HubSpot has a fascinating interview posted to their blog. It’s from back in February and it’s with Neetzan Zimmerman, the former viral content creator for Gawker. During his 2-year tenure at Gawker, Zimmerman’s posts generated more traffic than all of Gawker’s other writers combined. Of the 10 most popular posts on Gawker in 2013, 9 of them were his. In short, the man knows what he’s talking about and you should listen to him!
The Master At Work
He starts off each day by scanning a list of around 1,000 websites he follows looking for good content ideas. Finding the right story is one thing but being able to turn that story into a viral machine is another skill entirely. Zimmerman says crafting the right headline and finding the right angle are the keys to creating viral content.
He also recommends “playing the long game.”
Zimmerman posts 10 to 15 items a day. His biggest post, about reality TV star Farrah Abraham (“Teen Mom”) making a sex tape, drew nearly 11 million views — but did so over the course of seven months.
“At any given moment there were 200 people looking at that post,” Zimmerman says. “This went on for months.” He says he tries to create posts that can endure for months, rather than ones that generate a lot of traffic for one day and then fade away. “My focus is on playing the long game,” he says.
It’s great when experts like Zimmerman are willing to share some of their secrets. A big hat tip to Dan Lyons and HubSpot for posting such a great interview.
Here’s a very cool SlideShare that was posted along with the article:
