Violation of Youtube POS, wouldn’t you say?

TOS

I will post a longer response to this later, but frankly I’m disgusted by this.

This post is a great example of bubble logic: “The echo chamber tells you what to copy.”

I think it would have been better to have published this anonymously, and certainly without the links to Dan’s business.

Misleading titles, creating fake user accounts and talking to themselves, deleting comments they don’t like, paying bloggers to post videos … what a great company that would be to work for, I can’t imagine why anyone (knowingly) would use them, with all of the “fake” views the videos get because of them.

Michael,

Really appreciate your honesty here. There are few who would comment so openly about their own blog.

But it raises a KEY question. It seems this article went into “press” without you knowing about it? That’s bizarre!

Or in other words, seems like there is no editorial process at TechCrunch. If that is the case, should we (the readers) trust the authenticity of the facts listed in TechCrunch blog?

Thanks,
Mike

Wow that was a very enlightening and insightful article, thank you for writing that!!

lol, the founder and editor of a very popular blog doesn’t even know whos writing what.

Fantastic article

Michael you got it exactly right. I have a small startup company that would benefit from a viral video but I would never work with a company that lacks integrity.

So basically it’s all about using various forms of spam? Classy.

What next, an article on how to make money from stock market scams and flogging dodgy pills?

The first two links give me 404s anyhow, so I suppose it’s sort of similar to not having them there :-)

Oh well, I for one am happy that was published, as it was a very interesting read!

My god, the interweb is so contrived. You have really opened my eyes.

I will never view online videos the same way again. I heard this guy was the creative force behind Star wars kid as well on a covert mission to a Montreal high school a few years back. As a matter of fact I have seen his image in random pictures through time where something spontaneously went viral. Wait, isn’t he actually “the doctor”?

I can’t say that it wasn’t an interesting read, but still it’s still bait and switch and other low ball techniques used to make the stuff popular.

“I will post a longer response to this later, but frankly I’m disgusted by this.”

You guys and Scoble do this constantly for Valley startups. Pellleeaasseee.

Wow! It was one hell of an interesting post! Thanx!
I just can’t figure out why he would post something like this…:S

Quick response:

What we do is grease the viral wheels. If that means commenting back and forth between fake users, who cares? It’s all about entertainment – we’re just making the whole experience entertaining, not just the video itself.

Dan

Wow that comment is worse then the post.

And how does commenting back and forth between (fake) users, regardless of the video’s content, help make the experience entertaining?

Dan you are an idiot.

I didn’t know Stanford had a “Spamming 101″ class :)

From LinkedIn:

Notable clients include: 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros Records, Fox Atomic, Walden Media, Yari Film Group, Nike, Oakley, …

:)

Wish we had had these tips during our video promotion last year.

Sounds like an intra-office viral campaign :)

I am also disgusted by this.

I am also surprised it went up without further review, but then I don’t know much about the editorial flow at TechCrunch. However that does not imply that there isn’t one.

I’ve seen semi-shilly posts on TechCrunch before and they’re usually up front about it, fully disclosing any personal interests. They’re also usually still interesting. This was interesting too, which I’d argue is a reason to publish it here.

Interesting and disgusting. Carry on!

Of course, Dan. Who would care about a little fraud in pursuit of a buck? I mean, as long as it moves the goods, there’s nothing wrong with fooling the populace.

Idiot. The reason your trickery is necessary that your venal predecessors in advertising have burned their credibility in other media already. And now here you are, a leech on a new medium, feeding off the trust that other people have built up. Pathetic.

I can’t help but note you don’t provide a single verifiable fact about your business above. The simple assumption is that you lie to your clients just as glibly as you lie to the general public. If fake videos and fake comments, why not fake views, fake click-throughs, and fake campaign success? I’m sure it pays just as well.

>>If that means commenting back and forth between fake users, who cares?

I care. Anyone who manages an online community cares. You’re bringing a commercial interest into a shared space under false pretenses. How is that not spam?

How do we know that “Dan” isn’t just creating all this controversy with his own “posting back and forth” technique?

weird.

very insightful and I can’t wait to try some of the strategies. How can you compete when everyone else, and I mean everyone else, is doing this?

Dan, between SUPost and this you seem to have a great eye for picking startups that really have their morals in the right place….

Can’t wait to hear Arrington’s reply. Should be interesting.

Hmmmm…I wonder if they’re posting things in the comment section here to try to be controversial and engage more users…

People are always going to find a way around/manipulate things to their own advantage. Ethics aside, I thought it was well done and I imagine many videos producers will use these tricks now

unethical,
wrong,
dishonorable,
immoral,
debauched,
degenerate,
degraded,
dissipated,
dissolute,
libertine,
profligate,
riotous,
disgraceful,
scandalous,
shameful,
shocking,
scrofulous.

One word: Ingenious

Wish I had thought of this before, great post Dan, thanks for sharing

Duck Bill – seems to me like Mike is actually the one inspiring the controversy here….

Definitely an interesting article but Dan, are you happy having built your business model on this kind of operations, being confronted with cheating and faking day by day? Doesn’t sound like a fullfilling job to me, regardless of how much money you could make with this.

Well, I think you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who wouldn’t agree with me in saying it’s you who stirred up the controversy on this one. You wrote it.

again, i still do not understand what triggers Dan to post an article like this. What is he looking for? looking for humiliation? or he is tired of his life, he just want to ruin it?

is this the quality of those so called “stanford” elite?

Beyond commenting back and forth to make the comment thread more interesting on each video, what exactly do you guys find so morally wrong here?

Dan

and for MA, how the hell can this happen? having some post going out but you have no idea of? or you are playing the viral with Dan?

I can’t believe the responses to this so far. Do you really think companies limit themselves morally when it comes to marketing a product? If they can pay someone like Dan to guarantee the success of their campaign, why wouldn’t they?

Really interesting article, thanks for writing it. I agree with Michael about the plugs to his company though, just a little trashy.

this is another unprofessional post on TC next to the other “life blogging” dude who yelled at the theater.. dun even wanna mention his name.

Hmm, let’s see… Paying bloggers to post the videos, misleading titles, deleting (more than likely honest) comments who’s views you don’t agree with, spamming the video on forums and other sites… Just to start with.

I don’t know if I can read the comments properly for all the high horses that seem to be cluttered around.

Dan, I found the article really informative and I’m sure you’re going to continue to get a lot of business from the big players in the future. You run a marketing firm – this is how you market in 2007. You’re not running a church or a kindergarten or a charity – you’re running a marketing operation. Everyone needs to take off the rose colored glasses.

What is the logic behind publishing this? To attract more chancers? If I was a client I wouldn’t be happy (particularly when some details – like the movie bit – Clovertown – seem identifiable), if I was a competitor then you’ve told me your secrets and if I was YouTube I’d look for ways to deflate some of these tricks. All in all a clever, sad little “profession”.

I wonder how many of these comments are employees from his office “creating controversy”, haha.

so basically this guy is a spammer!

“Michael you got it exactly right. I have a small startup company that would benefit from a viral video but I would never work with a company that lacks integrity.”

i think you’re missing the point. this post has less to do with comotion group and more to do with the problems of youtube. let’s be real here, dan’s company probably isn’t the only one doing this, but IT IS the only one admitting to doing so. sure, knowing how youtube gaming works may taint your experience of viewing a viral video… but who cares? it’s a stupid little video that may grab 2 minutes of your attention, but probably not.

youtube gaming has existed for years. other forms of “viral marketing” that closely resembles spam has existed for years (look at myspace and how they got big). the internet is going to be gamed: let go of your idealism.

Please, please don’t pay MA to remove our comments.

Some moral standards != rose colored glasses.

I’m sure this “method” works, and that it will give the videos an enormous boost in views and engagement. But when the companies involved in this kind of “marketing” are discovered it will backfire in their faces. Big time.

The one thing we have learned from the internet is that integrity is the most valuable thing for customers nowadays. Good luck, while it lasts…

Dan, if you dig any deeper into that hole you’ve created for yourself, you’ll soon reach the other side of the Earth.

The worst part (thinking of you personally) might be you’ve admitted to spamming your own friends, and you think it’s a good thing.

Did not know there was such a thing as black hat video spamming.

Dan, we tend to trust the sites we use to prevent people like you from monetizing our attention. That’s what’s morally wrong here. You game the system for your own benefit and don’t give anything back.

It’s sad the wild west days are gone, but this should have been expected. It’s just marketing.

DIGG IT:

http://digg.com/tech_news/The_Secret_Strategies_Behind_Many_Viral_Videos

I love the controversy in the comments – there’s nothing like a heated argument to keep me coming back for more!

Hang on…

OK people, you do realize that Dan’s not killing kittens or anything, he’s just promoting 30 second videos?

Sheez…

Looking at the number of Diggs, this post did ring a bell.

Although I do not endorse acts like this, I do feel that we should give Dan credit for being honest, and sharing his know-how.

They (Dan’s biz) are not the first and definitely not the last to pose as users in forums etc. to generate interest in their stuffs.

I’ve read about something similar from big entertainment companies who hire dudes to get all excited about their products in public forums. This is just something that we have to live with.

The savvy user will have to take a stand as to whether he/she will use this knowledge for “good” or “evil”.

Bottom line: take everything with a grain of salt.

By using spam and bait and switch tactics. I suppose if you like spam, or clicking links that aren’t really what they say, that wouldn’t bother you too much…

Perfect post for controversy.

This is just WRONG, and we wonder why some startups are buired and others thrive. The trickery of the system.

I know Micheal is pissed at this, but its only when these kinds of business are exposed that we all benefit?

Spam is what is decreasing the relevancy of Youtube. Spam on the thumbnail (misleading pic), spam keywords, spam comments, etc. Is spam the new viral?

What’s next? TC posts a post about how autogenerated spam sites provide a tons of ‘viral’ customers or that spam email generates ‘viral’ leads?

It is possible that this post is actually part of some viral marketing.
But it’s truly disgusting, particularly because this post promotes spam.

The name of his company is “The Comotion Group” – what do you expect?

http://www.myemergencycardkit.com

send him a card to tell him how disgusted you are!

As someone who works in advertising, I find this absolutely fascinating. I think what Dan has done is very clever and it’s rather funny that people are so upset by it.

i know a lot of people would like to keep their youtube experience pure – heaven forbid their viewing of cat videos and snl skits be tainted by marketing, but don’t get angry just because someone figured out how to make money in a creative way.

Are you all so naive to assume that popular things in everyday life would be just as popular without marketing and in a bigger sense, the desire to make money, behind them? Come on, wake up.

(Or is someone creating a fake controversy here in order to push the popularity of this post? LOL)

Guys,

Everything in this article is obvious. I don’t see how any of this is news.

Hi Dan,
Didn’t you just shoot yourself in the foot here? If it’s all about marketing, won’t your clients have second thoughts about contracting with a guy who will do dirty tricks for them, sure… but then out them just like you did?

They (Dan + Arrington ) are playing you all like fiddle. I can’t believe how gullible people are.

Why do you think for a second that this whole blog post has not been formulated (orchestrated really) from the start to create a controversy. What does Dan and his company do for a living?

“A great way to maximize the number of people who watch our videos is to create some sort of controversy in the comments section below the video.”

Replace “video” with “blog” above.

I image this is how it all started…

Dan just ‘happens’ to bump into Mike somewhere. Maybe the Orange party? huh, do you think? Dan is (obviously) good at getting peoples attention. He leads Mike down the path. Then the close…

[DAN] hey, I just had a great idea. How about we do something with a post on your site.

[MIKE] brilliant. I’ll make sure to post a comment near the top that stirs the pot a bit. Then I’ll do something to keep people checking back to see what I have to say.

Ya. That’s pretty much how this all went down.

We’ll see how long this comment lasts. To quote Dan…

“Also, we aren’t afraid to delete comments – if someone is saying our video (or your startup) sucks, we just delete their comment. We can’t let one user’s negativity taint everyone else’s opinions.”

So I hear what you guys are saying, and it sounds like….. “Wah! Take me back to my ignorant bliss, before I knew about those mean, nasty marketers!” :)

Dan, am trying to get into Stanford, can you give me some tips on that? I don’t really mind if they’re unethical, all that matters is getting in!

Yeah, Digg is loving this controversy too

http://digg.com/tech_news/The_Secret_Strategies_Behind_Many_Viral_Videos

Its good to know how people are using Utube, and lets face it, most of the stuf we watch on it is trash. Now its just greasy trash.

This reminds me of an episode of The Osbournes, when ozzy said
“ur all mad!”
I had seen this clip hundreds of times (and was aware of the fact that the show was very heavily edited). But one time I was watching it, and at the end of the scene the camera swung around and there was about 25 people in the room. All holding camera gear and clip boards. The director then yelled “cut!” and you could see on the clapper board that it was take 15 (or something).

It changed realty TV for me, I felt I had been fooled the whole time. I could now never trust it again. And I didnt even rate it that highly!

The main thing this has given me is a lack of credibility in Techcrunch….shame

[...] Viral Marketing – YouTube – So you want people to interact with your website – read this. You just have to abandon any morals but hey, you’ll be a [...]

