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Using google trends to increase traffic…

Using google trends is pretty easy and straight forward, it’s also a great way to find new niches for new blogs and topic web sites.

1. First thing you want to do is go to google trends.
2. Next you’re gonna want to click on ‘More Hot Trends’ on the bottom right. This will give you a huge list of 100 hot trends.
3. Next you’re going to want to choose which trends to blog about, I think it may be best to only pick no more than 5, 2-3 per day should be good enough.
4. You can click on each trend to bring up a side by side google and google blog search on the topic, you can go to the blogs and just rephrase what they say, don’t copy and it’s best if you use more than one source.
5. When writing your post make sure you use the exact trend phrase that they give on the trends page. This is the keyword that you will want to get ranked for. You want to use it in your title, in a heading(h2 or h1) and at lease 4-5 times in the body of your blog post.
6. Be sure to link out to other blogs on the same topic, as you will get pingbacks and that will increase your rank.
7. A good tool I use to help me when blogging is called Zemanta and it makes it easy as pie to include related articles, and images.
8. On posts that you make on google trends that aren’t related to your blog, be sure to put up a disclaimer explaining what your blog really is about and giving people a method to subscribe easily - this is a good way to build future traffic to your blog, I’m sure many who visit will share some of the same interests that you do and will be interested in hearing more about them…
9. Don’t over do things, don’t do this everday, and don’t make it the only thing you do…This is a nice way to bring in some fresh traffic and increase your money however it’s not a great way to run a successful blog - use it sparingly and just as a tool in your arsenal, for example I’m planning on doing it one day per week, starting next week. I will keep posting updates on my successes and failures using this tip.

Follow these easy tips and I’m sure you’ll be successful using Google Trends to bring in more traffic.

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Tags: google trends, niches, related articles, traffic

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Google Trends update:

Yesterday I mentioned delving into google trends as a way to bring new traffic.

Yesterday I wrote a post about Mackenzie Phillips, Del  Martin Dieing, and Hurricane Gustav track. Each of these topics were at that point in the top 5 google trends.

I know I planned to write 25 posts on google trends topics, however I had some errands to run offline and was unable to get back on - don’t worry I’ll be doing a lot more of these.

I found out that it’s a very wise thing to do, in fact I’m thinking about instituting a trendy wednesday. Every wednesday I’ll focus my efforts on google trends topics.

The results have been astounding - I got 131 hits to one blog post on hurricane gustav. All these hits were either from google search or google blog search, which definitely proves that the point is valid, perhaps if I’d worked on a longer post with more mentions of hurricane gustav I would’ve ranked even higher.

At any case this does prove something pretty remarkable, and that I’m going to be delving a lot deeper into, over the coming weeks.

Stay tuned for further updates on google trends.

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Tags: Blog, Google, google trends, hurricane gustav, Mackenzie Phillips, niche, popularity, search tool, traffic

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Wouldn’t it be nice to be best Friends with an A-list blogger? How about ten A-list bloggers?

1. Comment often - Commenting on A-List blogs is a good way to get your name in front of them.Remember they are regular people like you and me, the more they see your name, and see that you contribute to their site, the more likely they are to say yes when you try and offer a joint venture, or a guest post on their blog.

*One big tip on this make your comments stand out, build upon the original post, and make your comment provide extended value to their site, and even cite other posts that back up what you say, and you will soon become an authority.*

2. Follow them on twitter, and respond to them often, many of the A-list bloggers are on twitter, and contribute frequently.The bottom line is the more you provide to the conversation, the more they see your name, the more likely you are to get noticed.

3. Blog, blog often, and make it count. If you do happen to get noticed by an A-lister, it is likely they will subscribe to your feed, if you do receive their attention, you need to blow them away with great content so that they stay attentive to what you say.

Note this is often, just a good practice as it will ensure that you current subscribers stay very happy, afterall the more attention grabbing your blog, the more visitors.Even if you don’t build a ‘friendship’ with an A-lister, you may gain their attention enough to have them link to your blog, which will bring a lot of google-juice and traffic your way.

