Creating a blog is a fairly easy thing to do. Wordpress and Blogspot are two simple places to start. What is not so easy is getting that blog seen by millions across the internet.
Creating viral content is something every blogger hopes to achieve. But it's not as simple as Instagram-ing your breakfast every day or commenting on the latest breaking news stories. A blog needs to have certain qualities to make it stand out.
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Here are five tips which those viral blogs embraced, and which you can too to rack up hits on your own blog!
1. Humour
The internet is a place to let your imagination run wild and to be entertained. Most blogs which have gone viral have an element of humour about them. The content itself doesn't have to be humorous, but writing about it in a relaxed, informal style with a few funny comments here and there will brighten up even the driest of topics, like The Daily Mash, which provides information on real issues with a light hearted take.
2. Opinions
A great way to get people talking about your blog is to have your own opinion. Blogs such as The F Word and Tree Hugger provide excellent information about causes and get their audiences thinking, which is what many people on the internet look for (as well as pictures of cats with cheeseburgers – another way to make your blog go viral).
3. Hobbies
A lot of blogs which went viral centred around hobbies. It's great to see someone create something and then be told that you, too, can make it!
Food is a growing industry, with celebrity chefs and cooking channels galore, so it makes sense that it's thriving online as well. There are loads of brilliant cooking blogs out there, but some that went viral, like Chocolate and Zucchini, managed it because they kept it simple and encouraged their audiences to get involved try out their recipes for themselves, as well as including useful hints and tips.
4. Following Trends
Another great way to create viral content is to be constantly 'on top'. If you are at the cutting edge of new developments, whether they are in fashion, technology, literature or news, you are more likely to cultivate a following. Blogs like Tech Crunch went viral because they provided information about breaking developments in technology as they were happening; something which attracted people wanting to know in depth details about a relatively new topic.
5. Human Interest
Another hugely popular style of blogging is 'diary style'.
Take blogs like Heather B. Armstrong's, dooce.com, or Stephanie Klein's Greek Tragedy. They focus on the ins and outs of daily life and are written with humour and honesty. They show us snapshots of their own, personal feelings which become totally relatable, and is what sharing is for, is it not?
If you're looking to vent your daily frustrations, whip them up with a humorous flair and add them to your blog. You never know, the person on the other end of the internet might find your life highly entertaining.
Starting a blog is a great way of venting your opinions, sharing your hobbies and also sharing your innermost feelings. If you want to discover how to become a writer, a blog is a brilliant starting point as it gives you a place to flex your writing muscles, try out different styles and find your own writing voice. It could also, possibly, launch your writing career into the viral side of blogging and conquer the internet.
Did your blog go viral? How did you create your shareable content?
Image Source: Search Engine Journal
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It is a good test of your pride setting up a blog – especially when you realize that the world is not as interested in your topic as you are! For me, spelling mistakes really put me off a blog or article I am reading. The actual content might be good but if it obviously has not been proofread or anything the credibility of the writer can be damaged.
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Over the years, I have opened up a few blogs but they never thrive because of lack of audience. But after putting much thought over these few days, I think I want to start all over again focusing on just one blog and I will definitely keep these tips in mind.
As Michael Jordan says, “I’ve failed over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed”.
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Great article. I agree that many times bloggers forget their audience! The blogger only has a few seconds to capture his/her audience’s attention and if this isn’t done properly the viewer will pass on to the next article. It is amazing that our brain has the innate ability to filter out information that it finds irrelevant with just a couple of glances on a page or screen.
I have found that writing blogs can be quite difficult, because if you want the work to be relevant the reader one must put a great deal of consideration into it. I have also found that in my personal writing that humor is the best remedy that works for my “sick writing.” Many times bloggers will find out that if they step away from the computer and approach it later with “fresh eyes” it does wonders.
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As a person getting a youtube account up and running this was really helpful to me
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Indeed, the best way to garner attention is to create content that is in touch with the popular culture. When it comes to having an opinion, I’ve found great success by writing a controversial blog. Not so controversial that I make people angry and leave my site is disgust thinking that I’m a loony, but just controversial enough to make them want to read more. You’ll probably need good argumentative and reasoning skills in order to effectively get your message across.
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We often forget that humor, opinions, and honesty all have a place in a professional blog or website. It’s always good to present yourself as someone who is like the consumer rather than some sort of serious business owner.
Thank you for these wonderful reminders!
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This is a wonderful piece. I’ve been reading a lot of marketing articles lately and they all make sure to cover SEO and back links, but forget about the human element of it all. When you work online it so easy to forget that in the end, you are connecting with people, not search engines. It’s people’s opinion that will make you or break you, and I think your article really brought light to this point. Great tips!
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Jenny this post is worth a shout. It avoids all the run of the mill make your blog popular stuff going around the web.
My most popular and viral posts were those borne out of my experience and how to videos.
Following trends is something I started focusing on lately and am expectant of good results.
on
This is definitely a useful and informative blog post. The majority of the blogs I follow do fall into one of those categories. I’d like to add one category though, which your blog actually falls into amongst others;
Informative. You’ve touched on this, but I think it deserves it’s own category. Of course this depends on the type of blog. For some types of blogs this is less useful, but for many blogs, such as blogs which talk about products or methods of doing something, it needs to have a lot of helpful details. For currently popular topics, it needs to give any relevant details.
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Lovely tips. I agree that first on the list should be humor. Who doesn’t want an informative and humorous article? 🙂 No matter how well researched an article is, it wouldn’t be so reader-friendly if it doesn’t have a bit of humor in it.
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Thank you very much Canarez! I’m very glad it’s helpful.
srinivas0812, I totally agree, a brilliant way would be to get a celeb or famous person with loads of followers to retweet your blog (it could happen if you’re persistant!!)
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This is well written and has many tips that could easily boost up your blog with others. Thanks for writing this tutorial, it’s just flatout great.
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I recommend using Social Networking sites. People lurk in Facebook and Twitter all the time and driving that traffic to your blog is the best and probably the quickest way to make a blog popular. People driven to the blog looks for some unique content and once you have it on your blog/website, you are successful.
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Hello everyone! Thank you very much for your comments, they’re lovely to read.
Seashore23, I definitely agree that exposure can be make or break – the ‘promote’ feature on Facebook would be quite handy for that, and it only takes one like for it to snowball!
Cashonwww – another really good idea, the internet is usually the first place people go nowadays to make sense of their problems, and helpful advice in a friendly tone definitely beats a generic response.
Thank you for all your responses and I’m looking forward to writing more soon!
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These are great tips which can help people share your content with others.I think the most important factor is humor. Even a serious subject with some comedic relief seems like it would get spread around exponentially faster than a dull, boring topic.
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Thank you for this helpful post. I specially found useful the part about humor. Surprisingly it has a large effect on creating good content.
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Nice article Jenny! It’s really well-written and is delivers simple but useful information for bloggers everywhere. I especially agree with your points on humour and human interest. People tend to revisit sites that they feel connected to. Hope to be able to read more of your articles!
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Good article. But another way could be to write blog posts that solve certain problems based on your own experience. And it could simply be the issues you faced and how you solved them. It need not be one single topic or any hot trend.
Lot of time it is really hard to find accurate information say about some local government office or tax procedure or some technology problem or productivity issue etc. I guess writing to solve people’s every day issues could also be a great way to create good and viral content.
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These are some excellent tips, and I agree whole-heartedly with everything wrote here. I think how your services are advertised is something important to take into consideration also. It can really pay off by adopting social media outlets as a way to advertise your blog, emphasising the products/services you have on offer. This can help build up a fan-base, and with that more visitors to your blog.