XpressBuy Announces Integration With Four New E-Commerce Platforms

Company says new relationships mean its buy buttons are now available to 30 percent of the top 500 online retailers.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Cockroach in ‘wild mushroom’ sauce

THE mushroom sauce was wild in more way than one at this inner-city pub. A diner was shocked to find a cockroach in their meal, but it was only the beginning of the story for this ‘infested’ kitchen.

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Public offers no comment on new solar zone in Lincoln County

With just two days left in the comment period, the Bureau of Land Management has received no public input on plans to fast-track solar energy development on more than 25,000 acres in Lincoln County.

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CommBank glitch leaves customers without cash

FURIOUS Commonwealth Bank customers have been left with no cash to buy food or petrol this morning, after double-charges to their accounts were still not rectified.

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Telstra’s net profit slips

TELECOMMUNICATIONS company Telstra has made a net profit of $4.23 billion for the year to June 30 — down one per cent on a year ago.

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PUC rejects bid to continue net metering program

The Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday rejected a request by rooftop-solar officials to continue the existing net metering program if a legislatively mandated cap of 235 megawatts is reached in coming weeks.

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Marketing Day: Twitter Ups DM Limit To 10K Characters, A CMO’s View On MarTech & More

Here's our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Ohio enterprise acquires Las Vegas virtual secretary company

Startups.co, a Columbus, Ohio-based company that helps startups with funding, press and mentoring, has acquired a recently closed virtual secretary Las Vegas company that was funded by Downtown Project's tech-funding arm.

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Reaction To Its Facebook Video Inspires VW To Create Baby Stroller With Automatic Brakes

Volkswagen takes viewer feedback from one online ad and explores the concept in a new video, proving it's listening to its audience and giving them what they want (in demo form, at least).

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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How I Traveled 11,000 Miles in 2 Months Without Spending a Fortune

Taking a solo road trip across the country was a pretty crazy undertaking — and, as you’d expect, a life-changing one.

I saw 20 states, 10 national parks and about 50 cities. I totaled more than 350 hours of driving and 11,000 miles during the 48-day trip.

I also spent about $5,000 — not bad for two months of near-perfect freedom.

I could have done it more cheaply had I been able to take advantage of some well-known shortcuts. My family begged me not to sleep in my car, and accommodations were a huge part of my expenses.

I also splurged when I wanted to — how could I not enjoy a Vieux Carré at the bar where it was conceived? — because I’d been saving for months to enjoy this trip.

But I could have spent thousands more on the road for such a long time, particularly with a dog in tow. (So yes, I went mostly solo, with one greyhound-shaped exception.)

Here’s how I managed to road trip on the cheap, and what I’d do differently next time to save even more money.

What I Did Right

Doing my research ahead of time helped me stick to my bottom line.

1. Take Advantage of Couchsurfing and Other Alternative Accommodations

Accommodations were the biggest expense for me outside of gas. Unconventional accommodations can help you slash that part of your travel budget.

In addition to saving me money, couchsurfing actually enhanced my adventure. One of my hosts took me on a hike in Tucson and shared his extensive knowledge of cacti and desert fauna; another host actually worked for Couchsurfing in San Francisco and invited me to the startup’s gorgeous, dog-friendly office space, complete with swings.

If you’re worried about privacy or need specific options (for instance, pet- or kid-friendly space), use filters when you search for hosts — options range from the living-room floor to separate, furnished in-law’s quarters.

I never felt unsafe, even when I was staying solo with male hosts — though I did bring pepper spray, just in case.

On the contrary, couchsurfing reinvigorated my faith in the goodness of humanity and the importance of personal connection and vulnerability in this digital age. I made lasting friendships and have kept in touch with many of my hosts.

2. Bring a Cooler

With a cooler, travel eating doesn’t have to be about beef jerky and protein bars! On the road, you can stock up on fresh fruit, cheese and pre-packaged salads. (Pro tip: Do not put an open package of cheese on the bottom if you’re using cubed ice. Thank me later.)

In addition, you can make your own food when you’re staying put for a few days. Many couchsurfing hosts let you use their kitchens, so by bringing my cooler, I could purchase and keep real, perishable foods and make many meals myself. I saved a ton of cash on eating out, which adds up, even if it’s only fast food.

If you’re not couchsurfing, try finding hotel rooms or Airbnb locations with kitchens, or using grills in public parks.

3. Splurge Wisely

That said, you want to enjoy your trip and experience the places you’re visiting. If there are restaurants you absolutely must experience, go to them!

Is that place you saw on the Food Network a mile off your route? Definitely make the trip — but don’t waste money at a drive through at 11 p.m. And when you do eat out, use these tips to save some dough.

Prioritize by location and food preference. Are tacos your thing? If you’re passing through San Diego, make sure you budget for a few extra meals out. If you’re not huge on barbeque, save your dollars (and time!) by avoiding the three-hour lineup outside of Franklin’s in Austin.

4. Avoid Tourist Traps

They’re inevitably both overpriced and underwhelming.

Red flags include a prime location in well-travelled, known tourist zones (the Wharf in San Francisco, for instance), a photographer who insists you stand in front of a green screen, or employees in kiosks handing out maps and trying to get you to purchase the “Super Saver Package.”

