If you are ever curious about translating languages, you may want to try the Google Translate Feature. You type in text, a webpage URL, or upload a document for Google to translate. This feature works really well especially for being a free feature. A note of caution, though: it’s not always perfect, so a little bit of research and/or cultural understanding can go a long way.

Let’s run a few examples so we can see how the Google Translate feature works.

For the first example, I am going to translate the word “winter” from English into French.

Google Translate Feature Example

This is a mostly correct translation. The word for “winter” in French is indeed “hiver”, but one would never say “hiver” without an article (ex: les, le, etc.). The correct way to translate this word would be “l’hiver” which is:

l’(the article) + hiver(word for winter) = l’hiver. So although Google was close, it made a grammatical error by leaving out the article. On the plus side, most french speaking people would know what you are trying to say although it would be obvious that you are not a native speaker. If you were to reverse the process and translate “l’hiver” from French into English, you would see that it translates into “winter” perfectly.

If you notice beneath the space for the translated word there is headline that says “Dictionary – View detailed dictionary”.

View Detailed Dictionary

If you click to see the detailed dictionary, more information about the word arises such as synonyms, web definitions, related languages, and more:

Detailed Dictionary Features

This is a handy feature, so be sure to explore it regardless of what words and languages you are translating.

Now for the next example we shall examine how Google Translate Feature addresses issues involving formal tenses.

In many countries, there are two types of verbal protocols: the informal and the formal. The informal is what a person would use to address to someone they are either friendly are familiar with, or are of the same age. The formal is sometimes used when a person is speaking to someone of higher superiority, age, or rank. The formal denotes a tone of respect that the informal does not.

For example, in the Spanish language there is the informal and formal way to address a group of people. The formal conjugation, called the vosotros, would be used if a person is talking to a group of people of higher superiority. The vosotros is not as widely used as it used to be in most spanish speaking countries, although it is still used in Spain.

In this scenario, let’s pretend we want to ask a group of people who have higher superiority or seniority how they are doing. Google Translate has trouble detecting the subtleness of the formal vosotros, so they best way to enter this would be:

Formal Conjugations

This, as far as we have been able to test, is the closest form of vosotros we could find. By adding “sirs” we acknowledged that the group of people that were being addressed had superiority. It’s not perfect but it does translate very well and is close enough to the vosotros to basically become a non-issue (except to the language purists).

For French, which also has the informal and formal, we noticed that if you want formal sentences, type in what you wish to have translated but then put (formal) in parenthesis. For french, the vouz/votre form (which is the formal form) will come into play.

For instance, here is the sentence “what is your name” that I want translated into French. However, I want it to be formal:

Formal Form in French

As you can see, the “votre” is the French way of designating “you” formally. Obviously, disregard (formelle), because that literally means “formal”. You want your sentence to translate as ”what is your name/Quel est votre nom” not “what is your name(formal)/Quel est votre nom (formelle). 

If you don’t enter (formal), Google Translate Feature defaults to the informal:

French Informal Translation

As you can see, I wanted the exact same sentence translate, but without adding (formal) to my sentence I now have the translation for the informal “you” conjugation, which creates a completely different sentence. 

For longer sentences, the Google Translate feature works rather well. It’s not perfect, but it’s really close. Nothing beats being a native speaker of a language but this tool will get your message across to people of other languages well enough.

It’s also useful to check the the translated features on the side:

Other Google Translate Features

These enable you to get translations with a single click by adding buttons to your browser’s toolbar. Then whenever you want to translate a webpage you’re viewing, just click the button. You can translate any part of the page by selecting that part before you click, and it’s pretty accurate. Once Again, all of these features are worth exploring once you have your translation.

It might not be 100% correct all the time, but it’s better than most costly translating software AND it’s free! Have fun exploring this translating feature - in the highly globalized e-world, you never know when you are going to need it!

Micro Niche Finder offers a Measure of Backlinks (MOB henceforth) feature that is extremely useful for internet marketers trying to determine a niche or market’s viability.

The MOB feature gives the estimated number of backlinks required to land on the first page of Google search results. Google LOVES backlinks, but they have become more discerning about the backlinks they deem acceptable or worthy in recent algorithms. To understand how backlinks currently work in Google, it’s important to understand what happened in the past so that you DON’T try a method that has been proven not to work. If you have been in the internet marketing business for a while, you probably already know a lot of what I am about to say; but for people new to internet marketing, this information should help not only explain backlinks but also put backlinks into context.

