by Skellie
Photography: listen carefully by 416style
Viral articles are word of mouth worthy, and will grow your site more so than any other kind of content. Previously, I examined six strategies you can use when you want to create content with a decent chance of going viral. In this post, I want to focus on 37 concrete ideas for viral posts that should be readily applicable to your niche.
This post could be a useful port of call the next time you run out of inspiration, or if you want to try something different with your content.
What are the benefits of writing viral posts?
As part of the Simple Web post series I established the reasoning behind my personal philosophy of trying to simplify down to only taking actions with the potential to grow your site. In my experience, posts I’ve written that have gone viral (at least within this niche) have grown Skelliewag more than any other kind of post. From what I’ve observed, this seems to hold true across all blogs and websites.
Viral posts are rarely produced effortlessly. They take time and care to produce, and it shows in the finished product. Many of us like the idea of creating viral content but lament that we don’t have enough time. Luckily, more time is not what we need.
Time can always be made by changing the way you distribute it. Rather than writing short posts daily, what if you wrote three short posts and one carefully constructed, virally targeted post a week? Unless those short posts are quite profound, you are likely to find that the virally targeted posts grows your blog far more than the four short posts would have.
Won’t readers get sick of virally targeted posts?
Mason of SmallFuel Marketing gave an insightful answer to the question I asked at the end of Under the Microscope: Six Strategies for Building Viral Content: “How would it affect your site if every article you wrote was designed to go viral — even if it meant you had to post less?”
His initial response was: “I think if every post were written “to go viral” it would probably burn out the regular readers (and possibly yourself).”
In many ways, I agree with him, though I think there is an easy work-around. Constantly trying to go viral through the same methods will bore your readers, unless your site is built on a particular type of viral content (Smashing Magazine or Mashable and resource lists, for example). Any site needs varied and diverse content, so it’s important to approach viral targeting from an ever-changing angle.
A final point to consider is that calling something ‘viral’ is a catchier way of calling it word-of-mouth worthy. Creating word-of-mouth worthy content won’t bore your readers because what’s worth talking about is, in most cases, high quality.
As long as you explore a variety of possibilities for virality, working on viral posts is one of the best ways to grow your site.
The list!
- Assemble one sentence/paragraph answers to a question you ask key figures across your niche.
- Create a time spectacle: create content non-stop over a designated period of time (8hrs, 24hrs?).
- Write a review of the redesign of a popular blog/website in your niche. Everyone has an opinion on redesigns and will appreciate someone laying out some of their own thoughts.
- Assemble a directory of great interviews conducted with prominent/interesting figures in your niche.
- Construct a central hub of posts written on a specific, focused topic of great importance to your niche.
- Create a ranked list of products, services, people, or some other variable, within your niche.
- Offer a free service to everyone who asks, utilizing one of your skills. Then expect nothing in return.
- Write a history of your niche’s presence online. What have been its earliest blogs and websites? Its most popular? Are they still around?
- Begin a group writing project.
- Assemble a directory of tips on a topic, delivered in the form of quotes from other sites in your niche.
- Build a quiz for readers to test their niche knowledge.
- Offer to write a guest-post for anyone who asks. View it as a long-term commitment: could you manage one guest post a week? The task only becomes insurmountable if you want them all done at once. People will be patient if the service has no strings attached.
- Conduct a short interview, both containing the same questions, with two prominent figures in your niche, and display the answers side-by-side, allowing us to compare the answers.
- Assemble a large number of one-sentence tips on a specific topic.
- Simpsonize some key personalities in your niche.
- Assemble the most interesting or thought provoking quotes that apply to your niche, even if the person quoted was not talking about your niche specifically.
- Ask readers a question and have them answer it on their blog/website. Then link to the collected answers from a central hub post.
- Write a post carefully arguing a view that you feel many of your readers will agree with.
- Take reader questions and answer them in one post. These can be questions about you, your niche, or your site. Set boundaries if necessary.
- Link to online tools, software and sites any person taking part in your niche should know about.
