Creating Viral Lists To Get More Links And More Traffic To Your Blog

April 19th, 2007 · 16 Comments · 2,141 views

I’m very interested in viral marketing. It’s just fascinating to see what gets picked up and becomes viral and watching how it grows. You can learn a lot by watching successful viral campaigns, reverse engineering them and trying to figure out what made them viral. One viral campaign that I think went pretty well is one started by Gary Lee that he called I have my Name in my Domain! Do You?. Gary was kind of enough to include me in the original list and because of that I jumped from #100,000 to about #30,000 on the Technorati list in a matter of days.

I was in the original “my name is my domain” list so it’s only logical that I make a post to keep the “list train” moving - hopefully this will create a second (or third or fourth…) wave that’ll bring in some additional links for everybody involved.

So, by posting this list on your own blog you can get a lot of new links to your blog if other bloggers pick up the list from there. Another reason why you should post this list on your blog is that you most likely will get the blog owners that you are linking to coming to your blog to check you out. Because a lot of blog owners check their Technorati stats to see what new blogs are linking to them. Especially those that use WordPress because they can see the latest links on the WP dashboard when they log in.

The Rules

As Gary said: the real name of the author must be included in the domain name. It doesn’t have to be your full name - but it can’t be in a subdomain of another domain. So…

Instructions

***Start Copying Here***

1) Write a short introduction paragraph about what how you found the list and include a link to the blog that referred you to the list.

2) COPY the ENTIRE List below and add it to your blog. To avoid duplicate content and increase the amount of keywords your site can accessible for, go ahead and change the titles of the blog. Just don’t change the links of the blog.

3) Take “My Adds” and move them into the “My Originals” list.

4) Add 3 Brand New Narcissistic Bloggers that you know of

My Adds
Gobala Krishnan
Jonathan Leger
I don’t remember any more bloggers with their name in the domain that haven’t already been added to this list by someone else - so I’m only adding 2.

My Originals

Gary Lee
Ed Lau
John Chow
Nate Whitehill
Stephen Fung
Freelance writing
Jeff Kee
Stuart Hannig
Make Money Online
Nomar
Jimi Morrison
Nathan Drach
Saman Sadeghi
***Stop Copying Here***

I think it’s also important to write about the rules of this list if you decide to participate and post this on your own blog - because I’ve noticed a few people posting this list on their blog but their name isn’t in the domain - but I won’t complain, a link is a link ;) — Also, it’s of course very important that you keep all the links in the list active and make sure the code isn’t broken or anything - I’ve seen a few blogs that mess up the list.

As you might have noticed I’ve changed the anchor text for my blog to “Make Money Online” - that just makes sense from an SEO point of view. If you’re on the original list and you want me to edit your listing let me know.

Hey, if you’re on this list and you’re visiting because you noticed a new link to your blog please say hi in the comments ;)

If you’re interested in viral marketing you might want to check out this Mark Joyner eBook. Mark is a legend in the internet marketing field and one of the pioneers of online viral marketing.

Keywords: viral, viral marketing, viral traffic, list, mark joyner, domain, name

16 responses so far ↓

AnitoKid // Apr 19, 2007 at 3:50 am

hi! i am participating in doshdosh’ technorati favorites experiment. i just fav’d you. hope you fave me too. i’m at http://www.anitokid.blogspot.com
Michael Kwan // Apr 19, 2007 at 7:33 am

Good thinking with switching the anchor text. You mind swapping mine for “Freelance writing”?
My Name Is My Domain || Beyond the Rhetoric || // Apr 19, 2007 at 7:35 am

[...] Update (4/19/07): Inspired by Hannes Johnson, I’ve changed the anchor text on a few links to something more appropriate. I’m “freelance writing” now, whereas John Chow is “root of all evil”, and so on. Good idea Hannes! [...]
Hannes Johnson // Apr 19, 2007 at 2:47 pm

Michael - consider it done :)
Dawud Miracle // Apr 20, 2007 at 1:03 pm

I’ve added you to my faves.

Here’s my faves link
Hannes Johnson // Apr 21, 2007 at 12:10 am

Thanks Dawud - I just added yours :)
Amiene Rev // Apr 22, 2007 at 6:17 pm

I just faved you. Please return the favor. Thanks.
Duke Amiene Rev
Username: amienerev
link
Hannes Johnson // Apr 24, 2007 at 1:35 am

Amiene - Done.
Kanute // Apr 26, 2007 at 1:58 pm

I faved your blog. Could you please fave mine. This is the link to the post
http://www.kabatology.com/04/26/my-fave-is-your-fave/. Fave me at
technorati
Hannes Johnson // Apr 26, 2007 at 11:54 pm

Thanks Kanute :)
I just “faved” your blog.
Breaking News: Google PageRank Update! | Hannes Johnson dot Com // Apr 28, 2007 at 12:25 am

[...] Finally! I was just visiting my blog and noticed something new - a green bar on the Live PageRank extension that I have installed on Firefox. Because I launched this blog just after (or around) the previous PageRank update I hadn’t gotten a public PageRank yet. The front page of this blog is now officially a PageRank 4 web page - which I think is pretty good for a brand new website. I’m sure the My Name In My Domain list helped a little bit ;) Well, this is great news because having a high PageRank blog comes with a lot of benefits - for example; a lot of services use Google’s PageRank (PR) to evaluate your website. Now I can submit my blog to Text Link Ads and Review Me and I’ll be able to make more money than if I only had PR3 or PR2. [...]
Michael // May 2, 2007 at 4:42 am

Hi, Just wanted to let to know that I faved you at Technorati for The Technorati Train Meme. You can check out my blog at http://mikesmoneyrants.blogspot.com
This Is A Top 100 Blog | Hannes Johnson dot Com // May 21, 2007 at 4:02 am

[...] the brilliant Gary Lee is at it again - first he created a viral my name is my domain list and now he’s created one to get more people to favorite you on Technorati. Here we [...]
Mark Marucot // May 22, 2007 at 1:45 pm

I added your site to my favorties. Please add
http://technorati.com/faves?add=http://www.itexpertscentral.com
username:markmarucot
Hannes Johnson // May 22, 2007 at 10:07 pm

No problem Mark. Consider it done :)
Thanks for the “fav”.
Work At Home Ideas // Mar 25, 2008 at 3:55 pm

Hi Hannes,

Coincidentally I just started a viral link exchange called “Reciprocal Review Carousel” involving a review of your favorite blogs. Do take a look at how this is done and hope you will join this “carousel” and start to get viral links to your blog.

http://www.peterleehc.com/blog/work-from-home/how-to-get-viral-traffic-to-your-blog

Peter Lee

Hannes Johnson dot Com