If you’ve been in the internet marketing game for any time over the past couple of years you’ve no doubt heard about a product called Market Samurai. It’s pretty hard to miss since it’s recommend by almost every big name in the industry. In short, it’s the best keyword research software on the market.
What you might not know is who’s behind the software and what’s the story? Today I’m happy to share a recent interview I conducted with Ben Stickland – the CEO of Alliance Software, the makers of Market Samurai.
This is a pretty rare interview since I had to travel to the Nobel Samurai head office to record this one… what’s more, I can pretty much count on one hand the times I have seen Ben interviewed or even present for that matter.
I ask him all the hard questions you want to know about how they optimisation websites that dominate in Google. I think the only question I didn’t ask was the one Luke Moulton suggested via twitter about where Eugene gets his scotty vests 
Anyway, watch the interview below and let me know what you think.
Your SEO Coach,
David Jenyns
Ps. To grab a free trial copy of Market Samurai click here.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Pretty cool… (first thing I noticed was the monitor in the background. We have the same wallpaper! Great minds think alike?)… great to see how the minds behind Market Samurai think and their approach to Internet marketing. Being a solid advocate of Market Samurai, I must say this is very cool indeed
Hah! The dojo was infiltrated!
I’ve been using Market Samurai for a few months now, and I agree that it is the best keyword tool out there. But the best feature it has is really the analysis tools to help you with your SEO.
Great interview. Although I would love to see more of the dojo.
I’m a big fan of Market Samurai. They rightly say that it is the Swiss army knife of keyword research. I think Ed Dale said it best when he mentioned a couple of times in The Challenge that we kids have it easy because we have this tool for market and keyword research. In the old days, they had to do everything manually and it probably took ages to pick a good niche.
Yeah he is pretty old… I’ll let Ed know you said that Grace
Yikes. That didn’t come out right.
Well Ed doesn’t look that old.
In the old days… keyword research was as simple as taking the name of your product and you’re done… of course the Internet was fairly simple then and most sites had that crappy geocities look…
In the old days, a Market Samurai was a Ronin earning his daily bowl of rice keeping thieves away from the fish market…
I know Market Samurai is a great keyword research tool (even more than that, a market research tool as well), but I was just wondering if there are alternatives to it? Preferably free ones? Samurai can be quite expensive for a lot of people.
You can try googling “google free keyword tool” and click the #1 search result… it’s free and is the source for most keyword tools.
That said, Market Samurai is definitely worth the investment if you’re doing things seriously.
Your SEO Coach,
Dave
The parallels Ben Stickland made between market research and keyword research were very interesting. I hadn’t realized that keyword research gives you such a good idea of the marketing demand and marketing opportunities. The other thing that caught my imagination in this fascinating interview was his initiative in taking the internet into the aged care space. Interesting stuff!
@Elaine
I agree. And also, when it comes to Internet marketing, it is almost impossible to do market research without doing any form of keyword research. You can start with finding a market then finding the keywords or the other way around. Either way, the two complement each other.
This looks really helpful, I am trying to rank on a few specific keywords and terms and it looks like it may help. The price would really be worth it if it helped in the long run.
Just one question. Ben refers to adding many pages for content. With wordpress, is he referring to heaps of pages or posts – or are they one and the same? Newbie so not entirely sure if a post is the same as a page when used in the context Ben is discussing. (Around the 16 min mark)
Great interview though. All starting to come together
@Peter they’re one in the same
Glad to hear you enjoyed it.
Your SEO Coach,
Dave
Gday David,
Love your work!
I’m evaluating top 10 results and the Yahoo Directory listing is the only thing that worries me, meaning 9 out of 10 have a Yahoo Directory listing, PR0s and 0 links search volume 2600 , would you still maybe consider that niche? Would it be just a bit more difficult to succeed, or a LOT harder?
Regards,
Marcelo
What does he mean by putting up a page each week (building assets) at around 11.05 minutres into the video. Does he mean writing articles or entire new pages? Sorry but I’m no expert (obviously) with this sort of stuff. I have been encouraged by a seo fella to keep writing genuine articles on my site relevant to my work.
Hey Marcelo – nothing is ever too hard for us
We just decide if we put the effort in are we able to monitize it in a way that makes financial sense. That said, if you’re thinking the competition is a little stiff, just come at it in a different direction – go for longer tail phrases to start. Hope that helps and if you need anything further check out: http://www.melbourneseoservices.com/seo-products/seo-training-course-dvds/
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Hi Peter,
Spot on… building assets mean building out pages
Best thing you can do as you mentioned is “keep writing genuine articles on my site relevant to my work.”
Keep it up, you’re on the right track.