Mark, what this post should tell you is that sometimes even Idiots get into good schools, especially slick idiots.

How low morally would you go to get “viral”?

:Spamming the keywords

::Even a namsy-pansy can spam the keywords. Go lower.

:Spamming the thumbnail.

::Lower.

:Spamming own comments.

::Now you’re spamming!

Ethics negotiator!

Good application of the methods mentioned in the article going on in the comments section. I imagine this post will get a lot of people talking, lots of backlinks etc. so for all the commenters moralizing they’re only feeding into the process of getting this guy more business (if they exist atall =) ). It’s true what they say, no such things as bad publicity.

Peter, send me an email at dan at thecomotiongroup dot com

Ouch, where is the social responsibility in all of this?

spot on #72. :)

>> Are you all so naive to assume that popular things in everyday life would be just as popular without marketing and in a bigger sense, the desire to make money, behind them? Come on, wake up.

And what crucial role did Marketing play in making YouTube as popular as it is? I guess I am too naive to understand that it was Marketers who took it from zero to where it is now. I am also naive as to how pushing your clients videos up the ladder is good for YouTube? Sure, there’s a lot of crap on there. It’s no defense to point that out and then claim all you’re doing is putting a Budweiser logo onto the crap. Speaking of crap… Holy crap. What crap!

And to the gent who works in advertising, of course you think this is fascinating. You probably slapped your forehead and cried “genius!” when you got your first spam email, too. “Making money in a clever way?” Sure… who could possibly have a problem with that? Ponzi was a clever man too. With a few years’ perspective, I’m sure even you agree that spam email is the scourge of the most helpful and effective communications medium to come along in an age, truly a wad of chewing gum on the sole of our collective shoe. At least advertisers pay to muddy up television shows and roadsides with their messages. Funding great content with straightforward ads is one thing. Spamming the Internet commons with disguised advertising and phony responses is a totally different story.

I really hope this is an inside joke. If these guys are having a wank, fine. Ha ha. I don’t much see the point in posting an exercise in trolling. See, friction is engaging! Zoing!! We knew that. But then I don’t much see the point in exerting editorial influence post-publication, in comments, either. I am having a very very naive day apparently.

But I can’t stop commenting. And I have a sudden urge to buy Nike products.

I’m shocked at how many people are upset about this post. This type of thing goes on everywhere. I find the fact that MA did not appear to know what was going to be posted on his own blog most interesting.

This sort of thing has been going on offline for years. Intelligent looking people being paid to read newly released books on the tube, beautiful people being paid to drink new drinks in trend setting bars etc etc.

Im not justifying what is going on, but come on people! You believe everything you read online? I wouldnt know…Im a dog!

Greenberg said he liked contrived controversies in the comments. Arrington, definitely stepping out of role, started one.

Thus demonstrating precisely what Greenberg meant.

this is all just too funny – why are people so up in arms? he just gave you his secrets, and i’m sure there are plenty of people who are going to start using his strategies

i don’t understand why he revealed all this, though

Think this is bad, wait until you see what people have in store for marketing campaigns on Social Networking sites.

Not suprised at all and people here need thicker skin. I appreciate the honesty.

I didn’t realize TechCruch accept a post by a quest writer. Can someone tell me when this started?

Effectiveness is not always pretty.

What has this world come to?

Like ads on TV that are prone to viewership.

All the data in the world that defines how many people BUY FROM ADS is completely false.

100 million TVs in the USA and 13,000 (yes thousand) are the ratings demographic, this info os available at nielsens.

You can have 500 million views and stil not brand and/or sell anything.

Welcome to the advertising industry where the only thing bigger that ad budgets are the egos.

This tripe is targeted at people with company money tying to reach demographic and they usually miss regardless of how many views on YT.

Big compaines with big ad budgets waste money with compaines that sell numbers, without any real proof of viewership.

It’s not about views, it’s about sales, nothing else matters.

TechCrunch’s Editorial Slip…

Today visiting TechCrunch I found a rather curious article titled “The Secret Strategies Behind Many ‘Viral’ Videos.” The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that it was a guest article, and these are quite rare on the po…

The most popular products of the last 100 years or so were not built on lies, fantasies or cheap games.

They were built on genuine products that didn’t really have to be forced on the general public or done up in ribbons and bows to look good enough to try.

The tactics you are trying are dirty and are not real marketing.

Anyone can go far by lying. Tell the truth and see your growth slowly.

Wow. and you are PROUD of this?

Wow.

There are no words for this kind of post.

It’s time to have along conversation with yourself about what you really are doing online and why you are really doing it.

I agree with you Andrew Pass (comment n. 84).

I’m surprised that Arrington put this up and now pretends he didn’t know about it.

That’s pure entertainment.

Thank you TechCrunch for making me laugh today!

IMHO Mike Arrington is behind all of this and he should just come clean.

He keeps guys like Mark and Duncan around, who write and infuriate readers all of the time which drives traffic and inflates his largess.

If he was at all concerned about what was written on his site, he would have addressed it already instead of continuing to support these two and allow posts like this one – on his site (claiming to have not known about it).

Eventually it will come back to bite him in the ass, although he has such a head start that he’s bound to increase his fortunes prior to the latest boom dying off, and people finally growing tired of his (and these) antics.

I will thank you though for the information provided in the post – but will add I’m not fooled at all by your efforts Mike.

@Michael: You little rapscallion! This chicanery is working like a charm!

Loved the article – although was surprised to see it so bare bones too. There are other companies out there doing it too (I know coz I’ve done it) – although for a while there have been strict guidelines over “blogging” in the EU, meaning it’s becomeing increasingly difficult to implement all the tactics mentioned.

Excellent article, while I knew most of the ideas already, it was great to read them all in one place

This gives back the true meaning to the word “viral”: disease like.

I think that all of the comments on this post are actually the author himself using the back and forth technique :).

@Roger, 98 – you’re right, there are plenty of other co’s out there that do the exact same thing, but no one else has outed themselves like dan has here. i think he has some cool tips/tricks that we can all use

How have you people created and codified a system of ethics for a site that allows you to watch cats yawning and exploding bottles of Diet Coke?

Wouldn’t it be worse if he were blatantly paying for placement on YouTube? How is this any different than SEO, the links to their own websites everyone has on their comments, etc?

“What we do is grease the viral wheels. If that means commenting back and forth between fake users,”

Every single comment here without a link back to a blog or site should be in suspicion.

Thank God there is little environmental side effects from this junk being spread around.

Sheeple, take your heads out of your asses if you didn’t realize this kind of thing was going on.

Dan just stepped up to the plate and spoke the truth as to what’s going on out there.

See this page for more on YouTube view fraud:

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/YouTube_View_Fraud

Well done, Dan.

Wooooo! This is great. What a post to keep traffic up over Thanksgiving!

Um hmm

Dan, if you have a company built on these techniques, why post them here?

With little tweaking, it reads like a manual to poach your customers.

How to spam your video…

What other can I say…

ethical or not, interesting article… this requires a follow-up, “how to get your blog post noticed”

Seriously, this is what I would call a perfect blog post! Informative, controversial, catching title, etc… It is extremely rare that I read an entire blog post word-to-word! :)

Amazing….

This is surprsing to whom? The internet is not this global democratic place…it’s like any other place. The strong benefit and survive…the weak get weeded out.

Dan has done a good service by bringing to light that which many of us believed/assumed….we owe him a debt of gratitude.

It also calls into question everything on the Net. Do not, ever, believe everything you read…whether in print or online.

If you choose to, it’s your own fault.

Kudos to Dan! Hope he makes a ton of money at the expense of these sanctimonious suckers!

[...] – The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos Secret #1: Not all viral videos are what they [...]

Some of you folks need to grow up. Do you really think this is something new?

Let me give a hint to you boys with the 14-year-old hormones driving your behavior: If a YouTube video is titled “Yoga for Dudes” — it’s a plant. It’s getting a lot of “fertilizer” to make it grow virally. Somebody is paying for that “fertilizer.”

Great post Dan! I’m sure it will bring you both flame and fame. But hey, it works.

TWITTER ACQUISITION!

Hi Guys,

Connecty acquired the British Twitter – Nowfire.

I always wondered, how the folks who engineer these campaigns actually do it. Some of this is obvious, and Im sure not all of the trade tricks have been disclosed.

Since your post indicates that it is ok to send viral information, here’s something viral for you: http://recalledtoys.mobi Sure, it looks weird on your computer, but that’s because you’re supposed to look at it on your phone to make sure you don’t buy any toys with lead paint on them.

You wouldn’t mind helping this go viral now, would you?

Simply amazing

The irony of all of this is so, so delicious.

More noise to an already noisy environment.

…

spamola

YawpCo.com just posted a critique of the post – all in all the post wasn’t bad – but blame techcrunch for allowing it to come off as such an advertisement from the onset of the article.

I agree with comedy, it’s bizzare he would give away his know how so easily.

To this, I don’t see any point.

Unless the stake is… higher.

But what?

“We get a few people in our office to log in throughout the day and post heated comments back and forth (you can definitely have a lot of fun with this). Everyone loves a good, heated discussion in the comments section – especially if the comments are related to a brand/startup.

Also, we aren’t afraid to delete comments – if someone is saying our video (or your startup) sucks, we just delete their comment. We can’t let one user’s negativity taint everyone else’s opinions. ”

-Dan

“I will post a longer response to this later, but frankly I’m disgusted by this.”

-Mike

Doppelganger anyone?

Here’s some examples of how businesses are using video on the internet to market their products and attract new customers
http://www.tvwebpro.com

Great post! All the people who think this guy’s strategies are just one-offs used in some nefarious way only by him.. it’s happening everywhere. Fake forum posts, fake blogs, fake people, even, are used to promote all sorts of things from viral videos to blogs, movies, and even professional Web sites. Even though some of these techniques are ethically shady, it’s great someone’s actually talking about them so that you can see just how dirty a lot of people are fighting.

Dan, not yet out of school and you can’t think your way past this low level crap. ‘Future serial entrepreneur’, you make me laugh. Forget your concept of success before you even know how the world works. Go do some stuff that you love, spend a few years, then come back and add something new.

There’s nothing “fake” about the views that Comotion Group’s clients are receiving. Dan’s strategies don’t seem to rely on miselading prospective viewers into clicking through — only, perhaps, on tricking YouTube itself into presenting them with the opportunity to do so. And when YouTube’s measure of how many views a video deserves is something as dubious as the number of views it’s already received, he’s not doing anyone a disservice by circumventing it. There’s no reason that a viewer should be less engaged by a video marketed in this way than by any other “top viewed” or arbitrarily “featured” video they stumble across.

Fox and Warner are big boys and know how to measure the ROI of brand advertising. And if they are indeed concerned about methods, Dan can hardly have been more transparent about his. If Comotion’s model succeeds, it won’t be through some sort of swindle.

I think this artical looks like sapm

Who is Michael Arrington anyway?

Is he made up? Is that guy some actor that is used by the real brains behind all this?

Three comments:

1. Finally, we know there is no editorial process in TechCrunch. This explains Duncan.

2. This is so morally wrong, and the fact the internet makes morally wrong actions escapable (you don’t get sued/caught) fosters such actions and encourages even more despicable acts.

3. It’s weird/interesting/ironic/suspicious that there are so many comments so soon in response to a post about fake commenting…

jesus christ

Terrible.

“virality”? It’s “virulence”, Dan! :-)

Controversy breads more controversy… although this article isn’t up there with the morals of an alter boy, you cannot hold marketers to the same benchmarks. Marketing is about creating buzz, which is what he has done three times, once for his company (through controversy) and another for techcrunch (posting this article) and a third is creating a viral posting itself that may get techcrunch and his company even more free press.

I see a marketing strategy at work here with this post, whether by accident or otherwise – but I will give the players the benefit of the doubt.

Jon

So its The COMMOTION group eh?!?

Got to look out for this company!

no time to get everyone’s boxers all bunched up.

youtube in the beginning was using some grey and black techniques to get popular.

myspace started out spamming

yelp has got fake posters

so easy with the holier than thou…

This makes me sick, spamming the site an pushing his services. Even his picture and his site url. I hope he paid tech crunch at least to do this and tech crunch did not pay him to write this article.

This reads like a sponsored post.

Agree with #72 and #96:

This is all about controversy, stirring the pot, getting people to visit the site and spend more time to read other comments and post one of their own.

Now, Michael and team take this new “Engagement” metric to the advertisers who seen an increasing trend and pay more.

Do you see a comparison in terms of controversy with a MAJOR TV NETWORK? Did someone say “Fox”? What’s that go to do with TechCrunch, you ask?

Well, read this:

http://gigaom.com/2007/03/17/techcrunch-hardee/

Mike A – what exactly happened here – did Dan have your wordpress username/password? Who vetted this article publishing it? Or did you agree to publish it verbatim? Some insight into the background would certainly be interesting to all.

#################### STOP, THINK ##################

This article is not worthy.

There should only be about 10 responses. They are using their own viral marketing techniques to boost the comment count of this thread.

