Buzz Marketing Myths
Welcome to part three of my behind the scenes case study in viral/buzz marketing.
In part one I showed you the effect and power that a successful campaign can have.
In part two I showed you a step by step guide to EXACTLY how I took one random article and transformed it by using 9 of my techniques. It went from a random article to viral gold.
Today I am going to be discussing the long term effects of viral marketing, and also the mistakes that nearly every webmaster makes with viral marketing.
Every time I mention viral marketing I get a series of comments and questions that are identical. Almost like clockwork I can guarantee that webmasters will make the same mistakes and pre-conceptions about my viral success.
Personally, I used to ask the exact same questions, but sometimes you can only understand something fully after you have experienced it.
Before we get started I want to stress that despite me using Digg.com as the focus of my articles, buzz/viral marketing is NOT just about the Digg homepage. Buzz marketing is being mentioned on other blogs, having your stuff discussed on forums, people subscribing to your feeds and asking their friends to do the same, mentioning you via email, etc…
Reminder: Buzz/Viral Marketing = Creating content that will be linked to and discussed.
If you are against that, then you are against almost EVERY website on the net… including your own.
So let’s start with some of the other popular misconceptions about buzz/viral marketing:
Here is the biggest and most popular misconception of them all…
Viral Marketing Campaigns Just Bring Worthless Traffic And They Don’t Make Any Money
There are so many ways I could go with this, I really don’t know where to start.
There is a lot more to buzz marketing than just being on the Digg main page. It affects the success of blog posts, your perceived authority on a subject and your online popularity.
Let’s be honest, the closest you are going to get to perfectly targeted, high value traffic is via Google Adwords. However, AdWords is NOT a free technique, so you cannot really compare the two.
Secondly, just because something isn’t perfectly targeted doesn’t mean that it is not worth doing. Did you know there are tons of direct marketers who made millions from blasting out random letters to people? If they were lucky they would get a 0.01% success rate, but they still spent a small fortune to send their letters.
What about companies that advertise during the Superbowl? Should we ban all Superbowl adverts just because the audience is not a targeted audience? Do you really think that 100% of Superbowl fans are looking for a godaddy account?
Viral marketing is a FREE technique, nobody said it is the goose that lays golden eggs. In my opinion it is the most powerful FREE technique on the net. WillItBlend.com created a hugely popular and profitable company with their viral stunt. So to answer the question of how much money you can make from viral marketing… just ask the owners of WillItBlend.com.
I could show you loads of companies and websites that have become hugely powerful due to their buzz and marketing campaigns. Some are worth tens of millions from their viral/buzz content. But I promised to keep this case study about my experience, so here we go:
How much money have I made from viral/buzz marketing?
Answer: To date I believe I am around $80,000 richer because of my viral successes. Had I chosen to take advantage of all the money that has been offered to me, I would say this figure would be well over $180,000 (I would probably be incredibly stressed though).
I will tell you exactly how I got this figure in a moment.
First I need to answer another popular question:
WHAT IS THE VALUE OF A SUCCESSFUL VIRAL CAMPAIGN?
People always ask me for an exact amount, by asking this question I know instantly that they have never had any viral success.
Most webmasters, bloggers, marketing experts and SEO experts agree that links are by far the most valuable aspect of any website. Personally, I have bought and sold many websites, and one of the most important factors for me is backlinks. I have seen pr8 sites with zero revenue sell for huge amounts of money, and I have seen brand new websites that made $2,000 in the first week sell for a very low amount.
Links help drive traffic, they increase your pagerank, and this leads to you being able to sell text links, they also allow you to make money by selling ad space and rank well in Google, which by itself can bring a huge amount of daily traffic.
Personally, I believe that links are highly valuable. Viral marketing drives tons of powerful and relevant links, therefore viral marketing is valuable!
