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Sunday, 5th December 2004
I forgot to mention the list of software available for you to research your keywords in my previous post “Creating A Massive Keyword List“. Please note that when I mean software, I mean programs that run from your computer. A lot of times, some misleading authors talk about giving away free bonus software in their sales letters but you really end up with a web site with a script installed on it. Its still technically a software but its just not on your PC and you don’t really own it.
There are quite a few keyword research software in the market. I’ve only used 2 of them and I can speak from my first hand experience. I haven’t tested the rest of them so you’ll have to decide which one’s for you from all these choices below.
1. AdWord Analyzer - $67
This was the first software I used when I first started out. But I got a refund because I chickened out after my first few campaigns and decided to quit doing these Google AdWords campaigns. I got a refund for the software and wanted nothing to do with Google AdWords any more!
AdWord Analyzer was a good software. Once you type in a keyword, it queries Overture for all the related keywords and outputs them in a long list. It even includes a ratio column (R/S) that allows you to determine which keyword is “high in demand and low in supply“. R stands for Results, the number of web pages in the search engines with that keyword and S stands for Searches, the number of searches for that keyword last month.
What you’re looking for is a small R/S number. The smaller the better! What that means for you is that there are a lot of people searching for this keyword phrase but there are very little web sites for that keyword phrase. Some people call this a good “niche”. If you sort your software by this column, you will usually see that they have less Google AdWords and Overture campaigns in them… Less competition for you!
In general, AdWord Analyzer offers you:
I believe AdWord Analyzer was one of the pioneers of the keyword research software industry. Since it was released, a lot of other software became available with better features so in my personal opinion, this isn’t the most cutting edge software you can get at the moment. In fact the creator of AdWord Analyzer, Jeff Alderson, recently came up with a new software called Keyword Equalizer. We’ll talk about that in a moment. Its easy to identify Jeff’s software because he also has other software like RSS Equalizer and Traffic Equalizer. They all end with “Equalizer”!
2. AdWords Clever Wizard - $49
This was the second software I purchased. After I “quit” this affiliate marketing game for a while, I couldn’t resist coming back to take another shot at it! By that time AdWord Analyzer wasn’t the only software available so I looked around and purchased AdWords Clever Wizard.
Even though it was the lowest priced among all the other software, it does have some features the others don’t have and also some weaknesses that needs to be improved on. The author is very responsive to my emails and I believe he’ll continue to improve on this software.
One of the reasons why I bought this software was because it had a 30 day trial! I tested it and I began to find it better than AdWord Anaylzer. At first there was one feature I didn’t like…. In AdWord Analyzer, once you enter a keyword phrase and hit enter, the software spits out a long list of related keywords below your main keyword. It took me some time to get used to it but the benefit of it is that the related keywords are generated in a right panel. You will have to highlight and select which ones you want to include into your main keyword list on your left. Click on the image below for a larger view of the interface.
By having 2 panels, one for the main keywords on the left and the related keywords on the right helps to prevent getting “overwhelmed” by the massive number of keywords you’ll get from the Overture results. In AdWord Analyer, I felt rather intimidated and lost when I was confronted with hundreds of keywords in one long list. With AdWords Clever Wizard, I simply highlight the related keywords I want from the right panel and move them to the left panel. It makes my keyword list more organized too. My main issue with this left and right panel thing is that is slow to generated related keywords if you have a lot of keywords selected to run on the left panel. Another issue is that you can’t run multiple searches in windows like AdWord Analyzer. You have to open another copy of the program and run a different search at the same time.
One of my favourite features is that AdWords Clever Wizard has got a KEI value for every keyword phrase you use. KEI or Keyword Effectiveness Index was invented by Sumantha Roy as a way to determine which keyword is better very much like the R/S ratio mentioned earlier. If you remember in the case of R/S ratio, the lower the number provides you with an indication that this is a good keyword because of the high demand and low supply in the form of related web sites.
KEI on the other hand, ranks an effective keyword on an ascending scale. The larger the number, the better the keyword. If you have used WordTracker, you’ll probably know about this because WorkTracker uses KEI too. In fact this WordTracker article says:
Generally, a poor keyword to target will have a KEI of between 0 - 10. It’s not wise to target keywords with this KEI as there is too much competition and you will probably end up on page 34 and no-one will notice you!Good keywords to target have a KEI of between 10 - 100. These are good value bets and you have a good to medium chance of reaching the top. Between 100 - 400 are your best bets and anything above 400+ is a gift!
AdWords Clever Wizard used both KEI and R/S ratios. You’ll see by sorting the columns by KEI and R/S ratio that both formulas come out with different rankings for the “best” keywords in your list. If you wish to read about the technical side of KEI, WordTracker has an interesting article on it.
In general, AdWords Clever Wizard offers you:
AdWords Clever Wizard has its benefits and drawbacks. As you can see above, you’ll understand why I purchased it not just because of the low price tag. I hope the author could come up with a “tabbed” interface for multiple search queries to run at the same time and increase the speed of the searches to make it more “complete”.
3. Keywords Analyzer - $79
Keywords Analyzer is one of the first keyword research software to include the ability to search for the exact PPC ads on Google and Overture. Instead of just listing the number of ads in Google and Overture, this software takes it a step forward with the actual URL and title of the ads for you to find out which one of them is the most popular ads. It helps if you’re looking to model after the top ads. They are probably at the top consistently because their products sell very well.
