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5 Ways to Capitalize on Your Next Viral Traffic

written by John Chow on May 22, 2012

Maybe you just wrote that blog post that unexpectedly went viral, or maybe you woke up in the morning to notice a spike in traffic to your blog due to a link on a bigger blog.

It might be a huge spike in social media traffic, or a sudden realization that you’ve been featured in major news outlets.

As a blogger, these kinds of situations are usually unprecedented, and knowing what to do at that very moment can be a problem.
If you’re experiencing this kind of situation, here are 5 ways you can capitalize on it.

1. Display Opt in Forms below the Viral Post

One of the best ways to capitalize on viral traffic to your blog is by displaying opt in forms inside or below the viral post.

The purpose of the opt in form should be to get people to subscribe to your blog, and it can be via RSS or Email; even though email is always preferable.

Depending on your niche and your technical abilities, this can be very difficult. You can easily hire a coder on oDesk or Elance to help you with this, or you can check out a premium plugin called Optin Skin; the plugin is a great alternative to hiring designers, and you can use it on as many sites as you own.

2. Use a Quick Link above and below the Post to Tell People to Take a Particular Action

You can also capitalize on the viral traffic you’re getting by inserting a quick link above and below the viral post asking people to take a particular action.

This action will vary depending on your niche, what you have to offer, and who your readers are.
The action could be to check out your product, it could be to subscribe to your newsletter, and it could be follow you on twitter.

No matter what action you ask readers of your article to take, it is important to make sure it is something that will end up leading them back to your blog in the future, so make sure you decide carefully.

3. Promote Your Products, or Related Affiliate Products to People Who Came as a Result of the Viral Traffic

If you’re a blogger you can be doing it for various reasons; you can be blogging because you have a passion for it, or because you want to feed yourself, or both. In either case, there’s every probability that you can make a few bucks by capitalizing on your viral post.

If you have your own products and affiliate products, you can capitalize on it by featuring your own product inside your post that just went viral, and you can promote affiliate products if you don’t already have your own product.

Make sure you product you’re promoting is totally relevant to those reading the post, so you don’t end up pissing off new visitors and at the same time not make sales.

4. Write a Follow up Post and link to it on the Original Post

This particular approach can be very effective if done right, and it is often very easy to do.

The process involves writing a follow up or a spin on the original article.

For example, if you wrote a blog post on 30 lessons you’ve learned in the past 30 years that really went viral, you can write another article on 30 lessons you wish you had learned earlier etc.; it depends on your audience and want they respond to, but a viral article give you great insight into your audience.

Once an article you write goes viral, you should be ready to write a spin on it very soon; the reason for this is that a lot of factors determine how successful an article will be, and one of those factors is the time the article is written.

An article that will go viral this month might not go viral the next, so make sure you consider time as an important factor when you’re writing your follow up article.

5. Get in Touch with Related Websites and Media Outlets to Write About You

This particular approach is something bloggers seldom use, yet it can be very effective if done properly.
Getting featured in a single media outlet or on a very big blog in your niche can be what you need to get featured on related outlets.

You can capitalize on your current viral exposure by getting in touch with bigger and related websites and by asking them to feature you; once you contact them, let them know about the current exposure you’ve gotten on a bigger outlet, and that you’ll be happy to provide them with anything that will make it easy for them to feature you.

Seeing that you’ve been published on a similar outlet will boost your reputation, and as a result will make those you’re contacting receptive to your offer.

This is a guest post written by Paul, who helps people find wireless broadband plans.

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Do You Have Facebook Addiction Disorder?

written by John Chow on May 21, 2012

Do you spend way too much time on Facebook? Then you might have Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD)! I guess it kinda makes sense. We have Internet Addiction Disorder so, with 900 million users, Facebook Addiction Disorder is the next logical step. The drug and alcohol rehab blog, Rehab Today, has posted a neat little infographic on Facebook addiction and how to tell if you have it.

If you find yourself checking Facebook on your phone during meetings, on the bus, on dates, during movies and in bed, you may have a problem. Find out how big out social media problem is, why it’s there, and signs and examples of addiction.

Do you suffer from Facebook Addiction Disorder? Let us know in the comments. After all, the first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem.

Via: Rehab International

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How to Use Images to take Your Blog to the Next Level

written by John Chow on May 20, 2012

This is the age of writing.

Online, we can achieve a lot of things by writing, and it is also the main form of communication.

One important thing that can complement writing, or that can even go a long way to influence it is the use of images, but very few people are aware of how, and what it takes to use images to grow their blog.

We all know that an image speaks a thousand words, and the reality is that you don’t need to be a professional photographer to be able to use images to grow your blog.

I’ll be sharing a few tips with you on how to use images to grow your blog below.

Start Using Infographics

Infographics are becoming quite popular online lately, and it is currently one of the best ways to market your blog by using images.

An infographic is usually designed for the purpose of passing across facts, survey data, or information on a specified subject.

Depending on your level of expertise, your niche, and the strength of your outreach campaign, you can easily use infographics to take your business to the next level.

The good thing about using infographics is that you don’t have to own all the data or information you will be using; you can aggregate information from various online entities, and then credit them below the infographic.

You can easily design your own infographic by looking for companies that specialize in this online, or by posting a job offer for it on sites like oDesk and ELance.

You can then market your infographic by including an embed code on your website for those who want to use it, by sending an email to top blogs in your field that are interested in covering it, and by embedding it in your guest posts on other blogs; all these methods will contain a link back to your blog, and this will lead to a lot more traffic for you on the long run.

