As I was doing keyword research for my new tutoring business, I came across an interesting discovery.

People search online 10 times as often for “homework help” as they do for “tutor”.

This was true across the board…”math homework help” searched 10 times as often as “math tutor”, etc.

Glenn Nicholas over at OM4Business.com even wrote in to confirm this fact for me and point out that I needed to do something about it ASAP.

I had always been a little skeptical of the keyword “homework help”…you see, someone who types “math tutor in Houston, TX” into Google is almost certainly a good prospect. Someone who would purchase tutoring. But someone who types “homework help” into a search engine could be a kid (instead of a parent) or just someone looking to find the answer to a problem who would never hire a tutor.

Then again, I told my self, given that the keyword was searched 10 TIMES as often, I really couldn’t afford not to test it out. After all, even if 75% of those searches never turned into customers….the remaining 25% would represent a 250% increase over the current customers I was getting from tutoring related keywords. What did I have to lose?

To further seal the deal, Glenn sent me a link about something called “problem marketing” which gave me a new perspective. When people have back pain they type “back pain” into a search engine, because that is their problem. They don’t know to type in “ergonomic chair” or “sciatic nerve therapy” or whatever, because those are SOLUTIONS.

Similarly, tutoring was the solution and homework help was the problem…so maybe, just maybe, I was marketing the wrong keyword.

Anyway, the results of this little experiment remains to be seen (and I will post them on the blog), but the point of this article is that I wanted to show you how easy it was to put up a new professional looking website to test out this idea.

The site I created is called HomeworkHelpBlog.com and it is a free resource (a blog) for students who needs help on their homework.

Saavy readers might notice that I used a domain with the keyword in it, to help it rank in search engines. The idea will be to offer free advice and tips on this site for students (my tutors can help me generate the content eventually) and build a list of subscribers who may eventually turn into tutoring customers.

The entire site from start to finish took 4 hours and $6.95 to create.

• I already pay for hosting at 1and1 and adding a new domain was free.

• I had to register the domain at GoDaddy, hence the $6.95
• To build the entire site I used WordPress (again free) so there was no programming involved
• The slick looking design was created by someone else and given away free (just google “best wordpress themes”). I installed it, again, with no programming to give it a custom look and feel.
• From start to finish it took me about 4 hours doing it entirely myself

One of the bonuses that comes with Breaking Free is a book on how to use WordPress for exactly this reason.

It makes it very simple and easy to put up a business website ANY TIME you have an idea like this.

Conclusion
I think the main points to take away from this article are…

• There is a quick and inexpensive way to test out any business idea you have: starting a business website. I’ve shown how easy it is here, so really there is no excuse not to put together one of these when you have a good idea (or pay someone to do it). Maybe 1 out of 10 will really work out and you’ll have a business on your hand that can allow you to quit your job.
• You need to understand keyword research. If I hadn’t done the research I never would have known that “homework help” was so much more popular than tutoring keywords. That information could turn out to be priceless if it doubles or triples my business.

Until next time, keep breaking free!
Brian Armstrong