A cool way to make money online is by targeting upcoming product launches in the Google SERPs before anyone else does. Then, when the product's released you'll have a huge unfair advantage over everyone else, because you've had more time to prepare / SEO your site than your competition.
But one thing thing that's missing from most keyword research tutorials out there is how to do it properly when targeting upcoming product launches.
If you plan on ranking in advance for these keywords it's important to find out who your competition will likely be once the product's released. After all, it might be easy to rank right now (no searches = no competition), but you want to make sure you can stay up there long term.
Before you do ANYTHING I highly recommend you purchase Market Samurai.
I assume most of you use it already, but if not, don't muck around. Just get it. Market Samurai makes keyword research 1000 times easier and quicker.
They do offer a free trial, but I highly recommend you buy the full version as quickly as possible. You only get the discount if you buy before the trial period ends (otherwise you pay an extra $50).
Now, here's how to do keyword research properly for upcoming product launches:
First off pick a similar product to the one you're planning to promote. The more similar the better.
If you're planning on promoting an "upgraded" version of a product, pick the existing model. If you're promoting a brand new product, chances are, a similar product will already exist. Pick that one.
Now enter that product / model (the one that's similar and/or an existing model of a future upgrade) in the Google Keyword Tool to find which keywords people are currently searching for.
What you ideally want to do is find a keyword that's as similar as possible to the one you want to target, because chances are, the long term competition will be similar. For example, if you want to target "Transformers 3 DVD", more than likely, the long term competition will be very similar to "Transformers 2 DVD".
It's probably obvious to most of you, but just make sure when using the Google Keyword Tool you set match types to "[Exact]" and also set your target country locally if applicable.
Once you've found an existing keyword that's similar to what you want to target, head on over to Market Samurai and create a new project for the keyword.
Click the "SEO Competition" tab and click "Generate Results".
I assume most of you know how to analyze websites for competition using Market Samurai. If not, be sure to check out the video tutorials. Basically, the less red and the more green you see, the better.
As long as the keyword you're analyzing is very similar to what you want to target, and the competition is beatable (particularly in the #1 spot), there's a good chance you'll not only be able to get the #1 rank by working (smart) in advance, but be able to KEEP it long term.