#################### SOLUTION, IGNORE ##################

They are trolls by nature and they make a lot of money doing so. The only way to beat trolls is to completely ignore them, that is if you can’t add them to the iptables firewall, which is the preferable choice.

##################### OVERLY SMART QUIP ################

If I could make as much money as them trolling, I would be god damned richer than Bill Gates himself.

ATTENTION

He tricked you. He just said all this crap for attention. He said it in his post!!!!! “Start a controversy”, which he has done…and now this post has 100+ comments.

He has TRICKED us all.

He is still a douche and makes me ashamed I graduated from Stanford.

People, most stanford graduates are not like him. We innovate, design, engineer the future technologies. Not trick people.

I’m ashamed.

We could talk about ethics and morals all we want, but the truth is if you dont play the game you will lose. This is an amazing opening into a marketing company that we rarely get. I’m sure all your favorite companies have tried something sneaky before to beef up interest. Besides paying off bloggers, these are great free tricks that have obviously worked well.

Ha-Ha-Ha !

I think I know how it happened.
Act one. Don comes to MA and sais: Mike, do you want 144 comments to a post on your blog and ZZZ diggs? Here’s how we do it. Let me publishi it on your blog, I need a next game… better sooner than later. MA (having read an article): You’re kidding me! This can’t work…
Act two. Don: I bet $100 I can do it, but you have to come online for a sec and post a comment that you will comment on this later, ok?. MA: deal!

Good joke, guys.

P.S. Even retarded ‘entrepreneurs’ know AND USE these tricks for at least a decade, video just added a slight ‘twist’ to it.

P.P.S. I particulary adore the paragraph where Don is mentioning Dave McLure and facebook. :) Maybe that’s what this hype is all about after all? :) Just for pushing the ‘viral wave’ of a spam? Funny. Maybe it’s even true.

Excellent article, but some comments I read are very malevolent.
This is a free instructions everybody. A very good insight of what is happening in the video world.
If not for this guy, we won’t know this at all. But here he voluntarily shared a hundred thousand dollars technique. And know all of you try to bring him down spamming the word “SPAM” in this article? Hell, who are the spammer know? Beat it everybody, this is an invaluable insight. There’s no need to argue about its ingeniousness.

100,000 views isn’t even that much these days. Consider that perhaps that results in about 5000 people at most going to the site the video advertised. There’s better ways to spend advertising money than trying to game the Youtube top videos for a day.

Nice post. Nice fuzz and nice flaming comments. It has the dark mark written all over it, nicely played by Michael, no only setting the comments on fire, but getting a hell lot of diggs and driving an insane traffic to the website. No one has commented yet on the fact that the RSS post was incomplete so that feed readers would have to come to the webpage ;)

Awesome strategy Michael and Dan, congrats.

About the actual content, some things where cool, others where just typical. For all those that are getting so mad about this, most of what he describes is part of the SEO field. It’s done by a hell lot of people. You could count even bloggers using some of this tricks. Some of them are quite unethical but hey, the Internet is a harsh place, live with that. If you get mad then it’s because you haven’t realized you are being targeted all day long YET. Maybe this post will open many people’s eyes :)

Welcome to the Internet :D

stop commenting……..no more comments

amen brother

Before the tryptophan kicks in…wow. I’m not qualified to weigh in on the morality of what Dan Greenbergyou do, but it doesn’t stop me from thinking: “wow, THIS is what Stanford is producing these days?”

This is just slimy. There are many slimy aspects to marketing and capitalism in general and I’m not saying what you and your company do is the worst I’ve ever seen — it isn’t. But it’s still slimy. Although there is no doubt that slimy will sometimes produce effective results…it’s still slimy.

I’m glad Arrington/TechCrunch ran this. If nothing else it should set a few of the geniuses at Google on the path of figuring out how to stop this sort of slime.

Chris R., well put, the technique is indeed ‘trolling’ for bux.

Dan Ackerman Greenberg is an embarassment to Stanford. What a complete moron. How did Greenberg’s non-sense get posted on Techcrunch without some real review? Greenberg’s Pay Per Post like entry makes Techcrunch look bad.

Sam & Santa, unlike on YouTube, you can call them slimy and they can’t delete your comments ;)

Does anyone else have any problems with their comments being moderated on TC? I think that my “online outlaw” philosophy to the web has peeved a few people on the web…

Wow this guys sounds like an asshole, but at the end of the day if he delivers then … well we can’t shit on him for that.

Frankly I didn’t know the system could be manipulated like that and there are people out there openly doing it. Jesus whatever happened to just getting an email or IM from a friend saying “yo, you have to see this!”

This is hands down one of the worst blog posts on TC this year.

Slow day on the web. Perfect day for a little blogosphere controversy whipped up by TC. Bravo. It makes for some great post-turkey debate.

The tactics are low down. The strategies are deceiving. The end result is effective. Maybe it’s distasteful to some but it works, it’s legal and there is no harm being done to anyone.

I understand some folks’ outrage because it does undermine the ‘sincerity” of the social web and makes clear that “viral” doesn’t always mean “viral.” But, come on. Did everyone, especially semi-savvy TC readers, really think that the system wasn’t/isn’t gamed.

What do you mean lonelygirl15 isn’t real?

What the fuck is wrong with TechCrunch? GET AN EDITORIAL PROCESS IN PLACE TO STOP IDIOTS LIKE THIS POSTING HERE. JESUS.

So obvious this was a pay-per-post article type setup. Why else would you publish this bullshit when there are SO MANY companies worthy of being on TC.

These strategies are nothing new and are not surprising to me. Michael and Dan planned this article right from the beginning and it’s working. Comments, Digg, link bait, etc. Forget the Majors paying Dan to cheat, the top regulars on YouTube have been doing this for awhile. Actually, human beings have been do this since Adam bit the apple offered from Eve. Hypocrisy!

So let me guess…. Techcrunch actually advertise that spammer’s business or what? The spammer said something about paying some blogs to post the videos, isn’t it? I’m wondering how much the spammer paid Techcrunch for this article… The story is on digg’s front page so probably the spammers will get some new clients out of this…

These tips are why real quality content creators remain undiscovered. The “Most Viewed Page” does not make it a success. It is the ability to get across a message that STAYS with the viewer.

The techniques described here are definitely taking advantage of the trusting nature of the people watching. It’s appalling that it has shown up on this highly respected blog.

This is complete crap. I mean… I understand that this happens all over the Internet everyday, but we don’t need to hear about on such a blog. This is nothing more than a publicity stunt for buddy’s company. It is in poor taste and I do not appreciate it. I expect more from TechCrunch…

Cheers,
Aidan Henry
http://www.MappingTheWeb.com

A glimpse into a piece of the puzzle of the second Web bubble that’s forming? Bubble 2.0– beware!

Very interesting perspective. I’m not all that certain that the author is credible since their’s no proof given, but it’s an interesting perspective to say the least.

My first reaction was “you guys are bastards”. The idea of paying to make something popular doesn’t sit well with me, especially with strategies like “holding conversations with yourself”. Then I read the article and realized that controversy create popularity. So if your plan was to make this article popular by invoking reactions like mine, you certainly succeeded, considering this is now on the front page of Digg. Good work

This is certainly interesting. . .

I wouldn’t use this method myself, but I think I can take something beneficial out of it.

As far as them deleting comments posted under their videos – more power to them; I assume that’s their right.

Sad that Arrington still hasn’t posted. I wonder what their rates are, because you can do this on the cheap with services like http://www.subvertandprofit.com (which has paid me nicely as a user). Is any of this really news to anyone?

I’d like to see the statistics that indicate what having a video “go viral” does for your product at the end of the day. I still believe content is king and just because your video was seen 100,000 or 1.5 million times doesn’t really mean a whole lot if your product is crap. Where is the barometer of conversion success?

People on the web are starting to wise up to these marketing gimmicks and they are loosing their novelty (does anyone still remember the viral marketing for the Dark Knight movie? And that movie isn’t even out yet!).

Just goes to show how some small hyped success from a facebook class can get to a young boys head. Its not like he even created the class. He was an assigned TA! Lol.

Regardless, you have no clue how online video works except clicking on YouTube. Your number 8 post is compeletly wrong! If that was true, I guess NextNewNetworks, OnNetworks, Revision3, etc. are all insane then.

Please step aside and let the adults write on here. Michael, your hard work should not culminate to this. Please return order!

Lol @ #3

While I generally think this kind of ratings gaming is annoying and detrimental to the internet as a whole, it’s VERY common. (I used to get paid to do things like this for people, but on MySpace.) Because there is such a stigma attached to it, it’s very hard to find a reputable company or freelancer to do it for you, and it’s nearly impossible to find one that will (can?) give you the names of past clients.

This used to be RAMPANT on MySpace, with huge seedy networks of people who would trade tips on which bots were the best for adding friends and how to virally market there. Most of the bot makers were just gigantic affiliate scams. MySpace started a fairly serious crackdown on people gaming their system that way, starting with limits and captchas for actions taken on the site and finishing with some lawsuits, at which point most of those companies just dropped totally off the radar, taking their clients’ money with them.

I can only imagine it’s not long before YouTube does the same thing and guys like this go out of business. Still, this is a service that is useful to startups, and the fact that this guy is willing to stick his neck out and put his name on the line when so many lurk in dark corners really earns him some respect from me.

I’ll just jump in here to give you all a better sense of how this post came about. I met up with Dan and he was telling me about his business, which I find very interesting regardless of its ethicality. It occurred to me that a “tell-all” of sorts would be informative and eye-opening to our readers, so I asked him if he wanted to write a guest post. Despite how Mike’s comments may have sounded, Dan’s contribution did go through an editorial process before we published. It wasn’t meant to promote his business nor condone his actions but merely to shine some light on this surreptitious form of marketing.

Oops, meant number 7!

What disgusts me is few people making fraud profiles, lying to users on youtube and paying blogs to post their videos call it a company. Gosh, anything that a person does, they call it a company.
I am disgusted by it and I hope michael comes up with strong worded article about it like he came for payperpost

Someone fire Mark

Hey Arrington, where is your “longer response”? It sounds like you got paid off to post this on TC so Dan can get new clients.

In return, I’ll bet Dan agreed to give you an inside track to information on new FB apps that his classes are creating.. eh Mike? Sounds about your speed.

@174 it happens. The blogosphere / web2.0 is not seeing anything that hasn’t been around on webforums for the past ten years. The difference is that webforums do a good job of moderating trolls, fake accounts, and etcetera.

Where is your response to this??

How many of these comments are actually fake profiles designed to increase traffic to Techcrunch?

For that matter, how many of the writers of Techcrunch are real people or shills designed to make it look like they have a staff?

How many of these strategies were used to get Techcrunch to become one of the top viral blogs?

Perhaps the rumour of Techcrunch and Payperpost merging are true!

Wow. I can’t believe how pissed everyone is about this. You can’t honestly believe that most of these tips aren’t common practice when promoting vids, can you?
Nice post, I thought.

Wow – what a schmuck.

Wow, this sucks.

We’re all whores at times….

http://www.pimpvisual.com

Oh, and great post. Always love reading about marketing/promotional tactics no matter where one stands on it. Cheers.

Very good article. I’m just amazed that Dan is revealing his own insight and work secrets.. I like u man. I don’t know why some people are upset, this is regular everyday business for every ad agency/web marketing company out there in case no one realizes.

I have often wondered what I could do to get more views for my videos. Now that I know. I think I will stick with the few hundred views I get. I will have to depend on any readers to go to my site and click on a few.

Regardless of the conspiracy theory all of you are spewing, its a good post. Some of you should probably use his services.

The comotion group is at work. Thank you all very much for reading.

This post makes me sad. Yes, this kind of thing goes on all the time… unfortunately. It’s the kind of thing that gives the PR and marketing profession a bad reputation.

The fact that it happens isn’t a reason to keep doing it. There are plenty of bad precedents out there – it doesn’t mean people should continue them.

Exactly what ‘results’ do these tactics achieve? Sure, plenty of people view a video, but to what end? How many click through to the companies’ sites? How many actually make a purchase or take a specific action at the end of it, compared to the number that just feel spammed?

Ackman said it himself – he can’t name his clients (although his LinkedIn profile already did) or the campaigns. What kind of company is he running that he can’t name his success stories out of fear?

I’m disgusted.

My bad…. “Greenberg” not “Ackman” (or Ackerman)

does anyone actually fall for thumbnails of big tits and titles like “bla bla gets naked” anymore anyway? I havent used the “most viewed” page on YT for ages cause its all gamed videos.

Weird that a company that uses “secret” ways to make videos go viral just comes out and tells everyone huh? Either something is fishy here or its like the serial killer that needs to get caught so they can be famous

It seems video has now killed both the radio and video star :)

Way to go dude !!!

let’s the bastard moans….

good job, keep it up.

(but please next don’t put that on techcrunch…. i mean we would lost our jobs/contracts if people knew it was so simple)

STOP COMMENTING

For the love of God, stop commenting

I gotta give it to you. Nice job with UFO Haiti.

dang, now how will I be able to trust blogs again?

how do I know if this post is not sponsored? which of these comments are genuine? are there really so many losers reading techcrunch instead of spending time with family on thankgiving? what if I’m actually michael arrington posting as ‘maya’… who am i?

*takes tylenol*

Because before this sort of thing began, the Youtube comments board was such a haven for informed back-and-forth. Shit, it was like the Algonquin up in that bitch.

I guess this would be similar to a post about how to make it big with spam email or splogs.

Even when trying to take this seriously, however, the points still fall short of any useful information. I dont think content is king, per se, but “viral” videos ARE dependent on the high value of their content. 100k or 1.5Million views is not classified as viral when paid for, forced and mostly gained by deception.

what do you mean the Internet’s not real?

This is done all the time on the Web. How do you think Web companies go from 0 to 1,000,000 visits in one month?

How are you supposed to prove ROI to your advertisers when the impressions are false?

Apparently this “viral” video thingy, whatever it is, is not making Mr Greenberg enough money. He wants fame, which will bring him more money down the road. At least that’s probably what he hopes for.

This is exactly the type of most that I’d like to read more of, to be honest. And since when did TOS become equated with morality?

This is the type of guy you want to hire if you need things done on YouTube, obviously. Unless someone finds out about how it was done and the WSJ publishes a big piece on it…but wait…that’s just more press. So well done, Dan!

I’d be quite curious to know how he’s faring on fb, though –> they are quick to disable accounts!

Some of these comments are just silly.

1) regardless of your stance, I agree with Mark from TC that this is at least VERY interesting to know…I mean, would you rather NOT know how the system is being gamed?
2) if coolio is as good at being viral as he says he is, he will most likely get more business than he can handle just from other people looking at who posted all those other viral videos and asking for help. For example, a really good friend of mine had a video get 2 million views (the good old fashioned way). Since then, companies have been coming out of the woodwork asking her to do a “viral” video for them.
3) get off Mike’s ass already. it’s thanksgiving and he’s probably eating with his folks. one of his writers probably said, “hey, I have this great post from this guy who makes YouTube vids go viral”, and Mike probably said, “sure, but make sure (insert name here) reads it. the rest is history. No need to question whether or not TC has no editorial process.
4) who said the Internet is not real? Is too.

Stypid, bad movies have no plan.

I love you guys…you guys totally had me as well, until I hit comment #72…and I still kept reading all the comments

AND I am typing this comment

AND I will forward this article to my marketing friends

AND I will probably come back tomorrow to see who else made comments

If I hire Dan you guys win the holy pentagram of the digirati ;-)

Absolute genius. And i thought all the suckers were only at YouTube making comments. No offense.

I wonder how many of these comments are made by fake names used by Dan’s company…

Also if their announced results are as good as their word and ethics, the effective results must be fairly poor.

Great idea for a startup tho. Let’s get paid to be arseholes!

… but you’re missing the fucking point: youtube’s day has passed! the target markets for these viral campaigns smell a phony, and there is no discussion of the correlation between ‘video views’ and actions taken (purchases, ticket sales, etc) – what’s ‘in’ consists of a slew of niche sites (shredordie, etc)…too little too late, it’s like some other firm figured out how to fuck over myspace users, youtube users, all of that shit when really they’re hanging on to late bloomers…sorry. this game is tired…

Very interesting post. Thanks you sharing.

Shitcock!

Given the moral vacuum characteristic of the business world circa 2007, it would seem that this guy is the ultimate success story in that he has (re)defined his own moral code that makes a “golden calf” of the almighty dollar. I’m sure this moral relativist has a full bank account and an empty heart. How is that for controversy? (PS Make the check payable to CASH, Dan.)

How dare you interfer with my attempt to kill boredom by entertaining me with something which turns out to be marketing. This is worse than going on a date with a girl who makes an effort to be attractive and interesting in order to manipulate me into liking her. Oh, the deception!

*munches on popcorn*…this is great.

….and broadband will never be broad enough, because the amounst of scam traffic will always fill the available space… humans, yuck

We are looking forward to Mike’s cooperation in allowing us to publish part 2 of this article. Once you have drawn the visitor to the viral video, the next step is getting the viewer to your website and exposing them to your product or service. That’s where we come in. We have found that by simply posting fake Case Studies, fake Product Specs / Product Success Rates / Fake ROI statistics, and Fake Client Testimonials, we can greatly improve your sales and ROI.

We realize that many of you may not agree with our methods, but we have a two part litmus test to decide if any of our services have crossed the line or not. The first part is: Does it work? The second part is: Are others doing it. We find this litmus test is conclusively allows us to engage in virtually any activities we can think up and thus, allows us to improve your bottom line!

We are offering TechCrunch our services ProBono and the first suggestion we have is to let a child rapist write a guest piece on TechCrunch about his thoughts on the upcoming Presidential race. This should create quite an uproar and thus, page views. Following that piece we are going to suggest a rather more vile piece that will involve Ted Murphy writing about his latest thoughts on the blogosphere…. even we are very wary of engaging in a campaign that involves somebody that has committed such heinous crimes against humanity as Ted Murphy, but again, we assure you, this does pass the Litmus Test, so it gets the nod.

Great post Dan!

All you player haters out there… wake up.
This is basic social dynamics applied to videos on youtube… which has become too big for all the good content to bubble up to the top.

In life we call this… “getting your foot in the door”… and we usually applaud people who go out of their way, even immorally, to do this. Except in this case.. the “door” is the Videos page… and your foot is… ok.. you get it.

Dan… rock on, my man.

I understand that this whole post is to create controversy and traffic, but wouldnt their company be worried about clients not wanting to be associated with such a company who OPENLY uses such practices?

The internet is fake, you can see the strings

I used to be a homeless rodeo clown but now I am a world class magician !

Viral Videos = The New Paid Post?…

Have we moved from paid blog posts to paid viral video posts? It sure seems that way with the post coming out of Techcrunch tonight. A bit shocking considering how much bashing has gone on with Payperpost. Let me start by saying that about 2 months ago…

Congratulations to Dan for proving that he obviously knows how to start buzz. He even got this past the Digg crowd, which is notorious for burying anything (at all) marketing related.

I think that as this spreads, some parts of this technique will lose their effectiveness, but hopefully Dan and his company realize that and are a few steps ahead by now.

How do we know Michael isn’t criticizing this article just to get more traffic to the page?

I too am a bit disturbed by what Dan has published. I too work for a viral advertising company, but we DO NOT use the same methods that Dan has mentioned above.

It’s a shame that many other viral advertising agencies are finding ways to spam consumers with commercials instead of creating content that users will naturally watch and pass on to their peers without the intervention of the company.

This is not how all viral agencies work. I know a other companies who do not moderate conversations and spam users on myspace or facebook. It’s companies like The Comotion Group that give viral advertising a bad name and create a negative following by viewers.

This is shocking? Sheesh, this is old news, use forums, blogs, digg, what have you to market your links. internet 101. are u actually impressed with this?

Does anyone else think this article will go viral because of fake comments flaming the original article? I have to wonder.

this is officially the worst techrunch post i have ever read. disgusted would be a huge understatement.

at least other blogs openly say that a post is written buy a “sponsor” who paid them… what happened here.

I’m usually a Pollyanna, but I don’t see what the big deal is here. Companies pay for the best (eye-level) shelf space in grocery stores. Why do you think you’re looking straight at Kellogg’s Cornflakes and the lesser known brands are on the bottom shelf?

This is nothing more than marketing. Everyone knows there are tricks to promoting yourself on the Internet. Why wouldn’t someone use them?

Next.

This is the best article I have read on TC in a long time! It is nice to read a post by somebody who is actually doing something (and doing it well) instead of the usual shallow, bias laden, postage stamp reviews that I’ve come to expect.

Mike, when you are finished being disgusted, please thank (instead of fire) the party responsible for publishing this on TC. Also, please consider publishing more guest editorials; it is nice to get a fresh perspective.

P.S
Censorship does not negate existence. Maybe your “morals” should be less of a factor in your reporting?

A fascinating article, but even more fascinating comments.

Disgustingly brilliant, congratulations Dan.

Faking a comment discussion without outbound linking is not spam. I think most of you are just upset that he is making great money from this and you are not.

“I will post a longer response to this later, but frankly I’m disgusted by this.”
–MA

You’re kidding right? As if you aren’t in the thick of this sort of obvious marketing. You’re using it. Making it. Spreading it. Not just TC, but most likely ALL your investments.

Hell, even a computer dweep such as myself can see through the canned-ness of all this “viral” dump.

Here’s an idea. Anyone want to start a viral campaign to plug my blog about the rampant dishonesty in marketing on the net, send this link to all their friends: http://www.fuckedsuit.com/?p=7 or this one: http://www.fuckedsuit.com/?p=28

Did I follow all the steps? Or was my plug too obvious?

:rolleyes:

Douchebaggery = money.

You should all know this by now.

Anyone think Ron Paul supporters are employing much if this methodology to run the message board at this address: http://www.mikehuckabeeforum.com

I guess we are back to the money makes you mad days of the bubble.

shamless

this is just a big advertisement for Dan, and others like BJ Fogg.

Matt Monohan is probably in the loop too, considering that ALL of his projects are always about “gaming”

Nice read. Waiting for the punch line…

So you want to keep the internet community experience pure? And Google paid $1.6 BILLION to preserve your community? Paying to place an ad (which is one of Dan’s techniques) in not spam nor is it immoral. If you all want to believe that marketers aren’t doing what Dan does and more you’re naive. My guess, Dan picks up a ton of business from this. Well done Dan. I’ll bet all the other marketers wish they were half as clever.

Great post, Would not recommend anyone do this as youtube WILL close your account. They are not google and they are not stupid!

Why would you want all your accounts closed?

Do things the right way and you will get viral…

Thanks for this insight Dan!

briliant and holy shit.

This guy is about to graudate from Stanford and all he learned is techniques porno scumbags have been using for a decade? Douche!

“techniques porno scumbags have been using for a decade”

Touche :) and very true. Those guys are at the cutting edge.

So, (1) the practice is so evil that reputable companies would be embarrassed to employ Greenberg, and (2) Greenberg shouldn’t have linked to his company in his post.

If (1) is true, isn’t (2) of no consequence?

Well, it’s time to expose another dirty little secret – YouTube itself exists to make money, and when people are attracted to these viral videos, YouTube makes out like gangbusters.

In the words of our next President, it’s a right wing conspiracy.

this guy is doomed. what he writes here will follow him the rest of his life, and I am not sure if someone wants to do business with someone who is so honest about his dishonesty.

guess he will be the next entrepreneur? with such an stupid act?

I come to TC less and less because I found that MA is constantly making bad choices with his site, and things are getting biased.

I am so disappointed.

[...] naturally, but rather that some company worked hard to make it happen – some company like mineread more | digg [...]

brilliant post. great content there.

Brilliant stuff! When i lunch my new start up, i will use the same technique’s, however, how to use them in a more up front this is us, sort of way? Will there be a conclusion to this post? I am learning allot, and hope that this keeps on going. Thank you all for your teachings.
Bruce,,,

As the COO of a fake company, I am very interested in these techniques. We look forward to working with douchebags like Dan in the future!

Great tips, this is a great way to help people propel a content-less cyber-world of derivative trash and manufactured popularity!

earwig, this great nation has a rooted history in manufacturing. And if at all, that is what we do best, i say keep it up, and do what we do best…

Simplicity to manipulate marketing through the Web channel will ultimately be its demise. It’s just too easy and people will eventually get fed up with all the gaming that can be done with content driven by “the crowd.”

And Mikey, like anyone believes you are beyond whatever it takes to get exposure! I guess you just don’t like more companies using the same techniques I am sure you are already using to get exposure.

Hey Dan,

I just sent you a FRIENDS REQUEST on MySpace from:

http://www.myspace.com/SophisticatednDetermined

From The CEO,

http://www.Drewryonline.net

I find this guest post to be very Pay Per Post like which is highly ironic considering how much Mike Arrington has castigated Pay Per Post in the past. The web 2.0 world makes for strange bedfellows. I can’t help but get the feeling this was some type of sponsored post in the guise of a guest posting. Arrington should be more careful. A lot of us read Techcrunch because we like the content Mike’s blog gives us access to but it only takes a few questionable moves like this one to change the perception/reputation Arrington has worked so hard to achieve at Techcrunch. This guest post will now have me wondering about future Techcrunch posts. I will be wondering if the post is genuine coverage of a company or some kind of sponsored post or favor to a business contact. I’m sorry Mike. Techcrunch took a credibility hit in my eyes today.

[...] your blog in the hands of Guest Writers, take a look at the storm created over on TechCrunch when one such post by Dan Ackerman Greenberg apparently made it onto the very popular (one of my regular daily reads) [...]

Going back to the big picture. I wonder what is the real value Dan is creating here?

Will we have companies in future who will do just things like this in advertising space…do we really need Stanford masters grads to do this?

How fake can business really get before the bubble bursts and everyone gets aligned to ground realities?

For whatever this is worth, there are over 250 posts on this topic, so it is a popular ploy, right or wrong, on a major holiday! Arrington knows the pulse of readers.

