10 years of Viral content creation and hidden factors of global traffic

I was started my blogging in 2004 when I was final year student of MBA in Madurai Kamraj University as a fashion to maintain daily diary. After completing my study life, travelled one company to another and finally, I had left my regular job and entered full time online worker. Blogging and Freelancing were my main pathways to earned my bread and butter on those days with lots of hardship. I had written 10+ articles on this matter, so don't want to give you boring by drugging same drum once again. In 2013, I have founded a news portal (Indilens !Insights of India) and I had got the idea of viral post or article such a few news reports got 1000's of hits globally but why? A lots of questions risen on viral article and news topic such What makes content go viral?

10 years of Viral content creation and hidden factors of global traffic  

I know that it is a tough question, but when you look around, there’s some people who are able to craft contagious content every single time as my news portal get minimum 1 article daily.

What’s their secret? Do they know something you don’t?

I can say that every one can able to do so, creating viral article or reports for their wb portal and blogs. And while they may not be aware of it, they know how to push the little “traffic buttons” on the internet without fail.

How do I know this? Because I’ve done it… for years. And until recently, I was never able to explain exactly how I was able to do it. But today, that all changes.

Before getting insight of the topic, I want to mention a name Jonah Berger who is an assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School of Business with specializes in discovering what makes ideas and products go viral. I had learned a lots from him via his articles and books. It is mentioned that he is featured in many of the prestigious marketing research journals and publications like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, The Economist and more.

Here is the basic factors of viral post: 

1. Positive content is more viral than negative content.

2. Content that evoked high arousal emotions—positive or negative—is more viral than content without emotion.

3. Practically useful content get’s shared.

4. A little controversial with attraction of legacy. 

5. Touching emotions of thousands. 

If your post/article carries any one character above mentioned, then It’s tough to make a blog post go viral. However, I am using some other legal tricks to make a article go viral. Here are a few of my legal tips for readers. 

• Submit to Google+
• Submit to Reddit
• Submit to StumbleUpon
• Post on Forums in niche
• Submit to Yahoo Buzz
• Submit to Delicious
• Post to Twitter
• Post to Facebook
• Post to meetme
• Post to Google news
• Post to YouTube (if applicable)
• Submit to Technorati
• Post to Pinterest (if applicable)
• Post to LinkedIn
• Provide SEO keywords for images
• Directory submissions
• RSS directory submits
• Forum comments
• Relevant blog comments
• Social bookmarking
• Refer to posts on Yahoo! Answers
• Refer to posts on LinkedIn
• Refer to posts on Quora
• Press releases
• Link to our own past and future blog posts
• Add to your email signature
• Add to your signature in forums
• Add to your next newsletter
• Request other bloggers to mention your post

Final words from author: 

As a content creator and freelance journalist, I want to say that blogger or portal owner must look after a few other factors before publishing the post such correct keyword optimize of the post, Adding pictures next to key items with alt tag, proofread the post to check for errors with proper correction. I am sure, if any one follows the above mentioned, then surely targeted post will go viral. 

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Stop Wasting Time in Blogging to Make Money Online Now These days

It was 2004 when we had started blogging to make money online. There were only very few people were working in that blogging industry from India to make money online. As per available information says that the countable figures from that very had got success in make money online via blogging. I think that the pioneer names are known to all those are still working in blogging industry to make money online. 

Stop Wasting Time in Blogging to Make Money Online Now These days

You heard somewhere that you can make money blogging. It’s something magic: someone said that you can work 4-hour daily, from everywhere in the world, and make lots of money…much more than you could do with a full-time regular job! You dreamed about passive income, and finally you had an easy chance to get it, so you got on the boat: you started your own blog. You worked on it and took information about blogging.

To tell the truth you worked hard on it, and you read everything you could read about it. But, since the beginning, you haven’t earned a lot of money from your blog. You tried everything, but you just get few cents (and maybe not even them).Some time, it is seen that some bloggers earn very few pennies after working 15 to 20 hours daily.

What’s missing?

Traffic? Comments? Tweets or likes? Email subscribers?

No, it’s something more important. Blogging (Alone) to Make Money Online is a Waste of Time. Many people think that they can monetize their blog with ads. Yes, you can do it, and you can even have a decent income with that approach…but do you really want that? To live by blogging ads you need to have a HUGE traffic direct to your blog. You can bring that amount of traffic to your blog, but how much work will it require?

A lot.

Is your hard work worth the prize?

I don’t think.

