How Google Trends Can Help Your Blog and Writing Dreams Go Viral

When writers first begin showcasing their craft on the Internet they usually write only what they want to tell the world.

They have this driving need to take what has been percolating around in their head and put it down in writing to fully exorcize it from their mind. But after a while, the writer in them will step away from blogging long enough to grow curious if anyone is reading what they are writing.? They will begin to review their blog statistics.

If the visitor numbers are low, they will yearn to expand their writing dream beyond just hitting the publish button.

They will ponder: ?Why isn?t anyone reading my blog??

Thy may even look at their bounce rate and see that many of their blog visitors are only visiting their stories for 4 seconds (or less ? obviously not long enough to read the story).? The blogger begins to wonder if they have any writing talent at all.

There can be many reasons for this, but the obvious first choice is that you, the blogger, however a great writer you may be ? aren?t writing with the reader in mind. Writing on a blog is a two-way conversation, and if you are a blogger who recognizes that this could be an issue for you, then you need to ask yourself this at the end of every article you write for the Internet. . .

If you are at a party telling the story you are writing ?

a. would you still tell it?

and

b. how would you adjust the story for the person you are telling it to?

For example, if there were a lot of distractions at this party, would your story remain as long? How would you change the structure and the timing? And most importantly, is it even a story the listener would want to hear?

The same can be said for writing on the Internet.

Enter Google Trends . . .

When the you are ready to expand your online audience and write with the reader in mind, Google Trends can be an online writer?s best friend.

Google Trends will tell you what the world is interested in reading and talking about. This doesn?t mean that you have to change your writing niche, it just means that you need to adjust some of your writing so that it resonates with something the reader can relate to in their lives.

And if you don?t know who your reader is, then we have an even bigger problem.? You should know their: age, sex, marital status, income, hobbies, and education. You should have a photo that conceptualizes your ideal reader right above you in your writing space.

In discussing using Google Trends to expand your blog readership here,? I?m going to assume you know who your reader is.? I will use 8 Women Dream and the bloggers here as my trending examples.

A trend is often a pop culture fad, but it can be anything that suddenly catches the Interest of a certain group of people ? it doesn?t necessarily have to be the world.? Think about trends as being those subjects you might chat about around the water cooler at work.

For example, an upcoming popular August/September trend is ?Back-to-school.?

If you go to www.google.com/trends you will see what is currently hot on the Internet and have the ability to search trends for ideas for ?back to school.?

When you enter a phrase like ?back-to-school? in the search window, Google Trends will return a graph showing how this item trends over time on the Internet.

Obviously ?back-to-school? is a phrase that spikes only once a year ? verses catching a trend as it is moving up on the Internet for several months (this is the best type of trend to catch and we?ll talk about it in just a bit).

The average 8 Women Dream reader is a mom, as well as someone who loves learning and going to school. Our demographic will be knee deep in back to school thoughts over the next month (if they haven?t already started). But how do we apply a back-to-school trend to 8 Women Dream when this is really a site about dreaming big dreams?

Here?s how I would look at a current trend . . .

1. Mondays ? Jayne Speich, who writes about her dream of improving her relationship with money.

This one is pretty easy because Jayne happens to have school-aged boys.? But if she didn?t, she could write about the cost of going back to school and whether it?s worth it for your dream (oh that?s right, she?s gone back to school too).? Her readers will want to hear her thoughts on back-to-school spending.? New readers will be drawn in by her title to hear what someone writing about her relationship to money thinks about back-to-school spending mania.

2. Tuesdays ? Lisa Powell Graham, who writes about writing her memoir and what that brings up for her in her everyday life.

Back-to-school is like New Years.? It marks a new beginning and the change of seasons ? a rebirth if you will.? Back-to-school for Lisa?s readers might mean taking a creative writing class, hiring a writing coach, reading books on writing, or setting up a writing discipline that mirrors a school schedule. Back-to-school could be Lisa setting a 9 month plan in motion to achieve something for her big dream by Memorial Day 2013. Back-to-school can mean starting something new, or taking something to the next level.? Lisa?s readers like to hear her advice on getting their life on track and she can use back-to-school to motivate them into making a change that coincides with the school year.

