You always start with an idea.
The idea may come to you from any source, book, blog, magazine, or life event. And potentially, any idea suiting your niche is good, because it can be something your readers have an interest in. Definitely, any idea can bring readers and fans to your blog if you market it well. However, when it comes to virality you can’t stop at having a “good idea”. For it to go viral, your idea needs to be perfect (not just good) for your audience. ‘Perfect’ here means it will resonate so strongly in the minds and hearts of your readers that they’ll go “I must share this RIGHT. NOW. It’s one that can bring the change I was looking for!” It’s ‘change’ because, before reading your post, your readers never really found the answer(s) they were looking for. This is when your post goes viral – when it makes a difference.
- Does Your Idea Resonate with Your Audience?
This is the first aspect you should consider after coming up with your idea. In other words, is this idea something your audience would love to read? Will it spark curiosity? Will it answer their most pressing questions? Your marketing data can help you decide whether this is a doable idea and something of interest to your audience. Readers want to follow a blogger with a like mind. When you understand your audience well enough that you feel like your brains work on the same frequency, that’s when your blog ideas will always resonate with your audience and… go viral.
- Does Your Idea Solve A Reader’s Problem?
Think about it: does your idea offer a solution to a problem that a good slice of your audience is facing? Or does it respond even to a single reader’s question? This is important because the blog post that will be born from your idea will go viral if your readers can find answers, solutions, comfort in it. Your post will be something they can’t do without. That will be like finally getting the prescription to buy that medicine that turns your life for the better. That may also mean asking readers to share their biggest concerns and then create a blog post that answers them
- Are There Studies and Statistics to Support Your Idea?
Source - Google images
In other words, is your idea just opinion or can you support it with existing studies and reports? And when you did come up with this idea, were you digging up research or was it based on something you felt you had to talk about? While a research-based idea might work better for a niche or business blog, ideas based on opinion and feelings can still get traction if you back them up with research. Of course, a simple opinion piece might work but it will be difficult to make it go viral, because it will be like a personal blog entry – interesting, nice to read, but with little share value (unless you were Seth Godin). Readers in a niche come for information: they’ll still be interested in your opinion but they want to know if your opinion works, so if you’re going to create a post around opinion, then you have to offer examples, case studies and existing research that you used as a base to produce your idea or model. That way, it can work toward engagement and virality. They want to know that you can bring true value to the table.
- Can You Expand Your Idea With Expert Interviews?
Source - Google images
Your take, research and opinion may not be enough to satiate your readers’ hunger for knowledge. They may want to know more, hear another voice than just yours. This is when you may want to interview experts. Interviews will also work to your advantage. Having expert quotes in your post will up the chances of having your post read and trusted as authoritative, shared and cited. When you involve others, all their friends and people in their networks will be informed about their favorite person, friend or colleague being interviewed – so you will not just put yourself in front of your audience, but also their audience and that will double (or more) your chances to see your post go viral. That’s because many people will be sharing it, liking it and maybe commenting it (and maybe they will subscribe). Also, you may be able to put your blog in front of the influencers who have your experts in the network. It’s likely that an expert in any niche or field will have at least one influencer in their network. An influencer who is exposed to your post because it features a person they know and trust will most likely be interested in you, too, because you will be perceived as wise for choosing their contact as your expert.
- Does Your Idea Cover the Angle for the Topic Entirely?
Source - Google images
Your idea should answer a question, tackle a problem or offer a complete guide, and it better be comprehensive unless it’s part of a series or you’re trying to build a community and your posts act like discussion threads. Do not frustrate the reader’s expectations! If you promised a guide to go from 0 to 1,000 subscribers in 10 days, you should provide all the steps and the techniques your reader will need to get a thousand subscribers in little more than a week. If you skip important steps, tools and methods, you will leave your reader frustrated and they will abandon the article quickly. Leaving things out is definitely not a good idea and especially not one that will help your post go viral. Of course, you will want to leave your points open enough for discussion. The best way to do this is not to hold back information, but to remove the fluff, keep your post on point and ask your readers questions at the end of each point or at the end of the post.
- Is This Idea Something You’d Love to Read About?
What if you were a visitor stumbling upon your blog or a loyal reader coming to see what new amazing content you have up? If you were them, what would you expect to read? What would you really love to learn from your blog to put to use right away? Putting yourself in your reader’s shoes will help you look at your idea with new eyes and visualize exactly what you need to change in order to make it into a really memorable post. And avoid all those ideas that will bore or annoy the reader, or make them go “not this same ol’ stuff again!” or “so what?” When you post in a niche, you want your readers to:
See you as the go-to resource to get the information they need
Find information they can use and not just entertain themselves with in their free time
Feel they can trust the information you provide
Feel that you are a friend who cares about them and who they can count on
A great post that goes viral has all these four ingredients, plus the “I’ve been looking for this for so long! Gotta share it!” feeling.
3 Questions to Assess Your Post Before Publication :
a. Does your post evoke emotions in your beta readers?
b. Does the Post Evoke Emotions in You, the Writer?
c. Do the Mentioned Sources Carry Outreach Potential?
Summing It Up…
A blog post idea has potential to go viral when:
It resonates with the reader
It answers the reader’s most pressing problems
You can support it with research
It can be expanded with the contribution of experts
It inspires trust, it’s engaging and conveys authority
It covers all it means to convey
It’s something you’d love to read yourself
It makes a difference in your reader’s life
From Heart
Dr. Great Success
