The 5 Keys to Creating Wildly Popular Content
Awesome Content: Set Up For Online Success
A few days ago I published an article called The 15 Best WordPress Plugins for 2010. That article quickly became very popular. It received hundreds of retweets. It secured hundreds of delicious bookmarks. It had over 100 comments on it by the morning after it was published and it’s still receiving new comments each day. It even spiked my visitor count by the thousands. It brought a lot of attention to Site Sketch 101.
In my mind the article was a success. It was a huge success and I’m incredibly happy with it. But although I’m happy with what happened, I’m not happy to just sit back and enjoy a one-time achievement. I want more. I want to experience this again and again.
So I sat back and I began to break the article apart. I began to think about the qualities that may have contributed to it’s momentum and strength.
- It was bold. The title itself claims that these are the absolute best plugins available for the WordPress content management system. These are the premiere plugins. I didn’t claim that they were great. I went beyond that. I shouted from the housetops that these plugins are the best available…and I believe that they are.
- It appealed to a large number of people. That article was essentially written for every WordPress user on the planet. Beginners, intermediates users, and advanced users can find a new plugin to explore. Any one of the millions of WordPress users can engage with the content with the hope of improving themselves and their blogs.
- Its call-to-action was simple and clear. Although you may not have even noticed the call-to-action as you read the post, it was there and many readers took action. The take-home challenge was to install and try some of those plugins and it worked. Comments and emails came pouring in that people were installing amazing plugins that they were so thankful to have now found. Asking people to do something complicated will always minimize the outreach and effectiveness of an article.
- Its content was rock solid. If you saw the title and came into it looking for The 15 Best WP Plugins for 2010 then you would have found exactly what you were looking for. I didn’t choose nasty plugins that nobody uses. I chose the ones that are highly rated, highly useful and highly needed. The quality of the content supported the bold title and the calls-to-action.
- It added value to those who read it. The core concept of the article was to provide people with incredibly easy-to-use ways to enhance their online experience. I was providing ways for people to grow their blogs and add new features to their websites. The value of each plugin was far more than the price: free.
Group Reflection
If you don’t want to create wildly popular content then something might just be wrong with you. I can’t imagine that there are many people who wake up in the morning who want to be failures. I know that I don’t.
So let’s think it out. Let’s pay attention to our successes and our failures and learn from them. What other attributes do you think may have helped that post become so popular so fast? How can we apply these lessons to new articles at our websites?
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 200 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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50 Vibrant Comments
I would love to hear yours!
Tom | Build That List said:
And it was a list, and people love lists cause they are lazy
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Don Gilbert said:
How true that is!
But even so – some of those plugins are not for lazy people, they take work to set up. Namely, Headspace2. It is a bear if you don’t know what your doing. but thankfully, Nick has already posted 2 guest posts explaining it in detail.
Thanks again for those great plugins Nick. I can’t believe how much it grew your Twitter and RSS followers!
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Don Gilbert » You’re welcome. I’m thrilled about the RSS subscriber and Twitter follower increase that I’ve been seeing lately. It’s absolutely terrific.
Dana @ Blogging Update said:
Yeah, list post surely have tendency become popular post if we do it right.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Dana @ Blogging Update » Remember that it being a list post is only one of the many positive attributes that it had going for it.
Dana @ Blogging Update said:
Yeah, you are right nick, list post is one of many aspect that lead an article become great article.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Dana @ Blogging Update » I’m surprised that I didn’t even think of that when I was looking over the article.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Tom | Build That List » That’s a great thought and what better person to bring that idea to the table than the author of “Build that list.”
Eric said:
I agree with both of you, Don and Tom.
I believe that when you explain something to someone who is interested in what you have to say and you do it in such a way as to make it stupid simple, friendly, interactive, short to the point and it solves a problem you’ve done it.
A great blog post takes all the things you learn to make something great, in one good sized article and put it out there.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Eric » That’s a perfect summary. I couldn’t put it better myself.
Eric B. said:
Just wondering, but didn’t that post already have about 100 tweets to start anyway?
I always feel like list posts are lazy, but they always get lots of attention.
But I guess people like lists, and I’ll just have to accept that.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Eric B. » Yes, but if you click through you’ll see that the BackType program is only tracking the recent retweets. As new retweets were coming it held the old number of 101 until the recent tweet count surpassed that number. Once that happended it starting climbing. It’s kind of a weird system. I hope that makes sense.
Lee Ka Hoong said:
List post, everyone loves list post. List post is easily to read and understand, write in point form and the definition of the post can be read in minutes.
