Now that you have some ideas for some niche markets, you have to do some research on what keywords you are going to target. Make sure you DO NOT skip this step because it is essential to having any kind of online success with your blog.

Having a great idea for a blog is one thing, however, you must be able to drive traffic to your blog to make any kind of money. To determine if the keywords you have chosen are worth going for you need to use a keyword research tool. One of the keyword research tools I recommend you use is Google's Keyword Research Tool. The best thing about this keyword research tool is that it is absolutely FREE! I would highly suggest you bookmark this site, since you will be using it constantly.

How do you use the Google Keyword Research Tool?

The Google Keyword Research Tool is highly intuitive to use. All you do is type in a keyword phrase, type in the captcha phrase (to prove you are human), and this tool will pop up a results page that will list how many times your keyword phrase is searched in a month both locally and globally. I usually only pay attention to the globally searched column because blogs and websites are searched on a world wide scale.

If you see that your keywords are searched more than 3,000 times per month, this is a good thing. 3,000 searches a month roughly equates to 100 searches a day. If your keywords are searched below 3,000 a month I would suggest looking for another set of keywords that land more searches per month.

Other things to keep note of is the “match type” pull down menu that lets you choose between, broad, phrase, and exact. By choosing theses different selections you can find out more detailed information about those keywords.

• Broad Search – All of the keywords are searched in any particular order, could include other words in the search

• Phrase Search – All of the keywords are searched in the same order, but can have other words in the search

• Exact Search – Only those keywords were used in the search and in the same order

You will notice in general that Broad Search has the most, then Phrase Search, and lastly Exact Search. When I do my keyword research, I try to find searches in the range of 3,000 – 10,000 Exact Searches per month. The Broad Search may range from around 5,000 – 20,000 searches. However, this is just a generalization. You can go for keywords that are higher or lower than these numbers, but if it's too low you may not get enough visitors and if its too high you may run into tough competition.

What do I do if my keywords don't get enough monthly searches?

When using Google Keyword Research Tool you will often see “Keywords related to terms entered” that show similar keywords that may or may not have a better monthly search volume. Often times the keywords that show up there can also spark an idea for a related keyword search.

Also, further down there is a section called “related keywords to consider”. In this section they list a bunch of related keywords that are similar in nature to what you searched for. If you click on “Global monthly search volume” you can sort the list of keywords by monthly searches. You will most likely find a lot of keywords that have a huge amount of searches all the way down to some keywords with just a few searches. Look for some keywords that look to have a reasonable amount of searches and appeal to you.

If none of these tips work to find a keyword that fits, try thinking of keywords in a different way. For example, if you wanted keywords about a specific product such as Pro-Activ, try to search for terms such as “acne removal product review”.

I've got a keyword that meets all the criteria, should I now pursue these keywords?

Not exactly. You will still need to do some more research to solidify if it's worth your time to build a blog around your keywords.

Having done your keyword research, you have proven that your keywords can generate enough traffic, but now you must determine what the competition for those keywords are. To check out your competition there are a few things that you can do:

1. Search your keywords in Google and look in the top right for the number of results. If your keyword was “face cream”, it would look something similar to this “Results 1 – 10 of about 28,900,000 for face cream”. Obviously, the lower the competition the better. I would target search results less than 100,000 results on an exact search. To get more accurate results of sites targeting your keywords, use an exact search by putting your keywords in quotes.

2. Observe the top 10 competition for your search result. Your primary goal is to land the number 1 spot in the top 10 search results. If the top 10 search results are too competitive, you may not want to target those keywords. I will go into more detail about strength of competition below. A useful tool to determine the strength of competition is Niche Research Commando

How do I determine if the top 10 search results are too strong?

There are a lot of different aspects that go into why a certain site ranks high for a search term. One of the large factors is how many backlinks a website has. If a website has a lot of backlinks then search engines put a larger value on that site since a lot of other sites are linking to it.

What is a backlink and why are they important?

A backlink is simply a link that comes into your site from another site. Google likes to see that other sites see value in your site, so a backlink is one way in determining this. Also search engines like one way backlinks, not two way backlinks. A one way backlink is a link that only goes into your site. A two way backlink is like a link exchange where they link to you and you link to them. Search engines have devalued such links.

How do you determine how many backlinks a website has?

You can use Yahoo Site Explorer to determine the number of backlinks any particular site has. All you have to do is go to Yahoo and type in “link:www.yoursite.com” in the search box and the total number of backlinks to “www.yoursite.com” will pop up. Of course, substitute www.yoursite.com with whatever site you are checking the backlinks for.

How many backlinks are considered to be strong competition?

I would target for the top 10 search results to have less than 100 backlinks. If there are a couple of sites that have more than a 100, it might be OK.