The PPC/Affiliate brigade
Disclaimer: Throughout this article I may refer to the PPC/Affiliate brigade. I don’t want to stereotype an entire industry - hell, many of these guys make more money than I could ever dream of. However, many people who work with PayPerClick are used to getting daily reports that show how much money they made for that day. Often they will even analyze it per hour. This way of thinking/reporting simply doesn’t work for SEO, branding and buzz marketing.
A great example of this is the Google sandbox. Generally sites tend to struggle to rank well for competitive terms for the first 8 to 9 months. So by using the logic of the PPC brigade, it is not worth organically promoting a website or building links for 9 months.
Some people cannot see past the end of their nose, but I will show you that viral success can be very valuable over the long term.
BACKLINKS = VALUABLE
I am not going to explain the value of backlinks, if you don’t already know the value, then you need to start studying it ASAP.
So let’s talk about the backlinks I got from my viral successes:
Initially I got a link from the major social sites:
Digg.com
Reddit.com
Slashdot.org
Netscape.com
As you can see from the pagerank of these sites, it is pretty damn impressive. However, I want to keep this case study brutally honest… in my opinion, the value of these links decreases vastly, due to the fact that the link is not permanently on the main page.
One leading A-list SEO expert I spoke to said that “Such links will give a small boost to your rankings, but they are most valuable for new sites. Having pr9’s pointing at your site is a great way to get the Google spider hungry as hell”
The second phase of backlinks comes from blogs, forums, portals, etc. that mention your story.
This is for me the highest form of value. Bear in mind that only relevant sites are going to link to you, so you are getting relevant links and targeted traffic.
My site was discussed and linked to from sites in over 15 languages. But here are a handful that you may be familiar with:
It was also discussed by Matt Cutts, Bruce Clay, SEOBOOK and numerous other A-listers in the marketing and SEO world.
I really shouldn’t have to tell you the value of both the powerful links and the targeted traffic that such sites bring. Some people describe this sort of publicity as “Publicity that money cannot buy”, the reason for this is that many of these mega sites don’t accept ad deals, text links or paid reviews.
If I was to offer you an in-article mention on all of these sites, and 90+ other popular, relevant sites… what would you value it at?
I am certain that I could sell that sort of package for $30,000 with my eyes closed.
I am not even going to discuss the huge benefits of deep linking and deep link ratios, trust rank, and the benefits that these links have on EVERY page of your site.
In summary, I am not saying that buzz marketing is the best thing since sliced bread. But if you can get this sort of publicity for FREE with any other techniques, then I applaud you.
TARGETTED TRAFFIC
I promised complete honesty, so I am NOT going to pretend that viral marketing traffic is the best, most valuable, or most targeted traffic. Anyone can get traffic from PPC, but the purpose of this case study is to give hope to the millions of bloggers and webmasters who are looking for free marketing techniques.
However, many of the PPC/affiliate brigade seem to think that viral traffic is useless and non-targeted. So I would have to ask them how a mention on some of the net’s biggest and most powerful SEO and Marketing sites is worthless to my marketing/SEO blog?
Again, answer that question and I will hold my hands up.
What about all the mentions I got from SEO and marketing forums? Is that worthless and non-targetted traffic? Of course not!
INSTANT REVENUE (ADSENSE ETC)
If there is one area that the PPC brigade were correct to question me on, it is regarding adsense revenue. I will confess… Traffic from Digg.com is NOT going to convert into clicks on your ads.
Actually, I had done my research well before my first viral success went global. Therefore, when my site was getting 30,000 uniques per day there was not a single advert on my site.
Why did I do this?
Firstly because I knew that at best I would make a few hundred dollars in extra revenue. But also, I knew that I was going to be scrutinized heavily. If you plaster your site with adverts then you lower your chance of getting backlinks and positive mentions.
For me it is all about building links, I would not jeopardize missing out on a pr8 link for the sake of a few hundred quick bucks. No way! To me, a pr8 permanent backlink is worth thousands - it just isn’t worth the risk of possibly losing a hugely powerful backlink for the sake of a few hundred extra dollars.
There are huge long term rewards to be gained from buzz marketing, if you are too short sighted to see past Adsense, then I wish you all the luck in the world.
