I do agree that valuable content coming from the big IM gurus in their emails has dropped drastically over the last few years.

Now, it seems that it is a non-stop pitch fest of one product launch to the next by the top dogs in almost all their emails these days.

But is that really why you hate IM gurus?

Is it because they talk about how much absurd money they make every month that ticks you off?

Is it because they seem to be a close knit group that promotes the hell out of each other’s stuff?

I started drilling the survey results closely and noticed that the negative comments were coming from the readers who indicated that they were making less than $1,000 per year from their online activities.

So my question really is, do you hate IM gurus because they are successful and you are not?

This can be a *natural* reaction for people who have struggled to make money online for years.

Seriously.

With the economy in a tailspin worldwide, people will continue to get more frustrated with their financial situation if it is not very good.

People in the USA are actually chaining themselves to their houses that are being foreclosed on.

Looks like we are in for desperate times.

I agree that there are a lot of slimy Internet marketers online who promise the moon only to deliver dust.

If you are in a situation where you are struggling to make money online, you need to channel your negativity into more productive activities.

Productive activities that make you money.

What I am about to reveal to you is what I believe is the main factor to making an incredible amount of money online.

In my humble opinion, I believe that it all comes down to keywords.

Keywords are the foundation to natural SEO, pay per click, contextual traffic, articles marketing and wide array of other different marketing strategies. All of these methods of making money begin with keyword research.

Think about it.

Everyday, billions of searches are performed on various search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Every search query starts with a keyword or keyphrase.

If you don’t know how or don’t have the tools to do keyword research, you are doomed to mediocre results.

Below I present to you a rolodex of keyword research tools to help you get started in the right direction.

Some are free while others are paid services. You can decide which ones are best suited for you.

*** Keyword Rolodex ***
Google Keyword Tool (Free)

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

This is the best FREE keyword research tool on the Internet. What better place to go for keyword data than the most searched upon search engine on the planet. A few months back, Google also started to include search volumes for their keyword research tool. This is my number one keyword research tool because it is fast and Google provides you with a wealth of keyword information.

KeywordSpy.com ($89.95 a month)
http://www.keywordspy.com
KeywordSpy is expensive at $89.95 per month, but is one of the few web sites that allows you to download almost every single keyword that your competitors are bidding on. They also take it one step further by giving you details on the specific ad that your competitor is running for each particular keyword. Talk about getting your hands on sensitive information! The only thing that I don’t like is that they have a limit of only allowing you to exporting 50,000 keywords per day.

Good Keywords (Free and Paid version)
http://www.goodkeywords.com
This tool also includes a misspelled keyword feature, which is great considering almost 10% of search queries are misspelled. The free version has key features such as a keyword organizer, site popularity gauge and a user-friendly keyword research interface.

Traffic Travis (Free and Paid Version)
http://www.traffictravis.com
This tool is WAY more than a keyword research tool and the free version does almost everything the paid version does. In fact, I can’t believe how much they give away in the free version. This is a *MUST* download and I am sure you will be thanking me for pointing you to this free resource.

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool (Free)
http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/
From the creators of SEOBook comes a free keyword research tool that supplies you with an incredible amount of free information by tapping into free resources such as Google insights

KeywordDiscovery.com ($49.95 per month)
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com
I have never used this keyword research tool, so I can’t really comment. I did however find a review on the Internet that gives a good amount of information on Keyword Discovery. Just go to:

http://www.keywordworkshop.com/articles/17/1/Keyword-Discovery-Full-Review

WordPot.com (Free and Paid Version)
http://www.wordpot.com
This is a great keyword research tool that gives you related search terms with their daily estimated search volumes. This keyword research tool also provides you with synonyms and associated keywords for the keyword that you want to generate a list for.

Wordtracker.com (Free and Paid Version)
http://www.wordtracker.com
Wordtracker is probably one of the oldest keyword research tools around. I think it is fairly decent for keyword research, but I find that some of the keywords generated are not very relevant to the search term as the list grows larger.

KeywordElite.com ($174 one-time cost)
http://www.keywordelite.com
Keyword Elite is probably the undisputed champion of keyword research tools and is the brain-child of IM marketer Brad Callen. The tool is actually 5 tools in one with advanced features such as analyzing and spying on Adwords competition. It is a bit pricey at $174, but this is a one-time fee for this software tool.

KWBrowse.com (Free)
http://www.kwbrowse.com
I love this free keyword research tool because it actually supplies you with keywords from *lateral* markets that may be related to what you are promoting. This is important because people in related markets may also be interested in what you are promoting or selling.

SpyFu.com (Free and Paid version)
http://www.spyfu.com
SpyFu is another one of those “steal your competitor’s” keyword tools. With a wealth of information on millions of keywords, you can easily find the keywords from your organic and paid competitors and  start adding them to your arsenal of traffic generating keywords. They have a limited free version with an option to upgrade for full membership at about $279 annually.

WordButler (Free trial then $19.95/month)
http://www.wordbutler.com
I know the guys behind Word Butler and they are very smart. This keyword tool uses their unique HCE (Human Cognition Emulator) algorithm, which simply means you get as many related keyword groups in a niche as possible. The speed of the program is great and you can quickly export the targeted keywords to your clipboard or to a text file.

KeywordExtend.com (Free)
http://www.keywordextend.com
Keyword Extend is not a keyword research tool, but rather a tool that can help you quickly generate the different Adwords variations such as broad, phrases and exact match. Additional features include reversing words, creating keyword lists with permutations, removing duplicate keywords and many others. This tools is free for you to use and can help you save hours of precious time.

AdCenter Labs (Free)
http://adlab.msn.com/
This is a great resource provided by MSN. It is more than just a keyword research tool. This tool will help you *understand* your market. You really need to spend some time at this web site to understand the power of this free resource.

Hope this helps as far as keyword research is concerned. I will continue to send you more rolodexes containing great online marketing resources.

Cheers!
Gauher Chaudhry

http://www.gauherchaudhry.com