Content is everywhere. The Internet is full of it. The obvious question arises: How can you make your content stand out and become the most viewed, most shared piece of content on the Internet? The good news is, The Holy Grail of Virulence is attainable. But there are a few key rules to adhere to. They’re all part of the Dark Arts: Marketing and manipulation.

(Image source: Bigstockphoto)

I’ll be sharing them in this post, and be forewarned there is a lot of reading up to do in this post and outside of it, but use them at your own peril and always try to create and promote useful content. Or you could stop reading now. You in? Let’s go.

Recommended Reading: 5 Common Characteristics Of A Viral Web Videos

Feeding the Hooligans

Are you familiar with that amazing breed of consumers who are absolutely raving fans of your content? They always watch your show, read your stuff or analyze your designs. That’s where you need to start. Those are the folks that will share your content most often, in the most genuine way with a touch of their personality.

Don’t say you have no hooligans, no people in your corner. Every single content creator out there has at least a handful of fans cheering for him. Start there. Start small. Your "hooligans" will give you awesome tweets you couldn’t have created on your own, follow then repin ALL your Pins and add geo-localized (hooligans usually write in their native language) comments on your Facebook updates!

Emotions Trump Logic

Why start with them? Well, because emotions trump logic, hooligans attract hooligans, and numbers trump quality. Give special, additional behind-the-scenes content to your core user base: exclusive access, free trials (first!), contests that are only for them to try out. Interact with them, send emails on their special days, credit their help on the site, give them badges for your forum. Goodies keep them happy, and appreciated. They will love you for it.

Moving On…

#1. Choosing your vehicle

You have 3 options: Video, Pictures and Text. If you are unable to use all three in conjunction, pictures seem to reign supreme and videos are also on the rise. It’s harder to stir up emotions through plain written words since the Internet is full of visual folks. In fact, I would go as far as saying that if you aren’t promoting your content through pictures and through videos, you’re totally missing out!

Your content should make heavy use of photos, and obviously your Facebook update promoting that content should contain the best photo available. For more on this, check out this breakdown of Facebook’s most liked, shared and commented content, put together by Dan Zarella.

#2. asking For Shares

It appears that, (surprise!) people respond to retweets and share requests with… retweeting and sharing! This means you should totally end your articles, videos or pictures by asking the viewer to like, tweet, rate, comment, etc. In regards to promoting that content, make sure to also ask nicely for it.

Here’s a great article containing more details about how and when to ask for retweets. This doesn’t apply only to Twitter. Follow these rules on any social platform.

#3. The Purple Cow

As I’ve said. Content is everywhere. You need to make your content stand out. Exactly like the guys at Milka have done. Their logo stands out among other logos simply because the majority of other chocolate manufacturers use a normal cow in the logo or advertisments.

The guys at Mondelez International went with a Purple Cow, and now people instantly recognise their brand.

The challenge with creating your content is making it as remarkable as possible. Usually that means being the first to present something or presenting it radically different than anyone has done before. So before sitting down to create your stuff, make sure to add at least one Purple Cow element to it.

#4. Intriguing Titles

The Internet is an unconventional media channel. Whereas before, we had magazine covers and TV ads, we now chose what information we consume by mostly analyzing the headline. Now writing titles, that is a whole new post by itself, but why reinvent the wheel? Here’s a cool guide on writing great titles by Jeff Goins. You should also check out this SEJ piece on the same topic.

For articles, you can follow the conventions of creating "How To" pieces, "Top Tips", "Ultimate Guide" but twisting it by replacing certain keywords. For example, instead of going with the conventional "Ultimate Guide To…" title, try "The Secret Guide To…", "The Dark Arts Guide To…".

#5. Should I write full conclusions?

No. Always use open-ended endings. Always leave space for people to "fill in" and add to the content by commentating or sharing. many of your readers are dying to share their opinions on any subject under the Sun; some of them need an invitation, some of them don’t. But invite them all the same.