Distribute Images to Image Sharing Sites

If you’re a blogger who is reading this, there is every probability you’ve used an image from an image sharing site like Flickr at least once, and there is every probability you credited the author of the image after you use it.

This is another smart way to use images to grow your business.
The good news is that you aren’t restricted to submitting a single kind of image, and you can submit as much image as you want based on nature, the current trends, or important subjects in your niche.

Your image also doesn’t have to be professionally edited and designed, it just have to be clear enough for other people to use.

Take images of nature, of things people like to talk about in your niche, and of anything else that comes to mind without you infringing on the copyright of others.

Submit these images to image sharing sites like Flickr, and include a link back to your website in the description; people will start using your images gradually, and they will end up linking back to your Flickr page. Others will discover your Flickr page via their links, and they will visit your website as a result.

Use Images Smartly Inside Blog Posts

The final tip in this article is one we’re already very familiar with, but that we can do better at. The final tip is to use images effectively inside of our blog posts. A lot of us will say this isn’t new so what does it matter, but the reality is that most of us are using images the wrong way.

The process most of us go through when trying to choose images for our next blog post is like this:

Visit Flickr creative commons >> Search for Image keyword >> Look for an attractive Image >> Use it inside the blog post.

This looks smart, but the reality is that it is anything but smart. It simply doesn’t work. Here are a few things you should consider before using any image in your blog posts, if you really want to get results:

Only Use Images that Communicate: If an image can’t communicate the same message as your headline, don’t use it.

The purpose of your image is to capture people’s attention and lead them into the main blog post once they’ve read your headline; it isn’t to distract them from reading the main content.

As much as you can, make sure you only use images that can communicate your points in any blog post you write. If an image can’t communicate your point, don’t use it. It’s as simple as that!

Use Captions: While your images can be very attractive, and even communicate the same message as your headline, the reality is that some people still won’t get it. Couple that with the fact that some people won’t be able to see your images due to some disability or due to issues with their browsers, and you’ll see how important captions can be.

There really isn’t a rule to what kind of captions you can use. It’s very simple; what message do you want your image to communicate? In as few words as possible? Use it as your caption!

Consider the Direction of Images: The final tip in this section is to consider the direction of the images you will be using. Make sure the direction of your image leads people into your blog post, not outside of it, so make sure you consider this when using any image with your blog post.

This is a guest post written by 4g expert, Paul Tobis.

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Dot Com Pho – Pho for Free and Taste of Venom Edition

written by John Chow on May 19, 2012

I’ve been doing Dot Com Pho at the same location ever since I landed in Orange County. You think with the amount of business I brought, Pho Ba Pho would start to comp my meals. Well, they haven’t! So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and told me to give me Pho for free! Watch the video to find out if they did or not.

In addition to trying to get free pho, this episode started out at Irvine Cars and Coffee to check out the world’s fastest open top sport cars. No, it’s not the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport convertible. It’s the Hennessey Venom GT Spyder. Currently, there’s only one in the world and Cars and Coffee was the only place you could see it live. Other highlights include the Bowtie man stealing my mayorship, Sally Chow with a yuppie bear, Chriss Voss getting a sex change, me getting my California driver’s license, and a whole lot more.

We had 17 people taking up four tables at this week’s Dot Com Pho. Anyone is welcome to join us. Follow me on Twitter to find the time and location of the next one.

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The Blueprint for Writing The Perfect Blog Post

written by Guest Blogger on May 18, 2012

Posts are the lifeline of a blog. This is what makes a blog different from others. This is what brings in the traffic and makes sure they return for more. But, what makes a perfect blog post? What are the factors you need to look after when planning for your next post? Let me share some of the tips I learned from following blogging gurus and content marketers like John Chow, Darren Rowse and Jeremy Schoemaker.

The process begins when you start planning for a post and finishes when you hit the publish button. Your post is as good as you carry it out. We can split the process in three phases.

1. Planning and Researching

As I told you, the process starts when you start planning for your next blog post. After you decide your topic, you should start researching on that. Gather as much data as possible before you start writing your post.

2. Creating the content

Here comes the most important part, creating your content. I am not talking about the quality as it varies author to author. I am talking about formatting the content so that it grabs the attention of both human visitors as well as the search engine spiders. A good post should have at least three paragraphs; introduction to the subject, description to clearly describe the subject and then conclude the subject.

Then it comes to enrich and styling the content with proper tags. Yes, tags like h1, h2 and h3 can do wonders. It not only makes your post looks great, but also helps search engines to find the important sections within the content. Therefore, it is a good practice to put subheadings for your paragraphs and wrap them in h2 or h3 tag depending on the nesting of subheading.

Do not over style your content with bolded, italic or colored words as that might hurt eyes of human visitors and will decrease the content to code ratio.

I use SEOPressor Plugin that helps me to improve the quality of my post by suggesting changes in real time while I am posting my content.

3. Posting the Content

The way you post your content also matters. I mean, if you are using WordPress you can choose a better permalink, a better keyword rich title and add meta descriptions. Well, some of those aren’t default WordPress functionality, but plugins like All in One SEO or Yoast SEO can do it for you.

Having quality and properly formatted content getting more and more important after Google introduced the Over Optimization Penalty. You can afford having little onpage optimization (or no optimization at all) but the quality of your posts should be high. All you need is content that search engines love.