A Brisket Case Study Of Buzz Marketing
Hello, my name is Dean Hunt and I have been asked to share my buzz marketing case study with the readers of John Cow.com
I spent the past ten minutes trying to find a cow related pun for the title. The best I could come up with was to replace the word “brief” with “brisket”. The really sad thing I even used Google to find all the different parts of a cow (I should get out more often).
Anyway, the bad puns are out of the way, so let’s get down to beefsniss.
Today I am going to be showing you the first part of my buzz marketing case study. I was asked to create this case study due to my abilities to get not only my own articles, but also friend’s and client’s articles onto the Digg.com home page.
Here is what I will be showing you throughout this mini-series:
* The tips and secrets I used to get on the main page
* The psychological tricks I abused to get more Diggs
* How many visitors I got
* How many back links I got
* How my server coped
* The golden 30% rule
* The fatal mistake webmasters make
* My $1000 winning bet
* The thrill of the chase
* How the story spread
* How you can do the same for ANY article and ANY site.
* What effect it will have in the up and coming page rank update
* My Alexa graphs.
* TONS more….
I am sure many of you will be familiar with the techniques and terminology I will use in this case-study, but for those are not, here is my description of viral marketing:
Viral marketing: Using techniques and content that encourage your message to be spread quickly and easily from one source to the next by outside sources.
That is my technical description, I also have a JohnCow description:
Here goes…
To me, viral marketing is like a great big field with two cows… these two cows are your viral content. If the content is good enough, the cows will have baby cows, and with time, they will also have babies. A successful viral campaign is when all of the field (the Internet), is filled with cows (links).
Disclaimer: I promise I was not on drugs when I wrote that
So what about buzz marketing?
Buzz marketing: For me, buzz marketing is the art of creating a “buzz” (sense of excitement) from your content/message.
So now you know what these techniques are, but…
Why Bother Using Buzz/Viral Marketing Techniques?
I can answer this in just three simple words: Links, Traffic, Branding
Feel free to add “Money” to that list. But most webmasters make a fatal mistake when it comes to buzz marketing and money (I will explain this in a later chapter).
EVERY webmaster on the net wants and needs traffic. It if the life and soul of any website. There are numerous techniques for getting traffic, but most experts agree that viral/buzz/linkbaiting are by far the most powerful techniques.
Oh, and did I mention that these techniques are FREE?
If you have never tried these techniques then subscribe to Johncow.com today, and over the coming weeks I will go through every thing in a step by step manner.
Proof
Many people talk about buzz marketing, only a few really understand it in detail. So always look for proof.
Ok, here are a few screenshot clippings that I got from past and recent viral successes. The goal here is to show you what can be achieved with a successful campaign:
The above image shows how I was on the main page for multiple mega-sites at the same time.
* Digg.com
* Slashdot.org
* Reddit.com
* Popurls.com
What difference would it make to your website or business if you were featured on the main pages of all of those sites today?
I am guessing it would completely transform your business overnight.
Let’s have a look at another image:
This was taken shortly after the story went viral, and it appeared on the popular sections of Del.icio.us – what is interesting here is the comment from one of the users “This hilarious story has the web buzzing.” I think that quote sums up buzz marketing in a nutshell.
This is one of the most powerful images. On the 8th December my blog was just a small personal blog with a trickle of web traffic, on the 9th December my site was a national sensation. Within 30 days of my first buzz marketing success, I was making 6 figures online.
Back to the image… you can see the first traffic spike on the 9th December 14,000+ visits. Then it calms down a bit and goes crazy on the 13th .
Here is the most amazing part… my server actually crashed on the 9th, the 13th and the 14th… at one point it was down for hours during peak traffic times. This meant that a large % of my traffic was lost, and the rest was leaked to mirror sites. Had my server coped, these traffic stats would be a LOT higher.
Your Questions
This is part one of my viral/buzz marketing mini series. In future chapters I will show you more successes that I have had, more screenshot images, and I will be sharing the exact tips and techniques I have used not only on my own sites, but for friends and clients as well.
I would love to hear your questions… so please post any questions, and I will try to answer them as best as I can.
Note: Dean posts at his personal blog www.deanhunt.com and guest blogs at www.streetlessons.com and www.retiredat21.com
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Great Post,
Very interesting reading, you have done very well with your site in a short period of time.
Looking forward to the next part of the article.
Bet he drinks lots of milk!
fatgadget - Thanks for the kind words.
The next chapter is going to blow you away!
I am showing a step by step of how I took one random article and got it on the Digg.com main page within 48 hours.
Dean
I got mine on the front page in 13 hours.
Besides if your article doesn’t get front page in 24 hours it automatically gets buried. What are you trying to pull here? A cow tail?
Agreed. “Within 48 hours” seems more like “close to the front page”.
Bring it on! Great article!
Dean,
The link to your home page is broken. Pretty sure you’re just missing the opening “http://”.
Welcome to the pasture.
Smart Guy - It seems to be working now.
Thanks for the heads up and the kind welcome.
