The power of blogging topical
When you struggle to blog, do you ever stop to see what is trending on Twitter? If you do, you will see that the Twitter trends are a valuable source of what people are interested in right now. By topical blogging you can bring new people to your blog, gain new subscribers and new readers. You can also generate traditional media interest
On Wednesday evening it was brought to my attention that someone was trending on Twitter and they were using Twitter to promote dubious health practices to vulnerable people. I requested a guest post from some health industry professionals and started to talk with to sufferers of the illness that was being promoted as the way to look. Everyone I spoke to was expressing outrage that the person was allowed to do this, and that counter views were being ignored.
As the person was trending on Twitter and sending out the wrong information to young women, we knew there would be searches and we wanted the alternative voices to be heard over their marketing tactics, and this is where the powerful topical blogging aspect come in…
I wrote a post on my views, why I thought what was being promoted was dangerous and linked into an article by another blogger on the same subject.
My traffic went through the roof.
One day, not quite 24 hours and we are being found for the terms ‘managed anorexia’ to give an alternative view. People on Twitter saw what we were doing and many retweeted the message to a much bigger audience. Our subscribers increased and then I really learned the power of topical blogging and gaining all that traffic – people were looking for answers. In my post I referenced one eating disorder, but what I should have done is added some reference points for those already suffering from anorexia and needing support.
Remember – when blogging about a controversial topic, add some useful resources at the end of the post
We gained more readers and we gained some search engine traction for search terms that we didn’t really want to be found for, but we are glad we are. We get to present an alternative view to the person on Twitter, we can do helpful things with out topical blog post.
Traffic a day later…
As you can see our average daily traffic is around 500 page reads, we are now close to reaching 3,000. This caught me unawares, I did not think so many people would be looking for this person.
Links – the post generated a an explosion of links back to the original blog post, from other mums who were concerned. From Fitness professionals and health bloggers.
If you are looking to reach new audiences and share a message, then blogging topical is a powerful way to do this.
How do you blog topical?
You need to decide what fits with your blog and it’s main subject theme. On Birds on the Blog, we regularly write articles about what affects women and their business. This topic is a natural fit. If the latest trend is what to buy your cat for it’s birthday, then we would have struggled.
The trending subject and your blog should be compatible
Where do you find the trends?
Above I mention Twitter and what is trending. Twitter trends are not the only places to learn about what people are interested in, Google has a trends section http://www.google.com/trends where you can see what is being searched for. It doesn’t have to be an opinion piece to get attention – a good how to post will work well for a trending topic.
Have you blogged on hot topics lately? Please share your experiences in the comments.
Note from Ann: I thought that Sarah’s post was a great follow-up / addition to my pretty old post: Do You Blog on Trending Topics? Do It Right to Get Noticed and Get Ranked!
Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal.
Using Trends to Boost Your Blog
