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Keyword Research with Market Samurai

September 24, 2008 Posted under: Making Money Online by Caroline Middlebrook

adsense project

Now that I have covered a bunch of introductory topics that discuss the intention and strategy of the project I want to start getting down to the implementation details. This is the first of some video posts that I am going to do which will show you exactly how I work. This first video covers the first stage of the process – the keyword research. My tool of choice is Market Samurai which is a paid tool.

Everything covered in today’s video can be done using Google’s free keyword tool and in later videos I’ll try to find free alternatives to Market Samurai where possible.

As this is the first video in the series I’ve spent a couple of minutes just reiterating the basics of the project and why we are doing keyword research in the first place. At the beginning I talk about where to start your research from and discuss my post on how to find high paying niches for AdSense so go and check that post if you don’t know where to start.

I then go on to cover:

  • The three most important criteria for any keyword
  • How to start off your research
  • How to filter out low traffic keywords at the start
  • Time saving tips for Market Samurai
  • An explanation of Marketed Samurai competition data
  • The difference between phrase match and broad match
  • What filters to use, and when
  • Using the Google Tool to help brainstorm long tail keywords
  • Branching into related niches
  • Recap of the whole keyword research process

The video is longer than I anticipated at 23 minutes so it may take a few minutes to load. You can also download the movie file for offline viewing. Hopefully future videos will not be as long!

Download the Keyword Research video here

Other Market Samurai Resources

Market Samurai is a complex tool and I don’t want to waste a bunch of your time teaching you what others have already done. If you are confused by any of the features then I would recommend that you check the official Market Samurai Tutorials and also the 30 Day Challenge Training videos.

Coming Up Next

This video has shown you the initial keyword research but it is only half of the story. What you should have so far is a list if potential keywords to target but a problem with search traffic is that if you can’t get in the top couple of pages in the serps you won’t see anywhere near enough traffic to be profitable so what we really need to do is make sure that we actually have a snowballs chance in hell of competiting on a particular keyword.

The next video will show you what I find to be the best feature of Market Samurai – the competition module. The functionality in this module allows you to do in an hour what would take a day to do manually! Get this part wrong and you’ll be wasting your time on keywords that will never rank high enough to get traffic. Stay tuned :-)


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21 Comments:

Jeff Jones
September 24, 2008

Caroline,

Using the Google keyword tool the way you have with Market Samurai is sheer genius!

I too find it very irritating that when I ask for MS to expand a list it keeps throwing in other words and phrases that I’m not looking for. It gets worse as you drill down your original list and all of the same words keep getting included in your expanded list.

I hope they fix that as well.

Great video and brilliant technique.

Best,

Jeff

VM Vaughn
September 24, 2008

Caroline,

You’re writing and videos are outstanding. Thank you for your excellence in producing this project series and blog overall.

Regarding the length of the video in this post – please don’t worry about that. It was 23 minutes of solid content. I’ll watch 60 minutes to get good information like you produced.

Keep up the good work.

Thomas
September 25, 2008

Caroline i’ve purchased Market Samurai and believe its a fantastic tool. However, every now and then i when im doing a search i recieve a message that says “this is a time out blah blah blah” and stops. Have you experience this?

Caroline Middlebrook
September 25, 2008

@Jeff, from a programming point of view it would be a very easy thing to implement so I’m sure they’ll get to it in a future update.

@VM Vaughn, hehe thank you though there are other reasons to keep the length down – this was too long to put on YouTube so I’ve had to host it myself which costs me money :)

@Thomas, yeah you’ll get that with any tool, its a problem with the Google source not the tool itself. Also, I think there was some proxy setting you could change to try and workaround it – have a look in their support forums.

Mikael Rieck
September 25, 2008

It would be nice if they would update the official videos to actually match what is in the software. It seems like the videos are still from the first release they did and the software has been updated several times since. I actually find that the 30DC videos are far better than Market Samurai’s own tutorials (which is a shame).

Mikael Riecks last blog post..Taking Action on Your Health

Dennis Edell
September 25, 2008

Anything you got on KW research, bring it on? For some unknown and frustrating reason that’s one of the things I just don’t seem to be able to fully grasp.

BTW, super congrats on updating the commentluv, cool ain’t it?

Dennis Edells last blog post..New Feature! Link Love For Your Thoughts

Howard Moorey aka hojomo
September 26, 2008

Totally agree with both Jeff & VM – great little shortcut in pursuit of a LongTail – and please DON’T apologise for the time you took – it was an invaluable insight to assist with my 30DC efforts!
Looking forward to your next one!!
Thanks a million.

Caroline Middlebrook
September 26, 2008

@Dennis, yeah it is a stumbling block for many people and unfortunately if you get that part wrong, anything you do after that point is pretty much a waste of time.

I’m not sure I like the new commentLuv upgrade – it’s a bit intrusive.

Jeff Jones
September 26, 2008

Caroline,

The importance of the keyword research cannot be overemphasized! When I first started last year there seemed to be a debate over profit vs passion which almost totally ignored the underlying research on the profit part.

I totally agree…short-track the research and you’re going to long-track your time wasting.

