From the minds at ZURB (developers of the aforementioned Verify) comes Strike, a simple and effective web-based application that lets users set up to-do lists and share them with others.
Strike has an interface that is stripped down so that it just lets you create new lists, add tasks to the lists and then check tasks off in the lists as they get completed. The collaboration takes place when you share the unique URLs of each list with others. They can then work to finish items on the list as well. Progress is made through “knocking tasks down” using a combined effort. That said, you only need share the lists you want, so it makes it easy to run individual and team projects using Strike.
For those of you who have used Teux Deux before, it’s a similar approach to handling task management. But unlike Teux Deux, Strike gives users the ability to share task lists and has no sign-up or registration requirement. That’s great for those concerned about putting their personal information out on the web — and allows for users to just get started making task lists. The only thing you’ll ever have to do is put your name in so that if you share a list it indicates who knocked what task down…so first names are all that is really needed to make this work for that purpose.
In addition, the interface is somewhat customizable in terms of appearance, with three different looks to choose from. ZURB may add more customization options down the road, but it is possible that the more comprehensive app Resolve (currently in private release) will have those options rather than Strike.
Strike delivers on what it promises: quick and easy task list management with no barrier to entry. Give it a look — and then check that off of your list.
Strike: Set up tasks and knock ‘em down!
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Our guest on this week’s episode of the WorkAwesome podcast is Adam Lisagor. Adam has a lot on the go, including developing iPhone apps (like Birdhouse with Cameron Hunt), being involved in a couple of podcasting projects (You Look Nice Today with Scott Simpson and Merlin Mann) and acting as what some may call as a “reluctant” pitchman for products such as Square and Flipboard.
But what Adam primarily does is make video. Really good video. With clients that include the aforementioned Square and Flipboard, he also has created some great spots for Jawbone’s JAMBOX and Peel. Adam’s videos don’t really feel like commercials, which is what may have led to a steady stream of work over the past few years. WorkAwesome editor Mike Vardy has more of a discussion than an “interview” with Adam about things like workflow, how he keeps on top of all that he has going on, and his particular drink of choice. (Hint: it’s not coffee, tea, or soda…)
Show Notes
- WorkAwesome Productivity Tip: Don’t take yourself so seriously. Take breaks, breathe and have fun. That’ll lead to better work and a better life.
- Adam discusses his workflow, including what he tells clients about his work habits from the onset.
- How he ended up becoming a pitchman and why he’s still doing it.
- What types of companies that he likes to work with…and why.
- Why he really doesn’t use any productivity tools.
- What tools he does use as part of his workflow.
- Why he worships email.
- What’s the deal with You Look Nice Today?
- …and Adam discusses his favorite drink, what he listens to and whether he stands or sits while working — along with much more.
This Week’s Sponsor
This week’s episode is sponsored by Hover. Hover is offering a 10% discount available exclusively to WorkAwesome podcast listeners (and our readers, of course) when you go to their website to buy your next domain name. Just click here and enter the word awesome when checking out. You’ll see that finding and registering a domain with Hover is fast, easy, friendly and secure. Hover makes domain names simple.
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If you enjoy the WorkAwesome podcast, please let us know. Leave us a rating and review in iTunes; it’ll help people find us and build up our listenership. And if you have any suggestions on guests or what else you’d like to hear, let us know in the comments.
(Image courtesy of Flavors.me/lonelysandwich)
Does your workspace need a lift? Is it messy and cluttered, lacking personality, or have you had the same decorations in the same places since 2005? It’s time for something different!
The WorkAwesome + MOO Workspace Before and After Competition challenges you to give your workspace a makeover. Will you create a sleek minimalist setup? Clean away years of detritus? Give your workspace a theme? Cover your desk with cherished photos? Display your collection of Star Wars action figures? Or will you do something nobody else has ever thought of?
To enter, take a photo of your workspace Before the makeover. Then, create a workspace you truly love. Next, take an After picture to show us the complete transformation. Our five favorite transformations will win 200 crisp new business cards from MOO.
Just like your new workspace, MOO business cards let you try something different, with up to 50 unique designs per pack. Never settle for boring at work again.
How to Enter
Take a Before and After photo of your workspace and upload both photos to an image hosting service like Flickr. Then, fill out the entry form. Entries close at midnight on Thursday the 17th of March, AEST.