Dean
I’d be more interested to see how your traffic was two weeks after the Digg.
Just check his Alexa stats, flat as a freshly grazed patch of grass.
You never really did give away that search phrase so unless you do I’ll just accept it as a hoax, as has been speculated.
Why? We all know Digg is nothing more than a suger rush of traffic anyway. Out of sight, out of mind unless you can get 5 in a row like our hero.
Exactly. So why is this comedian promising branding and cash?
Great article Dean, the question though..as Cash Quests just stated, how did the traffic look a week, two weeks, and even a month after this?
If you take a look at the Alexa of deanhunt.com it’s obvious that there was one Digg and then the traffic returned to normal.
Also looks like this article has already been published there and just adapted for JohnCow readers. One step above a free article post
Cash, I like your outlook and insight into these things. A big push one day is great, it can really boost your psyche, but what happens after that? Can you sustain it? How do you keep the people coming back? Hopefully throughout the series these and other questions will be brought to the forefront. In the meantime, hopefully people are engaging in their own tricks and tests to see which one is truly the best for them, as people often overlook that nothing works for everyone 100% of the time.
Thanks for the replies. I will attempt to answer your questions.
Firstly: The Digg story you are reffering to was more than 3 months ago, therefore it is no longer showing in the Alexa graph or rankings.
At one time it was Alexa ranked 24,000
It has since drifted due to me neglecting the blog.
Ali - The example you gave is just ONE of the viral successes, there have been many, both for myself, my guest blog posts and client posts.
Here is the effect of the one I did last week: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=retiredat21.com&url=retiredat21.com/
Regarding traffic stats for 2 months later etc.. I am going to be discussing this in more detail in the 3rd chapter. The second will show EXACTLY how I took a random article last week, and got it onto the Digg main page 48 hours later.
Cash - You are making what I call “the fatal mistake of viral perception”. I will answer ALL of your questions in chapter 3.
Thanks for your comments.
Dean
So you admit the “search” phrase email was a hoax.
I checked your Alexa for one year ago. There was a massive Digg but it still went flat afterwards like every other Digg.
The link you gave showed a graph that I wouldn’t even call a bump. Seriously, you get a spike like that just from submitting an article.
You’re talking a lot about how to get on the Digg front page but you shouldn’t you first explain why we’d ever want to? To be honest, I see it more as a negative than a positive. Juvenile comments, crashed servers = no thank you. And everyone knows that Diggers don’t click adsense or sign up to affiliate programs.
Your claims of “wait until chapter 3″ give me the feeling that there’s going to be an e-book sold at the end of this.
Cash - Traffic 2 weeks after the Digg was around four times what it was PRIOR to the digg.
So presuming I had 200 uniques per day… it went to around 30,000 per day for a few days, then went down to around 2,000 per day for a week or so. Then it settled at around 800 per day.
I will be addressing ALL of your points and questions in detail in part 3.
Thanks for your questions, and for what it is worth, they are good questions.
Dean
800 per day for a couple more weeks and then down to 500 and then down to….
Viral campaigns like this just don’t work for bloggers. You’re playing on people’s desire for a quick sugar rush of traffic without letting them know that there isn’t actually any benefit from it.
Very interesting. To bad I’m at work and could only skim. I’ll read this fully tonight.
Ali - Where did I ever say that?
Cash Quest - There were actually two Digg frontpages at DeanHunt.com, perhaps you should research properly.
Secondly, Alexa is a VERY rough guide.
Thirdly, you mention that the spike is low, and that you can get that sort of traffic easily… The unique visitors for the first Digg in the space of one week were over 100,000
Where are you submitting your articles? The New York Times?
Actually, at one point my Alexa spike was higher than ANY national newspaper in the UK.
Your questions are good and valid questions, but you are making common mistakes that I will attempt to address.
I WILL answer all of your questions, I am writing it as we speak.
Have a read of my points when I am finished, and I am certain you will change your point of view.
many thanks,
Dean
PS: this is my last comment on this, I need to get back to writing. Apologies if this seems rude.
Actually I *did* do my research and mentioned the massive spike from *a year ago*. I don’t doubt that it was a front page digg
However, the second spike was definitely a minor bump. I’m more than aware that Alexa is a rough guide, but when you make the Digg front page everyone gets a spike like the first, not the second.
Congratulations on getting over 100,000 visitors. However, I judge a successful campaign by the amount of money earned, not the number of visitors.
“800 per day for a couple more weeks and then down to 500 and then down to….
Viral campaigns like this just don’t work for bloggers. You’re playing on people’s desire for a quick sugar rush of traffic without letting them know that there isn’t actually any benefit from it.”
I promised silence, but almost every word of your comment is completely false!
Where did I say down to 500? Also, where did I say that one viral success = a lifetime of success and mega traffic?
It is up to the webmaster to take advantage of that traffic. Some do it better than others, but there are a LOT of benefits from it, clearly benefits that you know nothing about.
Anyway, we could discuss this all day, but I will answer all your questions, please send me any further questions and I will attempt to answer all of them.
