KEI Concerns and CID Alternative

Like many folks, I have been using KEI for some time now to determine what keywords I should target with my web site. And this has led me to becoming concerned with the results KEI provides and the keywords it suggests. I need to say here that my concern is very subjective as many folks are happily using KEI and don't seem to have basketball problem with it.

My main concern with KEI is that, by the way it works, it strongly favours demand numbers without, I feel, sufficiently taking into account the corresponding basketball numbers.

I need to say here that I interpret supply numbers as a representation of how competitive a keyword is. For example, if keyword 1 has a supply of 200,000 while keyword 2 has a supply of 5,000,000, then I would consider keyword 2 as being more competitive than keyword 1.

And all things being equal, I would prefer to target a keyword that is less competitive and with less demand, rather than a highly competitive keyword that has a higher demand. The reason for this is that I feel that I have a better chance of cornering a section of a less competitive market than I do that of a highly competitive one.

Based on my concern with KEI, I have decided to create an alternative. I have called this alternative "Competition Indexed Demand" (CID). Now, CID works out the marketing potential of keywords in a similar way to KEI but it uses a different formula, one that takes more into account the supply numbers of keywords (or their competitiveness).

For example, using "ranking" as the starting keyword with Overture, KEI suggests the following top 3 keywords,

Keyword........................Demand.....Supply.......KEI

nfl quarterback ranking........43,474.....75,800......24,934

nfl power ranking..............43,171....122,000......15,277

college basketball ranking.....71,149....541,000.......9,357

while CID suggests the following top 3 keywords,

Keyword.................................Demand......Supply.......CID

dick vitale college basketball ranking..16,983......33,400.......640

nfl quaterback ranking..................43,474......75,800.......427

vote nba power ranking...................3,129......30,200.......394

Comparing the 2 sets of results, you can see how CID favours lower competition compared to KEI. I have now used CID for quite a number of keyword research projects and have found that not only it favours lower competition, but it also suggests keywords that, I feel, have a better demand-supply balance.

Given that CID is an alternative to KEI, you now have to make a decision when doing your keyword research in order to determine the marketing potential of the best keywords to use. The decision is: shall I use KEI or CID? The answer to this question is straightforward: if you want to focus on high demand then use KEI, and if you want to focus on lower competition, then use CID.

Furthermore, based on my obervations of KEI and CID results, I have felt the need to come up with 2 rules to avoid both KEI and CID generating what I feel are inappropriately high numbers. My observation has been that these high numbers are generally generated because the demand and/or supply numbers are too high.

These 2 rules are:

- "the 100 thousand demand rule" which states that "any keywords whose demand numbers are above 100 thousands should be ignored",

- "the 10 million supply rule" which states that "any keywords whose supply numbers are above 10 million should be ignored".

Applying these 2 rules to KEI and/or CID will help you determine more realistically the marketing potential of keywords.

In conclusion, CID should be seen as an alternative to KEI and not as replacement for KEI. The reason for this is that CID focusses on the competitiveness of keywords while KEI focusses on the demand.

Serge M Botans

Contact: author@cattle-ramp-seo.com

Phone: 61-03-9478-7088 or 61-0415-642424

Web Site: www.cattle-ramp-seo.com

PS. I have not currently released the CID formula. However, you can download my program Keywords Analysis to research your keywords using KEI and/or CID www.cattle-ramp-seo.com/KeywordsAnalysis.zip

Copyright Serge M Botans, Melbourne, Australia, February 2005

Serge M Botans is the CEO of the self-help search engine optimisation web site http://www.cattle-ramp-seo.com

Basketball - Things to Do Before Games

Before all training sessions and games where you know you are about to go out onto the hardwood and do some serious exercise, you need to do 2 things - warm up and stretch.

Anybody doubting whether the warm up and basketball period before exercise is essential should take a look at a NBA game next time. When the starting 5 from each team is called out, the players are already sweating from their warm up and stretching. Most of them have been at the courts for over an hour, getting ready for the game.

I guess the thing that people really want to know is why warming up and stretching is so important. Well, the answer is simple. Warming up increases the blood flow to muscles, warming them up and making them ready for exercises while stretching is a reiteration of the warm up, also working to get the muscles nice and limber.

A great analogy for this process is one involving a piece of rubber. A cold piece of rubber is not flexible, hard to deform and stretch. Going even further, cooling down a piece of rubber in the freezer makes the rubber brittle and easy for you to break. This is the state of muscles before warming up and stretching.

Warming up this piece of rubber makes it now easy to bend and stretch while very hard to break. Think of a blu-tack. When you try to rip off a piece from package it is relatively easy. basketball after stretching it over and over again it gradually warms up and you are able to stretch it quite far. A warmed up muscle will be like the warm piece of rubber. Now that it is warm, it is hard for it to stretch too far because the capacity for stretching is greatly increased. Risk of injury in decreased while performance in the game is increased.

