5 Essential Keys to Mashable’s Wild Success
Nobody can argue about Mashable’s success. They sport over 2 million visitors per month reporting news and ideas in a niche in which many of us are working hard to build our own online presences: social media.
As we look at Mashable and the tactics that they employ, I think it will become obvious to us that it’s no accident that they have been able to achieve and maintain the incredible level of success that they enjoy.
So today let’s dig in. Let’s learn from this social media Goliath and let’s start setting our sights on a new level of success.
- Unique Information: The writer’s at Mashable are amazingly talented. Each day they provide us with information that can’t be found anywhere else. In fact, they seem to set trends with their information as many other bloggers often pick up their topics and reblog them.
- Lots of Updates: Every single day that I visit Mashable, I’m presented with between 10 and 20 new articles. I can then browse through their headlines and choose the information that is the most meaningful to me. This also helps me to give Mashable multiple page views every time I visit their site as I browse through all the new articles.
- A Team of Authors: No single person could produce the volume and quality of work that appears on the Mashable website. However, a team of talented authors working together with a common goal is able to accomplish amazing things. This is perhaps one of the most powerful elements that’s contributing to the success of this great site. It’s a team effort.
- Breaking News: People love being the first ones to know something. They want to be able to share breaking news with their friends and online colleagues. Mashable consistently provides people these opportunities as day after day they continue to roll out social media news as it happens.
- Short Articles: It doesn’t take long to notice that the vast majority of Mashable’s articles aren’t very long. It’s as if they’re written specifically for casual readers who want to get their information quickly and then move on. I’m one of those casual readers so this strategy works perfectly for me and for the millions of other visitors.
Mashable is obviously doing something right. They’ve built a huge community of people who tweet, stumble, digg, bookmark and promote their articles at a tremendous rate. They’re raking in the cash from sponsors, advertisers, and more.
Now go back up through this list and reassess each point thinking about how you can apply these concepts in your niche. Instead of thinking that your niche doesn’t support these principles, try to think about how you can change the accepted way of blogging in your niche to incorporate these concepts into your online work.
Ron Leyba said:
I am one of the avid readers and fan of mashable. It seems like they are really making it big in the social media scene.
From the latest news and story around the world wide web up to the most intriguing gadget piece, they got it all there!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
That’s exactly the type of material that people seem to be drooling over. It seems like millions of people crave that news and that gadget information and they really know how to appeal to that desire.
Tony said:
I like Mashable mainly for its breaking news capability. The quality of the content sort of dies down a bit though with the numerous articles they have, despite their larger team of writers.
Nicholas Cardot said:
I’ve always been fairly impressed with the quality of the content that I find at Mashable but perhaps you’ve seen something that I haven’t. Could you provide me with a specific example of something there that you feel is low quality?
Nasrul Hanis said:
I guess one of them is an article which offering low-quality wordpress themes and readers showing their negative feedback about it. But it’s a long time ago.
Nicholas Cardot said:
How often does that happen? I’ve always been pleased with the majority of the articles that I’ve read from there.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Plus, I have to ask, is that the normal pattern of their work or does that just happen once in a while because everyone blows it once in a while.
Nasrul Hanis said:
I just found it once. And I believe it’s not their normal pattern. Maybe it’s a just a post to complete the schedule or whatever.
Btw it’s a good source after all.
Nabeel | Create Your First Website said:
Great points man.
You really did a insightful analysis of the reasons for success of Mashable.
I agree, a team of authors is a great advantage. This can be seen in Mashable. But I guess as a blog gets bigger, this would seem natural.
Nabeel
P.S. Typo in post:
“They want to be able to share breaking news with their freinds (friends) and online colleagues.”
Nicholas Cardot said:
Thanks, Nabeel. I’m becoming more and more convinced that the development of a powerful team working together to produce a plethora of amazing content is one of the most powerful tools that Mashable employs. There is simply no way that one man or one woman could accomplish that level of success.
P.S. Thanks for pointing out the typo. I’ve corrected it now.
Sachin @ Web Design Mauritius said:
I really like the conclusion of your article, Nicholas. It can always be a great innovation if one can adapt such successful principles in a completely different niche. This is how the web interacts with different niches producing new and interesting results.
Nicholas Cardot said:
I often hear people say things like “That strategy just won’t work in my niche. My audience won’t respond well to that.” And 99% of the time that I hear it I simply think to myself, “Then be the one that redefines your niche and dazzles your audience.”
The ones who can learn from the successes of others and revolutionize the way things are done themselves are the real game changers. We’re not going to accomplish any great level of success if we always accept mediocrity. We’ve got to find ways to make changes, to improve and to entertain our audiences.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing said:
So then what do you think of the phrase “reinventing the wheel” and how we’re supposed to shy away from it?
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Nicholas Cardot said:
I think that for the most part that phrase is popularized by people who are either lazy or afraid of change. I’m privileged to work in an environment where my peers and my superiors encourage me to think and invent new ways to get work done. Sometimes the initial setting up of a new system is actually more work than just driving on. However, taking the time to be creative and optimize is often well worth it in the long run. It’s like chopping wood with a dull axe. You’re going to be losing time if you stop to sharpen the axe but when you jump back to it you’re going to start chopping much faster.
Aminul Islam Sajib said:
You have just spotted the exact points which made Mashable a successful one. And yes, the best part of Mashable that I like is the length of the articles. They are not longer than necessary.
I like your term ‘wild success’. That definitely describes how successful it is.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Most casual internet surfers agree with you. You can certainly build a small niche following with large articles and they do have merit in terms of their inherit SEO qualities (sometimes) but the truth is that many of us just skim through those articles looking for the points most relevant to us anyways so why not hit people fast and hard with the most important information? That’s what I enjoy and I’m coming to believe that many others do also.
