What's the science behind writing a hugely popular blog post?

Be sure it's unique a...

Science really hasn't spent much time studying all the ins and outs of blogging. As this is a creative endeavor it's more about your audience and the process you do to write. Disclaimer: yes there is no doubt a scientific process we just haven't reached it yet. Here are some best processes/practices: 1. Articles that evoke an emotional response from your reader. A popular blog post will  have the readers feeling some sort of emotion. The ones that elicit the strongest reactions are awe, inspiration, fear, anger, happiness.  (This is where you see the tactics of invoke controversy, take a stand on a heated subject, create a sense of urgency or fear so on these are powerful emotions.). 2. Framed within a story. Popular blog posts tend to have a story that is anecdotal to the point you are trying to make. Has the writer personally involved in some way. 3. Popular blog posts tend to do one of two things.  A. Appeal to deep knowledge experts or B. Appeal to surface beginners. The tactics are different for each. 4. Look to books. By taking best selling books you can see that keeping the reading level low is very effective and providing a variety of sentence length. You should use your Microsoft word count and grade level and keep it around 6th grade reading level. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/test-your-document-s-readability-HP010148506.aspx 5. Are conversational. Instead of using 3rd person they talk in a conversational way. 6. Position themselves. Just like a brand we humans position ourselves by the clothes we wear and the things that people can outwardly judge us. I know people who spend a large amount of time attempting to look goofy. It's because they are trying to display their lifestyle to the world. Blogging and article writing is no different. Positioning yourself and letting your personalty shine through makes it easier for people to get you and you attract those who value what your personality has to offer. 7. Simplicity Clarity over cleverness. 8. Work with analogies Writing popular articles is like making art. There is some planning but once you put the paint to brush you need to be inspired. People like analogies. It gives them examples and allows them to see a concrete way of thinking. 9. There are no great writers, just great editors. They edit...and edit....and edit...and edit. Finding content fit for your readers is about providing the most value for them. Since we are humans this is incredibly subjective but you can find some universal processes and research that tends to show benefits but again that's all upon your audience. Seth Godin's audience is going to have a vastly different view of what is value compared to a Neuroscience Review Journal.

I've never written anything hugely popular on the Seth Godin/Guy Kawasaki scale, but I've had a few items go pretty wide. As of this moment, my personal blog has received 291,020 views. Here are my top five posts. Scales and emotions -- http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2010/scales-and-emotions/ -- 147,321 views Jay-Z and Alan Lomax -- http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2011/jay-z-and-alan-lomax/ -- 13,984 views Learning music theory with Auto-tune -- http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2009/learning-music-theory-with-autotune/ -- 8,696 views The Michael Jackson sample map goes viral -- http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2009/the-michael-jackson-sample-map-goes-viral/ -- 3,678 views Bitter Sweet Symphony -- http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2009/bitter-sweet-symphony/ -- 3,108 views I'm pretty amused by the fact that my most-viewed post by a factor of ten is a geeky and technical music theory article. I wrote the post because I was working on that stuff with music students anyway and figured I'd toss it on the web. I did zero promotion beyond linking to the post from my Facebook and Twitter feeds. About 90% of the views come from Stumbleupon, with Reddit making up the bulk of the rest (I didn't submit the post to either site.) While music theory is a niche topic, I guess there are still plenty of people interested in it worldwide. Most of the web writing on music theory is either esoteric and impenetrable or full of baloney (or both), and evidently the Stumbleupon community was hungry for a neat, practical list organized around common practice. Live and learn. The Michael Jackson post tells the story of probably the most-viewed thing I've ever put on the web, this infographic showing who's sampled MJ over the years. http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethanhein/3409364883/ The graphic has received over 120,000 clicks on Flickr, plus who knows how many from all the many places it's been reblogged and embedded. The internet loves infographics, and it loves Michael Jackson. I've written some pieces that were cynically conceived to attract pageviews, both for myself and for employers. None of them have been as successful as my music theory or Michael Jackson posts. Either I'm not that good a web marketer, or sincere passion for a subject just works better. My takeaway, both from my personal experience and from managing web presences for clients, is that there is no hard science to attracting traffic. You have to just throw a lot of stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Obviously, your quality has to be high, but beyond that, the best thing to do is to watch your stats and see what people are reacting to.

Pictures of food.  It works every time.  Second best is cute pictures of babies, puppies, kittens.