marketing

I had the pleasure of listening to theDuct Tape Marketing Podcast recently, the March 23 episode featureing David Meerman Scott, who recently wrote the book called World Wide Rave.  David makes some really interesting points about how trends get started on the Internet.  He provides numerous case studies on viral videos and blog posts, and how people have used these to build their businesses. 

Examples included Blendtec, a maker of heavy-duty blenders who increased sales tenfold after creating some wacky videos and the site Will it Blend?, showing their blenders chop non-food items.  He also talks about  Helaine Smith, DMD, a Boston Dentist who quintupled her business after publishing a free e-book called "Healthy Mouth, Healthy Sex." 

Watch Tom Dickson blend some golf balls here...

Seth Godin had a great post recently -- a video showing a guy dancing, then two guys dancing, then... well, watch for yourself. 

Seth's point is the first guy is very important, and the 3rd guy is very important, but Guy #49 is pretty much a dime a dozen.   I'd like to put in a word for Guy #2 who took a real risk by joining Guy #1.  He could have been rejected, but he joined in and believed in the movement.   Guy #3 gets credit for the big wave but maybe there would not be a Guy #3 if not for Guy #2?   Read Seth's comments at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/06/guy-3.html

Some of you are aware that my partners and I are trying to bring back the Mongo Bat.  We are getting closer to actually begin manufacturing the bats and trying to figure out how to sell them.  Mattel managed to sell 500,000 of the bats in the early 1990's, and we would like to do something similar, but without the cost of T.V. commercials and Saturday morning advertisements.

I think it's fair to say our marketing strategy is not totally worked out-- we have some ideas, but none of them are complete at the moment.

So with this in mind I read the story of Chris Hedgecock, who started an eBay Affiliate site called CarsForAGrand.com, focusing on inexpensive cars being sold on eBay.  Chris decided to promote his site by buying a sub-$1000 car from his site, then driving cross-country, stopping at small cities along the way and visiting with local morning news shows.  The story was eventually picked up nationally and brought him over 110,000 unique visitors in one day.   

You can read the whole story at ShoeMoney.com, and you can read more about Chris's road trip at carsforagrand.com/road-trip.  

Busbee Truck Parts has been a customer of Broadstreet's for several years now.  Doug Busbee had the insight to begin selling truck parts on eBay a few years back, and then realized he needed his own Web site.   He called me and soon www.BusbeeTruckParts.com was born. 

The January 14 episode (click to download) of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast had an excellent interview with Seth Godin, talking about the opportunities for small businesses and individuals in the current economic climate.   As usual, Seth motivated me, and as a result, I am blogging again. 

Ever wonder what is the most popular site on the Web?  ComScore is a business that measures traffic on the Web and publishes it on a subscription basis.  Below is  Comscore's listing of the current Top 50 sites on the Web (for the U.S).  You can find this yourself by going to http://www.comscore.com/press/data.asp and clicking on United States. 

comScore Top 50 Properties (U.S.)           October 2008           Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations           Unique Visitors (000)           Source: comScore Media Metrix           Rank Property Unique Visitors (000)   Rank Property Unique Visitors (000)   Total Internet : Total Audience 190,616         1 Google Sites 147,035   26 Superpages.com Network 29,387 2 Yahoo! Sites 144,903   27 Verizon Communications Corporation 28,094 3 Microsoft Sites 123,483   28 Gorilla Nation 27,218 4 AOL LLC 111,259   29 Bank of America 26,414 5 Fox Interactive Media 90,636   30 United Online, Inc 26,280 6 eBay 70,737   31 Everyday Health 25,781 7 Ask Network 70,449   32 WordPress 25,392 8 Wikimedia Foundation Sites 63,275   33 NBC Universal 24,896 9 Amazon Sites 60,099   34 Answers.com Sites 24,865 10 Glam Media 56,640   35 Shopzilla.com Sites 24,350 11 CBS Corporation 52,680   36 Demand Media 23,657 12 New York Times Digital 49,324   37 Weatherbug Property 23,531 13 Turner Network 49,186   38 Monster Worldwide 23,363 14 Apple Inc. 48,673   39 CareerBuilder LLC 23,309 15 FACEBOOK.COM 45,954   40 Photobucket.com LLC 23,271 16 Viacom Digital 45,884   41 JPMorgan Chase Property 23,142 17 AT&T Interactive Network 37,036   42 Real.com Network 23,024 18 craigslist, inc. 36,732   43 Gannett Sites 22,651 19 Adobe Sites 36,004   44 AT&T, Inc. 22,248 20 Weather Channel, The 34,717   45 ESPN 21,941 21 Time Warner - Excluding AOL 33,415   46 iVillage.com: The Womens Network 21,124 22 Wal-Mart 33,038   47 WebMD Health 19,623 23 Comcast Corporation 31,250   48 WhitePages 19,267 24 Target Corporation 30,950   49 WorldNow - ABC Owned Sites 19,017 25 Disney Online 30,209   50 Expedia Inc 18,402

http://www.thedrumcentral.com/

A friend of mine recently acquired a Ford 8N tractor, and has decided to rebuild the entire tractor, including the engine, piece by piece.  He said he had purchased some videos online that show him in great detail what he needs to do.  He bought two videos for $25 each. 

One of the things that increases your "Google Juice" is "Link Love." I'm helping a friend build a Web site about Trout fishing, called www.TroutU.com. I was explaining that Google and other search engines give high credibility to sites that have a lot of links to it, coming from other sites. He asked me how to get others to link to his site, which is a great question.