In the past, a person could join a “Link Farm” and accept and give out their links to just about anyone else in that Link Farm community (and this membership cost money, of course). A person who had a website about organic dog food could have links pointing to a travel website in Fiji, and the person that owned the Fiji travel website would have a link pointing back to the organic dog food website. These two topics are completely unrelated, but Link Farms encouraged “reciprocal linking” – the practice of two parties linking to each others websites, regardless of content. The result was reciprocal linking on such a massive scale that basically Google had to change how it calculated backlinks.

From Google’s perspective, backlinks should give clues about the content and pertinence of a related website; for example, an organic dog food website could have a backlink coming from a website about organic cat food. This demonstrates that there is an underlying related content – organic pet food. This link therefore adds value and displays that the website is important to queries related to this niche. But when websites have links pointing to them from a billion unrelated websites, the backlinks don’t add value to any website and give no clue to the content and pertinence of any website. Google despises websites that have backlinks coming at them from link farms. If you want your website to rank highly, stay away from reciprocal links farms. Google wants a website to have quality backlinks, not a large quantity of backlinks (although a quantity of quality backlinks is the ideal to strive for).

Quality Backlinks…so important! If an authority website has a link pointing to your website that makes for an excellent and high quality backlink. Examples of authority websites include ezinearticles.com, amazon.com, nextag.com, squidoo.com, wikipedia and various other encyclopedic and shopping websites, etc. There’s many more authority websites than the ones listed above so don’t feel confined. Authority sites tend to be big, old sites because Google loves old sites (they feel like these websites are in it for the long haul) and they love big sites because of all the worthy backlinks they provide. If you can get a link from these websites pointing straight to your website, you will climb up the rankings.

Here is an example of how to get a quality backlink that Google will love: if your niche is “Color Changing Shower Heads”, write a good article about showers or shower technology (anything to that effect, try to keep it related to your keywords) on ezinearticles.com. Make sure your keyword(s) (Color Changing Shower Heads) is the title of your article. Once Ezine publishes it, you will have a high-ranked authority website pointing links right at you! These are excellent backlinks, and as an added bonus if you include the link to your website in the author bio box, you will see increased traffic to your website.

Now that you understand the concepts behind backlinks, let’s discuss the actual MOB feature.

To see your MOB feature, you must first click on your “Exact Phrase Count”. If you don’t click on the Exact Phrase Count first, your MOB column will appear blank. Once you click on the Exact Phrase Count, you will see “Get MOB” appear in the MOB column – but before clicking on MOB, click on SOC. The SOC and MOB features sort of cross check each other so it’s good to look at both.

Measure of Backlinks (MOB) - Order in which to check the features

Once you have found a niche that has suitable Exact Phrase Counts and SOC (for this example, the phrase I’m investigating is ‘Basco Shower Doors’), click on your “Get MOB”. A number will appear in the category.

MOB

This number is NOT the number of backlinks there are for this term. However, it is the median number. Click on the number and a small screen will appear:
 

MOB Analysis

You will see some of the links are highlighted – these are the figures we are using to find the median. Obviously, if the MOB feature shows a low number for the median, the less backlinks you will need to get on the first page of Google. If your median amount of links is high (ex: 200) you are going to have to put in a considerable amount of work to get enough backlinks to get on the front page. It’s not impossible to do but it can be difficult.

These are the top ten websites (and their corresponding backlinks) on Google for your keyword. You can explore these links listed under the “Link” column by clicking on them. A new window will open and you will automatically be directed to the website you clicked.

If you click on the number listed under the “Backlinks column” a new window will open and you will see the backlinks that corresponding website has. This is an excellent way to scope the competition and find new avenues for you to try and get backlinks from.

You can also click on the “Click Here to see the Google Results” text on the bottom of your screen – a new window will automatically open and you will literally see the exact search results page in Google. Once again, it’s just another way to see how your competitors are getting ranked so highly. Analyze what your competition is doing, and then do it better than them. Use backlinks and the MOB feature to conquer the competition and get those high rankings on Google!

This Thursday, November 26^th, the Customer Support for Micro Niche Finder and all of The Net Results products will be unavailable due to the Thanksgiving holiday. For our international customers: Thanksgiving is a national holiday so almost all businesses are closed and we are no exception.

However, our regular Support Staff will be available Wednesday and Friday (the 25^th and 27^th of November, respectively) during normal business hours.