Look up your destination online, find the top 10 must-see attractions and do a self-guided tour. Look for interesting options in local alternative weekly papers, on community websites or travel forums. Find the off-the-beaten-path bakery the locals have voted best in town. Don’t spend top dollar for mass-produced, one-size-fits-all food or “fun.”

5. Avoid Expensive Souvenirs

Take lots of pictures. Science shows you’ll get more out of the money you spend on an experience than on a snow globe or shot glass, which will inevitably collect dust once you get home.

I decided to bumper stickers and postcards, super-low-priced souvenirs that gave me both something tangible to hold onto and a fun scrapbooking project.

I also collected bottles of sand from various beaches and a tumbleweed I found in New Mexico – though if you want to do the same, check the rules first. Some areas, such as National Parks, prohibit collecting and gathering.

6. Use Apps to Compare Hotel Prices

On nights you do need a hotel, use your smartphone to find the best price.

I found rates up to 40% cheaper than the price quoted online or over the phone using Hotel Tonight. One night, I paid $90 rather than $130, and to my surprise ended up in a beachview penthouse suite!

Using this or other apps can sometimes get you rooms on the cheap at hotels that are “booked” if you check online or call them directly.

Plus, you might discover local gems instead of staying — again — at one of the same five franchises available at every exit, though some of these do have money-saving loyalty programs.

What I’d Do Differently on My Next Road Trip

I did a lot of things right, but a few of these strategies could have helped me save even more money.

1. Bring a Friend

I went alone, which was exhilarating (and gave me full control of the radio), but I could have split all my expenses by bringing someone along.

2. Ditch Fido

Bringing my dog was wonderful in many ways, but it definitely cost me more than I would otherwise have spent.

On nights I did have to stay at a hotel, I had to pay pet fees. I also spent a lot of money getting appropriate veterinary paperwork in case our travels took us outside U.S. borders.

Having a pet with me also made me feel a bit more like a pain in the butt to my couchsurfing hosts, and kept me from doing awesome free things that don’t allow dogs, such as certain hikes in National Parks.

3. Prepare to Spend a Lot on Gas

About a quarter of my budget went into my tank; you always need it and you’re at the mercy of the area you’re in.

I saw a huge variability in price: from $2.40 all the way up to $5.20 per gallon for regular. Budget accordingly, and research the prices in your destination areas ahead of time if possible using these apps that help you find cheap gas.

4. Don’t Speed

I can tell you exactly where $157.08 of my road trip savings went.

5. Plan as Much as Possible

Being footloose was a priority for me on this trip, so I never planned more than three days out — I wanted to be able to get on the road or stay an extra day or two if I wanted.

However, if I’d had my itinerary planned as well as my route, I would have saved significantly on lodging, and probably also on food and gas.

I was sometimes unable to find cheap or free accommodation through Couchsurfing or Airbnb. Hosts have lives and aren’t always available five hours before you need space to crash.

Furthermore, several friends along my route had offered me their couches, but because I didn’t know exactly when I’d be in their areas, by the time I arrived, they often had other commitments.

6. If You’re Adventurous, Sleep in Your Car

This was my initial plan, but my friends and family talked me out of it, and with good reason. Car camping and overnight parking are illegal in many areas, and a cricked neck and iffy night’s sleep are not the biggest risks you’re taking in sleeping in your vehicle.

However, a good friend of mine and her then-boyfriend took a similar road trip for three months in an old Volkswagen van they purchased for $500. They built a space for an actual bed and lived almost exclusively out of their cooler, traveling that way for about three months. Altogether, they spent about $4,000 — less than I did for a longer trip.

So if you’re planning for it, sleeping in your vehicle could be an option. If you’re going to try it, look into free camping and parking spots.

In the end, travelling cheaply is all about balancing what you want to get out of the trip with what you’re willing to spend — and figuring out which corners make the most sense for you to cut. Safe travels!

Your Turn: What’s your best strategy for saving money on a road trip?

Jamie Cattanach is a writer and adventurer who lives in Saint Augustine, Florida. She spends her hoarded pennies on fine wine, dark chocolate, gasoline and sweaters for her greyhound, Odin.

The post How I Traveled 11,000 Miles in 2 Months Without Spending a Fortune appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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MarTech Landscape: What Is Web Analytics Software?

The foundation of a good digital marketing strategy still rests on collecting, analyzing and reporting on website data.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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How do you calculate disposable income?

Disposable income is a major indicator of bankruptcy eligibility. Learn how to calculate disposable income at HowStuffWorks.

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How do you calculate disposable income?

Disposable income is a major indicator of bankruptcy eligibility. Learn how to calculate disposable income at HowStuffWorks.

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Twitter Now Lets You Go Long With DMs Of Up To 10,000 Characters

Brands that use Twitter for customer service should benefit from the extra room for private messages.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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The New Mobile Rules for Search, Social and Display — August 20 Webcast

Advanced tips for targeting mobile consumers via search, social and display ads and driving more clicks, calls and sales.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Periscope Has 10 Million Accounts With 40 Years Of Watch Time Daily

Twitter's live-streaming app hit the user milestone August 2, but says time watched daily is the better metric to judge how well it's doing.

