This is an excellent example of how to create a viral video. It was posted March 20, 2008 and it already has 84,071 views. He also has some more internet marketing related rap videos on his YouTube channel.
If you’re trying to create a viral video you should consider how you can make it entertaining - if you analyze some of the most popular videos you’ll see that many of them have at least some entertainment value. Think about “What would make people watch this?”.
Oh, by the way - did you see the new Gmail feature that Google announced? It could come in handy to be able to make your mail appear to have been sent earlier - even mark it as people had read it ;)
I was checking my web tracker logs and saw a few hits from this page. It looks like I’m nominated on this German website in the category “Most Valuable Business Website”. Although I’ve never heard of this website createordie.de before it’s an honor to be nominated :) I’m there along with some very popular websites.
I’m not sure what the prize is - or if there is a prize… but if you want I would appreciate it if you could cast a vote my way :) Just click here and select the radio button where it says “My Most Valuable Site” below my site (www.hannesjohnson.com), scroll down and click the button that says “Jetzt abstimmen”. You have until April 24th to vote - but please vote right now while it’s fresh on your mind.
OK, I was checking the site again a little better and it looks like this is a site for a conference in Germany and according to this page the first prize in the business category is 5.000 € and an advertisement in “brand eins” (which I believe is a magazine). 5,000 Euros is about 7,700 USD so that’s quite a lot of money - what are you waiting for: go vote for me! ;)
If I win I will most definitely have a very impressive contest with lots of prizes here on this blog :)
By the way, do you want more contests on this blog? Because a couple of days ago I got a proposition from a guy that wanted to sponsor a contest on this blog. What do you say? More contests? - Let me know in the comments, also let me know if there are any specific contests you are interested in (like, subscribe to the RSS feed to get an entry, solve a puzzle, etc…) and if there are any prizes you prefer (gift certificates, PayPal payment, magazine subscriptions, iPod or something physical, etc…) - also let me know if you voted for me in this contest and I’ll give you featured link here in the sidebar for a month - but only the first 10 (maybe more) to comment [just let me know in the comment what anchor text and URL you want me to use].
Just came across an interesting article: Who clicks on ads? (Revisited with data) about the majority of people that click on online ads. Some interesting points like:
..heavy clickers are:
More representative of lower income households than the average user.
Less educated than the average user (or from less-educated environments in the case of minors).
More likely to live outside of the major metro regions.
More likely to be using SNSs to meet new people than the average user (who is more likely to be using SNSs to maintain connections).
This is also interesting:
Wealthier users are more likely to spend money online, but they are less likely to click on ads. Poorer users are more likely to click on ads, but not likely to spend money online except in a few verticals. Wouldn’t this then mean that Google is more likely to get the eyeballs of those likely to spend money, but statistically less likely to make money off of their clicks?
That means that businesses can actually benefit greatly from using e.g. Google AdWords to advertise their business by using it for branding and not trying to get more direct clicks to their website. If the data the article is referring to is correct then the people that can afford the products might glance over the AdSense banner and while they might not click they might notice the URL or the brand name (product name or company name) and visit the website later on (or Google the brand name) without it costing the advertiser anything. Something to think about for your AdWords strategy…
This is also something affiliate marketers that are you using AdWords have to think about - I’ve seen a lot of affiliates using the product’s URL as the display URL. This is probably not the best strategy if people see the URL but don’t click your ad (with your affiliate link) but just visit the URL directly later on. That’s why you should get a custom domain name for all the most important products you’re promoting as an affiliate.
I’ve been using this cool tool called Instapaper by Marco Arment for a few weeks now and it has helped me read articles that I probably wouldn’t have without this handy tool.
What does it do?
Well, according to the FAQ “Instapaper facilitates easy reading of long text content.” It does this through a “Read Later” bookmarklet that you add to your browser. Then, next time you find an article online that you don’t have time to read you just click “Read Later” and it adds it to your Instapaper list. This is not a brand new idea per se… I’ve been using bookmarks for a similar purpose - created a specific folder for “Read later”, “Read ASAP” - I even started categorizing them - splitting them into sub-folders “January 2008″, “February 2008″ - but even those sub-folders just filled up and I only read a small percentage of the articles I bookmarked. I’ve also tried using del.icio.us and tagging articles with “toread” - it’s the same, I only check out a small part of the article I tag (although the tags “towatch” and “tolisten” have been more useful - perhaps because I don’t use them as frequently). I even tried out a Firefox add-on called Read it Later - but that doesn’t work any better than the bookmarking folder system.
Why is Instapaper so great?
