What is your Fidget Spinner? Should we write about Fads?
Hey there users of Wealthy Affiliate. Just a quick one today as I just wanted to share with you something that I noticed recently whilst I was writing a post for my site. I was writing about how to make money in online within the wedding niche and was doing my usual due diligence around keywords and trends.
Then I saw it, an anomaly - check it out below:
Can you see it?
What does this mean?At first, I ignored it and went on with writing my post - I mean I was just caught up looking into whether there was a general interest in this niche over time. But then I thought about it. What can this be?
Any guesses? I'll give you a minute (comment below what you thought it might be).
I did some research and as far as I can tell - it appears to be the around the time of the Royal Wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Interest spiked around the wedding niche at that time.
So what does this mean to affiliate marketers?
As affiliate marketers, we obviously spend a lot of time looking at keywords and SEO in an effort to give ourselves the best opportunity to attract traffic to our sites and make some sales. But what if there was something else we could look at that might allow us to strike whilst the iron is hot so to speak...
Think about this... If you were in the wedding niche and noticed this spike then what could you do to marry your posts to the current need (pardon the pun). Let's look at potential posts that might trend well around the time of a royal wedding:
- How to dress like Meghan Markle on a budget
- Reviews of Meghan;s shoes, dress, flowers, bridesmaids, groomsman and groom attire and so on
- 10 things from the royal wedding that you can copy on your own big day
- How to get Meghan's exact dress
- 10 things you would change about the Royal Wedding
That is off the top of my head, but you get the picture. The point here is obviously that if we think about it, there are so many things that people may have been looking for that is new to your niche. Our job is to try and cash in whilst the going is good.
Is this sustainable?I guess on the other side of things is that we again, often talk about writing content that is evergreen so that it can continue to attract traffic and make sales for more than the 10 minutes of fame that this wedding may have had. We look at past behaviours to predict future patterns - keyword history, search percentages and so on. So the question remains, how does this fit in.
I will check into this in a minute but off the top of my head I would ask the following questions:
- Is it worth writing some posts that may rank well now but potentially die off quickly?
- Should we really be trying to identify Fads in order to try and cash in during the rush - I mean how many fidget spinners are being sold right now?
Honestly? I think, and again I would love to hear your thoughts below, that there can be room for both as long as it is within your niche. Again, let's look at weddings. The royal wedding took place in May 2018 so by now (December 2019) the numbers are probably not there - or are they?
Hmmm, still an interest... Just for giggles, what about fidget spinners?
Wow, I actually didn't expect that...
So what's my point?Good question... my initial point to this post was to let you know that it might just be worth your while to keep an eye on current events within your niche that may give you opportunities to get some problem solving posts out there so that you can strike an interest as it peaks.
Secondly however, I guess the consideration is whether it is worth spending time on a post that may only make you some money (not guaranteed of course) in the short term but not once interest dies down and we all move onto the next fad. Especially if keywords are not high at that point in time (and google trends will not reflect the interest until after the fact either).
Like anything in this game, you don't really know what will work until you try it and in time you will learn what should work and what shouldn't....
Thoughts?
Paul
Recent Comments
11
A fad is a type of product lifecycle. You can do it, make money from it. Just understand the characteristics and success factors so you make the right decisions to enhance you opportunity and reduce your risks.
3 success factors
- catch it on the up trend
- speed to market is important
- promote like crazy
3 risk management factors
- get out before immediately over the tipping point
- for physical products, limit inventory
- plan in short cycles, daily / max weekly.
Cheers,
Stanley
I never thought of looking for things like that, great idea. We'll all have to keep our eyes wide open.
I guess I would take it as you don't need to dwell on the small events and concentrate on the overall theme of your niche. It will come together in the end with great content and info on your site.
Douglas
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If we can write about fads when they just become the next big thing, it might be worth it. However, they die away, and then we are left with a piece of writing that has no more clout. In a brick-and-mortar business, it's a bit easier to deal with fads, because we can sell them while they are hot and then not order any more. What do we do with a no-longer-valuable post? Put it in archives, I guess...kinda like my post for 2019 calendars. I guess that's what I should do with them as well.