FEED READERS
Have you ever seen those feed buttons on blog sites? Often they are hosted by Feedburner.com and these days they are the pride and joy of any blog.
Bloggers go as far as to judge the popularity of their blogs by the number of feed subscribers they have.
This is an area where you can do well from buzz marketing. If people come from Digg or a similar site and enjoy your content, then they may wish to subscribe for updates.
This is an area that I have neglected heavily, but despite my awful efforts in this department, I am sure you will still be impressed by these results:
This image was taken a few days after my first viral success.
There are two important points to make here:
1) I didn’t have a feedburner subscription icon on my site. I messed up big time with this. So this meant that people struggled to find my feed. If you monetize it correctly, you can easily get 10 times the results I got.
2) Despite my huge error, I was getting 25 people reading my content via my feed every 13 minutes. That is pretty much someone reading my feed every 30 seconds.
Tip: Once you have your feed readers it is important that you follow up with quality content. Do not expect them to stay around for life.
With some decent buzz success, you can get 300-500 new subscribers to your feed. Imagine what 300 targeted and soon to be loyal readers will do for your future posts and success.
OPT-IN SUBSCRIBERS
This is another area where you can reap huge long term goals. Again, if you don’t know about opt-in subscriptions via Aweber.com, etc… then please go and study it ASAP.
SEO experts see links as their proudest and most valuable site asset, bloggers see feed readers as theirs, whilst Internet and Direct Marketing experts consider their “lists” (Opt-in email subscribers) as their most valuable asset.
I have already shown you that buzz success = tons of links and lots of feed readers, but what about opt-in subscribers?
This is a more dangerous area… opt-ins can be highly valuable. I am friends with a leading marketing expert who made over $200,000 in one weekend from his list.
However, many users are wary of them.
Remember that to gain trust and backlinks you want to appear as neutral as possible. Personally I was willing to sacrifice my Adsense revenue, my affiliate revenue, and my opt-in subscribers… but that is because SEO is in my blood, and I focus primarily on links and branding.
If your goal is mainly to get opt-ins, then I say go for it, but tread carefully.
Tip: DO NOT use pop-ups!
BRANDING
Branding is an area that not everyone will be familiar with, so I will keep this part short.
You will discover in a moment that I am a freelancer, and I sell my services/time as opposed to products/affiliate marketing, etc…
So in most cases my name is my brand. If I can get people familiar with my name, then I can charge more, I get more job offers, and ultimately I am more successful.
Prior to my first buzz marketing experience I had a niche following in the UK. Since then I have been discussed in 15 languages, and considering I haven’t spent a dime in my life on promotion or advertising, I have become relatively well known in the industry.
One image that shows this really well is this one:
This is such a powerful image!
In the space of 13 minutes, my name was searched for in Google around 18 times.
That is serious brand power!
Prior to my buzz success I got searched for approx once per day. Now it is nearer to 100 per day. This is brand power at it’s very best, and unlike the majority of big names, I didn’t spend millions branding myself, I spent NOTHING.
HOW DID I MAKE MY MONEY?
The key to remember with buzz and viral marketing is that it is a launch pad. It is your way of getting the world to hear your voice. However, if you have nothing interesting to say then your 15 minutes of fame will be short lived and NOT profitable.
The key is to use that platform, those links, those blog mentions, the new feed readers, the new opt-in subscribers… use it all, but use it properly.
I was speaking recently to a blogger who was showing a clear lack of knowledge in this area, he asked me “Dean, you got 30,000 unique visitors in one day, but what about two weeks or two months later?”
This is like asking me how long a piece of string is. I later discovered he was deeply into the affiliate marketing side of things (surprise surprise).
I should ask him if his adwords traffic remains if he stops paying for it.
What was he expecting? That I would do one viral success and get 30,000 uniques every day for life, without updating my site or doing any extra work?
Listen, some people have made millions from their buzz success. Others have made tens of millions (Willitblend.com). Others have had their 15 minutes and then done nothing from it.