Dan is obviously referring to the Cloverfield movie, from JJ Abrams (creator of Lost and Alias) no less, in the article.

With it, Dan is taking a lot of credit for a non-brainer promotion, as the teasers for the Cloverfield were released alongside Transformers in theaters, so the shady tactics had less to do with Cloverfields success in YouTube than what the studio did otherwise.

Just something to think about.

People, take an effing pill. Dan is an entrepreneurial guy who is using available resources to help his clients. He is not doing anything lacking in integrity, merely doing business. All of media you digest every day is already “popularized” by a very few people called editors, get over it. Ever watch Fox???

Arrington from a journalistic POV probably was disgusted by the linkbacks to dan’s business, and way it was handled by his staff, more because it doesnt really comply with the way he wants to run his operation from an arms length perspective.

Knowing that it had been put up already, he wasnt going to take it down as that would have caused a bigger flap, and he wouldnt have felt right about it. Hes yelling at his people right now.

I think Dan has shown his greatest integrity in actually coming out with the story and how its done. I do think he might have been a bit more careful about how it was handled. Hindsight is 20/20 :P

GOOD JOB MAN,

SCREW ALL THIS BROKE ASS WINING BABIES. MAKE MILLIONS AND PARTY LIKE A ROCKSTAR

Amazing, before youtube there was never any spamming, all marketing was 100% legit – just like the time when The Beatles management paid girls to scream.

This is why techies always hate marketing types.
Theres a very fine line between promotion and spamming.

What is really interesting is that it takes so much spamming effort to get noticed now. A legitimate, interesting video at youtube or a post at digg has an extremely slim chance of making it to the bigtime.
- which is why we post very few NewsBlaze stories at the social sites. If you can’t get a good story noticed legitimately, its not worth doing it.

Social networking depends on some social norms. break the community’s own rules and you can be in big trouble. Questions:
- did Dan screw up so badly that people will leave here never to return?
- will Dan apologize to the community for promoting bad behavior
- does anyone care
- will youtube bust them
- is ethics an outmoded concept in Web2.0 marketing

IMO Its a very short step from regularly faking conversations to doing something else illegal.

Great video,
Forget about all these pussies that worry too much about TOS.
TOS aren’t law, just guidelines.

[...] naturally, but rather that some company worked hard to make it happen – some company like mineread more | digg [...]

Let’s be clear at least about one thing, these ‘go viral’ techniques are known to most of us, every and each of us here is in some way practicing to some extend these methods for content of our own – be it blog post, diggalike post, video, cool pic, whatever – soo .. sheeesh ;)

We also have to be aware nowadays that our sweet and short romance with social web is long gone. All we are left with is basically occasional artificial sex with social web in terms of swallowing the content promoted in this way and pushed like that.

Actually, this whole post and its comments tend to be quite artifical to me, go away bots!:)

naive bunch of morons, the whole f******* world is doing shit to pull the wool over your eyes. Wake up and smell the F******* coffee. This guy is like a the whistle blower, and your flaming him, the only one whos to blame here is you all for being so silly as to believe capitalism is anything other than one big marketing scam. The companies paying this dude to do the dirty would pay anyone who could and most of the time you’d never hear about it, this guy is obviously living in the real world and decent enough to admit it.

great article, and yes doesn’t marketing suck.

On a side note, my FB application was denied why? Too controversial !!!!

[...] conferma di quanto detto è giusto giusto apparso oggi su Techcrunch un articoletto di tale Dan Ackerman Greenberg. Nome sconosciuto a più è il personaggio è “famoso” [...]

The only thing I’d find unethical is misleading the viewer with fake thumbnails and fake titles that have nothing to do with the video itself. But optimizing titles, and picking the absolutely best and most attractive thumbnail from the video is not wrong at all. That is just effective marketing. It is similar to choosing better and more relevant keywords to your Google keyword ad campaign. Everybody does that, and it has been done throughout times.

I guess the general opinion is that it is also morally wrong to call your best friend – editor of a popular blog – to return a favor and write a post on your new killer product? Or are paid banners the only place it is morally correct to advertise? Why isn’t it right any longer to post comments on forums and blogs and spread the word? It is not like he had a machine generating more views. He is just spreading the word using real people, so that more people would learn about the clips and view them.

Having a conversation with your self is also no different to paying opinion leaders spread the word about a new product.

Conclusion: Dan is just as unethical as most companies are. He just does it in an area and with tools noone else has discovered yet.

You must feel so dirty after coming back from work. Disgusting.

Its cunts like you who are ruining the internet.

What’s the big issue here? Seriously what?? I mean okay the whole fake commenting thing just to spark up controversy is unethical. If the paid bloggers disclose the fact they were paid to blog about videos, fine. If they don’t then it’s unethical.

I found the tips of thumbnail optimization and how to control tags to get the wanted list of ‘related videos’ very useful. Those two things were thoughtful. As for the rest? Not impressive. But still, this happens everyday all around us by big media. What’s the fuss about? This isn’t pleasant but expected though.

could be true, could be made up *shrugs* : bury

Any kind of publicity is good publicity.
Now, Dan is doing his tricks in TechCrunch also..See, now, I know a company which does this trick. He is, basically, advertising his company. This, I call, is ingenious. Someday, I will recruit you guys.

Don’t forget to send your fake commenters to respond here as well.

How many of the above posts in the sleazebag’s defense are his own “employees” ?

Sure everyone is upset and outraged. They feel manipulated. The reactions are typical human nature, once one discovers that they’ve been “played”. These techniques are great from a marketing standpoint. The controversy is even better. For the 260+ who commented, I bet 10 times that read the comments, checked out the website and now remember Dan. I’d say he accomplished his goal.

Dear MA
This is the 269th comment so i dont think anyone will read it. but still..

the point is why you need to publish such stuff on your blog ?

your blogs posts on average say 1 out of 4 a day make it on techmeme?

so why bother ? ofcourse this post also did.

Do you own techmeme ?

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos via TechCrunch SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos”, url: “http://www.cynicow.com/?p=10″ }); [...]

There are few remarkable point there like title optimization and strategic tagging though I believe viral element is most important and content is secondary.

You gullible bastards… We are geniuses!

TechCrunch seems to have gone from being a blog to being a series of adverts. I know I’m not the first to notice this. Perhaps the readership was falling off and TC needed a spark of controversy.

I wonder if this “guest” post has achieved the 100,000 views that Dan needs to be able to send that invoice over to Mike…

I am freaking loving this!

Great article, even better comments. About 130 comments with overdrawn morally right and morally wrong reactions and then 130 comments warning us not to post any more comments because that was the whole idea behind the viral article. Awesome! And thank you all for demonstrating how this viral stuff works.

Big up TC.

TechCrunch finally does business with PayPerPost. How much for placement on this blog? It can’t be cheap.

Just another parasite trying to subvert the positive aspects of the internet for their own private profit. Sad.

Mahalo is just embarassing, couldn’t help myself in this free-for-all.

This post is pretty awesome, it’s like reverse-psychology viral anti-marketing that makes people aware of certain tactics so they know what to look for and avoid, in a very memorable way. Love the subtle yet infuriating digs at legitimate user generated content, it gives the article and comments an authentically evil feel. People need to realize they’re being manipulated from every angle, and they need to get _pissed_ before they develop a strong urge to really fight back.

Thanks for this

The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos…

The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos…

I just love how many users would rather not see this post on TechCrunch.

What you’re saying is: “I’d rather stay blue eyed.”

This post changes nothing. This kind of marketing is out there, regardless of TechCrunch informing you about it. I’m happy I read about it here. Now I know something I didn’t know so much about before.

c’mon people, get with the program – at it’s core, the almighty dollar is what rules the web

if you really care about the “authenticity” (and by that I mean the un-dubiousness of it’s origins and/or it’s “virality”) of a video you see on youtube, I think perhaps you should stop watching videos on the internet and go out and rent something from the criterion collection instead

I really like your article. Thumbs up!

For the ones talking about integrity and stuf … Grow up, this is the real world wussies!

>>280
>>281

same person

Thanks for covering this, as it is a very relevant theme now. As a former social networking start up employee I can tell you that we were trying to use youtube and other sites for these exact purposes. It’s the wild west out there, and it seems almost anything goes.

How about talking about the use of skype for the same purposes? Yesterday alone I got 4 solicitations to buy products (wedding gowns being one of them, you can guess the other three).

Marketing on the web is a whole new arena, and companies/people are going to try anything to self promotes.

>>283

I see the term “wild west” being thrown around a lot, care to explain what that means in marketing slang because I’m not sure I get it.

This was problably the only readable article on Techcrunch in a very long time. What this article is doing is highlighting some of the efforts going on to hype or in other ways promote a brand or product in ways that seems a bit shady.

If you think that this will spur interest in people to advertise their product with “black hat tech”, well you might be right. Some will definiatly gain some interest in such methods after reading about them but they are also the ones that will fail miserably and get bad creds for it. The rest of us reading this will problably just be thankful for the heads up and info we was fed.

[...] article intéressant sur Techcrunch : un des membres de The Comotion Group, société dédiée à la [...]

I think they missed secret #10 , don’t tell the other 20 tricks that people use! All this is pretty old hat and has been alive and well in the print world for years.

I’ve seen and heard of quite a few more tricks and tips and ones that are certainly more successful. Plus you can find entire off shore companies setup for forum, myspace and blogbashing. A few people in an office in the US is not going to cut it. Marketing companies routinely hire upwards of 100+ Indian workers to do this sort of thing.

For years Marketeers have their friends at newspapers when they want to leak stories, I’m sure its not a leap to work out who picks content at video sharing companies and put them on the entertainment list too.

Oh and they didn’t even mention hiring a botfarm so you can get things started on all the most viewed sections of these sites either.

Excellent post Dan. I’m not referring to the “techniques” you talk about above, but rather your success in getting a whole bunch of people talking about your company. After all, that’s the service your clients buy off you right?

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos via TechCrunch [...]

Dan You are right, other than the fake commenting, I would say these are some pretty insightful tips.

300 comments

haha

Dan, you did it!

Many companies out there spam the hell out of everything, including campaigns for many large corporations.

As much as I don’t like what’s being outlined to viral video success, unfortunately this is how badly YouTube is getting gamed these days.

I’ve got 1.8 million views on YouTube so far with 10,000 views per day, but haven’t used any spam techniques to achieve these results.

It’s sad that many of the top videos on YouTube are achieving success using these techniques as it’s frustrating watching clear spam and deceit to get those numbers, but that’s the way it goes I guess.

sad people.

You pretentious ass. Thanks for ruining youtube

I agree with Charnchon, ingenious post. Tons of Techcrunch comments + tons of controversy = tons of techcrunch readers contacting Dan for business! As bad as it may sound, this is how the world works…much more than we know – everywhere from YouTube videos to the federal government.

“The Wild West days of Lonely Girl and Ask A Ninja are over. You simply can’t expect to post great videos on YouTube and have them go viral on their own, even if you think you have the best videos ever.”

This is of course a very narrow minded and absolutely arrogant view. Wow…!

“When most people talk about “viral videos,” they’re usually referring to videos like…”

No, I absolutely disagree. When most people talk about “viral videos” they talk about fake trailers like the “Shining” one, “Brokeback to the Future” or remix classics like the “Cillit Bang Remix” (the original one). Other viral videos are made by 79 year old YouTube users who have a good story to tell – because: content is king!

The good news: the democratisation of the media and the net will survive attempts by the Spamindustry – the net will still be there when companies like the one advertising itself here will be long gone.

Still, an interesting post. But not sure if it will work as expected – this article and the discussion about it already went “viral” and as far as I can see people on digg are as disgusted by this just like so many commenters here are!

We are the media.

Would it not make more sense to fire your digital marketing agency rather than your PR agency as you no longer need them as you can just use this handy guide?

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos provocerande artikel om hur virala videos sprids. Egentligen. [...]

I’m not saying what Dan’s company is doing is right, but I think a lot of the whining in the comments is because you can’t get your videos 100,00 views in a few days. I know that I can’t. More power to ya Dan.

Viral Marketing: Argue With Yourself Through Multiple Accounts…

By way of the Common Craft blog (who makes the most awesome tutorials that explain tech stuff in layman terms using paper), I found out that there’s a guest post on TechCrunch by Dan who gives advice on how to create a viral campaign online using…

[...] Techcrunch has just recently published an article called The Secret Strategies Behind Many Viral Videos. If you do any video marketing at all, this is one article that you need to study word for [...]

So I guess since you’ve posted/commented today and we haven’t seen your “longer response” then I guess that just confirms that this was a paid for post. Good job.

Unbelievable.

Mike,

If the content is disgusting, at least nofollow the links in the article.

Very interesting ;)

Excellent article.. It is , what it is.

I’d rather be without a doubt ethical and upright in anything associated with my name than to have a shadow cast upon my dealings.

Obviously Dan doesn’t share this view.

I don’t care how prevalent this type of “marketing” is or even how well it works. I don’t care who is making what point with this article. I care about trust among those I work with.

Dan has lost my trust in our future interactions. Unfortunately for him, it’s not just my trust down the drain. It’s the trust of anyone who reacted strongly enough to post a comment. It’s the trust of those who didn’t take the time to write.

this is a fantastic article..!