Read Also: 7 Splendid Techniques To Encourage Comments On Your Blog

#6. Infographics

Everybody loves them. In my book, infographics are probably the most shared content on the Internet. Seriously, everybody loves them. You should use them as often as possible. Even if you don’t do a complete infographic, doing a partial coverage of one will improve the chances of your stuff being shared.

On a budget? Check out PiktoChart for creating your Infographics or these other fancy tools to help you build your own infographic.

#7. How much should I work on the content?

This one’s simple. Work until you’re sure you’ve added as much value as possible! Verify your content after finishing and ask yourself, have I added as much information and as much value to the viewer as I possibly can? You’ll know the answer but it is important to be honest with yourself.

If you feel tired, take a break and continue with your content creating later. Don’t stick your name on half-finished projects. Be patient and keep working. You’ll get there, no need to rush. But remember that the bar shouldn’t be someone else’s work. You should fight against yourself and try to give your all. Add maximum value by giving as much easy-to-apply steps as possible.

#8. Swimming against the tide

Humans follow other humans. Many content creators fall into this trap. You shouldn’t. Don’t put out posts, videos or pictures which present topics from the normal, socially accepted point of view. If you’re reporting news or creating original content, first check out what the majority of people are saying about that particular topic. If you are able to contradict them all, while making a solid case, with really grounded arguments, you’re bound to go viral. So do it. Paddle against the current and you’ll reap the benefits.

#9. Am I talking in a negative, personal voice?

As you’ve seen above if you’ve clicked Dan Zarella’s Facebook Infographic… oh alright, here’s the part I want you to look at:

Self-references really help. Use I, me, I would do this, and other similar paradigms. You don’t even have to be an expert. Even Bill Gates said "If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good." That’s to say, you need only appear as an expert, and people will share your stuff. People love to see, hear or read your own personal view. People love powerful personalities and experts. Always talk about yourself and how you see things.

Also, besides making use of your voice, try to be negative and use fear to motivate people into using your content. The principle is simple: the fear of losing something usually outweighs the desire to gain. This can easily be applied to creating content. When making a video, shift the paradigm and talk about what the user stands to lose by not watching the video.

#10. Dramatic Twisted Storyline

George R.R. Martin wrote Game of Thrones but is more known for killing his characters without apology. He applied all the principles above, writing in a personal, negative voice, seeing the world through different POVs. He intrigued people with his titles and subheadings and added tremendous value by basically adding historical inspiration to his fantasy novels, essentially reinventing the genre.

Game of Thrones is one example of a well-fed Purple Cow. He builds you up, lets you fall in love your favorite character on the show (and hate that one kid who you really really want to strangle), then kills them all!

That’s bold. That’s dramatic. That gets him more "eyeballs". His books are best sellers because he’s the first to actually do that on such a large scale. His killing sprees made him into a celebrity. You need to create your own dramatic twists with your content. His method, ask yourself "What do people expect to receive?", then do the exact opposite. Go out with a bang. They’ll be hurt, but eventually they’ll love you for it.

And there you have it, your tips to make your content go viral. Now go make something viral.

Editor’s note: This is a contributed post by Paul Dunstone, the founder of JobStock.com, a freelance marketplace that provides job opportunities for freelancers across 250+ different job categories. Paul is also the editor of the JobStock blog which provides tips for freelancers and small business professionals.

Hiring a freelance contractor is a great way to save time, money, and connect with a talented digital specialist to get your job done. However, because the freelance marketplaces across the globe are filled with freelance contractors all tendering for a limited amount of jobs, you might get flooded with a large number of proposals for a given job. How are you to know which freelancer is the right contractor to hire?

(Image source: Bigstockphoto)

The tendering process in this case is run on a global scale (as oppose to a local scale) which can throw all sense of price point clarity out the window. To help out, the following 8 crucial things you should look for when hiring a freelancer will guide you in selecting your next contractor.

#1. Check The Freelancer’s Portfolio

Before you start pitting one freelancer against the next in terms of their price point, you’ve got to know if the freelancer tendering for your job can actually ‘walk the walk’, and not just ‘talk the talk’. The only way you can legitimately do this is by seeing a portfolio of work.

