Market Samurai
By Mary Jaksch, Chief Editor of WTD
So let’s say you want to write a piece that will knock the socks off your readers.
How can you find out if they’ll be interested in the topic you’re keen to write about?
Here’s a quick quiz: Which way works best?
- Keep your fingers crossed as you write the piece
- Ask your Auntie Dotty whether your readers will like it
- Consult the IChing
- Ask your readers
- Find out what thousands of people want to know about
OK. So, it’s definitely uncomfortable crossing your fingers while writing (I’ve tried it) – and it may not have much effect. As to Aunt Dottie’s advice – she may not be in tune with your readers.
And the IChing is difficult to interpret. Here’s the kind of cryptic answer you get when consulting this ancient book of predictions: “To be powerful in the cheekbones brings misfortune” (honestly – I didn’t invent that!) As I said, it’s hard to interpret…or does that tell you what kind of piece to write?
The other two options work but – which one is best?
Option 1: Ask your readers
This is where the power of blogging comes into play. Because as a blogger you can consult your readers and ask them what they would like to read.
You can do that by using a free survey tool like Surveymonkey.com or you can ask them in a post. Either way, you’ll get some feedback.
Actually, you’ve already asked your readers. After all, blog comments are answers that your readers have given. If you look carefully at blog comments, you can get a good sense of the kind of topics they like and will respond favorably to.
The drawback with this method is that you’re only looking at your present pool of readers. If you want to reach out to new readers, it’s better to do some research to see what people out there really, really want to know.
Option 2: Use keyword research
What do you do if you want to know something online? Most likely, you’ll search for an answer on Google or on other search engines. That’s what most people do.
Whatever your niche is, there are a huge number of searches going on all the time.
It’s like a huge, hungry stream of traffic just waiting to find a post or video that can answer particular questions.
In the past, I’ve taken no notice at all of all this search engine activity. I would simply write what came into my head. In fact, if someone mentioned ‘keyword’ or ‘SEO’, I’d run screaming from the room.
But these days, I’ve turned into a SEO Ninja. Weird, eh?
Why is this keyword thing so important?
Because over time, more and more blog traffic arrives from Search Engines. When you start out with a new blog, there’ll only be a trickle. But over time this trickle can turn into a flood. All you need to do in order to direct huge traffic to particular blog posts, is to know the keywords that people use in order to search for posts like yours.
How to find keywords that generate huge traffic
The trick is to find keywords that many people are searching for – but where there are few competing websites.
Let’s put it to the test.
Imagine that you write a blog about health and fitness. You’re keen to write a post about fitness, but you want to make sure people really want to read it.
You’re faced with a group of possible topics that revolve around the following keywords:
- What is fitness?
- Exercises and workouts
- Exercises workout
- Health and fitness
Which do you think would be the best choice? (Quickly choose one without peeking below…)
Of course, you could ask Auntie Dotty. But you could also use a keyword tool to find the answer.
Here is a screenshot of the keyword tool I use, called Market Samurai. (Click here to get a free version.)
You can glean some crucial information here. If you write a post about ‘health and fitness’ you’ll be up against huge competition: over 79 million websites target this particular keyword phrase. Not good.
However, if you write about ‘what is fitness?’, or about ‘exercises workout’, the competition is a lot lower. (It may still look high at first glance, but most of the competing websites may only mention a particular keyword or keyphrase in a forum, or in some obscure place.)
The important thing is that over half a million people are searching for the phrase ‘what is fitness’ each and every day. That’s huge traffic!
Through doing some keyword research, you’ve not only found a great keyword phrase that will bring traffic to your site, you’ve also come away with inspiration. After all, “What is fitness?” is a lovely topic to write about.
You can easily see that if you had chosen, say, ‘health and fitness’ instead of ‘what is fitness’, your post would have no chance of appearing high up in the search engines. That’s why it’s important to become a bit of a keyword ninja. Your blog will thank you :-)
In order to optimize your post for a particular keyword phrase you can get a free plugin, called WordPress SEO which helps you to use the keywords you’ve found in all the right places.
For full SEO (Search Engine Optimization), you should use your keywords in the title, in subheadings, in the text itself, as well as in the image tags.
Here are an easy YouTube tutorials which explain how to do keyword research:
Tip: go to Bestkeywordtool to download a free version of Market Samurai.
Remember, I’m not a geek. So if I can learn to use a tool like this, so can you. In fact, learning how to do keyword research has been one of the major breakthroughs for me as a blogger. I just wish I’d learned how to do it when I first started out.
What’s your sense of keyword research? Should writers bother with it or not? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Mary Jaksch is the Editor of WritetoDone. She is also the blogger behind Goodlife ZEN and co-founder of the most comprehensive blogger training on the Net, the A-List Blogger Club.