- Organize an initiative and get other bloggers involved.
- Take a birds-eye view of your niche, analyze its strengths and weaknesses.
- Predict what your niche will look like in 5, or 10, or 50 years.
- Create a list of feeds you believe everyone interested in your topic should be subscribed to.
- Answer a question many of your headers may have, but have not asked because of its complex nature. Some questions of that nature that might be unspoken by readers in this niche, for example, are: What do I do if my blog isn’t growing as I hoped it would? How long will it take my site to start generating a worthwhile income? Is there ever going to be a big enough audience for a site in my niche?
- Address a general ‘want’ shared by most readers in your niche. What are the key three things readers of your site want? For this site, that might be: more traffic, more links, more subscribers. To address the want for more subscribers, I might write a post called: “Ten Innovative Ways to Get More Subscribers”. There have been plenty of posts on this subject, but readers are likely to have a look just in case there’s something they haven’t seen before. To make sure they’re rewarded, make certain you meet this need in an innovative/different way.
- The web is on a productivity/uncluttering trip at the moment. Can you write a guide to being more efficient or productive in your niche? Can you write a guide to getting organized in your niche?
- Visualize useful information and make it easy to share.
- Show readers how to construct a cheap object that will prove useful to them.
- Release a free ebook, packed with value.
- Write a post answering 5 important questions, then ask others to answer the same questions on their own sites, promising to link to the answers from a central hub post. Follow through on that promise.
- Take a famous/interesting person and ask: what approach would that person take to my niche? For example: The Leonardo Da Vinci Guide to Cooking.
- Create a ranked list of must-read books relating to your niche.
- Create a beginner’s tour of your topic. If you were showing a beginner the sights, what essential articles should they read to get a grip on your niche?
- Explore what you would change about your niche if you could. What are its short-comings?
- If you could only share 10 more tips with your readers, what would they be?
- Assemble a collection of amazing photos/images relating to your niche (some niches will be more suited to this than others).
Update: this post is on Digg. Please take a moment to vote for it, if you have the time. Thanks!
Skelliewag features daily discussions on content creation, great ideas you can use, and design tips. Join the community by subscribing!
rss feed
56 Comments, Comment or Ping
Brian Auer
Holy Cow! I could see myself doing at least half of these things, and some I already have. The tip about a collection of photos is very true. People are in such a hurry often times, that they’re more likely to vote something up if it’s filled with awesome photos. Gosh, aren’t photographers great?
Oct 7th, 2007
skellie
@ Brian: Photos are great because it takes very little time to extract value from them. Unfortunately, this particular niche isn’t very conducive to photo posts, but yours certainly is :D.
If you do run with any of these ideas, let me know and I’ll add the link to the SKW Tumblelog.
Oct 7th, 2007
Brian Auer
Ah yes… photographers love to look at photographs. And being a photography blog, I have a million good excuses to post photos from other photographers. Did you see my last big hit with StumbleUpon? “Warning: These 9 Photoshop Techniques May Result in Great Photos”
I didn’t even write up any specific tips on the subject. I just posted photos that related to each tip and I linked some of the tips out to other articles. It just goes to show that not every article needs to be packed with detailed information — sometimes a high level approach works well.
As for the rest of your ideas, I’ve already written up a list of possible articles just to get my creative juice flowing. 11 of them stand out as being immediately usable. This should keep me going strong for weeks if not months. No kidding, this is one of the most useful articles I’ve read in quite some time.
Oct 7th, 2007
skellie
That’s great to hear, Brian — I can’t wait to see what you come up with :).
Oct 7th, 2007
Alex Kay
Hey Skellie,
That’s some really great ideas! I’ll make sure to put good use of them =)
Oct 7th, 2007
skellie
Thanks Alex! Feel free to drop a link here if you run with any of the ideas.
Oct 7th, 2007
Michael from Pro Blog Design
Great post Skellie. Those ideas could be applied to any niche.
Dugg, stumbled and del,icio.us’ed.