Look at sites like: Destructoid.com smashingmagazine.com engadget.com
These sites are on Digg more than George Bush stories. Almost every article from these sites is buzz/viral content. They know the power of these techniques and they have mastered the art of getting visitors from buzz techniques.
Have a look at their content, and you will see that it is specifically created with sites like Digg.com in mind.
Destructoid Alexa Rank: http://alexa.com/search?q=www.destructoid.com&x=0&y=0
Engdget Alexa Rank: http://alexa.com/search?q=www.engadget.com&x=0&y=0
Smashing Magazine Alexa Rank: http://alexa.com/search?q=www.smashingmagazine.com&x=33&y=13
$80,000 RICHER? DISCUSS.
I have now shown you that buzz success has huge long term value, but it also has value that you cannot assign a fixed value to. This probably confuses the PPC brigade who know everything from the value of a keyword, to the value of a visitor. But that is the way it is.
I have shown you that I got over $30,000 in links and publicity just from one of my successes. Bear in mind I have had multiple successes, and have also helped clients and friends gain worldwide recognition. But I am not going to count any of that towards my total.
The fact of the matter is that my sites are geared around services, whether it be buying and selling websites for rich businessmen, running SEO campaigns for companies, launching branding and marketing campaigns for websites, or providing content for blogs and web portals. I do it all! I have even written content for industry trade magazines under a pseudonym, and written an ebook for a leading marketing guru.
This is how I make my money. I do NOT sell physical products, I am not interested in the vunerable business model of adsense revenue, nor am I into affiliate marketing anymore.
I sell my time and my services as a freelancer.
So here is my story: 1 day after my first viral success, I got over 45 emails. Here are a few snippets from them:
“Dean, I read your article about the google request, and I decided to read more of your articles. I really like your writing style, can we talk? Here is my phone number: xxxxxxxxxx”
“Dean, my name is xxxxx and I recently found your blog via Digg. I really enjoyed many of your stories, and I would like to talk to you about providing content for my company”
“Dean, any chance you can share the google search term with me? 
The reason I am writing is to enquire about your SEO services, I found your site at Slashdot.org and would like to speak to you about doing some SEO work on my network of sites”
“My name is xxxxxxx xxxxx and I am now an avid reader and subscriber to your blog. I notice you have done some affiliate marketing work in the past, we are actually looking for an affiliate marketing manager for our new project at redxxxx.com perhaps we can have a chat?”
My time is my product, for other people it may be DVDs, others may be solely reliant on Adsense (yikes), others may sell web hosting… with buzz marketing you are giving yourself a chance of a global audience. It is up to you what you do with that.
Anyway, where was I? Within two weeks of my first buzz marketing success I signed an exclusivity agreement with a major entrepreneur who found my blog via Digg.com. My income went up around $50,000 overnight, and I have made another $30,000 with partnership deals and bonuses since.
Also, I now get to travel the world and network with some of the net’s biggest names. People that wouldn’t have taken me seriously one year ago.
Regarding the $80,000 figure… My time was in so much demand that you can currently see at www.deanhunt.com I have this message on EVERY page: “services are fully booked until late 2008” I stopped accepting work over 6 months ago, this is despite being offered $1000 to write one article, and $8,000 if I could get a contacts site on the Digg.com main page. I even created a highly controversial spoof buzz marketing services page to stop people asking me to help promote their sites.
I don’t mean any of this to sound like I am bragging, those who know me will know I am very humble, perhaps too humble. But I was challenged, and have done what many marketing experts would be too afraid to do… I have showed you a sample of what I earn.
Due to all of this, I have now moved from staying at my girlriend’s parents’ house, to owning a large house in Madrid with a swimming pool and numerous other luxuries.
http://flickr.com/photos/inthehunt/
My life changed completely due to me discovering buzz marketing. I am not promising the same for you, but I do believe that buzz marketing is the most powerful FREE promotional tool available.
In the next and possibly final chapter, I will be doing a Q&A. So if you have any questions then please ask them ASAP via the JohnCow comments section.
