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15 Website Content Hacks A-List Bloggers Use To Create Viral Content

By:     Topics: Get Web Traffic

Whether you are a blogger, an eCommerce business, or a SaaS company, you will want to create website content that gets shared and re-shared thousands, even millions of times.

You want to create Viral Content!

Every blogger dreams of publishing a viral post that goes to the Moon in terms of traffic.

The thing is…

Most people don’t know which of their website content will go viral.

Just ask the girl who asked why math exists [1].

website content marketing

15 Ways To Make Your Website Content Go Viral

What is Viral Website Content?

Viral content is website content that achieves a high level of awareness because of shares and exposure on social media networks, news websites, aggregators, email newsletters, and search engines. Sometimes it can be as simple as a Meme that comes as a video or an image with one or two lines of text.

We have written articles on how to create viral website content before.

This is an updated look at creating website content that goes VIRAL!

While a foolproof formula to make content go viral has YET to be discovered, we think we are close.

Research continues to prove that virality results from your audience’s ability to make a deep, emotional connection to your content.

In an interview with Forbes, Emerson Spartz, founder, and CEO of Dose suggests you create a lot of content and see what clicks [2].

How To Create Viral Content

Here’s our list of the top 15 ways to make viral content.

1. Issue a Challenge

In 2007 Red Bull had Travis Pastrana jump out of an airplane without a parachute? [3]

There is no way you would get me to do something like that!

Challenges seem to be the craze these days too.

Scroll through your social media feed and you’re bound to see some influencers doing some crazy challenge.

The great thing is that you don’t need to do something as crazy as the no parachute stunt.

Here are 75 online challenges to get you started today. Not all of these will work for every niche, but with a bit of imagination, you could end up hitting that home run you have been dreaming of.

2. Use Viral Content Marketing Tools

.

viral content marketing tools

I’d bet the majority of viral website content that you see makes use of some kind of research and automation tool or tools.

Perhaps one of the following:

3. Your Viral Content Should Evoke Positive Emotions (?)

15 Ways To Come Up With Viral Website Content

OK, not strictly true.

Much too often negative content will evoke negative angry emotions and your content will go viral. (Think politics and religion)

But that is not us.

There’s enough negativity in the world and many people are looking for an alternative.

Viral content often provokes a positive emotional response from its audience.

Take a look at stories that have gone viral recently and you’ll find many evoke happiness, calmness, inspiration, or get a good laugh.

Most people tend to gravitate towards content that makes them feel good.

This is why stories of people doing nice things or acts of kindness have been heavily shared during the Covid-19 Outbreak.

It is also good for your health.

4. Give Your Website Visitors Something Useful

The best things in life are free.

That’s why people tend to share content they find useful and doesn’t cost anything.

For example, here’s a high-value freebie we created:

How To Create An Authority Website

You can create articles that answer people’s questions or a video that teaches something.

Find a solution to a particularly difficult problem affecting a lot of people.

The bigger the problem you are solving, the more likely it will be shared in significant numbers.

You’ll be surprised at the thousands or even millions of views your content gathers overnight.

When it comes to things you’re passionate about, you typically know more about the topic than 95% of your audience.

5. Create an Interactive Experience

Create an experience your website visitors will want to share with others.

As mentioned above, the best things in life are free.

Aside from learning something for free, people also like getting stuff for free – no matter how small.

You can achieve this in several ways:

  • Get your audience to submit photos or videos with a trendy hashtag you made up. (It is fun when your made-up hashtag goes trending on Twitter and Instagram!)
  • Have a giveaway event. Have people play a game and win prizes. This is a good guide to viral contests.
  • Answer some trivia questions
  • Take a quiz – check out this guide to using quizzes in content marketing.

6. Don’t Be Fake (Don’t mislead your audience)

No one likes getting fooled, especially after getting their emotions up.

Never create fake content or lie about something that happened in an attempt to induce virality.

The backlash you’ll get when people find out can be fierce.

You may find that people roasting you on social media is ballooning substantially more than your viral attempt.

In a way, this will make your content viral but for all the wrong reasons.

Remember, most people have tremendous BS detectors.

Here’s an interesting study about Online authenticity, popularity, and the “Real Me” in a microblogging environment.

7. Keep With the Times

If you’re struggling to discover topics on which to base your content, you can always check out what’s currently trending.

Google Trends is great for that.

Look through the news, popular songs, music, sports, and even memes.

Remember when there was an upcoming Avengers movie?

You saw an influx of superhero-based content – like articles explaining their origin or comparing the movies to the comics – gain popularity.

In addition to Google Trends, here are few sites for keeping an eye on what’s trending:

8. Viral Blog Posts Must be Readable (Duh!)

15 viral website content strategies winning bloggers implement

When you’re creating website content with the hopes of virality, make sure readers understand it.