Life is one and time is extremely precious. Every second you waste will not come back. You want a passive income to enjoy the most of the time you have. It’s a non-sense to waste an enormous amount of time for few cents. Other people think that they can monetize their blog with ebooks.

This a better approach. Much better!

You’ll need a smaller traffic to have a decent income. But, again, your way on a decent income is quite long. Ebooks and ads are 2 of the most used ways to monetize blogs online. Both of them will require a lot of work and maybe you’ll never reach the full-time income with them. You are working hard to get a small amount of money.

Now let’s consider a different approach.

Stop Blogging, You Want an Online Business. Stop thinking to you blog as a blog and start thinking about it as the way to start your business. This is the only way with which you can make a good quantity of money without working like a slave. And it’s the best way to reach the success you desire.

Considering your blog as part of your business will give to your strategies a radical shift:

1. You Work Seriously on Your Business

If you consider your blog just a blog, you will not push yourself to bring it to the next level. You will not write your posts if you don’t want. You will not promote your blog if you don’t want. When you think to your blog as the base of your business, you will force yourself to write posts, promote your blog, write guest posts, reach other bloggers and many more… You take it seriously because you know that you are working on the source of your income.

When I started my first blog in 2004 on blogger.com platform, I wrote posts and then I published them after a quick review. Now, I write a post (not regular) but take care :

• I read it carefully
• I change many elements
• I try to improve it as much as possible
• I edit it
• I publish the ultimate post

I do these because my posts are windows to my business.  If I don’t do the best for you with my posts how could you trust my business? I want to give you my best, so I do my best to my News Portal Indilens and SEO company website Focusa2z. This approach is a key for your online business success.

2. You Invest in Your Online Business

Would someone with a healthy mind invest in blogging?

No way. No one will invest in something that will not give a reasonable return of investment. Instead, if you consider your blog as part of your business, you will invest in it. You know that to start a business you have to afford some costs. It’s ok, because you know that once you get on the right track, you’ll get money from it. To build a solid business with to your blog, you need to invest. Anyway the costs of your blog will be smaller than the ones for an offline business. Do you know that starting an offline business takes from 7000$ to several thousands of dollars?

Well, with a blog you can start your business with less than 1000$ dollars: Web hosting is about 90-120$ dollars per year (with BlueHost). An email software like Aweber (the best one) only costs 194$ per year. A formidable WordPress theme (like Genesis) will only cost 50-100$. Trainings to speed up your blog have various costs…for example, the best guest posting training is only 100$. 

An offline business may take years to cover the initial investment, with an online business, in 6-12 months you start enjoying your work. If you want to make money online, be serious about your business: investments are an essential part. Try to avoid them when it’s possible, but some of them are indispensable.

3. You Work on Different Sources of Income

At the beginning of this post, we talked about ads and ebooks as sources of income.

I’m not contrary to them, but it’s crucial to be smart. Are your ads a support to your income or are they the main source of your income? In the first case, I think it’s ok (even thought it’s not the best strategy). In the second case, you may want to review your priorities. The same applies to your ebooks. Ebooks are great because they are easy to make and easy to sell, but they should be a side strategy. You can get experience and build authority with your ebooks (they are perfect fits as first products), but then pass to “heavy things”.

You have many ways to build the core of your online business income:

• Courses (live or video)
• Consulting (1-on-1 or companies consulting)
• Membership sites
• Physical products
• Softwares
• Seminars or Webinars
• Audio products

With my first ebook, I made some money from it…but the average earning for first few months was less than 100$. When I launched my first video course, I made 300$ in 10 days!
Do you see the power of these sources of income?  Why should you limit to ebooks and ads? Notice that all the suggestions listed above have a bigger price than ebooks.

4. You Stop Making Silly Things

I did lots of silly things; it’s normal when you don’t understand. When I started my first blog, I published 5 posts per week in the first few months. I saw that “strategy” from other bloggers, so I thought it was the way it had to be. I wish I published half of those posts. I wish I spent the time saved in that way bringing my posts to more people. It was a wrong strategy to publish 5 posts per week. When you think to your blog as a blog you don’t ask yourself key questions.

When you think to your blog as an online business you start asking yourself:

Is this task going to help my business?
Is it worth my time?
Can I do it better?
Is there anyone that can teach it to me?

“It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” – Decouvertes 

These questions will help you to find the best strategies to succeed.

5. You Aren’t Afraid to Sell

It’s fun: many people use content marketing to make money with their blogs, but they forget to sell.
The marketing part in content marketing is equally important as the content part.