Winners will be contacted via email within two weeks of competition close.
Inspiration
Check out Flickr’s desk and workspace tagged photos for a dose of inspiration!
Terms and Conditions
- This competition is not open to Envato or MOO employees.
- Entries will be accepted worldwide.
- If you do not respond within 7 days to a notification that you have won a prize, we reserve the right to select another winner.
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We’ve covered Wunderlist before at WorkAwesome; it’s a truly elegant and simple productivity app available on multiple platforms. Today its developer, 6Wunderkinder, made a major announcement: today it is launching Wunderlist on its newest platform…Android. What is truly amazing about this release is that it only took 4 weeks for them to port Wunderlist to Android, thanks to Appcelerator’s Titanium platform.
Wunderlist has made a hugh splash in the productivity space over the past few months, most recently with the release of Wunderlist HD on the iPad. The app has proved so popular that it has been downloaded over one million times across all platforms and has had over 6 million tasks logged in the process. That’s an impressive feat considering how many productivity apps there are in the marketplace.
6Wunderkinder attests that this porting to Android couldn’t have happened so quickly without a significant head-start with how they developed Wunderlist from the onset. That head-start is a result of building Wunderlist from the ground up using Appcelerator’s Titanium platform. “Time-to-market is critical for us, and Titanium lets developers write mobile apps for multiple platforms from one code-base. We were able to publish Wunderlist to iPhone, iPad, Android, PC, and Mac while reusing 90% of the base code. That’s an enormous cost and time savings compared to building each app in a separate language, not to mention the time-to-market advantage this has given us,” noted Christian Reber, CEO of 6Wunderkinder.
The simplicity of Wunderlist (along with its pleasant-looking user interface) has been one of the factors that has driven the app to the top of the App Store charts in the productivity category. The learning curve is minimal, and now Android users will have all of that in their platform — a platform that is not nearly as crowded with productivity apps than the other platforms Wunderlist has been developed for.
“To create such a great user experience we had to tap into all the native features of the phone,” said Sebastian Kreutzberger, CTO of 6Wunderkinder. “Appcelerator’s Titanium platform let us integrate things like push notifications and native UI controls so that it really looks and feels like a native app.”
Today’s release of Wunderlist for Android allows users to do pretty much everything that the iOS versions of the app allow, with the exception of being able to invite and manage others to your lists and tasks. That feature will be added to the Android edition at a later date.
One of the other benefits of working with Appcelerator’s Titanium is that it enables Wunderlist to automatically sync to the cloud. The cloud is becoming more and more important as people are not just being productive at their desks, but on the go as well. Multiple devices for productivity make the cloud a huge asset to those who are trying to keep on top of things. Wunderlist allows you to keep things locally and in the cloud — and does this seamlessly and easily.
“As Wunderlist shows, you can have a balanced approach where you’re using the best of the device and the best of what the cloud offers for the optimal customer experience,” says Scott Schwarzhoff, VP of marketing at Appcelerator.
Wunderlist is available for free as a Windows and Mac desktop application, and is also available for iPhone, iPad and (now) Android platform,. But 6Wunderkinder isn’t about to slow down; there are plans for a web app in the works.
Interested in giving the new Android version of Wunderlist a spin? Head over to 6wunderkinder to check it out.
“I like to listen. I have learnt a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” – Ernest Hemingway
Whenever I am in the middle of a discussion, I try not to talk too much and always listen to the person conversing with me. But sometimes all of those words wind up transforming into a garbled mess. At that point, I realize I’m actually impatiently waiting for the other person to stop talking. That way I can start talking again, feeling that I’ve got all eyes on me. Not a good practice, but it happens to the best of us.
In recent studies by Dr. Ralph Nichols, he mentions that almost 40% of the day is spent on listening to others. What amazes me is that the efficiency of listening to what we hear is only at somewhere around 25% — and I’m not talking about the physical comprehension. Is your boss giving you some tasks and you find yourself in the uncomfortable position of asking again what the exact steps were? Do you sometimes find it hard to listen to people that you really don’t care for all that much?
As with many other skill sets, in order to become efficient and effective at listening you need to train yourself to do so. Here are 12 tips that will put you on the road to better listening.
