3 Reasons Why You Should NOT Write About the Latest Hot News

Back in 1849 California started down its road of fame that leads right up to today. The streets were paved with gold in the middle of the 19th century when the California Gold Rush drove many men to their deaths searching for gold. They abandoned their families back east and many drown in their own sorrows in the streets of San Francisco oblivious to their demise and engulfed in drunkenness.

The same is happening today over the Internet. The gold rush is made up mostly of rumors and bad advice, sometimes even intentionally bad. One such piece of dead end advice is that you should write about the latest hot news. The reasoning goes something like this: At the moment the most sought after terms on Google match this subject, which is the hottest news today. If you will write keyword rich content for these same search terms you will drive traffic to your page. The results of the increase in traffic will show in a higher CTR, earning you more money on the ads displayed on your page.

It sounds reasonable, but only because of the missing information that you do not think about, namely the sheer amount of competition for those same keywords. The likelihood of an inexperienced blogger capturing traffic this way is probably far worse than the chances of winning the lottery, or finding “gold in them thar hills!”

So reason #1 is that there are already innumerable competitors in the hills searching for and mining gold and your chances of finding more as an inexperienced gold panner is near zero. If you like writing about the subject then do it for that reason, but don’t expect to find gold.

Surfers are more likely to get their hot – off – the – press info from a major news source than someone’s little blog in the corner of the blogosphere. The reason is that these big sites have the staff to keep abreast of the latest and greatest news every single day of the week. The surfer is certain they will find the hot gossip there every day. The other reason is that surfers get used to a certain layout and style or approach to the subjects. There is a familiarity and fondness of the site they have finally settled on. Certainly there are exceptions to this, but we aren’t addressing the exceptions.

So reason #2 is that surfers develop an attachment to certain mainstream news sources and depend on the site ‘ s daily reliability in delivering up the hottest news . You would be hard pressed to match this level of production.

The hottest news is not the passion of everyone. In fact, while it may be interesting, most people’s true passions lie elsewhere. When you write about something that you lack a deep interest in you are less likely to produce something of true value. It shows in your words. You will be spinning your wheels, watching your readership dwindle. You will earn less from your site, since a direct result of a lack of passion is a lower conversion rate. This translates to a lower CTR and lower earnings from ads.

So reason #3 is that you should write on what you are passionate about. You will never lose steam and your dedicated readership will steadily increase. Your ads will be more focused, leading to a higher conversion and CTR. In the end you will earn more money, be happier about what you are writing, and be serving others content they sincerely enjoy.

Have I convinced you yet that you should not waste your time writing on the latest hot topic? That’s ok. If you won’t listen to me, perhaps you’ll listen to your wallet as you watch your blog earnings vanish.

The streets are not paved with gold. While there may be “gold in them thar hills” you will fail finding it if you follow someone else’ passion. Write about what you love and don’t drown in your own slobber, drunk and alone.

The guest author, Ajeet Khurana, is a tech blogger. In the past, he has set up several blogs such as TechnoZeast and TechnoTropis.