How to Create a Viral Blog Post - Case Study

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Hey Wealthy Affiliate!

I love reading case studies and learning new tricks from them. If you look through my WA blog history you'll find a lot of post where I talk about the theory of things, however lately I've been trying to post advice that can be tracked. This is yet another post where I will be revealing actual results that I got from applying a "theory".

So first the stats. My blog gets about 300 unique visitors per day. A few days ago I published a post and got 5 times that! Take a look:

The next day I got over 1,000 uniques, then 600 and for the past few days I've been at about 400.

This is not a fluke. I didn't get lucky or anything, this was planned.

Now I apologize for calling this blog viral as it really isn't. However getting 1500 people to my site in 1 day when I normally around 300 sure feels like "viral" to me :) Besides, the title got your attention, didn't it?


The Blog Post

It all started with a blog post idea. I realized that I search keywords such as "best entrepreneur books 2015" and "best business books 2014" quite a few times, because I love reading and always looking for a new book.

Quick look at keyword tools and there are certainly people looking for such keywords. However, in order to stay relevant I had to create a post for 2016, this is where the title idea was born:

"30 Books Every Entrepreneur Should Read in 2016" (you can read it here: http://blog.extra-paycheck.com/business-books-you-should-read-in-2016 )

I didn't look at keyword competitiveness or anything of that. I know people are looking for such information, Entrepreneur, Inc, BusinessInsider and many other major publications all posted some kind of lists of books (usually 5-7-10 best books to read).

I knew that if I want to compete with such giants I had to make a better list. Also a bigger list. This is when I decided to settle on 30 titles.

From that point I spent many hours thinking of all the books I read in the past 2 years. Looking them up on Amazon and refreshing my memory. Then I started writing.

My main goal was to provide a description for every book so the reader knows if this is something they would like to read or not. It ended up being around 4,000 words. I added images of each book, my personal "min-review" as well as links to Amazon.

Affiliate links... I knew that although most of my blog audience is from USA, about 15-20% of them are coming from UK and Canada. So I used GeniusLink to set up my affiliate links. What Genius Link does is basically redirect a visitor from Canada to the respective Canadian Amazon listing. The visitor from UK would end up on Amazon .co.uk instead of .com.

Because if a Canadian clicks your Amazon link and ends up on American Amazon, they'll have to open a Canadian Amazon and buy from there - meaning you would lose a potential commission.

Anyway, so I wrote the blog post. Now let's wait for traffic, right? NO! Content is just a part of the battle.


Promotion

After I finished writing the article and spell-checking it 4 times (I am sure it still has some typos), I've decided to share it on Social Media. Sure, I shared it on my FB, Twitter and Google+.

But then I went further.

Facebook

I looked for Facebook Groups (not pages) that catered to entrepreneurs. Now spamming is not the way to go. I looked through those group's rules, paid attention to what people share and how they share.

When posting a link I also wrote a quick description, something along these lines:

"Hey entrepreneurs! 2016 just started and I am sure that reading more books is a resolution for many of you! To make your life easier I've compiled a list of most helpful (in my experience) business books that you should check out in this year. Got a great suggestion to add to the list? Make sure to share it in the comments".

And that's what I posted in 2 different groups. I got lots of comments and HUNDREDS of shares on social media.

Personal

I have personally spoken to 2 authors whose books made my list. So I contacted the authors and told them about it. I ended the email with a line: "Please feel free to share this post with your fans, I am sure they're looking for more books to read and they would appreciate it".

Needless to say, both authors shared the post.

Reddit

Reddit hates self promotion and normally I would suggest against promoting your stuff on Reddit unless you are an avid user there and know what Reddit likes and hates.

I got mixed feedback and a cool 300-400 visitors to my site over a few days. Some of the members reached out to me and told me how much they love the list and how they'll be sharing it with friends.

