We all hear a lot about going viral and about certain things we can do to ensure our blog posts go viral.
In my experience, this is all crap.
It’s REALLY hard to get something to go viral, and it’s not something we often have a lot of control over. Instead, why don’t we focus on our content going bacterial? No, you won’t see as thousands of new visitors, but you have much more control over when and how you’ll see an influx of visitors, both new and old.
Interested? Then check out the infographic below. I’m particularly proud of this one :)
I feel like I’ve been asking for a lot of retweets recently, but please bear with me one more time and retweet this post. If you’re feeling extra generous, share it via whatever other social networking and social bookmarking things I’ve got going on here.
Did you like this infographic? Wish you could make something like this? Well guess what! Sometime in the next month I’ll be coming out with my infographic creation course. It’ll be SWEEEEET.
And thanks to Marcus from The Sales Lion for turning me on to the whole “Email people in your network and ask them to promote your stuff” thing :)
{ 85 comments… read them below or add one }
you surprise us again Tristan and managed to link viruses and bacteria with blogging! viral infections have no cure! they come and go as they please and bacterial ones can be treated and managed (as far as i know [i hope so lol!]) i’ll definitely tweet about this and link it to my FB. c”,)
Thanks, Ao! I’m glad you liked it, and thanks for sharing :)
And I like what you said about viruses coming and going and not having any cure, while bacterial infections can be treated and manged. That sounds right to me, though I guess a couple of linguists aren’t the best people to talking about this kind of thing :)
Great post I like it. You have perfectly presented that Why to go for Bacterial and if you go for Viral than it also not BAD. Done proper balance between them.
Awesome, thanks for taking the time to comment, and I’m glad you found the post useful! I really do appreciate the comment.
Hi Tristan,
This is the infographic that you spend hours. It’s great. Going bacteria is a slow process but effective. These are the daily routines that we need to work on. We shouldn’t keep thinking of our post going viral as it might distract us in doing our daily blogging activities. We have to understand that the above task will find us some visitors and it can actually add up to a huge numbers of visitors.
Thanks for sharing the inforgraphic and post.
Lye
Yeah, this one took me hours to make! Looking at it now, it looks pretty simple. But it took me a long time to figure out exactly how I’d present all of the information and order it.
Hoping that a post will go viral is just a waste of time and that might prevent you from taking action on more realistic traffic generation methods.
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Lye! I really appreciate it!
Hey Tristan,
Thanks for the awesome post!
I never heard that one haha, going bacterial good one! I totally agree with you, because you never know when a post will go viral, but hey you sure can give it that extra push by doing exactly what you mentioned above. I don’t schedule my post around my guest post I just try my hardest to keep the guest post flowing at all times. That way any post will get that extra bit of attention.
I’m amazed at what you have built here in the short time you have been building your blog. I’m a first time visitor and I must say I’m pleased at your progress you must never sleep. That or just know exactly what your doing! I’m sure you do though having 7 years in the biz!
Thanks again!
God bless,
William Veasley
I’m glad you liked the post and the blog, William. The secret here is indeed a mixture of never sleeping and knowing exactly what I’m doing :)
Thanks for taking the time to read the post and leave a comment!
The main difference in my opinion is that where you can actually choose when and how to go bacterial, you haven’t got much control on the “going viral” process at all.
I still don’t believe there’s any exact formula for that one, even ’cause if there was, everyone would be using it by now.
One question that comes to mind is: if too much content “goes viral”, does that up the bar for considering something viral in first place? Does viral become the new bacterial in that case?
Exactly, Gabriele. There are tons of articles out there saying “If you do this and this and this, your post has a much better chance of going viral!” Ok fine, the chance of it going viral goes from 1% to 2%! It’s just not something we can control.
You ask an interesting question. I don’t think, though, that “too much” content goes viral, but I think that virality has been around for long enough and that there’s enough good content out there now that far fewer things go viral. It’s like 1000 people entering a contest to win a prize, when before there were only 10 people in the contest.
Nice way to put it. :-)
To be honest, I’ve seen that natural sharing (without asking) is more beneficial. It spreads out to people who are really interested, unlike telling my friends to share it (they’re not into blogging and entrepreneurship, they’re into outdoorsy stuff).
