The Viral Piggyback - A Traffic System.

This is a blogging technique that I use to generate millions of unique visitors.

Kim.

I notice things. I notice, for instance, that Kim Kardashian would make an awfully good bookcase. Or a bike stand. Or both. I notice, as a further for instance, that many of our new marketers struggle when it comes to generating traffic. As such, then, I've decided to drag myself away from mental images of Kim, mental images of books bobbing up and down like so many boats on the marina outside my window, and have - to cut a long story not remotely short - decided to tap-out a nice little tutorial on one of the traffic systems I use; something I like to call The Viral Piggyback.

Before I begin, however, for legal reasons I must make one thing abundantly clear. Mention of Kim Kardashian should not be misinterpreted as a reference to the celebrity known by the same name; you know the one, the lady who would make a rather good bookcase, or a bike stand, or indeed both. I am, in point of fact, referencing a rather chubby neighborhood feline called Kim Kardashian. I should also like to point out, for legal reasons, that I am in no way suggesting that one should turn an obese cat into a bookcase, or a bike stand, or both. I do not, let it be known, advocate animal cruelty. I would never, for instance, allow any of my pets to watch Keeping Up With The Kardashians.

Not.

What . . . is viral marketing?

Let us turn to the industry definition, provided by a well-known and entirely fictional guru (that has only seconds ago been dreamed-up):

"Viral marketing should in no way be confused with that branch of internet marketing known as I Told My Wife I Have The Flu ("Please, Honey, Don't Come Into The Office. I Love You Too Much To Let You Catch This.") Because I Want To Secretly Play Fallout 4 All Day And Watch Videos Of Kim Kardashian, which, further, should in no way be confused with that long sticky-out thing attached to a tree. In 2010, Mat Cuts, notice the omission of two letter Ts to avoid any confusion with the esteemed gentleman Matt Cutts, made a curious observation at 2.14 pm on a Tuesday whilst having his afternoon tea: 'I think I have the flu.' This revelatory observation was subsequently immortalized on an internet marketing forum. Mat created a thread. The heading read: "I Think I Have The Flu." The content read: "I think I have the flu." But it is the first reply to the infamous thread that, dare I say it, forever changed the online marketing landscape: "Looks like you're doing viral marketing this week, mate, haha." Thus, viral marketing was born: online marketing conducted by internet marketers suffering from the flu. And, as so often happens in the dynamic and ever-evolving world of internet marketing, the term Viral Marketing has since been amended to mean something entirely different. So I am told. And if anyone does in fact know the meaning, please do enlighten me. For now, then, the definition of viral marketing is thus: Not a bloody clue. But I'm sure someone knows. In the meantime, subscribe to my newsletter, forget your mortgage payments this month, and purchase at least 1 of 437 upsells, and whilst you discover yourself unable to make head nor tail of said upsell or indeed upsells, perhaps sufficient time will elapse for someone to enlighten us."

Source: John (and I forget his entirely fictional surname).

Is.

When media on the internet goes viral - and any type of media will do: a cat playing a violin on Youtube; a violin playing a cat on Youtube; a picture of a cat uploading to Youtube a video of a cat playing a violin; an article written by a cat without any musical talent whatsoever and, if you want to know, is rather miffed that his cousin, Fluffy Winkle III, is getting so much attention, since, after all, the cheating bugger has never learned to play a single violin chord in his life and is in fact miming, sodding miming, to Lindsey Stirling - that piece of media has received a decidedly above-average level of social engagement. It has - gone viral.

Viral marketing is the practice of encouraging media, that either contains marketing messages or is in close and visible proximity to them, to be shared by internet users. Videos of violin lessons for household cats will forever enjoy heady engagement and thus do a roaring trade in the feline violin lessons niche. Contrarily, some forms of media are likely never to go viral; rather surprisingly, books on Amazon.com about being miffed at Fluffy Winkle III. As an internet marketer, why, you ask, would any of this interest us? Good question.

Why.

The newer marketers among us will have no knowledge whatsoever about a thing us old-timers still lovingly refer to as. As. I do know the name. Tip. Tip of my tongue. Starts with G. Goggles! No. G-G-G-G. Gondola? Yes. No. Goo. Goo. Sodding thing. G- Ah. Got it. Google. At one time - sitting comfortably, kids? - there was a vast kingdom, a far away kingdom, and to the people who lived there, it was known as That Place We Use For Chatting To Hot Chicks - That We Hope Are, At The Very Least, Chicks. Yes, indeed. A magical kingdom, children, where, no matter the size of your waistline, no matter the profusion of pimples on your nose, if you ventured to That Place We Use For Chatting To Hot Chicks - That We Hope Are, At The Very Least, Chicks, you were instantly transformed into Brad, yes, Brad, Brad, the most popular guy in college and also - also - the college quarterback.

It was, however, a kingdom without a king. But not for very long . . .

. . . Dudala-Duh, dudala-duh, dudala-duh, dudala-duh, dudala-duh, dudala-duh . . .

"I . . . will be your king!" shouted Google.

'Who said that?' said Bruce.

'What?' said Campbell.

'THAT!'

'You just did.'

'What?'

'You just said,' said Campbell, sighing with a hint of exasperation, '"Who said that." That. You said that.'

'Who. I meant WHO! Who said that. I distinctly heard - someone said-'

'No, no. I think you'll find you said that. Heard it with me own two ears. That. Never head o' this Who fella.'

'I see. Campbell?'

'Yes, Bruce.'

'Would you mind terribly holding this syphilitic cat suffering from nymphomania? Just for a moment, there's a good chap. Someone I need to strangle.'

'That Who fella?'

'Yes, that Who fella."

. . . Dudala-Duh, dudala-duh, dudala-duh, dudala-duh, dudala-duh, dudala-duh . . .