1. Find common subjects and try to stick to them as much as possible.
If you take a positive stance towards a specific subject, you will find that in most cases there is enough information to enrich your knowledge. No matter how sterile the conversation may be, you can still get some valuable information from it. Try to exclude personal elements in these subjects, as this is counterproductive to efficient listening. For example, if you love basketball and the person you are engaged in conversation with is passionately talking about soccer, you will likely find yourself wanting to end the conversation (or leave the room altogether). Try to exclude your personal preferences and be as positive as you can when someone is talking about something that you can tell they are interested in. Look at your conversation as a way to educate yourself — even if it is something you don’t necessarily like. Who knows…you may even change your mind about your feelings on the subject matter by the time the conversation is through.
2. Take the initiative.
What’s the person speaking to you saying? Look at him and focus on his words. Don’t be afraid to make eye contact. Put your effort into making the discussion a “two-way street.” If looking directly into the speaker’s eyes (or even the speaker’s personality) are distracting you, try to focus just on the message he’s pointing out. Make him feel that he is being listened to. Show your attention and use words and expressions like:
- “I see.”
- “Marvelous!”
- ”Hmmm, interesting…”
- “Sounds great!”
- “Really?”
Make sure to be as honest as you can when responding to the person you’re conversing with; a lack of authenticity can often be sensed if you’re not being forthright.
3. Exercise your ears.
Prior to having a conversation, try to rehearse it in your mind. If the person you’re going to be conversing with is someone you know, try to remember what he likes to talk about and get in the right mood to listen. Remember, once you show people that you can listen them, they will listen in return. Efficient and effective listening requires a lot of energy, and practicing facilitates the success.
4. Focus your attention on the main ideas.
Follow the general points that the person is trying to express. In some cases, you will see that people have a way of building their ideas with specific models, such as:
- Starting with a little introduction speech
- Listing out reasons and motives
- Examples and illustrations (which end with a conclusion and a call to action).
Try to identify the main ideas from the rest and focus on that. Don’t pay too much attention on details as that can get you away from the discussion topic — and they are more difficult to remember.
5. Take notes.
Do not be afraid to do this. Doing this will show the speaker that you have a real interest in his subject. If you feel that the discussion is really adding value to what you know, then keep with you a small notepad and a pen. It’s best not to write during key moments of the conversation. Instead, take short and punchy notes. Later on, you can read them and analyze the information. With some practice, you will be able to get rid of the writing tools and be able to better use your mind to take mental notes instead.
6. Don’t pay attention to outside elements.
Try to “close” your senses to the outside world — even for a minute or two. Show the speaking person that you really care about his words. If you’re uncomfortable standing, choose a more intimate spot for the two to you to sit down and discuss things. You will still be aware of the outside noise, but you will not pay attention. This is a wonderful technique that you can use not only for listening, but also when you are trying to learn something or simply want to meditate.
7. Avoid contradiction while the speaker is speaking, but be genuine.
This is perhaps the biggest obstacle in becoming a better listener. Don’t be affected by any words with an emotional charge. Teach yourself to recognize those words and expressions and think about why those particular words are affecting you. Then try to shift your point of view to align with the person speaking. Think more about his reason of using these words and be as open-minded as you can. Don’t let past frustrations within break out during the conversation. Once the speaker is done with his point of view, then take the time to speak your mind in a genuine and calm manner. Everybody appreciates sincere speakers, but more so if they are conscientious in their tone when they speak.
A quick and premature disagreement with the other person’s words can lead to a “blind spot” inside your interaction. Having an open mind will allow you to follow the real essence of the communication and not just some particular aspects that may cause friction. Avoid a critical stand and don’t write off the other person’s words as incorrect. However, if you strongly disagree with what he’s saying, don’t use aggressive words to make your point known. Start your arguments with phrases like:
- “I understand what you’re saying, but I think that …”
- “In my humble opinion…”
- “Don’t you think that …”
Evaluate the communication message, not the person or the way he used to express it. We are not are not all the same. Listen and analyze before judging. Receiving the actual message is far more important than the person’s delivery of the message. Be aware of the mood, personality or tone of your conversation, but don’t let these things interfere with the reception of the message, as that is the most important part. Understand that there are many people who can’t properly express their feelings and can’t find the right channel for their message.