I think it depends on who you ask. I don’t necessarily mean asking all of your friends to share your stuff, because you’re right; they’re probably not into blogging. I’m talking about asking everyone you know who IS interested in it. So for example, I’d ask my Twitter followers and the people on my blog here to share a certain post, but I wouldn’t ask my Facebook friends because they’re mostly not interested in blogging.
Thanks Constantin!
Hi Tristan,
I don’t shy to accept that this is a great post and I think I would too like to go Bacterial way. Thanks for sharing your expertise. :D
No problem, Shailender :) I’m glad you liked the post, and thanks so much for commenting!
Tristian!
I love this infographic. I can completely verify your theory here because I see it in my own analytics. I also believe you get a lot further with the “bacterial” method because it involves adding the personal element to making connections.
Love it. Go Bacterial!
While “going bacterial” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like “going viral” does, I do think it’s a more practical and accessible approach for most bloggers. And like you said, it’s just more personal and sustainable.
The irony is that this post did go viral a little bit. I got something like 400 visitors in a day from StumbleUpon.
Thanks for commenting, Marlee!
Great stuff tristan. What an awesome infographic.
I love the way how you explained to go viral way. The best way to go backterial is by doing guest posting. I’ve done guest posting for 2-3 big blogs and i’m amazed with the results i’m getting.
Blog Commenting – Doing commenting takes a lot of work and time but the results are always awesome. It’s also one of my favorite way to build relationship with author of a blog :).
Thanks for sharing this great Post Tristan. keep up the good work.
Yeah, I’ve seen you on ProBlogger and a couple others recently. Nice!
I agree about commenting. It IS a lot of work, but it really is a great way to build up those relationships with other bloggers. And like you said, it’s just fun!
Thanks Devesh!
You perfectly described what Ive done on several occasions and as a result my traffic graph looks exactly like the traffic graph in your ahhh…graph :-p Were you looking over my shoulder? You sneaky, cheeky, bloger you :-)
You should know by now that I’m everywhere, Dino. No traffic graph is safe from my prying eyes!
Yeah Buddy! Ha! I love this, I always thought that .1% of the online population actually has stuff that goes “viral” and they probably had little to do with it happening.
Going bacterial sounds so dirty! I love it! And your info graphic looks awesome! Essentially you described what I do every time I post. It is quite a necessary process that has boosted my daily visitors since I started implementing it. The best thing I ever could have done was building relationships with other bloggers and commenting away on their stuff.
Good times!
Yeah, going bacterial doesn’t sound quite as sexy as going viral does now (and isn’t it weird how something going viral sounds sexy??), but that’s because, well… it’s not! It’s a lot more work, but it IS something you can guarantee and can get real results from.
I agree that commenting is a SUPER powerful tool. That along with guest posting has been really the biggest tool for growing my blog.
Thanks, Susan!
Tristan,
Love bacteria concept. I just goes to show that being consistent and letting those who count know about it works.
Great info graphic. It is a nice little bacteria for your new book.
Yeah, this’ll be a good one to throw into my course :)
This bacterial thing really does work, even if it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well “going viral.” Thanks for the kind words and the comment, Sheila!
Hi Tristan,
“Go Bacterial!” Haha, I love it! And the infographic is pretty amazing.
My favorite tip here is where you said to have your guest post on another blog timed to happen the same day as your better-than-usual content post.
Thanks!
Peggy
P.S. I hope you’re enjoying Seattle. :)
Thanks, Peggy! I’m glad you like the post and the infographic :)
And yep, Seattle’s great! It’s actually 46 degrees and completely sunny here! Weird!
Your infographics are awesome, and I understand why you’re especially proud of this one. It’s detailed and looks good. I’m looking forward to the launch of your product.
The only way I have tried to get anything to go viral is by using StumbleUpon. I thought that by adding close to anything to SU, and telling people in my network about it, it would go viral and never stop (well, that didn’t happen) :)
As you’re saying, I believe that a combination of many different methods is the best way to market your content (and get things to go bacterial – by the way, cool name). I have never asked people on my list to help me spread the word by sending them an email, and usually, I forget to ask people to retweet my blog posts as well. But I understand know how important this is. Thanks, and I hope you’re enjoying Seattle.
Looking at this infographic now, it looks pretty simple. But it took me a long time to figure out how exactly I wanted to present the information.