In my Google analytics, the Top 5 most popular viewed posts were list post. If you look at Digg or any bookmarking site, most of the top posts are list post. So we can see here is that if you want to make your blog post popular, write list post, as long as you can, but make sure it’s something worth reading, such as your previous post 15 wordpress plugins.
This is an interesting post and I enjoy reading it Nick!
Cheers,
Lee
Nicholas Cardot said:
Lee Ka Hoong » I’ve been noticing a trend on Digg lately away from list posts. It seems like Digg has actually been trending lately toward big ticket news items in the tech world.
Dana @ Blogging Update said:
I think that i will create this kind list in 2011.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Dana @ Blogging Update » Don’t wait until then. Take action today.
Sachin @ Web Design Mauritius said:
Congratulations for this great exercise Nicholas. I’m not that much into list posts and it might be a huge mistake for me as these seem to be here to stay but once again it’s not only the fact that it was a list post that attracted visitors but the content in it.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Sachin @ Web Design Mauritius » Notice that it being a list post wasn’t even one of the points that I brought up. Although it’s valid, I don’t think that it’s necessary in order to create content. That being said, you should also never be afraid to mix it up a little bit and throw a nice well-planned list post out into the blogosphere.
Kok Siong Chen said:
Yes! You are right! We should write something that is related to everyone. The article can be very popular if it is beneficial to everyone. Thanks for sharing! I really love your blog design!:)
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Kok Siong Chen » Thanks so much. It’s been fun modifying it and bringing it to the state that it’s now in.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com said:
About one in every ten posts I have are list posts. I write them because they’re fun for me.
However, as a reader, I like list posts because they keep the writer focused. Aside from a handful of bloggers out there, I don’t have confidence that the blogger is an experienced writer. Often times, I have to use my mental machete just to find the point of the article.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Gabe | freebloghelp.com » Those are good points. I like to mix in a good list post once in a while as well. I think it’s a good change of pace and as you say it helps us to stay focused. It’s also helpful because it can be a terrific resource roundup.
mk akan said:
The post also saves times..if you were to look for this plug ins yourself ,how long will it take . i dunno …but it sure did save people the trouble of searching
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Nicholas Cardot said:
mk akan » That’s a great point. It really does save time. I didn’t even think bout that.
Glen said:
Aside from the points you mentioned I think your passion for the subjects you write about does a great deal to promote this post and other ones you do.
The title would draw a lot of people in to the site but the content and presentation are what gets them to read the post.
I think I, and everyone else, can learn from this. If you aren’t passionate about what you do then don’t do it..
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Glen » Those are great observations. Passion is such an essential element to connecting with people on the large scale online.
Derek Jensen said:
I really feel the call to action, if done very well, greatly helps your content and reactions. Reactions are, of course, comments and retweets.
Nicholas, I really enjoy ‘Group Reflection’ and ‘Group Discussion’ sections.
Of course the more sharing and comments means more likely that that content is popular. And those special sections like ‘group reflection’ are just the icing to the cake.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Derek Jensen » I do to. I actually first saw a reflection part at the end of a chapter in a printed book. It was intended for the reader to stop and personally reflect on the material but I thought that it would be a terrific way to summarize an article and invite conversation.
Anthony V. Gibby said:
I am definately taking some pointers from here. I read The 15 Best WordPress Plugins for 2010, and installed every single plugin. Some plugins are not compatible with my sever and/or theme. But I digress, I all the those points where surely hit upon and I found myself compelled by them all. I didn’t realize until I read this post. I will be trying to apply these pointers to my next blog post.
http://avgibby.posterous.com
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Anthony V. Gibby » Please do. Whenever I achieve a success I like to look at it and share the principles with everyone so that we can all try to achieve the same successes.
Chad @ Tech201 said:
Congrats on the success of that post. Going viral like that is something I think all of us hope for.
The headline is one that makes people want to click, and being a list post already lends itself to readability and popularity. Add useful content to that, and an already willing-to-retweet audience and you’ve got a great combination.
Nice work, Nicholas.
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Anthony V. Gibby said:
That’s what I need – A willing-to-retweet audience. Ummm, along with content lol
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Anthony V. Gibby » That’s what we all need. LOL.
Pastor Wynn said:
I was grateful for the article. Although I have had a blog for a while, it has only been a recent decision to get aggressive with my writing. So, I am eager to learn what I can, in order to be more successful with my blogging. It does give a brief respite from the pressures of ministry. (I don’t play golf!)
Nicholas Cardot said:
Pastor Wynn » Well this is definitely the place to learn how to really step your blog up and grab some attention.
