Why Going Viral Is The Wrong Goal. Here’s A Better Way To Get 1M Views
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At 27 years old, I accumulated more writing accolades than most professional writers.
I remember back when I was seventeen (2007), I had one of the most-read gaming strategy blogs on the Internet. The story I always tell is that I was sitting in my first journalism class of college, at arguably one of the top journalism schools in the country, the University of Missouri, and the professor started explaining that this new thing called “blogging” would never become a thing.
In the massive auditorium of five hundred plus students, I raised my hand.
“I disagree,” I said, my brown hoodie zipped up to my neck with my laptop open on my lap.
The professor raised an eyebrow and the sea of students turned all eyes on me.
“Well, I think it’s safe to say that in order for a blog to even approach the realm of professional, the blogger would need at least ten thousand people reading his or her blog every day,” he said.
The class started to laugh along with him. Ten thousand readers. A decade ago, that sort of independent audience was practically unheard of.
I raised my hand again.
“I have that,” I said. “I have over ten thousand daily readers on my blog. And I don’t think it’s a trend. I think it’s the future of journalism.”
Nobody believed me, and the professor went on to continue teaching all five hundred students about the religion of the newspaper.
I transferred colleges the next year.
In the past ten years, I have devoted myself to writing online.
From gaming, I moved to health and fitness, building an audience on Instagram micro-blogging about my journey as a bodybuilder.
I wrote guest blogs for massive fitness sites. I was a launch blogger for a handful of wellness apps. And I eventually started sharing my fitness stories on Quora, answering people’s questions about lifting weights.
From health and fitness, I eventually broadened my scope and realized that what I had done in the gaming space and…