You know what’s ironic? This post actually did go a bit viral. I got about 400 visitors from StumbleUpon, compared to the normal 8 or 9 a day I usually get!
I’ve often asked my readers to retweet my content, and I’ve definitely seen that it works. And Jens, if you ever need something retweeted (and I haven’t done it already), Stumbled, and Digged, let me know :)
And yeah, Seattle’s great! It’s actually pretty warm and sunny right now… Crazy!
How do you ask you readers? Do you send them emails, tweets or do you just ask them in the blog post? By the way, I have just sent you a request on email :)
Hope you’re having an awesome time in Seattle.
A friend just pointed me to your blog, and I’m really glad she did! This is a great post, and I’m taking notes, and will be “going bacterial” with my blog ASAP!
Love the infographic too, by the way.
I’m glad your friend pointed you to my blog, too, Teresa! Be sure to let me know if you have any questions about going bacterial or any of the other things I talk about on the blog here.
Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment!
I think you may have just coined a new internet phrase. I’ve never heard of anyone talk about going bacterial before.
It really is random, dumb luck a lot of times on what goes viral. My friend made the website themostamazingwebsiteontheinternet.com and only posted about it on one forum, but within 8 hours it had gone viral. The whole purpose of the site was as a joke.
My eyes are forever burned after looking at that themostamazingwebsiteontheinternet.com.
The ironic thing is that post went a little bit viral. I got something like 400 visits from StumbleUpon.
Tristan
Loving the Infographic – have you got any details on the course?
Paul
Not a lot of the details on the course yet, Paul. It’ll include information on infographic design, examples and samples, types of infographics, etc. And then the other half will be a series of Inkscape video tutorials (Inkscape is a great program for creating infographics, and is the free/open source equivalent of Adobe Illustrator). The price will be pretty low — around $30 — and it’ll be finished hopefully by the end of February.
I really love it Tristan; it’s a lot more sustainable for the long run and a few of my own posts have taken this path.
The great thing is that it just builds and builds and builds. You could have a gigantic spike but who cares if nothing happens after it. I much rather have a very prolonged stream of traffic that never dies down – it may take a while longer to build up to that point but it’s way more awesome.
Exactly, Murray. And I mean how targeted is any viral traffic going to be? Not very. But bacterial traffic… That’s all targeted traffic.
Thanks for the comment and the kind words, man.
Hi Tristan,
The bacterial mode is the greatest strategy for making a website successful. Going bacterial is safe and good, not exagerated traffic and long-time visitors, visitors that will come back, visitors that will become your trust-worthy readers. The answer to going bacterial is the work, start working the right way – bacterial. Work daily and aim for quality, not for quantity.
Best regards,
Maria
Exactly, Maria. I really like this that you said: “Work daily and aim for quality, not for quantity.” Yep, and I agree 100%!
A lot of people are looking for the magic bullet that will get them amazing results NOW. But the truth is that that just won’t happen.
Thanks, Maria!
Truly smart Tristan. Viral traffic comes and go but “bacterial” traffic can stay long term. Thanks dude.
Thanks for the comment and kind words, Edwin. Oh, and I’ll reply to your email later today.
Tristan, aloha. Congrats on your infographic on a great topic. You are so right, going bacterial is much, much easier–a steady, consistent growth. Thx also for the introduction to Marcus at The Sales Lion. Went over there, read that post and will be reading many more. Off to tweet both of you. enjoy a fantastic weekend. Aloha. Janet
Thanks, Janet! And I’m glad I could introduce you to Marcus. His blog is consistently excellent.
Thanks for the tweets, comment, and the kind word :)
I love the concept of going bacterial. This is something that I have been working on for my site. The nice jump when you go viral is great, but I’d much prefer the longevity of going ‘bacterial’.
Exactly, Kenneth. Going viral is awesome if it ever happens, but it’s not something you can count on happening. And I think a lot of people do a few things that are supposed to make their stuff go viral, but think that’s good enough and don’t bother doing the time-tested things that WILL get you traffic.
Thanks for the comment, man!
Yeah, I’m digging the bacterial analogy Tristan. Going viral is nice, but it shouldn’t be ‘the goal’. The goal is strong growth, line upon line, until one’s handful of followers becomes a full-blown tribe ready to do anything for that person.
Oh, and thanks for the mention my friend!!
