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My First Viral Blog Post

  June 24

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The legendary blogger Jon Morrow describes a viral blog post as one that has been shared more than 1,000 times. I think for a video to be viral it has to be shared a million or so. But anyway, I always wondered if anything I wrote would be shared to that magnitude. I always hoped it would. Most bloggers do. But I know that you can’t really plan for these things.

This past weekend, the hubs gave me the greatest gift of watching the twins so I could go to Starbucks and write. I’d been telling him how much I missed writing, not so much about finance etc. but really exercising my creativity and writing about other stuff too.

Sitting there at Starbucks, away from the beans for some of the longest time I’ve ever been away from them, I was tired and emotional and also just so grateful to have the time to type while quietly sipping some tea.

What bubbled up in those few hours was the following post, which got published on the Huffington Post and shared more than 1,000 times in 24 hours. (It’s now at 20k+ likes and 4,000+ shares.) Maybe you disagree with Jon and might not consider that viral (and that’s cool.) Either way, it was a nice surprise to get such a good reception.

Here’s a snippet of the post and a link at the bottom in case you want to read the whole thing:

What Nobody Tells You About the First 3 Months of Motherhood

I’m trying to find the words.

I’m struggling to gather together the right collection of syllables that can be mushed together to convey my experience of new motherhood, an experience many people likely share but never speak of.

First, no one tells you how emotional motherhood will be. And by emotional I mean exhilarating, exhausting, gut-wrenching and euphoric.

When you get married, everyone starts asking you when you’re going to have kids. They might even push you to have kids.

There might even be grandmothers (no names mentioned, of course) who buy tiny little clothes and hang them in a closet just in case you decide to have kids right then and there.

Just like marriage and weddings, all society really shows us of motherhood is the romance, the surface story that everyone dreams of and simultaneously hides behind. You’ll create the beautiful nursery and be showered with gifts and interview your pediatrician and buy some yoga pants because after all, you’ve at least accepted you won’t be wearing your old jeans for a while.

You think you know what it’s going to be like because people say, “It’s hard, but it’s sooooo worth it.” You’ll hear this about 5,000 times and so you’ll convince yourself that you’re braced and ready for the good and the bad.

But that’s the first thing you didn’t know about being a mom:

1. Sometimes it won’t feel worth it.

…read the rest at the Huffington Post.

My First Viral Blog Post Blogging Business https://www.momsgotmoney.com/2014/06/24/first-viral-blog-post/

 

29 responses to “My First Viral Blog Post

  1. Congratulations, Cat! This is awesome! And I think it’s so popular because it’s so relatable. I’m glad I got to read this before I ever had kids 🙂

  2. I loved this post Cat, I think it was probably your best work to date. I was even quoting you to a new mom friend of mine today. You really captured the essence of the first few months of mommy hood perfectly. SO happy that hubs gave you the time to find this in you!

  3. Congrats! Looks like you’re at 10,419 shares on FB now!

  4. Congrats Cat! I can’t imagine how exciting it must be to see that number increasing. It was a very honest and raw piece. I don’t have kids, but I found myself going through all of those emotions as I was reading. It’s not hard to see why so many people felt compelled to share it!

  5. I think that’s awesome Cat! I read the article yesterday and I always love how real you are 🙂

  6. Congratulations on going viral. Congratulations on being picked up by the Huffington Post. Congratulations on writing a great post and most of all, congratulations on being a great mom!

  7. Congrats Cat!

    And what a great article — I think I need to send it to my SIL, who is right at the 3-month mark too, and my sister, whose new little girl is just one month old.

  8. You rocked that article and interview, Cat. The dichotomy of motherhood explained very well. It’s almost like you took me back years remembering how it was my daughter was first born. I’m going to share this article with my daughter who now has an 8 month old. As I have watched her, I know she has gone through these exact same emotions as well.

  9. That’s how I felt with my first baby – a whirlwind of emotions just waiting for the sleepless nights to be over. (Do you now see why everyone was telling you to get a lot of sleep while you were pregnant? Lol they were warning you in a nice way.)

    With my second daughter it was completely different. I knew what I was about to go through – nothing was a shock, I was prepared. I think if you have more children you’ll come to see that the next time around it’s not as hard.

  10. Well deserved! I love your article! It very much rings true. With my second baby boy expected to enter the world in November, I’m wondering what people don’t tell you about being a mom to two kids. I’m a bit nervous!

  11. Nice work Cat! I just looked at the numbers and they are certainly amazing! Great job. This inspires me to finish my post I have in draft at HuffPo about what a father feels like during the birth of a child. Not many talk about that.

  12. congrats. But your pinned image for THIS article is hugely misleading. You have named it “how to write your first viral blogpost” and provided absolutely no content on that subject. Instead it’s just a story about your viral post with a link. Clearly the clickbait technique to just get people to click on this one. I found this through Pinterest and I won’t be pinning. I hope you allow this comment to be published as I’m not trying to be rude or trolling, just constructive criticism.

    1. Hey Lauren! Of course, I’m always happy to accept critiques on how to make my business better. We outsource our Pinterest images to an awesome company so I don’t want you to think I was being intentionally misleading. This is the first I’ve seen of this image as the company is going back into old posts to update pictures. I definitely agree that on this particular post, we fell short, and I apologize for that. I hate clickbait just as much as the next person, and I’ll be altering this image as soon as possible. I will also e-mail you some articles that DO help with writing so you can get the information you were looking for. Again, I apologize if it seems we were misleading. We strive to run a company that encourages writers and we fell short this time.

      1. I have to say that I also clicked on the image “How to Write your first viral blogpost.” I was hoping to get that info but appreciate your response above. Just wanted you to be aware that the image is still out there.

    2. Also, I sent you an email with a post that would be helpful, more information about a viral post, and an additional apology, but the e-mail got kicked back. If you send me an e-mail with a different address, I’d love to share that with you!

  13. I’ve read the post and the comments after going through 4 times looking for the article. I’m just curious as to why it hasn’t changed over all this time.

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