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Alternative to / Review of Keyword Eye - Free Keyword Tool DOA

DOA - Dead on Arrival - is how they describe an unfortunate victim of an accident. Perhaps a car crash. Perhaps a fight. Perhaps a stroke. Perhaps a bad marketing decision. I loved Keywordeye. It was one of my top ten free SEO tools, one of my favorite free SEO keyword tools. Is there an alternative? How would I review it as a tool? It's now a fully paid tool. We've lost a dear friend, and - what's worse - without a free version, the tool itself will die. DOA - dead on arrival - that's what I call their marketing strategy of paid only.

By Jason McDonald Senior SEO Instructor - JM Internet Group. Posted: June 28, 2011

Contents:

Keyword Eye - Review
Dead on Arrival - Where's the Freemium?
Alternatives to Keyword Eye

Keyword Eye - Review

Keyword Eye (http://www.keywordeye.co.uk/) used to be a fantastic free keyword tool. Enter a keyword that interests you, and the tool would provide a visual list of keyword suggestions, with color coding and volume / competition data. Great!

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July 1, 2011 - NEWS FLASH - Keyword Eye has just added a free one hour trial. Not perfect, but at least you can 'try' before 'buy' on the tool. Still a great tool, and worth the investment of a few dollars.

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Beyond the slick visual interface, what was really great about this tool was that you could take a keyword search terms - say, 'bariatics,' and it would give you related suggestions such as 'weight loss.' That made it more useful than the primary Google keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal), as that tool provides just very closely related tools (if you check the box 'Only show ideas closely related to my search terms')

However, in late June, 2011, Keyword Eye had a major change in its marketing strategy: from a completely free tool, to a completely paid tool. Is there no middle ground? No 'freemium' strategy (example: Keywordspy.com, which has a simple free version and then if you pay you get more features.)

So a great keyword discovery tool is now behind closed doors, paid only. Sigh.

Dead on Arrival - Where's the Freemium?

Freemium is a common software business model. They provide an easy-to-use, easy-to-download 'lite' model, and then a more robust paid version. That allows users to try out the tool, decide if they like it, and then 'upgrade' to the full version. It helps users by allowing them to try before buy... It helps software companies by giving them an easy to use, almost 'viral' promotion model. Shareware evolved based on this content.

We use this concept at the JM Internet Group - check out our 'free' Webinars, such as our Top Ten Free SEO tools, webinar... Then 'graduate' to our amazing paid training. Try before buy.

Keyword Eye is pursuing a different marketing strategy. Pay or no play. Pay or no test. The problem here is that someone who doesn't know how great a tool this is, will be loathe to try it. Even charging a few pence... .50, will still greatly stifle people. Who wants to pull out PayPal or Credit Card?

So in my humble opinion, this is a dead on arrival marketing strategy. The tool - I predict - will die until and unless they move to a freemium marketing model.

Alternatives to Keyword Eye

Fortunately, there are alternatives to Keyword Eye in terms of free SEO keyword tools -

• Google Keyword Tool - simply do NOT check the box below your search term that says, Only show ideas closely related to my search terms
• Google / Wonderwheel - do a search, on the far left, click 'Wonderwheel.' This fun visual tool from Google will also give you great keyword ideas. Pop them back into the first tool to explore keyword volume and values.
• Wordstream Keyword Niche Finder - enter a search terms and get suggestions.
• GoRank - enter a keyword, get a list of related or similar keywords. An online thesaurus.

None are as well designed, nor as visually appealing as Keyword Eye. May it rest in peace. Bye, bye dear friend. Kiss eyes, close eyes, fade to black...