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So you want to go Viral?

Are you sure you haven’t?

When one person spreads your blog or site to another without your direct involvement, you just went viral. When enough people do it at once, you have an epidemic.

What about those 294 hits from Stumble that got you 3 links to your blog? That is the true viral effect of good blogging; the steady spread of good quality posts that will bring a growing flow of readers, which will bring more hits, more readers, more links. The never ending and creeping exponential growth that builds on itself perpetually. This is true viral marketing.

As soon as you realize what viral marketing really is, you’ll realize that what you probably  associated with it, is merely the sensational viral infection. The Ebola level of viral.

Although the Ebola effect is going to be great for your ego the day it hits, it’s going to hit, and disappear. And the traffic you get is probably not going to be based on what you are really about, but more on one single article. If you can’t keep that level, they won’t be coming back for long. The problem here is that the Ebola level isn’t what the smart blogger wants. A blogger wants something that hits, sticks, and keeps spreading.

You Don’t Want to be Ebola, You Want to Be Herpes

Ebola is sensational, it’s a once off event that is hard - if not impossible - to maintain. And since so many are misinterpreting the true value of the “lesser infection” they are all shooting for the sensationalism. Link Bait headlines that are a stretch at best to fit into the article. Fabricating entire stories the list of tricks is long. And it works sometimes, but even when it does, it doesn’t translate to what you want.

You want to target the right people. 100 targeted visitors are better than 1000 random ones any day. Why? because if they are targeted, chances are that you have something they want to see more of. You will get return visits, and referrals, links and comments. As you get those, you’ll get more readers, more people that can spread you to others. That’s viral marketing!

Ebola levels of Viral Marketing are most commonly achieved by creating something amazing that isn’t necessarily well targeted. It’s often funny, shocking, and widely appealing. Which is why it takes off like it does. People like the advertising, but couldn’t care less about the product. Which means that for you to do it again, you have to repeat the feat that didn’t bring you the right people to begin with.

If you shoot for the lower levels, constantly repeating small successes, you will eventually see your spread increasing. When this happens, your chances of hitting those epidemic levels increase every time you post a good article. It goes back to the one percent rule. It’s always better to slowly progress than to have spikes of traffic that quickly disappear.

Instant Gratification - Or Long Term Success?

If you are looking for an ego boost, then it’s great. If you are looking to grown over the long term. It’s better to aim for solid, repeatable quality. When you can bring one person back over and over, you will eventually get passed on to someone else. Repeat readers like RSS Subscribers are your best bet for achieving this.

A company that got it right never had Diggs front page to rely on, for them it was a matter of getting their name out there one person at a time. Every time that person used their service, it spread a little further. No real fireworks, no goofy guy’s home movie to sell them over YouTube.

You might have heard of Hotmail once or twice yourself. They did it by adding their link to the bottom of every email sent from one of their accounts. One at a time, they spread the word.

If you constantly shoot for the Epidemics, you’ll constantly be disappointed. If you aim for a silent spreading infection that perpetuates with every post you make. You are going to see some amazing results.

(Yes, the title of this post is Viral in itself - I’ll let you know how it went)