Is Google trends the new linkbait?

There are sites popping up that create random text posts using keywords from google trends, and other sites of such, but when you view the listing in google it’s apparent that it’s a scam-site even before visiting.

I must say, blogging about Google trends topics is very smart. It’s obviously what people are searching for. I’m amazed at how much traffic I’ve gotten from google after using google trends - lets just say I went from 90% of my traffic coming from twitter.com’);”>Twitter and other Social networks, as well as from subscribers of the blog, to now getting 75% coming from google, many of which decide to subscribe.

Now it used to be a great idea to come up with a really unique and popular pop culture post, that everbody links to. This would be called linkbait. It could be a list of things related to a specific topic as well. All that matters is that it’s widely popular, and spreads virally.

However writing linkbait, or trying to - is a hit or miss. Either your post becomes viral or it doesn’t. I’ve had a few posts go viral, but I must say that google trends is guaranteed.

You write a post on a google trends topic, and you will get traffic, and it’s very likely that you will also get linked.

Here are some tips to writing a good google trends article for maximum traffic:

1. The Number 1 trend isn’t always the best - sometimes the topic has peaked. If you click on the trend it will show you whether the item is going up or down.
2. Choose a topic that you’d like to talk about there are many to choose from, choose one that fits in well with your site.
3. Keyword saturation is key - you need to use the exact google trends phrase as often as possible, and insert at least 1-2 variations. For example today I posted about “Hummingbird Sex Position” I included the keyword phrase about six times, but also used the hummingbird sex technique, once throughout.
4. Always include related posts - you’ll get trackbacks that will help bring in more traffic.
5. Add a picture. You’ll also get traffic from google images.

Another great suggestion is to use a tool that helps me greatly, called Zemanta - it’s a firefox addon that suggests related images / blog posts, so that I don’t have to find them myself - it doesn’t always find related posts but it’s pretty good.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Banner Ads & Image Ads On Google Images
• Google.org Donates $14 Million To Prevent The Next Pandemic
• The New iGoogle: Early Adopter Perceptions Versus Joe the Plumber Realities
• Responses to my iGoogle review and thoughts on Google support
• Don’t underestimate Google
• Where My Traffic Comes From
• Popularity of “Google” in Google Trends?
• Trendrr Makes Graphs That Move With Time | The Startup Review
• How you can capitalize on google trends…
• My newest fascination: Google Trends
• Is Google Ad Planner Getting Its Data From The Google Toolbar?
• Riding Google Trends to the Top
• Google Trends is Behind the Curve
• ‘Trends for Websites’ Makes a Popularity Contest of Site Traffic
• Google Trends for Websites Sucks for Small Blogs
• Google Trends made my underwear turn Brown…

I’ve had an amazing week with traffic, and hits, I wish my adsense was a little better (1000 hits per day and only like 7 clicks the whole week…I need to monetize better).

But adsense and money isn’t the end all to success, yes it’s great, and someday it will come. The fact that my Readership has grown immensely (1700 new subscribers in one weekend — *wink wink*.)

My alexa ranking is skyrocketing, and people are genuinely interested in what I have to say.

I was planning on writing a really good post to day on Twitter, what it is, who uses it(a-listers and what not), popular tools, popular web services, etc… Today was just really busy though, with the exception of a small post here and there, I haven’t written anything huge today.

Do you ever feel drained - you have ideas but just can’t get them finished, at least not in the time frame you want? I dream of the day, when this is my full-time job. Except full-time= 3 hours a day 7 days a week, and the pay is more than I can fathom.

I’m planning a lot of cool articles to come, so please stay tuned. I did sign up for RocketProfit today, a new cool way to monetize. I will give you an update on my findings.

I would also like to thank my friends on twitter / and in the blogosphere in general for making this an awesome community blog, with all the comments, and what not. I’m really excited with all the response, and hope to keep up the momentum.