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We often say the keyword research is the most important part of webpage development. However, if you want to do proper keyword research, you would need to pay subscription fees. For example, Wordtracker would charge you something around $59/month or $329/year. For a blogger who is not earning enough from his or her blog, this amount may seem very expensive.

Another big problem is that, for a blogger keyword research is a continuous process if they want to get enough visitors to their blog (ideally before publishing any post, you must do some keyword research - do you?). Especially, if you are looking to target keyword long tail, you must subscribe to one of them (unless you are experienced enough to guess it right.). And thus there is no other option but going for the yearly subscription to save some $$ in the long run.

But is there any other way to keyword research?

There are some free keyword research tools in the web. Though all of them are free, you may not expect complete result from a free account except from Google AdWords (even though Google AdWords is not primarily a keyword research tool, it is close enough to help you).

So how do you start?

At the very beginning do guess some keyword on the topic of your blog post. Prepare a small list - it is better to be generic. For example, if you are writing a post on proper keyword research for bloggers, “keyword research” or “free keyword research” should be taken as generic keywords. Now use those free tools to find out other variations of these keywords that your target audience is actually using.

So do you think that you have got all the keywords you want?

Ok, let’s go a bit deeper - now use these keywords to search in Google (.com or .co.uk or .com.au - depending on your target market) and find out how many people are targeting these keywords. You can also go for exact search (use the keywords in the “”) to know how many people are using that exact key phrase. This would give you a lot of idea on your competition.

Now you are ready to get your targeted phrases. Good key phrases should have more searches and less competition.

You can also try using Google Suggest or Google Trends if you need something more.

Trust me; the time you are spending in the process is worth it. And if you are writing some post as a linkbait, you simply can’t afford to ignore it.

Splitting ad groups into different media types can be an effective way to increase your online sales. This is because media types such as banner ads, video ads, and text ads have different characteristics. Splitting them into separate groups will enable you to manage bids individually. However, one problem is that splitting these ad groups is that multiple non-text ads can be a time-consuming chore.

It is a good thing then that tools such as AdWords Editor can make this task a lot easier. The free Google tool makes it easy for you to edit ad groups so you can conduct effective PPC campaigns in Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. But what exactly does the AdWords Editor do? Well, this software application is actually a standalone program that downloads all the contents from your Adwords account so you can perform quick changes easily. You can use it to perform nearly every function you need through the Adwords web interface at the least time possible.

You can expect many features from the AdWords Editor but one of the most notable benefits is that you can copy, cut, and paste almost anything from a single keyword to an entire campaign. In addition, you can also conduct a global search so you can change any text from keywords to bid prices.

I first started using Google Alerts when I was heavily involved in my own online eCommerce Business. Now that I’m not, I use it for ideas and to spy on competitors.

You can select from any category, key-term you want then you can set by the type which is - News, Blogs, Web, Video, Groups and comprehensive (never used the last one). You can also filter it by as-it-happens, daily or weekly.

All that happens now is, you will receive email results based on the market you’re interested in. This will save you time looking for information on your market and for bloggers it will also help with writers block for the days when you struggle to come up with an idea for a good article.

At the moment I’m finding it very useful to see what businesses are doing online and to get good ideas and general information on a wide variety of subjects.

I’ve purposely blanked out what I subscribe too (cannot give you too much information). Google email me on a daily basis and sometimes I don’t get around to reading it. At least it’s all automated and If I want, I can just open my email and there will be tons of info I could use or not as the case may be.

Basically I use it as a great spy tool as it enables me to keep a loose eye on my competitors. If they’re using Press Releases as one of their marketing tools I get to see that directly from my inbox. Perfect!

In Googles Own Words:

* monitoring a developing news story
* keeping current on a competitor or industry
* getting the latest on a celebrity or event
* keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

If you’re not using it, you should try it - Google Alerts set up an account in seconds, unless you already use Gmail, Sitemaps etc (you should be by now anyway). Oh, and it’s free!

I couldn’t live without…the following is what I use, eat, drink, while I live and work on a daily basis. I thought I would list what I think I couldn’t live without and see what you cannot do without in our Society…

FireFTP

Wordpress Backup

Desktop Backup

A Cup of English Tea (two a day max)

Gmail

Weather

My $25,000 Car

BBC Radio

YouTube (I could live without it really)

NotePad

NVU

Photoshop

MSN Messenger (Version 4.7 No Adverts!)

Mozilla Reminder

Mozilla Browser

My Blackberry

Sony VGN-TZ11XN/B

Logitech Mouse

Smoothies and Juices

Chocolate

Sandwiches

Comedy (at the moment - Russell Peters)

PSP / Nintendo (Original 1987 Console version)

Accoustic Guitar

Microsoft Works Spreadsheet

iTunes

Dance / House Music

Making Money

Champagne

What could you not Live Without?

Note: obviously I could actually live without some of these things, but It would make what I do daily a lot harder! (and probably very boring)

I recently received an email asking me about something that really threw me off. A reader of my blog wanted to know what a turnkey was. Although I’m sure most are already aware of this term, I figured if one person wasn’t sure about it there are probably more who would appreciate a concise explanation as well.

A turnkey is basically a website that is created and operated with almost complete automation. Sounds pretty simple eh? It is and it isn’t. There are a number of different types of turnkeys that all do different things. There are also good and bad turnkeys as well as pros and cons to using a turnkey over created a custom website.