Our Programming Staff is taking a much deserved break (and if you have the latest version of Micro Niche Finder, we’re sure you’ll agree!)  and will be unavailable for the extended Thanksgiving weekend starting Wednesday, November 25^th until Sunday, November 29^th. The Programming Staff will resume business as usual on Monday, November 30^th.

If you have a question, you can always check our knowledgebase. Our knowledgebase is full of user-submitted questions, FAQs, and common concerns. There is a good likelihood that any questions or problems you may be experiencing are already addressed in our knowledgebase or in a previous post on this blog.

Thank you for your understanding. Happy Thanksgiving to our American customers, and have a wonderful weekend to our international customers!

Micro Niche Finder ToGo USB Drive

When you receive your Micro Niche Finder ToGo USB Drive in the mail, it will have a recent (possibly even THE most recent) version of Micro Niche Finder on it. However, we frequently update Micro Niche Finder and while the software downloaded onto your computer will notify you when new releases are available, your USB will not automatically receive notifications of updates.

It’s easy to copy the latest version of Micro Niche Finder onto your ToGo USB drive, though. Put your USB into its proper port, open the folder, and copy the Micro Niche Finder exe file onto your USB.

To find the exe file, go to this License/Receipt page.

Once you have entered your receipt number, you will look for a link that reads “Micro Niche Finder Install”. Right click this link and copy it to your USB drive. It’s a very simple way to keep your USB up to date on the newest Micro Niche Finder features.

Micro Niche Finder runs on Windows 7 without a hitch UNLESS you have previously went into your computer and changed permissions, ownerships, and other vital settings. Changing the settings given by Windows could potentially disrupt Micro Niche Finder so resolving your permissions and ownership is important.

Changing permissions and granting ownership is not a difficult headache-inducing procedure. For all of its great qualities, Windows 7 has implemented default security settings (this includes ownership and permission settings) that if manipulated can prevent many programs from running – and this could include Micro Niche Finder.

In a nutshell, you must give the user (presumably yourself, but it’s whatever username you were logged in as) permission to use Micro Niche Finder on the executable file.  Once you take ownership and change the permissions, Micro Niche Finder should open up without a problem and all of its features should be completely functional.

Detailing the Take Ownership and Grant Permissions process is best explained in these two links:

From Microsoft Answers Forum

or
 
From BlogsDNA

Read these explanations and follow the instructions to get your Micro Niche Finder working on Windows 7!

If you are not already familiar with Google Labs, may we suggest that you visit the Google Labs website and get acquainted with it.

This website is basically the experimental stage of potential Google applications and features. Google develops a potential application, puts it on Google Labs, allows anyone to explore the potential features, and after considering user feedback eventually decides if it will graduate to becoming a full-fledged member of the Google features family or if it will cease to utilize the application. Anyone can explore Google Labs and it gives users an interesting peek into the psyche and direction of Google.

Since Micro Niche Finder relies on Google (and this is because most people in the world rely on Google for their search queries), we take interest in Google’s experiments.

One of Google’s newest labs, called Google Script Converter, is an interesting experiment especially if your business is either based in India or serves a large Indian population. Most e-business are open to anyone in the world (such is the beauty of the internet), but sometimes keywords or products are country-specific. If your keywords or product is specific to India, this application may extremely useful to you. If your keywords or product are available to anyone in the world, consider this: India is the second most populated country in the world (after China, and India is slated to surpass China’s population in the near future), it is the world’s largest democracy, it has a booming middle class and thriving capitalist economy, and a large portion of the population is technologically savvy. In short, India is a large potential market and you might want to make conscious efforts to target this demographic.

You see, I mention India because as of right now Google Script Converter only converts the script of languages found on the Indian Subcontinent. If this script converter is successful, it may very well extend to other scripts and convert those as well (such as Arabic, Kanji, Urdu, Cyrillic, etc.). However, at this particular time only Indian scripts are available to change.

If you go to the Google Script Converter, you will see a screen that looks like this:

Google Script Converter

In the text box, you can type in words or even a website in your original language(for this example, we will be typing in English since we are based in America). In this example, I will type “Hello”.

Google Script Converter Text Box

Now you will notice a drop box with the words “Convert to” on the left and a “convert button” to the right of it. This drop box contains several scripts/languages: Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telgu, Marathi, Nepali, and English (fun fact: there are more English speaking people in India than there are in America, England, New Zealand, or Australia). Hindi, Marathi, and Nepali all use the same script called Devanagari, so these three languages all use the same style of writing.

