Breaking Down My First Viral Post

How big of a difference does it make when you’re just starting out?

It finally happened. After almost a year, one single post has skyrocketed and is now bringing in more and more dollars with each passing month. It’s already had two thousand times more exposure than any previous post I’ve made. Last month, I officially entered the 8% club with earnings over $100. At least half of that was due to this single article.

How did it happen? Could I do it again? Is there a formula?

All I can say is, I’m trying, but I’m yet to hit another home run. Maybe you can spot a pattern or something I’ve missed. The following will outline in detail every aspect of the post, looking at the figures, tags, publication, and general layout. It’s a complete breakdown of a viral post.

Background — About Me

I’ve been on Medium for nine months. I have no strategy. I just enjoy writing and am happy to put content out there. I began with zero followers and now have 743. I don’t follow everyone and have kept that number very low at 184. I’m a Top Writer in Ideas and Satire simply because I tag most stories with these tags. I have been at various times a Top Writer in Food, Social Media, and Opinion. Again, I don’t think this is relevant.

I’m an editor for two publications, which are The Partnered Pen (7900 followers) and The Bad Influence (TBI-560 followers). I’m a regular poster on TBI’s LinkedIn page where we have close to 5000 followers. I also post my content on my own LinkedIn page, where I also number close to 5000 followers.

My posts viewing average is around 50 on Medium. On good days, I break 100. My views on LinkedIn range from 3,000–10,000. The click-through rate is on average 3–10%. For every 1000 views, 30–100 people will click through depending on the topic. My satire articles do very well.

I can confidently state that I average $40–50 a month, posting six articles a week.

I belong to three Facebook groups and regularly post links to my articles on two of them as well as TBI and my own Facebook page.

No Twitter. No Instagram. No Quora.

My curation rate stands about 30% for any story not tagged as satire!

The Post

You can read it here.

I had tagged it in Dentistry / Marketing / Opinion / Medical / Ideas. It was submitted to Better Marketing (37000 followers).

Better Marketing will promote a good post via Linkedin, Twitter, Reddit, Quora, and Facebook. They send an encouraging email advising you to do the same.

It was curated in Marketing and Health.

It only has 588 claps.

The post is four minutes in length. I think this is the ideal time. It doesn’t take too much commitment and is a suitable length for curation.

I did a bit of research for the article. I had a personal story to tell, and I was angry. I felt I was scammed and needed to justify my anger! I did a few Google searches, found some reasonable back-up evidence and linked them into my post. Medium and Better Marketing love a well-researched article.

I kept it light-hearted with a fun list explaining why I felt conned before delving deeper into the marketing of the product. It was an article well suited to the publication. I have an 80% hit rate at curation when I publish through Better Marketing. I put this down to the quality of the work. They aren’t throwaway pieces that I can knock up in ten minutes!

It was a fun piece with a solid punch at the end.

The Figures

Views

The initial response was great. I was quite pleased with the post and linked it on through all my channels: TBI Linkedin, my personal Linkedin, and FB groups. It was Curated a day after and immediately spiked. The usual pattern would be for the post to tail off rapidly and disappear. But something strange happened.

I woke up five days later and noticed my viewing figures had spiked. 156 views with 82% of them internally. By the end of the month, my external figures amassed 25% of the total. What I believe made the difference was Google. For the first time, I was being picked up in a Google search.

A scan on my Readers’ Interest revealed Health as the main reason.

I had struck gold. People concerned about their health and, more importantly, their teeth. I imagined all sorts of pensioners staring at their screens. They’ll be googling about their gum fixations, arrive at my story, and proceed to fist-punch the air as they agreed with my take on dental floss.

I had played into a common fear.

I congratulated myself, thought “that was nice” and then expected the inevitable drop off.

Except it didn’t.

On and on the story ran. Through dips and peaks.

While December looked dead, around Christmas people loved reading it. Perhaps they ate too much sugar and now looked for justification for lack of brushing?

Earnings

OK, it’s not big money, but like I said, it’s 1000 times more than what I was earning, and it keeps on running.

Yes … that peak is $5 … in a day! And every day brings in another dollar.

Reading Time

At its peak, 2 hours 39 minutes in a day.

Conclusion

So there you have it. A complete breakdown of a viral post. Have you spotted how I made this a success? Was it a health scare? Was it the curation?

Since it hit, my follower count hasn’t really changed. I’ve gone from 684 to 743. It’s an average rise, and I wouldn’t say it’s related to this article. My views on every single post I make remain steady. There’s no other maverick post skewing the figures.

I haven’t suddenly become popular.

I have, though, angered dental flossing enthusiasts, and each day brings another comment tirade against my ill-thought, pseudoscience-backed opinion. Imagine if my post hit 100k views? The backlash from the dental community would be horrendous!

I’m sorry to say there’s no secret formula. There’s no certainty. Only luck. I wish you all the best in your quest to go viral , the ultimate unicorn on social media. Don’t be fooled when people tell you they can make you go viral; it’s simply marketing.

Here’s to your future success!