This is the one irrefutable law of marketing on the Internet. If you can identify the keywords that will send eager buyers to your site, your ability to make money online is pretty much guaranteed.

Keyword research helps you…

• Find a hungry “niche market“
• Come up with a product to sell to them
• Create winning salescopy that convinces them to buy your product
• Optimize your website for the search engines so visitors can easily FIND your site
• Come up with new product ideas that you can sell to your existing customer base

… It’s essential for ALL stages of
growing your business

But discovering which keywords will help you make money online can be a challenge. People are unpredictable, and the search terms they use might surprise you.

For example, say you plan to make money online by selling an eBook that teaches people how to build a deer fence. You might think your best keyword is, “how to build a deer fence” — when you might get better results with, “deer resistant garden,” or “how to keep deer out of garden,” or even “get those blasted vermin away from my roses!”

… Well, maybe not that last one.

Which Keyword Research Tool Should You Use?

Here are our favourites:

1. Google AdWords Keyword Tool — Why do we like it? Because it’s free! Plus, the results include PPC info and come directly from Google’s own real-time databases.

2. BeBiz – We can’t resist plugging our own fabulous keyword tool that’s built right into BeBiz, our complete all-in-one online business builder. BeBiz automatically integrates your keyword research results right into all aspects of your business, making it even easier for you to make money online. .

Once you’ve accumulated a long list of keywords, what then? What do you do with those keywords? And how do you know if they present a great opportunity to make money online?

Here’s the answer…

Our Seven-Step “Keyword Research Survival Guide”

If you are determined to make money online, follow each of the steps below and your keyword research efforts will yield significant results that will help you make money online.

1. Start off with ONE word that describes a passion or interest

For example: “rabbits”

2. Create a list of synonyms for that word

For example, “bunnies,” “rabbit,” “bunny rabbits”

3. Combine each synonym with “how” to generate problem statements

For example, “how bunnies,” “how rabbit,” “how bunny rabbits”

4. Record the “action word” phrases that appear in the keyword research results

For example, “how to groom rabbits,” “how to make organic rabbit food,” “how to build a rabbit hutch”

All these phrases have an action word in them and clearly describe a problem people are trying to solve. These are the keywords you’re looking for. They’re the ones that will help you make money online.

5. Analyze the “supply and demand” factor for each keyword

Using your keyword research tool, check to see how many searches are being done and how many competing sites there are for each of the “action word” keywords you recorded. You want to focus on keywords that have a lot of searches but not much competition. That way you know it will be easier for you to break into that market and compete with the websites already there. And that is what’s going to help you make money online.

6. Cluster the top keywords according to intention

As you drill down into your keyword research, you’ll find different phrases that basically mean the same thing. For example: “how to make a rabbit cage,” “rabbit hutch building tips” and “rabbit hutch design.”

Organize all these similar phrases into different lists. Now, here’s the awesome part: Each list represents a different niche market opportunity. The longer the list, the bigger the opportunity and the better your chances of being able to make money online.

7. Look for long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are phrases made up of anywhere from four to fifteen words. Here’s an example:

Short keyword: build rabbit cage

Long-tail keyword: how do I build a wooden indoor rabbit cage

Long-tail keywords enable you to make money online for a couple of reasons. First, they’re easier to get a top ranking for in Google and other search engines. Second, people tend to use long-tail keywords for searches when they are close to making a purchase. This means the visitors you attract with your long-tail keywords are far more likely to buy something from you than the visitors you get from your short keywords.

… So there you have it: our seven-step “Keyword Research Survival Guide.” Stick with this process and you’ll never be left wondering if that random collection of keywords represents a real opportunity to make money online or just another poorly conceived website that’s doomed to failure.

The e-Business Startup Handbook

Starting your new business by targeting the wrong products to the wrong keywords  is a common error, and in the Ebusiness Start-Up Handbook, we explain why this can stop you from succeeding online.

You’ll then learn our tested and proven process for starting your new business the right way, allowing you to:

• save potentially thousands of dollars
• profit with a large share of a smaller market
• avoid weeks of tedious labor
• identify untapped markets with minimal competition
• find the perfect products to sell to maximum profits

Click here to learn how the Ebusiness Start-Up Handbook can help you master the biggest obstacle to your online business

Keyword research enables you to…

• Find a hungry “niche market”
• Come up with a product to sell to them
• Create winning salescopy that convinces them to buy your product
• Optimize your website for the search engines so visitors can easily FIND your site
• Come up with new product ideas that you can sell to your existing customer base

 But discovering which keywords will help you make real money online can be a challenge. People are unpredictable, and the search terms they use to hunt for information online might surprise you.

