Research Coaching on the Internet

How would you like to know what people are looking for in the area of coaching? Would you like to be able to get into the mind of your prospect and know exactly what they are thinking about coaching?

Well, by using some tools on the Internet, this is really possible. It's almost like having access to a magic ESP machine that lets you know what people are thinking - at least for the people who use the Internet.

The tools? A basic one, that's also f'ree, is the Overture Keyword Selector Tool. It allows you to find out how many people have searched for a given term in a recent month via specific search engines (Yahoo, MSN, AltaVista, etc). Just type your term into the box and the number of people who searched that term in a previous month appear... magic eh?

For example, here's a screenshot of the figures for the term 'coaching':

So what does this tell you? Well firstly it appears that more people are looking for career coaching than simply coaching. In fact, more than 3 times as many people are looking for 'career coaching' than 'life coaching' - 23,811 vs. 7,062.

[Aside - now how many times have I mentioned the benefits of niching? Yes you narrow the market by focusing on careers but there are more people out there looking for that].

By the way, you can use the UK Overture Keyword Assistant which gives you figures specifically for the UK market.

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What do you think?

After attending the Internet conference in Chicago last month, I'm thinking of slightly changing the way I deliver this newsletter. Now don't worry - the same excellent content will always be produced.

I'm thinking of putting the newsletter article directly on the web each week and simply sending you a link to it via e-mail (on a Wednesday as usual). Would this put you off clicking on the link to read the newsletter?

So what do you think? Let me know via e-mail what you think of this idea and as way of thanks ask me your biggest burning question you have regarding your own practice.

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> Ways to use this tool...

Here are some ways that you can use the Overture tool for your coaching practice:

1. Test the water - You can use the Overture tool to very quickly test ideas for your coaching practice. Got an idea? Type it into the box and see if anyone is searching for your terms.

You can use the Overture tools to research a market before you spend your time, m0ney and effort on it. If not many people are searching on the term, why would you create a business idea around it? Alternatively, think of other search terms for your idea.

2. Read the mind - If you find that not many people are searching for the terms your thinking of, think more laterally and see if you can find more popular terms.

For example, by simply typing in the term 'career' into the Overture Keyword Selector Tool you see the following numbers:

So, this tells you that much more people are looking for 'career education', 'career change', etc than 'career coaching' for example.

For example over 14 times more people are searching for 'career change' versus 'career coaching.' Now do you think at least some of them would be good candidates for career coaching?

3. Find keywords - Once you know what people are searching for in your target market, you can then use those keywords in your marketing materials. This is especially the case for your website but that's another article altogether.

P.S. The Overture tool is f'ree and gives a rough guideline to market behaviour on the Internet. I use a paid service called Wordtracker as this provides more reliable figures for Internet searches and also has some great tools for keyword and competitor research. You can also have a complimentary trial of Wordtracker to test it out if you want to.

So, how can you research coaching on the Internet?

With very best wishes,

Authentic Practice
helping coaches to get more clients
45 Capitol Court
Old Coach Road
Wollaton
Nottingham
NG8 1GX

Website: http://www.authenticpractice.com

Tel.: (0845) 123 5105
Mobile: (07811) 262 111

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I work with coaches who have a strong desire to help others but are currently struggling to get clients. I help them to attract more clients and create a stable coaching practice to make a difference in the world.

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