Day 2 of the Thirty Day Challenge teaches you how to find out the keyword phrases for your micro niche. Today was a big video day, with loads of good stuff. Best of all – the tool – Market Samurai.

As usual, here is the mind map:

Todays lesson covered:

• Why we need to look for the “Phrase that Pays”
• What is a market and what are the criteria for markets we should focus on?
• How to use Market Samurai to identify your target Keyword Phrases
• Phrase vs Broad Match
• Embracing change

Why do you need the Phrase that Pays?

• A page on the internet does not really exist without a “Phrase”
• Visitors will only find your site if it targets the right Phrase
• Not all Keyword Phrases are the same – some are good, some are not
• Day 2 is therefore about finding the Phrase that Pays

What is a market?

A target market consists of:

1. a group of people with a common need or desire
2. that have the ability/capacity to pay
3. that are motivated to buy
4. with acceptable competition

Markets come in different sizes and shapes. The diagram below explains the difference between a market and a micro niche.

Using Market Samurai to identify your Target Keyword Phrases

During the 30dc we are targeting Keyword Phrases with the following criteria:

• SEOT >= 80 (Broad Match)
• SEOC <= 30,000
• PBR > 15%

The steps to identify your Theme Keyword for your micro niche are:

• Select market from your 30dc Day 1 action
• Create a new project for this market
• Enter high level, primary keyword, like Weight Loss, Dating, Guitar, etc
• Generate keywords (Google Synonym Tool ticked, Include additional, Google Search Keyword not ticket)
• Select a keyword that interests you
• Drill down (click the key symbol) & again generate keywords
• Filter keyword list as per the above criteria
• Review list & select theme keyword

Once you have identified your theme keyword, its important to generate at least three or four related category keywords with the same criteria (SEOT >=80. SEOC<=30k, PBT>15%).

Your website will need to contain additional pages for the category keywords. If there are less then three category keywords that meet the criteria, move on to a different market.

• Generate Keywords based on theme keyword (This time make sure Google Search Keywords is ticket)
• Analyze keywords
• Set filters
• Ensure you have at least 3 category keywords

Phrase vs Broad Match

Best to watch the video for this one. In summary, Brent outlines why SEOC is based on Phrase Match, whilst for SEOT we should be looking for Broad Match. This ensures we maximize traffic, and minimize competition.

Embracing Change

The only constant is change -> So get on with it!

Additional Tips & Resources

Some helpful sites / links:

• Market Samurai Videos -> for later – resist the urge to watch
• Google Adwords Keyword Tool
• Google Search Keyword Tool
• When using the above two online, always check the country setting as its set to your current country by default, where as Market Samurai by default is set to global.

Tips

• I have a “brainstorming” project setup in Market Samurai. In this I have created a master tab, called “Good Ideas Bucket” and I copy into this tab any keywords that look interesting so I can easily recall them in future. This way I can dig into a specific keyword, and then close the tabs once I found the keyword and moved it to the “Bucket”

• Check what Google think’s your site is about by entering your site URL in the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, Website Content. Also great for checking competitor sites.

• Keyword with High SEOT but very low PBR? Set Google Synonym to Ignore Additional, and tick Google Search Keyword. Generate Keywords, and then click Add Permutations before Analyzing Keywords. 9 out of 10 times I find the right keyword order with high PBR.

• Use the “More filters” setting in Google Search Keyword Tool to find more targeted keywords in each category. Here is an example of the Health category, showing most searched for keywords, with Cost Per Click > $1 and High Adwords Competition. Useful for Adsense sites.

The Thirty Day Challenge kicked off today. I will be keeping track of daily summaries of the key points for each day on this blog. This is kind of like my online notebook. Here’s my Thirty Day Challenge Day 1 Mindmap:

Content of day 1:

• 4 Critical parts to an online business
• How to overcome procrastination
• Brainstorming your micro niche

4 Critical parts to an online business

Or as Ed referred to it – Magnificent Symphony in Four Parts

• Market research
  • 95% of mistakes are made by choosing the wrong market
  • Many people start with the product. Wrong! Start by identifying the market
  • Qualify your market by asking: 1) Is there a market? 2) Is the market interested in buying?
• Traffic
  • 30dc will focus on 3 ways of generating traffic, 2 free ones, 1 paid for [no further info provided today]
• Conversion
  • Conversion = get a visitor to take a action you want (ie buy product, download report, register email, etc)
  • Ed’s performance –> 1 sale every 200 visits
• Product
  • Once you have tested the market, and visitors are converting, develop a product
  • Use the market to tell you what they want

How to overcome procrastination

Why do we procrastinate?

• Fear of failure
• Fear of success
• Fear of what others might think

How do you stop procrastinating?

• Break through the fear. Look at why you are afraid and let go of it
• Stop feeling sorry for yourself
• Break large jobs up into small manageable parts
• Ask yourself – If not now, When?
• Only focus on those things that are important. Forget about the unimportant.
• Make time to focus on creating, reviewing & actioning your todo list
  

Brainstorming your micro niche

This is about generating ideas, without worrying about how viable they are.

• Get a real notebook, and always write your ideas down as soon as they come to you.
• Start with topics that you are passionate about and that interest you.
• Dont just focus on the online/web world – look out into the real world. For examples, look at real magazines & papers
• Look at what people are selling through the magazines. Look at the adverts.
• For the 30dc, focus on a micro niche (niche in a niche), for example:
  • mega market > shopping
  • market > fashion
  • market segment > designer fashion
  • niche > alexander mcqueen [ie designer]
  • micro niche > alexander mcqueen skarfs
• Use the list of sites provided as part of day1 to get ideas, for example
• The magazine section on amazon:
  • Browse through the different topics
  • Look at number of magazines per topic to get a feel for “market size”
  • Scan through the magazine titles
  • Extrapolate for there, brainstorm related topics, write them down in your notebook
• The ehow website.
  • Select a category
  • Look at the How To’s that are shown
  • Spark other ideas from this > Brainstorm like with Amazon
• Springwise
  • Lists ideas for new innovative products & shows trends
  • Check daily for a couple of minutes

My additional tips, suggestions and resources

Procrastination

• Dedicate time to specific actions & use an egg timer to ensure you focus on the task at hand
• If needed, schedule activities in 15 – 30 min slots
• Switch off twitter, email, instant messenger
• Resist using the internet -> you will get distracted

Identifying your passion & interests

• Check your delicious / digg / stubleupon bookmarks, and identify the “tags” you have used most often
• What do you like reading? Look at the tv programs do you watch and why?
• In Google Reader, select the Trends view. Look at the tags you use most (tag cloud in bottom right corner). Also look at your “Trends”, in particular which rss feeds you have starred most in the last 30 days.
• Look at Amazon’s Best Selling Magazines
• On eHow, also look at the Top 10 eHow’s (bottom left sidebar on homepage), Popular Categories (bottom right on homepage), and the Top Requested Articles page.
• On Springwise, check the Top 5 Most Read (left hand sidebar, homepage, in the middle), or this great Top 10 for each Industry post
• Subscribe to the Sprintwise RSS feed in Google Reader