The thing that makes Instapaper special is that I can easily access my “read later” list through my cellphone - which is excellent if I have to wait anywhere - waiting for a ride, waiting in line at the supermarket, etc… Or if I’m anywhere else away from a computer and nothing else to do ;)
What do you think? Will Instapaper help you read more stuff? Do you often come across an article that you want to read but you don’t have time to read it right then?
I was so going to do that same research: Results: Most Popular CMS in Technorati’s Top 100. I had been planning for a pretty long time to make a post about what blog platform the Technorati Top 100 blogs use. But it looks like I don’t need to anymore, somebody did the work for me - and got the link love I might have gotten ;) It just shows you that it’s never enough to have a good idea - you have to execute it too. There is a good chance that whenever you get a brilliant idea somebody else has had the same idea (or will have soon) - so it’s important to act on your idea as soon as possible. Like Dr. Joe Vitale said: Money likes speed.
But it’s no surprise that WordPress is the most popular blog system - when I first thought of doing this kind of a list that was my guess.
Quick reader’s poll: Should I create a specific category for these micro posts?
I know, it’s a cliché… but I’ve been busy with other things ;) And it looks like my brilliant trick isn’t quite bullet-proof - although I have dozens of drafts in WordPress, another dozen of Notepad documents and also physical notepads with half-finished blog posts… But somehow I couldn’t find the time to finish these posts.
So I’m going to try a new trick - write really short blog posts. Inspired by the concept of microblogging I think I might be more willing to write short blog posts - rather than having to worry about writing insightful 1000+ words blog posts with research, graphs and the whole shabang ;)
Well, in microblogging a post can be anywhere from one sentence (with maybe a link or two) to a few paragraphs. So it’s pretty flexible. These short posts, or microposts, should take less than 30 minutes to write - well, they should probably take less than 5 minutes but you shouldn’t have to worry about time restraints. The idea is to just get the idea out there as quickly as possible - it doesn’t even have to be grammatically correct, you can just edit the typos later on - when your visitors point them out ;)
But sometimes when you start out writing a micropost you might get more and more ideas while writing and you’ll be inspired to write a full-length post - and that’s definitely a good thing :)
It might be appropriate to set up Asides to handle these microposts - to separate them from the “real” posts. I might also consider using any of the microblogging services out there to write short posts (and maybe import them into this blog).
The only problem with short posts like that is that it’s not so easy to add in-content AdSense ads when the content is only 2 sentences ;)
This post is kind of a micropost - I wrote it fairly quickly (although it took more than 5 minutes) and only read it over once. What do you think - is this a short post or a normal post? Maybe it’s just somewhere in the middle…
What do you think of the concept of microblogging? Do you think it could help you blog more frequently (which means more content on your blog = better chance of ranking in the search engines for cool keywords)? Are you going to try writing short posts every now and then? Oh, yeah, of course - even though I’m going to try writing more short posts it doesn’t mean I’ll stop writing full-length posts that I put a lot of work in :)
Also, in short posts I might not explain everything in detail - so that’s an excellent opportunity for the readers to post comments and ask questions.
Happy holidays and a happy new year. At the end of the year people often look back over what happened that year. I think viral videos are fascinating - how a video travels around the world through word-of-mouth or click-of-link from person to person until millions of people have seen it. Sometimes this is just a personal video that the author perhaps just wanted to show to a few friends but had no idea millions of people would enjoy it - and sometimes several people have spent time and money creating a video that they then strategically market online…
Whatever the circumstances are viral videos are always entertaining - or at least interesting - otherwise they wouldn’t get millions and millions of views, right? Well, I picked a few of the popular videos I’ve noticed pop up in 2007 and ranked them against each other. I took the number of views the videos have right now and divided it by the date it was posted (well, actually how many days were left of the year when it was posted). Without further adieu I present to you The Top 10 Most Viral Videos Of 2007:
#10 Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
A fun little video - just one take. Probably just a boy/girl that was having fun and had no idea this cool video would get over 11 million views.
Views: 11,440,476
Added: June 06, 2007
Average (per day): 55,002.29 views
#9 me singing “what goes around“ Justin Timberlake
I’m pretty sure they were hoping this video would become viral. Looks like it worked - if you want to make a video viral just add Justin Timberlake ;) This is Dutch singer Esmée Denters and she was the first artist to be signed on the new Tennman Records label headed by Justin Timberlake.
Views: 13,094,860
Added: May 28, 2007
Average: 60,344.98
#8 CPDRC inmates doing the dance from Thriller
Amazing video - from the description on YouTube: “1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines at practice! This is not the final routine, and definitely not a punishment! just a teaser.”
