Assignment
Part I. Online Market Assessment
Choose a product that you are interested in selling online. Select a key word, which well represent the product.
1. Write down the best key word among them in your opinion. Run Google's keyword tool ("Search for new keywords using a phrase..." under the keyword planner in adwords.google.com) to get a list of related key words and number of searches. Sort them by the average monthly searches and download them to a spread sheet (e.g., MS Excel). Use minimum search volumes for search volume calculation. Delete irrelevant key words from the list (Do this until you get top 5 relevant words and ignore the rest of them). Copy and paste the spread sheet, which must show the top 5 relevant keywords, number of searches for each key word, and the total number of searches for the top 5 key words.
2. Check the trend of searching your key words using Google trend tool. Paste the trend graph and also describe the trend of the search volume over the last 5 (or 10) years (e.g., increase, decrease, or stable).
3. Estimate and write down an average cost per click at an average ad position 3 for the key words (using "Get click and cost performance forecasts" under the key word planner in adwords.google.com). Also paste the screen shot, which shows an average cost per click at an average ad position 3 (or an average cost per click = 5 cents if an ad position 3 is not attainable)
4. Write down how many competitors who advertise in your market (i.e., the number of sponsored links when you enter your key words in Google and the number of competitors in Google search, Amazon, eBay, etc.). Paste also the first page of Google search-result pages.
5. Based on the results above, write down your conclusion of your assessment regarding the size of the online market (e.g., the online market is large, medium, small, or too small to sustain). Justify your conclusion. Make sure to include your interpretation of each result from question 1, 2, 3, and 4 above in your justifications (one point per inclusion of your interpretation of each question)
Guidelines:
1. The paper should not be longer than five pages (excluding a cover page, references, and appendix). This is not an essay assignment. No introduction is required. Start with a question number and then write your answers.
2. All written work should be of professional quality. Your answer will be evaluated based on soundness of your justifications and supporting references. Your arguments should be logical and you should provide sources of evidence in the argument. If you cannot communicate clearly, the quality of your ideas will not be apparent. Written work should be designed for ease of reading. Choose clear fonts in a suitable size, for example - Times New Roman at 12 pt (nothing smaller, please!). Use 1.5 line spacing, with at least 1 cm margins at the left, right, top and bottom of the page. Any work that exceeds the specified maximum size will be ignored.
3. Make sure that the paper is written by your own words and that all the references used need to be explicitly described in the body and at the end of the paper.
Example of citation: (Use the reference format below. APA format is also acceptable)
< In the body of the paper>
The Bootstrapping approach was applied to estimate the significance of the path (Chin 2000; Cook and Luo 2003; Cooper et al. 1995).
Chin, W. W. "Frequently Asked Questions - Partial Least Squares & PLS-Graph," 2000. https://disc-nt.cba.uh.edu/chin/plsfaq.htm, accessed on September 16, 2003.
Cook, D. P. and Luo, W. "The Role of Third-Party Seals in Building Trust Online," e-Service Journal, (2:3), 2003, pp. 71-84.
Cooper, D. R., Gefen, D. and Emory, C. W. Business Research Methods, 5th ed., IRWIN, U.S.A., 995.