This article is a great example of the “flexible ethics” being taught in MBA programs today. Good to see that the shenanigans that fueled the first bubble are alive and well and being taught by Stanford TA’s today. More proof that appearances matter more than reality in the bubblenomics promoted in the Valley. Dan will likely end up being a filthy rich VC soon!
Seriously, though, I’m glad that Dan took the time to illustrate what it really takes to be successful in the Dot Com 2.0 world.
Thanks Dan and don’t forget the little people!

You sicken me.

An interesting article to say the least, and it’s great to see this level of honesty.

What it points out more than anything is that social sites like delicious, digg and youtube (among others) need to work on their own social spam filters.

Spam filters were built for email because it became necessary to shield our inboxes from hordes of guff from the morons that feel that their product is more important than our time, and that sending millions of emails is a decent business strategy.

This is the same thing, just a different attack vector, that’s all.

Guerilla Marketing at it’s best.. You can hate it or love it, but that is not what it’s about.. That’s what most people here are forgetting…

We are doing a Christmass guerilla action with Christmas-balls (whatever you all them in english) hanging them everywhere through town… You do know that is against ‘city policy’ just like this is against policy at youtube.
Guerilla marketing at it’s best…

[...] einzigen Artikel über 300 Kommentare zu sammeln und eine ordentliche Kontroverse auszulösen. Der Beitrag, ein Gastartikel eines Experten für virales Videomarketing, und die Reaktionen darauf [...]

[...] read a great post on TechCrunch about how to optimize your viral YouTube videos to achieve high popularity. The [...]

[...] you read this “guide to viral video” at Techcrunch, there are actually some really good tips in there about tags, and other tips about how to create [...]

i had a tough time considering whether to comment on this post or not… ultimately #302 pushed me to write a response.

to be clear: i think dan is brilliant, and most of the strategies he’s outlined above are as well. altho the feedback has highlighted some of the more ethically questionable parts of the article, 80% of the suggested tips aren’t shady. in that sense, the article itself is very educational & enlightening.

on the other hand, the other 20% (fake comments, misleading titles, paying for promotion) do make me wonder a bit about the methods used to be effective. i think it’s informative to understand what’s going on, but i don’t feel as comfortable as dan does about their use. i wonder if after posting this article he may consider some of the less inflammatory feedback in the comments, and review his personal opinions on whether & how the ends always justifies the means.

as with Cialdini’s book Influence the Psychology of Persuasion i find the material fascinating, but i probably wouldn’t choose to use all of the techniques myself (and in fact, Cialdini agreed, presenting the info in the book as a way to learn “mental self-defense against marketing”). while i’m not surprised or appalled as much as others by the info, some of it does give me pause.

overall, i think the very open discussion here about ethics & effectiveness is a good conversation for everyone to have. understanding where you draw your own personal lines & principles is an important discussion to have, both with yourself and with others you choose to work with.

Chasing viral videos is about as dumb as chasing web traffic. For people who liked this article, please keep spamming YouTube and making horrible videos while the rest of us instead create high-quality, original content.

All those video views you’re getting will translate into pennies, not bills. A waste of time except to feed your ego.

Unethical – Yes
Efective – Very

I wouldnt personally promote a site / company as you have, plus half the effort in getting something as popular as a viral video for me comes from the satisfaction of working hard for high return on investment, be that through time or money.

Whichever way you look at it, its marketing at its best, keep doing it if it works for you but dont be suprised if it jumps up and bites you in the ass at some point…

[...] have analyzed some of the key areas after reading a entry in TechCrunch. I don’t quite agree with the author on some of the things that he highlighted about viral [...]

If virally promoting work was that easy I’d only need to say that my podcast is at http://www.thebeercrate.com and brilliant in the comments of someones blog and I’d be famous, too.

Oh wait…

I must say that at least I personally prefer comments relevant to the video, made by the authors themselves or not. Youtube’s real problem is all the comment spamming with “this is fake”, “nice boobs”, “when you read this you are cursed” etc. Nice article!

95% of this page is comments, good work!

wow… i gave up after i dunno how many comments… lol

this is dumb… people have been doing this forever and it’s no “secret” … i dunno who’s dumber… the guy who wrote this thinking it was some juicy new hot tip or the droves of comers who’ve been personally insulted by his revelations.

the web is a giant advertisement… your life is a giant advertisement… from what your wearing right now (sans you naked folk, i know your out there) to the cd in your car to the current number on your cable box… all have been decided for you and you’ve been placed in the blissful position of believing you actually made some choices for yourself… you listen to the edgy guy who cusses… your mom doesn’t like it but you don’t care cause you’re a free thinker, right? Kudos to you, kid! Have another Mt. Dew you extreme radical!

lol… you all are too much… :)

hey do you need great greeting cards at a low price? check out http://www.myemergencycardkit.com. With four kits, there’s sure to be something right up your alley. Free shipping on all orders!

My God, I got to this blog from the BBC Technology Page..good job?….interesting as a confession, but only strengthens my distaste for those who make a business out of propagating the avalanche of absolute trash that clutters up bandwidth.

Internet experts are projecting a big problem in the near future….I suppose Dan might also drive a Humvee.

Is this what they teach in Stanford’s Facebook Class? Maybe that explains why Stanford Class’ Facebook Application Crosses 1 Million Installs.

It will be interesting to see how the Stanford community feels about having Stanford students taught by someone with such flexible ethics.

[...] a guest post over at TechCrunch, Dan Ackerman Greenberg outlines his approach to taking just about any video viral. The approach manipulates the system to drive the results people want and there is some complaining [...]

[...] published a guest essay over the holiday on the secret strategies behind successful “viral [...]

Very, very interesting article!

It’ll be interesting to see how many comments we end up with.

I’m guessing at least 500…

Reading many comments on Dan’s model i think u guys have no clue to the other side of internet marketing for that matter even traditional marketing.. any marketing expert has a whole variety of underhand and immoral tricks up his sleeve to get the product moving.This is true for all the mass medium be it newspaper the tv ,radio, billboards anything..

I can show u cases where authors rigged the best sellers list by asking people to order multiple copies of the book they are releasing
but not buying any.Bestsellers list get info on the number of copies that is going to bookstores not the number that is actually sold.Ron Hubbard is a classical example his last ten books opened in the NYtimes list they were all released within a span of 18 months he was also the founder of Scientology and had a huge following .All those 10 books-part of a series – were crappy.

Dan’s method is just for Youtube thats all Dosent anybody here know or believe that SEO(search Engine Optimation) is used all the time ? most if ur searches are rigged there are companies which specialize in bringing a webpage in first page of a google search for a particular key word .. In fact there is a competition for SEO specs where they give u a particular keyword and whoever after the alloted time got the top ranking in google won.I don’t know that still exists .

I dont think this is any different

If u believe that any media is unbiased or untampered and sacred thus trustable u r dreaming,.It is nice to talk about noble intentions , the freedom of press and high morals but ground realties are something else.

What’s wrong actually about Dan’s post is that it sounds like how to get rich in a week kind of article rather than explaining his business model.

wow 320 already??! it was only 150 or so sometime back. an all time high maybe? i listed down some viral videos here as well…sometime back. let me know what u think.

hmm i think he’s got a good point. after all, whatever he did wasnt against the law.

the perfect method if you lack morality, thank you

Well done guys. You’re linked from the BBC website too. That’s why I’ve just spent 20 mins of my life here.

I am saddened that people can even think this abuse of web sites is OK. This reinforces my dislike of the American “system”. Its all about hype and money. Don’t worry about social responsibility, ethics, caring for your fellow man,…just trick him into helping you make money. The author of the article is clearly an idiot for telling us all his tricks. I agree with those who have pointed out that the metrics are as misleading as the ads. If companies think people will buy a product based on some comedy snippet on YT, they have their heads in the clouds. Tricking people to watch ads is a sad thing to do with your life. Think it through by removing the “bravery of being out of range” that the web gives. Would you mislead people face to face on their doorstep this way? Of course you would. That is why you are the 21st century equivalent of a scam artist. I am confident your customers have located this story and now realize what a public nuisance you are. A Marketing degree from Spamford will not be something to be proud of. In the end, you are doing something underhanded and unpopular. That is not progressing civilization, Stanford – just the fake money-go-round that is the the US economy. Shame on you all. Dishonest salespeople are lower than pond scum.

Amazing. Irony as a viral marketing tool.

[...] graduate student named Dan Ackerman Greenberg has a different take, but it’s not pretty. In a guest article for TechCrunch Greenberg claims to have “achieved” over 20 million views on YouTube for [...]

[...] (which seems to have worked, if that was the intent). A comment from Mike Arrington on the post implies that he would have rather posted the info without giving Dan — a student at Stanford university [...]

Hmm,
we are running a large video UGC site at http://www.sumo.tv in the UK and I think we will be concentrating more on techniques to stop this kind of gaming the site over the next few months.

We certainly have seen a lot more postings and bulk video uploads from the MLM & suspect product type vendors over the recent weeks.

I can’t believe that people are shocked. I think this was an awesome read! Probably the longest I’ve ever spent reading one article on techcrunch. I knew this stuff was going on and have dabbled in it myself, but there were some very good ideas and techniques listed here. As advertising changes with technological advances (i.e. Tivo, and people skipping commercials), there have to be new strategies implemented. I see nothing wrong with using these techniques to create “infotainment.” That’s just how it is now, and our society is not going back. It’s time for the consumer to face the fact that in order to get “free” entertainment, they’ll have to endure hidden marketing.

P.S. – Now that I went on a rant, I may have to blog this post.

Some ok ideas, nothing amazing, If you can produce something that is viral, it is better, because of WOM.

Very interesting. I personally feel that marketing is marketing. If we all knew some of the tactics television and radio have used over the years, this would seem business as usual.

Currently, the header shows “353 comments >>” yet there are only 329 showing.

I’m sure the Martians from Haiti absconded with the rest.

How did this happen? What happened to the credibility of this once great blog?

I am ashamed to be in the same department as the sleazeball that posted this.

Hey Dan,

Could you let us know which one of the above posts were made by you and your associates? Evidently, you have done a good job of generating interest with your article and in the comment section, so it would be instructive to learn more about the style of fake comments that are most successful in riling up the crowds.

Thanks in advance,

R.M.

@333 The fake posts are probably the “wow this was so interesting” ones. If I want to learn black-hat tricks I’ll go to some pr0 site on blogspot, not TC.

Heads should roll over this. Shame!

this should be retitled.

secret strategies behind many “viral” blog posts.

this guy is a master of his craft. look at all the minions feeding the fire with their posts!

Dan you the man!

techcrunchreader
You should really think twice before posting. Ingenious, clearly this not :-)

if you believe that sites like YouTube are not being gamed than you probably also believe….

Oswald shot JFK

We actually landed a man on the moon

Flight 93 crashed on its own

The NBA lottery is legit.

etc, etc, etc

Control, money, power. People don’t leave things to chance when there’s alot of money and control at stake. YouTube’s list is only going to get more coveted by advertisers….leading to more sophisticated gaming. Not condoning this guys sick rationalizations for self profit. But it is what it is.

Reading the comments here, you would think that YouTube is some noble achievement for humanity – how dare anyone besmirch its noble cause.

hey what’s the problem with an inside view of the biz ?? Really I don’t see why you all shout like about this really interesting post being ‘disgusting’.

Comment #200 hit the nail on the head. Running into irrelevant videos/Ads backfires! Viewers remember these and bad mouth the product, the movie, or the site in conversations. Not surprised Fox hires spammers though! :-)

Oh come on, I’m no fan of YouTube. In fact I detest it; but the point is, this post is nothing more than a self-promotion excercise by someone most social website owners would ban in a heartbeat, and I’m sure MA is deeply embarrassed by the association TC readers will draw from it.

On the other hand, if this was just link-bait – it worked, and not a good reflection of TC at all.

Looks like Dan has his fake commenters in full force to defend his practices as being no big deal. Some are making the argument “these types of practices happen all the time on the Internet therefore it is no big deal”. With this type of business attitude about ethics, it’s very easy to see why the mortgage industry implosion is happening in this country. Many scummy people in the mortgage/loan business used the same unethical “whatever it takes to make the dollar” logic. Couuntrywide anyone?

And another thing. Dan’s post generating over 300 comments doesn’t prove anything about the merits of his ability or his company like some (most likely fake commenters) are stating. I doubt an elite academic institution like Stanford will appreciate one of its TAs involving in such unethical practices. It reflects badly on Stanford especially since Dan is still affiliated with the school. The business climate in this country is already full of unethical nonsense. One only look at the shady pump and dump Internet 1.0 IPOs by investments banks during the dotcom era, the accounting scandals by big companies such the Enrons, and the now the mess with the mortgage and financial services industries. Enough is enough. Now we have web 2.0 folks pushing the envelope in their own way. It’s sad to see this attitude. It’s almost as if one isn’t crooking someone, than one is being a naive business person. If I were some of the readers here, I would encourage them to email Stanford about Dan’s admitting to such unethical practices as using fake comments in his business practices. Ask Stanford what they think about this. Ask them them if this is what they are teaching at Stanford these days. I’d like to hear their response.