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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Personal Finance 101: What Is a Cash Advance?

Taking out a cash advance from your credit card is a better option than a payday loan — but not by much. Photo: sunshinecity

So you need some cash, and you need it quick. What about taking a cash advance from your credit card?

Well, unless you really don’t have any other options, it’s not a good idea. We’ll break down the reasons why in this article, then outline alternatives that make a lot more sense when you need cash in a pinch — as well as a few that don’t.

What Is a Cash Advance?

A cash advance is simply a loan that your credit card company makes you. You’re able to borrow cash against your credit card up to a certain limit. These limits vary by card, but they’ll usually be a lot lower than your credit limit. You can get the money easily: at the bank, from an ATM, or by filling out one of those convenience checks that your card issuer sends periodically.

It sounds convenient — and it is! But the price for that convenience is high. Here’s why:

Steep cash-advance fees

Unfortunately, a credit card cash advance is a very expensive way to get money. Your credit card company charges a hefty fee for the service: For example, you may pay either 5% of the transaction or $10, whichever is greater. And if you use an out-of-network ATM for your cash advance, you’ll pay ATM fees, too.

High interest rates

Once you get over the sticker shock from the upfront fee on your cash advance, you aren’t done paying. The vast majority of credit cards charge a higher-than-normal interest rate for a cash advance. So even if you’re only paying a 12% or 15% APR on your purchases, you could be paying an average of nearly 24% on your cash advance.

No grace period

When you make a purchase with your credit card, you usually have about a month to pay back the money without paying any interest. This grace period allows responsible borrowers to take advantage of credit cards’ convenience and build their credit score without sliding into shaky financial territory. But when you get a cash advance, you have no grace period. You’ll start paying that high interest rate immediately.

The True Cost of a Cash Advance

Let’s look at an example of how costly a cash advance can be.

Perhaps you need $800 in a pinch for a cash-only purchase — maybe to buy something off Craigslist or to pay a friend for playoff tickets. To get your hands on that cash, you’ll first have to pony up $40 (5% of the transaction) for the upfront fee. Then, as soon as you have the money, the clock starts ticking on a 24.9% cash advance APR.

What if you can only afford about $50 a month to pay back the bill? Between both principal and interest, you’ll ultimately pay about $1,000 over 20 months for your cash advance. Add the fees, and you’ll have paid about $1,040 to get your hands on just $800.

Cash Advance Alternatives

In this section, we’ll assume you need cash for something that you can’t charge using your credit card. If that’s not the case, by all means, use your credit card. You won’t pay an upfront fee, your APR will be lower, and you’ll have your normal grace period to give you a chance to pay back the balance interest-free.

Your emergency fund

If your checking account has run dry, tap your emergency fund before taking out a cash advance. Don’t have an emergency fund? Now is the time to start saving up. Aim to keep at least $1,000 in a spot that’s easy to access, such as a savings account. Once you’ve hit that goal, try to build up to six months of living expenses, assuming you’re not also trying to pay off a lot of high-interest debt.

A loan from friends or family members

It might hurt your pride to ask, but if you’re truly in a jam, perhaps someone you know and trust can lend you money. But remember that your relationship with that person could go south quickly if you can’t make good on your promise to pay back the loan in a speedy fashion. For some, that might be too big of a risk to take.

An advance on your paycheck

If you have a good relationship with your employer, they may be able to help you by giving you an advance on your next paycheck. You simply pay back the advance with your next paycheck, or spread it over several of your next paychecks.

In a small business, you may owe nothing but gratitude for your employer’s generosity. Larger employers may have an established process in place for this request, and may charge a fee. Whatever the case, just like asking for money from friends and family, be careful not to make a habit of it.

A personal loan from a bank, credit union, or online lender

Personal loans come in a lot of forms, but the personal loans we recommend are unsecured (meaning they require no collateral to obtain) with a fixed interest rate and a fixed payment. They can typically be used for any purpose, unlike mortgages, car loans, and the like.

The main downside? You’ll usually have to have above-average credit to qualify for an unsecured loan with a reasonable interest rate from a reputable lender.

Many banks and credit unions make personal loans, as do online lenders including peer-to-peer giants such as Prosper and Lending Club. Credit unions are particularly worth a look because they often have more leeway with their lending criteria.

Cash Advance Alternatives to Skip

There are a few other ways to get quick cash, but believe it or not, these financial sins are usually even worse than taking a cash advance from your credit card.

Payday loans

Whatever you do, steer clear of payday loans. These small, short-term loans are easy for anyone with proof of income to get, regardless of credit score. Write a check for the loan amount plus interest, and the payday lender holds it until after your next payday. Easy, right? Yes, but convenience is where the advantages of payday loans end.

If you think cash advances are expensive, hold on to your hat: You could pay $10 to $30 to borrow just $100 with a typical two-week payday loan, according to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. In fact, the average APR is just shy of 340%.

But wait: The payday lender will let you simply pay the interest and roll over your loan so you can get more cash. Sounds nice, but many borrowers become dependent on the payday loan, rolling it over indefinitely since they can’t afford to pay back the principal. A quarter of borrowers owe payday lenders for 80% of the year, the CFPB has found.

