Can a free keyword tool really reveal people’s hidden desires?

“This is the most powerful weapon I’ve ever seen” - Clint Eastwood

Perhaps Mr. Eastwood hasn’t seen the latest free keyword tool. Just wait and see what it can do. If you’re a blogger, the numbers say you’re asking about…

How to blog? A.K.A. “What topic do you talk about?”

Simply this: Find your readers’ hidden desires and speak to them. Especially if you want to be paid to blog. Want to be a highly paid blogger? Then doing this is absolutely crucial for you.

The previous post really explains what this means - why you should look for these hidden desires to find which topic will pay you the most. And of course, your topic will be right there in your headline. Why is this so incredibly important?

Brian Clark of CopyBlogger offers this about the importance of writing headlines that work:

“Your headline is the first, and perhaps only, impression you make on a prospective reader.”

David Ogilvy, arguably one of the world’s top ad writers, explains why you must speak to readers’ hidden desires in your blog tagline, your blog post title and every headline you write:

‘Five times more people read your headline than your article. Unless your headline sells people on reading your article, you’ve wasted 90% of your effort.‘

Do you want to be one of those bloggers who writes for months or years, hoping and praying people will read their stuff? I didn’t think so. Know for sure that people will respond. Here’s how to guarantee that:

Make A List Of Potential Topics

Remember the list of 6 things in the previous post? Put these 6 questions to work for you:

* What things do you know about?
* What things do you like?
* What things do you do for work?
* What skills do you use for work?
* What things do people ask you about?
* What hobbies and interests you have?

Use these 6 questions as a tool to make your own list of 10 things you might want to talk about. If you want to make money with your blog, use these 6 questions to create your own list of 50 (instead of 10) potential topics. Want to REALLY stack the money-making deck in your favor? Make a list of 200 possible subjects. How serious are you, anyway?

What you’re about to do with your potential topics list…you’ll probably consider to be real work. So why did the headline says “under 5 minutes”? I didn’t lie. Once you have 1 potential topic, you’ll start finding people’s hidden desires in less than 5 minutes (even if it takes 4 minutes for your browser to load the page.)

The methods you read here are infinitely easier and less time-consuming than the way even the world’s richest writers did this same kind of research just a few years ago.

Nonetheless, some of you probably won’t go through the work I’m about to suggest. That’s okay. Less competition for the rest of us who are serious about this. (And I wouldn’t recommend what I haven’t done myself - and had success with.)

Repeat the following steps for each and every item on your topics list. Sure, there are some luxury shortcuts here. If you could survey a 1000 people to find what they prefer, you could easily shorten your list to 5 or 10 of your best potential topics. Why a thousand people? Because your 5 friends won’t really give you the answers you really need here.

You don’t have a thousand people to ask? Then follow the simple methods here for each of your potential topics.

Why do these research methods give you such unerringly potent results? Because when people type something into the little Google search box, they’re actually telling Google (and us) what they really, REALLY want. If you have any doubts about this method, I challenge you to try it for at least a topic or three. Don’t stop until you see for yourself what it does.

So here’s the first of three methods:

Method #1: Find Out Why People Search For Your Topic

Open Google’s Keyword Tool in your browser.

Type in your topic, enter the code and get the keyword ideas as shown below.

Sort by the most recent month’s search volume as shown:

Now look what these items have in common. When people type in “antique cars”, what do they want? Do they want to restore these cars? Do they want car parts? Or do they want to buy and sell?

Big hint: look at the red circled items. Sure, some want parts (blue circle), some like to build models (tan circle). Many are interested in or have classic cars (green circles). Yet the vast majority are really into buying and selling.

Notice that I’m only looking at words near, at, or more than 1000 searches per month here. Why? With less than this, you’re only looking at less than 30 people a day. Writing for an audience that’s too small - is a huge mistake. Many an experienced blogger has changed their blog topic because they weren’t writing to a large enough audience. Don’t make this mistake.

We’ll come back later (in another method) and examine what the items further down the list can do for you.

Okay, so if your potential blog topic is “antique cars”…your best bet is probably helping people buy and sell, with an emphasis on classic cars.

What this crowd really wants is their buying and selling problems solved.

What can you do for them? You could…

* List upcoming auctions, either in the area, or nationwide
* Give tips on getting your car ready to sell
* Give tips on what to look for when you buy an antique car
* Stroke their ego - tell them why classic cars are the best
* Explain for newbies what makes a car classic

You see, now that you have your topic, it’s time to start cranking out ideas for blog posts, and turning these ideas into irresistible headlines. Or is it? Actually, we’re missing something big here. Have you figured out what it is?

Actually, we could take each color group above (sale, parts, models, classic) and put it with the word “car” or “cars”. Let’s just take the word “classic cars” as an example. Maybe you thought people were typing in “antique cars”. Nope. Way more people think (and type) “classic cars”. Here’s proof:

Look through this list above. (For the sake of space, I cut the list off. It continues on, and you’d want to examine all entries down to about the 1000-searches-per-month level.)

What are the hidden desires here? Simply rinse and repeat what you learned above.

If you simply want a blog to charitably touch people’s interests, that’s fine and dandy. Crank away at the headlines. Method #1 above is all you need for your reward. But maybe at this point you’re thinking more like Han Solo:

“Look, I ain’t in this for your revolution…I expect to be well paid. I’m in it for the money.”

Great. The next post reveals Method #2 of 3. This method is all about finding what topics make money. Let’s get those creditors (and bounty hunters?) off your back.

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