Trends v. Fads

Writing for online publishing can be a tricky undertaking especially considering that what may be popular today may not be so in a month or two, thereby making what you wrote irrelevant.

To overcome the possibility of your words falling to the ground instead of being received by your customers’ eyes you need to determine if the subject matter is a trend or a fad.

By trend I mean the following: the general market is making a permanent or long term move in a particular direction. An example of a trend would be the movement away from adjustable rate mortgages to fixed rate mortgages.

By fad I mean the following: the general market or an important segment of that market is making a temporary move in a particular direction. An example of a fad would be zero percent mortgages.

If you update your web site frequently, you can and probably should cover both trends and fads in order to capture a greater amount of market share. Going with “what’s hot” effectually covers the fad market for your business, while going with whatever trends that the market is displaying keeps your business current with today’s business practices.

The Solution: Simply monitor your site’s content and periodically remove “fad” material in order to keep your site fresh and relevant.