There is a way to check the top search terms on Google on an hour by hour basis. This Google page enables you to check search trends in almost real time: http://www.google.com/trends/hottrends?sa=X
Knowing the top search terms as they happen brings huge AdWords and Adsense opportunities.
These top search terms are often very specific and will have virtually no competition. This means you can bring people to your site using these keywords in AdWords for a few cents. Then you can potentially generate substantial income from direct advertising (eg ClickBank or Commission Junction), and from on-selling this traffic (eg through Adsense).
Many of these terms relate to current news items. They will be exceptionally hot for several hours, and then taper off over the next few days or weeks. For example, as I write it is 7pm in Omaha, Nebraska. A few hours ago at the Westroads Mall Robert Hawkins shot and killed eight people then himself. He left a note saying he was going to be famous. Hmm...
At the moment nine out of the top twelve search terms entered into Google relate to this incident.
No one would want to make money out of tragedy like this. Except newspaper and other media organisations, of course.
On the other hand, the reason people enter these search terms is that they are looking for information.
It would take an hour to set up a one stop site to give people the information they are looking for. Using this example, you could:
- Add to one of your existing domains a subdomain with Robert Hawkins' name - eg http://www.roberthawkins.yourdomain.com/
- Read the news stories and write a quick summary of events so far.
- Add a relevant newsfeed or feeds. A quick search for "Omaha news feeds" brings up dozens of pages, including http://www.ketv.com/rss/index.html
- Add a couple of good articles on recent mass murderers and their motivations.
- Add articles with other relevant information (criminal psychology, background information on Omaha, etc).
- Add a few links to appropriate sites - the local sherriff's department, other emergency services, counselling services, etc.
The hourly reports also show a number of hot search terms which don't cause the same moral concern. There are the perennial favourites: Britney Spears nude, Jenifer Love Hewitt beach photos, Paris Hilton sex tape, etc. These markets are well and truly covered (even though their subjects may not be)!
There are still opportunities here. Mispelt versions of these names also bring good traffic - eg Brittany, Hewit, etc. without the same competition for keywords.
But the opportunities to offer a genuine service and make some money doing so come from the other, perhaps unexpected, currently hot search terms. At the moment these include 'Stafford County public school', 'ge microwave recall', and 'for one more day'.
Follow the process outlined above, that is, set up a subdomain with the search term you have chosen, write your own summary of the event, etc, etc.
This doesn't take long, but you must be on top of events - following the news hour by hour.
If you plan to make an income from this, you will also want to have a couple of web page templates set up so you can just drop in the relevant content. This method is intense and demanding, but potentially very profitable.
Lots more at mAdWords.us