8. Be present.
I’ve mentioned the word “focus” several times so far. You should know that you need to focus also on the present, not in the past or future. Being “less than present” can open up unwanted discussion. Keep in mind your speaker’s words and try to place them in the present. Anything less can render the conversation meaningless for both yourself and the person you’re speaking with.
9. Analyze non-verbal communication.
Look for facial expressions and the way your partner is using body language. Joe Navarro’s research in body language has shown that almost 60% of communication is non-verbal. So, you need to “read between the lines” every time there’s an emotional approach to a topic. That way you’ll know what subjects to avoid and when to dig even deeper into a conversation.
10. Practice.
Repeat all the above tips whenever you are engaged in conversation. If you feel you’ve acquired some skills, try to approach new people and even people that seem difficult to speak with. This regular practice can do wonders for you. Becoming an efficient and effective listener isn’t easy, but once you start to make progress you’ll find that you get access to new information in one of the easiest way possible: by lending an ear.
(Image courtesy of Melvin Gaal under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 generic license.)
If you use an iOS device (iPod touch, iPhone or iPad) for business then it is likely that you come across PDF or Word documents that need to filled in and signed digitally. Sure, you could go to your computer and fill them out that way once you’ve received the documents via email, but that’s not exactly convenient.
With today’s ever-expanding mobile device usage, people are connected a lot more while on the move. It would be great to have an option that would let you fill out and digitally sign documents through your mobile device. There’s no straightforward way to do that on those gadgets.
Until now. Enter EasySign.
EasySign is an application that promises to make filling in and signing documents on an iPhone or iPad a cakewalk. In just a few easy steps, you’re good to send off any document that needs signing.
The steps are as follows:
- Tap the document to open it
- Fill in all of the particulars
- Sign it
- Email it
Yes…the process is that simple.
It supports PDF, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, RTF, TEXT and HTML formats. Speaking of “easy”, the user interface is easy to use and to navigate.
EasySign is a free app, and upon download gives you 3 document-signing credits (those who paid the original $1.99 price tag get 50 document-signing credits for free as a token of gratitude for being an early supporter). If you need more document-signing credits, there is an option to purchase more in 5, 10, or 20 packs using the In-App purchase option.
“I would have to work hard tomorrow. Work could cure almost anything, I believed then, and I believe it now.”
— Ernest Hemingway
Hard work is many things. We live in a complicated, fast world, surrounded by distractions. Getting down to work can be a way to free yourself of all things extraneous. It can be a stress reliever, a form of meditation. Conversely, it can be punishment for enjoying yourself too much the night before. Whatever the reason, hard work is tunnel vision. While you’re working, the only thing that exists is you and the light at the end.
The quote at the beginning of this article is from A Moveable Feast, a narrative account of Hemingway’s time as a poor young writer living in Paris. The book is filled with advice on living, on writing, and on the importance of discipline and hard work. It also contains stories about his friends and contemporaries. But this quote in particular stuck with me — because I believe it, too.
When we embrace hard work, we find an immense release in it. At the end of the day and when work is over, the world returns and we are free to enjoy it. Now we can go where we please. Our feet feel light, our heads feel empty, our stomachs feel hungry. Another day of hard work has cured us of whatever burden we started the morning with.
What It Takes
No one said it was easy.
As Hemingway knew, as as every professional writer, gymnast, jockey, and chef also knows, hard work takes discipline and patience, especially over time. Getting down to work is a new challenge every day. Anyone can work hard once a week for an hour. To do it for eight hours a day, seven days a week, over any number of years: that’s the real challenge.
Of course, you can’t start out at top speed; you would burn yourself out. If your goal was weight loss, the equivalent would be running on a treadmill at level 10 for an hour the first day you’ve ever used a treadmill.
Successful hard work over time is something you have to work towards. The important thing is to know that it’s within your grasp, and that it pays off.
What It Gives
Writing is my zen. I know from experience that after I sit down and write — when I work hard and give it my all — I will feel better afterward. Whatever your calling is, hard work at your particular talent is better stress relief than almost anything. Zen aside, there are practical reasons to appreciate hard work if you are the type that likes to measure your progress in quantifiable ways.
