Exploding Topics Review: Early access to trending topics and untapped markets
Surges is 100% independent, but some links may earn us an affiliate commission. Learn more.
TL;DR
Spot hot trends and the companies behind them sooner. Exploding Topics crawls millions of searches, forums and mentions across the internet to find the next big thing(s). Ever wondered how thought leaders stay ahead of the curve? Where your agency strategist gets their foresight? Where serial entrepreneurs get their killer ideas from? Their secret’s out.
Exploding Topics Pros
- Insightful newsletter
- In-depth analysis
- Great for SEO
- Great UI
- API
Exploding Topics Cons
- No advanced filters
- Could link out
The Story
What is Exploding Topics?
“Tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming.” - David Bowie
Exploding Topics is an insider’s ticket to the future. With the speed of innovation gathering pace, it can be hard to keep up, let alone stay ahead of the curve.
Exploding Topics lives up to its name, alerting you to what’s next before it hits critical mass. Consider it an entrepreneur’s dream. A content creator’s unfair advantage. An investor’s instinct. Or simply a lazy researcher’s best friend. Exploding Topics is powerful tool in the right hands.
→ Suggested reading: How to use Exploding Topics for SEO content
Meet the Maker:
Brian Dean
Anybody with a passing interest in SEO will have heard of Brian Dean, Co-Founder of ExplodingTopics.com. The brains behind Backlinko acquired a cult trend-prediction app called Trennd.
Built by Josh Howarth, Trennd would uncover juicy trends by automatically monitoring the web for new topics and then plug them into Google Trends. It was accompanied by a weekly newsletter called Trennds for the Weekend. Popular but lacking monetisation, enter Brian. The service has undergone a rebrand and upped its game to become the super forecaster it is today.
The Product
How we tested Exploding Topics for this review
The Exploding Topics newsletter is free and a 14-day of Pro only costs $1.
It’s no secret that trending but untapped keywords are the secret sauce for SEO. Having reviewed Ahrefs, SEMrush, Serpstat and Moz, I was keen to get advance notice on new exploding topics and see what difference it made to my search traffic. My consultancy work also demands that I stay abreast of new and exciting trends.
So, I subscribed to the newsletter, delved into past issues and got under the hood of Exploding Topics Pro.
Getting started with Exploding Topics
The Exploding Topics homepage gives you a bird’s eye view of key trends (although some are redacted until upgrade) and you can drill down into niches (e.g. Business; Design; Fashion) and timeframes. Click on individual topics for a close up, including search volume and growth over time.
The Exploding Topics newsletter brings these nuggets direct to your inbox. Or you can try Pro for $1 and unlock even more of them.
Exploding Topics features you’ll love
-
Exploding Trends Database
See a sea of trending topics and companies as they’re percolating. Going Pro expands the dataset even bigger to 5,000 items!
The exact formula for an Exploding Topic is a secret, but we do know the tool analyzes millions of data points around the web for interesting new topics and keywords, including: Ecommerce; Forums; Tech news and Social. It does so across a number of business categories, so whatever your business niche or level of curiosity there’s intel waiting for you.
Exploding Topics then cross-references these subjects via Google Trends to show what’s hot in search. You could always do this yourself with a SEMrush subscription but this saves a lot of time and manual guesswork.Exploding Topics then cross-references these subjects via Google Trends to show what’s hot in search. Y
The UI is gorgeous. It’s extremely easy to scan trends and daily data points mean growth charts aren’t skewed by short-term bursts. Clicking on each trend reveals what it is in more detail, however there’s even more Exploding Topics could do here to enlighten users as you only get a single sentence description and Exploding Topics doesn’t link out to the trend or company.
It would be great to have more filters too, such as country and continent, but I trust this’ll come with time.
-
Exploding Topics Tuesday newsletter
Hungry for more? The “Exploding Topics Tuesday” newsletter delivers six hot new trends every week. Jam-packed full of insight and commentary, it’s got all the stats to back up their picks.
The issue I received featured trends such as: Cocktail smokers; A tool for managing app subscriptions; CBD shampoo; and Remote working jobsites. It also linked them to “metatrends” – seismic changes that impact multiple categories.
