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How to Blog About Trending Topics


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This is a guest post by Fletcher Thompson.

It is easy to forget that a blog is out there for everyone to read, when you’re writing it from the protection of your desk in your own home (or parents basement if we want to perpetuate stereotypes). It will be read.

That is, if you know how to write content that people will want to read or that is likely to be found by a search engine. Knowing how to accomplish those two things is a big step in growing readership and increasing traffic to your blog. Writing about trending topics and current events is a great way to achieve that.

Find Connections

Let’s use an announcement of the Coachella line up as an example. Coachella became a trending topic on social networks and most searched term on search engines, in the anticipation of the release of the line up and the aftermath as the blogosphere discussed it. Having content related to Coachella on your blog would surely gain you traffic as everyone searched for information.

Yes, Coachella is a music festival. But music bloggers are not the only ones that could write relevant content related to the festival.

Think Creatively

There are so many other aspects of a music festival like Coachella that can be discussed. In this blog, I will break down all the various ways a blogger can relate content to a specific trending topic or event.

Foodie Blogs

There are always many great food vendors at music festivals. If you are a food blogger, or even just a foodie, you could discuss the vendors that will be at a specific festival, review the food or even suggest great snacks to keep you going throughout the day. I know I would read about that, as a frequent music festival attendee.

Camping and the Outdoor Blogs

People always camp at festivals too. That opens up a whole new can of worms. You could write about camping equipment. If you’re smart, you can even get some companies to send you the equipment to test out. Helpful tips on camping in the conditions of the area of the festival would also be great. Especially if it is information on how to stay clean and not smelly, when showering isn’t an option.

Travel Blogs

Not everyone camps at Coachella. This is Southern California, after all. You can review many of the hotels in the area, for those that cannot fathom going without a shower or air conditioning for a few days. Find out who has the best deals, accommodations and which offer wifi in the rooms.

Fashion Blogs

One of the best parts of attending music festivals is the people watching. Perhaps you’re a fashion blogger. Ready your camera phone and snap away. You’ll have great festival fashion to write about when you get home. You can also discuss the most comfortable clothes and shoes to wear at a music festival.

Equipment Blogs

Discussing the sound gear at a festival is another opportunity. They have to design the sound systems, so that there is no bleed between stages. There is an audience out there that is eager to learn how festivals do that. Plus, like in the example of Coachella, you have to make sure that 70,000+ people can hear the music going on at one stage. You could be the blogger that tells them.

Lighting is another topic, similar to sound, that you can blog about. Talk about the equipment they get for each stage and the people that are running it. Let’s say you write about the weather. Talk about what to expect from the weekend’s weather forecast and how to best prepare for it.

Event Blogs

Maybe you blog about organizing large events. Doing an interview with the Coachella organizers would surely yield a pearl or two of wisdom.

There are bound to be countless others that I have not even covered yet, but as you can see, you can cover one particular topic from a variety of angles and make it relative to your audience.

Capitalize and Attract Traffic

Capitalizing on the attention around trending topics or events is a great way to attract more traffic to your blog. There is probably a way to blog about any trending topic you can think of. All it takes is a little bit of creativity and determination.

Don’t just see music festival when you look at Coachella. See the people, places and things that make it what it is.

There are niche markets for every topic. Some audience may be bigger than others, but that does not mean the audience is not there. Hopefully Coachella will not be too upset when they have bloggers from all walks of life applying for press coverage, as I’ve just listed many of the ways that a blogger can cover a trending topic such as their festival!

Your Trending Topics Strategy

How do you capitalize on trending topics in your niche? Please share your strategies and tips in the comments!

Comments

  1. I have not used trending topic yet. But I think a Great strategy can be using twitter to find the tending topics. You can then use the tending topic’s hashtag when you tweet your related post.
    I might have a try on this strategy to get some traffic to my blog. Thanks for the TIP:)

  2. Hi Fletcher,

    One suggestion to test a niche market is to run a 5 day PPC ad campaign on Adsense and see if there is a response. This saves you HUGE time later when trying to monetize the site.

    There are lots of niches but not all are viable from a financial standpoint.

