Summary

The article outlines a method for achieving viral success on Medium by leveraging trending topics, SEO optimization, and minimal effort, while acknowledging the potential moral and financial trade-offs.

Abstract

The author provides insight into a strategy for creating content on Medium that has the potential to go viral. This approach involves capitalizing on current news events, particularly those trending in the US, to attract a large audience quickly. The method emphasizes the importance of SEO descriptions with relevant keywords and sentences derived from Google Search suggestions. While the technique can lead to high viewership, it often results in low financial returns and may require the writer to produce content that is not aligned with their personal values or of high quality. The article also notes that some viral posts may take time to gain traction, and patience is sometimes necessary.

Opinions

The author suggests that viral success on Medium does not necessarily require a large following, a media team, or even high-quality writing.
There is an element of luck involved in creating a viral post, and the strategy may not be financially rewarding.
Writing about trending topics, especially those in the US, is more likely to result in viral content due to the larger audience and higher engagement.
The use of clickbait headlines combined with minimal research and effort can be effective, although it may leave the writer feeling compromised.
SEO optimization, including the use of keywords and sentences from Google Search suggestions, is crucial for increasing the visibility of the content.
The author admits that some successful articles may require more effort and in-depth research, but these do not guarantee immediate success or financial gain.
Patience is key, as some articles may take months to gain traction and become popular.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Here’s The Trick To Going Viral On Medium

WARNING: It will destroy your soul

My post that has so far been seen by 167K people

Seriously, there’s a way you can go viral on Medium and it requires very little effort and doesn’t need a media team or even a clickbait headline.

The flipside. You don’t need to do this trick if:

You have thousands of followers
Your writing appeals to the masses (popular and not necessarily good writing)
You have a media team plugging every single channel to create backlinks

I can see you want proof first. Here’s a few screenshots of my viral articles.

101 Unpopular Opinions — The Ultimate Must See List

Mark Wahlberg Can’t Escape the Sins of his Past

Instant PayPal Cash Games Designed to Rip You Off

None of the above was with a major Medium sponsored publication. All took five minutes to write and made me feel very dirty afterwards. All were designed to gain maximum exposure for little time and cost.

All contain an element of luck.

What you will notice from the above graphs is that three out of five all took a little while to get going. Only two managed to tap into the latest trending news at the time.

Here’s how it’s done and be warned, it doesn’t make you much money.

Cuties Cancellation / Bill Clinton / Mark Wahlberg

All of these stories tapped into the latest news that was breaking on that day. These have the potential to take off like a rocket and then die just as quick. It’s the instant hit of endorphins that’ll kickstart your day!

Here’s what you do:

Check out Twitter’s ‘What’s Happening’ or ‘Trending’ section. It’s important to note that stories ONLY in the US are useful. The largest audience for Medium and the one that pays most is American. You may get a bigger hit from India trending topics but even less likely to make any cash on Medium.

2. Check out what’s trending on Google Trends. Real-Time Search Trends is where the gold is. Again, make sure it’s US search trends in order to make some money. I‘ve tried UK for Cuties, but that was a universal topic which was trending.

3. Now you got your topic, it’s time to write. Make sure you read the news items in order to write about it. You could use a clickbait headline and then write any old bollocks and that works just as well. I took this bullshit approach with the Bill Clinton post. Mark Wahlberg was reporting the news. Cuties was an opinion piece.

4. Don’t spend too long researching. You want fast and hard. Length of post doesn’t matter. Two minutes is perfect and doesn’t take long to knock out. Have I told you this isn’t the way you feed your soul?

5. Here’s the magic. Go to ‘More Settings’ in the menu bar.

6. Add keywords in the SEO Description. I’ve found sentences work best. But what are the keywords? How do you find them?

Go back to Google Search and type the first word of your story. This will reveal what your sentences need to say. An example would be “Secrets behind the keyword planner tool with keyword research using a generator.”

I know…you already know all about SEO and this isn’t news. Then why are you reading about How to go Viral? Has this worked for you?

That’s the source. You don’t even need a huge publication or followers. Hit publish and hope you get lucky.

101 Unpopular Opinions

These stories required a bit more effort. These are both universal topics that appear quite often in Google Search. Everybody loves a get rich quick story and EVERYBODY loves reading unpopular stories.

For Unpopular Opinions, I ripped off a post on Linkedin. The writer on Linkedin had already ripped off a Reddit post. The Reddit post was ripped from an earlier post. The same can be seen on Pinterest, Twitter and Instagram. Like I said, this is a universal subject that everybody loves to read about.

I complied 101 of the unpopular opinions and then did my SEO Settings. I also used a title that was self-explanatory and easy to find.

I admit, I was a little disappointed at first when this one appeared to bomb. It lay dormant for three months before Google finally picked it up and slung it into the stratosphere. A lesson on patience as I nearly deleted the post feeling guilty about putting shit writing on Medium and the audience obviously knew it was shit. You have to tell yourself, this is crap, it took less than ten minutes, forget about it.

Huge interest, little payout.

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Same rules apply here regarding SEO. I did take more of an effort for this one. Screenshots and in-depth writing about my experience. This was rejected by a large publication also.

This one again was a slow climber. I thought maybe the large publication was right and that this story was a steaming pile of crap. I thought it was important information and a story that would resonate with others. As it bombed, I became very disheartened. But, it was another sleeper hit which has earnt me no money at all!

No mystery. It really is simple to get a viral hit. You just need an ounce of luck, timing or patience.

One thing is for sure, it’s not the path to riches you all dream about.