The Fundamentals of Writing a Viral Blog Post

Content is the king always!!

With millions of posts being created out there on a daily basis, it is getting more and more difficult to create viral posts.

However, there are few points which when strictly followed will greatly enhance the chances of every post that you create to go viral.

If you ask any successful blogger what’s their secret to getting a loyal audience, they will always say that “you need to have amazing content”

The secret is not “WHAT”, it is “HOW”, how can you make that same content that you already have into one which will make your readers go crazy.

So, to create these viral blog posts I thought I should give a try at analyzing different viral blog posts from different bloggers so as to discover their common traits (although it took me more than six months to do so and still learning new pointers…!!)

Understand your target audience

Understanding your audience is the first thing that you need to do.

But the irony is that it is the last thing that crosses the minds of most of the bloggers.

It is common for every blogger to have only a few of the posts to be widely popular whereas other the contents on their blog are getting less traffic.

Even after inserting plenty of links to their slow posts on every viral blog post, those slow posts can’t get off the ground.

That’s because it simply doesn’t align with the audience's needs.

Before creating every post, you need to do this.

generate viral content ideas

Ask yourself “Are people looking for a solution to this particular problem”

Don’t just guess, look for blog comments, look on social media, look for which type of posts your competitors are going for.

This will give you an approximate percentage of the audience looking for this problem which you are going to solve for them.

Do you know BuzzSumo?

Well, it’s the only tool that I use to generate those viral content ideas.

You can search for almost any topic you are interested in and it will show you most shared posts related to that on social media.

Then scan through that list and look for similar related posts.

go ahead and ask them

This is the other way I go for blog post idea hunting and it might sound simple but it's really powerful.

I cannot tell you how much I love doing this with my audience.

It not only gives you what your existing audience is looking for but also strengthens your bond with them.

They feel like there is an actual person behind this blog and that blogger is really talking to me.

Also, the reply that you get will clearly direct you to their most intense problem and that is going to be your next blog post idea.

always have an end goal

If you are writing a post, make sure you write it with an end goal in your mind.

If you are writing your reviews on a product then your end goal would include driving affiliate sales for that product.

With this goal, when you will be writing, you will think about which places of your post are most valuable, places that are most profitable to include your affiliate offer.

Won’t this strategy drive up your sales?

So before doing anything have a clear goal in your mind about what you are trying to achieve in this post and how you are planning to do it.

Outline your content

After deciding on what you want to write on, the next big thing you need to worry about is to

“Is your post going to solve this problem partially or completely”

It should give actionable tips that your reader can apply right away.

Having theory and making them explain how this works is good but take this one step further and give them steps for how to make that happen for them.

This, my friend, is what will make your content more contagious.

do keyword research

Before writing your headline you need to decide which keyword you are targeting this post for.

Keywords are what your reader's type in search engines to look for answers.

So, if you want to drive traffic from Pinterest then all you need to do is go to the search bar and type your main topic.

Pinterest will then show you all the keywords that are related to it.

This way you can discover new keywords and target your post for those ones.

To know the search volume of any keywords, you need to go to Pinterest ads and create a new ad.

Scroll to keyword section of ad and type in your keyword to know search volume.

Once you decide on which keyword to go for, lightly stuff it in your content but make sure it looks natural.

Also, add the same keyword to your description and image alt texts.

craft your killer headline

Your headline should be super-attractive, something that can make your readers feel like they are going to miss something if they don’t read this.

But make sure that your headline is not a clickbait, where your content is something else and your headline says a totally different thing.

To craft a killer headline, first, write a single sentence that can summarize your content.

Next, insert the keyword that you are targeting this post for.

Then replace your plain words with emotion-packed words and rearrange to make it compelling.

For example, “how to write a viral blog post” can be converted to “10 steps to make your blog post go viral” or “My secrets to nail viral blog post each time”

And bear in mind that for some people it takes a bit of time to get really good at this, all you can do for now is to practice as much as you can.

Another thing to consider is that for each blog post, I generally create at least 5 headlines and use it to create different Pinterest pins.

The reason behind this is that you never know which headline will work best with your audience, having at least 5 gives you higher chances of getting your post viral.

compelling intro makes the difference

The secret to creating a viral blog post is to study those which have gone viral. Duh!

While I was doing that I discovered that all the viral content starts with an astounding summary.

Let me clarify this for you.

First, you used your keyword to get your content in front of your ideal audience.

Next, you had your tempting headline that made your reader click on your post.

After this you surely don’t want to just start your content right away, you still need to drag that emotion out of your reader to convince them to keep reading and that is why you need a compelling intro.

First, start your intro by stating the problem that your post is going to solve.

To make it more effective, add your personal story to it, share your personal experience of difficulties you were suffering from such a problem.

This allows your reader to connect with you.

Then include all the benefits that you got after following all the steps in your post, this makes them imagine the end results that they can achieve by following your posts.

Key to success with the intro is a personal story, nothing beats a personal touch, so always make sure you include your personal experience and make it a little more intense to stir things up.

make the content more valuable

A picture says a thousand words.

This is true for your post too.

If you look at most viral pins on Pinterest, about 60% are infographic.

I know that creating these does take a lot of time, but they are worth it.

If you cannot create these then at least have images in your posts, having images makes your content more lively and adds a touch of glitter to it.

Similarly, make sure you use Statistical Data wherever you can, this not only supports the facts that you are sharing with your audience as a proof but also building your authority.

Content creation should always be derived from personal experience or from facts, don’t just write stuff because you think it works like that, test it yourself and share your results.

Also try to create an in-depth post, post which covers all the details that are needed to know and doesn’t leave your readers with doubt.

And if you feel like publishing all the content in a single post is too much to digest, always try to chunk it into series, this way you don’t overwhelm your reader and have sufficient space to make your point.