Pick the script you wish to convert to (in this example, I will select Hindi):

Language/Script Converter

You will now see the text or website you entered into the textbox has changed into your new script!

New Script - In this example, Hindi (Devanagari)

This is the Hindi (Devanagari) script for the word “Hello”.

English to Hindi (Devanagari) Script Conversion

Now as you can see, this Google Script Converter merely changed the English “hello” into the Hindi (Devanagari) Script for “hello” – it DID NOT translate it (In Hindi, the translation of “Hello” would be “Namaste”). Translation is a totally different process – this Google feature just converts the script!

Having just the script converted is handy if you have a good verbal comprehension of a different language but are not proficient enough to read the language. By converting the script, you can now read the words in your preferred script and if you are familiar with the language you’ll know what the text or website says! If you do not know the language, you can take this converted script and use internet translation websites or software to translate it into your language of choice. Some websites offer translating service for free, others for a nominal fee. A word of caution: sometimes the “translation” from free websites isn’t quite perfect so it’s worth double or cross-checking the final translation!

When you search for a niche using Micro Niche Finder, you will notice that there are two features called Local Search Count and Global Search Count.

Local Search Count and Global Search Count

These two features, although similar in name, actually display totally different values that can help determine the success of your potential niche by taking into account its local search amounts and its global search amounts.

The Local Search Count is the approximate number of search queries that match your keyword/potential niche. It’s called local because it focuses on traffic based from your country – the default Google Server settings are for America, so if you do not change these settings Local Search Count will display traffic coming from America. If you have changed your Google Server settings to a different country, such as Sweden for example, your Local Search Count will be pertaining to Sweden (or whatever country your Google Server is set to). Local Search Count compiles search data performed in the most recent month. Sometimes you may see “Not Enough Data” – this means the Search Count is so low it simply doesn’t register. Ideally, you want high Local Search Counts, so any keyword that returns “not enough data” may not be the easiest keyword to generate money from.

Unlike the Local Search Count which only shows figures for the most recent month, the Global Search Count displays the average monthly search data from a recent 12 month period. Obviously, people in different countries (using different servers) will search for different things and keywords – some keywords transcend state boundaries and are popular the world over while other keywords are very country-specific. Since Global Search Count is averaging from a much bigger pool of information, it explains why Global Search figures can be much higher, lower, or about the same as your Local Search results.

For example, look at the difference between Local Search Count and Global Search Count for the keyword “Electric Scooter”:

Local Search Count vs. Global Search Count Results

As you can see, less people search for this term in America (which is the default Google Server, by the way) than people using other international servers worldwide. The Global Search Count is higher, therefore telling me that it is a popular term beyond America. It is safe to deduct that if I were to successfully make a profit from this keyword, it would not come as a surprise if a portion of my sales came from outside the USA because this keyword is popular throughout the world.

The Global Search Count gathers its information from search traffic from all countries – not just your local country and default Google Server. However, if there isn’t a lot of data you may see “Not Enough Data” appear and you may want to reconsider pursuing this keyword.

Once you search a term, you will see a screen with columns. Inside of these columns will be some familiar features (SOC, OCI, Ad Cost, etc.) but there will be new columns containing new features too. The second column is a new one, and it will say “Domain Availability .com/.org/.net”.

The reason you see “.com/.org/.net” is because these are three top-level domains. “.gov” and “.edu” are not available to the public, and “.biz” doesn’t generally rank as well as the “.com”, “.org”, and “.net” domains. Micro Niche Finder will only check these three types of domains for availability.

Once you have found a keyword or niche that appeals to you, click on the small circles with the question marks inside.

Domain Availability Feature

Micro Niche Finder will check to see if any of the domain names are available – if there is an available opening, you will see a green circle with a check mark. If there is not an available opening, you will see a red circle with an “x” in the middle.

Domain Availability

Each of these three circles corresponds to a domain name. The first circle (the one to the far left) corresponds to “.com” domains. The second circle (middle circle) corresponds to “.org” domains. The third circle (the one to the far right) corresponds to “.net” domains. As in the example above, I instantly see that for my search term (“mystic topaz jewelry”, in case you were wondering) there is not a “.com” domain available. Therefore, www.mystictopazjewelry.com is not available for purchase. However, the second and third circles are both green with checkmarks, so I know that www.mystictopazjewelry.org and www.mystictopazjewelry.net are both available domains! If I want either or both of those, I know I can buy them right away.

