Intro to Trend Blogging: Blogging the News

You’ve just launched a start-up company, or developed a new product. You have a shiny new blog to go along with it. No one is searching for you by name because they do not know your name. No one is searching for your product because they do not know that it exists.

Social media following is still a little low. You get no search engine love (yet). It’s getting lonely out there in blog world for you.

So, what do you do? Keep blogging away all day and night about yourself, your cool new service, or your company updates? No. Don’t go that route. If you do, do so with the full knowledge that no one is going to care (because no one is reading your blog).

Trend Blogging

Blogging about the news – or latest trends, or news about trends, or a topic that is trending – is what I refer to as trend blogging. It’s not journalism by any means. Most journalists would probably flip out at being compared to a blogger, so let’s not go there!

This is about attracting some new readers to your blog by talking about things that people are talking about right now. In doing so, you can get on the map and create some interest for your blog which would not otherwise be there. Because of the real-time search capabilities of sites like Google, Twitter, and SocialMention, talking about trending topics is a good idea.

Don’t dominate your blog with news, though. Adding trend blogging will help improve your traffic either marginally or significantly depending on what you write about; however,

If you’re blogging for business, you must ground your blog with original content that distinguishes you from other websites and blogs.

Let’s talk more about what this is NOT before we talk about what to do.

• This is not about baiting people. You must actually discuss what your headline says you are going to discuss. And it doesn’t count if you just post a link to someplace else; the bulk of the post needs to be real content.
• This is not about plagiarism. If you do not possess the writing skills necessary to come up with original content, this won’t work for you.
• This is not about search engine mastery. There are definitely some traffic benefits which we’ll look at further below, but that’s not the point here. The point is to give people something to relate to so you can break the ice.
• This is not about being in left field. Don’t write about the Superbowl unless you can find some way to tie that into your blog (but stay tuned for an upcoming post about how you CAN write about the Superbowl, no matter what your blog is about). Everything you do should be productive and beneficial. Only write about trends that are in the general area of interest of your blog.

Trend Blogging: A Simple How To

There is great value in blogging about the news. To date, two trendy posts here on bizchickblogs.com – one on the 2010 Mashable Awards and another on IndiCustom.com – are the 4th and 5th top landing pages for this blog due to the traffic they bring in from search engines. The Indi review is particularly interesting as there was almost no promotion there, and traffic has come from 31 different keyword variations. Although the bounce rate wasn’t great at 73%, the time on page was good, at 2:43.

If your site is well-structured, your news piece can be the gateway to the rest of your content. Be sure that your subscription options are plainly visible.

Consider wisely when selecting news to talk about. Think about things that people are searching for or may be searching for in the near future.

What to do:

1. Find sources

In order to write about news you have to actually be tuned into news. You can either subscribe to trusted RSS feeds, like your local newspaper if you are a local blogger, or, you can subscribe to press releases from places like Business Wire or PR News Wire.

Tip: Other bloggers don’t make great news sources.

2. Determine a schedule

Here are a few suggested cycles:

• A weekly update that covers 4 or 5 news worthy happenings.
• A short, daily update that is not quite as long as a feature post but is substantial enough to summarize the news (200 to 300 words).
• A weekend beat, discussing weekend events OR what happened during the previous week

3. Write your post(s)

Guidelines:

• Your title should be unique and creative. It should contain keywords but should also be enticing.
• Consider getting quotes from sources. This adds a level of professionalism that will make journalists less likely to hate you. It’s not always possible and it’s certainly not necessary, but if you have a friend or know someone of interest whose quote would make your story better, try adding it.
• You MUST link to your source if you have one. This is important. You don’t want to get into the habit of publishing sourceless news posts. People want to know where you got your info from. It will only boost your credibility, rather than take away from it. If you don’t have a source, don’t worry about it.  But if you got your news from some website, you need to disclose and do the right thing and link to the source.
• You must have permission to use copyrighted images. Additionally, images of people, landmarks, buidings, etc. are usually protected, too. Celebrity photos that are allowed to be freely distributed are difficult to come by, but you can try Shutterstock, which has a pretty good set of photos of big name celebrities for editorial use, or you can try Flickr Creative Commons. You can also use Wikimedia, which is a great source for these types of images. This rule of thumb goes for politicians, athletes, and just about anyone else (including regular joe’s like you and me). Use images at your own risk. They are nice to have, but don’t get yourself sued over images.

4. Promote On and Off Your Blog

You don’t have to promote a news piece heavily. I’ve found that one update on Twitter, for example, is enough. However, on your site, you should consider drawing attention to these updates by creating a News category or a section that contains your latest news posts. You should also have some type of related posts widget because people who come in via search engines are going to need somewhere to go next.

Other Trend Blogging Tips

• You may wish to put your news posts in a separate feed, especially if they are published more often than feature content.
• Consider a blitz. If you’re going to start trend blogging, you should arm yourself with four or five news pieces to start with and publish one every day until they are all posted. This will give you something to have in the related posts section so your blog looks complete.
• Use a site like Amplify to broadcast news posts. You can connect your Amplog to other micro-blogs such as Posterous or Tumblr, increasing visibility and/or links.

–> See Trend Blogging in Action: College Money Insider’s Financial Aid News section.

If you have any questions, let me know!

Image Credit: Shutterstock