One Blog You Should Follow (and probably don’t)
13 Aug
It is quite rare for me to come across a blog that gets my full attention each and every time a new post shows up in Google Reader. It doesn’t seem to matter what the post title is about either. I click on the title, and I’m taken to a post that is full of valuable information that is current and can be put to use immediately. What is even stranger about this blog is that I don’t seem to read about it anywhere. It is within a world of its own in the blogosphere, and its name is ViperChill: viral marketing.
ViperChill is a one man wrecking crew that will knock you flat on the ground each time you read the posts. The man in question, Glen Allsopp, is highly successful, going up the ladder quickly in the social media world, and is now (at the age of 20), purely focused on his websites without a daytime job. He started up and wrote for one of the largest personal development sites out there, PluginID. He sold that blog for a five figure amount, and started writing ViperChill.
For me, ViperChill is quickly becoming that one source for anything to do with affiliate marketing to blog post writing. That blog is one of the main reasons why this one exists. For the longest time, I let my ideas sit in the back of my mind and get left there. As I like to believe, an idea is only good if it’s out in the open. It might as well not exist if it remains only in your mind. After reading ViperChill for a while, I felt the drive to buy his ebook, Cloud Living, and take the plunge into developing my own blog.
One of the posts that caught my attention and pushed me to start writing more frequently, was How I Generated One Years Worth of Content Ideas in One Hour, and You Can Too. Apart from one of the longest blog post titles I had ever seen, I was in doubt that you could possibly get that much content developed in so little time. After reading through the post, however, I realized how doable this really could be. It was something I had struggled with in the past. How do I keep the content going strong? I don’t have the mindset to keep being philosophical and “emo” like I was as a twenty-something. Reading this post gave me plenty of ideas to keep me going strong for a while (if my daughter allowed me the time to actually write, which is a whole other problem).
Some of the content on the site is geared towards making money, getting your site optimized for search terms (SEO), and marketing your website or blog. I’m more interested in how to develop my content and get it read, but if I were younger, I could see myself following the path of Glen (or Murray at Murlu). Knowing that success and wealth is easily within reach if you have the time and passion to develop content would appeal to the younger generation. Reading ViperChill will be a great start for those people wanting to do more with their site if that’s the direction they want to head in.
For the rest of us, the casual blogger, there’s some other great links on the site. The link today that inspired me to write about ViperChill was 2,897 Words on How to Create Viral Content (The Key Element Behind Every Successful Blog). In the post, he details the importance of blog post titles, with different examples to show what works and what doesn’t, plus how to develop an introduction, the middle, and ending a post with a powerful statement. I wish every blogger would read it and use the advice he gives, because there are some rather poorly structured posts out there that do have valuable content contained within them, but it’s difficult to extract it. The tips he provides are something I aim to do with my blog, and I’m hoping to improve my writing significantly over time.
Here are some other favourite articles of mine from the site:
- How to Really Build Backlinks and Dominate Google
- Do Not Share: For Your Eyes Only – it’s eight months later, so I think I can share this.
- Cloud Jacking: 7 Steps to Dominate Your Niche
One thing you will notice after you follow ViperChill is that the amount of posts written in a month is extremely low. It’s rather unfortunate that he doesn’t write more often, but at the same time, it allows the reader plenty of time to digest what is written and to look forward to the next post. I always look forward to his month-end reports about the traffic he is receiving. Seeing his blog become more popular reminds me that blogs do start at the bottom and slowly climb up the ladder in terms of readers. Reaching his numbers may be out of reach for me, but may very well be attainable for someone else reading this.
ViperChill is a great asset for bloggers, new and old. The posts are so rich with content, each one is like eating a five course meal. Each paragraph will leave you hungry for the next, and by the end, you will want to devour more. That is the real driving force in getting subscribers for your blog. Write great content, but leave people with wanting more.
ViperChill is the leading example with this mantra, and will inspire you to start writing now.