Auto title loans

Auto title loans also prey on borrowers who need money in a pinch but don’t have the credit score for a more reputable loan. These short-term loans require you to pledge your car as collateral to get the loan, but you’re usually only able to borrow much less than your car is actually worth. Using your car as collateral also means you can lose your car if you don’t pay back the loan on time.

Like payday loans, auto title loans can have extremely high APRs of up to or over 300%, according to the Center for Responsible Lending. These lenders also let borrowers continually renew the loan by paying only interest, trapping them in a cycle of debt.

Borrowing from a retirement account

If you have money socked away in a 401(k), your plan may offer you an option to borrow up to half your account balance at a low interest rate and repay it within five years. Sounds appealing, but there are two major issues: 1) Your money can’t grow if it’s not in your account, and 2) you’re likely to keep doing it, which compounds the first problem.

If your funds are in an IRA, you technically can’t get a short-term loan. You can take money without paying taxes and penalties on it during a rollover, but the money has to be back in an IRA within 60 days. New rules also dictate that you can only do this once a year, regardless of how many IRAs you have.

Borrowing from a retirement account may make sense as a last resort for larger emergencies, or for one-time life events such as buying a house. However, it’s probably best to avoid going down this rabbit hole for smaller cash-flow issues that a cash advance would fix.

Use Cash Advances Sparingly — and Responsibly

If you need quick cash for a truly essential reason, you’ve weighed your options, and a cash advance still seems like the best route, you can minimize the damage by taking the following steps:

• Make sure you know the fees, APR, and limit for your cash advance.
• Only get a cash advance for what you absolutely need — this is not the way you want to get extra “play money.”
• Don’t get a cash advance with a credit card that already has a high balance. Using too much of your available credit can have a negative impact on your credit score.
• Pay back the advance as soon as you can. Remember, you have no interest-free grace period.
• Don’t make cash advances a habit. Start saving whatever you can to ensure you have an emergency fund to tap the next time you need cash.

To learn more about building up your savings so you can avoid the astronomical fees and interest of cash advances, check out these past articles:

• 20 Reasons Why You Need an Emergency Fund
• Where Should I Keep My Emergency Fund and Why?
• The Best High-Interest Savings Accounts Online

The post Personal Finance 101: What Is a Cash Advance? appeared first on The Simple Dollar.

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What’s In Your Wallet? 15 Bills Worth Way More Than Face Value

Pull any bill out of your wallet. See the dark green numbers on the top-left and top-right corners? They could mean your bill is worth much more than its face value.

If a serial number’s digits are unique or interesting, collectors might be willing to pay big bucks for it — hundreds or even thousands of dollars. You’ll make the most profit off a $1 bill with a fancy serial number, since its face value is lower than, say, a $20 bill, but it’s worth scanning all your cash.

Want to see if any of your bills are worth way more than $1 or $5? Here’s what to look for.

1. Low Numbers

Collectors love bills with low serial numbers, such as those below 1,000 or 100 (eg. 00000100). On eBay, these kind of bills can sell for anywhere from $20 to $100.

The lower the serial number, the more valuable the note is considered to be; a bill with the serial number 00000001 could be worth $15,000, according to SavingAdvice.com.

2. High Numbers

People also enjoy collecting the high numbers, and these can be even more valuable than lower numbers since there are fewer in circulation. Bills with serial numbers 99999900 and higher are especially prized.

3. Flippers

A flipper is a note whose serial number can be read right side up or upside down. On eBay, flippers range from $30-50 apiece.

4. Star Notes

Some bills have a star instead of a letter at the end of their serial numbers. Known as star notes, these bills are replacements issued when the original bill had a printing error. Because it’s against policy to produce a dollar’s serial number more than once, the mint simply adds a star to the end.

These printing errors aren’t common, so there aren’t too many star notes in circulation. You’ll see $1 star notes on eBay for $5 and up.

5. Repeaters and Super Repeaters

Blocks of repeating digits (such as 27527527) are sought after, with $1 repeaters starting around $3 or $4 on eBay.

A two-digit repeating number, like 45454545, is called a super repeater and is even more valuable. Some eBay listings start at over $1,000!

6. Solids and Near Solids

A solid serial number is one where every digit is the same, like 55555555. Only about one out of every 11 million notes is a solid, according to Old Currency Values, and they can be worth $500 or more.

Since these notes are so rare, people also collect near-solids, where only one digit differs, like 55555575. These will usually bring in less money than a solid, but you’re more likely to find one.

7. Binary Bills

Binary bills have serial numbers with only two numbers, such as 29299299. A near solid would count as one of these binary bills, since it only includes two numbers. On eBay, some binary notes can go for more than $800.

8. Trinary Bills

Because of the rarity of binary bills, some collectors even ask for trinary notes, which contain three unique digits (e.g. 29329939).

9. Ladders

When the serial numbers ascends (e.g. 12345678) or descends (e.g. 8765431) in order, collectors call it a ladder. You’ll also find “near ladders,” where one or two digits break up the ladder.

Ladder notes sell for anywhere from a few dollars on eBay to an unspecified (but high) price for a bill marked 12345678 to Old Currency Values.