Some bloggers feel shame to sell their stuff. They think it’s awkward to sell their products explicitly. When you have a business, you know that you have to sell. It’s normal: you have a business to sell something.  If you have something phenomenal to offer, you even feel proud to sell: you know that you are doing a kindness to offer your great services/products.

The best businessmen know that

They think: “My services are so awesome that you should be silly for not buying them”. People perceive that and think: “Wow! Look at him: he’s so proud of his services that they should be phenomenal. I should be silly for not buying them”.

Final views from author: 

The choice between blogging and online business depends on your goals. Are you blogging or are you running an online business with your blog? Let me hear your opinion . Also, if you have any question, I’m here to answer to you.

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Normally Trapping Web Design Mistakes Which Cost Failure in Online Business

Business and marketing has been already occupied by World Wide Web and maximum small and medium establishments have made own presence in online world even large scale industries also stepped their identification via websites. 

Normally Trapping Web Design Mistakes Which Cost Failure in Online Business 

Do you know that your sidebar may cost you a lot of money? To tell the truth it’s not the only part of your web design that may make you lose some bucks. Give a look around the web and you’ll notice many silly (but common) web design mistakes. Would you go in a restaurant with a dirty frontage and some rubbish near the entry? I wouldn’t. Those things make you think that such restaurant is low quality and serves unhealthy food. A similar thing happens when you land on a bad looking blog: you classify it as low quality, and you leave as fast as light. Even if a first time visitor remains on an ugly blog, probably he won’t buy products because of the design. 

People need to know that you are reliable and professional to buy from you, but a bad web design gives a sense of unreliability. Of course, a phenomenal web design will help you to sell more products, reduce bounce rate, increase your perceived expertise and better engage your readers, but it will cost you a lot of money, and probably you don’t want to invest them until you grow your business and can afford such investment. The good new is that you don’t need a phenomenal web design, you just have to avoid 7 silly mistakes that can easily kill your business. 

1. Unprofessional Overall Look 

The first thing that you see when you land on a new blog is the overall look of the page. If it doesn’t seem good enough you will leave the site in few seconds. There are many design mistakes in this page, but I want to focus only on the overall look now. As you land on this blog, you see a white page with a quite ugly picture, a green header with a very bad text (green text on a green picture is a huge mistake!), a very flat menu and a light blue background. Would you buy from this blog? Of course not! The biggest difference in the overall look of blog comes from the theme that you use. I highly suggest you to take a premium WordPress theme instead of a free one: it’s on a completely different level in web design and seems professional. There’s a reason because all the most popular bloggers have a premium WordPress theme (and usually, they hire a designer to bring it to the next level too): it’s because premium themes are far better than free themes. I hear from many people that they don’t want to spend money on their blog. Well, it’s ok, but then I hear them complain about their poor results and I wonder “Why are you complaining? You want people to spend money on your business, but you’re the first who doesn’t spend money on it. This is hypocrisy, isn’t it?”. Your blog overall look it’s too important to neglect it. You could even choose a free WordPress themes, but in this case, you need to customize it and make it look great (with most of the free themes you’ll need to know codes or ask to someone who knows codes…but in the latter case you will spend less with a premium theme that you can customize by yourself). The overall design should look harmonious. Pay attention to details. Your background should fit well in the overall look. And follow all the next web design tips.

2. Bad Header 

The header is a key element in your web design. It can help you to get the attention of the people or it can scare your visitors and make them leave your blog. Surfing a little the web you’ll notice that most of the blogs have terrible headers. It’s probably the most undervalued element in the web design, even though it’s one of the most important part of the page. First and foremost, if you want to insert a picture or a graphic work in your header, insert a great one. A bad graphic work in your header is worse than a skunk in a sealed atomic bunker. Many people make their blog title pretty flat and sometimes even unreadable. We’re talking about your online business card, you should make it great and readable! Your title is your brand, if people can’t read it, they won’t know your brand. Your logo goes in the header too, and should be clear because, together with the title, it’s an essential part of your brand. The header gives you the chance to show first time visitors what’s your blog about. This is crucial to make people decide if they are in the right place or not. Not including a headline (that should anticipate your Unique Selling Preposition) is a mistake that may cost you lots of customers. Through the header you can even make a first attempt to connect with a first time visitor: you just have to show your picture. The header is a key to have a great overall look, and it’s also a big opportunity to hook your first time visitors, take care of it. 