Dean
PS: in the 24 hours that passed since writing this, one of the articles I wrote 4 months ago has been featured on one of the largest tech sites on the net. As well as a pr6 backlink and thousands of extra visitors, it has triggered the viral effect and the article is spreading like wildfire. It just goes to show that buzz marketing can trigger a viral effect at ANY time.
Measuring buzz success in the short term is like measuring the quality of a tree one day after you plant the seed. Dean Hunt 2007
Note: I am going to be sharing some more of my tips and techniques to help you get loads of visitors for free. If you are interested, simply send me a blank email to: buzz@deanhunt.com
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Hi Dean
Awesome article, there is some great information in there
Thankyou. Much appreciated.
Just a reminder for anyone interested in more of my techniques… send me a blank email today at: buzz@deanhunt.com
Thanks
Wow, Dean that was one hell of an article.
I really admire your skills and just can’t believe some of the successes you’ve had with one article. Although I did experience the power of Digg with one of my best 101 resources articles - I can’t say I gained $80k worth in value - although I’m still getting backlinks to this day.
Nice quote and I look forward to your Questions and Answers session. My question:
For most bloggers, creating the content that will lead to the viral effect is the hardest part. Do you have any tips on how to create THE buzz article within your niche and how to make sure that you manage to get that Digg effect which will lead to the insane linkage?
Thanks man
Ok I had to stop mid-way through and just show my appreciation for your excellent work. You have not failed to deliver some of the most helpful tips I have seen! I plan to utilize these in my marketing campaigns, as I revamp and refocus. Damn good work, damn good!!
I have to say this series of articles has been some of the most helpful I have read in a while. I really appreciate someone taking the time to explain in detail how they attained what they did. there are too many blogs out there that brag too much and teach and mentor too little.
I call themBlogs, Full of Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing
later all and have a profitable productive blogging day
I found this site when I was looking for John Chow, I am not disappointed at all that I landed here. Great information, keep up the good work.
Wow! That was an excellent article. Good work.
That’s a pretty good landing page to get people to subscribe to your mailing list!
Here’s what I love:
*Good use of testimonials (without names) and solving the overall problem by breaking it down into smaller problems. You’ve even got a nice “common enemy” in the rich PPC/Affiliate brigade to rally everyone against.
*Another nice technique by talking about all the “big businesses” using buzz marketing without actually naming them. Adds a touch of credibility without having to provide specific examples or numbers that you may not have.
*What I really love about this landing page is that while you say you received $30k in links, you didn’t actually receive $30k in CASH did you? That’s like me saying that I’ve earned over $20,000 on the internet because I’ve been linked to from top sites. Even better as while the links may truly be worth $50k, you can’t actually sell them until the post has gone viral and then it’s too late to get the links in. Great landing page strategy.
*I love how you write that you have “my services are fully booked until 2008″ on every page but actually don’t have that on every page and your contact page says that you are still interested in work. Your sales page is a great “rich jerk” style effort with the whole “I’m too busy making money to care about contacting you but here’s my email” strategy. This is a great landing page technique as the illusion of your success will still attract others to you.
*It is genius how despite the length of this post, you reduce earning $80k through viral marketing to just a short, single paragraph. It’s great how it doesn’t have any details so nobody can find a flaw in it.
Seriously great stuff. But did I miss the part where you tell people how to make money? Maybe I should join the mailing list?
By the way, if you’re tired of all the A-listers making all the money while you make pennies, come over to Cash Quests and learn the hidden secrets of how the evil A-listers do it! They’re using the secrets that big businesses have known about for years and now you can learn it too! I’ve already received over $40,000 in links and publicity by using these free techniques and I’ll share them with you! But hurry! My site has limited bandwidth and you need to get in quick before everyone else if you want to take advantage of these secret tricks! After I published my last technique, I was contacted by an investor and made $100,000 overnight! Don’t make the biggest mistake of your life and miss out on this one-time opportunity!
amazing, i am kind of overwhelmed with all that information but i am sure i will be referring to this post many many times in the future!! Thanks!