10. Birthdays

Some collectors want bills with a specific year or date in the serial number, perhaps a famous date or one meaningful to them. For example, 02162006 might be valuable to a collector whose child was born February 16, 2006.

A serial number that just includes the year is also desirable, such as 10901985 or 10002010.

11. Radars and Super Radars

Radar serial numbers read the same backwards and forwards, like a palindrome. For example, 06288260. A good condition, uncirculated $1 radar could sell for about $25.

If only the end two digits are different (like 27777772), you’ve got a super radar, which is much more rare and valuable. Even dollar bills with this type of serial number can sell for $70 and up on eBay.

12. Consecutives

When you have two or more separate bills with consecutive serial numbers, like 25348793 and 25348794, you have one of these series. They’re not uncommon, since you can get consecutive bills at any bank, but can be valuable if they also fit into another category on this list.

13. Doubles

Doubles occur when a serial number includes pairs of numbers, such as 24459387. The most valuable type of this bill is called a quad double, when a serial number has four sets of doubles (e.g. 55998833).

14. Double Quads

While technically they’re a version of a quad double, bills whose serial numbers consist of two sets of four of the same number are called double quads. (Confusing, isn’t it?)

For example, 77776666 is a double quad. These bills are rarer and more valuable.

15. Bookends

When the serial number has the same two or three digits on both ends, it’s called a bookend. Three-number bookends, like 36584365, are more valuable than two-digit bookends, like 36829736. Prices start around $3 for a $1 bookend on eBay.

Your Turn: Do you have any of these bills, and would you sell them to a collector?

Disclosure: We have a serious Taco Bell addiction around here. The affiliate links in this post help us order off the dollar menu. Thanks for your support!

Maryann Akinboyewa is a social media strategist and writer.

The post What’s In Your Wallet? 15 Bills Worth Way More Than Face Value appeared first on The Penny Hoarder.

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Why You Should Be Comfortable With an Ever-Changing Retirement Number

Your life and goals will probably change, so embrace adjustments as you make them.


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How Being More Authentic Can Help Your Bottom Line

More business leaders are promoting authenticity – a value that can also help you manage your money.

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6 Reasons You Need a Personal Website

Here's how a website impresses recruiters and shows off your brand.

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How to Write an Awesome Post on LinkedIn Publisher

And why you should think beyond the profile to tell your story.

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How to Find a Trustworthy Roommate

Your Monica or Rachel is out there.

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StepsAway Solves The “Beacon Problem” For In-Mall Retailers And Shoppers

Earlier this month, Target announced a 50-store beacon rollout. This is a big deal; retailers have been testing and flirting with beacons and indoor location for two years, and this is probably the biggest announcement to date. Yet beacons are only one technology and aren’t a complete indoor...

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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5 Modern Keyword Research Methods to Uncover Hidden Gems

All content campaigns begin with the same thing:

keyword research.

And there’s a reason for this. Targeting keywords will lead to long-term and, possibly, short-term organic search traffic for your website.

The bad news is that 80% of SEOs and marketers do keyword research wrong.

They plug in a main keyword into Google’s Keyword Planner, download the results, and then start sorting through them in a spreadsheet.

But here’s the thing: literally thousands of other marketers and SEOs have already searched that exact same keyword.

Unless you’re very lucky, you won’t find anything resembling a low-competition keyword to target.

Now, if you have a site with the authority of Quick Sprout, that’s not a big deal. But if you’re working with a less authoritative domain, or a brand new one, you need to find realistic keywords to rank for.

The good news is that the keyword planner only shows a very small portion of keywords you can target.

If you can find “hidden” keywords that have a decent search volume, but less competition, your organic search traffic will grow rapidly.

I’m going to walk you through 5 modern keyword research methods that you can use to uncover keywords that haven’t been targeted by hundreds or thousands of your competitors. 

Understand what keyword research really is

Keyword research is an art, not a science.

While there are some good tools out there, they should be the start of your research, not the end.

Most SEOs use keyword research to figure out how much search traffic they could potentially attract for free.

Experienced SEOs use keyword research to understand their readers.

Keywords, and their search volumes, tell you a few things:

1. What your audience’s main problems are - if 5,000 people are searching for a particular keyword, it shows that it’s a common and important problem in your niche. Create your content around the most popular problems.
2. The language they use - people describe problems in different ways. If you can understand which words your reader uses to describe problems, you can write more compelling content.
3. Which topics are becoming more important or less important over time - as niches evolve, keywords gain and lose popularity. Good keyword research will help you identify which searches are becoming more common so that you can create more content around those.

The methods in this post aren’t meant to help you find basic keyword phrases like “best toaster.” They are meant to help you understand what’s important to your reader and help you create a reader persona.

Once you understand how your reader searches for help, you’ll be able to find untapped keywords that are perfect to target.

Method #1 – Students are your best audience

You do online marketing to sell something.

Most often, it’s knowledge.

Not everyone will pay for knowledge; many are happy to try to soak up everything for free.

But your most valuable readers are those that know that paying for high quality training is worth it. They get the highest chance of success and will save a lot of time as well.