Oct 7th, 2007
Adnan
Wow, awesome post Skellie. This is an amazing resource, and I’m sure that I’ll be coming back here for ideas. Dugg and Stumbled!
Oct 7th, 2007
skellie
@ Michael & Adnan: Thanks a lot! I appreciate it.
Oct 8th, 2007
James - Visualized.Feel.Abundance
Love some of your idea. Thank You and Stumbled
Cheers
James
Oct 8th, 2007
Jamin
This is a fantastic list, full of inspiration for a blogger of any niche. Bookmarked, and thanks!
Oct 8th, 2007
Patrick
This is an awesome post Skellie….but of course we expect that out of you….
Stumbled, dugg, and del.icio.us’ed. (thanks for that idea Michael)
Oct 8th, 2007
Chad
I think interviews blow anyone through the roof! There are many many bloggers out there and only a few that are trying to expand past their “offices!” …just imagine if you were a entertainment blog and you got an interview (email, voice mail, letter, phone call…) from Kathy Griffin, or Oprah even
Great ideas!
-Chad.
Oct 8th, 2007
Elliott from ejcross.com
Skellie,
Found your site through digg. Definately one to come back to, thanks for the great article too! Great insights and though provoking ideas are what really help when you are in a mind cramp for blogging ideas.
Thanks to Michael from problogdesign.com for pointing me in this direction, and I’ll be back!
Oct 8th, 2007
Mason from SmallFuel Marketing
Hey Skellie,
Great article, and thanks for the mention. Hopefully we’ll see some people going above and beyond my initial “oh it’s too difficult” attitude : )
You’ve certainly given us all quite a challenge (produce continually excellent content). But in the end, it’s the blogs who can actually meet that challenge that will prosper.
And that idea list of yours is one heck of a head start. Thanks!
- Mason
Oct 8th, 2007
skellie
@ James: Thank you — do let us know if you run with any of the ideas
@ Jamin: Cheers! I hope it proves useful.
@ Patrick: I appreciate it :). Spiritual River is looking great, by the way.
@ Chad: I agree, interviews are definitely not used enough. If you’re thinking about doing some, I’ve written two posts on the subject: Getting Great Interviews and Executing Great Interviews.
@ Elliott: Welcome! I hope to see you around the comments :). Thanks also to Michael for pointing you this way — I appreciate it, as always.
@ Mason: I thought your question was worth highlighting because it was astute, and definitely represents one of the key problems sites suffer from when building themselves with viral content — repeating the same formulas, over and over again.
Producing excellent content is not as hard as it sounds if we change the way we use time. Any of us could manage one fantastic post per week, because most of the equation is time and hard work, rather than a strike of brilliance. I think with blogging, it’s definitely quality over quality.
Oct 8th, 2007
Fred @ Newest on the Net
Skellie,
Thank you so much for writing such a great article. I agree with several commenters here that these ideas can work with any niche. I linked to this article on my blog today.
-Fred
Oct 8th, 2007
Travis
Great post, skellie. I haven’t been subscribed for very long, but I’m loving almost every thing you write, and this one was definitely worth digging.
Are you still doing the simplicity reviews you mentioned a while back? I’m sure you got swamped with requests so I understand if it’s too much to get to at the moment.
Also, I have a request - I’m going to promote your blog in a post soon, and I’d like to include a picture if possible (mainly b/c I have pictures of a couple of other bloggers that I’m going to mention) - is that something you can send me, or should I use the drawing you have as a profile picture on stumbleupon?
Thanks!
Oct 8th, 2007
skellie
@ Fred: Thank you for your kind words and the recommendation. Would love to see the results if you adapt any of the ideas to your blog
@ Travis: I am still doing simplicity reviews, but I had to remove the banner while I catch up with the backlog. Send your blog URL to my email address and you’ll be first on the list when I get on top of things
It’d be great if you could use my StumbleUpon pic — that’s the image I tend to use to represent myself online. I really appreciate that you would write about Skelliewag. Thank you.
