In the relatively short time that I’ve been involved with IM, I’ve acquired quite a few software tools in an attempt to make my life easier. These tools consist of both the free and paid variety. Some of the tools that I paid top-dollar for sit unused on my hard drive. Most of these tools I purchased on the recommendation of other Internet Marketers that I respect.
The tools that I no longer use are all well-designed and do what they were advertised to do, but for whatever reason, don’t serve a purpose in my business. These tools fit into the general categories of rapid content development and competition spying. There are definitely some very clever software tools in these spaces, but I haven’t been able to find a suitable use for them.
At the other end of the spectrum are keyword tools and there are more of these kinds of tools than you can shake a stick at.
The one thing that gets confusing about keyword tools is the two major types of keyword tools:
1. Keyword Research Tools
2. Keyword Analysis Tools
3. Combination of 1 and 2 above
It took me a while to figure out the difference and I may still be getting it wrong, but keyword search information is gathered and maintained by search engines such as Google, MSN, Yahoo!, etc. Keyword research services such as WordTracker access the search indexes from meta search engines and build their own keyword database from them.
Keyword analysis tools essentially perform data mining on keyword search results. In other words, you can sort, filter, combine, etc. on keyword results, but the keywords ultimately come from search results provided by Google, Yahoo! Search (Overture), or WordTracker.
There are tons of keyword analysis tools, both free and paid with some being rather expensive. The one I use exclusively now is Micro Niche Finder from James J. Jones.
It’s not an exaggeration when I say I absolutely love Micro Niche Finder! Before I begin writing an article, or setting up a new website, or even writing a blog post for that matter, I first consult with Micro Niche Finder. Though I primarily use it for SEO, as its name implies, it has several very neat features that allow you to mine for niche topics and products related to those niches.
I’ve been a long time customer of James Jones and purchased his “Porcupine Marketing System” prior to the release of MNF. Yes, it’s a strange title for an info-product, but the techniques James teaches in it inspired him to create Micro Niche Finder.
Rather than me continuing to ramble on about the virtues of MNF, all you need to do is visit the sales page for MNF and watch all 5 of the videos that James has up there on how he uses MNF to make money online.
To be honest, the material contained in the videos is worth more than a lot of the info-products I’ve purchased over the years. The videos on the sales page are packed with great tips and “Aha!” moments, and I’d be surprised if you didn’t get at least one new idea from them.
And one other thing — James Jones is one of the truly good guys in IM. He personally has sent out email alerts and updates whenever there has been an issue with the MNF server, which has been rare. The latest updates to MNF (v2.0) are really useful. Not just cosmetic tweaks. In fact, the Strength of Competition (SOC) feature is very similar to WordTracker’s KEI. For most of my SEO work, I no longer bother subscribing to WordTracker’s paid service. Instead I just fire up Micro Niche Finder.
on Aug 30th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Thank you for your review of Micro Niche Finder. It is a very honest and thought provoking piece of writing. You obviously have taken a lot of time to use it and it shows in what you have said. I looked at the videos and they really are professionally done. Thanks for sharing that information with us, who strive to make a living online.
Kind regards
Mick
on Aug 30th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Thanks for the feedback Mick. Yes, I use Micro Niche Finder on a daily basis. In fact, It’s probably the most heavily used application I own. It’s great for finding long tail keywords to target for articles, web pages, and even blog posts. It’s the one IM tool I couldn’t live without.
Rich
on Sep 2nd, 2007 at 5:00 am
[...] out of 252,000 total results. It’s now a little over a week since I first posted my review of Micro Niche Finder. I’m not sure when it exactly hit the number one position. Could have been within only a few [...]
on Sep 7th, 2007 at 2:51 am
how long ago was MNF released?
on Sep 7th, 2007 at 3:01 am
I purchased MNF back in March of this year. It was pre-released by James Jones to members of Dennis Becker’s 5BucksaDay membership site for a pretty large discount. James is also a member there. There have been 2 updates since then, with the latest version having some pretty major feature enhancements.
Rich
on Jul 15th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
[...] I use a combination of the Google tool and the WordTracker Free Keyword Tool. For this I use Micro Niche Finder as a front-end to the WordTracker Free tool and Google search. I find the keyword competition data [...]
on May 21st, 2009 at 7:17 am
Hi, now a week ago I purchased micro niche finder. Normally I used just the google keyword tool, but this tool speeds up everything.
So I also had that “aha” moments hihi.
Because of this speed i already found nice and maybe golden niche keywords. I hope this will also raise my income
One other thing that brainstorm function is very nice in bad mind days…
Greetings,
Chris
on Sep 20th, 2009 at 12:42 am
I purchased Micro Niche Finder last year and I’ve got to say I’m more than pleased with it.
It has some great indicators like SOC (Strength of Competition) and OCI (online commercial intention) that help you make decisions on what keywords to go after really quickly.
Constant updates and improvements with excellent support too, a big thumbs up from me
on Jan 27th, 2010 at 8:58 am
SOC is one of the greatest inventions for keyword research because Micro Niche Finder makes it really easy and simple. Also, MNF got better just recently since it pulls Google data now. (In the past it used wordtracker). Good!
on Sep 23rd, 2010 at 1:41 am
I bought Micro Niche Finder on last month. It has in great reduce the keyword research for the affiliate marketing. What I can say, MNF has combine most of the research features together. It also allow to get the availability of the keyword domain & link to ezines, amazon & ebay to get the suitable niches. Thumb up & excellent product !