Read Also: 7 Rules To Creating A Professional Portfolio Site

If the freelancer has provided some links to some online examples of their work, great; however if you feel you need to see some more, don’t hesitate to ask. If the freelancer is indeed keen on working for you, this should be no problem for them.

The number #1 rule in hiring a freelancer online is, if you can’t see any work examples, then don’t make the hire, especially if they’re asking for upfront payment. You have to be comfortable that the freelancer can do the work you require.

#2. Communication Frequency And Medium

It’s really important to remember to set the ground rules for communication with your freelancer. Whether it’s by Skype, email, or a weekly phone call, either way, you need to be comfortable with the communication frequency and medium prior to starting any job.

Read Also: Online Meeting And Web Conferencing Tools – Best Of

Often you’ll be working with freelancers who are not in your locale, it is important to set up time and method where your freelancer and you can communicate freely. Be upfront with any concerns you may have. Most freelancers are very accommodating and may have solutions to your problems, particularly those they have experienced with prior clients.

#3. Don’t Automatically Pick The Cheapest Contractor

It can be so tempting to pick the cheapest option when selecting a freelancer but this can more often than not lead to disaster. It’s not to say that each and every time, picking the cheapest contractor won’t work out, but be careful when considering an entry-level price point contractor as you do get what you pay for when hiring freelancers.

It’s important to remember that freelance marketplaces generally push the price point down anyway, so you will get good value for money regardless of who you hire. Just remember you are far better off choosing a contractor based on expertise and experience than price point, because generally you will be doing well financially regardless of your choice.

Do consider that the value of certain work in your country may be higher than that of another country, so weigh this up in your decision-making process.

#4. Ask For References

Just because you’re not hiring a freelancer in the typical face-to-face scenario where you would receive a full CV and do a reference check, does not mean you don’t have the right to at least ask for some form of reference, or even contact a previous client with the freelancer’s permission.

Again, you need to be comfortable in your hire. More often than not, once you do hire a freelancer for the first time, you tend to work with them multiple times especially if they did a good job. So take the time to ensure your hires are the ones that you want to go into long term working relationships with.

#5. Get A Team Player

This can be a little tricky to determine, but if this is a requirement for you, i.e. your freelancer needs to interact with various members of your team, across complex items, then simply ask them. At the very least this will indicate to the freelancer that teamwork is important or a vital element to them succeeding as your candidate worthy of hire.

#6. The All Important Timeline Management

There’s nothing worse than running a project that misses numerous milestones for one reason or another. The best way to mitigate this is to be upfront with your expectations for delivery of project milestones. This should be very clear in your job advertisement, and you should not bend on this at all when making your hire.

However it is important to treat your freelancer with the same degree of due diligence as you would expect yourself by providing them with everything they need to meet their deadline so that both parties can live in harmony together.

By being well-organized and providing a clear framework for the project, which may include external elements relevant to the freelancers role on the project, you’ll be ensuring that your freelance project runs on time and to schedule, keeping all relevant stakeholders happy.

#7. Has It Been Done Before?

This really “sets the men apart from the boys”. If you can find a freelancer who’s worked in your industry, or has done a comparable job for another client, this can go a long way to ensuring that your job will be completed to a high standard.

Because the freelancer has already completed a job of similar nature, they will most likely be able to produce your work in a speedy and more developed state based on having already completed a “trial run”. This can really help to narrow your search for a truly suitable freelancer particularly if they can show an example of said work.

#8. Payment Terms Must Be Reasonable

I am always skeptical when I see a freelancer asking for large amounts of upfront payment prior to starting a job. Sure, project milestones are more than reasonable, especially if the project is lengthy, but to ask for payment prior to starting work rings alarm bells for me.

Nevertheless, this is common in the freelancing industry, so you may encounter this. This can and is often more than legitimate, so don’t fear this. But, you do need to be happy with the terms of payment when making your hire.

For a longer-term project, two or three milestones is a common scenario. This is something I believe works well, as it rewards the freelancer for the work they have done, and signals the next stage of work to come.

Do try to sort these things out with your hire before you make an actual hire. This will ensure that things will be smoother in the long run and well into the completion of your project.