Marcus
Exactly. If a post goes viral, sweet! But I think a lot of people only do the things that “should” get them viral traffic and forgo the more important, more realistic, and work-intensive methods. Bummer.
Thanks, Marcus!
Tristan – I really like the “bacteria” concept….especially being that it’s based on simplicity.
So creative! Your “How to go Bacterial” is great. My take away was: utilize your resources to help spark your growth…and base the approach by way of simple, yet calculated maneuvers.
This is one of my favs for sure!
Sweeeeet :) I’m glad you liked it! Thanks as always for the support and comment, Jk.
hahaha, what a great post :)
I find that people talk a lot about just ‘submitting a post to social networking websites’ and it doesn’t really work. Having a huge following is the only way you’ll get that to work. Like when they talk about newbies submitting their posts to digg, how is that going to work?
My, ‘has blogging turned into a religion?’ post went a bit bacterial so i think, often the more crazy topics can get that happening. And bacteria can do some pretty crazy stuff to your blog too…
Very clever thinking with the “go bacterial”. Having something become truly “viral” is pretty tough. I am convinced it almost takes as much luck as it does skill. I have never put a word to it, but going, “bacterial” is awesome.
The infographic you made is quite hot too! love it!
Hey, that ‘Going Bacterial’ chart looks a lot like my current site views! Still pretty low but steadily increasing ;-)
Food for thought here Tristan, its best to make use of the resources you’ve got, rather than worry over the resources you haven’t got. We can always do something to improve things :-)
As long as it’s steadily increasing, Stuart, that’s all that matters :)
Thanks for the comment, man!
Tristan,
I have to say man how do you come up with all these cool stuffs man. While the rest of the blogging world is worried about making their post go viral, you come up with a new technique of going bacterial (O: Awesome man!
The info-graphic is epic. I just can’t wait to read your course on it.
Talk to you later man!
How do I come up with this stuff? I dunno… It just comes to me! I just take what I’m doing on this blog and try to present it in a unique and interesting way.
And thanks for the kind words about the infographic! The course should be finished and ready to go by the end of February.
Thanks Adam!
I’m going “bacterial” every once a month or so, I’ll send e-mails/PM’s/Mass Messages, etc. To all my friends on socials networks and IM’s. It brings exact the sort of traffic that I need, it also spikes my alexa rank…
Yeah, good point about this spiking the Alexa rank. I hadn’t really thought about that too much, but you’re right!
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Ali. I appreciate it!
I just gave you a round of applause and standing ovation. Guess the sentiment is lost in the digital realm. At any rate, great graphic, great explanation, and I agree. I’ll take steady traffic over spikes and anomalies brought on by viral events
Hahaha, I’d like to think that I could still hear the applause and standing ovation :)
The funny thing is that this post DID go viral a little. I got something like 400 visitors from StumbleUpon on this post, but very few of them stuck around.
Long live bacterial!
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Jon.
Hi Tristan!
As usual, very informative and excellent presentation with infographic. Nice post Tristan, tweeted and Digged :).
Absolutely!! I couldn’t agree more. Going viral is great, but all those people that have gone viral are now gone and forgotten. Definitely tweeted. :)
Cheers!
Exactly, Morgan. Viral traffic generally doesn’t stick around much after the fact. But bacterial traffic is targeted and tends to be much more sticky.
Thanks for the comment and retweet :)
Hey Tristan
I really need to dip my toes into the world of guest post blogging, as a newbie, do you have any tips on appoaching the authors of blogs?
Will be sure to tweet for you as I always do, Alex
I’d like to do a post on guest posting pretty soon here, but my advice is just to look and see if there’s a “Write for Us” or “Contribute” page on the blog. If so, they’ll have exact instructions on how to proceed with submitting a guest post. It’s not hard or scary. Get on it, man!
Thanks as always for the tweet and comment, Alex. You’re a stud, man.
You mean we can’t engineer something viral? Oh well :P
I love the infographic here and it’s totally accurate. I wonder how many outside of those here take advantage in their niches…
I don’t know, that’s a great question, Robert. I’m guessing… very few. I think that’s the case with most info on any blog, though. A lot of people might like to read it and nod their heads in agreement, but how many will actually take action?
Hi Tristan,
Another awesome post. Love the bacterial concept and the infographic :)
I have just published my very first pillar post and I’m going to implement the tips you’re sharing here.