Hi Mary,
Useful post! I agree keyword research is critical.
Yes, I couldn’t agree more. It is vital!
It really makes sense how you put it. I hadn’t thought about keyword research before. It seems like it could also help with inspiration for new topics. thanks for it.
Aren’t there some Google tools you can use for keyword research?
Hi Jenny! Yes, you can also use the Google Keyword Tool. However, as a blogger I need to have in-depth information at my fingertips. I want to get the whole picture in minutes, and not have to spend an hour or hours using a range of free tools. Actually, after the free trial of Market Samurai, some of the tools (including Google Keyword Tool) still work. That’s pretty good.
I think if you want your blog to make money, a tool like Market Samurai is essential. I use it every day.
SEO and keyword search are definites for non-fiction.
We can get a bit more creative with them and check out fiction. Just seeing what is popular now doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what we should be writing about. Check out all of Google’s tools such as the phrase popularity, and that might give us some more direction.
Thanks for contributing, Bruce :-)
Hi Mary,
What extra features are you using in Market Samurai that Google Adwords Keyword Tool is not giving. I agree with Bruce “Just seeing what is popular now doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what we should be writing about.”.
The keywords that I want to write about are already in high competition or not having enough search traffic. How Market Samurai answers this question?
Good question, Avadhut. I go through a whole analysis strategy with Market Samurai. Here are the steps:
Use a keyword that’s in general area I want to go it, and then throw out all the keyword suggestions that aren’t relevant to what I want to write about.
- Delete all keywords that have more than 900,000 competing websites
Step #4: Analyze the commercial value of the remaining keywords.
Delete all keywords that don’t show a proven income potential.
- Take an in-depth look at the 10 top websites ranked in Google to see how easy or difficult it may be to get into the top ten.
- How do they use the keywords? In the title? In the URL? What is the age of the site?
- Once I’ve optimized a post, page, or site, I use the Rank tracker to see how the post/page/site is rising up through Google.
I can do all this (and more) with Market Samurai in a matter of 10 minutes. I love having a tool that does it all :-)
My experience is that I’ve been able to find fantastic keywords that have high traffic and low competition – and have been overlooked by others. So, why not write what people want to read – as long as it’s a topic you enjoy?
I use Market Samurai every day too, and I think it’s a powerful tool.
Hey Mary!
Thanks for this useful information.
Just done my first survey on my blog using Surveymonkey!
Now just about to dive into keyword research :)
Thanks!
Each time I learn about keyword searches I glean a little more. I didn’t realize I could see what my competitors are doing too – great tidbit.
I don’t use keyword research in my posts, but I did use in creating a website for my counseling practice and for writing my e-book. I used those keywords everywhere I thought relevant. And, it has really helped get my website at the top on goggle searches in my area.
It really makes sense how you put it. I hadn’t thought about keyword research before. It seems like it could also help with inspiration for new topics. thanks for it.
Just done my first survey on my blog using Surveymonkey!
Mary,
Since switching to WordPress, I have the SEO plugin and am unsure of several things:
1). Should the title on my post be the same in the SEO box?
2). What is a quick and efficient way to fill out the SEO description part. How essential is it?
3). What do you recommend for your tags section?
Thanks for helping us.
I found some very interesting tips in this article. Thanks for sharing this article, it really helped me.
Thank you for writing this post and sharing it. I am a rookie blogger and have never even thought about SEO let alone understood it. However, with the info here and the wordpress SEO plugin I have a good start. Thanks again.
Just downloaded my free trial. Thanks Mary for this great resource!
What extra features are you using in Market Samurai that Google Adwords Keyword Tool is not giving. I agree with Bruce “Just seeing what is popular now doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what we should be writing about.”.
I must point out my gratitude for your kind-heartedness supporting persons that need assistance with your study. Your very own commitment to getting the message across has been particularly useful and have in every case encouraged women like me to get to their aims. Your amazing warm and helpful tips and hints denotes a whole lot to me and much more to my colleagues. Regards; from everyone of us.
Good post, Mary. It can definitely be a complex art trying to find out exactly what people want and more importantly, how to reach them effectively. Despite being at it for year, I am still learning the many nuances that you have touched on.
-Jean
This puts a very interesting spin on the topics I choose to write about in the future. While not as SEO expert by any means, I know enough to get by. But I never thought to do keyword search for my blog posts. Duh…now it sounds so “common sense”. Great tip!
I’ve really got into keyword research lately. Before that, I was just guessing at what people might like.
I downloaded the free trial version of Market Samurai and found their training videos really easy to understand.
The post I created is slowing climbing up the Google ranks. I check each day how far I’ve got.