| Blitz
Ezine #271
March 6, 2007
Tools for Doing Keyword Research - Many Free
The Blitz-Promotions News Letter
Issue no. 271, March 6, 2007
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Blitz Comments
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Wow... I can't believe it is Spring. Don't forget this weekend to Spring forward your clocks.
Every day or two we talk some about promotion (as well as fun things too on our blog)
http://smallbizpromo.blogspot.com/
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In this Issue
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- Ideas for Blog Feeds and Posts
- Keyword Research
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Food for thought
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Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Goethe
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How do you get ideas for blog posts and RSS feed posts?
By Sharon Housley
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NOTE: If you don't have one yet then today is the time to create a blog.
The best blogs and feeds are those that contain unique, fresh, compelling, content. So where do these prolific posters get their ideas? I talked to a handful of bloggers to determine where their inspiration originated for their content. Not surprisingly, ideas for blog posts or RSS feed items originate or are influenced by other web content. The following are venues for finding your online muse:
1.Google News
Monitor Google News for keywords related to your industry. If you find a story you disagree with or wholeheartedly agree with write about it. Add your thoughts, and editorialize the content. This does not mean you should just repost Google news summaries. The value is not only in the news aggregation, but in the commentary that you provide. Tie news items to specific events, conditions, or the impact of specific news on the industry. Adding a view point or reference to a news article adds genuine value.
2. Web Logs
Look at your websites "long tail", and examine your web logs. Find phrases that are relevant to your website and write in-depth information about those subjects. This is particularly helpful if the blog or RSS feed is used as a marketing tool for the website. By focusing on obscure or less popular search terms and phrases that are found in your web logs, you will not only find that you provide content of interest to your readers, but you will attract additional web traffic.
3. Collate
Many bloggers have established themselves as "experts" by simply amassing and organizing a large collection of information that relates to a specific field. Use the blog or feed to announce and organize information, new products or services in an unbiased way within a specific industry.
4. Search
Most people assume that there is information on every subject on the Internet, but that is not necessarily the case. If you stumble on an area where there is minimal content, consider it an opportunity. Continue developing content. Chances are if you were searching for the content someone else is as well, develop a blog post or RSS feed for information that find inaccessible.
5. Untouchable Content
Consider tackling all of the content that many other publishers find difficult or uncomfortable. Controversial or content that is difficult to write about is often overlooked, look at challenging content as an opportunity.6. Monitor Authority Blogs
Watch authority blogs for developing industry news. Comment on any breaking news or editorials that you either agree or disagree with. This may attract the attention of an authority blog and could result in a link to your commentary. Be sure to credit the source of any blog posts that you comment on or quote.
7. Advice
If you are an expert? Consider developing an advice column. Let readers send you questions and post the questions and answers in your blog or RSS feed. This allows your readers to direct your content.
8. Conversations
Many bloggers and publishers discover topic ideas from conversations. Create dialogue with both individuals familiar and unfamiliar with your blog topic, the questions that come up could be good fodder for posts.
9. Forums/ Newsgroups / Usenet
Forums are great places to find topic ideas. Read topic specific forum posts then editorialize and summarize the posts.
10. Look Outside the Box
Do not constrain your thinking to parameters found online. The best RSS feeds and blogs are targeted, clear, consistent, and unique. It is okay to occasionally step outside your comfort zone to find appealing content. While breaking news has obvious value, so to does timeless content and "how to" posts. Don't be afraid to mix it up and provide readers a combination of the two.
About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.
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Keyword Research
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Need some help fine tuning your keywords. The sites below will help.
http://visualthesaurus.com - Creates visual trees of related keywords. You type in a term and rich word trees spring up. Then you can click on the next word and the next word and the tree continues to change. . There's a free demo and a yearly membership is a paltry $20.
Spy Intelligence: Sometimes it's quite useful to have an idea of what your competitors are doing on Pay Per Click, what keywords they're bidding on, what they're spending, stuff like that.
Disclaimer: Spyfoo and Googspy aren't perfect - but they will give you a good idea.
http://spyfoo.com/ - Gives you a list of major keywords your competition is bidding on, an estimate of their daily budget, data about their organic listings, average bid position, and how many competitors they have. Rather insightful.
http://www.googspy.com/ - A related technology, but presented in a different way. The keyword list it generates is incomplete but quite helpful.
http://www.lexfn.com/ - Type in a word and it gives you related terms and concepts.
http://buzz.yahoo.com/ - Following pop culture to see what's hot this week? This is a great place to do it, 'cuz the clicks always tell a story. I don't know that this is terribly useful for keyword research per se (unless you have a very deliberate strategy that plays on celebs & stuff like that) but it certainly gives you topic ideas that you can tie into newsletters, rants, etc. The equivalent tool on Google is called Zeitgeist: http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html
Google's Keyword Suggest - http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en - as you type a search term, Google suggests related words.
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Links you can use -
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See above for some excellent Keyword research links.
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Some Fun Links
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All kinds of pscyh tests.
http://www.psychtests.com/Something for the kiddies ... The Yuckiest site :o)
http://www.yucky.com/flash/
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Useful links
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Ezine
Archives links to all our past issues (well most
of them) in one place.
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Next Issues
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Our
next issue will be April 3rd, 2007
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Final Thoughts
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Tim
and Lisa Hamblin
Tisa Enterprises
PO Box 221
Hazard KY 41702
http://www.blitzpromotions.com
http://www.crochetnmore.com
http://www.webpageplanner.com
http://www.ineedlinks.com |
