Viral Videos – Part 2

By | March 20, 2010

In a previous posting, I talked about my attempt at launching a viral video. It was a modest success, but did not make me any money or bring any extra traffic to my site. So, I decided to create a few more music videos in the hopes that one of them would catch on:

  • Hip-Hop Hanukkah – This was my follow up to Pimp My Sleigh.
  • The TurboTax Rap – TurboTax software held a contest for people to make a music video about using Turbotax to do your income taxes (I have been a TurboTax user for many years), and this was my entry. I didn’t win, but a lot of people saw the video on the TurboTax website and on Youtube.
  • In The Valley – Internet themed songs tend to go viral easily, so this was my attempt.
  • Party On Your Birthday – Birthdays are such a big market, I figured there must be room for more than just the traditional “Happy Birthday To You” song, especially a more modern version.

These videos got some good reviews, but none of them reached the tipping point and went viral. Based on those results, I have pretty much given up on the viral video dream, but more recently I tried a new tactic, where instead of making videos for the masses, I made some specifically for a few of my websites, in the hopes the videos would get some extra traffic to those sites:

  • CheapFlowers.com Theme Song – I did this song as a demo, hoping I would have somebody else record a real version, but I never got around to getting that done, so eventually I just added it to my CheapFlowers.com website.
  • The Water Tower Rap – I think I created the first song ever written about water towers, and certainly the first rap about them. I knew nothing about water towers until I bought the WaterTowers.com domain for $2000 a few years ago.
  • I’m A Pig and I’m A Horse – These are kids songs that I created for my site at iAnimals.com.

Over the years, I have also added to my sites animated songs written and sung by another musician (I paid him for it):

  • AdoptMe Music Videos -Songs performed by the virtual pets that you can adopt at AdoptMe.com.
  • Michael & Bubbles – An animated musical adventure about a superhero pop star and his sidekick monkey Bubbles.
  • Rapping Babies – For my CyberInfants.com site where you can adopt a virtual baby.
  • Salt & Pepper – An animated musical adventure about a rapping dog and cat.

So far neither the songs I created myself, nor the ones I paid someone else to write and perform, have brought any extra visitors to my sites. They are very fun projects to work on, but from a business standpoint they have been a waste of time and money.

5 thoughts on “Viral Videos – Part 2

  1. Pingback: Viral Videos | Internet Marketing Links

  2. t

    I’ve been having fun with videos ever since google videos came out, Before then you’d have to pay a provider for bandwidth,.which was too expensive if someone just wanted to post for recreation. When myspace first came out I posted vids on the profile page, not the videos section, why would someone keep visiting that section when you weren’t told if the user had vids or not, and 95% did not back then. Well I had quite a few friends 1000s 99% in chicago and the surrounding areas. I got a bit popular cause of the vids,..kinda the off the wall stuff , vids with friends and some with my cats. Anyways fast forward to recently,…I uploaded a couple vids playing around and they got popular quick, then I took it down, .. cause it was connected to my biz channel, Momentary insecurities, and the lack of anonymity,…… One problem with viral videos is generally the revenue sources are t-shirts and public appearances which won’t make you much money then again guess it depends on your perception on money. I believe there are many opportunities not yet realized
    . What makes a video viral ? Something people want to share, they’d tell their friends to ” look at this crazy ass shit” or “this is funnier than a mofo” (I try to keep my posts pg),..not something that would fit under the category hmm this is nice. …Ad agencies are having a hard time because they are trying too hard to be what they’ve been groomed not to be 🙂 …. Which levels the playing field , their money vs our creativity.

    A few years ago I started to work on a local weather site and even went as far as having people put an icon of the weather on their pages updated once a week by changing the source pic, it also had a link to the website. I promised Weather in videos but procrastinated till well still haven’t got to it, I took down the page and just added a link to the gov weather service.
    Whats great about the weather is the gov gives us the info for free (FOI act), The site name is ChicagolandForecast.com , If you want to sponsor it and its worth me putting in a couple hours a day making videos as well as updated graphics and info for the weather on the site then I will make the time to do it, Or You can have someone design it which would be much better, If not that’s kool, no need to explain, or bring it up.

    Back to the viral vids,,try this,..Think about and shoot ideas with a friend about what you would like to see a video about, Something crazy, something out there, something different,… ok well take care.

    I don’t proof read what I post so I apologize if my thoughts were too scattered.

    Reply
    1. admin

      I agree, weather is a good topic for a website. I use government weather data on my site at rainornot.com.

      Reply
  3. t

    I like it looks nice, I wonder how difficult would it be to have a graphical display of the results for users. Thinking about my SuburbanWeather.com

    Reply

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