The Viral Marketing BluePrint
Your Step by Step guide to being everywhere
If you intend to one day make money blogging then PAY ATTENTION! Because this is the most important post you will ever read!
OK maybe that’s a bit presumptuous of me, but hear me out, because what I propose is a blueprint of sorts,– a step by step guide to helping you succeed online. I did not intend to create such a blueprint, I simply wanted to show you how easy it is to be everywhere at once.
What I soon learned, and what you will hopefully realise is that everything starts with this key element. Being everywhere lays the foundations for success across the entire IM arena, not just the blogoshere; so grab yourself a drink, get comfortable – and let’s do this!
You want to start blogging, and you eventually want to make money from it right?
Problem is, no-one gives you a definitive step by step process to follow, nor do they take the time to explain why. OK maybe they do – but when you are just starting out, do you really take the time to listen? The moment you hear about the financial reward that blogging can ultimately bring – you stop focusing on the intricate details of how you are actually going to get there.
Yeah sure, post everyday and engage with other bloggers. Well that is surely a given, and if you just paid for an e-course and that’s the best they got – then sorry, you should have given the money to charity or something, because the problem with this information, and most of the information you get from these courses is that they are too ambiguous. Granted it still necessitates that you actually get off your ass and do something, but without an exact how to – a lot of bloggers stumble. And I don’t mean that in a good ‘sharing content’ kind of way.
Before you can ‘do everything’, you need to ‘be everywhere’
And it all starts at this point. Being everywhere has the flow down effect that you need in order to succeed online, and there is no use trying to tackle it from the other direction. Trying to make sales, or build a list when no one knows who you are is tough going, yet this is what nearly ALL marketers do!
So ignore everything else for now, let’s just focus on going viral, and trust me – the rest will fall neatly into place without you even noticing.
This is what I do now, and what I would do if I had to start again. I am officially calling it ‘Alex Whalley’s Ultimate guide to going viral’ because what I outline is the exact process you need to follow in order to ‘be everywhere’ and do it relatively quickly.
Little things add up to a lot.
First, I want you to remember that statement – in fact I want you to write it down, because it will remind you why you are doing what you are doing, and trust me, that little line will keep you sane sometimes too! But this is all about longevity and going viral, and what I propose is a strategy that will take an hour or two out of your time, but cut the rate at which your blog and your brand grows by at least half!
From now on you are a guest
You want to go viral? You are going to have to change the way you post. For every three posts your write on your blog, at least one needs to be written and submitted for review as a guest post on another blog. I don’t care what blog – so long as it has traffic and it’s relevant. Oh – and this has to be your BEST post too, no second rate articles please. Guest blogging is THE no. 1 way to increase your online presence and ultimately get that ‘viral’ feeling (eeewwwww). Nothing else comes close to the exposure and ultimate brand recognition you can get from contributing to other popular blogs in your niche.
Leverage, syndicate, and then do it some more.
THAT is the key to ‘being everywhere’. It’s as simple as that. The internet is a massive place, and if you want to stand any chance of dominating your niche and being in as many places as possible then you need to leverage what you already have – and you need to do it on a massive scale.
What about Duplicate Content?
There is no such thing! Look, even if you don’t want to believe me – then think about it this way. Just say you post the same article to two sites. Unless those two sites are identical in every way, the Search engines are going to index them both. Besides it is still going to get indexed for other keywords, and the article is still going to contain the valuable link back to your site.
Worried about your content being indexed somewhere else first and you not getting ranked for it?
Chances are you never would have ranked above whatever high PR site you syndicated it to, and if you didn’t syndicate it at all, you would be on page 3 … maybe. At least this way you have YOUR content on page 1. Does it really matter where it’s located?
So listen, Here’s the plan…
I promised you a blueprint and I am going to deliver. It’s really simple too. 
Everytime you publish a post or create a piece of content you are going to leverage it by duplicating and syndicating it across multiple web 2.0 platforms, social media sites, social bookmarking directories, Forums, video services and RSS Feeds. This may seem overwhelming, but consider this:
The process of actually doing this properly for a post is a realistic 2 – 4 hours, and that is not quick. But in the context of your online business, it really isn’t much time at all, and when you add it all together you end up with a very, very powerful and stable platform with which to establish and grow your online business, both organically and socially. Isn’t your business worth that?
Your Viral Marketing Checklist
I’m not here to argue about the reasons behind why each of these steps should be taken, I am simply providing you with a blueprint that will result in a MASSIVE ONLINE PRESENCE provided you do it religiously. The beauty of this whole process is that it not only creates a viral presence for your brand, it also starts the process of building solid quality backlinks* to your blog, and if you are anywhere near the IM niche, then trust me – you are going to need all the backlinks you can get.
*I know you know this already – but please remember to hyperlink (anchor text) your keywords. You’ll never outrank Adobe for ‘Click Here’ anyway 🙂
One final note before we get into the juicy details. If you are building a list and you have the opt-in and offer available on its own page then you can simply substitute your blog’s URL for that one every now and again. This way your list has a chance to grow at the same rate as your brand.
Here is your Blueprint. (finally!) There are a million more sites you can use to leverage your content, but listing them would put you right back where you started from – feeling overwhelmed and massively confused. So let’s keep this simple. I’ve divided the checklist up into the various website categories/properties – whatever you want to call them 🙂
Write a post, publish it, and then do this. (in no particular order)
Web 2.0 Properties
Little bit of work involved here – but very high quality links are obtained.
