Maybe you just wrote that blog post that unexpectedly went viral, or maybe you woke up in the morning to notice a spike in traffic to your blog due to a link on a bigger blog.
It might be a huge spike in social media traffic, or a sudden realization that you’ve been featured in major news outlets.
As a blogger, these kinds of situations are usually unprecedented, and knowing what to do at that very moment can be a problem.
If you’re experiencing this kind of situation, here are 5 ways you can capitalize on it.
1. Display Opt in Forms below the Viral Post
One of the best ways to capitalize on viral traffic to your blog is by displaying opt in forms inside or below the viral post.
The purpose of the opt in form should be to get people to subscribe to your blog, and it can be via RSS or Email; even though email is always preferable.
Depending on your niche and your technical abilities, this can be very difficult. You can easily hire a coder on oDesk or Elance to help you with this, or you can check out a premium plugin called Optin Skin; the plugin is a great alternative to hiring designers, and you can use it on as many sites as you own.
2. Use a Quick Link above and below the Post to Tell People to Take a Particular Action
You can also capitalize on the viral traffic you’re getting by inserting a quick link above and below the viral post asking people to take a particular action.
This action will vary depending on your niche, what you have to offer, and who your readers are.
The action could be to check out your product, it could be to subscribe to your newsletter, and it could be follow you on twitter.
No matter what action you ask readers of your article to take, it is important to make sure it is something that will end up leading them back to your blog in the future, so make sure you decide carefully.
3. Promote Your Products, or Related Affiliate Products to People Who Came as a Result of the Viral Traffic
If you’re a blogger you can be doing it for various reasons; you can be blogging because you have a passion for it, or because you want to feed yourself, or both. In either case, there’s every probability that you can make a few bucks by capitalizing on your viral post.
If you have your own products and affiliate products, you can capitalize on it by featuring your own product inside your post that just went viral, and you can promote affiliate products if you don’t already have your own product.
Make sure you product you’re promoting is totally relevant to those reading the post, so you don’t end up pissing off new visitors and at the same time not make sales.
4. Write a Follow up Post and link to it on the Original Post
This particular approach can be very effective if done right, and it is often very easy to do.
The process involves writing a follow up or a spin on the original article.
For example, if you wrote a blog post on 30 lessons you’ve learned in the past 30 years that really went viral, you can write another article on 30 lessons you wish you had learned earlier etc.; it depends on your audience and want they respond to, but a viral article give you great insight into your audience.
Once an article you write goes viral, you should be ready to write a spin on it very soon; the reason for this is that a lot of factors determine how successful an article will be, and one of those factors is the time the article is written.
An article that will go viral this month might not go viral the next, so make sure you consider time as an important factor when you’re writing your follow up article.
5. Get in Touch with Related Websites and Media Outlets to Write About You
This particular approach is something bloggers seldom use, yet it can be very effective if done properly.
Getting featured in a single media outlet or on a very big blog in your niche can be what you need to get featured on related outlets.
You can capitalize on your current viral exposure by getting in touch with bigger and related websites and by asking them to feature you; once you contact them, let them know about the current exposure you’ve gotten on a bigger outlet, and that you’ll be happy to provide them with anything that will make it easy for them to feature you.
Seeing that you’ve been published on a similar outlet will boost your reputation, and as a result will make those you’re contacting receptive to your offer.
This is a guest post written by Paul, who helps people find wireless broadband plans.