What is a sign of weak competition?

Like I mentioned earlier a low number of backlinks is one sign of a weak competition. But another sign of weak competition is if you see most of the top 10 don't have all the keywords in the title. Also look out for domain names that have the keywords in them. Keywords located in the root domain name is a sign of a tough competitor.

Are there any good programs that can simplify keyword research?

Absolutely! There are a few good keyword research programs that can cut your research time by 10 fold. However, these programs are not free like the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Here are the programs I highly recommend:

1. Market Samurai – This is actually the best keyword research tool available, period. Although it is the most expensive of the three, it is very powerful. All of the internet marketing gurus use this tool. If you are really serious about internet marketing, I highly suggest you purchase this program. Be sure to sign up for the FREE trial version to experience the power of Market Samurai while it lasts. Here are the features of Market Samurai below:

   • Uncover the most relevant keywords for your niche

   • Extensive filtering of tons of data

   • View your top 10 competition with detailed color coded information

   • Analyze the quality of your competition's top 1,000 backlinks

   • Complete In-Depth SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Analysis at a single glance

   • Find related content and related sites to post on

   • Research Articles

   • Determine if a page uses Follow or No-Follow links

   • Uncover RSS feeds that you can republish on your site

   
   Get Your FREE version of Market Samurai HERE

2. Niche Research Commando – This tool is great to check out your top 10 competition. Niche Research Commando saves time by researching your competition's stats in one easy step.

   • Find the latest HOT trends

   • Brainstorm function helps you find keywords when you can't think of any

   • Save and organize your results on previous searches

   • Narrow your search results by monthly search volumes and competition with the Filter Functionality.

   • Easy-to-follow Red/Yellow/Green guide helps determine if a keyword is worth pursuing. Red means stay away, Yellow means proceed with caution, and Green means go ahead and pursue the keyword.
      

   Find Out more on Niche Research Commando HERE
   

3. Micro Niche Finder – This is a great tool that provides similar results as the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, except it has a TON more other features that are very useful.

   • Uncover the most relevant keywords for your niche

   • Extensive filtering of tons of data

   • View your top 10 competition with detailed color coded information

   • Analyze the quality of your competition's top 1,000 backlinks

   • Complete In-Depth SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Analysis at a single glance

   • Find related content and related sites to post on

   • Research Articles

   • Determine if a page uses Follow or No-Follow links

   • Uncover RSS feeds that you can republish on your site
      

          Find Out More About Micro Niche Finder HERE

For someone who is just starting out with internet marketing which of these programs do you recommend?

For people who are just starting out, use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool and do the searches manually since it is free. If you are looking to save time in your keyword research, but don't want to spend a lot of money, I would suggest you get Niche Research Commando to cut down your research of the top 10 competition in combination with Micro Niche Finder for a more extensive research tool.

However, if you have made up your mind that you are going to take Internet marketing seriously I would highly suggest getting Market Samurai. I don't see any reason why you shouldn't at least try out the FREE version of Market Samurai,

This is the conclusion of Lesson 3: Keyword Research. I hope you have enjoyed the FREE lessons on MAKING MONEY WITH A BLOG.

Be sure to check out Lesson 4: Choosing Your Blog Domain Name

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Moving forward with the following lessons I am going to be focusing on how to make money using a Wordpress blog.  I may in the future add a lesson plan for how to create a Squidoo Lense, Blogger Blog, or HubPage, but for now I'm going to stick with Wordpress blogs since I believe this is where most of the potential lies. 

I would suggest you start off with a blog topic that you are interested in.  It's always a lot easier to write about things that you are interested in and have a lot of knowledge about.  If nothing comes to mind go to Amazon.com and browse through all of the categories.  You can also check out all the magazines that are on the shelves and browse through all of the different magazine topics.  If Amazon has a category for it or if there is a magazine about a certain topic then there is going to be a niche market out there for it. 

Also keep in mind that you do not have to market a specific product to make money online, you can also make an information site.  An information site would be something like "how to cure athletes foot" or "everything you wanted to know about ear infections".  As long as you can provide useful content and drive traffic to your site, you can make money with pay per click programs such as Adsense.  Even if your blog is purely informational you can usually find something that you can sell that is related.