This ideal type of reader mainly hangs out in a few different places:

• Large e-commerce stores - they buy books and audiobooks from marketplaces like Amazon
• Blogs - they follow influencers in a niche and buy training courses directly from them
• Education marketplaces - the demand for high quality online training is rising fast. Sites like Udemy and Skillshare sell thousands of courses to eager students.

With this method, we’re looking at the third location listed above. Users of Udemy are highly motivated learners and are ready to pay significant amounts for good training.

Even though you’re not selling anything yet, you want to create content around keywords that will attract this audience.

That way, when you are ready to sell, you have a highly receptive audience.

There are two main ways that you can do keyword research on Udemy.

Option #1 – Look at what students already like: The top courses in each category on Udemy have a few important things in common.

First, they are created by experts in a niche. These are the people who have been writing and teaching for years, so they know the language and phrases that the audience typically uses.

Secondly, we can sort courses by popularity. By looking at the most popular courses, we can see all of the most taken courses. What this means for our keyword research is that the course participants relate strongly to the copy for the course. We can generate keyword ideas from these sales pages.

Let’s go through this process step by step.

First, click on “browse courses” after you have created an account or logged in (free).

This will bring up a menu on the left side with all the different categories of courses:

In this post, I’ll use a marketing blog as an example site to conduct keyword research. So, from the list above, I would choose the “Marketing” category.

Once you pick a main category, you’ll get a list of featured courses. You can choose to drill down a bit more. I could pick digital marketing, SEO, or social media marketing if my blog had a more specific audience:

Whether or not you pick a sub-category, the courses you see aren’t necessarily the most popular courses, so we don’t want to look at them.

Instead, pick “All Courses” from the top menu, and change the “sort by” option to “popularity” on the next page:

You’ll notice that you have additional filtering options on the side.

The most interesting option to me is “level,” which describes the difficulty of a course. If I created content for beginner marketers on my blog, I would want to look at the most popular courses for beginners.

But if I wanted to create content for experts, I’d want to filter the results down to “expert” level courses. As audiences get more experienced and advanced, they typically use different keywords to describe their problems.

It’s important because you don’t want to create content that solves a problem that experts have using the language a beginner would use. Your content won’t attract any expert marketers, and even if it did, they wouldn’t be impressed by your writing (i.e., it would not resonate with them).

Once you’ve filtered down the courses to only the top courses your audience would be interested in, we can finally find some keywords.

Here’s the start of the course description for the first top course I chose:

You’ll notice that the author already bolded most of the keyword phrases important to this audience. He knows the phrases potential students are looking for (from years of experience) and makes them stand out.

Not all course authors will do this, but this is an area where you can find several keywords.

At this point, you want to start recording your keywords. You may directly target them later, or you may use them to generate additional keyword ideas to target. For now, just start a spreadsheet with them.

Note that you don’t have to copy them down exactly as they appear. For example, I doubt that anyone is searching for “how to attract ultra targeted traffic.” But a phrase such as “how to attract targeted traffic” is likely a fairly common one.

Once you’ve finished extracting keywords from the course description, scroll down to the “curriculum.” It has a list of each “lecture” in the course.

These will typically be on the most important (and alluring) topics for potential customers:

From these first three sections, I would add the following keywords to my spreadsheet of keywords:

• What is list building
• Why you must build a list
• Tools to build a (email) list
• How to create a sales funnel

Again, take out any word(s) that aren’t going to be used very often by searchers.

What I just showed you was part of the sales page for a single course. You can often generate dozens of quality keyword ideas for your list from a single course. Go through as many courses as you like until you start seeing too many duplicate keyword ideas.

Option #2 – Look at what students are searching for: Any large website that sells something typically has autocomplete suggestions because having this feature usually increases conversions.

Udemy is one of those sites that provide suggestions in its search bar.

When you start typing a word, it will show you the most searched terms containing what you’ve typed so far:

I would write down all of these keyword suggestions on my spreadsheet for later. These are very useful because they are already ranked from most searched to least searched.

Finally, don’t just stop with your main keyword. If you start typing in any of those suggestions, you may be able to get more suggestions.

For example, as I started typing “marketing free,” a suggestion for “marketing freelance” came up, which would make a good addition to my list.

Method #2 – Find the questions your readers are asking

The best keywords are the ones that come from your readers themselves.

Years ago, it was difficult to find them, but now you have quite a few options at your disposal.

Here are three different ways to find questions that your readers are asking so that you can extract additional keywords.

Option 1 – Faqfox: Faqfox is a handy little tool that can be used to generate content ideas or keyword ideas.

Based on a keyword you enter, the tool will scrape a list of threads on various forums and aggregators.

To start with, enter a keyword in the first text box. Then, you can either enter a forum (which may or may not work) or choose one of the pre-made categories of starter sites.

Once you click on one of the categories, URLs of relevant forums and subreddits will be loaded into the tool automatically. If you can’t find an appropriate category, choose “generic,” which will search all the biggest sites such as Reddit and Yahoo Answers.

Once you click the search button, you’ll get a long list of thread titles (with links) relevant to your keyword.