4. Diversify your efforts, as in all friendshipping efforts, you just may not be able to build rapport, they might not like you, something you said might push them away, or tick them off. Especially if you’re religious or political beliefs differ.

Don’t focus all your efforts on building rapport with one person, instead spread yourself across maybe 5-10 different high trafficked blogs that are relative to your content.You might make it a daily thing to post 1-2 comments per blog, or you could post like 5-10 comments per day on a different blog each day. For instance have monday be JohnChow, tuesday you might head over to Shoemoney, and wednesday might be Problogger Darren Rowse.

ONe more important tip - whichever strategy you implement, to be truly successful you MUST be consistant, the #1 cause of failure to any blog is failure to be consistant across the board.Blogging can provide a great income and be a lot of fun, once you get popular it can become a bit easier than starting out, but to get there is very hard work, consistant effort is a neccessity if you’re not willing to put in the hard work, then this business is not for you, and perhaps you should find something else that works better.

Harsh words, I know, but when you treat blogging like a business, it will begin to reap the rewards of a business.

5. Fake it till you make it! A lot of the stuff you blog about may be new to you, it may be confusing, you may not know all there is about blogging, or about plugins, or about social networks, and social media. The fact is you don’t need to know everything, but you need to act like you do - in a word. Confidence.

The “A” in “A-list” does not stand for Awesome, or A+ as in school work. It stands for Authority.

Whether or not you are an Authority on your Niche, you NEED to act like you are, and keep learning as much as possible, so that one day you will wake up and it will dawn on you…”Woah, I am an Authority, not just a BS’er!”

6. Your blog must say “I’m a professional Blog”.Here are a few tips for this:

• Must have your own domain name. It is true, some blogs have taken off from blogspot, such as Kumiko’s, but eventually even she wised up and registered cashquests.com.A domain name basically says that you’re here to stay(at least for a year, till it expires - hopefully you make it past that 1st year).A domain name also helps with search engine rankings, for your brand (and yes your name can be your brand like John Chow or if you’re name is overly popular you can brand yourself as anything you like, eg: Shoemoney).

  Lastly, wouldn’t it be terrible if you could’ve been John Chow, but started out at blogspot, someone saw that you were becoming famous, and they went out and bought yourname.com. Sure they might sell it to you for a couple thousand dollars.

• Your blog design must be professional looking, it’s a wise idea to get a professionally designed blog theme - if you can afford it. I recommend starting out with a free one though, until your blog starts to take off, then purchase either a commercial one, or a custom.Also, here is a good post citing the pros and cons of pre-made blog theme vs custom blog theme.
• You need subscribers, the more subscribers to your feed, the more trust you have, and ultimately the more, professional you will appear.Check out what Dosh Dosh has to say about why you absolutely need to build your blog’s subscriber base.
• You must hold yourself to a higher standard.Nobody wants to communicate, follow, read, rantings of someone who is fast to start a fight, or demean someone.(Exception would be political blogs, where most of your readers are going to either support your same views, or be against - politics is one topic that can’t please all sides.

  Though you can even be professional here, for instance, I usually refer to Bush in private as “the idiot”, “Dumbass”, “Retarded Drunk Monkey Boy”, but I might be a little more tactfull on my blog…or perhaps not(I’m using this as an example - and perhaps a sneaky way to vent & be unprofessional.))

• Don’t over-do the plugins or widgets.Yes you can have too many plugins.Widgets and plugins are great, they add a lot to your blog, but they can also break your theme, and some plugins can conflict with each other and break your blog for a time, which equals less visitors.
• Again I reiterate consistant effort, and you need a schedule for posting, which should include at least 1 post per day. Just figure you need at least 300-1000 posts to be on the level of the A-list bloggers, and if you post 1 a day, it might take you a whole year, maybe even two.Did you know to be on the level of Problogger (20,000 posts in 4 years!). That’s a bit much but you have to be posting consistently to measure up!Personally I strive for 2-3 posts per day or 14 minimum in a given week.

