Today I’m sharing an excellent article from Silas and Grace about how they made their blog go viral. In roughly one year they grew to about 2,000,000 monthly views and now earn an estimated $10,000–$15,000 per month. Enjoy their story and practical tips.
Finally achieving success feels strange. You spend months listening to podcasts and reading posts about how someone else built their online business, wondering if that could ever be you. Then, after hard work, research, experiments, and asking a lot of questions, it happens.
How It Started
In early 2015 my husband and I had just married and were the definition of broke newlyweds. We loved the idea of full-time travel and knew corporate or retail life wasn’t for us, so we started researching ways to work online.
We explored many options—writing for other sites, YouTube, virtual assisting—but nothing felt right until we heard a podcast episode of The Side Hustle Show with Nick Loper featuring Rosemarie Groner from The Busy Budgeter. That interview changed everything. It showed how blogging, combined with Pinterest, could create significant income much faster than the “it takes years” narrative we’d heard.
Rosemarie explained how she earned a full-time income from blogging within a year using Pinterest. For us, that was the roadmap we needed.
Of course, it wasn’t easy. We couldn’t always afford hosting, and the idea of me staying home while my husband kept a corporate job was terrifying. We desperately needed income—our car kept failing in winter, unexpected bills piled up, and it often felt like there wasn’t enough money to get by. Still, we committed to the plan. I stayed home to work on the blog while my husband worked long hours at his corporate job and helped with the blog in his spare time.
After three months of pre-launch work—preparing posts for our site Chasing Foxes—my husband was able to quit his corporate job three months after the blog went live. We moved to a beach town in Mexico and began to see results.
During those early months I learned several hacks that helped many of our posts go viral or perform exceptionally well on Pinterest. Below I’ll share the exact strategies that worked for us.
I Learned from the Professionals
Our success wasn’t accidental. We studied top bloggers and learned from their proven methods instead of reinventing the wheel. Being humble enough to follow and adapt their tactics allowed us to accelerate results. That mindset helped take us from struggling in sunless South Bend, Indiana to traveling full-time and building a sustainable income.
Three consistent practices stood out among professional bloggers who achieved strong repin rates and thousands of pageviews. I applied those tactics to our blog to help posts go viral.
1. Compelling Titles
During my first month after launch, my post titles were bland—like “5 Tips for Saving Money on Groceries.” The topic was fine but the title blended in with countless others. I studied sites like BuzzFeed and Upworthy and noticed their titles created urgency or promised transformation. Examples include:
“22 Frozen Hot Chocolates You Must Make This Summer.”
“27 Charts That Will Turn You Into a Baking Genius.”
Those titles stand out because they trigger curiosity, urgency, or a promise of benefit. If I’d written “10 Frozen Hot Chocolate Recipes,” it wouldn’t have grabbed attention. Make titles that clearly show what readers will gain and inspire clicks.
2. Address Pain Points and WIIFM
Early on I often chose topics nobody searched for. I learned to focus on pain points—the problems people urgently want solved—and to always ask WIIFM: “What’s in it for me?” Readers want posts that deliver tangible value: how to lose five pounds quickly, how to save $2,000 a month, or how to break a paycheck-to-paycheck cycle.
Common beginner mistakes include: assuming readers care about personal life stories right away, using vague titles that don’t communicate clear benefits, and writing about overly narrow subjects with tiny audiences. Personal posts are fine but shouldn’t be the primary content you promote on social channels until you have an established audience. Ensure your titles and pins clearly convey the benefit so Pinterest users instantly know why they should click.
3. Optimize Pin Images
When I first used Pinterest I made many image mistakes: dark photos, poor cropping, muted colors, and designs without faces or visual contrast. Once I analyzed high-performing pins from sites like BuzzFeed and The Krazy Coupon Lady, I redesigned my pins to follow what worked—brighter, taller images, bolder text, and a cleaner layout.
The original pin above is dark and uninspiring. After updating the image to be longer, brighter, and higher quality, the pin stood out much more.
If you’re struggling with clicks, model your pins after top bloggers, test different visuals, and track what drives traffic.
4. A/B/C/D/E Testing
Many recommend A/B testing, but I learned that frequently more than two variations are necessary to find a viral winner. Create 4–5 title variations and overlay each title on the same pin image (or create multiple images). Save each variant as a separate pin and test which resonates best. Often a pin I least expected becomes the top performer.
Make multiple pins for every post—mix titles, images, and layouts. You’ll be surprised how often the unexpected variant outperforms the rest.
Important Note on Multiple Image Testing
If one pin in a set linked to the same URL goes viral, the other pins tied to that URL often perform exceptionally well too. In practice, one breakout pin can boost the visibility of the entire set.
5. Join High-Quality Group Boards
Group boards let multiple contributors pin to the same board, exposing your content to larger audiences. But not all group boards are equal; high-performing boards deliver better repin rates because the Pinterest algorithm favors certain boards. Identify group boards where successful bloggers already pin and apply to join them.
Look at popular bloggers’ Pinterest profiles to see which group boards they contribute to, then politely request to be added—either via their blog contact or by messaging them on Pinterest. Being on well-performing boards can significantly increase the reach of your pins.
Final Thoughts
The work you do early on to create quality content and set up a strong foundation is not wasted. That investment pays back in significant dividends once your blog gains traction. Don’t be discouraged by slow beginnings—consistent effort compounds over time.
Remember: a year from today you’ll wish you’d started now. Decide where you want to be in twelve months—stuck scrolling social media after a draining day at a job you dislike, or building a new income stream and gaining more control over your time? You deserve the long-term freedom that comes from hard work today.
Silas and Grace blog at Chasing Foxes about lifestyle, travel, and food. They create helpful content, enjoy traveling full-time, and focus on building a sustainable online business.
How much traffic does your blog get? What steps are you taking to increase it?