Now, you can click on these red and green circles to come to a new screen:

Check Domain Availability

On the left you will see the complete domain names. On the right, you will see if it is available or not quite literally spelled out for you. If any of the domain names appeal to you, check the box next to the appropriate domain names (in this example I clicked on both of them). Once the domain you want is selected, click on the “Add Checked Domains to my Domain List” tab. If the domain isn’t available, you will not be able to select it.

Micro Niche Finder will put your selected domains on a list, which allows you to store and purchase domain names in bulk.

To access your Domain List, look at the tabs running along the near top of your screen. These tabs include “Home”, “Back”, “Manage Searches”, “Manage Projects”, “Manage Background Queue”, among others. There is a tab called “My Domain List” – click on that to see your selected domains.

My Domain List

You will then see a screen with an entire list of domains you previously clicked – select those you would like to purchase  and then click on the big blue tab titled “Bulk Registration”. For convenience, if you wish to select and purchase your entire list, click on “check all domains”.

List of Domains to Register

Once you click the “Bulk Registration” button, you will see a screen pop up:

Register Domains

Click OK and a new window in your default web browser will appear. You will see a large white box where you can enter the domain names you wish to purchase. This is easy and you DO NOT have to manually type everything in. You see, when Micro Niche Finder opened this window for you, it also automatically copied the domains you checked using Windows Clipboard.

All you have to do is right click in the white box and select “paste” from the menu. Or, you can click in the box and hit Ctrl + V on your keyboard (this is a paste shortcut). The website(s) you selected will then appear in the box. It will display the first 500 websites you clicked.

Paste Domain Names

You will have to enter the access code (the digits) into the blank box – this is the websites way of making sure you are not a robot or some type of software. Once you enter the access code, click the blue search button.

Once it verifies that these websites are available, you will have to set up an account if you haven’t done so already. It is pretty self-explanatory from here, as the website does a really good job of walking you through the registration and payment process. For your information, these two example websites were not purchased, so they might still be available if you want them.

Once you have purchased the domain names, it’s time to TAKE ACTION and get your websites in working order! You don’t want to purchase the domain names and then let them languish unless this is your purpose so that you can attempt to “resell” them at a higher profit. Once you own your domain names, begin creating content, backlinks, and start your marketing plan!

The newest update for Micro Niche Finder is available starting immediately.

We have updated classic features (such as Project Managements) and added new features in version 4.6.1. New features include Measure of Backlinks, Domain Name Availability, and Multi-Threaded Downloading, among others.

You should see that there is a new version available for download on the main screen of your Micro Niche Finder as soon as you open the program. If you don’t see this notification, or if you don’t recall how to download the latest version of Micro Niche Finder, this posting about Program Updates will have you downloading version 4.6.1 in no time!

Micro Niche Finder’s OCI feature (Online Commercial Intent) is one way to determine a niches potential value. The higher the OCI the more likely a person searching for that particular term is looking to make a purchase, so obviously the higher the OCI the better!

Lately some users have noticed a problem with OCI – when clicked on, instead of a number the words “no response” eventually appear. This is not a problem with Micro Niche Finder, but rather with Microsoft and Microsoft Adlabs. However, there are several options you can utilize to get your OCI working.

Previously, the OCI timeout value was a rather low wait period. You can now change the timeout period for OCI by either increasing or decreasing the timeout period. It’s incredibly easy to do this.

On your main screen, look on the right hand column under the heading “important announcements”. Beneath the Tab “Google Settings” (which has always been there), there is a new tab called “OCI Timeout Setting”.

OCI Timeout Setting

If you receive “no response” instead of a numerical value in your OCI, you would want to increase the Timeout value. The maximum time you can set is for 180 seconds (3 minutes) but the minimum amount of time is 10 seconds.

OCI Timeout Value

If these tweaks don’t work, we have also included the website where you can get the OCI figure directly. We have noticed that finding the OCI in this manner sometimes clears the cache.

OCI Timeout Value - Text is a Hyperlink

Simply type the phrase you are looking for in the search bar, and hit the button “query”.

OCI - Run a Search Query

This will generate an OCI number, but their values go from .01 to 1.00. So if your search value comes to .93, think of it as 93% (a high OCI) – the higher the number and closer to 1.0, the higher the percentage for OCI.