How To Find Hot Topics Online

One thing you will find when you first come on the web is that you will find a large number of blogs, news sites, social sites and information sites to look at read and click on until your hearts content.

Literally you can spend 24 hours a day on the web and you will not make a dent in it when it comes to consuming and reading information. Everyday new information is added and the data just keeps growing and growing and growing.

Information Overload Cure

So how do you cure yourself from information overload, well it will take focus and having a plan. See if you just wonder on the internet without a goal you will end up following every link and every trail of data you can get your little fingers on.

Its fun at first because it is a new world and you find people that you like and you get attached to certain bloggers and you find that you relate to more people than you thought possible.

Then you will start to recognize the need to cut out all the unnecessary stuff and just keep the things that will work best for your current situation. You have to be proactive in your daily activities, especially if you work from home.

Simplify Your Online Experience

Just remember their are people online who have spent years doing a particular topic and they are pretty much experts at it. You can learn a lot from them and save yourself the extra time and effort it took them to research it all and put it in one place for you to read.

Set priorities and figure out what you want to do with the information once you find it. You have to have a plan or otherwise all your efforts will be in vain.

That is why people will talk about starting an online business or to start a blog or to create info products because unless you have some direction you will waste time doing a whole bunch of nothing but information gathering and information sharing.

Which is okay if you are NOT trying to make a living on the web, if you are in it for a hobbie or just to meet new people than your strategy will be different.

Photo: pixabay

I was reading a very popular blog the other day and the blogger was discussing how the internet has lost its originality. I would have to say that I agree with that statement. It is as if people have lost touch in to who they are deep down inside.

Return To Your Childhood Dreams

Growing up one of my favorite things to do was to sit down with at least 5 magazines, a pair of scissors and some pieces of cardboard and what I used to do is cut out pictures, faces, eyes, lips etc and then I would arrange them onto the board and glue or tape them in place.

It was entertaining to me and I liked the idea of creating something original. I could have just tore the pages out and left them exactly the way they were printed in the magazine and then glued them into my own journal but it would not have had my special touch that made the pictures unique.

Surfing the Electronic Magazine

I feel the internet is like an electronic magazine and everyone has this great opportunity to contribute a unique experience for others to enjoy and many of the web surfers do not do it.

Instead everyone copies each other and writes about the same topics over and over again without adding any new information to the content. The blogger was talking about how boring it is to read on some of these over done subjects because they do not add any value to the reader but instead is a thinly written piece of garbage.

Let Your Content Be Different

The thought is to make the page so unattractive that people will want to click away as fast as they can and hopefully through a ad placement or affiliate link, but this is bad for two reasons.

First it does not allow the publisher a chance to connect or develop a repeat visitor to their site and second it causes their site to not be sticky enough for the search engines to see the need to rank it well online.

I am guilty of this myself, I have written on topics just because it seemed like something everyone else was doing but now I try to stick to things that I find interesting to me and if others like it great but I am not trying to follow the crowd.

Photo: pixabay

The one thing I like about the internet is that it is full of information, and for a person who grew up in libraries reading books the internet has become my virtual library and if you know where to look you can find practically anything online.

So after a while I started to gravitate towards the same sites and topics each day while surfing the web. No matter how hard I tried to look for new places to go I would find myself on these sites over and over again.

Squidoo is Addictive

The first site I have been spending quite a bit of time on lately is Squidoo and I think it is because of the ease of use, I like building lenses and the community is unmatched. The users are very helpful and happy and it makes for a great internet environment.

Wikipedia is Informative

The other site that I am always on is Wikipedia, I just am in love with this site. I guess it is because I can practically look up any topic I want and find some great resources for my content and blogs.

I like the fact that so many researchers have really taken the time to cover so many topics online for free. I did find a resource one time that requires people to pay for the researched reports and it just did not seem like it was worth it unless one had a specialized topic to write about.

Facebook Will Rule the World

But even if I did it is good to know that there is no lack of information for the info addicts out there. The other place I like to spend time on is Facebook, maybe because that is where all my friends are and even some from college.

I can say that social media is really addictive and can be a total time waster, that is why I try to teach my students how to manage their time better if they are working from home full time.

Photo: pixabay

I have learned that it is best to stick with ideas that you are really interested in knowing more about, because it will make your writing compelling and engaging to your readers.

Life experiences has helped many of us to come up with alternate options for getting things done, it is not easy but it is a change that will help you develop as a writer when searching for topics on the web.

Most people try to write about the most popular subjects but do not particularly find the subject matter interesting enough to stay motivated on a long term basis.

