This Is How Far Your *Viral* Story Can Go
It’s beyond your wildest imagination
No!
Your story that got 1,000 or 5,000 views didn’t go viral.
Of course, you could be elated when you see an unusual spike in the stats. But stop considering it viral unless you see something more.
In this post, I will show you what actually means to go viral and what you can do about it by dissecting one of my own viral stories and a few from others.
What it means to go viral
According to the Cambridge dictionary, the word “viral” is used to describe something that quickly becomes very popular or well known by being published on the internet or sent from person to person by email, phone, etc.
Suppose you publish something (written content, videos, audio, etc.) on the internet that eventually hits the algorithm, catches people’s nerves, and spreads like wildfire. In that case, you can call it viral content.
This type of content gets insanely popular within a very short time. And when it happens, your jaw drops seeing the stats.
You say with utmost bewilderment, “What the fu*k happened with this story! It’s INCREDIBLE!!!”
My viral story earned me $19000
The same happened to me a few months ago.
On October 25, 2021, I published a story on ILLUMINATION that hit the algorithm after a week. At its peak, the story got more than 25K views in a single day.
So far, it has secured 531K views earning me more than $19,000. For a single piece of written content, it’s huge.
Now, can I consider it a viral story? Well, the traffic sources below will answer the question.
You can see from the above stats that the story gained 67K views from direct email and IM (instant messaging). In addition, people shared it on different platforms, including LinkedIn (37K), getpocket.com (36K), Facebook (7.7K), and Twitter (1.2K).
It also attracted huge traffic from Google and other search engines. So far, the story got 22K+ claps from over 4000 fans.
All of that happened without any direct effort from me. I’ve just written and published the story. That’s it.
For the record, I’ve written more than 260 stories like this one. But for some unknown reasons, algorithms picked this particular one up and spread it like wildfire. People also found it relatable and worth sharing.
Thus the magic happened.
Before you get overwhelmed by the numbers of my viral article, let me share with you another story that will literally blow your mind.
182K+ claps from 33K people
Julio Vincent Gambuto published a story titled Prepare for the Ultimate Gaslighting on April 20, 2020, that quickly went viral.
Can you guess how many views it got? Well, I don’t know for sure, but let’s try to think with the help of the claps the story got compared to mine.
Julio’s story got 182K+ claps from over 33,000 fans.
I think you remember that my story got 22K claps from 4000 people against 531K views. Now imagine how many views Julio’s story got (let alone the money).
Isn’t that mind-blowing?
Shake your head a few times and think about it. Compared to his story, my one seems nothing, right?
A few incredible examples of going viral
Now, let’s have a glimpse of a few viral stories (from popular writers) on this platform with its popularity info.
- Zat Rana Story: The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You Impact: 293K+ claps from 42K people
- Umair Haque Story: Why We’re Underestimating American Collapse Impact: 89K+ claps from 10K people
- Tim Denning Story: Be Aware of the Quiet Ones like Keanu Reeves — They Are the Ones That Actually Make You Think Impact: 55K+ claps from 12K people
- Benjamin Hardy, PhD Story: Tell Me What You Say Yes to, and I’ll Tell You Who You Are Impact: 46K+ claps from 7K people
- Ayodeji Awosika Story: 10 Life Quotes That (If Applied) Will Change the Way You See The World Forever Impact: 41K+ claps from 9K people
- Jessica Wildfire Story: The Real Way to Figure Out How Smart Someone Is Impact: 34K+ claps from 5K people
Can you intentionally write a viral story?
The answer is both — Yes and No.
Yes, because you can do a few things to help your article go viral. And no — because you have no control over the algorithm. So what can you do to level up the game?
Here are a few things that can help:
- Write click-worthy titles and good subtitles.
- Use a brilliant featured photo.
- Craft your story well and engage readers emotionally.
- Give your readers some foods for thought or practical life lessons.
- Publish frequently.
But keep in mind that despite doing all of the above, you cannot guarantee your next article will go viral. You can hope for the best. That’s all.
Not even the top writers on this platform can guess which one of their stories will go viral and earn them a fortune.
See the below post on a social media group from a popular writer and high earner, Sean Kernan, in this regard.
As Kernan mentioned — he never writes anything that doesn’t deserve to go viral, yet he gets disappointed seeing them perform poorly while some dumb articles get all the views.
Then he gives you a great piece of advice. That is to keep writing and keep improving.
Takeaways
As mentioned earlier, your focus should be on things you can control. For example, the effort you put into your writing.
Make sure your writing is worthy of going viral:
- Write click-worthy titles.
- Engage your readers well by offering value.
- Tell great stories.
Now, allow the algorithm to do the rest and hope for the best.
If it clicks, that’ll be wonderful. If not, then move forward and concentrate on the next story.
Keep writing!
Thank you for reading.
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If you want to read more of my writings, do check out the following articles.