Frontlines

‘Viral Is Like Porn,’ and 6 Other Takeaways From FinCon in New Orleans

By Paula Pant October 9th, 2014

Have you ever cracked an inappropriate joke on stage?

I had my chance a few weeks ago in front of a standing-room-only crowd of editors, writers, bloggers, and media professionals when I served on the “How to Write Blog Posts That Go Viral” at the Financial Bloggers Conference in New Orleans.

FinCon, now in its fourth year, is an annual gathering of new media professionals, corporate reps, and self-proclaimed “finance geeks” that bills itself as the place “where money and media meet.” It’s also known for strong audience participation more than other conferences.

During my panel, an audience member asked, “What’s the definition of viral?” Immediately, a joke popped into my head. A riff on Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s famous quotation about separating art from obscene material.

“Viral is like porn.” I wanted to say. ” You know it when you see it.”

I held my tongue, giving a straightforward answer that “viral” isn’t a raw number; it’s a volume relative to your existing traffic.

I was the only independent blogger on the panel, representing my site Afford Anything, which over the years has grown a distribution list of 7,500 email subscribers. But all jokes aside, viral is a concept made up of a few crucial elements. And unless you try to produce viral content on a daily basis, it takes experience to understand which elements are most important.

With the help of my fellow panelists Jennifer Barrett, editor in chief for Daily Worth; Cameron Huddleston, contributing editor for Kiplinger; Morgan Quinn, managing editor and social media strategist for Mint; and our fearless moderator Emma Johnson, who blogs at Wealthy Single Mommy, we shared the following tips for writing blog posts that go viral:

1. Pay attention to the headline.

A fantastic article might get buried or overlooked because of a boring headline. Don’t be afraid of brainstorming 15 or 20 headlines before you find the right one.

2. Split-test your headline.

If you have an email list, send two versions of your headline to a small sample segment, and see which one gets a higher “open rate” (the number of people who open the email). Send the winning headline to your overall list.

(Ed. note: We do this at The Freelancer using Mailchimp.)

3. Respect the formulas.

Basic principles of good headline writing, such as adding a strong adjective, are effective. There’s a huge difference between “The Secret to a Debt-Free Lifestyle” and “The Surprising Secret to a Debt-Free Lifestyle.” Adding an adjective can often lead to more clicks.

3. But don’t be too formulaic.

We’ve all seen those clickbait headlines on the web like “142 Shocking Facts About Mortgage Insurance. (#38 Will Make You Cry!)” or “I Applied for My First Credit Card. You Won’t Believe What Happened Next.” Once you cross into that territory, you may be destroying your brand if you don’t deliver on the headline’s promise.

4. List posts work.

There’s a good reason articles such as “29 Unconventional Ways to Save on Car Insurance” are still circulating the web—lists generate clicks.

5. Personality is paramount.

But don’t write a list post, like the one cited above, if that writing style isn’t aligned with your personal brand (or the website’s brand). The readers want your voice, not some anonymous narrator.

6. Engagement trumps pageviews.

At the end of the day, a “viral traffic spike” is meaningless if the readers don’t remain engaged. Metrics such as average visit duration, average pages per visit, and, most importantly, average email conversion rate—the percentage of visitors who joined the email list—are far more critical than pageviews.

The joke may have been a tad inappropriate, but the meaning behind it was more than apt. Well, as long as the viral content isn’t actually pornography. That’s a different discussion for a different day. FinCon 2015, anyone?

Image by SvetoGraf
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