Marcus spent over $250,000 in 25 years on keyword research tools. This live training demo was streamed live on April 16, 2025 and watched 7,766 times with 370 thumbs up...
What you'll learn: The trigger word method for finding niche market keywords... using ChatGPT and free validators to surface niches most people walk right past.
The surprise: Zero ads on a keyword isn't a red flag. For Marcus, it's always been the green light. He built his biggest sites on exactly those words.
Why this is credible: 25 years in this. $250K+ spent on keyword tools. Hundreds of millions of visitors generated. He knows what works.
Watch the trigger word method go from a single seed word to a validated niche in under five minutes. No $1,000 tools required.
Key Moments Worth Jumping To
Click any timestamp to jump to that moment in the video.
What This Training Actually Answers
Can free AI tools really replace expensive keyword research tools?
For most people starting out... yes. The training walks through a live comparison of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Manis, Claude, and others against paid tools like Ahrefs and Semrush. For domain research and backlink analysis, the paid tools still win. But for finding hidden niche keywords, ChatGPT with the trigger word method outperformed every other option tested.
The speaker keeps his paid subscriptions. But he's clear that free AI can get someone started without spending anything.
What is the trigger word method and how does it work?
You pick a broad, non-niche word... something like "calculator," "balance," "instructions," or "broken." Then you drop it into ChatGPT and ask what people search for related to that word in a specific market. As demonstrated at 26:38, the word "calculator" surfaced DSCR loans as a niche keyword in the loan market that almost nobody was targeting.
The trigger word itself has nothing to do with the niche. That's the whole point. It acts as a sideways entry into keyword ideas that a standard search tool would never show you.
How do I validate a niche keyword without a paid tool?
Run it through one of the free options covered in the training: the Semrush free tier, SpyFu, or Google Keyword Planner. You're not looking for a perfect number. You're looking for confirmation that real searches exist and that the competition isn't completely locked up.
Then check for ads. Search the keyword in Google. If nobody's running ads, that's not a problem. As explained in the video, it usually means marketers haven't figured out how to monetize the traffic yet... which is your opening.
Which AI tools work best for finding low-competition keywords?
Based on the live testing: ChatGPT (especially the 04 mini high model) was the clear winner for trigger word research. It got specific fast and returned usable niche names. Gemini didn't come close on the same prompts. Perplexity showed promise for pulling competitor keyword data. Manis is powerful for deep research but expensive in credits.
The speaker's conclusion: ChatGPT for finding niches, a light paid tool for validating them. Manis if you have the budget and want hands-off research.
Why does having zero ads on a keyword mean it's a good opportunity?
Most marketers assume no ads means no money. The speaker flips that completely. Zero ads means nobody has figured out the monetization angle yet. That's not a warning sign. That's a gap in the market.
He says most of the money he's made over 25 years came from keywords where he was the only advertiser. Low competition, clear intent, and a way to help people... that combination works.
What's the difference between a market and a niche?
"Lose weight" is a market. "Weight loss journals" is a niche. "Loans" is a market. "DSCR loans" is a niche. The difference matters because you can't compete in a market. You can absolutely own a niche.
The training makes this point repeatedly: most people fail because they think their niche is "mortgage" or "finance" or "weight loss." Those are categories. A niche is the specific angle inside the category where you can actually get traffic and help a real person with a real problem.
How does ChatGPT's Projects feature help with niche keyword research?
You create a dedicated project for each website or niche. Set it up with instructions to only use data inside that project. Then feed it keyword lists, competitor data, content ideas, and anything else you've found. Over time it builds a working knowledge of your specific market.
The speaker describes it as having an isolated AI trained on the data for that site. At $20 a month per account, it's cheaper than most keyword tool subscriptions... and it thinks alongside you instead of just returning a list.
Keyword Research Myths vs. What the Data Actually Shows
Myth: If a keyword has no ads, the market has no money and you should skip it.
Fact: No ads means no competition. The speaker says the best-performing keywords in his career had zero ads. He was often the only one running them, which meant nobody was fighting him for the traffic or the clicks.
Myth: You need an expensive keyword tool to find profitable niches.
Fact: Free AI tools, specifically ChatGPT with a trigger word prompt, found three or four solid niches during the live training without using a single paid subscription. Paid tools are useful for advanced research, but they're not the starting line.
Myth: "Weight loss" or "mortgage" or "lose weight fast" is a niche you can build a business around.
