The above photos show something I recently decided to do...
Throw myself out of a perfectly good airplane -- at 14,500 feet.
It was something I always wanted to do and after doing plenty of research I decided to go through with it. It was an amazing experience and I'm really glad I did it. But if it wasn't for doing research FIRST, I never would have done it.
I wanted to make darn sure it was actually SAFE. I did a "tandem" skydive where an expert skydiver was attached to me -- and basically in complete control. He let me pull the ripcord, but he was basically in charge of the entire process. Skydiving is actually a very safe sport -- but only if you are fully educated about the process and know what you should do and should not do.
Marketing and making money is just like skydiving. You should not go through with it without doing your research first. Many marketers don't do their research (or due diligence) and often wonder why their projects flat-out fail. If you become good at doing research you will increase your chances of having a successful project.
I would have to say that one of my best skills is doing marketing research. And this skill is responsible more than any other for making me a lot of money. One of my good friends even started calling me "Mr. Reesearch" after seeing all of the Internet marketing research I was capable of doing.
Over the next several weeks I am going to talk about the topic of marketing research on this blog. I'm going to talk about several tools and techniques that I use on a regular basis. I think once you learn how to use these tools and methods for yourself, you'll really increase the rate at which you succeed online.
Let's start this first "installment" talking about KEYWORD RESEARCH.
Keyword research is absolutely critical for everything traffic-related. If you don't know the terms your target prospects are searching for then you will have a very hard time getting your message in front of them when they do search -- either through SEO efforts or through PPC search engine listings.
But keyword research goes beyond just building a list of keywords to use for generating traffic...
I use keyword research to find out what a certain market is currently looking for. What they are currently interested in. The types of things they are currently buying. Yes, you can find all of that with keyword research.
If you are selling anything in any market, I cannot urge you enough to spend sometime and really pay attention to the many keyword variations in your market. You will begin to see trends of the different types of products and services that your market is buying. If you want to expand and increase your sales, I suggest developing (or buying the rights to) one of those other products that your market is looking for that you currently don't offer. Once you do this, you'll now have TWO sites that you can drive traffic to with the same set of keywords AND use them to cross-promote each other.
What do you think happens when you then add a THIRD related keyword product to your product channel? That's right. Now you've got a network of three related keyword sites that can cross-promote each other. This is a very very POWERFUL strategy. I've been doing this for over 7 years and continue to do it with each new market I enter.
One of my favorite keyword research tools is KwMap.com. This site will show you a graphical representation of the relationship between keywords. I find this to be a good way to brainstorm in many directions after seeing how certain keywords are "branching off." I strongly suggest you check it out and put in some of your market keywords.
So start doing keyword research BEFORE you start a project. There's a fortune to be made from doing keyword research.
