What are viral websites?

While browsing through the net, we usually see videos with so many viewers and download; we call these videos viral videos, but what exactly is a viral website? It is a coined term often used in Web 2.0 Development. A viral site is a website that utilizes viral marketing and viral adverting techniques to generate traffic to it. Viral sites have become so popular that word of mouth and links generate an abnormally large amount of traffic to the site. Viral sites usually gain popularity through being forwarded to friends and family, who then forward it to their own networks, causing the traffic to the sites to grow exponentially. Furthermore, there are two prerequisites for a website to be considered “viral”:

 1. The website has to represent a truly unique and interesting idea that people are willing to share with others.

2. The website needs to have tools and incentives for people to easily share information about it with others. Without meeting both of these sine qua nons (conditions), it is difficult, if not impossible to see the “viral effect” that many people are seeking for their website. Viral marketing and/or building a viral website first requires a “viral idea” that people are willing to share. Unfortunately, if you think that your idea of a website is cool, does not necessarily mean that the rest of the Internet will think the same.

Viral (adjective) - An image, video or a piece of information circulated rapidly and widely over the internet. In today’s “always connected” digital age, the rapid flow of information has enabled the creation of a niche called Viral Marketing or Viral Advertising. The websites that focus on generating traffic using these techniques are called “Viral Websites”. Simply put, a viral website is a central point for accessing unique and interesting content, which is often contributed and shared by its users. This ensures user engagement - the users will share an article that they like on their social media profiles, thereby increasing the website’s reach and generating more traffic. Some websites have an affiliate program where the users get incentives (money, online coupons, event passes etc) for sharing the website’s content and this ensures that the user base is retained and more traffic can be generated. The actual content posted on a viral website may range from images and videos to music files and independent journalism articles. Some articles on these websites are written in a “Call to Action” style, where the reader’s social or moral values are directly or indirectly “poked”, and a link for donation to a charity or to sign a petition for a cause is generally provided. The number of viral websites has grown exponentially since the concept was first introduced and a Google search will display a list of the top viral websites on the internet.