    Ivan

    • Hi Ivan,

      That’s a great suggestion! I do encourage those those who aren’t familiar with PPC and Google Adense to do some research, they are great marketing tools in addition to trending topics. Thanks Ivan.
      Fletcher just posted Google Plus One- My Opinion

    • Hey Ron,

      Thanks for the reply. It’s so easy to over think blogging strategies or concepts right? Blogging about current events can bring quality traffic, especially if you can shed light on an unseen angle. But yes, I do agree that it’s less stressful, and writing consistently in general is always good.
      Fletcher just posted Google Plus One- My Opinion

  5. I like how you looked at the trending topic from the various angles, Fletcher. Many times when you hear the advice to write about a trending topic while it’s hot, there is no mention that it doesn’t do you much good if the content isn’t relevant to the topic. Your take the relevant aspect of the trending topic and blog about that is great advice.

    Another place I look for relevant topics that are currently being searched is in my Google Analytics keywords. Sometimes, I’m surprised at the search terms some of my posts will rank on. If there’s enough activity there, it can be a good idea to write a post tailored to that search term to reinforce your ranking. Like you suggest here though, it should still be a relevant aspect of the keywords.
    Brad Harmon just posted 4 Key Numbers You Should be Focusing on to Multiply Your Blog’s Sustainability

    • Hi Brad,

      Great suggestion! Google Analytics is a free tool that any blogger can incorporate into their website. It’s relatively easy to use, and if you can find that your blog posts are ranking for search terms you never though of, that’s a victory in itself!

      Reinforcing your search ranking by creating substantial content especially for that search term could solidify your role as a thought leader in that niche. If you could somehow get creative and bridge that new content to a trending topic, that would be a great one two punch.
      Fletcher just posted Google Plus One- My Opinion

  7. Hi Fletcher,

    These are excellent ideas. You make it clear how to think about a trending topic from many angles. I recently had the opportunity to write a short post on what could be considered trending, the launch leading up to release of the latest CommentLuv plugin. That was the first trending-type subject I’ve ever written about (to my knowledge).

    I’ll keep your advice in mind, and look for opportunities to write around events that might be good topics for my audience.
    Vernessa Taylor just posted All About The Suds- Business Development Video

    • Hey Vernessa,

      Thank you! I hope your first (and most certainly not last?) trending topic post was successful. You do bring up a great point about audiences. Knowing who you are blogging for is a key to the other side of being relevant. It depends on how niche your website is and how many possible sub niches there are. Every sub niche has potential for a more targeted audience.
      Fletcher just posted Google Plus One- My Opinion

  8. These are all very good, and popular topics. In fact I would hazard a guess that if you run one of these blogs you could probably hit Twitter immediately to promote it by joining in with a trending topic!
    Matthew just posted Hamilton Beach Slow Cooker

  10. It’s good to keep an eye on Google trends, but also if you notice, when checking your stats, that an older post of yours is getting an unusual number of hits, see if the topic it covers or keywords associated with it are “HOT” – you can either do a quick “repost” or tweet it out or write a spectacular new article on the same subject! Works for me!

  12. Being in the flow of all modern trends can guarantee you a success. As for me, I find trendy topics at twitter – and at the news blogs and sites. I also watch Tv which can be a good source of something new and interesting. Then I try to connect it with the topic of my blog and …. here you are – sometimes good articles 🙂

  14. Great post Fletcher,

    Trending topics content has launched more than a few bloggers to fame and fortune. If I may, I would like
    to offer a few additional resources I found on the
    web that may help. I have no affiliations with these
    resources.

    Trending Topics on Twitter – Look below the search box for Trending topics. http://search.twitter.com/

    This Twitter member tweets about trending topics.
    http://twitter.com/#!/trendingtopics

    Free Creative Thinking Tools
    http://www.innovationtools.com/articles/articledetails.asp?a=155

    For more great blogging and marketing info, visit us at Bright Idea Marketing.
    I am affiliated with this one.
    Calvin just posted Debunking the Myth of EDU and GOV Domains

  16. Love Foods! But it’s hard to make trending topics when your main page is already a specific niche. Just like our site. Any suggestions what other topics we can do?