3. Wednesdays ? Remy Gervias, who writes about living the photography dream.

Where would we all be without our school photographs?? Remy could discuss how to become a portrait photographer, how to take photos of people, how to take photos at school sporting events, or going back-to-school to hone your photography skills.? Remy could show her school photographs from kindergarten through her senior year ? the ones she likes and the ones she doesn?t like.? She could discuss any mistakes the photographers made and how they could have helped her relax in front of the camera.

4. Thursdays ? Sue Faith Levy, who writes about becoming a motivational speaker.

Back-to-school might mean something different in South Africa ? right down to the actual school year. The school year in South Africa runs from mid January to early December, so by the time the U.S. is returning to school, South African students are close to the end of their school year.? Back-to-school for Sue could mean that in September she will attend a Toastmaster?s meeting near her home and begin to ramp up her public speaking appearances.? She could detail a plan for speaking at more schools in 2013 along with who she needs to contact to make this happen by January of next year.

5. Friday ? Heather Montgomery, who writes about healthy living products and considers launching her own products.

Back-to-school for Heather can be products to help organize your healthy lifestyle around a hectic back-to-school schedule.? Even new fitness routines can be overhauled when the kids go back-to-school.? Heather?s readers LOVE give-aways, so Heather could offer some free back-to-school products for the busy mom.

6. Saturday ? Natasha von Geldern, who writes about dream travel and traveling the world.

Back to school can be a great time to travel to America since everyone is back in school.? September is the perfect time to visit the West coast. Natasha could offer the best times to travel around the world while children of different cultures are ?back-in-school.?

7. Sunday ? Shellie Croft, who writes about living the American dream on her vineyard farm in Oregon.

Shellie home-schools her children so she might have some thoughts on never having to deal with the back-to-school craziness, but back-to-school does signal that harvest season is just around the corner.? I imagine any day now Shellie will begin to prepare for the crazy weeks known as the 2012 grape harvest.

Attempting to ride a trend doesn?t mean that you literally write about ?going back to school? but you would write how this trend effects your niche blog topic, and in our case, our dreams.

Looking at trends in your niche . . .

You can also use Google Trends to search what might be trending in your chosen blog niche.? For example, we could just enter the term ?photography? and see what is currently trending around photography.

A subject that is currently tending on the Internet for ?photography? is the Kodak bankruptcy and the low bids for their patents. Pro-photography dreamer, Remy, might have some thoughts about seeing a company that was once the darling of photographers implode in her lifetime.? You can also see the dates of some of the last top trending stories about photography.

The best trends are the ones you catch as they begin to happen.? One such post on 8 Women Dream landed 10,000 new readers in 24 hours.

Something to remember is to make sure that your trending phrase is used at the start of your article title, is placed at your opening sentence, and included in your closing sentence.? Be sure to choose an image that matches your trending phrase and name it accordingly.

The idea behind riding a trend is that when the world begins to ramp up their search for your trending phrase (if your blog has a page-rank of 3 or higher) you have a good chance of showing up high in search for your phrase, and if your title is interesting enough too, visitors will click on your article and come check out your blog ? in droves!

If you catch the right Internet trend you can make your blog writing go viral and be discovered by a whole new reading audience.

And just maybe your top blog dreams will come true . . .

Catherine

Catherine?s dream is to make 8 Women Dream the premier online publication for women looking to change their lives. She is a published author, known for her humorous speeches on finding your dream life and blogging for fun and profit. Catherine also writes for several online marketing publications. She would someday like to be invited to speak at TED about her observations about the 8 Women Dream experience. Catherine posts on Sunday evenings and fills in when needed. Join me on Google+ rapieress@aol.com

This content is published under the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Source: http://www.8womendream.com/45304/how-google-trends-can-help-your-blog-and-writing-dreams-go-viral/

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