What do you want to know
Answer people’s problems and you’ve got it made! Ok, maybe that’s a bit facetious but not too much so. (It is important to take competition into account too and also how good you are at sharing the information widely, to get a good ranking in the search engines.)
Why do people search on line?
Information
Well, one of the reasons is to find information on something they need to know about.
Location
Holiday Beach
Maybe they are going on holiday and want to find out about the place they are going to, or the hotels, or the amusements, or some event they are going to attend, or the transport options, or even the weather, to decide what clothes to bring.
Maybe they are trying to reach a particular place and need to know the best way to get there. Perhaps they are keen photographers, sportspeople, parents, carers, party animals or people in need of a total rest. They may need to know what facilities are available to suit their own wants and needs.
Health
Many people search online for health related reasons, perhaps they have an illness, or a friend or relative has been diagnosed with a particular condition, maybe they want to find out more about it, what treatment options are available, whether there are any alternatives.
Zucchini, courgette
Food
Lots of people look online for recipes or different types of food. Maybe they want to try a new type of fruit or vegetable they have never seen before or want a new way of preparing an old favourite. Some people may want information on changing their type of diet, perhaps by going vegetarian or vegan or paleo.
Diets
Not quite the same as food, but similar! One of the most popular online searches is for losing weight and for that, many people think they have to “go on a diet”. Many people are desperate to lose weight but hate feeling hungry and they will look for an easy way to lose weight while still eating and drinking the same as ever!
Get The Latest News
News
Many people go online to search through the news sites to see what is happening worldwide or in their local area.
Weather
They may want to know what the weather is, today or for the next few days or in some different location.
Local Events
Local news, events, businesses, offers, classes and special items all have people looking for them.
BUT HOW DO I KNOW WHAT THEY WANT TO KNOW?
People look on line for so many things, I haven’t even scratched the surface yet but how do you know what they MOST want to know or what lots of people are looking for AND that you know about?
Look For The Questions
One way is to look for the places where people ask questions, looking for answers. You can join some of those places and even get paid!
There are many places where people ask questions and others answer them. Some sites will not pay you for answering BUT, you get a good perk by answering questions and building up your score. What? Well on Yahoo Answers, you are allowed to put a link to a site where the person can find additional information about the subject they are asking about. The link could be to an authority site, like Wikipedia or a news site, like your local TV or newspaper or it could be to YOUR site. If you write about a particular subject, then you can get good backlinks to your site(s). With Yahoo Answers, you build up points by answering questions and you get more points for having your answer chosen as the “Best”. The more points you get, the higher the level you can reach. At the bottom level, any links you provide are not “clickable” but once you get to higher levels, your links can be clicked. Look for questions on subjects you know something about and try answering them. Once you have answered a number of questions on that subject, gather all your answers together and write an article about it (DO NOT JUST COPY, it is possible to plagiarise yourself!). Answering specific questions is much easier but once you have answered a number you will know what people want to find out and you will have a lot of your own information available for writing an article for posting on your own site. Then when people ask MORE questions about that subject, you can answer AND point them to your site for more information. With enough information you can write a book, an ebook that people can download.
There are some revenue sharing sites you can join too. Unfortunately, a number have disappeared or stopped paying recently. People may or may not ask questions on there but you can write articles and people may ask for further information. Hubpages is one place where you can earn money by writing articles. Google ads are shown on the pages and you get a share of the revenue generated by people viewing those ads. They have a forum where people ask questions and these can be used to generate ideas for an article. Another place you can write is on Personapaper, where you earn points for each (unique) view of your article and also for commenting on others’ articles. Again, people’s comments can spark ideas for articles.