Oct 8th, 2007
Passport Mentors
Very good point. I love to see pictures it keeps me on that page. Funny though I don’t use them enough, until today. Most of what you covered I do…except one of the most attractive. Thanks for pointing me to what makes sense. Good job will be returning for more information.
Thanks and keep up the good work!
http://www.PassportMentors.com
Oct 8th, 2007
Easton Ellsworth
Skellie, you had me at 37.
Quit posting just for a week or two so I can digest these incredible posts you keep churning out!
OK seriously - awesome job. You deserve the buzz.
Oct 9th, 2007
Alex Kay
Hey Skellie, here’s a “#19″:
http://www.justkeepthechange.com/are-you-hearing-sounds
Oct 10th, 2007
skellie
@ Easton & Passport Mentors: Thanks!
@ Alex: Great job :). I’ve kicked things off with the first question. When I wrote the 19th suggestion I was envisioning the author being asked and answering questions, but didn’t even think of getting an expert in. That’s a clever idea.
Oct 10th, 2007
Website Design
*Write a post carefully arguing a view that you feel many of your readers will agree with.
Seems like a short cut. Like all of the latest Ubuntu, Apple, etc posts on Digg. ‘I know my users will eat this up, so I’ll write about it’.
That being said, it’s highly effective and in many cases completely relevant.
Great list here you have. Very timely information.
Oct 12th, 2007
Dave aka The Writing Geek
Awesome article! I used your advice and created what I hope will become my own first “viral post”. it’s called The “Five W’s”… and can be found at my blog, The Writing Geek. Thanks for an insightful post!
Dave
aka The Writing Geek
Oct 12th, 2007
Frank C
I’m implementing #2, #7 and #12 on OpTempo right now and the results have been great so far.
For #2, I’m going for 200 posts between Oct 6, when the blog started, and Nov 1.
For #7, I’m offering free blog reviews (I do web and software development for a living)
For #12, I’m offering guest posting services.
Oct 22nd, 2007
Monika @ The Writers Manifesto
Hi Skellie from a fellow Aussie,
I came to your blog from caroline’s blog and have been reading your posts in the last 2 hours or so. This post of yours inspired me to write my post about the 7 B’s of Blogging.
Your list is already bookmarked and stumbled and digged and…plus I decided to “feature” your link on my blog because it is so good.
Thank you, you just gained a new subscriber.
Monika Mundell
Oct 24th, 2007
Robert
Great list - I’ll have to try some of these:). Thanks
Oct 25th, 2007
Jason A Clark
Wow, now that’s a comprehensive list. And another great find on BloggingZoom.com.
Nov 13th, 2007
RedHotFranchises.com
Outstanding Article!
How about inviting other people to list their success stories in their niche. People love to talk about themselves. Invite them to sumbit their steps to success and then feature the best in a dedicated post.
Nov 25th, 2007
Liene at Blue Orchid Designs
Great list, thanks for taking the time to post it! I am glad to see I’ve been doing some of these, and there are tons more I’ve never thought of that I’m excited to try.
Nov 25th, 2007
Invest with Dax
Great post. I’m trying to build more traffic on my site and these tips are great.
Nov 25th, 2007
Chris
There are some really fantastic ideas here. Especially like number 23, “Predict what your niche will look like in 5, or 10, or 50 years.”. Think every blog could do a really interesting post on that topic. There are some great ideas here for everybody from seasoned bloggers to those just starting out.
Feb 19th, 2008
trademark registration
*Write a post carefully arguing a view that you feel many of your readers will agree with. Seems like a short cut. Like all of the latest Ubuntu, Apple, etc posts on Digg. ‘I know my users will eat this up, so I’ll write about it’. That being said, it’s highly effective and in many cases completely relevant.
Great list here you have. Very timely information.
Apr 6th, 2008
Best Jobs 4 You
Great ideas for viral marketing.
May 24th, 2008
Reply to “37 Viral Post Ideas You Can Use Today”