mYfAVE'StOYOU: Oh, The Opportunity

sábado, 29 de enero de 2011

Oh, The Opportunity

I'm doing keyword research.

The opportunities I see before me still amaze me.

Keyword lists, showing the frequency of searches, are market research nirvana. It's like being a god, delving deep into the minds of mortals.

And most people outside SEO. Still. Don't. Get. It.

Ever explained keywords to people, and received blank looks in return?

We can trawl through a keyword research tool and list thousands of niche business opportunities. Demand is on display. It is being broadcast to us.

Once we discover demand, we measure the competition, quantify the opportunity, build a site, and dive into the demand streams that have existed long before the internet was invented.

Demand, meet supply.

Just look at all this demand:

"japanese translation" 450,000 Monthly searches
"hospital jobs" 823,000 Monthly searches
"forklift certification" 27,100 Monthly searches
"address labels" 301,000 Monthly searches
"digital signage" 201,000 Monthly searches
"student credit cards" 135,000 Monthly searches
"coin collecting" 60,500 Monthly searches

And as we know, that's just ONE keyword per niche. The real gems can be found deeper into the long tail of associations, permeations, and similarities.

The search channel still amazes me.

It's so powerful, and so under-rated.

Mad Men

Have you seen Mad Men?

If you haven't, it's a great show about an advertising agency, set in the 1960's. The ad executives were the rockstars of the time, paid well to know what was on the minds of consumers.

What would they have made of a keyword research tool, I wonder?

Or our digital zeitgeist?

And unlike fifty years ago, there are fewer barriers to entry to many traditional markets. In the past, in order to compete-nation wide, or internationally, a huge, multinational machine, of people and capital, was needed. Now, with a credit card, we just tap into a vast network in an instant.

Fifty years ago, publishing a book was difficult and expensive. A large publishing company could get shelf space at a major retail outlet, but you couldn't. Probably still can't. You needed to print many copies, a risk and cost out of reach of most people. A publisher could reach out to reviewers, and work the publicity machines.

Now we can compete.

We can get more far more reach, in in much less time, for a fraction of the cost.

So many niches, so little time.

So, what are you going to do today?