Mary E. Ulrich said:
Great points Nicholas. I liked the way you named Mashable a Goliath and then analyzed their success–haven’t seen that anywhere else.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Thanks, Mary. They really are a social media news giant. They’re kicking butt and taking charge but the great thing is that we can learn from their business model and we can become that much better.
Onibalusi Bamidele said:
Really \great Post Nick!
You nailed it hard on the head and there is hardly anytime I visit your blogs without being inspired.
I will be applying some of these things on my blogs.
Thanks a lot for the great post.,
-Onibalusi
Nicholas Cardot said:
You’re welcome. That’s the key. Don’t just stand there impressed with the great work that Mashable is doing, but learn and apply these principles. Until you actually create ways to incorporate them into your online work, it’s useless. Dream big and work hard to make these a reality.
Nasrul Hanis said:
Agree! I guess the most helping factor is the number of authors itself. More people, more updates, more interesting information!
Nicholas Cardot said:
That is such a powerful factor and it’s the #1 reason that I’m working so hard to start developing a team of talented authors here at Site Sketch 101. We’ve got several new people that are going to be writing regularly here and I’m working hard to find more.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing said:
You’re absolutely right regarding a team of writers. This was one of the first things I thought of when thinking up my blog network idea.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Building a team is definitely important and I’m finding that teams are able to accomplish more than the sum of the individuals working alone.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing said:
I find it interesting that there is not one link actually to Mashable.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ha ha. I didn’t even think about that. Good observation.
Jorgen @ Personal Branding said:
Hi Nick, good observations there about Mashable. I think it’s great that it was started by Pete Cashmore out of his student dorm room, he was writing up to 12 posts per day on his own in the beginning… So I guess he learned the virtue of keeping the posts short
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Nicholas Cardot said:
To be quite honest with you, I didn’t know the history of the site nor am I particularly familiar with Pete Cashmore. Every one of my observations was made based on my personal experiences as I’ve browsed and enjoyed that site.
P.S. I just want you to know that I’m going to pass Mashable up someday.
Wish me luck, please.
Murlu said:
The inside information is unparalleled simply because they have so many great connections to break some really amazing news.
Just shows you how great it can be to buddy-buddy with insiders
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Nicholas Cardot said:
That’s a great point. I hadn’t even thought about the networking that must take place behind the front page of the site. You’ve brought up a great point.
Kevin Minott said:
Mashable also has irresistible headlines. They know how to pull you in.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
That’s another terrific point. People fail to realize how important their post headlines are. Far too often people spend time creating amazing content only to doom it never to be read by giving it at title that turns people away. Headlines are incredibly important!
Joe Boyle said:
Really great points you’ve listed there, Nick.
It’s funny that you mentioned short articles. I’ve been doing a bit of what I call “power commenting” today, and it seems like every article I have seen, so far, is about 2,000 words long. No one wants to read it.
Posting frequent, quality content is the key to gaining a strong team of dedicated readers. Great post!
Nicholas Cardot said:
Thanks, Joe. I think that you’re right on target with your assessment. The internet is fast filling up with casual internet browsers. People want to be informed or entertained quickly and then they want to move on to the next thing on their daily agenda. We need to learn how to cater to that.
Joe Boyle said:
It seems almost like, with the new band of internet users, websites need to be more like comments. You have to write something short, sweet, and to the point. Afterwards, you can get a response, much like is happening right now.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
You’ve got a point, Joe. Conversations aren’t built on one person talking and the other listening. They’re best orchestrated when two people take turns contributing to the discussion.
Ed said:
Nothing better than Mashable…They just cover so many areas of social media…Love the fact they are so on top of everything new…a new startup company or the releases of all the new tech…I’m over there everyday 10 times a day…Yet, when I’m not there I swing by and check out your site! Peace!
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Ben Parr said:
Nicholas,
Thanks for the kind words about us.
Just a few random notes, though:
- We definitely have A LOT more than 2 million readers per month — that’s just the ones following. Our readership is more than 10x that number.
- On a good day, we do over 30 articles.
- Yes, our editorial team is amazing.
Again, thanks for the post. We appreciate it!
Cheers,
- Ben, Co-Editor of Mashable
Nicholas Cardot said:
That’s awesome, Ben. I apologize for underestimating your success. You folks definitely have a rocking team and you’re definitely producing some amazing stuff over there. Keep up the killer work!
Vinish Parikh said:
Nice analysis of mashables success, will try to keep above points in mind
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Mitz said:
I have ended up at mashable and it is great. I would love to be able to have a team of writers like that. But I feel that the little guy can do this sooner or later…It wil take years though.. You can do all the same things Mashable does and become successful but on a smaller scale.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
You’re somewhat correct. One of the aspects of this concept that I’ve been thinking about is the fact that we spend so much time networking and connecting with other like-minded bloggers and then we never really find ways to use those connections for our mutual benefit. Finding ways to work together with the people that you’re connecting with is essential to building successful teams.
Jasmine Henry from J Station X said:
One of the things I think that works for Mashable is that they know who their readers are. Many of their posts are about social media sites, where users are very casual and do not have a lot of time, their posts are very short and simple and so they are specifically catered to the readers who are interested in those sorts of things.
Nicholas Cardot said:
That’s a great observation. They write shorter posts specifically because they know that the social media crowds are attracted toward shorter posts. I hadn’t even made that connection, but I think that you nailed it right on the head. What about your niche? What do you think they are looking for?
Jasmine Henry from J Station X said:
Because my niche is video games and gamers are the ones who are visiting my site, I always make sure to include videos or images because they like to ‘see’ what’s happening with the latest games, especially as they may not usually have access to the imagery themselves.
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