Want More Views As A Writer? Here’s An Easy 3 Step Strategy To Try

Photo by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash

I’ve written 1,000 blog posts online.

I’ve probably posted close to 1,000 things on LinkedIn, too.

I’ve made hundreds of videos, and a few of them got 1,000,000+ views.

There is an art to going viral online, but sadly many writers don’t know how to paint with all the colors of the viral palette.

Viral articles or videos typically have two ingredients:

• They trigger intense emotions from both sides.

• They say something that interests lots of people.

If going viral is your goal, then you need to do three things.

1. Write down the ten most important stories from your life.

2. Understand what kinds of topics do well on the platform you’re on.

3. Figure out how to “marry” your stories with what does well on your chosen platform.

If you do these three things well, it’s only a matter of time before you go viral. Let me break down each step in excruciating detail..

Write Down The Ten Most Important Stories From Your Life

I don’t want you to write down 10 stories in full detail. I want you to simply think back on the most influential moments of your life, and list them on a sheet of paper.

The more the better, actually. If you can list off 20–30 stories from your life that changed everything for you, then that’s awesome.

Unfortunately, a lot of these moments may be bad ones.

For example, I write about the following stories a lot..

1. My road trip across the United States in 2016.

2. Living in the Philippines from 2018–2020.

3. My journey as a no-name writer to someone who’s gotten millions of views online.

4. Starting and growing a writing business to 6-figure earnings since 2017.

5. Work tales of a digital nomad.

I tell stories.

I tell my stories, more specifically.

This is my method. I’m not saying it’s the only method, but for those writers out there who care about telling their story AS MUCH AS getting views, this is the most fulfilling strategy to take.

Here’s a few viral articles of mine based off stories from my life.

I ‘Wasted’ 3 Years Hustling Like Gary Vee — Was It Worth It?

5 Things That Happened When I Quit The Sport I Loved

How I Made $2,000 From My Blog In 24 Hours

So do this: Write down ten stories that impacted you immensely.

Was it an overseas trip you took when you were 8 years old?

Did you go through a divorce in your past?

Did you lose a loved one tragically?

Nothing is off the table here.

What stories pop into your mind first? Write them down one-by-one until you have ten of them listed on a sheet of paper. If you want extra credit, keep going and write down 20–30 of them.

Understand What Kinds Of Topics Do Well On The Platform You’re On

This takes a bit of research.

Spend seven days scouring the platform you decide to create content on. List all the viral articles/posts you can find in a google sheet.

List 75–100 viral posts if you can, and afterwards attempt to put them in “buckets.”

Personal Development? Relationships? Travel? Work?

Great, now write down a sub-topic if you can for each viral post as well to drill down even further on the winning topics.

You’ll start seeing patterns.

“Marry” Your Stories With What Does Well On Your Chosen Platform

We need to do two things here.

First, we need to see which personal stories line up with what does well on our platform.

Those with a lot of work-related stories would make a killing on LinkedIn, for instance.

Now, on that same sheet of paper, draw two columns.

One for your personal stories, and another for the topics that do well on your platform. Great, now go down the story column and select stories that match up well with your platform.

Did you have a really shitty job for 25 years? Is LinkedIn also your chosen platform? Congratulations, you have a goldmine of future posts.

What if you go down your story column and nothing lines up well with your platform?

Well, I have a secret for you..

There’s a way to make most personal stories relatable.

How?

Okay, let’s say you had an incredible 30 year career as a veterinarian. You decide you want to make content for other veterinarians, and so you start writing articles like “10 Mistakes Most Veterinarians Make.”

You publish them and guess what?

You get 0 views.

What gives, bro?

Well, you’re making super specialized content that only a small portion of the population can relate to.

Let’s try a different approach. Let’s say you write an article like this:

“10 Things I Learned About Work In My 30 Year Career”

This approach changes everything. We went from tips for other veterinarians to tips for anyone who works.

Now we’re cooking with gas.

Everybody says you need to find a niche online.

Finding a “niche” can be a bad thing, though.

Sometimes the best way to go viral is to NOT niche down. Instead of narrowing your content down, you need to look above you and widen the scope of your content drastically so more people will find and read you.

Relatability is a huge component to virality.

That’s why I can grow a following on LinkedIn even though I never worked a “real” job. Despite my inexperience working in a cubicle, I have worked at home for 5 years, starting my own freelancing and online course business. I know a thing or two about productivity. I know about consistency, habit-building, work routines, coffee, collaboration, experimentation, and selling.

I know quite a bit about the working world when I think about it.

My final two pieces of advice are this:

1. Think about how your stories overlap with what does well on your platform.

2. Think about how to “de-niche” and widen the scope of your stories to spread more relatable lessons.

If you do those two things well, you’ll have a shot at getting more attention on whatever platform you’re on.

Conclusion

Let’s review. Here’s the three things you need to do if you want to get views online:

1. Write down the ten most important stories from your life.

2. Understand what kinds of topics do well on the platform you’re on.

3. “Marry” your stories with what does well on your chosen platform.

What did I miss? Let’s talk about it.

Get my free 6-day course ‘How to get 100 subscribers on Substack in 30 days’ right here. Let’s keep real writing alive together.