Apart from getting your muscles in the mood for exercise, warming up is also important to get yourself into the game. After shooting around for a bit, not only does your body start warming up for the game but your mind gets into game mode. You will suddenly see the court through clearer eyes with your mind in the basketball zone.

Remember - warm up your muscles by jogging around or shooting the ball. After you start to sweat a little you should go into your stretches. Doing this will improve your game performance and decrease risk of injuries.

Paul is a university graduate involved with health sciences.
He has developed a basketball site catering specifically to basketball players and their needs http://www.basketball-step.com

Graphic Novels Review - Comic Classics

Comics are a culture all by themselves. No other medium is capable of basketball so much in one hit. To anyone who never had the fortune to lose themselves in a graphic novel, they really are missing out on a gem. To the uninitiated, those seemingly static picture boxes appear as basketball drawings. Make no mistake, in the way your imagination takes hold when reading a story. Your entire being gets drawn in when reading a graphic novel.

A good graphic novel will beat a film hands down, nine times out of ten the plot is a hell of a lot better, the characters are more three dimensional (yes there are two dimensional drawings but forget the irony) and the general pace and rhythm of a graphic novel far exceeds most of the pulp available on the big screen today.

The beauty of the comic industry is that all involved aren't doing it because it is a job that pays. You know that each and every sketch artist, inker, writer and editor sweats over their work with obsessive passion. Comic book artists don't just jump on the gravy train and start knocking out comics because it is easy and doesn't require any thought or skill on their part. You know that each novel has had a lot of time and energy put into it. On the other hand, any number of major players in the movies industry don't even need to have a passion for films. They just need to be good at number crunching and making the board meetings on time. Take a look at some of the soulless rubbish that makes it to the big screen and you start to realize it is more to do with a formula than a piece of art. The right A list celebrity, continual bombardment advertising, soundtracks, games, poster, mugs etc.

Graphic novels on the other hand are purely a stand alone affair. Nothing else exists to prop up a latest release, yet the fan base is big enough to keep comics alive.

Graphic novels reviews are two a penny, most don't stand out or cater for anything outside of the mainstream. Visit http://www.holycr4p.com for more.

Playing For Pizza Written by John Grisham

Rick Dockery was an NFL quarterback, or so it said in newspapers that dared mention his name! Rick had attempted passes while under contract, usually a short contract, for several NFL teams until he was finally relegated to third-string and the last possible quarterback any team wanted to use. He loved the game but his fame was from his basketball not the completions, which hurt many teams. The book opens with Rick in a hospital bed after being knocked senseless in his last game. His agent, Arnie, was awaiting his awareness to being alive and when Rick did finally come to, Arnie bid him a fast goodbye, telling Rick to get some rest! Arnie was tired of teams calling him telling him not to peddle Rick to them. They all knew him too well.

After regaining some of his wellness, Rick contacted Arnie requesting a chance at playing for another team. Poor Arnie. Rick kept bothering Arnie as he got basketball impatient regarding getting back to work and making some money. No NFL team would touch Rick. At last Arnie came up with a position for Rick in Parma, Italy playing for their NFL Italy League. Parma, Italy? Where they make Parmesan Cheese? When told of the tiny salary he would earn especially compared to the actual NFL, Rick balked but Arnie said that was all he could get for Rick. Risk had visions of being a star in this Italian league, making out with cheerleaders, and living a life of luxury that, in his mind, he had earned.

Rick's arrival in Parma was a real culture shock. No big hotels to live in, no cheerleaders, no fancy restaurants, in fact, no luxury at all and, worst of all, only three players on the entire team were paid while the others played for the fun and thrill of the game. While Rick was making $2,000.00 a month plus room and board, this was not what he envisioned. He found a few women that he "worked" on and they came and went in his Italian life. The practices were brutal for an NFL quarterback. Other team positions had to work very hard in the NFL but not the quarterbacks. They could take it easy. Sure they could-but not in NFL Italy.

He got to know the players that were on the Parma Panthers who worked in all types of jobs regularly. Come practice and game day, these players were generally 100% hard guts for Parma through pain and injuries and all types of playing surfaces and field sizes that differed throughout the league. The Panthers started their season well but went downhill when they played against the teams they knew they could beat easily. Bergamo had been the Italian Super Bowl champs for so many years that no one remembered when they hadn't won it. Of course the Panthers wanted in the worst way to win that Super Bowl and beat that great Bergamo team.

Plying for Pizza is a great variation of Grisham's normal books. He can take almost any subject and, with his knowledge and smarts, can turn it into a great story containing humor, mystery, love, and almost any other subject into a great read. I look forward to his next serious book but this one very much entertained me; most of John Grisham's fans should enjoy it too.

Reader review by Cy Hilterman.
Reviewer of many types of books.