alexg123
New Member
Hi peeps,
TL;DR: I grew tired of expensive keyword search tools, so I created mine. It costs $2 instead of $50 and only focuses on keywords related to books and ebooks. Bonus: you get the bestseller books related to successful keywords and the revenue they generate: kindleranker keyword_search
I knew I had landed on an interesting question when all the online tools I could find asked for at least $50 a month to provide an answer (except for sonar-tool).
The absolute price did not bother me so much; I genuinely believe that some services deserve hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month. I just do not think that keyword research is one of these services. What really tickled me was the price-to-value ratio. Especially given the way most, if not all of these so-called keyword search tools work.
These tools do not go through the laborious process of scanning Amazon’s millions of product pages, sort all relevant text, extract useful text features, apply some twisted algorithm that vectorizes sentences and calculates angles in nth dimension spaces to extract keywords. They do not estimate a keyword’s volume search based on obscure statistical models that only make sense to three mathematical geniuses in a dark dormitory at MIT…None of that!
They use…Wait for it…Amazon’s search bar itself!
Try typing anything into Amazon’ search bar, and it will show you keywords associated with what you are typing. Amazon takes care of all the messy steps detailed above to give you the most relevant suggestions:
Keyword tools simply automate the typing process to extract as many suggested keywords as possible. If you type Alex, they will call Amazon’s API with the following values:
“Alex ”
“Alexa”
“Alexb”
…
More advanced ones will probably add prepositions or relevant words to get more results:
“How Alex”
“Story Alex”
…
So, if I recap: They are expecting people to pay $50, $60, $280 a month — I am not making these numbers up — for an automated program that loops through the alphabet and calls Amazon’s API?
Now that’s ballsy…
Of course, they promise awesome extra features like volume search estimates but most of them are based on sketchy calculations. First of all, Amazon does not disclose its customer’s sales so there is no way to get an absolute volume search number.
Some use Google Planner to get Volume search data, CPC (Cost per Click), and additional metrics. But this data is -mildly put- wrong.
Google is a general search engine used to get information about a subject, the weather, news, hell even do math. Amazon is another beast altogether. It is a product search engine. People search for items with the intention to buy them.
What is the ratio of items you searched for on Google vs the items you actually bought? 1, 2, 5%?
See how the nature of the search is different. So is the volume of search queries between Google and Amazon.
What is the alternative then Alex, you may ask?
When I get frustrated by something on the Internet, I simply go make my own version. So, without further ado, I present you Kindle Ranker Keyword Search Tool: kindleranker keyword_search
Let’s first address the pricing issue:
You get 3 free queries each day to search for the keyword of your choice (Tip: just open a new browser session in incognito mode and enjoy 3 more free queries each time).
However, if you would like to support my project, then purshase an unlimited access for $2 a week or $5 a month. 10 to 50 times cheaper than the competition, because this is what I believe the real price for such a service should be.
Second, and I think this is one of the strongest points. This service is geared toward self published writers. The results are not spoiled by successful keywords in other Amazon departments. You only get keywords relevant to the Kindle and Book departments and that’s gold!
Third, Kindle Keyword Search Tool uses Kindle Ranker’s database of Amazon’s 10 000 categories (both books and eBooks) and 200 000 bestsellers, to give you real metrics about a keyword’s potential sales and revenue!
Finally, about that search volume, I use a scoring system that compares one keyword’s relative success to another. When you think about it, what really matters is the relative volume, i.e. is keyword X more popular than keyword Y?
Thankfully, we can easily get this information by comparing the number of letters required to have the keyword suggested by Amazon.
When you type “ha” on the Amazon search bar, it suggests you “Harry Potter” for instance. This keyword’s relative popularity is 2. If you type “Har” however, Amazon suggests “Haruki Murakami” in addition to “Harry Potter”.
“Haruki Murakami” is a level 3 keyword because it did not appear when we only typed “ha”. We can thus safely say that Harry Potter is more popular than Haruki Murakami.
That’s pretty much about it!
