YouTube comedian and video guru Kevin Nalts has posted his take on the importance of topicality and timing for the success of Internet media:

Want lots of views on your video? Timing and topicality is important. The reason sxephil and whatthebuck are two of the most-subscribed YouTube amateurs is partially because they vlog about what’s hot. That means the next day, their videos are found when people search YouTube (and even Google, which is rather kind to videos).

The implication to marketers? Be ready to approve a campaign quickly. And for video creators? Stay current, create quickly, and tag your videos with the keywords that are hot. My Superbowl “top 10 commercials of 2009″ video is among my most-viewed videos now (2.7 million) in part because I posted it just as the game was starting. That placed it above other videos when people searched, and the result was primarily because of topicality and search. The booby thumbnail didn’t hurt.

Nalts has a following, a track record and experience – which means he’s got a jumpstart on others wanting to get their videos seen. 

There are millions of people now creating podcasts, blogs and Internet videos whose audience plateaus with a few hundred or a few thousand people.

But Nalts knows the secret of sailing against the wind; he understands the power of millions of people searching for popular topics and uses it go wherever he wants to go. 

Here are YouTube’s top 10 search topics for 2008:

• Britney Spears
• WWE
• Barack Obama
• Miley Cyrus
• RuneScape
• Jessica Alba
• Naruto
• Lindsay Lohan
• Angelina Jolie
• American Idol

Does this mean that you need to talk about Britney Spears, Barack Obama & WWE?

Probably not. Unless you can offer really unique perspective on these topics, your work is likely to get buried. 

What it does mean, though, is that there’s a huge opportunity to expose your work to more people, if you can create unique content that is timely and of interest to the millions of people searching for content about popular topics. 

Nalts suggests Yahoo Buzz & Twitscoop as tools for getting ideas for his shows. 

Is topicality important to your work? If so, what tools do you use?