Amy Morin never thought her article would be read by millions of people in just days.
In fact, she initially didn’t even write the article for public consumption – she wrote it for herself.
The blog post was titled, 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do, and it was written as a letter to herself during one of the lowest points of her life. When she was 23 her mother suddenly died from a brain aneurysm. 3 years later to the day, her 26-year-old husband died of a heart attack.
If that wasn’t enough, her father-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Overwhelmed at the thought of losing yet another loved one, she reminded herself that indulging in a self-pity party wouldn’t help.
That’s when she made a list of all the things mentally strong people don’t do. She published the list on her blog, hoping it might help someone else.
And that’s when lightning struck. The post went viral, garnering millions of views within days. Soon Forbes.com picked it up and more than 10 million more readers saw it.
Within a week national radio shows were talking about the article. Major publications wanted to reprint it and news channels wanted interviews.
A literary agent contacted her and within a week of submitting a book proposal to the agent, they had multiple offers from big publishing houses and a new career was born.
She took the deal with Harper Collins and spent the next few months writing the book. 13 months after publishing the article her book came out and quickly shot to the top of several major bestseller lists. She also got publishing deals in more than 20 other languages.
She has since written a sequel to the book. She does speaking engagements at corporate events, global conferences and TEDx. She provides webinars to companies on mental strength.
She’s created an eCourse for passive income and as an affordable alternative to individual coaching. She writes for magazines and other websites, and she consults with business leaders and executives.
As she says, “One piece of content could change your life.” Her monthly income now exceeds what her annual salary as a therapist used to be.
Keep in mind that this was not the first blogpost she ever wrote. Her other posts were not met with anywhere near this kind of enthusiasm, but those posts gave her experience in writing and publishing online.
A few tips when creating your own content:
Just keep writing. Like Amy, you never know when your very next post will be the one that goes viral and is seen by millions.
Make sure your website is ready to capture email addresses and social media followers when you get a viral hit.
Keep a professional headshot handy. If the media wants to interview you, they’ll also want a picture of you.
Update your bio. Media outlets want to know who you are and what you’ve done.
Go for quality, not quantity. It can be tempting to throw as many blogposts into the stratosphere as possible and see what sticks. But unless your posts are well researched and well written, none of them will go viral.
When lightning does strike, take full advantage of it. Say yes to interviews, joint venture deals, publishing deals and anything else that comes your way that makes sense for you.
Ride the wave and make the most of it while you can. That way even if it doesn’t lead to an entire career like it did for Amy, at least you got to have fun and make money while it lasted, and now you’ll have a much better idea of how to go viral again.