The Idea Machine This will probably be the most favorite thing I share with you. I use a very common (and free) tool to do this and I ve never seen anyone else talk about using this tool the way I use it. The tool is: BuzzSumo.com Yep, I imagine you ve heard of it. The tool shows all the most shared and trending content across social media platforms. No big deal, right? Everybody knows that! Well, let me show you a way to use that tool to uncover LOADS of cool things to promote. Go ahead and register for a free account if you don t have one yet, I ll wait. When you get your account, or you already have an account, go ahead and get logged in. I want you to go to the Most Shared tab: This tool on BuzzSumo lets you search for most shared content on any topic. You can also filter those results by time periods the last 24 hours, past week, past month, etc. So, if I type in dog tricks into the search bar and have my filter set to Past Month, I can see the top content, that has been shared the most on social media in the past month:
That, in itself, is pretty awesome for blog post ideas that have the potential to ALSO be shared a lot. But that s not even what I want to share with you. Have you ever seen this on an Amazon product page? I m sure you have =) Those are buttons under the add to cart button that allow people to share that product page with all their friends and followers on their social media accounts.
These buttons are for regular people we marketers use the buttons in our Associates Site Stripe at the top of the page to share our affiliate link to that product. Sooooooo let s recap Regular ol people click those buttons under the Add to Cart button to share straight normal links to products they like on social media. Interesting, right? Wouldn t it be super cool to be able to SEE exactly what products regular people are sharing like crazy at any given time? Or what they shared like crazy at Christmas time? Or what they share like crazy in YOUR niche? Oh, you can absolutely do this Let s go on back to BuzzSumo. For a test spin, just type amazon.com into the search bar Then click to search and look at the results. I have mine set to filter for the past month, and would you look at THIS: That Pressure Cooker product page has been shared over 77 THOUSAND times on Facebook alone!
77,700 people REGULAR people clicked that share on Facebook link on that product page on Amazon! Holy Social Shares, Batman!!! Me thinks people are interested in buying pressure cookers, don t you? Look at these results: Ok, let s try something else Let s see what was shared the most during the holiday shopping season Now, you could use that specific date range filter, but that requires an upgrade to a paid plan. I don t care about paying for the tool.yet =) So, since it s March when I write this, let s just choose the last 6 months that will include the holiday shopping season.
Did your jaw just hit the floor? Mine sure did! That first Amazon product, a Blu Ray movie, was shared over 330 THOUSAND times on Facebook by regular people. The next one, an Adult Coloring Book (Swear Words...lol!) was shared almost 230 THOUSAND times by regular people. I m not sure what the third product is a book, perhaps, but it was shared 125,000 times on Facebook. Crazy, right? I don t know about you, but I m thinking getting some content online in the Adult Coloring Book niche could be quite good =) Gee, I wonder what OTHER Amazon adult coloring books regular people share on Facebook? Let s ask BuzzSumo: My filter is still set on last 6 months and I get:
Just nuts!
How about in the last week? Maybe there s some NEW Adult Coloring Books out that regular people are loving: I would say so! That first Let It Go! Adult Coloring book has been shared 2,800 times on Facebook in just the last WEEK! Let s try something else I wonder what kinds of toys were really popular and shared a lot in the past month. Hmmmm. let s take a look at Legos first: And now let s see the results
Wow, those LEGO Minecraft ones are quite popular. I wonder what OTHER Lego Minecraft toys are ALSO popular. Let s ask BuzzSumo:
The results for the past month are just that one LEGO set we saw above, so let s expand our date range to the Past 6 Months ( get holiday shopping season in there): Interesting! Let s try something else. How about steam mops.
Cool! There are 4 popular steam mops to review and/or compare etc.
Let s look for popular things in just the Past Week. That s a good way to find new hot and trending products before others do. Let s see I just start typing random things after the amazon.com part in the search bar. This time, I typed in wine...and got this: We ve got some coasters, a wine related book, a wine rack...and another Adult Coloring Book...lol! The wine racks interest me, so let s look for wine racks in the past 6 months And I get these results:
I can click through to any of those pages on Amazon to look at the product, the price point, the features, and the reviews Nice product good price point. great reviews..and lots of answered questions. Awesome!
Pretty nifty, right? How would I use this information? Ok, let s take the wine racks Amazon has over 10,000 different wine racks for sale. If I isolate that down to show only the racks that have a 4 star rating or better, that gets me down to a little over 1100 wine racks. Now, from BuzzSumo, I KNOW the 4 most popular, right? So I now have an angle in this niche that other marketers don t have 4 Best Wine Racks According to Facebook Users 4 Awesome Wine Racks Your Friends Want Think along the lines of that. Those would both make GREAT post ideas...and if you get them out there in front of the right people, your post could be shared a ton as well ;) Above all, it s not the angle everyone else is taking or the wine racks that everyone else is sharing on their posts/web page. Make sense? Ok, let s try another one hmmmmm how about picking a color? Let s try red. Don t be afraid to try weird words, or descriptive words, etc. There is NO TELLING what you will discover! So, here s some results from the red search:
We ve got a red mixer, a red shaker cup and a book. Hmmm red appliances would be a fun site to make. How about just red mixers?
Ohhhh, here s another idea how about costumes? Fun! Let s niche it down some and try star wars costumes:
Now, let s niche it down even further. You know you want a Star Wars costume for your dog, don t you? haha! Yep, there s some social sharing of those as well. Here s another GREAT use if you re into t shirt marketing
Use the date filters to do the past week or past 24 hours see if something new is trending. You can get some GREAT ideas for your own designs...or for shirts to share with your Facebook Page or group.
This is a fun, easy, and FREE way to get great ideas that are currently popular with regular people. Now, what about other sites? Wayfair.com is a fun site to check Yummmmm.bacon...lol! Try any online store that you want to and see what regular people share from those sites. Trust me, you will get tons of great ideas no keyword tool required =) I can t help BUT get great ideas every time I play with BuzzSumo!
Just the other day, I popped into BuzzSumo, saw an idea that I knew was getting popular found some more content on the topic/product...and then made a FAST curated post for it. See it here: http://involvery.com/6 unique sensory board ideas for toddlers/ That s the kind of content that gets shared. I found the image/ideas on Pinterest (and those images link to the source/pin). It s visual with lots of eye candy which makes it very share able and I snuck some affiliate links in there as well. Easy, fast, and FUN fresh content for my site =) Some other ideas See what pages/products regular people are talking about and sharing from popular consumer review sites Here s one I did for consumersearch.com: Try other authority sites here s one for TheSweetHome.com:
and one from TheWireCutter.com
or try ebay.com or consumerreports.org or reviewed.com or any of those sites you keep seeing over and over in Google results. Try any site no telling what you ll find. But for Amazon affiliates, the amazon.com search is gold. Just keep playing with it and typing random things in. See the results and then try and niche it down some more. It s addicting! Have fun with it! Jennifer ~PotPieGirl