My .$02.

“Greenberg”, a friend of Micheal Arrington, is a Stanford grad student completing his master’s thesis on viral marketing and using controversy as a marketing tool. He created a theoretical experiment, presented it to Arrington and asked to use TC as a petri dish, built a crappy two page company website for The Comotion Group to create credibility, launched the site and article, and is currently laughing about the amount of commotion he and Arrington have created.

There is a $100, 000 prize for the person who figures this out on their own – me! – and a job offer to write for TC as an investigative journalist.

Congrats to me.

wow u guys really have no lives if u spend your time worrying about something as harmless as this

@336. Robin

Please read Dan’s post entirely,

…then

read my post again.

No matter how unethical what Dan is doing, it’s called ingenious because of the methods he is using to get that kind of results. Even if someone would like to do the same, I’m pretty sure that person would have a hard time to achieve the outcomes.

The word “ingenious” does not imply ethical, or right, or legal.

Have a good one. :)

For those (fake?) comments saying that the number of comments here is proof of how effective his methods are, that’s the same as saying the countless replies with “don’t send me email” from spam emails are an indication of how effective that method is.

it’s cheating, but you gotta beat out the corporations that are doing the same thing ya know? At least he’s sharing for other attention whores that post their crap, and little startups and artists that what to get their 15 secs of fame. Don’t hate the playa people, he figured it out and is sharing – it’s warfare in the sphere, you gotta play smart.

Get over the ethics, what are you mormons?

And yeah, taking credit of Cloverfield’s success (as it reads) in Youtube casts doubt about all that was written in the article about how successful his methods are.

It could be fake stats through and through.

Clever chap. I don’t like it particularly, but it’s nothing new in principle and just serves to illustrate how well the internet thrives on naievete. That’s not to criticise people taken in by this. I wish people were able to believe everything they read and see, but those who want to achieve an end goal must commit to investigating the best way to do that. Like I was saying, I don’t like it, but it’s all very interesting information. There’s clearly been some thought put into those guidelines.

If you get to the root of the problem here, you end up sounding like a dirty hippie and then you get even more grief, so I won’t. If you find yourself buying stuff because of videos you’ve seen on YouTube, step back. Just enjoy the videos and don’t feed the fire.

Check out this May 2007 interview with Eric Schmidt, CEO Google, on this subject.

It will bring light to YouTube’s take on these practices.

Sorry for sucking at interviewing Schmidt… just more fuel for the fire…

well done mike, 350 comments and 140 + inbound blog links so far to this post…. but doesn’t anyone value authenticity? I’m not naive enough to think that videos reach 1 million + views on their own, sure there are lots of companies like Dan’s (hooray New Media Douche Bags!…hey, and how’s that for viral video…) but listen, in this Cluetrain era of communication and marketing, transparency and authenticity is key. I managed to get a client 40k video views of a certain Bon Jovi video clip in 4 days WITHOUT fake user accounts, paying blogs, and whatever other shady practices Dan and his new media douche bag buddies do. Because hey, if we’re going to be new media douche bags, at least I want to do it with transparency, authenticity, and the smug indignation of being spam-free.

Cheers
xoxo A

So what is the competitive advantage now?

Longest. Thread. Ever.

This post is faked

this is the longest comment thread on any post I’ve ever seen on tc

This is YTO: You Tube Optimization.

What’s different than SEO: Search Engine Optimization? Where companies pay tons of money to be listed higher in Google.

I think it’s brilliant. Just like advertisers airbrush photos of nearly flawless models to make them look better, they make sure the middle frame is great.

Just like businesses hire the best to produce a SuperBowl Ad campaign, these companies hire experts who know the ropes.

Hacking the code to add viewers would be wrong, everything else is fair game if you want to go to the effort and expense.

Dan you’re an idiot, this is simply called spamming, having others watch videos when they don’t want to, what moron would come to you to have their video spammed and hated, thanks for your spam ideas and basically spamming your business also, i guess stanford does have some embarrassments and you’re stupid to post a link to your business or you’re name when you’re spamming.

Great Post, But visit my webpage for more interesting Posts

h t t p :/ / WWW . CamWhores. COM

**This is not Spam it’s Just Viral Marketing**

So does spamming to push a video in public eye change the fact that the video is no less funny or entertaining? Go think of your FAVORITE video on YouTube of all time that you’ve watched hundreds of times. Fine, and now you find that the reason everyone knows about it is because of Dan’s methods. That doesn’t change the video itself.

The guy’s got a set of steel on him to come forth with this, but you have to wonder if there are new and improved methods beyond what he listed, so that sharing these basic PROTIPS (heh) aren’t a big deal because they just might be commonplace. More tinfoil please, and remember, those hot chicks that turn you on in ads were put there by old white men with ear hair.

Hubba. /smrik

Hey kids … check out the source for the page … ‘nofollow’ on all the comments. He’s gaming you, too.

Welcome to the world of marketing.

Spamming Forums is Not a Strategy…

My friend Lee LeFever linked to a guest post at TechCrunch by someone named Dan Ackerman Greenberg of The Comotion Group, a “video viral marketing company”. (I realize I’m providing them with links and maybe that was one of the points…

You guys just paid my xmas gifts! Thx a lot!
Happy M.A.

DANNNNN
IN YOUR ROOOOM
YOU CULPRIT….
AND HANG UP WITH THAT MURDOCH GUY, HE IS BAD INFLUENCE

1) “Dan, between SUPost and this you seem to have a great eye for picking startups that really have their morals in the right place…”
-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
2) Daniel Ackerman-Greenberg does not deserve such comments. I have personally seen him rescue babies from mountain lions, scale tall buildings and trees relatively quickly (or at least more quickly than you would expect him to), and do difficult skateboard tricks while blindfolded. He is known worldwide – the Tibetan Monks refer to him as Salami Dan; the African Pygmies call him Lafave; and he is known as Dirty Dan the Garbage Man in Mexico and the Americas. Rat tail or not, Dan is a gentleman and a scholar. God bless you Dan, and God bless America.

Ethics of this aside the feeling I got from reading this is that not only is YouTube being gamed but his customers. How much of this spamming and manipulation truly leads to real interest in the product? That is the point of marketing, not simply getting lots of views but interesting people enough in your product to then go out and buy it. It seems to me he’s just generating empty numbers for his clients.

Dan, you are disgrace to Stanford’s reputation and the plight of quality marketing on the internet… this was a foolish and embarrassing move for you… and TC.

This IS NOT marketing, and it diminishes the value of what real marketers are doing with the web today… many great things, many which are lost in the clusterfuck that you purposely create for short-term gain.

Yours is not a lasting enterprise, nor a noble pursuit for a self-proclaimed “social entrepreneur”. It would seem your ambitions lack the maturity and experience to result in anything greater than 100,000 fake views. Real marketing has its eye on forging a meaningful, emotional connection with consumers, and the only emotion you seem to have weilded is resentment and anger.

Better luck with your next venture — as this is a dying one. YouTube is already on top of your weak game, as well as your prospective clients in need of real ROI and marketing.

I think the school bell just rang…

Yes, I am Dan’s real father (not the poser who anonymously posted comment 363), and let me say, as clearly as I can, right up front: I stand by my son and his decision to post his well-written and forthright article.

He talked frankly about the internet, youtube and marketing strategies that, according to many comments that followed, are plainly widespread in both new media and old, though apparently many people would just rather not know about it.

Judging by the depth of feelings expressed by so many people, both positive and negative, he plainly said something that needed to be said, and said now.

To those of you that wrote calm, reasoned responses — whether positive or negative — I applaud you. You got the message, appreciated the candor and courage it took to write that article, and you took the time to offer measured and thoughtful points in response. I suspect that Dan has and will continue to take the thoughtful criticism, positive and negative, into account.

But to those of you who chose to spew vitriolic profanities, tossed off so easily in your anonymity, you should step back and think about your behavior.

It is much easier to attack than debate; much easier to curse than engage in reasoned discussion about serious issues. Dan started a debate; you dragged it down into the dirt.

Consider whether your response to the article took much thought, or added anything to what could be a very valuable and intellectual discussion of the current state of the internet, and what can or should be done to “fix” it, if that is even possible.

Did you really think that youtube remains a charitable, community based project? Did you really think that most of the videos on the front page got there without someone using undisclosed marketing techniques or paying big dollars for placement? (I sure doubt that is the case.) Did you think Google paid $1.6 billion for the company for any reason other than making money by pure marketing, to you?

To those of you that have taken shots at Stanford and his role there, what he says in his article has nothing to do with Stanford. He was talking about his separate business. Stanford should be proud to have Dan as part of its community, a creative force, an independent thinker, and an excellent teacher.

And to those of you that so easily labeled Dan “unethical” or “immoral,” you just do not know the man. I do, and have for 22 years. Dan has a very strong sense of morals and ethics, of community. Yes, I am his father but if I didn’t believe what I am saying, I would just stay silent. Frankly, it doesn’t matter whether you believe that or not; I know it. And his friends and family know it.

Listen or don’t listen to what he says; agree or disagree with his views; follow or don’t follow techniques he described. But add to the discussion; don’t subtract.

If the measure of the value of such an article, and of putting yourself on the line by sharing controversial thoughts, is to provoke discussion, get people thinking and questioning, then Dan hit a home run. He struck a chord.

So, Dan, keep stirring debate; keep on saying what you think, even in the face of controversy and risk.

Dad

Your site looks great! I found your blog via Google while searching for air carrier freight and your post regarding nnial 2007 – salvatore iaconesi – del.icio.us poetry looks very interesting to me. I have seen many other so-called sites and they have been far from good quality.Your site has all the key ingredients to pulling in visitors.

Dan Ackerman Greenberg of COMOTION said:

“Also, we aren’t afraid to delete comments – if someone is saying our video (or your startup) sucks, we just delete their comment. We can’t let one user’s negativity taint everyone else’s opinions. ”

Is this the new Ethics 2.0?

A negative comment is just as much an opinion as any of the positive comments that you have ghost written.

As a matter of fact, since it is a true comment as opposed to a shill comment, it is a valid public comment as opposed to the shill marketing blurb posing as a comment.

@367

There’s a big difference between stirring debate and engaging in a business which admits to planting fake comments as well as deleting negative comments from real users. I think most here don’t have a problem with a post stirring debate but that’s not why Dan is getting criticized here. Just because this a separate business from Dan’s role as a Stanford TA doesn’t mean it doesn’t reflect poorly on Stanford. Like it or not, as a TA he is affiliated with Stanford in a teaching capacity. His behaviors while he is involved with Stanford do reflect on the university. It would be quite a bit different if Dan were 10 years removed from Stanford….but he’s not.

Thanks for being honest. All of these jokers saying it is unethical have no idea what viral marketing is. Not a bad thing, just people who are uninformed or do not care for it in general.

There is a reason the word MARKETING is attached to the end of the phrase.

Here’s a great blackhat technique for boosting video views.
http://reelseo.com/blackhat-video-seo-youtube/

Not sure what to think of the methods, but I can see why somebody would be tempted to use them.

Do you guys not see what’s happening here! By Dan posting this, look at all the comments that are being generated! You’re all victims! You’ve all fallen into his viral scheme!
You all need to get a brain!
Morans!!

Greenberg, I love you.

Dan, good post. This post and its comments have been the most interesting thing I think I’ve read on TechCrunch. If you didn’t have an idea for an honors thesis before, I think you have one now :)

You mean there’s no such thing as Santa Claus?

I’ve three separate views here but all under the umbrella of: “I can’t see what’s to complain about”.

All capitalism/property is theft i.e increasing the value of something over what you paid for it or taking something that previously had common ownership and claiming it for oneself. The videos are just the same apart from the product has no initial worth, just like taking a rock from the ground. It only has worth when people perceive it as so.

It’s just entertainment folks – the old story of “look at me, look what I can do” – and try to persuade people to pay for it – and everyone here is looking…

I can’t see how the methods are any different to other marketing and publicity campaigns.

Apart from that, good post, it’s made more interest in his ideas (I’m the 379th I think!) and presumably some will follow his links. Just a continuation and expansion of the marketing realm. Kerching!

As a Stanford alum with 3 degrees from the University, I am appalled that this person is associated with the university, especially as a TA whose business ethics invariably get passed on to students.

Unfortunately.

All of you are being taking for a ride – A Triple cross I must say.
Mr. Greenberg has never done any of the thing that he has claimed. He has only done research and theoretically study on how such YouTube Gaming could be done. He has built an ‘aura of creditability’ by claiming to do all of these ‘jobs’ for major studios. Unfortuanlly, he is a liar 3 times over.

First he is bragging about all of his wonderful Black Hat Techniques – Do you think that any real Black Hatter would brag about them on a public forum and put their picture next to it. Black Hatters are Black because they work in the Shadows.

Next he puts up his link to his homework assignment website that he hopes will pull in the business that everybody is fussing about.

He has never done anything. You have all been triple-crossed and that includes you Mr A.