Many moons ago, when Google ruled the kingdom, at least half a dozen marketers - and, according to John (forget his surname), "probably a good deal more than fourteen marketers" - looked towards Google as a source of traffic. Times change, of course. A kingdom's throne changes hands. Well, bottoms. And this is just what happened in That Place We Use For Chatting To Hot Chicks - That We Hope Are, At The Very Least, Chicks. King Youtube. King Facebook. King . . . Viral. Rulers of The Kingdom. Kings that, unlike those in other realms, give the local currency, instead of taking it away. What's that, you ask? The local currency? Traffic. Traffic is the local currency, and, as luck would have it, mention of traffic leads us back, somewhat meanderingly, I admit, to our question: "As an internet marketer, why, you ask, would any of this interest us?" For this reason: viral marketing has the power, when properly utilized, to yield more traffic for us than any other form of marketing. Yes, even more traffic than desposed king Google can deliver; since an effective viral marketing campaign (and all those social signals) will typically earn you favour (and traffic) with the once great king.

And so . . .

Piggyback.

The majority of bloggers, on this delightful revolving and simultaneously rotating rock, are wasting their precious time. Precious time, I hardly need to point out, that could be better spent watching videos of musically gifted cats. They are, to be blunt, doing this: publishing blog posts that few people, if any, will ever see. This especially applies to gurus with forgotten surnames; unless, of course, said gurus are publishing blog posts about making money (an industry paradox, where gurus with forgotten surnames are inept at making money and yet decidedly adept at blogging about making money and, thus, quite admirably I must say, do in fact make money by blogging about making money). The blogger will blog. The blog post will then sit in the corner of the internet, and, like a rather miffed kitten who no one appears remotely interested in ("You people amaze me. I said - you people. Look, has no one even sodding seen this? I'm writing. Tapping out a Kindle eBook. I'm a sodding cat. Writing. That-. Is no bugger amazed by this? I said-"), will go unnoticed. There is a solution. There are many. The Viral Piggyback is one.

When something goes viral, media or knowledge, we can piggyback that virality in the form of a simple blog post. And doing so, correctly, will enable our blog post to be noticed. Noticed, often, on a grand scale. The result of which is to receive the local currency in the land of That Place We Use For Chatting To Hot Chicks - That We Hope Are, At The Very Least, Chicks. Traffic. A currency that we can later on exchange for another currency. The type of currency we may use, for instance, to purchase violin lessons for our pet cat. When something goes viral, you see, this signals something very simple to us: people find this something both interesting and sharable. As a viral marketer we can use this knowledge. Instead of blogging in the dark, publishing content that may or may not generate interest, we can blog about something that we know will generate interest - because, wait for it, it is already generating interest. And there are two general ways we can go about doing so. We can put together original blog posts about a viral subject, or, using content curation, we can use a piece of viral media as the subject of our blog post, where we impart our personal thoughts on that media whilst also using it as a jumping-off point to expand further and, in other words, add more information and therefore substance to the media in question. Which, I think we can all agree, is crystal clear and requires no elucidation whatsoever. I do have three and a half minutes to kill, however, so - let's hop down a paragraph.

Our aim is to blog about something that we know people will want to know about. Lots of people. The reason we do so is because people are more likely to spend a few moments experiencing our blog post and, having done so, decide to share our blog post so that other people can experience it. This is the viral effect in action. The subject is a big one but let me break it down for you and give you a promised system.

This is the process:

• We find a piece of media (relevant to our audience) that has gone or is going viral.
• We use that media as the basis to put together an original piece of media of the same nature.
• Or, we use that media, whilst wearing our content curator hat, as a means to talking about (writing about) that media and, simultaneously, as a springboard for expanding upon that media with original media of our own.
• We publish our blog post, on a platform infused with social sharing and asset building elements.
• We then seed that blog post. To seed media is to plop it in locations where people are likely interested in that media and will not only choose to experience it but also share it. Thus, we seed our media. We plant it. And, as people share it, the virality of our media grows.
• Finally, we syndicate the blog post to our audience platforms: newsletters, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and so forth.

And now for a simple system, that even Guru With Forgotten Surname can use.

1. Head over to Youtube.com.
2. Type in a keyword relevant to your audience.
3. Smack return on your keyboard.
4. Tap Filters.
5. Tap This Month.
6. Tap Filters.
7. Tap View Count.

In 27 seconds, you have exposed all of the viral videos on Youtube for your keyword, ranked in order of most viewed to least.

Thus: before you sits media that people, your audience, are interested in knowing about and telling other people about. Useful information.

You can now employ either of the 2 blogging methods:

• An original blog post, based on something of viral interest.
• A content curated blog post, based on a piece of viral media.

An example of the latter is this: A Post About A Happy Bull.

This is what you'll notice:

• A viral video is the subject of the blog post.
• A catchy (viral-infused) headline is employed.
• A couple of paragraphs address and expand upon the media.
• Social sharing options are highly visible and usable.

Once you have your blog post written:

1. Publish.
2. Seed.
3. Syndicate.

You may wish to syndicate to relevant Reddit subchannels, to Google-Plus communities, to wherever your audience hangs out in great numbers. Point is, you seed. You seed and you, thus, aim to set the viral effect in motion.

And that, as they say, is that. Well, almost.

As bloggers, we have many options in regards content creation. Not to somewhat startle Fluffy Winkle III, but there is more than one way to skin a kitty. The above? One method. But not an entirely bad one (I hope at least 3 of you will agree). Before I nip off to watch cat videos, let me just leave you with something. The post about the bull? (Not one of my blogs, btw.) To date, 157,000 people have shared it on Facebook alone.

Imagine if, every day, you did a handful just like it.

- Tom