Will Fowler said:
People are to busy in our post modern upwardly mobile society to go researching for everything they need that’s why list will never die they will only continue to become more and more relevant. 100 years ago before tv, and movie screens people went to political debates, and church and listened for hours and thought deeply about what was said. They wrote long well worded letters by handed back and forth sometimes taking months or years. They read long books that came in multiple volumes. Even in the 1950’s television shows were black and white and each scene lasted an average of 30 seconds before switching.
Fast forward to today we have color hd tv that switches scenes every 1.5-3 seconds. Instant communication, blackberries, Iphones, board meetings, pta, and microwaves we don’t have time to figure out what to do we need someone to do the research for us and break it down real simple and real fast. Even me if I’m on Joomla or wordpress and want to have a new feature I have to search through the extensions install them and sometimes it takes 2-3 different plugins sometimes before I find one that works just right. I would much rather work smarter not harder you do the research and testing I’ll reap the benefits welcome to 2010 and beyond my friend. -will
Nicholas Cardot said:
Will Fowler » Those are some interesting observations. People’s attention spans are changing. That’s exactly right.
Shamim said:
Ok……..Nicholas. There is a question for you. I saw and read a lot of post about the unique content. I suggested from a lot of blogger to post something about which is new to tell. But, the way you made this post was over saturated i think. Because a lot of post has already been made on this “Title”. In this sense, it’s not something that is new. How will you evaluate this?
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Chad @ Tech201 said:
One of the biggest misconceptions about blogging content is that it has to be unique, and you should avoid an already crowded niche.
The fact is, the Internet is huge and there is plenty of room for everyone. The fact that something has already been discussed does not mean that people have already seen it.
People do not know what they do not know. Meaning, they don’t know what to go looking for. When subjects are presented to readers, it can be valuable and new to those readers (even if it has been discussed thousands of times elsewhere).
One could easily argue that the content here at SS101 exists in many forms elsewhere, and it does, but look – Nicholas has generated a respectably large following by presenting that information in his voice.
The most important part (I think) is to present the information in your own voice, for your audience. If readers want it, they will connect and return. That makes it new and unique.
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Dana @ Blogging Update said:
I agree with you. The uniqueness is lay on how we present the things (style?) because there are no new things in under the sun — especially the in the crowded blogging these days.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Dana @ Blogging Update » Exactly. It’s pretty much impossible to share information that nobody has every heard of. But we can make it original by infusing our passion and our personality into it.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Chad @ Tech201 » That’s true. It’s more important to share your passions than it is to find a topic that’s not getting discussed at all. I attribute a lot of the success here to people following my passion and due to the way that I engage with people.
Nicholas Cardot said:
Shamim » First off, it is always great to bring new ideas to the table however, new bloggers need to understand the some of the things that more advanced bloggers already know. It’s new to them. Also, I just had a post go popular and it’s a terrific way to create an open duologue with others while working to spread that same success.
Fire said:
Thanks a lot Nicholas. You’r the man. I will stick with your idea.
Thanks
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Fire » That sounds great. I am a man but I’m not sure if I’m THE man. Thanks though.
Shane said:
Interesting analysis.
I recently analyzed the top-ranked lenses on Squidoo and one of the factors many of them had in common was that they covered something current.
I think that having “2010″ in the title of your post at the beginning of the new year probably plays a part in how much attention it got.
I just Googled “best wordpress plugins”. In the results, the first entry is a post from 2007, the second one is from sometime in 2009 and the third one is yours. I think you already win just for having the most recent entry. No-one wants to know about “old” plugins, after all.
Well done on the success of that post, by the way!
Cheers,
Shane
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Shane » Thanks. It’s good that you look back at the success and that we all learn so that you and each other reader can enjoy the same success that I was fortunate enough to have on that post.
Mikkel ‘DaneBlogger’ Juhl said:
I see lots of you are liking the list posts.. They are so awesome, they’re scannable and useful.
But it really depends on is the headline. If it is a good headline, people will be more likely to share it. Of course the content needs to be good too, but I think the most social sharing depends on the title.
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Ron Leyba said:
Also, those blog post or articles that “fills-in what is missing” on a certain niche will go viral.
This is a tried and tested method over the years but also requires a lot of research and analytic studies.
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Anthony V. Gibby said:
I find myself drawn to this site. I came back to read some of the comments left by others, and I am truly glad I did. I’m getting some great tips on writing a successful blog post, and I also got a few topic ideas for future post. Thanks Nic & commenters.