Views: 10,157,475
Added: July 17, 2007
Average: 60,823.20
#7 PARIS IN JAIL: The Music Video
Clever and funny video - very smart to take advantage of the hype around Paris Hilton going to jail.
Views: 12,928,112
Added: June 06, 2007
Average: 62,154.38
#6 Battle at Kruger
Amazing video - a bit longer than most viral videos (08:23) but definitely worth watching… this is nature at its best - Never give up. This authors of this video definitely got noticed - a clip from the description on YouTube: “NEWS: National Geographic has sent us back to Africa to develop a special giving the behind-the-scenes story on how we got this amazing footage. Potential airdate: Spring 2008″
Views: 22,696,930
Added: May 03, 2007
Average: 93,788.97
#5 Paul sings Nessun Dorma
This is a very interesting video with a plot twist ;) I didn’t see that coming… Very inspiring video - don’t judge a book by its cover, right? This is Paul Potts singing Nessun Dorma on the UK talent show “Britain’s got Talent” - it’s no surprise that he won.
Views: 19,690,787
Added: June 10, 2007
Average: 96,523.47
#4 How to Charge an iPod using electrolytes and an onion
Cool video - might come in handy if you don’t have access to electricity ;)
Views: 5,510,023
Added: November 10, 2007
Average: 108,039.67
#3 Chris Crocker - LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!
This is the weirdest video on the list… not exactly entertaining but, uh… interesting. Well, it got a lot of views, some media exposure and I think I heard this Chris Crocker got a TV deal out of this. It probably helped that he was kind of taking advantage of the hype around Britney Spears.
Views: 14,803,559
Added: September 10, 2007
Average: 132,174.63
#2 The Landlord
Very funny video. Will Ferrel, Adam McKay & Co. used this video to launch their video site FunnyOrDie.com and it looks like it worked, big time.
Views: 51,292,692
Added: 8 months ago
Average: 196.523,72
…
and, drum roll please
…
The #1 most viral video of 2007 is:
Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist
Funny video, pretty long (10:47) - looks like it’s ripped from Jeff Dunham’s DVD. But I think it’s cool that Jeff Dunham has allowed this to stay on YouTube (with over 21 million views he probably has heard of it being there) - he definitely understands that this will only help with sales of his DVDs, other merchandise and tickets to his show. I wish more companies/artists/entertainers would realize how much they can gain by letting a few minutes of their videos stay on YouTube.
Views: 21,601,141
Added: September 29, 2007
Average: 232.270,33
What do you think? Had you seen all of these videos? If you liked this list I would really appreciate it if you would Digg it :)
People might say that the Jeff Dunham video and “Paul sings Nessun Dorma” shouldn’t belong here since they weren’t posted by the copyright holder - but they are still on YouTube and they have gotten quite a lot of views…
If you take a look at this list you might notice that quite a few of them have celebrities in them or are referencing celebrities - so, if you want to make a really viral video you should think about that.
Honorable mention
A Special Christmas Box (aka “D*ck in a Box”). Although it was first posted at the end of 2006 it become quite popular in 2007 and even received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. According to Wikipedia it got over 28 million views on YouTube - but NBC removed it from YouTube in October 2007.
If the embedded video above should disappear/not work you might be able to see the uncensored version (if you live in USA) here on NBC.com.
Another video that I want to mention that almost made the cut is Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday:
It has gotten over 12 million views in about 8 months and is quite an internet hit - they even referenced “chocolate rain” on the show 30 Rock :) It has also brought Tay Zonday some success - Dr Pepper got him to star in an advertisement for Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr Pepper.
Did I forget any popular viral videos? Let me know in the comments - I might add them to the post…
UPDATE
I totally forgot about Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question
With 20,650,575 views and being posted August 24, 2007 it got an average of 161.332,62 views per day - and it would have been #3 on the list (pushing out “Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”).
I realize that my method of calculating the “viralness” of the videos might not be the best way - but it’s one way of seeing how popular they became. Most viral videos have a peak - a few days/weeks where they get the majority of the views. So the most recently posted videos might have a slight advantage on this list. I just thought that total views wasn’t accurate since those that have been online for a longer time have an advantage. Maybe it would be better to just take how many views the video got the first week/month… but sometimes videos don’t become viral until months after they are put online - often when a popular blog links to it.
