Technorati Guide: Finding Inspiration
Through recent emails with a few I’m Blogging That visitors I realized that not everyone gets use out of the all too popular Technorati website.
I first became familiar with Technorati when the WordPress admin panel displayed “blog reactions” from Technorati instead of back links from Google’s Blog Search.
To be honest, I preferred the reactions from Technorati in my dashboard because it enabled me to visit the site less. However, I’ve made the adjustment some time ago when a WordPress upgrade switched to using Google. Now, I’m a more frequent visitor to Technorati and you should be too.
Using the idea that most bloggers are not using Technorati to their full potential, I thought I’d start a mini-series and post from time to time how you can use Technorati as one of your everyday blogging tools.
In my Race for Rank series, I’ve been covering Technorati and how to increase your rank and authority on Technorati. But if you’re not using this site, you may find that getting a better rank and authority may prove to be difficult.
Finding Inspiration on Technorati
By just hitting the front page of the site, you’ll see what’s hot right now based on blog reactions. This means that the post showing is hot based on how many other bloggers have linked back to the post (“blog reactions”).
If the hottest post showing is in your blogging niche, you’ve got something to write about and the ability to send out some link love to the original poster.
In the same area, you’ll see the hottest news story based on reactions as well and again, if it fits with your niche, you’ve got inspiration.
Surf Technorati Channels
If the first two rising stores don’t get your attention or do not provide inspiration for your blog post, then surfing by channels might do it. By using Technorati Channels you can narrow down the hottest topics by niche.
Technorati’s main Channels are: Business, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Politics, Sports and Technology.
To me, these are pretty broad but they also make channel surfing quite simple.
Business Channel
With two sub categories, Finance and Small Business there’s a bit of everything here. Hot topics in this channel usually include government information in business and money tips in finance. Today the hot posts here are about the Treasury Secretary and a blog carnival of personal finance tips.
Initially you may believe that if you do not blog about business this channel would not be helpful for you. However, I can see how the blog carnival of personal finance could inspire some great posts for Moms blogging about household finance and budgeting. More specifically today this post can be used to talk about saving money for retirement on a small income.
See, you may not have a business blog but you have inspiration from outside of your niche in the business channel.
Entertainment Channel
With slightly more specific sub-categories, in the Entertainment Channel you’ll find TV, Music, Film, Indie Film, Celebrity, and Gaming.
You might be willing to pick up the juicy tabloids at the supermarket but do you get your daily dose of gossip online?
Entertainment is one of those channels that if you’re looking and thinking about it, you can use information from this channel for any blogging niche.
Today, you can read a story about Kim Kardashian telling Larry King that Playboy is inspirational. Now, spin that into any niche and you’ve got yourself an attention getting post… most worth of StumbleUpon and Reddit Traffic!
And here’s the more fun part, if the actual information isn’t inspirational to you, maybe something else about this is. Mix this into a good blog post about anything.
Michelle, a custom client and my fashion guru… could you tell us why Kim’s dress in this picture is hot or not on your fashion blog? Maybe tell us “everyday people” what kind of event this dress might be appropriate to wear to?
Lifestyle Channel
Broken into sub-categories of Autos, Family, Green, and Travel… this may be the most popular channel for your everyday non-niche blogger. But there are topics for everyone if you’re just looking for the inspiration to get your mind rolling.
In family you’ll find today that an 11 year old is the IT department for school in Arkansas.
Tell me why or why would you not allow your kid to do this? You’ve got a super smart child, I know you do… here’s your moment to use this story to brag to me about what your kid knows about a computer that I don’t. Tell me how he takes the thing apart and puts it back together. Maybe your kid just installed the new internal DVD burner you purchased. Go ahead, brag and use this story as your jumping point.
Politics Channel
With the race between Obama and Clinton heating up, this is probably the hottest topics out there for blog posts right now.
Use this channel to find inspiration about what’s going on in the world right now. Talk about the War in Iraq, the Army veteran that you know and why we should support our troops!
