Online Writing Tip: Grab the Traffic of Tomorrow, Today!

Stuck on what to write about? Trying to make money online?

Are you looking for topics that will bring traffic?

You may have seen my "Traffic Sweet Spot" diagram on how to choose a topic (right). But how do you find that "Traffic Sweet Spot"?

Well, are you excited about something that's not here yet, but will be in the next year or so? How about a movie? How about a video game? How about a car or technology, your next computer, an upcoming sports star or actor?

Wait! Hang on! Don't go running off to write that review just yet!

When a movie comes out, there's tons of reviews. Likewise with new cars or new up-and-coming stars. Your fan page or review might get traffic. Or perhaps, there will be so much search competition that your page will be eclipsed by more popular sites in search results.

Go ahead and write that review, because it will probably get some traffic. But that's just the start. Also, set out a few "web traffic fish hooks," related articles with more search-specific bait.

Namely: merchandising! Toys, accessories, posters, collectibles, costumes — things whose titles are concrete, specific phrases that fans may search for!

Yes, merchandising is cheesy. Yes, you're a writer with pride. So am I. However, my goal is to build an income stream that will support me when I take time off to write the novel percolating in my hard drive. That means I need a portfolio of articles that earn passive income.

It's a lot easier to sell stuff when the products are related to something I genuinely enjoy.

For example, think back to when you first heard about the upcoming Harry Potter movies. There was a lot of pre-movie buzz. Only the very best articles and opinion pieces showed up at the top of search results, because the web was swamped with them.

Some Harry Potter fans wrote pages on particular cast members like Emma Watson. That's a better strategy for drawing traffic. Fans often look up actors' names to find out more about them. Unfortunately, IMdB always hogs the top spot in search results. (You'll find the same problem with many kinds of searches: there's usually some "go-to" site hogging the top spot.)

The truly savvy Harry Potter marketer spread out a fishing net of multiple pages on various Harry Potter goodies. Instead of creating a generic "Buy Harry Potter Stuff" article that no one would search for, these writers built search-specific pages on "Buy Hermione's Magic Wand" or "Buy a Harry Potter Broom" or "Harry's Lightning Tattoo" or "Weasley Knitting Patterns" or "Get the Hogwarts Sorting Hat." See how specific those are? Your fan expertise will give you the edge in guessing what kinds of things other fans might want.

Get your pages up early. Build cross-links between them. Your articles will then be well-established by the time the movie comes out.

Obviously, this doesn't just apply to movies. I'm sure you can see how to adapt the same technique for new product releases (accessories, cases, apps), up-and-coming athletes and stars (clothes, posters), or whatever it is that you're looking forward to.

One final tip: if you love and know about anything from outside the U.S., look for merchandising that American fans might like, but which hasn't been released in the United States yet.

For example, I enjoy anime. There are a lot of anime collectibles that are only released in Japan, or which are released in the United States many months later. Last year, some of my most lucrative Squidoo lenses featured eBay listings for items that weren't officially for sale in the U.S., but which were available through importers. You can do the same with Hubpages eBay capsules.

The best part of this strategy is that it means you have to sit down with that thing you love and reread it, rewatch it, or reexplore it, looking for details that might make good tie-ins and spin-offs. If you had been that hypothetical Harry Potter fan, you would have needed to reread the books, looking for things that might be turned into merchandise.

Research is more fun when you're sifting through something you like. Just be careful not to get so engrossed that you forget that you're doing article research.

Good luck!