If they are particularly new, the analysis that follows may be invalid, so please use common sense. i.e. world trade center would have been cold before 9/11, then hot, then cooling over the following years and now it will be hot again because of the film. If in doubt, check the trends to see the movement over the years.



You do not want to be buying into a keyword that is taking a downward trend (unless you have some inside information). If you are still short of inspiration, try the thousands of websites that accept PayPal. Or Google Groups. In the search box, type in the name of a product you're interested in possibly selling. The search results will list the news groups discussing the product. Have a look if there is any RECENT buzz. Any groups or products that match?

Go to the Amazon. Click on the Top Sellers tab near the top of the page. The most popular items are featured there, organized by category, and updated hourly. Go to the E-Bay - In the search box, type in the name of a product you're interested in possibly selling. This gives an indication of the activity surrounding the item in question.

Click on the Sell tab at the top of the page. Then, click on the Seller Central link at the bottom of the Sell page. Scroll down the page and click on the What Is Hot link. Then Hot Items by Category eBay Pulse and eBay Marketplace Research are all worth a look. This is where you find out which categories and products are hot -- and where demand is outpacing supply! *Zeitgeist means the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era.

Once you have an idea of the target market then it is a simple matter to go to your favourite keyword research station. Punch in your potential keywords and look for the KEI. The KEI is simply a calculation between the number of web-sites competing for that term and the number of times that search term is used on a daily basis.

Ideally what you are looking for is a keyword with FEW competing sites and LOTS of visitors. This is what the KEI identifies. Assuming that the best KEI has a reasonable number of searches (count above 400 should do) and the KEI is over 10 then that is your one! If your KEI is over 100 then you may have hit gold! Write it down and start over. If it does not meet your benchmarks then try some other words from your list for that subject.

Repeat for your other six categories so you end up with at least 7 target words. What I do is usually come up with 2 or 3 options per category and score them KEI/count i.e. 15/585 so when we get to the next stage I know which ones are more valuable. Final tip: Avoid the word free in your keywords - too hard to make any money with that one :o)