Fact: Those are markets, not niches. A niche is something specific inside that market... like weight loss journals, or income-driven repayment plans, or DSCR loans. That's the level of specificity where someone starting out can actually get traction.
Myth: AI gives you bad data because it "hallucinates" search volumes.
Fact: Some AI tools are more reliable than others for volume data, and none of them are perfect. But the right use of AI isn't to get exact numbers. It's to surface niche candidates you then validate with a free tool. The two-step process fixes the hallucination problem entirely.
Still Curious? Questions Worth Pursuing After the Video
How do I build a content calendar from a niche I found with AI?
Once you've got a validated niche keyword, ask ChatGPT or Claude to generate 31 posts per monthly content bucket organized by topic cluster. The speaker shows a live example where he converts a niche like "HCM for purchase" into a full month of content ideas... including calculators, tools, and checklist posts that serve the market from multiple angles.
The goal is to make your content speak for itself. Search engines reward sites that cover a topic in depth, not just sites that target a single keyword once.
Should I use ChatGPT or Gemini for trigger word research?
Based on the live side-by-side testing in this training, ChatGPT outperformed Gemini by a significant margin. Gemini didn't get specific with loan market keywords on the same prompts. ChatGPT zeroed in on actionable niche names within the first response.
The speaker's take: Gemini is useful for other tasks, but for trigger word niche hunting, ChatGPT is the tool to reach for first.
What's the glossery method mentioned in the training?
The glossery method uses glossaries, types, and categorical structures to find topic clusters inside a niche. Instead of just searching "toothpaste," you'd look for a glossary of dental terms people actually search for... which surfaces underserved angles you'd never find with a standard keyword prompt.
It's a complement to the trigger word method. Both are designed to get you sideways into a niche rather than fighting for the obvious front door.
How do I use ChatGPT Projects to keep niche research isolated?
Create a separate ChatGPT project for each website or niche. Set the instructions to only use data inside that project, so it doesn't pull from your other chats. Then feed it keyword lists, competitor research, content ideas, and niche details over time.
The speaker describes this as having a personal assistant that's been trained specifically on your market. At $20 per account, running a few accounts for different niches costs less than most mid-tier keyword tool subscriptions.
Which free keyword tools give the most reliable search volume data?
Semrush's free tier and SpyFu came up most often in the training as accessible starting points. Google Keyword Planner is also solid, though you'll need an active or past Google Ads account to see the real numbers. None of them will give you exact figures, but they'll tell you whether a niche has meaningful traffic or not.
The speaker's approach: use AI to find the niche candidate, then run it through a free tool for a reality check. You don't need perfect data at this stage. You need enough to make an educated decision.
How do I know when I have enough data to actually build a site?
Look for a specific keyword with at least some search volume, low-to-medium competition, and at least one clear way to make money from the traffic. The hardship letter for mortgage example from the training had around 2,290 searches a month and zero ads... but it connected directly to mortgage modification keywords paying $14 a click.
The traffic doesn't have to be massive. It has to be targeted. One specific niche with clear intent is worth more than a broad keyword with millions of searches you'll never rank for.
Print Checklist
Your First-Session Action Plan
- ☐ Pick a trigger word to start with. Good ones from the training: "calculator," "balance," "instructions," "estimate," or "broken." These surface niche ideas by accident because they're not tied to any one market.
- ☐ Run a ChatGPT prompt using your trigger word. Ask: "Using the trigger word [word], what do people search for that I can use for affiliate marketing?" Let it run without editing. Scan the full output before reacting.
- ☐ Flag anything specific you haven't heard of before. That unfamiliar term (DSCR loan, HECM for purchase, income-driven repayment plan) is your niche candidate. The more obscure it sounds, the less competition you'll face.
- ☐ Validate the candidate in a free keyword tool. Try Semrush's free tier or SpyFu. You're looking for any real search volume and a competition score that isn't maxed out. You don't need a perfect number. You need confirmation the traffic exists.
- ☐ Search your keyword in Google and check for ads. If there are zero or very few ads showing, that's a green light. It means marketers haven't figured out the monetization angle yet... and that's your opening.
- ☐ Run a Google Trends check on your keyword. Set it to the past 12 months. Look for consistent interest or a recent spike. A spike tied to a news event means you could do press releases and topical content to catch the wave.
- ☐ Run the niche evaluation prompt. Ask ChatGPT: "Tell me about [niche keyword]. Who wants it? What's the intent? What can I sell them? What are the traffic methods and competition level?" Use that output to decide whether to move forward or pick a different candidate.