7. Last but not least, flattery goes a long way, as long as you’re sincere about it!You want to be sincere and let them know how much their tips help you, or you could simply link to their posts often, and re-iterate a lot of the things they say.

This might benefit you in pingbacks / trackbacks, but most importantly it is a good way to catch their eye, and let them know that you’re a reader.

Most professional bloggers want to make their readers happy, and knowing that you are enjoying their blog, linking to their blog, will catch their eye, and if they see something they like they might link to it.

One last bit of advice, if you do manage to become an Authority, think you have what it takes to guest blog on JohnChow, Shoemoney, Problogger, DoshDosh, etc… The best way to do it is write a list of topics you’re passionate about.

Write a sample post relating to one of those topics, be sure it includes lots of pictures as the best posts do use images in almost every post, (mine lack it sometimes because it’s hard to upload photos while I’m at work, and I usually write a lot of posts while on break. )

Your post needs to be extremely informative, and use a lot of line breaks, and be easy to read, as well as easy to scan. The more insightful, truthful, and witty the better. Adding humor is also welcome, but don’t go overboard.

Once you’re ready you should write up a professional letter and send it to their email if you can find it, if not submit it by their contact form, most of the top bloggers list at least one way or another to be contacted.

If you don’t hear anything back in 7 days, you should submit another letter, and ask them if they’ve considered your offer, if not - ask them if they could give you some tips on how you can better your chances of being accepted as a guest blogger(or insert another goal, if you want them to sponsor something, like perhaps your weightloss).

One last tip - give them love - digg their best posts, stumble a post if you like it, or share it on one of the many networks out there……And on that note, please do me a BIG favor and Digg this post. I would really appreciate it, and you’d definitely get on my good side.

Cheers!

Oh yeah, here’s some related articles:

• Confessions of an A-List Blogger
• Tips for joining the A list
• Secrets of the A-List Bloggers
• Yes, Mr. Calacanis, The A-List Exists.

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Tags: a-list blog, a-list bloggers, authority, Blogging, blogging for money, build relationships, commenting on blogs, comments, consistant, conversation, Darren Rowse, digg, doshdosh, friendship, get noticed, jeremy shoemaker, John Chow, make money, network, niche, problogger, shoemoney, Social Networks, trackback, traffic

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Twitter continues to Amaze me - Doubled my subscribers in 2 days!

I wrote yesterday how I got about 15 new subscribers in one day using twitter.

I woke up today, and checked my stats. Today I had 63 subscribers, up from 47.

My blog had approximately 600+ hits yesterday.

The most I’ve ever received on any of my online entities.

This truly is awesome, I am a twitter believer.

There is a downside though, with twitter comes a lot of distractions, the same can also be said of friendfeed, pownce, etc…(which I’m also trying to tap into a little bit.)

My major advice is to be devoted to your blog above all else. Twitter is great, and can give you some great ideas as to what to blog about, but the bottom line to being successful is to blog, and blog often.

I try for 2 times per day, 3 would be great, but even once per day if you’re really busy. If you go long periods without writing you’ll never build a true following, and you will lose a lot of your current readers.

Yesterday, I also asked about people who ‘Google Themselves‘. I got a lot of responses in comments, as well as a few on twitter.

As an experiment, I’ve decided to make a change in the Title of this blog, from ‘There’s a Blog in My Soup’, to “There’s a Blog in my Soup: A Blog by Patrick Curl”.

My goal is to see if that raises my ‘brand’, in the search engines.

Also if this is your first time reading my blog you might want to check out, my latest pillar article, on 40 some odd ways to increase your rss subscriber count - which I will be updating regularly.

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Tags: feed subscribers, feed twitter, follow on twitter, more rss subscribers, Rss Feeds, successful twittering, traffic, Twitter, twitter marketing

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