Keyword Research and Gold Panning: A Comparison

gold panning

I'm a big fan of Discovery Channel's "BERING SEA GOLD", "GOLD RUSH" and other reality programs dealing with gold mining and gold panning. There's something incredibly mesmerizing with those precious yellow nuggets that make men go to extremes panning and mining the elusive metal. While others have hit the mother lode and struck it rich gold panning, most have found very little or none at all. One thing common among every one with gold fever: they all believed that "there's gold in them there hills" and have gambled practically every thing pursuing this belief. Such is the power gold has over men.

Similarly, keywords and the search for keywords is so much like gold panning. While we have bloggers and online income entrepreneurs who have already found the keyword mother lode and made it big in the make money online business, there are still so many still searching for that elusive keyword, or that best niche market that can make them a ton of passive income and make all their efforts worthwhile. Just like gold panning, it can be so frustrating to throw in all your time, effort and money only to end up empty. Believe me, I know personally how frustrating this is.

But, just like those gold panning pioneers who never gave up and kept on believing that "there's gold in them there hills", we just have to keep believing, get over our frustration and continue learning more about keyword research and keep blogging until we eventually find that keyword gold streak or even that elusive keyword mother lode.

Keep panning!

HESITATION

How many times has "Let me think about it" turn into "I forgot about it"? How many opportunities have we missed after hesitating to act right away on a good idea?

Opportunities seldom knock twice and once we miss an opportunity, there's no telling when another opportunity will come our way.

While it is true that we should avoid making hasty decisions, making decisions should never take too long. Do your due diligence but act decisively at the soonest or risk losing out on a golden opportunity.

WHEN DO YOU QUIT?

It was only supposed to be two or three months that I needed to be off work after a major surgery but somehow, and please don't think I'm lazy, I haven't gone back to work yet. Not that I don't want to go back to work (got bills I got to pay you know), but the "down time" suddenly provided me the opportunity (or the excuse, depending on how you look at it) to dabble more into building online income.

I actually started studying and researching about online business way back 2009 but it was on and off because I had so much on my table back then that kept me from focusing on any one item. I guess back then I was more of "if it doesn't make much money right away, look elsewhere" kinda guy and I really was not making much at all with my blogs and pay per clicks. So I forgot about my blogs and looked elsewhere. Bad choice.

Here's a fact: YOU DON'T MAKE MUCH MONEY RIGHT AWAY ONLINE! This is especially true with online passive income. Realistically, it may take at least several months before you expect to make any decent passive online income.

Way back 2009, I was blown away with inspiring tales of online entrepreneurs making thousands of passive dollars on autopilot right from launch. And they would gladly "share" how they did it through their "FREE" ebook which I can download by providing my email address. Although there were a lot of gems I learned from those "FREE" ebooks, I also learned nothing is "FREE" in this world. Long story short, and this is true of most "FREE" passive online income ebooks, I was supposed to buy or subscribe or pay for a service for their system to work.

But hey, don't let me stop you from downloading those FREE ebooks. Like I said, there's a treasure trove of useful information you can learn from those ebooks. And if you can afford the small investment to make the system work, by all means, buy them.

Anyway, one thing I'd like to point out with this post is how far do you go before you actually throw in the proverbial towel and give up. I am reminded of a story about a gold miner looking for the mother lode. For several months he dug and dug and dug, deeper and deeper, but got not even a speck of gold. Finally, exhausted and bankrupt, he gave up his search and went home broke.

A week later, another miner went into the same tunnel the first miner abandoned. He dug but only a few feet when eureka he found the mother lode the first miner had been digging for these last several months.

Can you feel the frustration the first miner felt? He was only a few feet away from his goal. So close yet he let his goal slip away when he gave up and now he can only weep as he watched the other miner reap the fruits of his labor.

Right now, I am at a crossroad where I need to choose whether I should continue with my quest for online passive income or go back to work and be a regular Joe again. I've invested so much time and effort to give up now. I'm hoping I can do both. Let's see where this goes.

BUCKET LIST

We all have our wish list of what we want or need to accomplish within our lifetime. Sort of a bucket list of a hundred things we hope to do before we die. As morbid as this may sound, it is a fact that eventually we all have to meet our Maker. So it makes perfect sense to live life while we still can. Go skydiving. Or bungee jumping. Or feed the sharks. Well, maybe not feed the sharks.

