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Want to keep up-to-date in your niche area? Want to post about something new and trendy? An excellent tool for spotting and following trends is Google News. It will help you write about topics ahead of your competitors.
Google News allows you to set up a news feed for topics relevant to your blog. Do you write about celebrity gossip? Post about technological gadgets? Blog about cats? Whatever your niche, run a Google News search to zero in on your topic research. Below are examples of how you can research your niche topic in Google News, and even discover unexpected but valuable related news articles.
Let’s say the readers of your blog are cat fanciers. You know people are fascinated by animals dressed like humans, and that it is a controversial topic among animal lovers. You decide to add a new section about cat fashions to your blog.
Go to Google News and form a search query like this: [cats fashion OR clothes OR dressing –football]. (Use Advanced Search to insert query syntax automatically.)
The results include a fascinating article about wigs for cats (Want to Dress Up Your Cat? Explore the Enchanting World of Kitty Wigs), including a delightful photo your readers will love (see above). Bingo! You also pick up an article about Dewey the Library Cat being made into a movie starring Meryl Streep. This one isn’t actually about cat fashions, but it is none-the-less a newsworthy item for your cat blog.
What if you blog about vacation rental properties? Say you want to research for an article specifically on Florida vacation rentals.
Enter the following search: [Florida "vacation rentals" holiday OR renting OR time-share]. (Again, use Advanced Search for ease.) The results include an excellent article about vacation home rentals (A Holiday Home Away From Home). It isn’t necessarily about Florida, but gives readers applicable advice for rentals in any region – information you can use for your blog.
Hmm…better try a new search to snag only Florida rentals. How about the exact phrase: ["Florida vacation rentals"]. It returns an article from Australia (Florida Vacation Rentals Site Offers New Destinations). It’s about staying in smaller historic towns in Florida, such as Tarpon Springs (my hometown; and yes, it’s on the money!) This is a perfect reference for the article you’re writing!
Streamline the work flow of your Google News research with Custom Sections, a new feature that allows you to turn your searches into permanent news feeds. Very convenient! Once a Custom Section is set up, you can always click on the section in the left-hand sidebar to get the latest news on your niche topic.
Want to drill down to regional news? Custom Sections let you restrict your search to sources from a particular country or U.S. State.
Once you run a Google News search that effectively returns the kind of results you want for your topic, scroll to the bottom of the page. You’ll see links for staying up-to-date on your search results:
Instead of reviewing what other bloggers are saying about your niche topic, go straight to original news sources with Google News. You’ll be ahead of the curve.
Increase your content productivity with Custom Sections. Check each of your Sections fast…boom, boom, boom!
Find news worthy of your readership? Discover something completely unexpected? Start blogging about it!
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