Well, best of luck in the new year. I’ll see you again in 2008 :)
I just saw this funny but also interesting video (via ze frank):
Goodie Bag TV - Americans Love Lists
It’s true - lists are very popular online and I suspect people often write all kind of lists primarily as link bait - and it often works (to some degree). People like short, to-the-point bullet points that give them some interesting/entertaining information, right? But it’s not just online is it? Magazines often have articles that are based on lists - these two headlines were on the cover of October’s issue of FastCompany: “25 Widgets We Love” and “14 Designers To Watch”. And since it looks like it’s working - why stop? Like he says in the video: “We need more lists, we need lists of lists within a list” ;)
Another video I ran into today:
Here Comes Another Bubble - The Richter Scales
[Update: OK, it looks like the video has been taken down because of a copyright claim (of a photo used in the video). But apparently you can still watch the video here (at least for now)]
Pretty funny lyrics - and a catchy song too ;) Yeah, some people think there is another bubble going on. Perhaps - I mean, is Facebook really worth $15 billion?
This video is actually a pretty good link bait - and they even admit that it’s a link bait video: “won’t you blog about this song?” :)
Alright, time to give a little back to my loyal readers and commentators :) Here are a few interesting posts from the people that commented the most during the month of September…
Saman has an interesting post about how you can try Service Pack 3 for Windows XP before it’s officially released - but I would be very careful if you decide to try it, you have to know exactly what you’re doing and be prepared for your computer to crash. I have Windows XP on my laptop and like Saman I hope SP3 brings some new and cool features. One thing I learned while reading this post is that Windows Key+Pause/Break gives you the System Properties - always fun to learn new shortcuts :)
Saman also talked about an interesting discovery: a black theme for Windows XP. I’ll have to take a look at that - could be a nice change from the default blue one. He also recently blogged about a green operating system - being green (protecting the earth) is very “in” right now so this OS might get popular.
Congratulations to Saman - he managed to be on the top commentators list 3 times in a row. That’s why he’s getting 3 links ;)
Bobby Revell has a very thorough article with some nice tips on how to live a healthy life. We all want to live longer, right? :) Cutting down on sugar and exercising more can really help increase your energy - it did for me.
Chris blogged about a very cool trick that you can use to have a little fun with any website you want (that has a few images).
Every Day Fiction - as you might know from the previous top commentators post - has a collection of short stories. This one: I take it back is very cool - it’s very descriptive and it’s almost like watching a movie. Good job John Ritchie.
Angie found a way to get rid of her sinus headaches. I’m sure a lot of people get sinus headaches - or at least some sort of headaches - so this might be something that’s worth a shot.
But what do the rest of the readers say - do you like these “top commentators” posts? Hopefully you find at least some of it useful or entertaining.
When you want to grow in your business there is only so much you can do on your own. That’s why you might want to reach out to others and see if they can help you - or better yet, if you can help each other. You could consider outsourcing, hiring staff or doing joint ventures with other people. If you want to do JVs you could try co-registration (if you have a mailing list), mailing list “swap” (where you send your mailing list a promo for their product and they do the same for you), or join forces with one or more partners on a project (big or small) - even a simple link exchange can be considered a JV.
You might not even have to reach out to other people - sometimes you just have to keep your eyes open. I was checking out Douglas Karr’s blog a couple of weeks ago and noticed that he was looking for contributors to a contest he was holding. Doug was looking for 10 partners where each partner contributed $100. That’s why you can now…
Win $1,000 Cash!
..plus, other cool prizes. Contests are always fun so I decided to contribute to the contest. I also thought this was a great opportunity to get some extra exposure. Doug has over 1000 RSS subscribers - which is a pretty big audience. I have 100+ RSS subscribers and in the first contest on this blog I gave away $25 (or a featured link) and a website review (which took a lot of time). So, spending $100 to reach a 10 times bigger audience looks like a pretty smart move ;) Not to mention, I don’t have to worry about managing the contest and all the extra things that take time.
Just for fun I decided to on top of the $100 to throw in some extra prizes:
Those extra prizes are valued at $103,85 on their own.
How to enter
Oh, you want to know how you can win the $1,000? Well, all the details are over at Doug’s blog but basically you have to write a blog post with a reference to each sponsor and a couple sentences about their site, product or service. You can combine all sponsors in one post - or do a post for each sponsor, giving you 10 entries into the contest (10 times better chance of winning!). The deadline is November 25th, 2007 - so you have about 6 days. You better hurry… just head on to the contest post for the details, write your post(s) and submit your entry through the form. On last count there were 32 entries in the contest - which means that if you write a post for each sponsor you’ll have about 1/4 chance of winning $1,000 cash!
