The Secrets of a Viral Blog Post: What These 3 Authors Can Teach Us

Almost every business wants their content to “go viral”.

Creating a viral article, photo, video, or infographic can quickly supercharge brand awareness. In many cases, it leads to sales. Even if you’re not in the Fortune 500, having a viral blog post will spread the word about your business and bring you new leads.

Which is why it’s no surprise that most businesses want to create viral content.

But there is no specific formula for creating a viral hit. There are, however, some basic elements present in every post that goes viral. Rather than just bring up these elements, I’ve dissected 3 viral posts and analyzed what made them viral.

Here they are:

Viral Post #1 – 5 Optical Illusions That Prove You Can’t Trust Your Own Mind by Preston Xander

This article by Preston Xander shows 5 optical illusions, and then explains the trick behind each illusion and the reason your brain is susceptible to such tricks.

About the Website: Cracked.com publishes funny, list-type articles from both ends of the spectrum, from geeky Science stuff, to sports, tech, and celebrities. Their audience is smart, savvy, and opinionated people who appreciate a good laugh, even if they’re reading about a serious topic.

Viral Statistics: This post has a whopping 545,178 page views and a thousand plus comments.

The author wasn’t afraid to write what he thought. He combined a healthy dose of profanity, humor, and attention-grabbing subheadings.

If the blog wasn’t funny or interesting enough, there’s a good chance that majority of the readers won’t read through the end. The blog will just be dismissed as a typical psychological doodad, and its number of readers and shares will drastically decline, further proving the statistics that people prefer to read – and share – surprising and interesting content.

Lastly, the headline is intriguing and is phrased specifically how “you” can’t trust “your own” mind, unlike headlines that use “people,” “everyone” or other generic words.

Key Takeaway #1:

Snarky comments and humor can make a boring topic into an interesting, share-able blog post that’s informative but won’t bore you to tears. Writers in finance and tech know that the procedures and jargon in their industry are hard to understand, so they explain hard to understand concepts by using layman terms and examples.

But why stop at that?

Easy-to-understand content about a technical subject is common. People expect you to make things simpler for them. If you make it an enjoyable read though, that’s what will make the blog post stand out and viral.

Viral Post #2 – Customer Joe Gibson Outraged After Father’s Day Receipt At Friendly’s Sports Bar Curses Out His Son by Ryan Grenoble

In this Huffington Post article by Ryan Grenoble, a man and his son ate at a sports bar and got a rude comment on their receipt on Father’s Day.

About the Website The Huffington Post is a news and blog aggregation website; it’s like a newspaper in terms of content with the addition of videos and comments.

Viral Statistics: 400+ Facebook shares and over 1,600 on-site comments.

Human-interest stories are always in demand, especially stories that incite anger, and awe. People are drawn to content that upsets them because:

• They had a similar experience. We’ve all received bad service at one point or another.
• Based on that, they are compelled to share their opinion on what happened or what should have happened
• It makes readers feel as if they have to take a side, whether to agree or disagree with the writer or the other commenters.

It got many shares because people want to warn others not to go there. It’s a classic example of how word-of-mouth publicity works.

The article is also structured like a typical newspaper story, where the climax is above the fold, and the less interesting details are in the succeeding paragraphs.

It was also written ambiguously so that it’s not easy for people to tell who is right. Friendly’s (the bar) broke some of their house rules to accommodate the said customers, which then raises the question, “Did they deserve the service they got?”

Key Takeaway #2:

If you’re writing about business or for PR, put the most emotionally compelling parts on the headline and at the beginning of your articles to grab the reader’s attention. You’ll also get more comments if you leave room for people to speculate and add their own opinion.

Viral Post #3 – How to Create a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend by Noah Kagan

This how-to blog post by Noah Kagan shows us how to find a million-dollar business idea and start it in one weekend. This topic is usually covered in detail in heavy entrepreneurship books, but this post does just that with screenshots and concrete, easy-to-follow steps.

About the Website: Noah Kagan’s blog post was published on Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Workweek blog, a supporting website to his bestselling book The 4 Hour Workweek. It’s filled with lengthy and instructional posts on entrepreneurship, online marketing, and language learning.

Viral Statistics: 400+ comments and thousands of social shares

There are many things that made this blog post a viral success, and we will discuss them in detail:

Attention grabbing title. Headlines like this make people stop in their tracks and think, “Hey, I need to read this!”

Influential writer with an existing audience. This was written by startup superstar, Noah Kagan of Appsumo. He was one of the first employees on Facebook and Mint. He is a thought leader in the startup sphere, and this added to the credibility of the post. Instead of doing all the work, you can take a lesson from Noah’s guest post and interview experts in your field to add more insight and personality to your content.

It’s relatable. This post points out and addresses the psychological barriers people associate with starting a business (Noah calls it being a “wantrepreneur”). Apart from that, the article also challenges a very common belief: that picking profitable business ideas is either very difficult or based on luck.

Informative and instructional. This post tells you what to do, and how to do it, even the calculations people don’t like doing were simplified. Plus, there’s a specific objective and timeline for completing each task, so readers can easily tell if they are making progress.

Humor and positive reinforcements. It’s a serious topic, one that people have many anxieties about (picking a business idea), but Noah keeps it light by inserting a joke or two in between paragraphs. Congratulatory notes after each step also work wonders in nudging people to continue reading, especially after they’ve managed to complete an intimidating task.

Easy to follow outline and helpful images. Conventional wisdom tells us that lengthy articles don’t go viral, but a study proves otherwise. Lengthy articles with a practical utility are shared – a lot! The layout of this blog post is simple: headline, subheadings, specific instructions, related pictures, and call to action. Readers won’t feel lost because what they need to do is clearly stated in chronological order, complete with images and links to show them the way.

Key Takeaway #3:

Grab a complex thought or project that your readers are curious about and simplify it in such a way that makes it easier for them to act on.

What do these 3 authors teach us about viral blog posts?

Looking back at these 3 viral articles, we can easily summarize the elements that made them so successful:

• Don’t be afraid of personality. Have a unique voice, and use humor if you have to.
• Use an emotionally compelling story – preferably one that forces the reader to take sides.
• Break down complex subjects or projects into something simple, concrete, and easy-to-do.

There you have it, the makings of a viral blog post.

So the next time you’re about to post an entry for your blog, go back to this post and measure how it sizes up based on these final points. With all these elements in play, plus a strong effort to promote it, you can expect a decent boost in your site’s traffic.

Have you shared a viral blog post before? If so, what compelled you to share it?

About the Author:

Charley Mendoza helps professionals in finance & business improvement create a network of paying clients that will bring in more leads to their business through content marketing and social media – even if they have no idea where to start. Connect with her on LinkedIn here.

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