As some of you may know, I have recently been experimenting with the Adwords external tool to find profitable niches and longtail keywords.

If you have ever used the Adwords tool, then you know that Google doesn’t give you an exact number of searches for a specific keyword. Instead the best you can get are those little green bar indicators which show you whether a keyword has very low, low, average, high or very high monthly search volume.

But here is a little something I found on a blog recently. Apparently, some time back in March, someone experienced a minor glitch with the AdWords tool, as a result of which they were given a precise number of searches for related keywords on Google. In other words, this was pretty much Google’s version of Overture. Luckily, that person was kind enough to take a screenshot of the numbers he saw. You can read the full story here:

http://www.adamap.com/adamap/2007/03/google_keyword_.html

Interesting Conclusions and Hypotheses

1. This screen shot may give us a rough idea of what number of searches constitutes a “average”, “low” and “very low” search count on Google. There is a possibility that the result this tool shows can be applied to all searches done on Google. Although this is not very accurate, you can see, for example, that a keyword with 1200 searches is still rated as ” low “. Equally, you can also seen that a keyword with 7100 searches was ranked as ” average ” on Google. I suspect that we can use these figures to get a very rough idea of the number of searches for other key phrases.

2. We can also use this information to test the accuracy of Overture and WordTracker. For example, overture results have not been updated since January 2007. Since the information on the screenshot is February 2007, we can compare the difference between the search volumes on Google and Yahoo. For example, overture shows 8069 searches for the key phrase ” secretary desk” in January 2007. Google’s number for February is 52,000. Therefore, the number of searches on Google was almost 6.5 times higher than on Overture (calculated by dividing 52,000 by 8069). Even after we allow for different results between the two months, we can still safely assume that Google’s number of searches is five times higher than that of Overture. Simiar analysis can be done for WordTracker (though it will be less accurate since WordTracker does supply updated data every month, whereas Overture doesn’t).

Well it certainly seems that I am in a very productive state of mind today, because I just came up with another good way to look for profitable niches. If you’re ever stuck and want to see what you can possibly make a website about — or maybe even an info product — one of the simplest thing to do is go to www.amazon.com and browse their books section to see what’s available and what’s hot. I pretty much found a minor goldmine in their health and family section which contains, among other things, plenty of self-help book.

This method has three important advantages.

Firstly, it gives you some excellent ideas on the different subjects that you can write about.

Secondly and most importantly, it tells you whether there is demand for such products already. Remember that authors (just like everybody) else want to make money with their products, which means that they would not have bothered with writing a self-help book if they did not think there would be demand for it.

Thirdly, if you do decide to work in this niche and want to get your hands on some quality information - especially if you want to develop your own info product - then you already have your research done for you. Simply buy the printed book and see if you can’t integrate its contents into your own info product. Mind you, I’m not advocating plagiarism, but there is nothing wrong with doing proper research for your product.

Now I know it’s been a while since I last posted on this blog - as usual I have had the lot of things going on in my life (for instance, my girlfriend is currently doing her exams and I help her a lot with those) I really haven’t got a lot of time to update my blog as well.

However while she’s actually doing her exam I got to thinking about niches and how to best research them. What I have here is this idea that I would really like to share with you because I think it is very powerful and it can probably make you a lot of money. I haven’t tried this idea yet but I think the concept is really cool and this is definitely something that you can think about.

Now the idea is called “Earning by Learning” and the whole point of this idea is that very often us Internet marketers are told to only work with markets that we are really passionate about. Now the problem with this idea is that very often the markets that we are passionate about are not the markets they are very profitable. For example I am very passionate about World of Warcraft, but there really isn’t all that much money to be made (believe me, I’ve done my keyword research).

So, instead of looking at things that I am passionate about at the moment I decided to ask myself - what are the things that I want to learn in life? What are the things that I am really interested in, the things that I really want to learn - but never had an opportunity to do so?

And that’s really where this idea came to me - maybe instead of looking at markets that I am already passionate about I can start learning about new things that I have always wanted to learn. In the process of learning, I will also write an info product about it and sell it to the target audience. The whole idea here is that you get to do something that you are passionate about as well as something will really benefit not just you, but also your customers. You learn what you always wanted to learn - and you get to sell that information as an info product.

I think is a slightly different approach to just looking at what you are passionate about and it really resolves the problem of either been forced to focus on markets that you have no experience or interest in but which will earn a lot of money or working in markets that you’re really passionate about but just haven’t got any profit potential (e.g., World of Wacraft).

So, here’s my idea in a nutshell - let me know what you think. I will see if I can implement and will of course keep you updated on my progress.