Yes, I know, obvious!

But you’ll be surprised how many articles are out there which contain gems of inspiration and great storytelling, yet are hidden under heaps of syntax, grammatical, or spelling errors.

This may be due to the writer having poor skills or mistranslation from another language.

(OK, Memes can sometimes be the exception to this, but bloggers who want to be A-List Bloggers will make sure their Memes are grammatically correct)

Point is, it’s best for your content to be easily understood by your audience. (and errors put people off!)

Whether you create infographics, video, product listings, or blog posts, copywriting is a critical aspect of online success.

This free copywriting course will help you become a better copywriter.

9. Celebrate Special Occasions

Special occasions are a great time to create viral content. (Christmas, Anniversaries, Birthdays)

Some years ago a friend launched a special sale of his product, to coincide with his 30th birthday.

Frankly, I thought it was naff.

I was wrong!

His audience loved it and it was one of his biggest sales ever.

You’ll often see social networking sites and other companies come up with holiday-specific hashtags to leverage the occasion.

Try out some of the other entries on this list and make them holiday-specific.

Be sure to maximize your reach by Including your content in:

10. Use Listicles For Content Inspiration

15 Ways To Come Up With Viral Website Content

Among the various types of online content, the listicle (article in list form) seems to be one of the most popular.

Just look at this very website.

Articles with headlines like “Top X Ways to do Something” or “X Best Products for [insert year]” seem to attract more readers.

To ensure your readers’ attention, remember to put relevant images in your lists.

Here’s How I Get Over 100,000 Readers Per Month With Top List Articles

11. Good Infographics Get Shared! (a lot!)

 

viral content marketing

Another form of content that people gravitate towards is the infographic.

These specifically designed images contain all the information otherwise contained in an article.

The beauty here is that you don’t need to be a pro to make your infographics.

Before you create an Infographic:

a) Decide who the audience is for your infographic.

b) The goals you’re trying to achieve with the infographic

c) And of course, the Topic!

This excellent guide from the excellent folks at VISME is one of the best we have found on the subject of creating infographics.

And here are some more simple and free tools to help you create your own viral infographic:

12. Make Simple Videos and Add Them To Your Website Content

One of the first viral videos I encountered was Jesus vs Santa, (some will find it offensive). It is a short cartoon from the eventual creators of South Park.

It came out when YouTube wasn’t even a thought yet, in fact, most people still didn’t have email.

People were copying it onto VHS and sharing it with their friends…

The great thing about making viral videos is that you don’t need to hire cinematographers to make them.

You’ll often see shorter, less than 5 minutes, videos do better than more expensively produced short films.

Here’s the Ultimate Guide To Making Your Videos Interactive.

13. Connect With Influencers

Influencers can help you spread your content to hundreds of thousands and even millions of people.

You’ll pay or exchange a percentage of profits for their service, but you’ll be surprised by how quickly you get your money back once your content goes viral.

Consider reaching out to influencers directly by including them in your content and letting them know about it.

Or by utilizing the following tools:

Another great way to connect with and utilize influencers is by interviewing them.

When you interview an influencer, there’s a good chance they notify their followers.

14. Get Viral Content Inspiration From The Best Viral Sites

If you’ve tried everything and still have yet to make your content go viral, you can always look for inspiration from other websites.

You’ll find that some websites seem to always have content going viral.

Learn something from them.

Here is a list of some of the Best Viral Sites.

You’ll find plenty of other options, just do a search engine search.

Pick a few of the best viral sites and scan them for ideas and inspiration.

15. Identify The Purpose Of Your Website Content

The moment you clarify your purpose, it enables you to locate sources for the data and content you need.

For example, if you want to acquire more clients who want to make more money online, you need to locate authoritative business and online entrepreneurship websites then extract data from them.

You could simply go to Google and type in the following search strings:

  • Entrepreneur growth statistics + blog
  • Case study + Entrepreneur + statistics + revenue
  • Entrepreneur revenue growth + data

Substitute the word “Entrepreneur” for something more relevant to your own niche.

At the end of the day, a viral hit is the product of a highly emotional experience.

Keep this in mind, the next time you’re looking to produce viral content.

Related Articles About Creating Website Content That Goes Viral.

-> Free Copywriting course BETTER than the BEST ever

-> 33 Ways To Find Viral Content For Your Next Blog Post

-> How to Go Viral on YouTube: Profiles in Video Marketing

Like this article about Website Content?

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Author Bio:
“BarryBarry Dunlop is a lifelong Entrepreneur, Blockchain Investor, Business Coach, and Sales Turnaround Expert who is passionate about helping business owners grow their businesses and enjoy a better life while doing it. To interview Barry or invite him on your Podcast make contact HERE or connect with Barry on LinkedIn

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