New features are coming up soon and will further strengthen the bond between Kindle Keyword Search tool and Kindle Ranker’s other features so stay tuned
Cheers,
Alex from KR
TL;DR: I grew tired of expensive keyword search tools, so I created mine. It costs $2 instead of $50 and only focuses on keywords related to books and ebooks. Bonus: you get the bestseller books related to successful keywords and the revenue they generate: kindleranker keyword_search
I knew I had landed on an interesting question when all the online tools I could find asked for at least $50 a month to provide an answer (except for sonar-tool).
The absolute price did not bother me so much; I genuinely believe that some services deserve hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month. I just do not think that keyword research is one of these services. What really tickled me was the price-to-value ratio. Especially given the way most, if not all of these so-called keyword search tools work.
These tools do not go through the laborious process of scanning Amazon’s millions of product pages, sort all relevant text, extract useful text features, apply some twisted algorithm that vectorizes sentences and calculates angles in nth dimension spaces to extract keywords. They do not estimate a keyword’s volume search based on obscure statistical models that only make sense to three mathematical geniuses in a dark dormitory at MIT…None of that!
They use…Wait for it…Amazon’s search bar itself!
Try typing anything into Amazon’ search bar, and it will show you keywords associated with what you are typing. Amazon takes care of all the messy steps detailed above to give you the most relevant suggestions:
Keyword tools simply automate the typing process to extract as many suggested keywords as possible. If you type Alex, they will call Amazon’s API with the following values:
“Alex ”
“Alexa”
“Alexb”
…
More advanced ones will probably add prepositions or relevant words to get more results:
“How Alex”
“Story Alex”
…
So, if I recap: They are expecting people to pay $50, $60, $280 a month — I am not making these numbers up — for an automated program that loops through the alphabet and calls Amazon’s API?
Now that’s ballsy…
Of course, they promise awesome extra features like volume search estimates but most of them are based on sketchy calculations. First of all, Amazon does not disclose its customer’s sales so there is no way to get an absolute volume search number.
Some use Google Planner to get Volume search data, CPC (Cost per Click), and additional metrics. But this data is -mildly put- wrong.
Google is a general search engine used to get information about a subject, the weather, news, hell even do math. Amazon is another beast altogether. It is a product search engine. People search for items with the intention to buy them.
What is the ratio of items you searched for on Google vs the items you actually bought? 1, 2, 5%?
See how the nature of the search is different. So is the volume of search queries between Google and Amazon.
What is the alternative then Alex, you may ask?
When I get frustrated by something on the Internet, I simply go make my own version. So, without further ado, I present you Kindle Ranker Keyword Search Tool: kindleranker keyword_search
Let’s first address the pricing issue:
You get 3 free queries each day to search for the keyword of your choice (Tip: just open a new browser session in incognito mode and enjoy 3 more free queries each time).
However, if you would like to support my project, then purshase an unlimited access for $2 a week or $5 a month. 10 to 50 times cheaper than the competition, because this is what I believe the real price for such a service should be.
Second, and I think this is one of the strongest points. This service is geared toward self published writers. The results are not spoiled by successful keywords in other Amazon departments. You only get keywords relevant to the Kindle and Book departments and that’s gold!
Third, Kindle Keyword Search Tool uses Kindle Ranker’s database of Amazon’s 10 000 categories (both books and eBooks) and 200 000 bestsellers, to give you real metrics about a keyword’s potential sales and revenue!
Finally, about that search volume, I use a scoring system that compares one keyword’s relative success to another. When you think about it, what really matters is the relative volume, i.e. is keyword X more popular than keyword Y?
Thankfully, we can easily get this information by comparing the number of letters required to have the keyword suggested by Amazon.
When you type “ha” on the Amazon search bar, it suggests you “Harry Potter” for instance. This keyword’s relative popularity is 2. If you type “Har” however, Amazon suggests “Haruki Murakami” in addition to “Harry Potter”.
“Haruki Murakami” is a level 3 keyword because it did not appear when we only typed “ha”. We can thus safely say that Harry Potter is more popular than Haruki Murakami.
That’s pretty much about it!
New features are coming up soon and will further strengthen the bond between Kindle Keyword Search tool and Kindle Ranker’s other features so stay tuned
Cheers,
Alex from KR