First let me clear your doubts.. I am not going to teach you some dance moves here! And that is obvious. Even I don't know how to dance. But I know some tricks about blogging. And that is what I am going to share with you.
OK. Let's move on to the real topic - Making a Viral Blog Post.
So what actually is viral?
The best example of going viral is 'Gangnam Style'. Going viral means gaining such a huge exposure and popularity that you can't even imagine.
What are the benefit of going viral?
Ummm... There are tons of benefits like traffic explosion, popularity, exposure to the blogosphere and many more. Take the example of the South Korean rapper Psy. He got his name known to the world just because his Gangnam Style went viral. And if you are not a well known blogger, then going viral can also help create a name for yourself in this world.
The list of benefits is too long. Just think over it...
How do things go viral?
Sometimes some of the most common things go viral. Sometimes the most unusual things go viral. It's about luck and some tricks. I believe that there are very less chances that if your blog post has the best content then it would go viral only due to that content. I think that that way your blog post can become very famous and can receive good response but content is not enough to make a blog post go viral.
I believe that a blog post (or anything else) can go viral if it has completely unique features and something that the world has never seen before. And then you require God's blessings in your favor to turn some roads for you. (What do you think? Does Gangnam Style have the best dance moves ever???)
I have always been experimenting with my blog and my blog posts. Different writing styles and posting times, everything affects the popularity of a blog post.
And I have come to some conclusions about going viral. What are they? Read on...
How to Make Your Blog Post Go Viral
Pro Tip- Imagine you are a reader yourself. This way you can decide yourself what can make your post viral. Right from looking at the title to the ending quotes, think what can make you go viral.
Magnetic Headline Titles
The title of the blog post is the first thing what a reader reads and decides the importance and uniqueness of the content without even reading it. So try to make an attractive and you can say Magnetic title.
Example- Why did you click on the title of this blog post you are reading now? Consciously or subconsciously your mind, after reading the title, decided that it has something interesting in it. Right?
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| Source: achievedstrategies.com |
That is the key to it. Suppose your article is about SEO tips. Now consider these two titles - 'Best SEO Tips' and '10 Killer SEO Tips and Tricks'. Which title would you click on? Obviously the second one. Because it creates a feeling of excitement and it would be more appealing to your subconscious mind.
Using Attractive and IRrelevant Photos in Post
"A picture speaks more than a thousand words" - People of the world
"A picture speaks directly with subconscious mind" - Mahaveer Verma
Pictures are the most important element of your blog post after the content itself. And actually photos are a part of your content. And photos not only add important information to the article, but also they add more feelings into the article.
Pictures in a blog post need not to be relevant always unless you are writing a tutorial. You can also use pictures to decorate your blog post and to encourage more feelings in your reader's minds. Take this article as an example. The photo of the Gangnam dance in the starting of this article is not related to the content but it creates a different feeling and a good impression in the minds of readers.
If you are writing about 'blogging challenges', then feel free to use a dog's photo who is jumping across a obstacle. These type of semi-off-topic pictures tend to higher readership for your blog posts. Also if the blog post you are writing is too long, then add some other photos here and there between the contents so that it entertains your readers and they don't run away.
This is just to create a feeling of casualness. The more casual and fantastic your blog post is, the more viral it may go.
Trending Topics
Sometimes writing about the most recent trending topics can do the trick. Once at my tech blog, I posted a trick to unblock some sites and in those days, many sites were blocked by the ISPs. And what kind of response did I get? I got 1000 pageviews for that post on the very first day! But this didn't remain too long. For few days I got nearly 500-700 pageviews daily for that post and then day by day the viral post went cold. But it is still one of the most viewed blog post on daily basis.
So writing about the trending topics did a trick to me. But the success of such trend based post can't be predicted. But yes, it does work very nice and you have a lot of chance to go viral.
The Funny Attitude
Humor is almost compulsory if you want to make a book or a blog post go viral. Because people love friendly, casual and funny things and you know - Nobody likes reading a dictionary!
Whenever you write a blog post, add some sense of casualness like you are sitting in front of them and talking to them. Also don't be over serious in your posts. If your article is full of humor and casual attitude, then more people will tend to read the complete article.
And remember - A funny man makes 100 friends while a serious one would get only another serious one!
Blog Posting Schedule
After discussing all the writing style stuff, let's move to some 'God's favor' things. There are some unusual tricks that can make a blog post go viral.
One of them is the time when you publish your post i.e. the time of the day when your blog post goes live. You should set such a time for publishing your posts when most of your readers are online and reading your blog. The evening or early morning is a good time because at those hours people have some spare time to read blog posts. And they won't be able to neglect your magnetic headline :)
According to my experiments, I'll say - never publish in the afternoon. Because at that time most of the people are busy at office or colleagues and other work places. So there is a chance that your blog post may get buried there.
But after all, your blog post would be still available at the top place at your blog's recent list. So it is not that necessary and it can't completely ruin your work. The more important scheduling is the scheduling of your post sharing time. Why? Read ahead.
Post Sharing Schedule
You have written a high quality article and now, you are going to promote it on the social networking sites. There are hundreds of people constantly sharing updates and photos on these social sites, so you won't like if your share doesn't get noticed.
First let me tell what not to do. This will help you in understanding what to do. Don't share your posts in the afternoon especially on Facebook. Because very few people will notice your share in the afternoon and by the evening, when most of the people get online, your share would get buried very deep by the newer updates and shares. So a waste of sharing your high quality article?
Always share your content when most people would notice it i.e. when most of your fans and followers or even friends are online. And if the time favors you, then you can go viral!
Newsletter Delivery Schedule
Same trick here. Set your email newsletter to deliver when most of your readers have spare time. For newsletter, early morning is the best time. Even than evening. Because people tend to check their emails early morning with a fresh mood and they would be sure to read your article.
If you send the same newsletter in the evening, then there are somewhat less chance that people will care about like they would do in the morning. Generally people tend to give evenings to friends and family so they tend to be more active on social networking sites in the evening.
Its all about finding out the best time for your blog post.
Over to you...
As you read, I didn't mention the importance of 'content' anywhere. Why? Because you have already read it a hundred times that 'Content is the King'. And even though it is... It is not enough to make something go viral.
In short, you make your blog post go viral by - attractive writing style and the best timings for publishing and sharing/promoting your post.
What do you think about going viral? Do comment and let me know. And if you think my article was nice, why not share it? Who knows maybe this post can go viral!
