The Best Online Advertising Method:
Word
of Mouth
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Marketing
by Peter Cooper
A site was launched two months ago, in October 2000, and is
already delivering over 4 million page views a day. It sounds like a totally bizarre
claim and to founders James Hong and Jim Young it is. AmIHotOrNot.com
is simple in both its concept and creation. The site allows you to see pictures
of different people, and you vote for how 'hot' they are. You can upload your
own picture and see what your rating is compared to others. For many, it has become
an addiction.
Let's bring back that number again. 4 million
page views a day. That's about 120 million a month. Even at a paltry 10 cents
per 1000 banner impressions, that's a cool $12,000 a month in advertising revenue.
Better, they've spent nothing on advertising. Ever. So how did it become
so successful? Being able to answer that question could end up earning you a lot
of money.
Just A Simple Site Using Hype
The way in which the guys initially marketed AmIHotOrNot.com was wickedly simple.
They let several of their friends know about the site. That's it! So, you can
make any site popular just by telling some friends? Of course that's not true.
What differentiates AmIHotOrNot.com from any other site?
- The content pulls users through the site. The
site is incredibly simple to use, and pulls users in to visit more and more pages
through the voting mechanism.
- It's 'original'. Actually,
it's not the first site of its type, although many of its users believe it is.
However, it was the first site to develop and market itself successfully using
hype.
- It has a 'buzz factor'. Once you've visited, you'll
probably tell someone else, especially if you add your own picture to the site.
- You can get personally involved. You can add your own picture to the
site and see what ratings you get. To check your ratings you have to go back to
the site, and you're tempted to start voting on other pictures again.
