Should You Write About Trending Topics or Evergreen Content?
Hint: a mixture of both.
Evergreen content can be relevant and valuable in years from now, far past its publication date. The content describing current or trending events, as well as people searching for and reading it will reach a peak up to, around and directly after an event, until it starts to fade from memory as time goes by, and people move on to worry about a different topic.
I stopped to think about my preference in regards to writing. I realised nearly all work, be it spreadsheet templates, online marketing programs or coding courses, they all need yearly updates or revisions to stay relevant.
The work you put into building apps doesn’t end once you publish it. Constant maintenance is required, or frameworks you use will start to get outdated. Before you know it your best features won’t function anymore and your app will break.
Spreadsheet templates I made keep bringing in traffic to my writing, despite their publishing date being “far” in the past, the oldest being from late 2017. Some have not been updated for a year.
Does that still make them evergreen?
When writing about what is trending or current now, you ride on the wave of public interest. Peoples’ minds are occupied with this topic. It can be misused as an “easy” way to get some traction or traffic.
The right reason to me, is to write about current events because you have a strong opinion about it, and you feel it needs to be shared with others.
- You get something off your chest, and give readers a new perspective by doing so.
- Readers are free to share their take with you, resulting in healthy discussion. Or a verbal war.
- If you share the same opinion, by writing your heart out you could make a reader feel less alone or bothered by what’s going on in the world.
You might strike a cord. You could get chased with digital pitchforks, but that’s a risk of the trade.
Content compilations
When I look at my latest 14 book buys, these are mostly published in the past five years. Two of them are still considered top of their game. One has outlived its creator:
- The all-time classic “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, by Dale Carnegie, published in 1936, and…
- David Burn’s “Feeling Good”, published in 1980 which I found on this reading list by Mark Manson.
Producing work that outlives its time is a noble thing to strive for. It’s the ultimate reward for making something valuable enough to be used in the future world.
Does that make writing about current or trending topics less important or worthwhile?
I’d say no.
It would be amazing and valuable to humankind to write something evergreen, something timeless that you can pass on to your children and that they can use to improve their lives.
But ignoring or not taking into regard what’s going on in the world right now and refusing to write about that?
Writing about a topic in the height of the moment or about a current event will give future readers and yourself insight into…
- How the current time was experienced.
- What moved people and what they occupied their minds with.
- How they felt and dealt with their situation.
Overall, you could see it as helping future readers make sense of the world we lived in today.
On a tiny scale, you’re building and contributing to a part of history either way. That is valuable in itself.
