing. Mike Filsaime relates to a time when he was a copywriting newbie and asked copywriting legend Gary Halbert what’s the key thing to test on a sales page.

And Gary being Gary gave Mike a verbal tornado treatment, but you will know what to test. Watch the short video below.

For those of you who don’t know Joe Polish, he is an absolute marketing genius and has helped countless people improve their marketing results exponentially throughout the years via his techniques and strategies.

One of Joe’s greatest gifts, in my opinion, is picking the minds of some of today’s business legends in detailed down-and-dirty interviews.

He did it with Eben Pagan prior to Eben’s Get Altitude workshop. And he did with this guy whose whole array of businesses has a combined turnover of $25 Billion dollars…capital ‘B’ mate!

The name is *Sir Richard Branson*.

Now I would be going like, “Whoa, how did he land an inteview with him like that!”

Nevertheless, thank Joe Polish for this amazing interview with the one and only Sir Richard Branson, for your listening and learning pleasure.

Larry Dotson is allowing you to get the private label rights to 1000 marketing strategies for next to nothing.

Here are just some of the things you could do with all this content:

-> Create your own e-books.

-> Create your own articles.

-> Create your own blog posts.

-> Create your own e-courses.

-> And so much more…

But there is a slight catch, he is only offering 500 of these never-released-before PLR packages.

I’m positive you’ll be knocking your head against the wall if you miss this.

Comment Sniper allows you to track recent updates to leading blogs within your industry in order to be able to be the first to comment on those updates giving your comments and associated website links more exposure on prime real estate.

Influential blogs related to your niche industry make new posts all the time, posts that may be read by thousands of people in the months to come. You only have one chance to be the first to comment on that post and ride that unique wave to build immediate backlinks.

Now for a limited time only, you can download this $47 fully functional application completely FREE with no strings attached.

There was a time when I was earning $15-$20 in AdSense income from 14 niche sites but they looked too spammy for their own good and got banned from the search engines.

I’m not discouraged as I know a few marketers out there still make very good money by NOT creating spammy-looking sites but they didn’t take much time to set them up either.

That’s why when Liz Tomey came out with her new AdSense video tutorials, I got all excited because I know Liz is the real deal. She’s taught hundreds of people to make money online, and that’s where her true passion is, and her new site proves that to me once again!

Liz has put together an entire site, where she offers an entire step-by-step video course on how to start making money with Google AdSense. I’m talking the RIGHT way, and not the “throw an ugly site up and make no money because you’ve been kicked out of the search engines” site. These are real sites, and Liz takes you by the hand and walks you through setting them up, getting the right content on them, and here’s the real kicker…

Most of her course is on getting traffic to your AdSense sites. So many people leave this vital step out, but Liz has dedicated a lot of time to showing you how to get traffic to your AdSense sites.

She’s even gone a step further, and is offering personal coaching videos for those that need extra help, continual updates where she’s giving you more videos all the time, critiqueing your sites, and more. I just couldn’t believe all that was being offered from this site at an amazingly low price.

Grab a spot right now at the insane price she has it at before it’s too late…