For example, say you plan to make money online by selling an eBook that teaches people how to ship cars overseas. You might think your best keyword is, “how to ship cars overseas” — when you might get better results with, “how do I get my car to Europe,” or “transport car Asia to US cheap.”

The point is, you’ll never know which keywords represent the best opportunity to make real money online until you do your research.

Once you’ve accumulated a comprehensive list of keywords using a research tool such as the Google AdWords Keyword Tool or the research tool included in our complete all-in-one business builder, BeBiz, what do you do with that list of keywords? How can you tell if those keywords represent a good opportunity to make real money online?

In order to make sure your keyword research efforts yield significant results that will help you make real money online, follow the steps below:

1. Start with ONE word that describes one of your passions or interests

For example: “rabbits”

2. Create a list of synonyms

For example, “bunnies,” “rabbit,” “bunny rabbits”

3. Turn those synonyms into problem statements using “how“

For example, “how bunnies,” “how rabbit,” “how bunny rabbits”

4. Record the “action phrases” you find in the keyword research results

For example, “how to groom rabbits,” “how to make organic rabbit food,” “how to build rabbit hutch”

All these phrases have an action word in them and obviously represent a problem people are trying to solve. These are the kind of keywords you should be looking for. They’re the ones that will help you make real money online.

5. Analyze the “supply and demand” factor for each keyword

Using your keyword research tool, take a look at the “action keywords” to see how many searches are being done and how many competing sites there are for each one. You want to focus on keywords that have a lot of searches but not too much competition. That will make it much easier for you to break into that market and compete with the websites that are already selling to that market. And that is what’s going to help you make real money online.

6. Cluster the top keywords according to intention

As you drill down into your keyword research, you’ll find different phrases that have the same meaning. For example: “how to make a rabbit cage,” “rabbit hutch building tips” and “rabbit hutch design.”

Organize all these similar phrases into lists according to intention. Now, here’s the great part: Each list represents a different niche market opportunity. The longer the list is, the bigger the potential income opportunity and the better your chances will be to make real money online.

7. Look for long-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords are phrases made up of four to fifteen words. For example…

Short keyword: build rabbit cage
Long-tail keyword: build wooden indoor rabbit cage

By targeting long-tail keywords you increase your ability to make money online. Long-tail keywords are easier to get a top ranking for in Google and other search engines. Plus, people often use long-tail keywords for searches when they are close to buying something online. This means the visitors you attract with your long-tail keywords are far more likely to buy something from you than the visitors you get from your short keywords.

… So there you have it: our seven-step “Keyword Research Survival Guide.” Stick with this process and you’ll never be left wondering if that random collection of keywords represents a real opportunity to make money online or just another poorly conceived website that’s doomed to failure.

You’ve got more chance of getting top position in the search results or sponsored listings for long-tail keyword phrases (e.g., “how to train a labrador to do tricks”). That’s because fewer sites compete for them  –  a quick Google search for “dog training” shows more than 23 million results, and only 200,000 results for “how to train a labrador to do tricks.”

Okay, the long-tail keyword phrases certainly don’t get as many searches. But the traffic they bring in is much more targeted compared to what you’ll get if you rank for broad, general keyword phrases (e.g., “dog training”).

People who use long-tail keywords tend to know exactly what they want. Tell them that’s exactly what you’ve got, and you’re a lot closer to a sale.

That’s why all Internet marketers who target tightly-focused niche markets should be encouraged by recent figures from Hitwise, which show the number of long-tail keyword searches has increased over the past year.

In fact, searches using eight or more words have increased 20% year-on-year, while one- and two-word searches have decreased by 3% and 5% respectively.

Here are the Hitwise figures in detail:

Although searches using eight or more words still only make up less than 3.5% of all online searches, the trend is clear:

Internet users are increasingly searching the Web using more specific, long-tail keywords. (Just imagine if you had the top spot in Google for “how to train a labrador to do tricks” and the number of people searching for that term increased by 20% of the past 12 months!)

So never stop doing keyword research. There might be new long-tail keywords for your niche that you can rank for. You just haven’t yet discovered them yet.

The tool we recommend for this is BeBiz — it’s our all-in-one online business builder — and even if you already have a website, you can use it to collect and analyze keyword research in a simple-to-use interface. 

Bottom line: Are YOUR customers using more targeted, long-tail keyword phrases to find solutions to their problems? Find out with keyword research, use those phrases on your site and in your PPC ads, and vault to the top of the results for those highly targeted searches.