How can I keep readers if my post went viral?

[Sharon Seltzer]

My latest post has been going crazy for the past 3 days with numbers I’ve never seen.  I’m sure the numbers are small for big blogs, but they are huge for me.

Do you have any suggestions to keep them as readers?  Most are not signing up for the blog.

Thanks for any tips you have.

-Sharon 

Here’s the post:

http://lessonsfromaparalyzeddog.com/urgent-disabled-bomb-sniffing-dog-needs-a-home/

[Carleen Pruess Coulter]

As much as people hate them, putting up a popup for email sign ups can grab a lot of people during those times. 

Edit: Given the public service nature of the post though, I might not do a popup, or if I did, I would delay it to show on exit.  

[Sharon Seltzer]

Carleen, That’s a great idea. I don’t have a popup about the emails. I’m sure it will get their attention.

[Katie]

I Totally agree with Carleen. Even if you don’t necessarily do a pop up I would at least add some pizazz and maybe a little more color so it doesn’t blend in quite as much with the rest of your layout. You want it to be cohesive with your theme while still catching your readers attention. I hardly noticed your email sign up and I scrolled right past it at first.

Oh and love your idea of mentioning how many subscribers you already have! I may have to borrow that idea on mine hehe. That is as soon as I actually have a substantial amount of subscribers ha! 

Hope this helpful!

Carleen Pruess Coulter said:

As much as people hate them, putting up a popup for email sign ups can grab a lot of people during those times. 

Edit: Given the public service nature of the post though, I might not do a popup, or if I did, I would delay it to show on exit.  

[Hawk aka BrownDog]

Hi Y’all!

You might be getting mugged by readers who would never sign up.  They were expecting something entirely different because of your post title. 

Any time I’ve had a “suggestive” title and check where the traffic is coming from, it’s been places like “pornogig”.  Really.  I’m sure “bomb sniffing” may have even caught the attention of the Feds. My “Sex in the Forest” still gets heavy traffic. Not only is it several years old, it’s photos of butterflies. 

I’ve learned I have to take into account what I used as search tags as well as how I’ve titled my post and words I’ve used in my post to determine why I getting the unusual traffic.  Looking at your traffic sources may help.

Y’all come on by,

Hawk aka BrownDog 

[Sheltie Times]

Hawk has a great reply.  I have a couple of different blogs and some posts have huge counts on them that keep going up despite the age of the post, but those people aren’t regular visitors.  They come for a specific post and get what they came for and go.  If you are searching for long term readers, they will stay because they like the overall content of your blog, not just the one article that attracted them to read.

I will say honestly, I will follow people through blog readers, but just don’t want more emails to read.  My emails are stacked up as it is, so I likely wouldn’t sign up for your emails.  It doesn’t mean if I liked the blog I wouldn’t be back to read it.

[Sharon Seltzer]

Thanks to both of you for your input about my viral post. 

I think the people who read and especially those who replied to the story understood it was about finding a home for a disabled dog who worked for Homeland Security at O’Hare airport.  I think the majority found the story because it was shared on Facebook.

The people were genuine but not many signed up to be regular readers. 

-Sharon

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