Most Popular Turnkey Sites

Myspace Resource Sites
These are websites that serve up Myspace layouts, graphics, little scripts, and everything else you’ve ever seen on a 13 year old’s Myspace page. They’re usually run off of scripts that can be downloaded free, but there are also plenty more that are considered “premium” that require a payment to use. I played around with running a Myspace website for a couple of months when I bought MyspaceLot.com from Rob of TalkFreelance. I was completely uninterested in the website and only bought it to get some information on the niche out of curiosity. Despite the fact that I never once promoted the site, spent a dime advertising, or did any link-building, it actually made money. A couple dollars a day. I know that’s not a lot, but it just goes to show you the power of a turnkey. Absolutely no value was added to the internet when I operated this website. There was nothing unique about it. Yet it was in the green.

Arcade/Media Sites
These are turnkey sites that are basically mass produced versions of EbaumsWorld. They have simple flash games and movies aimed at curing the user’s boredom and keeping them at the site long enough to get them to click an ad. Many of the turnkey scripts that run arcade sites also have the option of giving buyers access to thousands of games and movies as well. So not only do you have the development taken care of but the content as well.

Resources/Tools Turnkeys
There is also a huge market for webmaster resources and tools. Such turnkeys provide IP addresses, pagerank, link count, etc etc.

Turnkey Content

Most content for turnkey sites is either purchased or stolen. Even the bulk of the purchased content is just an organized database of stolen material. How do they steal content?

Many turnkey sites use scrapers which browse other websites in the same niche and simply copy their content and include it into their own database. Scrapers are much less popular in Myspace websites but are extremely widely used in arcade sites. Ever wonder why almost every “[keyword]arcade.com” you visit has the exact same games as all the others? It’s a circle of “borrowing” content.

Not all turnkey content is stolen. Many turnkey scripts just create the developmental framework so that the user can add his or her own content and actually create something unique.

Pros and Cons of Using a Turnkey

The only real pro of using a turnkey website is the automation. Turnkeys are extremely easy and fast to setup and fill with content. This means that not only does each turnkey website you create take very little work, but you get a lot more time to focus on advertising and promotion or to move onto the next turnkey website and repeat the process.

There are, however, a numer of cons - whether or not they outweigh the only pro is up to you.

1) They are not unique - users and spiders alike recognize turnkey websites as just rehashed versions of tons of similar websites. SE’s penalize them for their duplicate content and code and users often times just forget about them when they leave since they are unable to distinguish them from others.

2) They typically do not make much money - this is of course a generalization. There are many people making $xx,xxx per month running turnkey sites alone, but they often have huge networks. Each turnkey site can only perform so well due to the fact that it is not unique and has really no value in itself.

3) They’re exhausting - since you’re not creating anything unique, it is easy to get burnt out on running your turnkey network. There is nothing exciting about running a turnkey website aside from perhaps the Adsense check you get at the end of the month.

Overall, I personally know plenty of people making much more than me running turnkey websites. It is a solid income stream. But in my opinion, one should never make turnkey websites their sole source of income. Running turnkeys is fine as long as you diversify your income a bit between turnkeys and unique sites.

After all these years I’ve finally given in and started using a feed reader. I know, I know. I’m slow. The main reason it has taken me so long to switch to using a feed reader rather than just bookmarking my favorite blogs is because I honestly have not been impressed with any of the feed readers available. It seems that everytime I opened up my reader I was bombarded with updates, and me being the obsessive person that I am couldn’t allow any story to go unread. I lost a lot of time.

After doing a bit of searching, however, I’ve found a feed reader that I actually like: Netvibes. Netvibes is more than just a feed reader, it’s a dynamic homepage. The main thing I’m using it for, however, is to organize and read my feeds. Now I have all of my nerdy blog updates, music news, and football news in one location.

Another great reason why I’m using Netvibes over other readers is the small aesthetic touches. I know it’s probably a minor point to most people but the little tab icons and the window color-coding pretty much sold the site for me. The way I have my page setup now is with my most-read feeds up top in red with my less-read feeds underneath in blue or gray.

I may finally have been sold on the delicious use of feeds, at least in the way that they’re used on a site like Netvibes. Having all of my reading in one location as well as email updates, my twitter feed, a to-do list, and a sexy calendar is what web 2.0 is all about. There are many other services similar to Netvibes out there, but this is by far my favorite personal homepage.

I get asked a lot of questions like “What’s the best software for x.” Recently I’ve had a few people email me about my favorite FTP software. For the few of you who may not know, FTP (file transfer protocol) is how you access your web server in order to manage files. You can read more about FTP at Wikipedia.

A lot of you probably know that you can use your default browser as a FTP program, but doing it this way is extremely slow and painful. FTP programs make the whole process a lot easier. So which FTP program do I use? I use SmartFTP.

SmartFTP is a great program with a ton of features. It can be downloaded for free at their website (trial version). You can also purchase the full version at their website, although I’ve been using the free version for about 5 years and have yet to have a problem. The only thing you have to put up with when using the free version is having a little window popup when you launch it asking you to purchase the full version.

The GUI in SmartFTP is very easy to pickup and can be used by even the newest user. Over the years they’ve added a ton of features that make managing your web files a lot easier. For example, when uploading files you can now upload entire folders rather than selecting all of the files you want to be uploaded. This makes installing CMS software a breeze when you don’t have shell access.

Overall SmartFTP is one of the best (if not the best) free FTP programs available. I suggest everyone look it over. Just for the record, this wasn’t a paid post, and I’m not getting commission for recommending this program. I just think it’s a great piece of software that deserves to be mentioned.