A buddy of mine (and fellow seo’r) Dan, aka Danny Funk has had me cracking up, and singing the hook of his great entry into the turbo tax rap contest on youtube for several days now. I promise it is worth the 2:00 for this one. He missed his calling as the 4th Beastie boy. Throw some thumbs up and stars his way if you think it’s as good as I did. I’d embed it here, but I imagine the views, votes, and such probably help out for the contest. Check out the video here. You can give it some love on Digg here too. Great job by turbo tax as well - I doubt there is any other way they would have got me (or many other folks) to talk about them, so they deserve some kudos for some out of the ordinary experimental marketing (hey, I had to have the post be SOMEWHAT on topic). Just for good karma, here’s a link for tax software with no affiliate link.
If I actually didn’t trust ALL of the people already starting this one, I probably wouldn’t have helped to spread this idea - but since you guys rock, and since trust of folks in the community is so damn important - I’m placing the livelihood of this meme squarely on Andy Hagans to pass on.
This is a very worthwhile cause, if you’re in the SEM community - I’m sure JP will be appreciative of some link love, and a story mention to all you bloggin’ folks out there. This will 1. Improve the visibility of SEO 2. Make some cool guy’s girlfriend VERY happy (hopefully) 3. Help to raise a bunch of money for Vanderbilt hospital. It would be very cool if the search community can help this go viral to the “traditional media” world. It’s already been listed on AdAge where Joe says he has: “met J.P. and claims he’s real — and, more importantly, marketable — “an all-American, baseball-cap-wearing guy with a cute-as-a-button girlfriend,”. *Cough* I BELIEVE Joe knows who it is - and again - it’s a legit cause. From Joe Morin’s site who is helping to push the story to the mainstream (and you should too):
I really needed some new business cards for pubcon - but I wanted something creative. I’ve always been impressed by Hugh MacLeod’s theory of marketing - so I thought I’d take it for a spin. Hugh allows folks to use is art work so long as it is not for profit, and credit is given. This increases his exposure, and makes everyone happy.
I’ve really liked the idea of “Review Me” since I first heard about it. It’s kind of like “hot or not” for smarter people. It will allow immediate feedback on a variety of new ideas by paying for the valuable asset of people’s time to think. The success of the idea will depend on the willingness of intelligent people to accept a new ad model, and keep the network quality high. If everybody writes positive reviews of CRAP - it’s a surefire way for the whole idea to suck. It’s not a surprise that people will accept money to write reviews or analysis - the big question will be HOW MUCH it costs for a review. Pay to blog is a great topic that will always be worthwhile - in the same way that questioning how a journalist is paid is. I didn’t follow much of the pay per post debate prior to this, but I’m sure it will get nice and interesting with a bigger fish in the pond. I hope it will make Doc Searls smile - when he realizes the people who got on the cluetrain can finally make good money while they review products and services like actual human beings without a “professional voice”. It’s cool to see the dialogue can still be PAID for - but not forced to be ROBOTIC.
I’ve talked to Andy, and Aaron about this project extensively, and it’s definitely one of the best ideas I’ve ever heard. Get on the list for Reviewme - this one is gonna be cool. I can’t wait for it to stir the pot a bit.
I rarely do promotional posts unless I really believe in a product, and the person behind it. Andy has beat me to providing a linkbaiting service that I think will hold an enormous amount of value for subscribers. The service consists of writing an article that has a very high likelihood of going viral, and giving it the gentle nudge it needs for success in the social network arenas. Mr. Hagans has explained his service to me, and it is a great mix between public relations, viral marketing, and search optimization. All totaled - it looks like a pretty awesome service - and I’m sure if it wasn’t, Andy wouldn’t put his name on it. I don’t think he’s officially launched yet (though he gave me the okay to post this), so get in before the demand and price rises.