Earnings & Results

Making money was not the main goal of the post (although extra earning are always awesome). So far the post has earned:

  • $21 USD
  • $16 CAD
  • £2 UK pounds

Besides Amazon earnings I got about 80 new subscribers to my email list. In those 3 days I got a higher number of WA free membership signups as well. I also got messages from people telling me they saw the post and that loved my podcast or loved my blog.

It's really awesome to see: "Alex, you've got yourself a new LOYAL follower! Love your content!" This was the main goal. To find more people who would like reading my content.


The End?

To conclude, I am very happy with this experiment and I am sure it can be replicated in any niche on any day.

Is it the end though? Nah.

I know that trying to outrank some of the world's biggest website is almost impossible. However, I will try to work on that a little.

On the third day of publishing the article I checked the first 10 pages of Google search results and I was nowhere to be found. However at the moment of writing this:

best entrepreneur books 2016 - Ranked 19th

best business books 2016 - Ranked 61st

Also the post is ranked on the 1st-2nd page for many other long tail keyword phrases. I will keep you updated If I ever get to the front page.

Lesson

1. Writing content isn't enough. Search your keyword, open top 10 Google results and read through the content. If you want to have a slightest chance of ranking on the first page you have to make sure your content is much better than all the other posts in the top 10.

2. Writing amazing content isn't enough. You have to promote it. Be creative, think of how you can find the perfect audience for your content and let them know about it.

3. Profit ;)


Any questions? Comments? Please let me know!

Alex


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Recent Comments

76

Wow Alex! This is great informative blog. Thanks to you I have now more ideas on how to get more traffic. I will surely try this out with FB groups. Thanks a lot.

Sure! Just make sure you understand the group's posing rules. They're all different ;)

I'll keep that in mind Alex. Thanks. :)

Hi Alex, great blog and sincerity. Thanks for sharing. Jack

Thanks for checking it out ;)

Hey.

thank you for a great post.
All the best.

Michelle

Hi Michelle!

I am very happy to hear you like this post ;)
- Alex

A great case study and a great story to remember and learn from. Congratulations!

Thanks for reading. Glad to hear you liked it ;)

Wow well done :) I wonder about the commission you receive from amazon.co.uk. Did you sign up for every amazon region or just sign up in amazon.com and you will still receive commission from amazon.co.uk?

Bro this is important! Sign up to all geo Amazons you can. If you already have .com - sign up to .ca, .co.uk, .de and everyone else.

What helped me to get approved is mentioning that I am already an affiliate of .com but I would love to expand :)

Okay thanks Alex for the information :) Will do it right now. Is it mentioned in the basic training? I'm surprised this is an important thing but didn't realize it until reading your post (or maybr I just forgot about it) @.@

It's not mentioned anywhere because usually most of the traffic comes from US, which makes amazon .com the most popular choice ;)

Well yeah, i can see that :) Thanks Alex. I made a blog about this matter: If you have some spare time, kindly leave a comment there about Genius Link :)

Great job!

Thanks for checking it out ;)

Well done. Now tell us what is genius link.

It's a plug in, it optimizes Amazon product links for global audience which allows you to earn commissions on sales outside of your jurisdiction. Hopes this answers your question...

Carole, great explanation!
Now if someone still isn't clear on what GeniusLink is, just Google it.

No joke, Google is your BEST friend.

It seems to me your experiment was a success and gives me some ideals all the best Max

Thanks for reading, Max!
I sure hope to see you succeed with similar strategy ;)

yeah me too all the best Max

Nice one Alex. This is kind of blog post worth reading. Great sharing.

Recently there blog post from someone who blog post in WA for mainly promote WA which I find he is not really sincere to share his tips and rescources. I not going to mention who he is and unfolllw him

Thanks so much for checking it out ;)

I an very picky when I select people to follow, inside and outside of WA ;)

Alex,
That is awesome! You have taken your site and contents to a new level that teaches us that we have to think outside the box if we want to succeed!
Thanks for sharing and hope you can continue!
Sheila

Thanks for checking it out.
Now I hope WA folks won't just read my post and forget about it. This how ABSOLUTELY anyone withing the program can make their first dollars online.

Alex

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