Just by posting on Hometalk my DIY tutorial got tons of love. 85,000 views, over 50 comments and nearly 2,500 shares. Here’s how it happened!
Stats (HomeTalk Post)
- Views: about 85,000
- Comments: 50+ comments
- Shares: about 2,500
Stats (PrettyPurpleDoor Post)
- Views: 6,000 within HOURS of the Hometalk newsletter send
- Comments: 1
- Shares: about 200.
Posting on Hometalk
My success story happened first by putting my blog post on Hometalk.com — a community where you can create your own posts (DIY tutorials for the home, etc) and others can use Hometalk.com to search, view, and even comment on your tutorial. Think of it as an “Etsy-like” platform for do it yourselfers. By posting on Hometalk, I’m able to get a ton of people reading my blog posts.
The unfortunate thing about this is that they are reading my posts on Hometalk, rather than directly on my blog. I am allowed to put a link to my blog post at the bottom of the tutorial, but it doesn’t send all that much traffic to my actual website, because they are getting everything they need on the Hometalk page.
However, more people see my posts, share, pin, comment on, and most importantly interact with me on Hometalk than any other platform. So, I’m ok with it.
How Does This Post Differ from the Others?
Understanding how this post differs from the “other” posts is the key to understanding going viral. This particular post was really popular on Hometalk. I’ve had others that did well, but I think there were a couple different factors that drew others to this post. The biggest was the simplicity of just painting an old drawer, and adding a little bit of humor to it did wonders for it. Because it was so easy to do, this particular tutorial connected with a much broader audience; most of the Hometalk community felt like they could accomplish it at home (vs. a lot of my other tutorials that require power tools, sanding, staining, actually measuring stuff, etc.). The little “Grow Dammit” plaque on the front was just the icing on the cake. A little humor goes a long way. Overall, this tutorial did two things:
- it made people feel empowered (“Hey, I think I can actually do this one”) and also
- it brightened their day (cheery colors and a funny little plaque made them laugh).
Both of these things made them want to share this post. Comment on this post. Interact with this post. It was more about them, than “hey look what I did”. And this is a very key factor to creating content that others will go nuts for.