The newsletter will be the entry point for most users. It certainly whetted my appetite but then I discovered that Pro members got these insights 6 months ago in the associated “Tomorrow’s Products, Today” newsletter! Mind. Blown.
And if 6 trends aren’t enough, the Exploding Topics Pro Complete comes with 10!
Read the latest Exploding Topics Tuesday here.
-
API Access (Pro)
The minimalist database will satisfy most people’s curiosities but analysts, strategists, entreprenuers or VCs may want to tap into Exploding Topics’ data at source.
They can use the API to build custom dashboards, integrate trend data into their existing data sources, or drill down on very specific subtrends. Thanks Brian (Dean) for sharing these potential use cases.
-
Instant trend alerts (Pro)
Wake before the early birds. Exploding Topics’ Instant trend alerts are a heads up the moment the team stumble upon a new trend that’s about to pop.
This feature is geared towards SEO professionals and inbound marketers looking for high-traffic, low-competition keywords and get an edge on the competition.
Things to consider
-
What Exploding Topics is not
Exploding Topics is designed to be a skimmable, hot-off-the-press trendspotter. It has a lot of potential but hasn’t yet ventured into research reports, conferences or consulting, unlike some of its bigger rivals. Its focus is being an early radar for future trends and getting them to you as quickly as possible. What you decide to do with that info is up to you.
Exploding Topics Pricing & Offers
from $47 per month
Going Pro gets you the “Tomorrow’s Products, Today” newsletter, access to the full database and library of previous newsletters, plus meta trends commentary. An extra $90 unlocks Instant Trend Alerts, additional team members and full use of the API.
A 14-day trial of Exploding Topics Pro or Complete is $1. After your trial, you’ll be charged the full annual fee unless you cancel.
Exploding Topics Alternatives
There’s a number of different ways to unearth hot trends and keywords:
- SEO tools (e.g. SEMrush) – although you’d need to have a good idea what you’re looking for in the first place
- Innovation platforms (e.g. PSFK) – more curated and megatrend-focused, therefore costlier and often one step behind
- Google Trends – very manual, although can be extremely satisfying when you stumble upon an emerging trend
- Popular content (e.g. BuzzSumo) – made for finding types of content that have got eyeballs and links
- Community monitoring – whether forums or launch platforms such as Product Hunt
- Moz Fresh Web Explorer (RIP) - now sunsetted, used to hunt mentions of a fresh keyword or phrase
Exploding Topics’ USP is getting you more trends, sooner.
Exploding Topics Support 👍 or 👎
Exploding Topics is a breeze to use, however support is available is needed. I got in touch with them over email to find out how to get the most out of their API and Brian himself replied within only a few hours. They even offered to jump on a call and explore possible use cases and setup. Thanks guys!
The Verdict
Surges score
86%Exploding Topics is itself surely set to explode. I’m certain of that.
Simple but powerful, the tool promises you’ll be the first to know about upcoming hot trends and untapped keywords. It’s a free-flowing tap of ideas, validated by early adopters and finger-on-the-pulse tech publications across the internet.
In the right hands, Exploding Topics is well worth the upgrade fee. A dropshipper’s dream. A strategist’s secret weapon. An SEO agency’s cheat sheet.
The weekly newsletter is a no brainer too. Full of in-depth analysis of metatrends and topics, learn precisely why it’s taking off and the bigger picture. And see what’s around the corner in tech, ecommerce, marketing, SaaS, healthcare, fitness, fashion and more. Google Trends without the legwork.
A quick look at Exploding Topics’ back catalogue of spots proves they know what they’re talking about. All the big trends and breakthrough startups of the last few years are there.
Designed to be skimmed, Exploding Topics arms you with the next big trending topics before anybody else. A first-mover’s unfair advantage. Sign up to it before your competitors do!
→ Further reading: How to use Exploding Topics for SEO content
Similar to Exploding Topics
-
We tested Surfer SEO for 30 days, revamping unloved content. Here's the results...
-
-
Notion’s #1 No-Code site builder - create a fully responsive website in record time