The commentluv 2.1.3 upgrade didn’t play nice with ShareThis and put one of those buttons at the top of my header. Apparently, the click tracking code they put in the program broke some sites.

They’ve updated to 2.1.5 and it’s fixed on my site.

Jeff

Jeff Joness last blog post..I Can’t Wait For My Winter Birds To Return

Bill Stevens
September 26, 2008

CommuntLuv – Yes I see it’s changed. I suppose it’d be cool to allow the commenter to select a blog post from their own blog. So if there is a more relevant post at my blog on internet marketing then I’d select that. Don’t know if that would help my blog, your blog or both. Especially if my blog post talked (linked) about your blog post. Well, anyway.

I’ll have to go dig around but if the TV shows Ed did during the 30DC are available, which I think they are, one or two of them were dedicated to using the SEOC portion of Market Samurai. That would be a good place to spend some time it would seem as well.

I’ll also have to go dig around in the 30DC forums because I’d like to see another successful example and one that would be a failure. A good example of a failure would help folks no when to say, “Okay, this one is a bad keyword (phras), I quit on this keyword (phrase).” Or a borderline one would be good to.

Thanks and nice video BTW.

Bill Stevenss last blog post..Lijit – How To Channel Surf Your Own Content

Diana L Guerrero
September 30, 2008

I bought Market Samurai after BETA testing it. Can’t wait to see the changes and upgrades. As mentioned above, there are some shortcomings but I too find it a valuable tool. I did an early review and anticipate doing a more comprehensive one after all the features are activated. Thanks for the video–as always good content.

Diana L Guerreros last blog post..Market Samurai: Noble Samurai Product Review

Derek Pollard
September 30, 2008

Caroline, this is a great video, thanks. Don’t apologize for the length, if is a subject worth covering as well as you have.

Your tip to avoid having to delete all the extra keyword results is very welcome. Pressing each keyword delete button was driving me mad and was the worst bit about using Market Samurai, especially as each delete takes ages on my little EEE PC.

Derek Pollards last blog post..The Cost of Playing the Symphony in Reverse

Pete Thompson
October 1, 2008

Great video! This is a great resource you’ve created here, and I’m looking forward to seeing some other options. I’ve never worked with Samurai, but I still rely on the good old standby: Overture. And spot on with the short track comment. While at times it can be a bit monotonous, KW research is one of the most important factors in getting the job done right. Thanks again!

Pete Thompsons last blog post..THQ and Korean firm Vertigo to tackle Asian online PC market

kahthan
October 3, 2008

@caroline

id you dont mind me asking, what was the program you used to make the video?

@dennis

i have a slightly different take on how to go about the keyword research which might help, check it out and see, of course it also depends on part of it you find difficult to grasp.

kahthans last blog post..Add a Peel Away Ad To Your Blog

SRS
October 8, 2008

Hi Caroline, i’ve been trying a few days to get the vid to work and cannot view it at all, just locks up on quicktime. Any chance u could make it a utube vid?

Also just another thing i noticed which really annoys me is that everytime i click a link on a link in your blog it opens in the same screen. I think you could retain more visitors if all your links open in new tab or windows – just food for thought – but i’m always clicking back to find your blog after following a link…

Keep up the good work and im currently working the adsense sites as instructed, lets hope we all reap the rewards in 6M.

Caroline Middlebrook
October 8, 2008

@SRS, the video is too long for YouTube but when I get time I will split it into chunks and put that on YouTube and other sites. Have you tried downloading the .mov file to watch offline?

Barry
October 14, 2008

Hi Caroline

found your blog while researching whether Market Samurai was any good or not. So glad I found your video it was both informative and easy to comprehend and has made me want to not only download Market Samurai, but also put some of your keyword research techniques into practice.

Thanks

Barry

Jeff Jones
November 12, 2008

Hi Caroline,

I need clarification on the MS Keyword tool. I’ve been using it and loving it but I want to make sure I understand what I’m seeing.

When you analyze keywords is it showing:

1. Broad match or exact match?

2. Daily searches or monthly?

I thought one of their videos said it used exact match and daily but the numbers don’t seem quite right compared to the Adwords tool.

Thanks for your help,

Jeff

Jeff Joness last blog post..Jeremy Palmer’s Black Ink Project 2 Review

Caroline Middlebrook
November 13, 2008

@Jeff, can’t remember on the broad match – there is a video on their site somewhere that explains it. The search numbers are daily.

Karen Newton
February 6, 2009

Caroline,
I just happened to find your blog while doing some research and I must say I’m very impressed with this video. I can’t wait to explore the rest of your site.

Firstly, I purchased Market Samurai and think it’s a wonderful keyword research tool although I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with it. Your idea of utilizing the Google Keyword Tool to create a targeted list of long tails is superb, thank you!

Secondly, the video itself is very professional and easy to follow. Your voice and mannerism are clear and concise, and as with MANY other videos did not have me wanting to click “close” after 30 seconds. I look forward to watching more videos you create.

Thanks again!
Karen Newton

Karen Newtons last blog post..Twitter Analytics? See How Your Tweets Are Affecting Your Followers

Allen
July 3, 2009

I chanced upon to view your blog and found it very interesting. Great … Keep it up!. For more information about Market Research you can populate the RNB Research.


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