Full Training Transcript: AI Keyword Research From Start to Finish
Why Keyword Research Has Always Cost a Fortune
Let's face it, keyword research tools can be quite expensive. Over the last 25 years, I've spent well over a quarter of a million dollars on different tools, tactics, and learning related to finding the right keyword so I can make money.
I'll never forget back in 1999 when I was first starting to learn internet marketing. I didn't have much money. I didn't have much of anything except the desire to succeed. I wanted to make money online so bad I could taste it. And there was this keyword research tool, SEO fancy pants software, that promised results. It cost $300 that I didn't have. One day, I managed to save up the money and get the tool. And I'm glad I did because what I learned using that tool was that the right keyword can make or break you online. Having the wrong niche and the wrong keyword can be the difference between success and failure.
What AI Changes for Everyone Starting Out
Fast forward 25 years later, and I understand not everyone is like me. You don't have thousands of dollars a month to spend on AI tools, keyword tools, and all this stuff to run a business that isn't even making you profit. But you want to get started somewhere. And that somewhere is right here, right now.
Today, I'm going to take my 25 years of running businesses, helping clients, and generating hundreds of millions of visitors to my websites, using keyword strategies that up until now were only reserved for the elite. There is an unfair advantage the gurus have that you don't. Quite simply, they could afford to get every keyword tool under the sun. But today, we have AI. And AI is one of the biggest, most powerful keyword research tools for those that know how to use it properly.
Whether you already have a website and need to find new keywords to get more traffic, or you're just starting out and want to find a niche, this video is for you. We're going to look at tools like Google Gemini Deep Research, Notebook LM, a secret niche-finding tool hidden in Manis, the sideways niche-finding strategies of DeepSeek, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and more. We're going to put them to the test and ask the question: can these tools replace hundreds of thousands of dollars?
I'm also going to show you my secret glossery method, trigger word method, and a timeout method that shows you what the real competition is on the search engines.
How I Actually Use Keyword Tools (So You Know What to Replace)
There is a time and a place for tools. I'm going to show you how to use the bare minimum so that you can get by with what you need until you can afford to get bigger tools. I'm also going to show you some hacks with AI research that the tools, even the paid ones, even the $1,000 ones I pay for, don't really show unless you know what you're looking at.
I have a chart we're going to fill out and see which keyword tools and which AI tools are best for specific things. Because I believe that a lot of people... keyword tools are built for people like me who do this for a living. For the vast majority of people, they don't really understand how to use these tools the right way. They're just wasting money. Whereas really what you need to do is find that one niche, make it work, find the keywords in it, and go from there.
Domain Research: Where Paid Tools Still Win
What I need most is domain research. This is one that's going to be tough to top with AI. If I go to Ahrefs or Semrush, I can get the keywords for a given domain. Now, having the ability to do this is going to be difficult with just ChatGPT.
Let's see what it comes up with. We put the URL in. It did come up with potential keywords and monthly search volume. Let's see if this is actually accurate. It says greater than 10,000 for "video production." That's pretty on point. So it's going through and getting somewhat of a lay of the land. That's one of the things we want to look for.
I also tried Grok for domain research. Grok is breaking things down in a way I haven't seen before. Pretty cool. Then I tried Colgate.com as an example. Some of these tools gave us the use of other tools and manual searches, competitor analysis. Here are some likely keywords. So it's got the Colgate branded stuff. It has the best and different types of toothpaste. And then informational content.
A paid tool is going to give you 600,000 keywords for a site like Colgate. Can you go through and do this with AI? Yes. But you'd be missing a lot. You can deduce from the site map and content categories what they're doing, and throw it into AI to parse it out. That can work.
The Trigger Word Method: Finding Hidden Niches From a Single Word
Now, how many of you are interested in finding hidden niches? I have a little tip. It's what I call a trigger word list.
Here's how it works. If I go to a keyword tool and type in the word "balance," I'm going to see all kinds of stuff: balance shoes, balance checkbooks, balance cortisol. They're not related to any niche. They're just related to the word balance. Same with "broken." What kind of things are broken? My TV is broken, my car is broken. Or "calculator." What kinds of calculators do people want?
You can find lots of low competition, or even no competition, keywords using this strategy. Here's all the different calculators people are searching for. And what I do when I'm looking for niches is I'm trying to find things I can really help people with and think differently. Like maybe something like car loan calculator. If I go for that keyword, can I get in here and find some low competition stuff? That's the goal. We want enough that we can make money.