Here are some example topics:

Arts & Photography
Brides & Weddings
Business & Investing
Children’s Magazines
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Crafts & Hobbies
Electronics & Audio
Entertainment
Fashion & Style
Foreign Language
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Literary Magazines & Journals
Men’s Interest
Movies & Music
News & Politics
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Family
Professional & Trade
Recycled Paper Magazines
Religion & Spirituality
Science # Sports & Leisure
Teens
Travel & Regional
Women’s Interest

These topics are a great place to start, however they are still way too broad of a topic.  If you are going to be successful with your blog you have to choose a more targeted niche.  Lets take the instance of "Home & Garden".  Well Home & Garden is a very broad category that includes Kitchen & Dining, Furniture & Decor Bedding & Bath, Home Appliances, Vacuums & Storage, Home Improvement, Patio, Lawn & Garden, Pet Supplies, Sewing, Craft & Hobby, etc.  Take this a step further and choose Home Appliances.  Take this a step further and choose Convection Ovens.  And take it one last step further and get Convection Oven Recipes.  Now you are finally at a micro niche level category.  So we basically broke down a very vague category and dug down deep until we got to a very specific category called a micro niche.

Home & Garden >> Home Appliances >> Convection Ovens >> Convection Oven Recipes

This tactic can be used with any category.  The idea is to pick a specific targeted micro niche that will appeal to people searching exactly for Convection Oven Recipes.  If you choose too broad of a topic then you will be running up against some really high competition and your blog will just get lost in the mix.  So think of a few topics and break them down into micro niches similar to the example shown.

In the next lesson I will go over how to use your blog topic to choose keywords that are related to your blog topic.

Lesson 3: Keyword Research

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Congratulations for taking the 1st step to making money with a blog!  The goal of these lesson plans are to give you a good understanding of how to make money blogging online.  This is not a step-by-step guide, but it is going to be very detailed and highly informative.  These lessons will be especially useful for people who are just starting out or are interested in diving into Internet marketing.  If you do want a step-by-step guide on how to make money online I suggest you join the Niche Blitzkrieg program.  Read my review on the Niche Blitzkrieg system here.

The first thing you have to decide is what your goals are for making money with a blog.  Are you just looking to make money on the side or are you looking to make a new career out of it?  One thing I would like to point out is that you are not going to make money blogging overnight.  There is a step-by-step process to make profitable blogs, however it takes time and you have to work at it.  If you are not willing to be patient and put in the work I would suggest you try some other way to make money online.

The next thing you should decide is how much money you are willing to spend.  I know everyone is in their own financial situation and people are willing to spend a different amount of money to get their business running.  The cheapest and lowest risk way of creating a blog to make money is to create a Blogger blog, Squidoo Lense, or a Hubpage.  All of these services offer a free blog that will allow you to make money online.  This is a great way to get started, but they are also limited in their themes, layouts, and customization.  Also note that some free blogs do not allow you to monetize their sites.

My suggestion is to make Wordpress blogs from your own host and domain.  While this does have some out of pocket costs it gives you the freedom to create your own keyword rich domain, brand your own style of blog, and gives you the freedom to customize your site to your own liking.  The money making opportunities are greatly increased with your own personal Wordpress blog.  The focus of this lesson plan is to show you how to make money creating your own blog using Wordpress.  However you can still use a lot of the methods I am teaching with free blogs as well.

How much is a website host?

Depending on the host that you get it ranges from $5 – $10/month.  However make sure you choose a host that has unlimited add-on domains, storage, and bandwidth.  Unlimited add-on domains will allow you to use one host for all of the domains that you get.  I recommend Just Host or Host Gator.

How much is a domain name?

A domain name costs in the range of $6-$10/year depending on who you buy them from and how many years you sign up for.  I recommend Domainorb or Angry Chihuahua.

This is pretty much the only out of pocket costs that you need to start making money with a blog.

Can you make money off of Personal Blogs?

Yes, you can make money off of any kind of blog so long as you can create traffic.  The more traffic you create, the more money you will make (theoretically).

Is there any step-by-step procedure how to make Wordpress blogs?

If you are serious about making a Wordpress blog and how to drive traffic to your blog I highly suggest you join the Niche Blitzkrieg program.  The Niche Blitzkrieg system shows step-by-step screen shots and videos of how to make a Wordpress blog and offers detailed courses on to get your sight recognized by Google.  See my review of the Niche Blitzkrieg system here.

How do you actually make money and get paid?

There are a few ways that you can make money with your blog.  The first way is to get paid per click.  You can join a program such as Google Adsense that will pay you every time someone clicks on their advertisements from your website.  Google Adsense will choose ads based on the content of your website to increase your chances of driving targeted traffic.  Adsense clicks can range from $0.01 to $5.00 a click based on what link they clicked on.  Another way to make money is by joining affiliate programs such as Amazon to sell their products.  These affiliate programs will give you commissions based on each sale you make.  Commissions very between different affiliate programs.  Different programs pay you in different ways.  Some programs will cut you a check while others will only pay you via PayPal.  Also some programs have a minimum amount you must make before you can get paid.  Check each affiliate for more details.

Lesson 2: Choosing a Blog Topic

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