From this list, you can start picking out keyword phrases and full questions that your audience has already asked in other places:

You get a list of at least 100 threads for your keyword. Just from the results in the picture above, I would write down:

• Which email marketing service should I use
• My Gmail email is going to junk folders
• Video marketing platform
• How to get a job in advertising
• How to take over a webmastering job
• Free online marketing tools

All of these are potential keywords to target in future content.

Option 2 – Scrape a forum: A tool like Faqfox covers all the biggest forums and Q&A sites—but not all of them.

If you find a forum in your niche, you can look at the threads just like we did above to extract keywords for your list.

In addition, you can learn more about the kind of language your readers use.

To do so, we’re going to copy thread titles and then feed them into a keyword density tool. By looking at the words and short phrases that are used most often, you will begin to see a picture of what matters most to your audience.

For example, let’s say you wanted to learn more about the audience in the main Internet marketing section on Warrior Forum.

First, highlight all the thread titles:

Copy and paste this into a blank spreadsheet, and then delete all the junk data:

Copy the remaining data (first column), which should be all of the thread titles.

Paste them into a free keyword density analyzer tool—just make sure you select the “text” option:

All these tools work the same, so use any you like.

Once you run the tool, you’ll get a long list of single words, 2-word phrases, and 3-word phrases listed in order from most used to least used:

To be honest, my results aren’t great in the screenshot above. That’s because I only scraped one page of forum results. Ideally, you want at least a few hundred so that trends start to become more obvious.

Still, you can learn a little bit about your audience from a brief analysis like this. For example, they likely use the word “best” instead of “top.” In addition, they are interested in “finding” answers to their problems.

Option 3 – Q&A sites: The last method I’ll describe here to find questions from your readers is by going on Q&A sites such as Quora.

Quora is probably the biggest, but there are other question and answer sites you could use for research:

• Yahoo Answers
• Stack Exchange
• Wiki Answers
• Ask Metafilter

The reason that Q&A sites are often more useful than forums for keyword research is that unlike forums, which are ordered by the last reply, Q&A sites have algorithms to show you popular content, both past and present.

The first step is to enter your main niche into the main search bar.

Use the filter on the left to narrow down the results to “Topics.” Topics are basically collections of all the questions in a particular niche.

You can follow the topic, which will make it easier to monitor new questions in the future. Or you can just click the link to the main topic for now.

When I clicked “Marketing”, which is a huge topic (1.7 million followers), it gave me several smaller categories to choose from.

Right from these small category previews, you can already find a few good keywords:

Once you’re done mining that page for ideas, click one of the sub-topics to dig in a little further.

In my case, I clicked the main “Digital Marketing” header:

As you scroll down, you’ll see a mixture of new and old questions.

You can look at the number of upvotes each question has (bottom left corner of any question) to see if it’s popular. Ideally, look for questions with at least a few upvotes.

Go through as many questions as you like to find keywords. You can easily find 50-100 to add to your list with this method.

Method #3 – Steal your competitor’s accidental keywords

Large sites, the leading sites in your niche that produce a lot of content, target a lot of keywords without doing it on purpose.

They may mention one in a headline of an article and/or a few times throughout the article.

You can’t compete with these sites for the main keywords they target. However, if they rank for any of these other keywords, you can try to overtake them.

If you create great content around these keywords, you will have better content for those particular keywords because it is more targeted.

This is a difficult method to use, but it can provide some useful results. It’s best used as a second or third option to the other methods in this article.

Step 1 – Use Google’s Keyword Planner: Go to the keyword planner and paste the URL of a competitor in the space where it asks for “your landing page”. Leave the keyword textbox blank. The main blog URL typically works best.

Google will return up to 800 keywords that it associates with the site, sorted by relevance.

You can also input a specific URL of a blog post into the landing page area. For example, if my new hypothetical blog was going to focus on social media marketing, I could enter posts about social media from Quick Sprout into the tool:

You will get some keyword ideas that wouldn’t have come up if you just typed “marketing” (or related) into the keyword box of the tool.

I recommend downloading all the results into a spreadsheet (“Download” button in the top right corner). Copy any keywords that seem good into your main list.

Step 2 – Plug these keywords into a rank tracking tool: One of the main ideas behind this strategy was to find keywords that are easy to rank for. If a competitor can rank for a keyword without even trying, it should be easier for you to rank highly for it.

Just because the tool associates those keywords with the site doesn’t mean the site ranks highly for them. You’ll need to plug them into a rank tracking tool or check them in Google manually (time-consuming).

For the sake of this example, I used Pro Rank Tracker. The free plan will give you 20 keyword results, but you’ll obviously need a premium account if you’re taking this seriously.

Add in your competitor’s domain along with the keywords from the previous step:

Click the “Save” button, and give the tool a minute to check the ranking for those keywords.

When you go to the URL view in the side menu, you’ll see all the keywords you just entered under your competitor’s URL:

Ideally, you’re looking for keywords that are ranking in the first two pages and aren’t fully included in the title. Those are typically the best candidates.

Method #4 – Twitter chats are a gold mine

All marketers know that Twitter is a powerful marketing platform, but few know how to use all its features effectively.

Twitter chats are one of those features. When people want to talk about a subject on Twitter, the only way to do it is to include a hashtag in their tweets. Then, other users can search for that hashtag to see the latest results and interact with them.

