Starting a new website or deciding what to write about on your blog or website can be hard sometimes. No writer wants to spend quality time putting together an article that no one will read. Google has a great tool that helps you see what keywords are hot and allow you to compare them against other keywords. It’s called Google Trends and it can be a bloggers best friend when trying to figure out a keyword to target for Google. Chances are if it is hot in Google it is hot in Yahoo and other search engines!

The great thing about Google Trends is that it is not only one of the best tools out there to find the hottest key words, it is also 100% free to use. Simple go to www.google.com/trends and try it out.

Let’s take a look at the keyword ‘Zune’. I watch this keyword because of my Zune Info blog. I simply typed in Zune in the search field.

The results I got showed me several things. First, you will notice a line graph that details the time-frame and the search volume. Additionally, Google matches up hot news with some of the peaks in search volume.

To the right of the search volume graph you will see the top news that likely resulted in the hot keyword being searched in Google. You can click on the link and it will bring you to the news item.

To the bottom of the results you will see the top regions, cities and languages for the keyword.

Five Main uses for Google Trends

1. Find out what annual trends or cycles for the main keyword of your blog/site. For example, Zune gets hot when Microsoft releases a new Zune, typically around the holiday seasons (November through January). You should expect a spike in traffic around those areas and you should plan to maximize the returns on that traffic.
2. Not sure what to write about? Use Google Trend to show you the current top search results. If you can find some keywords that may match an worthy topic then write about that topic keeping those keywords in mind.
3. Want to start a new blog/website but not sure what it should be about? Finding out hot keywords is a great starting point. If it is all the buzz in Google then you should consider the long-term prospects of that keyword.
4. Google Trends is useful in seeing if your site is trending down or up.
5. If you are selling your website Google Trends might help you find a good time to sell. You can sell your site after you get the peak season for your site’s targeted keyword or you can use the upcoming spike as a selling point. You will likely get a premium if you can show a potential buyer that the best is yet to come.

Good luck with using this fantastic keyword trend tool. Post a comment with some of your results!

Other posts that you might find interesting:

• Google Adsense Channels
• Focus Your Efforts on Low Bounce-rate Traffic
• Google Adsense For Search Changes

If advertisers are paying for links on your websites you will want to review Google’s policy on paid links on websites with the intent to pass Google PageRank. Google doesn’t mind paid links, but they do mind paid links that are there for passing PageRank only:

… some SEOs and webmasters engage in the practice of buying and selling links that pass PageRank, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. Buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site’s ranking in search results.

If you are going to have people buy links on your site ensure that you add the “nofollow” tag into your link as Google suggests:

Adding a rel=”nofollow” attribute to the <a> tag

For example, if your link looks like this:

<a href=”http://www.tw3o.com”>tw3o</a>.

Change it to:

<a href=”http://www.tw3o.com” rel=”nofollow“>tw3o</a>.

By using this simple “nofollow” tag you will be telling the search engine spiders not to follow this link thus saving you from the wrath of Google. Don’t think Google is serious? I found these two example of users that were punished by Google for using a text link service:

… my PR [dropped] from 5->3 and lost all my Google Search Traffic, lost of 16 000 visitors/day.

I lost ~10,000 visitors/day

Go back and add the “nofollow” tag to your paid results and add the tag to all future links that you post on your blog/website. If you are going to use paid link services like zmtc.com and text-linkads.com do some research before posting their javascript onto your website.

Other posts that you might find interesting:

• How to Know If a Directory is Worth Submitting To
• Canceling my ads with text-link-ads.com
• Feed your Blog! Technorati and Bloglines

One of the more consistent revenue streams that I have earned money from is Text Link Ads. If you have an established website you should check them out. I’m not a huge fan of buying links on Text Link Ads, but I am a fan of being a publisher. Text Link Ads is not my biggest earner, but it just provide consistency due to the basic business model; advertisers buying links to boost their PageRank. Yes, you can buy a link and expect some traffic, but the real reason behind buying text links is to get a one way link on a high PageRank site. The higher the one way PageRank links to your site the higher the boost you will get in PageRank and traffic from Google and other search engines.

Text Link Ads For Publishers
Signing up for Text Link Ads is simple, but I highly recommend only signing up if you have a high Alexa ranking and more importantly a high Google PageRank. If you do not have high rankings you will make little or no money. The higher your PageRank the more money you will make and the more demand for a text link on your site will be. Some of the more popular websites make several thousand dollars for a simple text link and they sell 6-10 links a month. That’s $10,000 a month for some sites for having a few text links on your main page that probably takes up less than 1% of your total real estate.

Text Link Ads For Advertisers
I have had good results boosting traffic by having paid links on several sites, but I have had issues with website owners breaking deals. If you choose to advertise through Text Link Ads I recommend using proven websites that have been with Text Link Ads for a while. Finding websites is simple. You can search by Google PageRank, Alexa Ranking, cost and several other searchers or combination. You pay month to month for your text links. The key is to find sites that you plan on advertising for 6 months or more. Having a text link on a site to boost immediate traffic is not what you are looking for. That should be your secondary objective. The main objective is to get your link on as many high PageRank pages as possible. Some sites offer site-wide links. Choose those over single pages if the cost is negligible. Stick with the site for 6 months or more and you will gain the benefit of having a one-way high PageRank link. I will caveat this. I have heard that Google has started to differentiate between paid links and regular links. This is likely not too hard since websites that use Text Link Ads to sell links place a javascript code on their website and is easily detectable by Google spiders.

Other posts that you might find interesting:

• Will You Drop WidgetBucks?
• Requesting reconsideration using Google Webmaster Tools
• Using Google AdWords as a “Keyword” Research Tool