I’ve been seeing huge traffic spike these past few days and it’s overwhelming. Not that it’s my first time to have a post that’s gone viral and trending. I mean how would you feel if you logged in your site admin and found the Empire State Building in your stat? And it’s only 8 a.m.
I just sipped my morning coffee and said “OMG! Thank God if I’m not dreaming right now.” I hit ‘refresh’ and the skyscraper was still there. I went to my stats and found out what was causing the huge traffic. It was from Facebook.
The power of social network is real. When someone found your article or post informative and useful they share it on Facebook. When someone simply liked your post, they like it on Facebook. Then their friends see the likes and the shares and share and like it too and so their friends and friends of friends and so on.
I found myself staring at my stats for a moment…wondering if that hundred thousand views would reach more…wondering if it would reach millions of views. If it did, what do I get? So I am sharing here the pros and cons of going viral and getting huge traffic – natural and unpaid traffic.
Pros and Cons of Going Viral and High Traffic
- One of the great advantages of getting high traffic is earning more revenue. If you have affiliates, you’ll earn more profit. If you’re into selling your own product, you’ll get amazing ROI (return on investment).
- Another benefit is being popular. People would know more about your site or your business. If you’re a brand, it would be so good for you.
- Receiving millions of views can also encourage you to strive more and can inspire you to do the best you can in achieving your goal.
- Of course getting high traffic can boost your page rank which adds more benefits in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and updating your site to the next level.
However, there could be negatives about it too like:
Disadvantages of going viral and having high traffic:
- Your website could go down because of too much visits especially if you’re on a Shared Hosting account. Some hosts can’t handle too much traffic even if they offer unlimited bandwidth and unlimited disk space. Lucky for me, I’m on Synthesis dedicated server.
- Because you receive high traffic, many views and visits, people may praise your works or comment good things about you but then you cannot please everybody. Not everyone likes vanilla, some people prefer chocolates. If you know what I’m saying. You could have bashers too. Just like celebrities, they are popular but people love them and hate them.
- Expect for more spam as people would take advantage of your big moment by mentioning about their product or promoting through your comments. Lucky us, we have Akismet.
If that’s the roller coaster ride of getting high traffic, don’t let the bad stuff stop you from sharing the things you love. Always count your blessings and use the bad stuff as lessons and to be the best that you can be. After all, tomorrow is another day.
Wonder how to make your content go viral? I recommend reading this awesome page written by Cassy Mantis. “How to Make your Content Go Viral”