Thanks for sharing these tips, Tristan.
All the best,
Mavis
Thanks for the kind words, Mavis :) I’m glad you like the infographic. I really do just love making these things. Writing is awesome and I love it, but it’s just nice to express yourself in another way, you know?
And awesome, I’m off to go check out your pillar post now!
Hey Tristan,
Thanks for visiting my blog and for leaving a kind comment. Here’s my pillar post in case you missed it: http://www.attractionmarketingonline.com/attract-targeted-endless-prospects/
Cheers!
Mavis
Hahaha :)
Hands to you for such creativity and imagination (I can bet you that in 10 years, I would never actually thought of such a thing). This is great (Just like your posts, they are always awesome !).
Note : You are especially good at making images/charts. How do you do that ? (Can you share it with us ?) Thanks,
Jeevan Jacob John
Wow, thanks Jeevan! I do try to keep things interesting around here.
By the end of February I’ll have a course that explains how to create the images/charts. It’ll be pretty epic.
Thanks again for taking the time to comment!
Love it! So clever and imaginative and also easier to strive for. Go bacterial!
Thanks, Julie! (And thanks for the RT, too!)
It’s easier to strive for, it will provide real results, and it will increase the strength of your social networks. Definitely not a bad thing, eh?
“Go bacterial!” (My new battle cry?)
This article is awesome and inspiring. Great work with infographic. Now going “viral” or rather “bacetrial” seems like something that we can control!
Great, I’m glad you liked the graphic, Bojan! Exactly, going “bacterial” is definitely more reliable (and practical!) than going viral. Thanks for the comment, man; I really appreciate it.
Hey Tristan, I hope your enjoying your little time off. I agree with your point that we can’t control something going viral, but going bacterial sounds like a different story. Really nice job with infographic I learned a lot from the illustration. I look forward to checking out your infographic creation course. Thanks for sharing.
Great post Tristan, I can’t help thinking all that viral talk is just another fad. I concur with the post – rather keep conservative but make sure to apply all the techniques in the toolbox. So, bacterial it is for me!
I could say that my review of The 4 Hour Body has gone bacterial. It accounted for over 30% of the posts that were read on my site directly – perhaps even more people visited my blog to find the post. I have noticed a big jump in my traffic numbers since I started the series in December, so aim to write more posts that produce traffic like that.
Writing a series of blog posts can help things go bacterial faster and keep producing over time. You start the process with Part 1, and then do another round of commenting about Part 2, and so on. Eventually, some people will think “Oh, he’s written three posts about that? I should go check it out.” I’ve noticed that trend with myself. I’ll see Part 1 by commented somewhere and think, “Hmmm, maybe later.” But when I see Part 2 or 3, I decide that I definitely have to check it out.
I have to agree with everyone else and say that the graphic is some great work.
I think going bacterial can only be implemented if you treat your content with some business mindset and the viral thing has become old-school, going bacterial is the new thing!
Excellent advice. One problem with me though. I’m scared to death to do a guest post. My niche is almost too unique. I don’t know of a blog that would want to post what I write.
I almost never do intra-blog conversations, it’s bad, a crime some social media specialists would say, but i find it somewhat intimidating. i have a blog, if you’re into it, rss-it if not, than i don’t want to pressure you with content that gives me one-off tweets. then again, maybe you’re right, some bacteria is good and, just like we cultivate it in our bodies, we should grow it on our blogs. thanks for this. i saw your post retweeted on twitter and now i’m tweeting myself, adding you and even rssing. guess bacteria does spread fast!!
Hi Tristan,
I’m really loving the infographic. I love it so much, that I actually printed it out and stuck it in my blogging binder for future reference.
But I agree – going viral is so much harder to do than going “bacterial.” In fact, anyone can go bacterial. They just have to put the time and effort into writing that pillar post, writing the guest post, and commenting on the other blogs.
You’re phenomenal, Tristan. Keep up the awesome work!
Christina
Great stuff!!! Retweets well deserved…your out of the box thoughts are really amazing!!!! :)
Sad news! I downloaded a free copy of viral traffic samurai and IT DOES NOT DO JACK!! installed on my PC,but doesn’t even open or work!
Thought you might find the infographic we created interesting based on the above! http://bit.ly/HandwashingWeek
Let me know what you think!
Sarah
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