Live ChatGPT Demo: From "Calculator" to a Loan Niche in Minutes
I'm going to go to ChatGPT and say: "Using the trigger word calculator, what kind of stuff do people search for that I can use for affiliate marketing?"
One of the things I want AI to do is think the way I do, because the way I've thought about niches and content and marketing has made a lot of money. And right out of the gate, I see DSCR loans. If you didn't know that niche existed, you just found a multi-thousand dollar niche market.
Disclaimer: I've been doing this a long time, I've made a lot of money. The average person trying to make money online makes zero. Most people lose money. The results are not typical, implied, or guaranteed. This is a business.
But going through here, it came up with DSCR loans and then health and fitness, ROI calculators for software as a service. It's even telling me what I can market, which is really cool.
Now if I take DSCR loan and put that into a free keyword tool: medium, medium, easy, easy, easy. Excellent. DSCR loan calculator, greater than 1,000 searches a month. Somewhere between 1,000 and 10,000. Solid. This is looking pretty good.
Let's try another trigger word: "instructions." Now, same task for the word instructions. See what kind of instructions people want. We got home improvement stuff. Router setup, Windows clean install, recording instructions, phone screen repair. Eyelash extensions, hair, gardening. All kinds of stuff.
Over at my site, I'll have a list of the trigger words for you so that you can use them. It's basically a foolproof way to find niches. You just use them, you have curiosity, and you think about what you can do with it.
Using the Niche Evaluation Tool to Vet a Candidate
Let's say I wanted to go for something related to raised garden bed instructions. I'd ask: what are the monetization strategies? Courses, planter stuff. Planter kits sold at Home Depot. Then traffic methods. Then I'd expand on the keyword and get other words people might search for meaning the same thing.
This is how we evaluate a niche. Is this going to be profitable? Is it going to work for us? Looking at the keyword tools here, chat GPT for finding these trigger words that are low comp and understanding them... for most people trying to make money online, ChatGPT is going to do better than a paid keyword tool.
Comparing AI Tools Head-to-Head for Niche Research
Let me rank what I found for finding hidden niches with a trigger word method:
ChatGPT: clear winner. Outsider big time winner. It found three or four solid niches right off the bat, ready to go. Gemini: did not come close. Didn't even hit anywhere near the same results. Perplexity: kind of stumbled. Claude: told me how to do it instead of actually doing it. Manis: okay, about a three out of five.
For content planning, all of them will do it. For finding these hidden niches with the trigger word method, ChatGPT is the clear winner.
Why Zero Ads on a Keyword Is the Best Sign You Can Get
Now, hardship letter for mortgage. A lot of people look this up. About 2,290 people a month searching for it. And there are going to be no ads. Nobody advertises on this.
You might be thinking: "Marcus, the people searching this can't pay their mortgage. How are we going to sell stuff?" You're going to make it by helping them. You're going to give them options and help them understand what to do. Let's ask AI: "Tell me about hardship letter for mortgage and options to help them." Mortgage modification. There we go. And we can go through and see... hardship refinance program. Hardship letter for mortgage, boom. $14 a click in that direction. Now we're getting somewhere.
Truth says there's a reason there's no ad competition: it probably doesn't sell. We don't need to sell anything. What we're going to do is educate. The late Corey Rudl said: "Educate, inform, and get more." Educate your market, inform them, and get more traffic. People have keywords they don't know how to convert. What I do is look for things people need help with.
Is it isn't no ads bad? No. That's something marketers said years ago, and I never understood why. Most of the money I've made in my entire career had no ads. How do I know? Because I was the only one advertising on them and I was cleaning house. When you have no ads, it means people don't know how to monetize the word, so they just leave it alone. And I skate in with no competition.
Scaling the Method Across Markets: Weight Loss, Credit Cards, and More
I started with DSCR loan as a hidden niche in the loan market. Then I said: "Now do the same thing in the weight loss market." Now I've got 100 words in the weight loss market. Let's see how we're looking in Ahrefs: 105 keywords, 2.6 million search volume. A lot of greens. Looking really good.
Understanding that most people think "lose weight" is a niche. It's not. That's a market. That's a category. A niche is weight loss journals, right? Right now, there's probably someone on Etsy making over $100,000 a year with custom weight loss journals. There's probably someone with downloadable weight loss journals making a good living. We need to understand that's where we go.
