Three reasons why this post won't go viral.

Most bloggers wish for the lucky break, the day the latest post goes viral.  Maybe 100,000 views, perhaps a million, or with a world population of over 7 billion, maybe 10 million views are not unreasonable.  So why won't this post go viral?  Well here are three good reasons.

Reason 1: The Title

Readers apparently like precise conclusions, so 'Three reasons why....' Is a good start, but the title is negative.  It explains why something won't happen and readers want positive titles.  'Three reasons why your career aspirations will be achievable' is far more inviting, particularly for young, ambitious high-flyers, and there are millions of those Tweeting, LinkedIn-ing and Facebook-ing everyday!  The title has to be an attention grabber.  It must feed egos and a few #hashtags might give an appearance of appealing to a wider audience - wrongly in my opinion.  The title also needs to have some uniqueness. There have been lots of posts and tweets on the atrocities in Gaza over the past few weeks and if you add the number of views of all such posts, it would be a huge figure.  However, the views per post would be considerably smaller, because the topic Gaza is not unique.  But imagine the following I might get if I described my recent visit to the moon (I wish!), how I had encountered living creatures and my findings had been independently verified.  Oh and by the way, I had posted videos on YouTube of my experiences of meeting the little green men and women.  That would certainly be unique!

Reason 2: My Following

I'm not Richard Branson, Warren Buffett or Bill Gates.  I have a lot in common with them, including two arms, two legs and a brain.  I shit and fart like the rest of them, but the physical similarities are all we have in common.  They are very well known, whereas Alan Hayman, by comparison, has a much smaller following.  Success breeds success, so more people following Richard Branson encourages even more people to follow Richard Branson........and so on.  A large following will, in my opinion, instill even more confidence in the person being followed and therefore, possibly enhance my final reason for viral posts.........

Reason 3: The Content

If you look at TV ratings for various programmes, then in the UK, for example, a 'soap' like Coronation Street might have an audience of around 10 million, whereas a current affairs debate, like Question Time, will struggle to be viewed by more than 2 million.  An easy-viewing, fictional story like Coronation Street is far more popular than an intellectual debate on real events.  Content is a very important factor in the popularity of TV/radio programmes, books, newspapers and blog posts.  Take a look at Amazon.  A popular novel for a Kindle might be priced at £3, whereas a technical book could be as much as £50.  Why?  Because the novel will sell millions and even at a very low margin, will generate good profit.  The technical book with its less popular appeal, will have sales in maybe the low thousands and thus is priced much higher to generate an adequate return for the author, publisher and distributors (including Amazon!).  The content of my blog posts maybe a bit dry for many readers but hopefully stimulating and insightful for others.

So there you have it, three very good reasons why my blog posts are unlikely to go viral - Title, Following and Content.  Am I intending to do anything about this?  In a word -NO!  I aim to satisfy and achieve quality readership rather than quantity of readers.  Yes you, dear reader, are Quality with a capital Q.  I am extremely grateful for your following - Thank You!