A Twitter chat uses a specific hashtag so that groups of users can discuss topics, live. They are usually hosted or moderated for a short time in order to stimulate discussion if needed.

To take advantage of Twitter chats fully, you’ll need to use a tool designed specifically for them. Here are a few options:

• Tweetchat.com
• Twitterfall.com
• TweetGrid.com
• Twubs.com

All of these tools work fairly similarly. You’ll need to enter a hashtag for a particular chat (shown on Tweetchat below) so that you can see Tweets from other users:

Technically, you can enter any hashtag. For example, “#SEO” will bring up recent Tweets that include “#SEO” in them:

That’s not very useful for our keyword research though.

Here are two options that are.

Option 1 – Observe established Twitter chats: By far, the best way to take advantage of Twitter chats for keyword research is to actually participate in them in real time.

The idea is to observe the chats, which typically consist of followers asking influencers questions. These questions often contain useful keywords, just like in forums.

When you enter a hashtag for an old chat, you’ll typically only see the most popular (re-tweeted and shared) posts. Unfortunately, these aren’t usually the questions, but rather the answers.

So, if you really want to take advantage of chats, plan to attend a few upcoming ones.

Here are four places where you can find Twitter chats:

1. http://ift.tt/144hyuX
2. http://ift.tt/1qAFqSV
3. http://ift.tt/1l58PFn
4. http://ift.tt/15xy8Eo

None are particularly well organized, but you can use the “find” command of your browser (ctrl + f) and type in a common niche keyword to find good chats:

Make a list of chats you’d be interested in attending from each of the four sources as well as the times they run.

When you enter the hashtag into one of the chat tools I gave you at the start of the section while the chat is actually running, you’ll get to see many questions from followers. Write those down.

In addition, you can type in the hashtag in the Twitter search bar, although it’s not as effective as being in a live chat.

You’ll have to scroll through some of the “answer” Tweets, but you should be able to dig out a few good questions and keywords:

Option 2 – Observe old chats or any relevant hashtag: As I just showed you, you can observe parts of old chats.

In addition, you can type in other hashtags that aren’t necessarily Twitter chats.

There’s no easy way to find these, but you can typically guess them. Try combining:

“niche” + “questions”

For example, I’d try the hashtag #marketingquestions:

If you type in an old chat, you may be able to find a few keywords if you’re willing to dig through a bunch of other tweets:

Method #5 – Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

All keyword research methods and tools have their own limitations.

In order to get the most complete set of keywords, you need to use at least a few different tools.

Now that you have a large list of potential keywords to target, you should run them through a keyword tool to get even more results that might not show up on a standard Google keyword planner list.

There are a few different tools you can use for this.

Tool #1 – Keywordtool.io: I told you about how powerful the autocomplete suggestion feature on large sites can be—none more so than Google itself.

This keyword tool types in your keyword plus different letters, one at a time, and records the autocomplete suggestions.

Type in any of your keywords (from your spreadsheet) into the tool, and click the search icon.

This will bring up a large list of keyword suggestions:

Not all of them will be good, but you’ll be able to find quite a few keywords to target.

There are other tools that utilize this same method, e.g., Ubersuggest:

Tool #2 – Term Explorer: This tool seems to use data from Google’s keyword planner but is able to give you more than the standard results for a keyword.

Once you create an account, select the bulk keyword tool either from the dashboard or the top menu:

Give the job a name, and then enter one or more of your keywords.

Term explorer is a really powerful tool if you have a paid account. Free accounts are limited to tiny jobs (1,000 keywords), which is still better than a basic Keyword Planner search.

However, paid accounts can change the results size to up to 90,000 keywords, which will reveal all kinds of hidden keyword gems.

After you run a job, a list of keywords will be generated, similar to the Adwords display.

You can filter the results with the left sidebar if needed:

If you start with a broad term (such as “marketing” in my example above), don’t stop there.

Pick some of the best long-tail keywords, and create another job for them to reveal even more unique ideas.

I created a new one for the keyword “internet marketing strategy” and ended up with a few long-tail keywords that would probably be good to target.

Keyword research and competition go hand in hand

Keyword research will allow you to compile a list of hundreds or thousands of relevant keywords.

However, this is useless until you assess the competition level of each keyword.

If several professionals are targeting a particular keyword, it’s typically better to pass on it and find an easier one to go after.

Analyzing the existing search engine results for a keyword and determining how competitive they are is a whole different topic.

Most keyword research or rank tracking tools have some sort of built-in competition metric. However, some are more accurate than others.

If you’ve used the methods in this article to find keywords, your chosen competition metric will be much lower for your keywords than the easy ones that Google’s Keyword Planner gives to everyone else.

Conclusion

I hope you understand by now that keyword research is a lot more than simply typing in a keyword into the Keyword Planner and downloading the results.

While digging into less competitive keywords is difficult and will take some time and practice to do, good keyword research will make your life much easier down the road.

You will get search engine traffic faster and with less effort (building backlinks) when you target the right keywords.

The five keyword research methods in this article will help you find these keywords and put your content strategy on a successful path.

If you have any other keyword research ideas that you’d like to share with other readers, please leave me a comment below.

Source Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/1Nqnx4q