What keyword tool should I use?

That is the most frequent request I get from people looking to slice out there own piece of the internet. They want to know keyword and market popularity and I usually write a new email each time or tell them to search for Aaron’s post that covered keywords tools extensively. But now I think if they’re serious, they should be given the list, check them all, and then use the best one of all: bid for it on Google. I still use them all, but actual live Adwords campaigns have become practically my sole keyword tool over the last year. It’s the only real way. Everthing else is just faking it. Although MSN has been impressing me with some of their tools. If they only had the traffic that made it worthwhile now…

So here they are again (below), both free & paid, but get the adwords account and run some test campaigns. You learn real quick how to optimize ads to NOT get any clicks and just reap the impressions.

Here are some hints for DE-optimizing your ad:

1. If it’s a commodity, then display a price you know is not competitive
2. Misspell words
3. Do NOT use the keyword anywhere in the ad
4. Definitely no calls to action
5. Display domain should have little correlation with the keyword
6. Use words that don’t have any emotion. “good” “fine” “ok”. You know, those words and phrases that used to upset your parents when they would ask ‘how was school today’

http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/search.html
http://www.google.com/trends
http://keycompete.com
http://www.wordze.com