Apple set a new standard in device screen resolution with Retina display. With million of pixels, Retina display delivers more vibrant, more detailed and sharper images on the screen. However, this affects the way on designers and developers deliver the images on these devices, as images that are not optimized for high-resolution screen will look less than stellar.

So, in today’s post, we will look into how to deliver specific image that are optimized for high-resolution screens.

Recommended Reading: Better And Sharper UI Icons With Web Fonts

Using Vector Graphic

First of all, if the images do not require realism or a complex color scheme, using Vector graphic is probably your best option. Unlike Raster image, Vector graphic is not dependent on pixels, so it will be displayed fine and sharp on any screen resolution.

There are a few ways to add Vector Graphic on the Web, we can either use SVG, Fonts, or also Canvas previously discussed in:

• Scalable Vector Graphic Series
• A Guide To: Better And Sharper UI Icons With Web Fonts

Using Media Query

There is another way. We can conditionally deliver optimized graphic for specific screen resolutions using Media Query. The syntax is similar to Media Query for establishing responsive layout. However, rather than specifying the viewport width breakpoint, it specifies the device pixel ratio (dpr) and screen resolution threshold.

 @media only screen and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2), only screen and (min-resolution: 192dpi) { /* Style Rules */ }

The Media Query we showed in the above example will assign the styles for screen resolution with a minimum device pixel ratio of 2 or with minimum resolution of 192dpi.

We can retrieve the dpi number by dividing the screen resolution with its diagonal inches.

For example, a 13.3 inches screen with 1280×800 resolution will give us 96(dpi). So, the number of 196 that we’ve shown in the above code snippet is simply around double that number (96dpi).

In term of getting the device pixel ratio, it is rather scientific. But, in case you are keen on doing the Math, Boris Smush over at HTML5 Rocks will show you how in this article.

Alternatively, we can also query the pixel ratio number through window.devicePixelRatio. In the following example, we return the value from window.devicePixelRatio with an alert window.

 var dpr = window.devicePixelRatio; alert('Device Pixel Ratio: ' + dpr);

This will give use the following result in Retina display screen, like the new MacBook Pro, and iPhone 4.

In non-Retina Display, the number will return 1.

In addition, below is a list of Device Pixel Ratios for popular devices for your reference.

Device	Device Pixel Ratio
iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod Touch	2
iPad with Retina Display	2
Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, Galaxy SIII	2
Kindle Fire HD	1.5
Galaxy S Plus, Galaxy SII	1.5

From the table, you can see that there are some HD screens with 1.5 dpr. So, it is better to set the minimum threshold in Media Query for 1.5 to cover more screen resolutions.

 @media only screen and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5), only screen and (min-resolution: 192dpi) { /* style rules */ }

Also, for wider compatibility across the browsers, we can also add min-device-pixel-ratio with their respective vendor prefixes, like so.

 @media only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5), only screen and ( min--moz-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5), only screen and ( -o-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3/2), only screen and ( min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5), only screen and (min-resolution: 192dpi) { /* Style Rules */ } 

Example

We have created a page for demonstration. In this page, we assigned two image formats: a .png image for normal screen resolution and an SVG for the HD screen, which will be assigned through Media Query, like so.

 a { background-image: url('img/hongkiatcom.png'); background-size: 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat; } @media only screen and (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5), only screen and ( min--moz-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5), only screen and ( -o-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3/2), only screen and ( min-device-pixel-ratio: 1.5), only screen and (min-resolution: 192dpi) { a { width: 100%; background-image: url('img/hongkiatcom.svg'); background-size: 100%; background-repeat: no-repeat; } } 

Now, you can test the demo in action through normal and Retina display. It will also show the image name, which is being displayed on the page.

• View Demo
• Download Source

Further Resources

• Towards A Retina Web – Smashing Magazine.
• Supporting High-Resolution Screens In Views – Apple.com
• Unprefixed Webkit Resolution Media Query – W3.org
• High DPI Images for Variable Pixel Densities – HTML5 Rocks
• CSS3 Values for Resolution – W3.org