Or maybe this channel will remind you about that time when your baby met former President Clinton.
No, really. That’s my baby meeting President Clinton at the Bellagio August 17, 2006.
Sports Channel
More useful than paying for Direct TV’s NFL package, you’ve got Technorati’s sports channel to help you with the hottest news in sports around the world.
From interviews to building Lego stadiums, you’ve got all the information you need right here. Join Joanne in being a Cubs fan and find out all the hottest and latest information on your teams and join discussions about them!
Technology Channel
Where a girl like me loves to hang out! This channel has two sub-categories of Gadgets and IT. Get your information here on cell phone companies, Web 2.0 start-up companies, and the scoop on TechCrunch suing Facebook.
If you’re hot to reviewing products, you can use this channel to leverage information about products you’re reviewing and compare to what others have said. Considering making a purchase? Use this channel to check out all the latest gossip before your break the bank for your dream gadget.
Bloggers blogging about blogs can use this channel to surf out the latest trends and companies to boost traffic, get more back links, and stay on top of the hot social networking sites.
Summary
Technorati is a site for a lot of things and a lot of really great information. But take the first leap in using this site to gain some inspiration.
When I wrote the article, Make Blogger’s Block a Non-Issue, I said that there were countless ways to find inspiration for your next blog post… here’s yet another tool that you can use to keep your posts going and build your post arsenal.
So, do you use Technorati to find post inspiration? Which channel do you enjoy the most and can you use these channels to find your inspiration for a blog post?
April 1st, 2008 at 8:12 am
I never once thought of using Technorati for inspiration. Awesome idea. :)
April 1st, 2008 at 8:22 am
Really good post Katy!! I’m sure we all get writer’s block every now and then and this is a fresh place to find some new content ideas. Well done on pointing it out.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:40 am
Sarah » Thanks!! Be sure to let me know if you come up with a post from digging around Technorati.
Lori » Thanks Lori. Technorati is always a great source of inspiration for me… had to share my tips on actually finding it though.
April 2nd, 2008 at 4:16 am
Great info Katy. I need to get back to using Techn. more. I didn’t know you and your baby met Bill Clinton. How interesting!
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:26 am
Great post Katy and thanks for the shout out - I need to get into Technorati a bit more. And that dress, won’t work on 95% of the general population. I wouldn’t be caught dead in that thing and wouldn’t wear it to an Oscar event unless I was in the running for most realistic portrayal of street corner hooker…shiny gold and horizontal stripes are not flattering unless you are really thin or want to rock some bodacious hourglass curves (so I guess it’s okay on Kim, but still trashy)…:)
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:42 am
The first time i was checking out the links and was redirected to Google blog search rather than Technorati, almost cried. (Well, not really but Technorati was so much better)
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
[...] over to Technorati and become a fan of every single blog you love! Even if the other blogger does not return the [...]
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Michelle » LOL You’re crazy, I love it! I couldn’t ever see myself in a dress like that but I knew that you’d be able to make a comment.
SEO » Yeah, switching from Technorati to Google was huge. I don’t quite look at those back links the way that I used to with Technorati. However, it’s a change I’ve gotten used to at this point.
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Karen » Thanks!
We met Clinton a couple of years ago now. It was great! I want more celebrity sightings here but even living in Las Vegas, it doesn’t happen very often.
April 4th, 2008 at 7:41 am
I never knew Technorati could be that useful. This tip will sure help on days when ideas refuse to flow naturally ;-) Thanks for sharing this.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Wow, really interesting….
April 7th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Naijaecash » You’re quite welcome! This tip seems to help me when I need the boost, I hope it’s one that works for you as well.
Jon » Thank you.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:25 am
Great post however, I’ve been reading a lot about how Technorati is no longer helping much as far as traffic and and rankings on search engines like Google. Thanks!
April 13th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Ethan » I believe the reactions on Technorati are mixed for different niche blogs. For me, it’s not always about using the site for traffic but for resources.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:03 am
I guess we can use Technorati as a resources to get an idea or data for our blogging activity…just like you said..