How Gentoku Increased His Blog Traffic by 500,000% (And Got Over 10,000 Likes on Facebook)

Gentoku is one of my favorite types of readers — the kind who reads my articles, gleans real advice from them, and actually executes upon the advice.

I’m proud to intro Gentoku — using my strategies, he managed to blow up his article 500,000% (yes, that’s right), all for a post called Which World Do You Belong To?

He took an already-trending article on Facebook and made it explode. Below, you’re going to learn how. Check it out.

[Enter Gentoku]

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Waking Up To Maneesh

I’m a little embarrassed to say it, but one of the first things I thought of on the morning of Oct. 30th was Maneesh Sethi’s bearded face. No, it’s not because I’m an obsessed fan or deranged stalker. Rather, it was his advice that caused his image to appear in my brain.

I had gone to bed on Oct 29th having thrown up a quick post with lots of pictures because I was tired of writing. The next day I woke up and discovered that my blog had received twice it’s normal daily views.

Now let me be clear we aren’t talking a huge change. Before that morning, my blog was getting around 100 views per day, but by 8 a.m. my little blog had already been viewed over 200 times.

That’s when the dark visage of Maneesh Sethi appeared like a scene from the Lion King. He was whispering, “Promote it and they will come.” Ok so I’m mixing my movie metaphors, but you get the point.

[Maneesh: That woman, Maria Kang, is from my home town! Sacramento.]

A couple weeks after that post I had increased my blog traffic by 500,000%.

Take a look at the traffic on my blog in the 7-day period from November 5th to November 12th:

All this traffic correlated to a nice boost in subscribers as well. And when I say nice boost, I mean more than DOUBLED:

And all of this traction resulted in a landslide of attention on Twitter and Facebook:

The best part about all this is that the process I implemented is predictable and repeatable.

In this post I’m going to tell you how I did it and how you can do it too.

But make sure you read to the end where I’ll give you a simple 5 step process for making Your Sexy Brain your #1 ally in the struggle to get your content seen by hundreds of thousands of people.

Implementing the Maneesh Sethi Solution

Several months before this all happened I’d read Maneesh’s post “A Reddit Postmortem — How to Get to the Front Page of Reddit, and How to Make it Explode Once You’re There.”

As soon as I noticed the jump in traffic I realized that I had already followed Maneesh’s first two pieces of advice.

Step #1

What Maneesh said: “Do something out of the ordinary.”

What I heard: “Find what’s not being said and say it.”

The week before I wrote the post that went viral I had come across Maria Kang’s photo on Facebook. Right away I noticed that all of my friends took one of two positions.  Maria was either a fat shaming bitch or a heroic inspirational mom.

I realized that the problem with both of these positions was that they overlooked the reason for the controversy. Maria Kang’s photo made such a splash because it divided the world into the fit and disciplined and the unfit and lazy.

And it didn’t take a genius or former philosophy student to see the problem with that.

So I created a post that neither bashed nor praised the photo. Rather, it took a critical look at why it exploded. In addition, the post encouraged acceptance and understanding instead of divisiveness.

In the world of the Internet, doing something that promotes community in a nuanced way is out of the ordinary. And so without realizing it I had followed Maneesh’s first piece of advice.

Step #2

What Maneesh said: “Do something visual”

What I heard: “Make it look like TED Talk”

When it came time to create a post about Maria Kang I was tired and I knew that a written post would come off sounding academic and philosophical. I had been watching a lot of TED talks at the time and so I decided to write the post like a scrolling TED talk.

I realized later that this format not only made the post highly shareable, it also made a bigger emotional impact on the readers. The point I was trying to make would have been hard to explain in words, but by using pictures I made a complex message simple and impactful.

And so for the second time I had followed Maneesh’s advice without realizing it. And while that advice got me to the morning of Oct 30th it was the last two pieces that took me far beyond.

Step #3

What Maneesh said: “Get the article as popular as possible quickly.”

What I heard: “Work your network and pay some blood money.”

I looked at where the traffic was coming from and found it originated from Facebook. I knew from Maneesh’s post that I needed to push this small bump in popularity into a big bump in popularity.

So, I did two things:

1. I worked my network
2. I paid some blood money

Working My Network:

Now I don’t have the laudable network of fans and blogging elite that Maneesh has, but I have used some of his networking techniques to connect with some bloggers I really admire. So I emailed all of them and asked if they would be willing to share the post.

Some of them said yes and some didn’t. But each time one of them shared the post I would get a little bump in my numbers, which helped keep the post alive just long enough for it to explode.