By the way is this blog entry is written using Dragon NaturallySpeaking - let me know how different my literary style is and whether you prefer this writing style to my regular one.

Wohoo - after saving up for a while, I got my hands on a copy of Dragon Naturally Speaking. The installation progress seemed to take forever as the little green progress bar slowly made its way across the screen, while I was busy daydreaming about writing my e-books in days rather than weeks.

Apparently, there’s just one thing I wasn’t counting on…

I don’t think Dragon Naturally Speaking is designed with non-native speakers of English in mind?

Now, look, my Russian accent isn’t all that bad. I don’t sound like a Russki Boris talking to a Russki babushka somewhere in the village of Baranovichi in the middle of Russian nowhere. However, sadly, the taint of my origins is still there a little bit - and I guess Dragon Naturally Speaking doesn’t like it. The accuracy is really way below what I expected, though maybe it’ll improve as I do more training sessions (I’ve done about 3-4 so far and have noticed a considerable improvement).

Still, writing and talking at the same time is really quite a challenege, as I’ll have to adjust the way I dictate (never done it before). I guess Voice Recognition software makes more sense for people who already know a lot about the subject they’re writing on, rather than for folks like me who research as they write.

But, anyway, just thought I’d let you know that I am now officially a dragon, and you can hear me roar - in Russian.

Niches are like the Matrix - if you don’t believe me, take the following excerpt from the Matrix movie script and replace the word “Matrix” with “niche”:

The Matrix is everywhere. It’s all around us, even in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to work, when you pay your taxes.

Now, you might be thinking, “Oh, jeez, not another Matrix-fan-turned-Internet marketer” - but wait…

Yesterday, I found a terrific niche for my next info product - and it came from taking a class at my university. Those of you reading my blog may recall me ranting against one of my professors for bugging me with e-mail reminders at 1:21am. Well, something good has come out of it, after all, since, as part of our classwork, we’ll be expected to do research on a specific area of management, making all sorts of handouts related to it - and then teach it to our classmates.

Think about that one for a minute (I’ll wait): research… create handouts… teach…

Is that a recipe for an e-book, or am I just barking mad?

Better still, since the niche is aimed at upper-level managers, those folks are going to have a lot of money and probably aren’t averse to spending it on a tool that will help them get better. And with five weeks’ worth of research, I’m sure I’ll have plenty of useful information to provide.

So, yes, I suppose I should retract my earlier statement that university education is irrelevant to my Internet marketing career - it can be made relevant, but it takes a madman of a professor to accomplish this feat.

Niches really are everywhere. Taking a class was the last place I expected to find one - but find one I did. So, keep your eyes open, your notepad next to you and always ask yourself - “Can I turn this information into an e-book?”

You’ll be surprised how often the answer is yes.

While looking at prices for cover design services for my info product, I came across E-Cover Frog.

Now, it looks like a decent itself in itself, but one of the testimonials there really caught my attention:

Brent and eCoverFrog.com were an absolute pleasure to work with and can say with absolute certainty that their designs for my site and products definetely made a massive contribution to the fact that I did $63,249.00 sales within the first 24 hours of launching. Seriously, their artwork is the best I’ve ever seen and I will be using them from now on for every new set of graphics I need.

Michael Cheney

AdSense-Videos.com

Hang on just a second guys - $63,000 in 24 hours?! That’s more than enough to get my girlfriend that Vacheron Constantin watch I promised! Boy, talk about motivation!

As you know, I’ve lately been hard at work on my very own e-book - and, although the work is proceeding slower than I expected, I am still making some progress and am hoping to have the product ready before too long.

I therefore decided to take this opportunity to list some of the things I’ve learned so far to maybe help you save some time if you should ever decide to put together something of your own.