Say, for example, that your goal is to build your own house. One day you learn to hang drywall. Another you learn how to frame a window or shingle a roof. Maybe learning how to shingle a roof takes three weeks. However long it takes, each day of hard work will bring you one step closer to your ultimate goal. One day, you will have the knowledge to build your house.
Hard work will never disappoint you because something is always being accomplished. Even if, as a writer, you spend six months writing a novel and realize when it’s done that it’s dreadful, you’ll have learned something every day you worked on it. It might be disappointing that you have to chuck your manuscript into the fire, but I promise you won’t make the same mistakes again.
Another reason to respect hard work:
“Practice makes perfect.”
Sure, we may be only human. Perhaps that’s why we can never attain true perfection, but each day of practice sure brings you closer. As a bonus, the more you get used to using your own unique skill set, the more confident you will be in your abilities. Hard work fosters faith in yourself.
All the qualities that hard work demands, like discipline, patience, confidence and persistence do not come naturally to many of us. For example, I am a very impatient person by nature. I fidget when I sit still for any length of time. I used to skip classes in college simply because I couldn’t sit through them. In my mind, it was better not to go at all than to suffer through an hour of foot-bouncing boredom.
But the more I commit myself to working hard at writing, the greater I find my reserves of patience within myself. And not just for writing, but with other things, like my workout schedule and my job. I even find that after a good few days work I have more patience for bad drivers. And let me tell you, during the winter season, there are plenty of bad drivers on the road.
Final Words
So you see, hard work gives a lot more than it takes. It doesn’t happen overnight. Learning to enjoy hard work is no cakewalk; it’s a struggle to get started most days. But it is within your reach…and the benefits far outweigh the cost. Need money? Hard work can cure that. Stressed out? Try working harder on the things you love. Family trouble? Work hard to fix it.
In the end, you will find that hard work can cure almost anything.
(Image courtesy of h.koppdelaney under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs generic license.)
This week on the WorkAwesome podcast, our editor Mike Vardy had the opportunity to chat with Stever Robbins, better known as The Get-It-Done Guy.
Stever’s book has been reviewed here at WorkAwesome, and during this interview we dig a little deeper into the book, as well as other aspects of productivity and workflow that he offers on his website and his regular podcasts. Stever’s practical and accessible advice on productivity makes what many consider a dry topic more entertaining and still very informative.
In addition to the interview, we’ve started to implement some of our listener suggestions. This week we slowly venture into offering tips — with just one tip offered. But it’s a big one that can be challenging for many of us.
Show Notes
- WorkAwesome Productivity Tip: Pick one productivity system/tool and stick with it for a minimum of 90 days.
- Stever Robbins discusses his “origin story”; how he got started in the realm of productivity.
- Why books on productivity aren’t as accessible and fun as they should (and could) be.
- Which of the 9 steps that he offers in his book is the most important.
- His opinion of Inbox Zero.
- Stever discusses if — and if so, how — people can be overproductive.
- …and he answers some of our regular questions regarding working environments, early rising/night owl, paper or digital and much more.
If you enjoy the podcast, please let us know. Leave us a rating and review in iTunes; it’ll help people find us and build up our listenership. We’re working hard to bring some great guests on — and we’ve already had some great ones — so if you have any suggestions on guests or what you’d like to hear, let us know in the comments.
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(Image courtesy of SteverRobbins.com)
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Monk Mind: How to Increase Your Focus
A great article by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits on how we can slowly and steadily increase our focus and keep working on the task at hand until we get it done. Productive work can only be accomplished if one can do it for a specific period of time with laser-sharp focus — and without getting distracted. Developing that focus is essential. Leo explains how to get there.
The Easy Way to Get Chrome’s Pin Tab Feature in Firefox
Chrome’s pin tab feature is an extremely useful one. Not only does it increase screen real estate, it also makes sure that the important tabs are nicely tucked away in the corner and don’t get lost in those large number of tabs you’ve got opened. This article at Guiding Tech tells you how to get that in Firefox.
45-Second De-Stress Tips
De-stressing is something that most of us need to do on a daily basis. Remember: Happy doesn’t always mean stress-free. Take a look at these tips on the Lifehack blog; I particularly liked the first one (read a poem). You’ll have to check out the link to see the others they discuss.
