What if you could associate your site, your niche, or your product with a hot new trend? What if the search results showed your site for that popular new gizmo or movie? What if I told you that you can create a subliminal connection between your site and any hot new gadget/movie/song/toy/etc. no matter what niche your site or product is in? And what if you stood a good chance of ranking well for that hot trend?
Good bloggers accomplish this very feat all the time. But the secret is that absolutely any site can do the same. It doesn't matter what your site niche is because this tactic is completely workable for any niche at all. With just a tiny bit of imagination on your part, your site can utilize this optimization tactic - really, it can!
Remember the old Connect The Dots puzzles you used to love when you were a kid? A series of dots were placed on a piece of paper, each one numbered, in some seemingly random order. But if you drew a line from dot to dot, progressing to each in numerical order, a complete image would emerge by the time you'd connected the last dot.
Now I ask you to consider those puzzles when you think about the common concept of Six Degrees of Separation. The definition of this concept is:
Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is an average of six "steps" away from each person on Earth.
Taking these two concepts together, with just a stretch of the imagination, you can connect your niche to anything else with very few leaps required. In this way, you can make a connection between your site and any popular topic, product, or current event. Once the dots are connected, an image is drawn in the minds of users between your site and an emerging trend. Take a look at the image below as you keep this thought in your head.
So how can you connect the dots between your niche and some hot trend? Metaphors and similes are perfect ways of connecting anything with something else. In case you've forgotten what you learned way back in grammar school, here are some reminders.
Metaphor: The comparison of one thing to another without the use of 'like' or 'as': "A man is but a weak reed"; "The road was a ribbon of moonlight."
Simile: A figure of speech in which two unlike things are explicitly compared, as in "she is like a rose."
With some imagination and a little poetic license, you can draw a comparison between any two things. You may need to make a few subpoints in between to help connect the dots, but it can usually be accomplished fairly easily. So let's put this all together into a coherent plan of action.
Step One:
Choose a hot trend. It's best if you can predict a trend that is on the verge of becoming hot, but isn't yet, so that you are one step ahead of the crowd who will be competing for that word or phrase. For this example, I decided to pick a hot toy for this season. After a quick search, I decided to use the Eyeclops Night Vision Goggles.
Step Two:
Use your imagination to connect your site/product/niche to the hot trend you've chosen. Let's say your niche involves "thingamawogs". (It doesn't matter if thingamawogs are pipe cleaners or lawyers - anything applies). Now let's connect your thingamawog with the hot toy I chose above - Eyeclops Night Vision Goggles. Now all you have to do is find a way to compare your thingamawog to the Eyeclops. Try concepts such as:
FIVE WAYS THINGAMAWOGS ARE MORE FUN THAN EYECLOPS NIGHT VISION GOOGLES
SURE, EYECLOPS NIGHT VISION GOGGLES ARE FUN, BUT THINGAMAWOGS ARE SERIOUSLY COOL.
THINGAMAWOGS - AS HOT AS EYECLOPS NIGHT VISION GOGGLES!
Step Three:
Write an article or blog post, in which you connect the dots between your topic and the hot trend, using as few "dots" or "degrees of separation" as possible to help users make the connection in their minds.
Step Four:
Use social media to publicize the article.
Result?
Two things should happen if you've created a clever connection, and socialized it properly.
1. Search engines may rank your site well for the upcoming hot trend because you connected with it early on, and you created buzz around it right before the masses did.
2. Users will consciously or subconsiously be reminded of you every time they are bombarded with another reference to the hot topic - very much like subliminal advertising!
It may take a little practice to turn your imagination on - especially if you think of your niche as boring - but it can be done! If you get stuck and just can't find a connection no matter how hard you try, ask others to help. Creativity fuels more creativity, so brainstorm with a group if you need inspiration. Once you find that connection, you can capitalize on an up and coming hot new trend.
Just connect the dots...