1. Time is Money, Tell Them to Bugger Off - if you’re like me, you probably have close friends or family members who don’t understand Internet marketing and can’t figure out why someone would want to spend days writing an e-book and then “sell it on the Internet.” Instead, they will assume that you’re just skiving off and therefore have plenty of time to take care of their problems. Well, honestly, tell them to bugger off because you’re now working full-time. Your work is just as important as theirs.
2. Keep Writing, Writer - there may be time when you don’t feel like or are too tired to write. You might’ve read in some magazines that writing is that thing that takes inspiration, and if you don’t feel inspired, you should postpone the writing process until you do. Well, here’s the thing - that’s nonsense. Do yourself a favor and drop this romanticized notion of writing an e-book as a creative, inspired process. You’re writing a bloody e-book, not the next Hamlet or Macbeth.
3. Force Yourself to Keep Going - because being tired is not an excuse or a valid reason not to write. No matter how exhausted you are, there’s nothing stopping you from writing a page or two before going to bed. Grab an extra big mug of coffee (I recently switched to 4 spoonfuls, no sugar, no milk) and literally force yourself to get into the chair and open MS Word. Don’t stop until you got a page or two of quality content, and only then go to bed if you’re really tired. You’ll be surprised how much extra free time you can find this way.
4. Cut the Bullsh*t - especially if you’ve written tons of university-level term papers before, you’re probably tempted to pad your e-book up a little bit with tons of thematically-relevant content. Don’t do it. Ask yourself if the extra bit you’re including in your e-book is what your customers paid for, and, if they didn’t, drop it. Worst comes to worst, if you’re working in the gardening niche and really want to write a few pages on flying pink piglets, put together a separate report and offer it as a free bonus to your main product. There’s a fine line between overdelivering and bullsh*t - don’t cross it.
5. “Free” Doesn’t Pay - if you’re doing keyword research for your site and see a great long-tail keyword that starts with the word “free” (for instance, “free gardening advice”), that’s a pretty good reason to move on to something bigger and better. People looking for free information are unlikely to pay for an e-book, no matter how good it is. Make a free ad-supported website out of it where you offer an upsell product if you want, but don’t expect people to cough up some dough for your work if they’re clearly unwilling to do so in the first place.
6. Track Your Progress - like other forms of writing, e-books often tend to spin out of control and acquire a life of their own. All of a sudden, you start coming up with all sorts of brilliant ideas that you just know will make your book perfect. That’s all fine and dandy - but remember Rule No. 4 before you put your extra ideas into writing. I normally keep an Excel spreadsheet with a plan of chapters and their contents where I put that lovely word “Done” next to any part I finish. Not only does this help you keep your book structured, but you’ll also know where exactly you stand in terms of progress.
7. Now It’s Personal - people will trust you much more if you can relate all the theory in your writing to personal experience. My current info product is somewhat theoretical due to the nature of the niche, so I usually add a case study of sorts at the end of each chapter where I relate my personal experience with the particular bit of theory. It’s great to tell people how things should work, but it’s even better to show them how they actually do.
8. Be Flexible - remember what I said about structure? It’s important to stick to your plan, but it’s equally important to accept that occasionally you will have good ideas that will need to be put into your work. In other words, walk the fine line between keeping the original structure intact and modifying it if you come up with some new things that are really worth talking about.
9. This Ain’t Shakespeare, Baby - so let’s use words we all understand. There’s nothing more frustrating for your average customer than coughing up $27 for a gardening e-book that reads like a dissertation on nuclear physics. Keep it simple, stupid. You aren’t at university any longer, so your writing style should be accessible to people other than your professor. Drop those long words and see if you can’t replace them with something simpler - use Word’s Thesaurus if necessary.
10. Don’t Give Up - I guess it’s normal that most long-term writing project start with plenty of hype and anticipation. You spend days in front of your PC writing like a maniac and going through keyboards faster than cans of beer or packs of cigarettes. Here’s the news - this isn’t gonna last. Eventually, the initial excitement will die down, and that’s when the real fun will begin. The real challenge of writing is not getting started, but in following through once you’ve calmed down and when your work starts looking silly and worthless even to you. Don’t stop - keep going and believe in what you’re doing. Recall that feeling of excitement you had when you first started - if you believed in what you’re doing back then, why not now?

Well, that’s about it - I hope you find these tips useful, and do let me know if you have some ideas of your own to contribute to this list.

A few months after first registering at WF, I have finally taken the big plunge and requested my WF login to be changed from “G_C” to “George Chernikov”. After all, if I’m ever going to start branding my products and earning a name for myself, I had best get on with it late than never, right?

Besides, now that I’m no longer writing articles for others, I don’t have to worry about scaring prospective clients away with a Russian-sounding surname.

Sure, all the business we do online is virtual - but Steve Celeste is working on giving you an opportunity to build an extra-virtual online empire.

Introducing Internet Empire Tycoon - a computer game where you can build your own Internet empire. The release date is as yet unknown, but, as a hardcore gamer and an Internet marketer, I find it a terrific proposition. Especially for those of you like me who haven’t got a lot of experience in IM, the game will be an excellent opportunity to get some knowledge and practicse without putting your money on the line.

For more information on Internet Empire Tycoon, you can check out this section of Steve Celeste’s blog.

Looks like I got that TC font just by resetting the style.css file for the blog to default… I guess I do have a knack for complicating things…