For quite some time I have been trying to find a way to win the blogging lottery. I am referring to that story that takes on a viral life of its own. You know the type, you probably receive one in your email inbox on a regular basis.
Its the story that gets passed around, linked around, emailed around and commented upon on CNN even. I'm not talking about reporting or blogging facts here.
I am talking about blogging or writing a piece of humor/humour or sarcasm that takes on a life of its own.
I don't want to create the article du jour for The Onion. I don't even really want the YouTube video that 6 million people view. I want that crazy article that you get in your email that you just have to show your friends, your coworkers, your parents, maybe even your kids - ok probably not your kids.
I have taken a few meager swings at this from time to time, like when I covered the Harry Potter Witch Trial about a year ago, when a 'reformed' Wiccan Witch saw the light and testified against Harry Potter in my city.
I've tried several crazy different diatribes. Even last night I kicked off a new effort focused on the Clinton Administration bombing of Al Qaeda in 1998 with a cruise missile carrying a warhead of weaponized exctasy and viagra, recently covered in the news as the Gay Bomb.
I don't expect this one to be 'the one' but I keep trying. I learn a little more each time, but this seems to be a much tougher objective to accomplish than your typical link building strategy or marketing campaign. I'm not trying to hit a line drive or just make it onto first base. I'm trying to hit a grand slam out of the park, when I normally just barely get on base.
Performancing has blogging Pro's from around the world. I'm curious if anyone here has ever pulled off one of these grand slams and what lessons you learned from the effort.
- Do you have any tips to pass on?
- Best Practices?
- Mistakes to Avoid?
Lists seem popular
Well, you probably wouldn't consider this a "grand slam", but I did make it to the front page of Digg with this story:
http://portablevideogamer.com/2007/04/the-top-five-ds-wi-fi-games/
Which, for me is a big deal since my site went from like 200 visits per day to over 20,000 visits in just a couple of days. It seems to me that all of the most successful viral blog stories are lists! "100 ways you know you are a nerd," etc.
I think that appealing to people's sense of self-identity is a good strategy for ensuring that they want to spread it around. People like talking about themselves or their own social groups, right? So why not try to focus on identity markers like race, gender, nationality, or religion? Most of the links my dad sends to clog up my inbox at school are usually vaguely racist and/or misogynistic.
Great Article layout
I looked at your article and its is visibly apparent that you did a number of things very right in your article. As an example of something I noticed, I liked very much how you rotated down your list with alternating photos on the left and right side of the blog with a balanced amount of corresponding text. Its a simple thing, but visually and subtly powerful.
In general, I'm looking for more insights beyond Digg strategies. Lists and Linkbaits are definitely popular with Digg, and the repetition of many items in a category is powerful for SEO rankings from a keyword perspective.
I actually found your last paragraph more insightful. I would agree that the thing needs to tap into something personal.
Keep in mind, I'm looking for the right answer but do not know how to achieve it. That said I have some experience in seeing the real deal also and I'm essentially trying to reverse engineer the components. I'm sure I will have to make an intuitive leap at some point to go beyond the some of the parts, but first up I need the parts.
I think you have helped to guide me to another stepping stone anyone else have any insights? Or any stones to throw into the creek that I could step on next?
Brett, This list could help
Brett,
This list could help as another example of something that provokes an emotional reaction AND is viral (movie buffs are more likely to email this to their friends and what not).
The problem with a niche viral list / linkbait is that at the end of the day, it stays within the niche.
If you want to go global, you'll have to pick on something more generic and then add a twist - whether you're tapping the reader's greed (forward this list and your wish will come true), or making them angry.
Actually, apart from humor, the only two types of emotions that are more viral are greed and anger. Says a lot about society, dont it?
excellent post by the way.
Humor, Greed and Anger
Good points Ahmed and in a way I think this is somewhat affirming. This type of challenge is seems to be more emotionally driven than technically driven. I've been chasing the technical side and coming up short and I knew I was missing something.
I think I need to focus on tapping into the emotional side a bit more.
Show us Your Big Digg
This article started out being about viral stories, but the Digg examples that I have received here and in a couple PM's led me to focus in on this a bit more.
So I'm collecting Big Diggs. :)
Show me your biggest Digg!
http://digg.com/tech_news/Show_us_Your_Big_Digg
now that's good linkbait :)
now that's good linkbait :)
I thought I might need a more provocative Image
So I went with this
as opposed to this, which got bumped down to the end of the article
hilarious
Where's that photo from? Did you photoshop it?
Cropped and wrote the words in with lipstick
Some fancy urinal wall somewhere. A real wall. Truthfully, I didn't get the joke at first. A friend had to explain to me that those reactions aren't . . . . normal.
Big Digg puns have been attacking my brain all day and half the night.
Got one the other day...
It's amazing what grabs the reader's attention. Work seriously on a post that has some serious content with real quality information for the masses, written well, "praised" by your regulars and get only mediocre attention from anyone else whether they got to the site from search or links...whatever.
But...
Write up a silly, sarcastic post (using my usual dry sense of humor that no one at work understands) like the one I did recently about the latest Google vs Ebay debacle and wham(!!!)...Tons of visits from everywhere for the next day and a half, 95% of them looking in on that post. Incredible.
And this is not the only time that's happened. Sure, I've had some popular posts (for a personal type blog) but the ones that get the two day "slams" have all been short, sometimes humorous with a touch of my usual cynicism.
Go figure. It's enough to make a blogger rethink his thoughts on what goes down well with the general blog surfing public.
Would You Believe This....
A vide of Bowfishing from a boat for flying carp got posted on one of my phpBB sites.
Bowfishing For Flying Carp
The viral spread was enormous, with over 200 websites grabbing the link...so far.
It has been over 2 months, almost 100K views, and no signs of slowing down yet.
-The best part about it?
It is TARGETED traffic...meaning most all that come are interested in the ads posted above and below the posting.
Sometimes we catch lightning in a bottle, but it isn't exactly a business model by any stretch.
Luck- plain and simple.
whoa
Heartlander: That's just begging for a comment:
It's all good fun until someone gets an eye poked out. But wow is that ever a lot of jumping fish.
Death by Carp
That's a great video and I can understand the . . . hook on that one.
The carp problem is getting bad throughout the rivers of the midwest. They are literally killing people (think 80 pound fish, jumping 6 feet out of the water and a bass boat or ski boat going 45 miles an hour into the path of said flying fish.
Carp its like deer for rivers.
It's satire you're looking for...yet it so isn't
Well the kind of articles you've referenced in that post would be called satire...though deeply related to sarcasm, it's not exactly the same thing.
Also, most viral stories I've seen aren't satire - they're good fiction. Although I'm sure an excellent satire piece - if marketed right - would get it's fair share of attention.
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