Just a Small Nudge Can Give You the Motivation to Form Better Habits
This is an interesting study by Stanford University on why we tend to procrastinate on essential habits like exercising which we know are so important for our well-being. Posted on Lifehacker, the study suggests some ways to successfully form such habits.
Why Are Easy Decisions So Hard?
This week’s last awesome link is an insightful article at Wired. It delves deep into the human brain to understand why we can sometimes take a lot of time to decide on something that’s fairly trivial, and should be decided within seconds. Check it out (and don’t wait too long to decide to, either).
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You don’t always have to look at what your competition’s doing to be successful, but there are times when it makes sense. You might already have a website that’s plateaued in some way. It might get lots of traffic that doesn’t convert, or you might have a site that’s absolutely adored by a small audience that needs to grow by an order of magnitude.
Or you could still be in the stages of selecting a product or service to market, and you’re finding it hard to distinguish those that generate buzz from those that generate sales. Whether you’ll looking to increase your traffic, conversion rate, or your revenue, the simplest way to get actionable data is to look at your actual or prospective competitors’ performance, and model it. Let’s look at a couple of simple ways to check out the competition.
Look at Ad Spending
Just because certain products and services are widely offered doesn’t mean they’re actually selling. In the brick-and-mortar world, you can tell which kinds of restaurants do well by just looking at their customer turnout, but websites don’t volunteer their sales information. So how do you know if they’re making money?
Regular ad spending is a quick way to gauge how much money’s on the table. If a website is spending an average of $20 a day on AdWords, you can reasonably assume that it’s at least breaking even. After all, it wouldn’t make sense to advertise at a loss.
I just looked up “solar power systems” in the Google Keyword Tool, which reported 3600 local searches per month. Each click would cost me $3.61 if I were to advertise using PPC. So if I wanted to drive traffic to a sales page for a some solar power system products as an affiliate, would it be worth the advertising cost?
SpyFu
Go to SpyFu and enter the keyword “solar power systems” into the “Enter a Domain or Keyword Below” field. In the section captioned “Top PPC Domains for ‘solar power systems’”, the most consistent spenders on that keyword appear to be Solar Direct and Siemens. Since Siemens is an enormous, highly diversified conglomerate that can afford to advertise at a loss in non-core markets, I’ll focus my attention on Solar Direct.
Notice that the company advertised on the up until November, skipped December (presumably not the most auspicious time to advertise a solar product), then resumed advertising in January. When you see consistently colored bars on the ad spending grid from month to month, it means that the advertiser didn’t change its ad copy. This means that either the advertiser is clueless (i.e. didn’t test the clickthrough rates of ad variations), or—more likely—that the keyword and the ad covert well; so they’re probably making money.
If you have a paid SpyFu account, or an account with a similar service like SEMRush, you can drill into the the ad spending timeline for each of the websites keywords—which is awesome, because you can discover keywords that are much better performers than the one you initially entered.
Ads in the Google Search Network
A faster, less systematic way to gauge the commercial prospects of a niche or keyword is to simply enter it into Google and look at the number of ads that display. Generally speaking, if you see a minimum of five ads in the right sidebar, you’re dealing with a topic that’s making enough money to make it worth spending money. The keyword “solar power systems” not only has the maximum eight ads in the sidebar, but another three ads above the organic listings—in other words, every spot Google can sell for it is sold. That’s encouraging. Many keyword research tools like SpyFu (for paid accounts) and Market Samurai (a desktop tool with a free Keyword Research module) will list the average number of ads displayed for each keyword in their listings.
Of course, the flip side of the equation is that you’re looking at a highly competitive market, increasing the possibility that you’ll spend more than you make. The fact that there are 7.5 million pages for the keyword in Google index should be a red flag. This is where doing some further keyword research can help you find a back door into this market.
For instance, if you can find a few related keywords with decent search traffic that have under 60,000 pages indexed, it you might have an easier time than targeting the primary keyword. Never get hung up on an individual keyword. Targeting half a dozen related, less competitive keywords that each pull in 600 searches a month can be more practical than throwing all of your time and energy into a single keyword that gets 3600 searches a month. Instead of obsessing over individual keywords, take a broader view of the overall market you want to target, then look for a sufficient number of high-traffic, low-competition keywords to bring in the number of visitors you need make your sales goals at a reasonable conversion rate.