Writing and publishing books had always been on my bucket list. Thanks to Kindle Direct Publishing, anyone with a passion to write can publish their ebooks and even paperbacks and sell them through AMAZON. You even get to have your own "About the Author" page, similar to this:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

So, if writing books is on your bucket list, try registering on Kindle Direct Publishing.

Now that I have published a few  books, the next item on the bucket list is to have at least two or three best sellers. I know that's a tall order since I'm virtually a nobody but who knows. It won't hurt trying.

Until our next post. More power to you!

FORGED IN FIRE

WIKIPEDIA defines "forging" as a manufacturing process of shaping metal using heat and pressure.

If you're a fan of History Channel's FORGED IN FIRE, you see master blade smiths compete against other blade smiths to emerge Forged In Fire Champion.

By heating steel to white hot temperatures in a furnace and applying tremendous pressure using hammers, these master blade smiths create the sharpest and strongest blades that can pass several "kill" tests.

Sadly, not everyone becomes a FORGED IN FIRE Champion. Not every blade "makes the cut". But every blade went through the same forging process of heat and pressure. So what sets a champion blade apart from the other chunk of forged steel?

The deciding factor is in how steel reacts to the heat and pressure while the smith forges, folds, and shapes the chunk of steel into the desired blade. Some steel will crack. Some will delaminate. Some will deform and not stay straight. A champion blade is the one that will stay true and not bend nor crack under tremendous heat and pressure.

The fact that heat and pressure can make or break the blade apparently can also apply to me and you. Everyone goes through varying levels of "heat and pressure" everyday at work and at home. How we react under "heat and pressure" defines our character and determines whether we go home failing to "make the cut" or emerge as forged in fire champion.

CURVE BALL!

So what do you do when life throws you a curve ball? You step up to the plate again and keep swinging!

You should always anticipate those curve balls. Life is not always a bed of roses. Bad things can and will happen. That's a fact.

The sooner you recover and start swinging, the sooner you can make up for whatever you lost. Learn from the bad experience but never cry over spilled milk.

And why am I telling you about this? Because life threw me a wicked curve ball not too long ago and I'm in the process of picking myself back up. No worries, I should be A-OK again soon.

BEEN THERE. DONE THAT.

In 2010, I started working in the Call Center industry here in Manila, mainly out of curiosity and partly just to prove to myself that even an old dog can survive and even succeed in an industry dominated by really young professionals.

It was not easy. In fact I dropped out of the first account after just 5 months. But I kept focusing on improving myself and correcting my "opportunities". Long story short, I forged ahead and eventually moved up to supervisor after 3 years, a post I held for two years until November 2015.

Well, that's all I needed to prove and at that point I had nothing else to prove as far as that episode of my life is concerned. It's time to move on to other challenges. I passed on the torch proudly to a bright young lady who had been on my team since my promotion.

Been there. Done that. Move on. Next challenge please

EUREKA

Spent the last couple of weeks recovering gold from old phones and computer parts. There were nasty acids and  chemicals used and I was actually scared while going through the process. The best part was when I actually saw real gold recovered from scrap. Considering there was very little scrap to process, the amount of gold recovered was not that much... less than a gram at best. However, since my goal was to verify if the videos I studied on YouTube can be done I consider the result a SUCCESS.  The process is repeatable and it all boils down to getting enough scrap to make the effort financially rewarding.

WELCOME BACK AFTER FIVE LONG YEARS

This will be short. Just would like to let the Blogger community know that after five years I am trying to start blogging again. Nice to be back.

CALL CENTER 101: AN INSIDE STORY

THE CHOICES WE MAKE DETERMINE THE LIFE WE LIVE

CREATE A PASSIVE INCOME OPPORTUNITY

WEALTH RATIO AND RETIREMENT

MOTIVATION POSTER: TEAMWORK

MOTIVATION VIDEO: LIFE IS A CUP OF COFFEE

MOTIVATION POSTER: COMPROMISE

MOTIVATION POSTER: FORESIGHT

RETIRE YOUNG, RETIRE RICH

ABC's of SUCCESS

MOTIVATION POSTER: 2010