Thanks for the kind words everyone.
Much appreciated.
Dean
I see the byline at the top says John Cow or should it be by Dean Hunt? Small slip of the fingers?
It should say Dean Hunt, but it is my fault. I didn’t setup an account of my own in time.
Dean
Didn’t we tell you!
oh, that unfortunate, could have generated alot of visits!
Trust me, something like that will not result in him losing any visitors. The information is so valuable, when people want to get to the source they will find a way. Besides, all they have to do is scroll down and click on his name in the comment area.
I have had a few things go viral on some of my sites but there is also a dark side to it. It’s one thing when everyone links to you but it is something else when some folks just steal your content and try to make it go viral for them.
There is no money to made from Digg if you are using a CPC model on your site. You can make money off of an affilliate offer by getting on digg but that is about it. Even CPM ads don’t work so well off of digg due to the high number of adblockers.
You can make a living writing “for” digg but it is a very shaky living. Just as you don’t want to live on Google traffic alone you also do not want to live only on digg traffic.
If you write good quality content and fill a niche you will get readers. Some of those readers will click but most will not.
I agree. People make the mistake of thinking that buzz/viral success is all about Digg.com - frankly, that is just a small part of it.
This post was way too informative, not witty enough, and too long. Overall this information was too valuable and too real world for a parody site.
I still don’t get the joke.
I read the whole thing, and never found the John Cow twist. As an example, see the latest post on dining at a world famous restaurant.
The joke was on me.
“Buzz” is nothing new. It has been around since the first wheel was carved out of stone, or built the first fire.
It’s just world of mouth advertising. Calling it “viral” or something else does not make it a new concept.
So you think the site should be all parody and nothing informative? How long do you think he could keep coming up with something crazy to say about what da Chow is doing? I appreciate the satire, but I like how he mixes up the info and tried to help people. And I know Cash Quests really loves these guest posts by Dean!
Yes, it should be all parody and nothing informative. Mr. Cow should come up with something crazy everyday, or at least make sure that every post is crazy. Even if it is a guest post.
Geez, that is what a parody site should be. It should not confuse someone like me. It is not nice to trick your audience, and try to give them something of value.
I visit here for levity and to be entertained, not to learn something that could be of any use. it took me 10 minutes to figure out that post was not a joke, and to find out that I was deceived into thinking I would end up with a chuckle like I usually do.
I can go to John Chow or Dosh Dosh if you want
“real” advice.
Man digital, it’s hard to ‘read’ you! I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not. I feel like you are typing these things with a lil smirk on your face.:)
Forever an enigma I see…
I agree, the parody novelty aspect will get very tiring very quickly. I don’t think JC is aiming to EVERY post as a novelty item.
That said, my recent post was part rant, so it was hard to put my usual humor into it
I have got it out of my system now though, so I promise that the next post will involve a monkey that wears high heels and the President of America…
Seriously! I promise you it will.
Dean
I think I want to be Dean Hunt when I grow up!! Wow! Unfortunately I don’t have the smarts to do what you’ve done but I can at least sit over here on the side all starry-eyed and dream. LOL.
Great article.
Jo,
Compliments WILL get you everywhere.
I am just checking out your blog, I love the “im not mean, your just a sissy” tagline.
Same goes to everyone… contact me via email anytime if you have any questions, queries, rants etc.. I always make sure I reply to each one.
Well, maybe not to Cash Quests
Fantastic Article Dean, loved all 3! Ive subscribed to your Feed so i can always be upto date…I just hope my site can experience one buzz marketing phase in its lifetime
Email also sent
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Man, you need to work out a way to make a lot more than $80k without the stress.
Think Bigger Think Smarter
Brilliances - I earned $80k EXTRA, not just $80k in total.
I enjoy what I do and am paid very highly to do it. I have had bigger offers, but if it ain’t broke…
I just checked out your blog, good luck on your quest to make a lot of money online
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