Paying Blood Money

While my network was helpful, I knew it couldn’t do it all. That meant it was time to pay some blood money.

I bought about $30 worth of advertising on Facebook. I spent half on promoting the post to my current fans and the other half promoting it to my key demographic niche.

This small investment took my post, which had been seen by only a few hundred people and spread it to a few thousand. Following my little investment my blog traffic rose to over 7K by the end of the day. The numbers weren’t huge but they were still 700x what I normally had.

This little push got it closer to a viral cliff, but I needed just one more nudge to push it over the top. That’s when Maneesh’s last bit of advice really came in handy.

Step #4

What Maneesh said: “Once the article starts to gain traction, put your full force behind it.”

What I heard: “Engage with your content like it’s a Top Gun bogey.”

This piece of Maneesh’s advice taught me that if you want your post to explode you have to engage with it. It’s not enough to just create good content and get it popular. You have to stand by it, nurture it, and cultivate the first few followers.

That first week I paid close attention to the post. I responded to the comments and thanked each reader that liked it. When negative comments were posted I didn’t get riled up. I just responded as kindly as possible.

Because I nurtured and appreciated the early adopters I was able to get this small group of new followers to spread my post far and wide.

One week later my views began to double every day and peaked on the biggest day just over 117,000 views. By the time my traffic started coming back down I had more than doubled my blog followers, my Twitter followers, and more than quadrupled my Facebook fans. All because I listened to Maneesh’s advice.

The Hidden Tip

Looking back I realized that Maneesh had a single piece of unwritten advice hidden in his post. That advice was to pay attention.

If I hadn’t paid attention to the spike and trusted my instincts, I might have only gotten a few more views on my blog. But because I used my Sexy Brain I was able to take a small bump in numbers and turn it into a huge opportunity.

Here’s the 5-step process you need to create great content and blow it up:

1. Rise Above the Fray – It’s so easy to get caught up in the controversy around an issue. But, if you do, you’ll just be one of the many voices on either side of the debate. But if you take a position that is fresh and try to honor both sides, then you will likely stand apart. Snarkiness may be hip but idealism stands the test of time.

2. Keep At It – You never know which one of your posts has the potential to make it big. Maneesh didn’t know his pic would take off until it was on the front page of Reddit and a friend texted him. I didn’t know my post would be a hit until people started sharing it on facebook.

Success is hard to predict, but if you keep producing great content and keep being awesome, your opportunities will come. Most blogs fail not because they suck, but because they are abandoned.

3. Trust Your Instincts – The most valuable thing you can do for your blog is trust your instincts. You can listen to a million people tell you what you should do, but it’s your blog. And that means it’s your reputation and creation on the line. The only way you’ll make a difference is if you walk your own path.

4. Be Classy – One of the biggest pieces of feedback I got over the week was how classy my comment replies were. Sure it’s not a big thing, but I believe that because I replied kindly, people liked me more and shared my post. But even if that wasn’t the case, it felt good to be nice.

Try to find something you like in every comment or piece of feedback and point it out. It will make you likeable and also make you look like you are bigger than the haters.

5. A Sexy Brain Makes the Difference – We all have brains, but only some people have sexy brains. A sexy brain is kind of like a sexy person.

• It has a stylish sense of curiosity.

• It has flexible joints capable of adapting to new situations.

• It’s smooth sensitive and attractively aware.

• And it has defined mental muscles that can focus.

How my Sexy Brain helped

• If I wasn’t curious, I might never head read Maneesh’s post.

• I my brain wasn’t flexible, I might not have ever created something unique.

• If my brain wasn’t aware, I may not have noticed the change in my numbers.

• Finally if my brain couldn’t focus, I wouldn’t have been able to help the post grow.

That’s why having a Sexy Brain is one of the most important things you can do to grow you blog. And that’s why I put together a special resource kit just for Hack they System Subscribers that can help you get the Sexy Brain you’ve always wanted. Check out this MindFitMove page, drop me your email and I’ll send you some cool stuff I’m putting together just for you.

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Your Sexy Guide To Your Sexy Brain – An awesome E-book that explains all the aspects of a sexy brain, gives a you a TON of Sexy Brain exercises, and even includes an Sexy Brain exercise plan, to get your brain better, stronger, and sexier faster.

• Awareness – Awareness is the first and most important factor to capitalizing on amazing opportunities. This E-book explains the 4 distinct types of awareness and gives you 8 Awareness practices that you can do almost anywhere.

Thanks so much for reading and don’t forget to check out MindFitMove.