I went through with the credit card market. Cross collateral, fix and flip financing, land loans. And then I took it a step further: "Now, find a hundred words total." DSCR, cross collateral... and what happened is we went through and got the keyword list. 26 out of 26 showing search volume. Fix and flip loan: jackpot right there. Business acquisition loan: nice. This is tied to a market that has a lot of money in it.
Then I did it in the remote work space. Morning routine checklists. All kinds of stuff. Thinking about your niche in a different way and structuring your content to be as helpful as possible. That's the key.
What AI Does Better Than Paid Tools (and What It Doesn't)
What do keyword tools do better than AI? Accurate search volume data: keyword tools will nail that. Keyword difficulty scoring: Ahrefs does better. Real-time SERP analysis: AI is probably more up-to-date if it can figure it out. Competitor spying: keyword tools win that.
What can AI do better? Generate creative longtail keyword ideas: yes. Create content clusters and pillar plans: yes. Build keyword-based outlines: yes. Interpret data: yes. Rewrite content: thousand percent. And using the trigger word method to find weird little things you can dominate... that's something we can go through and start to understand in a new way.
For those on a budget, I think I've shown you enough to find niches with the free tools. And I've shown you how to understand them as well.
The Right Keyword Is Still the Difference Between Success and Failure
Having the right keyword can be the difference between success and failure. Understanding what to do with that keyword can be the difference between success and failure. Most people struggle because they don't know their niche. They think their niche is mortgage, or loan, or finance, or weight loss. What we're looking for is something very specific.
When you watch my videos on niches and domains I buy, there are very specific reasons. I didn't buy a domain on "online video." I bought one on "explainer videos." Because that's a specific niche I can use. We need to find something we're going to go all in on. If I can make X amount per year, how much will this niche chip away at it? Will it do all of it? Will it do some of it?
Can you do something small and see if you can get a result... whether it's a ranking, maybe a sale, maybe someone opts in? Get that first win. Then look at your niche and dive deep and don't look back. Because once you plow into that, if the traffic is there, the data is there, and there's a way to make money, and people are going to do it... boom. There you go.
Terms Worth Knowing Before You Start
- Trigger Word Method
- A niche research strategy where you enter a broad, non-niche word (like "calculator," "balance," or "instructions") into an AI tool to uncover specific, low-competition keyword ideas across any market. Heard at 23:30
- Seed Term
- The starting keyword or phrase you drop into a research tool to begin uncovering related niche keywords. The trigger word acts as a seed term that branches into dozens of specific sub-niches.
- DSCR Loan
- Debt Service Coverage Ratio loan... a financing product for real estate investors that qualifies based on property income rather than personal income. Used in the training as a live example of a hidden, profitable keyword discovered through the trigger word method. Heard at 26:38
- Low Comp
- Short for "low competition." A keyword or niche where few other sites are actively targeting the term, which makes it easier to rank in search engines and get organic traffic without a large authority site.
- HECM for Purchase
- Home Equity Conversion Mortgage for purchase... a type of reverse mortgage used to buy a home. Surfaced in the training as a niche keyword with low competition and no paid ads running against it. Heard at 1:06:09
- Content Cluster
- A group of related articles or pages built around a central niche topic. The goal is to signal to search engines that your site covers the topic in depth, not just from a single angle.
- SpyFu
- A keyword and competitor research tool with a free tier that shows which keywords a domain ranks for and whether ads are running on those terms. Used in the training to quickly check competition on niche candidates.
The central idea in this training is simple. Pick a seed word. Ask the right AI. Validate fast. That's the whole system. And it works whether you're looking at the loan market, weight loss, credit cards, or remote work.
Most people spend months hunting for the perfect niche before they do anything. This method cuts that down to an afternoon. One trigger word, one ChatGPT session, one free tool to validate. Then you build. The hardship letter for mortgage example alone shows how a keyword with zero ads and under 2,300 monthly searches can lead to a $14-a-click affiliate opportunity... just by following the intent through to what that person actually needs.
If any part of this clicked, go back and watch the training again. The trigger word demos in the middle section are worth a second look. Pay attention to how fast a specific niche candidate turns up from a single, broad starting word. That's the skill worth developing. And once you've got it, finding niche market keywords stops feeling like guesswork and starts feeling like knowing where to look.
Related Pages on This Topic
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Market Niching — Goes deeper into the strategy of choosing and owning a specific market position. A natural next read after working through the trigger word method, because finding a keyword is only the first step... knowing how to build around it is what makes it a business.
Based on the featured video, with editorial context drawn from the speaker's live demonstrations and audience Q&A. Last Updated: 04/09/2026 at 07:41 EST
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