Another great feature is its “Deep Search” that somehow enables you to find hundreds of thousands of keywords related to the keyword phrase you entered. I believe this goes beyond the normal related keywords from the above software because it doesn’t just look for related keyword of your initial keyword phrase but it also searches for related keywords of your related keywords depending on the “search level” you require if you know what I mean?
In general, Keywords Analyzer offers you:
This would be the software of my choice if it was available to me when I first started. Its such a pain to research on the existing ads of Google AdWords and Overture manually, with this software you can keep a swipe file of the ads from period of time and compare to see which ones stay at the top. These top ads that last a few months are probably very good ads of profitable products. A potential affiliate product for you to promote.
4. Keyword Equalizer - $97
This software was created by Jeff Alderson, the creator of AdWord Analyzer. I haven’t seen this software in action but judging from the sales copy, it seems like a software for finding “niches” through Overture search results.
In general Keyword Equalizer offers you:
I wonder if this software is just an extension of what AdWord Analyzer couldn’t do. From the list of “profitable keywords” the software generates, you will be able to get ideas for new products, domain names, follow up products to sell to your customers etc. I also wonder why Jeff didn’t just add this “niche” finding search to AdWord Analyzer as a free upgrade, why create another software to complement AdWord Analyzer when you can combine the two of them together? You might have to email Jeff to ask him about this.
5. Niche Database - $97
When I first heard about Niche Database, I didn’t think it was a software. I thought it was a membership web site with a database of profitable niches in it. Well I was wrong. Niche database is a software!
Just like the previous few software, Niche database also allows you to uncover thousands of related keywords from your initial keyword phrase.
In general, Niche Database offers you:
I don’t have any screen shots of this software to see how it works. But I have seen a video of it at the AdWord Mentor forum. It takes quite some time before it generates the thousands of related search terms.
6. Keyword Locator - $67
This is one of the “state of the art” keyword research software available today. Too bad the web site isn’t ready today. I visited the web site and read about 1 or 2 weeks ago. Anyway, this software does almost everything the above software can do with one distinction…. It can search up to 4 PPC search engines (Google, Overture, FindWhat and Enhance).
7. AdWord Equalizer - $97
I would consider AdWord Equalizer one of the latest innovations in keyword research software today. The sales page sucks in my opinion and you will have to take a look at their flash video to get a glimpse of its features.
One of its unique features that I have not seen in any other software is its ability to search and display in a pie chart the exact affiliate program that is being promoted on the PPC search engines! You’ll see which affiliate program has the most number of ads promoting it and that is a good indication of a profitable affiliate program.
If you start to notice the top ads at the search engines and do a search on their cost per click, it would be insane to display them at the top if you’re not making money from it. Some companies don’t really care how much they spend, they just want to get their ad at the top even if it doesn’t help them make a sale. But would an affiliate continue to spend money to get their ad at the top if it doesn’t make them money? Think about this….
In general, AdWord Equalizer offers you:
I’m actually going to wait a little before deciding which one of the products outside the first 2 software to purchase. I am planning to invest in a new software but I would like to wait for Keyword Locator before making that decision.
My Take On The “Deep Searching” & “Niche Finding” Features
The reason I can get by with AdWords Clever Wizard at the moment is because I am only promoting through Google AdWords at the moment and the next few PPC search engines I will be using will be Overture and FindWhat. I am sceptical about the “deep searching” and “niche finders” these software promise because I only target keywords with like 3000 or more searches per month.
It is possible to get a keyword with very high KEI but the searches are miserable. If not many people are searching for these keywords, its hard to get people click on your ads if they don’t appear that much. If a keyword gets searched a lot, you get a higher chance of your ads getting displayed and clicked. Common sense isn’t it.
On the other hand if you’re building web site, you will probably want as many keywords as possible to create content pages that draw in traffic. There are software available for you to create thousands of content pages for your web sites optimized for those keywords. For a PPC affiliate marketer, I don’t really see the need for the thousands of related search results which don’t get searched enough anyway? Its the quality not the quantity that I am after.
A niche as I understand it is like a smaller category of a larger category of products that many people overlook. For example, a lot of people can sell shoes but I can differentiate myself from all the people who sell shoes by selling customized shoes. That’s an exclusive niche in the foot wear industry I can focus and capitalize on.
Its nice to have a niche on the Internet but you must ensure there is enough demand for it. I have promoted affiliate programs where I thought I had a good niche but there simply wasn’t enough demand for it in terms of search demand at the search engines and they never made a single sale.
Which Keyword Research Software Is For You?
If you ask me which one I would recommend, I would rather you think through these factors to determine which software is for you…
I hope you find this post useful in your decision in getting a suitable keyword research software. So what are you waiting for now? Go get yourself a keyword research software if you haven’t got one!
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On 15th August 2005 4:17 AM, Stuart
said:
Hello
I was wondering if you would recommend “Adword Equalizer” over “Keyword Analyzer” not taking into consideration the price. I plan on using the software for affiliate marketing on Google Adwords for the most part. Thank you for reading this and answering if you do.
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