The Scrapblogging Phenomenon

One of my Writter’s Spa alumnae, Debra Quartermain, a fun and very successful craft designer and author, introduced me to the scrapblogging movement recently. It’s essentially a fun, blog-based slide show that plays an audio track and is just one step short of a viral video in bells and whistles.

You can see the scrapblog she created for The Taos Writer’s Spa, which she attended two years ago. By the way, Debra made this scrapblog at www.scrapblog.com 

Cool idea. Anybody else out there cooking up scrapblogs? If so, send me the link and maybe I’ll post them here. Viva la viral promos!

PS. The Taos Writer’s Spa is full for 2007 we’ll all be heading out there at the end of this month) … but you can always check it out for next year. Drop by!

www.howmuchjoy.com/writerspa.html 

How to Sell Anything to Anybody … the Video

OK … just to show you I walk my talk, Travis Greenlee and I have created a funny viral video to promote our Fill Your Groups Now Home Study Course. I’ll be tracking it’s success, traffic etc in my blog over the next few months … and in the meanwhile, you might want to tune in, enjoy, and see Ken try to sell Barbie a Winnebago with high pressure sales tactics. Watch it here

A Unique Idea that Rocks

My sister-in-law has tipped me off not once, but twice now, about the unique business run by Scott Ginsberg, aka ‘the nametag guy’. Scott calls himself "The World's Foremost Expert On Nametags" and is frequently interviewed by various online and print publications for his unique take on approachability.

And here’s the kicker: he’s been wearing a white nametag that says ‘Hello, My Name is Scott’ 24/7, 365 days per year, since 2000. So he’s had that puppy on for more than 1900 days.

And all because he wants to make the point that approachability is magnetizing. All you have to do is make yourself available to people. Just like he is.

Through the power of his unique idea, Scott has been featured in hundreds of media outlets such as CNN, USA Today, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, Paul Harvey, The CBS Early Show and Headline News. And I don’t even want to guess at how much viral traffic he gets, because who can resist telling someone about his fun, wild, powerful idea. That’s how I found out about it!

Also, don’t miss his media room if you want to see an effective media room in action (though I could use his immediate contact info a little higher up on the page.)

The Power of Looking Behind the Scenes

In the spirit of reality TV, you can now get an awesome cruise through Microsoft’s headquarters when you read their company vlog (that would be a blog with videos) called Channel 9.

Here’s an awesome example of what I think of as ‘transparent marketing’. In other words, opening up the closed doors so your public can really see inside and gain more relationship with you.

My most popular articles are inevitably the ones where I expose the warts – like my piece, ‘Highs and Lows of Running a Web Business.’ It’s like reality TV. They just love it when YOU mess up and are free to talk about it.

As for Channel 9, this was designed specifically to demystify Microsoft, which takes a bad rap often for being the Dark Force of the software world. Here we go into designer’s cubicles and hang out with them … see their ideas in progress, and their struggles. That’s sooooo powerful for building brand awareness – and it has huge viral capability.

Yes, folks, Channel 9 gets 2.9 MILLION unique visitors per month. Someone, somewhere, is passing this baby along!

Are Viral Videos Dead?

Lately I’ve been taking a long, hard look at viral videos – those minute long ‘movies’ that are made up of animated power point presentations, often heavy handed mood music, and titles that amount to some feel good, love-your-neighbor thoughts followed by a pitch for a freebie. The first major one of these, www.thetimemovie.com has been seen by 14 million people. And its creator has gone on to develop an entire business around these mini magical moments. He has a 200,000 person ezine list to show for it … so something is going right here.

What I question is how many of these touchy-feely Hallmark movies the public can tolerate before it screams ‘Enough!’ And where are the funny movies? Or the ‘Wow’ movies, as the author calls them on his website.

Must everything be soft and fuzzy in viral video land? Or can we bust out with something radical, funny and fresh? Are the viral video mavens (who insist in their sales page audios that warm and fuzzy is ‘what the people want’) possibly wrong.

Are they just not finding the big ideas to fuel funny or ‘Wow’ formatted films anymore?

How many viral films have you seen? Is this approach worth a net marketer’s time and (considerable) cash? What do you think?