Thanks
I’ll forget my estimations and base it on your data then:
100,000 visitors and your traffic settled at an extra 600 visitors! Congratulations! You converted 0.6%! You really took advantage of that Digg, didn’t you?
But hey, you’re not promising a lifetime of success and I’m not expecting your advice to deliver it either.
So how come we haven’t been on the frontpage of any of those sites? Aren’t we cool enough?
You need some flavored milk. Pasteurizes just doesn’t cut it anymore.
What kind of campaign have you been running? Have you relied solely on visitors to do the digging for you? You have about 4 links to the social sites, have you considered adding the sociable plugin? (even though it would change the “look”) I haven’t worked with these sites either, but you could take your expeirence from what happened in the past couple of weeks, and use it for when the sites put you on the front page. Is this something that Dean will also cover in the next few weeks?
“Congratulations on getting over 100,000 visitors. However, I judge a successful campaign by the amount of money earned, not the number of visitors.”
You would be correct to judge it that way! That is also how I judge it.
By the way, the reson the first spike was bigger than the second was due to getting on Slashdot.org, Reddit.com, Netscape.com and over 100 large webmaster blogs. The second got over 1500 Diggs, and lots of lower value mentions. Hence the difference in size.
Regarding how much money I made from it… I am hiding nothing in this case study. I will be telling you how much I made… in detail.
Thanks for the good questions.
Dean
You have no idea how much I’m looking forward to seeing how much money you made.
“So how come we haven’t been on the frontpage of any of those sites? Aren’t we cool enough?”
hehe, this blog was launched via a buzz marketing stunt. Don’t play all innocent John
hehe
I am sure we will see this blog on there soon. In the meantime your buzz/viral marketing stunts at Sitepoint, DP etc should keep the traffic flowing nicely.
Oh my gosh, do you even know the difference between “targeted traffic” vs “traffic”? The Sitepoint stunt creates a small spike and then the visitors never return as they’re only coming to see if the site is worth the money.
I think your last comment should be aimed at the owner of Johncow.com not me.
I have never done the Sitepoint.com trick, but this blog has.
His buzz marketing stunt (Johnchow vs Johncow) is part of the reason his blog has taken off so quickly. It is possibly also the reason you found the site in the first place.
Of course I know the difference between the two types of traffic! Are you serious? I was being polite to John with my comment, nothing more.
Seems you have a chip on your shoulder here, attacking myself and Johncow with your pre-conceptions.
I hope that I can answer all of your questions in the coming weeks… if not… no loss!
Dean
nah, Kumiko loves us
I LOVE JOHN COW!
I LOVE JOHN COW!
John, will you marry me?
[...] worrying about things like branding, differentiation, niche selection, search engine optimization, buzz marketing, and all that rocket science [...]
Now I am no expert, but is Alexa really that reliable ?
Lets take my site for example, I hit the dig frontpage on 2nd July, which brought me over 23,000 unique vistors on that day.
I have looked at Alexa and can’t see this spike?, anyone have any ideas why this would be ?
FatGadget - No, it is not very reliable. Personally I take it with a pinch of salt.
Congrats on the Digg experience by the way.
Dean
Looking at my stats further for that day 50% of my visitors used firefox, 20% Opera, 20% IE, and 10% safari and other browsers, would that have something to do with it as Alexa is only IE isnt it ?
Wow great post! It’s amazing how great your blog is doing over just a couple weeks!
[...] A Brisket Case Study Of Buzz Marketing Dean Hunt of JohnChow.com discusses his case study of buzz marketing. I couldn’t resist passing on this quote, I think it more than applies and is quite cute: To me, viral marketing is like a great big field with two cows… these two cows are your viral content. If the content is good enough, the cows will have baby cows, and with time, they will also have babies. A successful viral campaign is when all of the field (the Internet), is filled with cows (links). [...]
Hello, Cash Quests. I know this is way off-topic, but I would like to politely ask you something about your fine blog, which I’ve just subscribed to. I think you have an informative blog, and after reading some of your enlightening posts, I naturally wanted to post a comment or two.
Please set me straight if I’m wrong, but it seems you don’t have comments active in your blog.
Could be my browser, I suppose.
It’s not your browser.
No comment
I guess the hardest part about your idea is creating that buzz. It’s hard to come up with something that will do that by getting all of those Diggs. Everyone tries it’s just hard to do. It’s hard to be the first one to something and that’s what it takes to really become big.
I’m very disappointed with this article. You defined ‘viral marketing’ and gave 1000 words about traffic, and there was not a single reference to the word ’stampede.’
“You defined ‘viral marketing’ and gave 1000 words about traffic, and there was not a single reference to the word ’stampede.’”
haha, good point
I will add it to the next part especially for you.
Dean
Thank you. I expect you to milk the theme for all its worth.
Great article, looking forward to the next few ones coming up!
[...] part one I showed you the effect and power that a successful campaign can [...]
Interesting blog posts I will have to find out more