3. Wrong Color Scheme 

Colors are extremely important. The unprofessional overall look of a blog is often due to a bad color scheme (other than a bad theme and a bad header). There are many case studies and scientific researches beyond colors and color schemes. It means that colors have a crucial role when it comes to design. Too many colors and your blog seems a very low level one. When you bombard your visitors with many colors you’re distracting them: they can’t focus on your message (headline, menu and blog post titles) because all the colors are taking their attention. My advice is to use 2-4 colors. Using the right scheme you could use up to 6 colors, but if you are not 100% sure about them, probably you’ll have better to insert fewer colors. Notice that the opposite color mistake is pretty common and dangerous too: flat color schemes are pretty boring. Colors should be mixed in the right ration. If your blog is too colored, it will have a bad impact on your visitors. If your blog is too white, it will be too flat. The most important concept is that you have to balance colors. Notice that you should use colors and white spaces to make people pay attention to certain parts of your blog. White spaces can be used to highlight some parts of your blog such as headline, blog post titles, your optin form or your product image. If you want to highlight something just put some white space around it, and make the object colored (or black). 

4. Overcrowded Sidebar 

How many overcrowded sidebars have you ever seen online? I guess too many. There are sidebars in some blogs that are more crowded than the main streets of Los Angeles at 5pm! The blogosphere is full of blogs with way too many ads in the sidebar. Do you know that it’s a counterproductive approach? The more items you do have in the sidebar, the fewer people are driven to click on them. Simply nothing can standout and grab the attention of a person – without mention that a sidebar full of ads makes you look spammy, and as a result your online reputation will be irreversibly damaged. The sidebar has a key role in your business. Your sidebar should accomplish one of the following three tasks, and possibly all of them: Make people subscribe to your email list Make people buy your stuff or your affiliate products Make people read more content on your blog All the other goals are not required. As a bonus task you may want people follow you on social media, but it’s not as important as the previous tasks. This doesn’t mean that you should add, your Facebook box, Twitter feeds and other social network widgets on your sidebar. Keep your sidebar clean. As a general rule you have better to keep 3-5 items in the sidebar. If you insert less items, your blog may seem empty, in the opposite scenario it will look quite messy. It means that you should choose carefully what you insert in your sidebar.

5. A Non-Obvious Overcrowded Menu 

The menu is a crucial part of your blog because the people who arrive on it for the first time need to know where to go. It should be clear and immediate. I’ve seen many blogs with non-obvious page names in it. That kind of menu doesn’t help you to decide where you should go on that blog, and this is a big problem: when people don’t know where to go on a blog, they click the back button. Try to make the page names in your menu obvious. Think like a first time visitor who doesn’t know anything about your blog, and help him to figure everything out fast. It means that you should also cut complex page names out of the menu, keep it simple. Immediacy is the key to a functional menu. Of course, a menu with too many pages isn’t immediate. You don’t people have a hard time trying to figure out what’s on your blog. Insert just the most important pages in your menu. As a general rule, have 3-6 pages in your menu and try to avoid the cascade menu. Cascade menus are quite complex, and because people can’t see every page in them, they will damage the immediacy of your menu. 

6. Too Many Ads 

Ads have the huge power of making you lose potential customers. If ads are your main monetization strategy, leave them on your blog, but if you are selling a product or a service, delete them from your blog. It’s not only because people who click on ads will leave your blog and probably will never return: it’s because ads make your blog look messy, spammy and unprofessional. Of course, you can insert them in the right way and make them look good in your design, but you have to be really good at this for doing it. The most common ads excess, as said before is in the sidebar, but it’s not the only one. There are many blogs which insert ads in the header (huge mistake!). Many bloggers insert ads in the content of their blog, with terrible results – ads in blog posts make you look really spammy. Many people even bring this kind of ads to the next level: they use text ads in their blog posts, a sure way to have messy, unreadable page (please, don’t do it!). I’m completely against ads, because they’ll make you waste more money than you could earn with them, but if you want to insert them in your blog, don’t exaggerate and try to keep an equilibrium. 

7. Unusual Page and Text Colors 

Have you ever noticed that 99,9% of the most successful bloggers use black text on a white page for their posts? It’s just because it’s the most readable content format. Forget about using strange colors for your page and/or text because you’ll only make people leave your blog without reading your content. Avoid grey both in text and page background too. Very dark grey text on a white page it’s ok, but why using it when you can make your text black? The same is true for the opposite case: black text on a very light grey could be ok, but it’s better to use black text on a white page. Your content is the most important part of your blog, you want that everyone reads it – losing some clients because of your blue text isn’t the smartest idea in the world. 

Final words from author: 

What do you think about your blog design? What would you improve in it? Leave a comment with a link on your blog and I’ll be more than happy to check it out and give you a feedback about your web design.

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