- Create a Squidoo Lens by simply cutting and pasting the article into 3 or 4 text modules and adding images. Link back to your article AND to your main blog page.
- Create a HubPage Hub – do as above
- Create a Blog on Tumblr.com* Set this up much like you would the original post on your blog.
- Create a Blog on Typepad.com* – Remember to include your keywords in the title as this becomes the URL. Save your catchy title for the page itself *Unlike the first two properties, these two sites allow you to create a blog, and not just a page – so once you have set these up you can simply add new relevant posts to them next time instead of creating a whole new blog.
- Create a Wiki. This is technically not web 2.0, but anyway. Go to Wikispaces.com (there’s a lot more) and simply create a page using your post, all or part. Wikispaces allows you to add pages onto the existing one, but I recommend treating it like it was a hubpage- that is, a single entity.
Social Bookmarking
- This is the easy bit – it’s all pretty much cut and paste. Oh, and you can do this with your guest post URL instantly – no need to wait a week or two
- Use IMAutomator (awesome FREE tool!) to submit your blog post URL to 15 high quality do follow social bookmarking sites
- Use OnlyWire to submit to another 30 (service is free provided you add a STUPID plug-in to your blog
- Use WP-Twitter plug-in to syndicate your posts to Twitter – still Tweet it every chance you get, and add a hash tag to prevalent keywords too! (eg: Check out this awesome #blog post from Alex Whalley, the #seo legend!)
- Use WordBook plug-in to send your posts to your Facebook page. On this note – don’t make my mistake. Start off by creating a page/profile dedicated to your blog/niche and let this fill with relative content. (Great for SEO)
- There is a million more but they are unnecessary overkill at this point, and this is one area that is way more confusing than it needs to be. Don’t trip yourself up worrying about it…. it’s OK to stumble though. 🙂
RSS Feeds
- I assume you have already done this, but if not – submit your blog feed to a few RSS Directories, but you only need to do this once. Like the now defunct ‘ping’* – the RSS Directories will be updated every time you create a new post, so it’s set and forget. *I say defunct because WordPress, and most blog platforms are designed to take care of all the pinging for you.
- http://www.feedage.com – because I did promise to make this easy (but there are SO many more – just Google it)
Article Marketing
- EzineArticles offer a plug-in that allows you to upload your posts straight to their directory – all without leaving your dashboard. It’s available through your Author Area under tools, so go and install it and start leveraging your content to the most authoritative Article Directory on the web.
- You can submit your post to other Article Directories if you have a preference for a particular one, just make sure you give it to EzineArticles first.
Social Blogmarking
I just made that name up, but it basically refers to Social Bookmarking aimed at bloggers, with a community being fostered on and around the site as well. This is where you NEED to have a presence – regardless!
- BlogEngage – Most active and Invite only, but most Famous Bloggers are members, just ask.
- MMOSocialnetwork – Famous Bloggers very own social network.
- Bloggersbase – One of the more established networks.
Video Marketing (for those wanting to go the extra mile)
Turn your how-to posts, and those aimed directly at your niche market into videos
This is where you can really make an impact with viral marketing – because you are recreating your content in another format – meaning the avenues available for syndicating and leveraging it just increased exponentially. It’s also effective because of the sheer visitor stats that YouTube alone can boast AND because it is a time consuming task, meaning you have very little competition from your fellow bloggers.
- Create a pdf document from your post (be sure to include images etc) and then simply film your screen as you click through the pdf and read it. Simple but VERY EFFECTIVE.
- Film yourself doing whatever it is your post was discussing
- Don’t have the software? Get Camstudio, the free alternative to Camtasia.
- Now upload the videos to YouTube and Vimeo.
HOT TIP: Everytime you create a new Web 2.0 property, or upload a video you get a new URL. Submit this new URL to your social bookmarking sites to get that ‘all over viral marketing feeling’
Remember the Guest posts you keep writing as well? When you submit them, it is advisable to wait a week or two before starting the above process so that the Article has a chance to be indexed on that blog first. It’s just the right thing to do.
That’s it! Not so bad was it?
And…you’ll still probably fail.
If you are still with me, and thinking to yourself, “hang on, I need to know more about Web 2.0”. Or – “I need to know exactly what a wiki is” then STOP IT! This is the very reason that 97% of online marketers fail! You spend the bulk of your time wondering about the intricate details of how this works, or what that does that you never get around to actually doing anything! If you wanted to sail around the world, would you think about what type of fabric was used in the rigging, or would you learn how to sail, chart a course, and get going? I’ve taken the liberty of charting a course for you, so stop worrying about the colour of the wood paneling on the deck and start making waves already!
Imagine…
If you followed this routine, then assuming you post three times a week – at the end of a year you would have 500 – 1000 extra pieces of content and web property that are working for you 24/7. I could go on and on about the power of Twitter do to ‘X’ or how much you need Mr Y to help build your list, but what’s the point, they are all small fries in comparison to what a viral online presence will do. Trust me, when everybody knows your name, you won’t need Twitter, and you sure as hell won’t need Mr. Y’s help either.
P.S. Viral marketing doesn’t actually work. Tell your friends.
I will be packaging The Blog Post Viral Marketing Checklist into a much more detailed listing of the sites, feeds, directories,resources , tools, and services available to help automate and/or streamline this process, which will be available for download FREE in the very near future.
Alternatively sign up to the Keyword Research & Niche Site Marketing Blog newsletter and get your copy sent over the minute it’s ready.
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