Some topics are boring and do not lend themselves to becoming exciting any time soon, in cases like this you may want to revisit the topic and look for a unique or new way of covering the subject.

For instance try to present the information from a new angle that has not already been covered. It will take time but you can establish yourself pretty quickly with less effort once time passes.

Photo: pixabay

I am a little biased at this point because I enjoy arts and crafts, so most of my content is about how to create decorative cards for special occasions like weddings, graduations, anniversaries, new years or other holidays.

So this post is going to be about you finding your inner artist, I know not everyone things that they can produce art such as paintings or sketches but it really is not about the finished product it is more about how you feel inside about what your doing.

Have You Found Your Passion Yet?

At one point in my life I did not have a passion if you can believe that, but actually it is true. I did not know what I was passionate about, I could not find anything that I loved doing so much that I could do it for hours and lose track of time.

It took some soul searching, the interesting thing about it was that I would keep journals and in my journals I would write about the things I thought was cool at the time.

Keeping a Journal

I would do this approximately every 3 year, now the interesting thing about this activity is that when I was writing the list I was doing it because I believed that their was not anything that I was passionate about and that is why I started the list in the first place.

Well after some time had past and I was frustrated because it seemed as if I did not know what I wanted to do or be when I grew up which is just me being silly because I was well in my 30's at this point but after several years had past I sat down one day and took a look through all the journals I had written.

Our Passion is Inside and Undiscovered

I was amazed when I saw a pattern, I actually did have a passion and I wrote it down each time in my journal but I did not recognize it. I kept writing down the same 4 or 5 things each time.

I think the reason I did not notice that these must be of interest or important to me is because I was looking for something bigger and greater, I thought that it would be this big huge thing when actuality it was something really simple and unique to me.

Photo: pixabay

The nice thing about finding information on the web is that it allows you to learn something new, also it gives you some insight into what other people finding interesting.

When I first started online I was pretty much reading tons of blogs and could not stop looking at what people were posting about on a daily basis. It really took some time to start to pick and choose what I wanted to focus my attention on.

Take Time To Decide What You Want to Do Online

Actually I did not start to really build my own content for almost a year after searching the web and reading other people's stuff. I think it is something that everyone goes through at one point or another.

It is hard to find one topic. I have tried to narrow down my topics of interest and so far it has been scrapebooking and arts and crafts which is fun and easy for me to do.

Not only that I can sell the service to clients and make money from home but I do have other interests as well and its funny how some of the most silly things that we find enjoyment in doing that their is an audience who also likes it.

Learn From Personal Experiences

I remember the time that I was looking for silver wall clocks to give as a gift to a friend and I couldn't find any that people had written reviews about and then one day I found this blog where a stay at home mom was talking about her experiences with wall clocks and it was really helpful in me making my decision to buy one.

So I guess the best tip I can give people is to look at their current surroundings and look at things that they find interesting to THEM and then share it with the world. Because everyone will have something different to share.

Photo:pixabay

One thing that you have to remember when you go on the internet is that you are opening yourself up to the whole world, so anything you say or do is going to be available to anyone who comes across it.

Guard your private information and do not share your Personal things with people, what I mean by that is you want to keep some things to yourself.

Which Type of Internet Personality Is You?

You will find that the internet has 3 types of people.

The Open Book
You have the people who are an open book and they share intimate details about themselves, their families and their occupations. These type of people will actually tell you what street they live on and who the name of their children are, what schools they go to and which employers they work for. ( I don't think this is a good idea) You will know just as much about them their lives and their private thoughts as their own parents would.

The Introvert
Then you have those who are private and they do not share anything about themselves, they hide behind a avatar and they talk in code and you pretty much do not know if they are a male or a female and at times you have no idea what their mission or purpose is on the web. They come and go on the forums and they write some pretty controversial topics and they speak their mind in anonymously.

The Social Butterfly
The last person is friendly and likes to share but they also keep certain things to themselves, so you feel connected to them but at the same time you could not actually go to their house and become a stalker. This is how I think people should approach the internet with caution and share connect and build relationships but don't expose yourself too much.

Be Practical When Sharing Your Information Online

Have balance and just try to have a friendly approachable personality but try to be professional too. One of my pet peeves on the web is that I will come across blogs where the writer is using cuss words.

Keep Your Online Conversation Professional

I find that it is inappropriate to use cuss words to get your point across, what is silly is that the writer things that using cuss words is being "real" but in my opinion it is just showing yourself to be unprofessional, because even if it is a hobby blog or it is just a blog where you want to vent or get things off your chest it still should be done in a practical manner that won't have you embarrassed about what you said years down the road.

Photo: pixabay