-Sir Richard Longcloud

What on earth is all the fuss about? I think many of you need to wake up and smell the decaf. This sort of thing goes on not only on the internet, but off the internet, with PR and Advertising companies using all manner of gorilla marketing tactics to create “buzz” around a product or company, passing it off as some genuine phenomenon. Nothing in this post is surprising, not even the fact that the author has written it.

Lord of the Flies

Well, obviously posting is playing right into the hands of this whole uber-meta scheme, but I’m going to do so anyway in the hope that someone else like me reads all the way through the comments too.

As a Stanford affiliate and a mostly non-reader of Tech Crunch, I have to say this: Dan isn’t embarrassing in a major way to the university. But his morals are as slimy as any other marketer since mass communication allowed such things. Psychology. People have been studying how to manipulate folks’ impressions and behavior for decades. Before the PC existed.

What this article and meta manipulation have made me think is, 1) well, tech crunch isn’t that interesting and is tacit in seedy promotional scams, 2) dan doesn’t even see why duping people and censoring negative opinions is slightly morally bankrupt and that’s more sad than enraging, and 3) wait.. am I really the only one who, when “duped” to click through by catchy titles and other such tricks, immediately says, “well that was worthless,” and forgets the whole thing happened? Come on people. There’s always going to be crap on the internet, in your mailboxes, in your ears and eyes. we just have to ignore the crap and let the pornsters and the ackerman greenbergs have their fun making somewhat decent salary by being sleazes.

Thank you for posting this “effective” way of marketing.
You even got into the press!!
I’m impressed!

No kidding!!

This is so WRONG, I don’t even want to consider whether it’s good or bad marketing, it’s simply cheating on people. And that can never be good.

What? There’s a lack of straight-forwardness on the Internet?

Damn. Another illusion shattered.

(Is this comment 386 or something? I’ll invoice you for my fee later.)

Insider Tips To ‘Viral’ Video…

Here’s a fascinating and thought-provoking insight into how the pro’s turn their video’s viral. These tips could easily relate to marketing your latest music video. The piece is written with a brutal honesty that makes for a very refr…

With the masses of traffic on video sharing sites like YouTube it is obvious that companies will try to maximize their exposure on these sites.

A web TV show will want as many views as possible, just as will a company posting an funny ad on YouTube.

There are both legit ways to do this and blackhat ways to do this.

For example optimizing the thumbnail and the title so it is more attractive to viewers is completely fine and good practice.

So would be getting the word out about your video to blog owners and in social networks (providing your avoiding outright spamming).

But starting a fake comment series crosses the line slightly. However, most of the issues discussed here are completely genuine ways to try and get more exposure.

I recently discussed the many different ways that you can use video to make money or promote your own website/product:
http://www.sitesalary.com/blog/internet-video-for-marketers-20-ways-to-get-traffic-sales-from-web-video-youtube/

What would be the best alternatives to techcrunch? Please advise someone considering deleting the feed.

Mike – I’ll put up $1,000 for Dan to put his money where his mouth is. Read on.

1. We can’t confirm if any of this is even true. We haven’t been provided with any videos, clients or data of any kind. Claiming to be Keyser Soze is far from actually being the mastermind.

2. AGORACOM will put up $1,000 for Dan to prove his system actually works. Dan will have to provide me with the exact name and content of an upcoming video 1 week in advance of launching a campaign. I’ll keep the info confidential both before and after the campaign. My job is to simply confirm whether or not his system worked.

3. Upon launch of the video, he has 7 days to achieve the following:

* Top 5 Most Viewed Of The Day
* Top 10 Most Viewed Of The Week
* 500,000 views

4. Dan can use any and all of his tactics but he can’t use advertise this $1,000 challenge.

Regards,
George

To MJ;

Ethics? In business schools? Are you daft?

They barely have course offerings in the subject, let alone requirements for graduation.

I don’t see the guy breaking any laws with the recommendation in this post, however, just upsetting the delicate sensibilities of a few folks who think the world is made of sunshine and roses. Unless you’re in direct violation of the TOS, who gives a hoot what tactics they’re using on YouTube? Don’t like an unsolicited friend request? Block the user. If you’re capable of succumbing to a video title like “yoga girls give advice on the care of your balls”, then you’re in his target demo.

Get it?

Who is Mike Arrington? I google it on images and I found pictures of some drunk dude…oh wait, is the same picture on this site!

Oh Its me again, I saw a banner with his face on this site with the legend “easier than get Arrington to link to your site” the same drunk face… so If Dan’s company got linked, I believe is not difficult for Arrington to link to a site right?

Post #305 wrote: This article is a great example of the “flexible ethics” being taught in MBA programs today.

Ditto! For those of you that are feeling overwhelmed by how marketers and advertisers are extensively damaging our society irreparably, visit and join AdBusters:
http://adbusters.org/home/

I can’t believe some of the naive comments here.
Actually, I was rather impressed by the systematic, thorough approach adopted which is certainly a lot more than some of the sloppy totally inconsistent work served up by so called ‘internet marketing professionals’.

Lucy

I’m glad this was posted – and for MA; someone who is supposed to “get” the internet, he’s obviously not “getting” marketing. Dan is just gaming youtube/google to get the video in a spot to where it can be seen; after that the users make it truly viral. If this bumps another emo “leave Brittney alone” teen post I’m not going to be broken up about it. I think there is a world of difference from this and Facebook selling your personal data to anyone with a buck – you opt in to Dan’s stuff, but you have to know to opt out of facebook.

to all the Stanford folks saying they are ashamed… get over yourselves.

Dan is the man!

Man, I love reading “Whine Bags” crying their eyes out!

Good article man.

J-Mo

[...] was hesitant to weigh in on the latest kerfuffle raised by the recent TechCrunch post, frankly, because I knew all of these black hat tactics were being utilized by those less [...]

After reading this post makes you wonder how many of these comments are authentic….

Frank Bruno

You’re all so right, I made it up.

So shoot me.

Dan, thanks for your practical YTO (YouTube Optimization) tips! :)

agreed thanks for bringing this all to light

To all of who who’ve commented, positive and negative: thanks for being part of the first round of a much longer discussion.

The internet is changing, and it seems that this post has really struck a nerve. Hopefully we can use this as a jumping off point for an open discussion about the future of truth in advertising online. Whether we are talking about gaming strategies for YouTube videos, SEO strategies on Google, review optimization strategies on Yelp/Amazon, or any other behind the scenes guerrilla marketing that’s happening online, there is a lot to talk about.

The goal of this post was to pull back the curtain on some of the strategies/techniques that marketers are using online every day, on YouTube and beyond. The way I see it, if we can identify and understand the marketing strategies that are going on behind the scenes, we can move forward towards a more open, honest internet, where content truly does prevail.

I hope we can continue this discussion here on TC, on other blogs, on Facebook, and in person. Email me at dan @ thecomotiongroup dot com if you’d like to meet in person, chat via email, or on the phone.

* * *

That said, there were some facts in this post that I’d like to clarify. This post was intended to be a how-to for marketers on YouTube, morals aside, in an attempt to bring to light everything that could be (and is) going on on YouTube and beyond. However, I DO NOT EMPLOY OR ENDORSE ALL OF THE STRATEGIES USED IN THIS POST. I’ve been holding myself back from responding to each and every commenter because I want to let this discussion play out on its own, but there are a few key things I’d like to clarify.

1) We do NOT spam email lists. This would be an effective strategy, but unless you have a list of people who have opted in to receive email of that nature, it would be illegal.

2) We do NOT pay off bloggers to post our videos as if they were real blog posts. Rather, we pay bloggers to embed clearly marked video ads in their sites, with no false endorsements of any kind. Again, it would be an effective strategy, but I don’t endorse it.

3) We have NOT manipulated any of the comments in this post. (Though I do wish that all those deeply negative comments about me were actually fake.)

* * *

Again, I want to thank all of you for participating in this discussion, particularly those of you who offered calm, reflective criticism of some of the techniques described in this post.

I’ll be posting a longer followup to this later on my blog, and I hope that we can all engage in a positive, constructive discussion about marketing, advertising, and the future of our interactions through the internet.

As we all continue to develop our thoughts and plans around internet marketing, it is important that we all many of these views into account, as I surely will.

Again, email me at dan @ thecomotiongroup dot com if you’d like to meet in person, chat via email, or on the phone.

Dan Ackerman Greenberg

Some day I will be able to tell my grandkids that I remember when the internet was great. They’ll just say “What’s the internet, granddad?”

So that’s it? That was a bit of a letdown.

Plus, I love the specific language used in his “fact” sections — it doesn’t preclude him from paying bloggers to post the videos (so long as they’re not presented as “real” blog posts, whatever that means), nor manipulating the comments of other posts (just not this one). Plus, spamming Facebook and MySpace lists is apparently fair game (but not email, for some reason).

It’d be fun to get a list of the various campaigns he worked on and actually fact-check his “facts”. Anybody have this list?

-david

great read.

I understand people saying that this strategy just sucks, about the lack of ethics in it.
Personally, I don´t like to do that, and I do thing that it sucks.
BUT, reading what Dan just write, remembers me of several startups that did that in the past and you can say that they are doing it in the present.
In short, Dan just pointed out some real strategies that some people out there are doing. We can like that or not, fight that or be pleased, but it´s reality.
Just like spammers are.
Maybe the reproachful note here is to TechCrunch (a blog that I love, BTW), to “promote” this stuff in a certain way.
The final thing here: Why would any company want unreal traffic in their YouTube videos? People who watch it but won´t come back, or aren´t interested in their product…
I just don´t get it.
Rosamunda

To David’s followup:

4) We do NOT spam MySpace profiles or Facebook users. At least on MySpace, it’s against the TOS, and I don’t think it’s legal. On Facebook, yes, I often share our clients videos with friends, but only to share the cool videos we’ve made with people who care.

Again, this post was intended to be pulling back the curtain on everything that’s going on on YouTube, not specifically about what we do.

The original post was framed quite differently, but after going through the TechCrunch editorial filter, it ended up sounding like a tell-all about our shady business practices. In fact, we only use a few of these tactics, and some other (more bland) strategies.

In fact, most of our business consists of the creative content side of viral marketing campaigns: coming up with ideas for compelling campaigns, and shooting/editing videos. The core value we add to a viral campaign is that we come up with a concept that will truly go viral. The ideas presented here are only a way to ensure that the content gets an opportunity to actually be seen. And again, we do not engage in or endorse all of these strategies.

Dan Ackerman Greenberg

Hi Dan, thanks for the post. How do we find you on FaceBook? Thanks.

Again, to all of you who have attacked my morals, my character, and my ethics, please email me. It truly makes me sad to see how this post has affected the way people see me, and I promise that if you get to know me, you will see me for who I really am.

dan at thecomotiongroup dot com

Dan Ackerman Greenberg

Or message me on Facebook:

http://stanford.facebook.com/profile.php?id=207559

Dan Ackerman Greenberg

This is a great article!

Make yourself rich and famous in 1 easy step!

http://www.grouchogandhi.com/gear/

Great post, tells the truth.. after all, a lot of viral sites use fake identities to stir up discussions on forums which in turn makes the subject content viral — no secret in fact.. /ac.

I can’t believe he dissed Lonely Girl and Ask A Ninja. Dissing genuine viral stars in the blogosphere is like yelling the N-word in Harlem.

what if your content has nothing to do with hopping bunnies or naked chicks?

Dan, just back down my friend!
I have had the pleasure of knowing you for four years and you are ok! But this is not the first time your pride yourself off of shady dealings and unethical ways. Trust me it is not a best way to do business, it will hold back your potential. Now I am also very disgusted by ideacv.com (http://www.ideaCV.com), due to your role their. And please stop defending your actions and just learn from the mistake. Adopt new ways, pay the price, and move on. You got great potential, just don’t ruin it and especially for those associated with you.

Thoughts on viral videos…

Viral videos are in the news recently and apparently they generate lots of inbound links. I’ve heard many stupid things about viral videos up to now, but the one that makes the top of the list is that “content is NOT king” (and it&#8…

Cool that someone has the guts to tell the truth. Great post Dan! I know you posted this because you have a lot of tricks up your sleeve which you ain’t sharing just yet.

Pushing the envelope as far as it will go is the only way to run a business. A professional motorcycle racer once said, if you’re not skidding all over the place and on the verge of losing control, you’re not going fast enough.

Viral Marketing with a Side of Spam…

You know online marketing ethics have a long way to go when someone from a viral marketing company will all but endorse spamming on one of the top five blogs in the world.
Unfortunately, that’s what happened on TechCrunch this week. Dan Ackerman…

Congratulations Dan you’re a Spammer.

I don’t normally do this, but…

.:*May your testicles fall off in a long slow painful process. You are so cursed*:.

For some of us, out here, the web is a great medium for sharing art. You, and your ilk ruin it.

The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos (Greenberg / TC)…

OMG! The sky is falling! Who’duv thunk they’d do those kinds of things! Καθυστερημένο αλλά πολύ διασκεδαστικό….

How To Create Viral Videos…

TechCrunch has published two articles explaining exactly the steps needed to create viral YouTube or other internet videos. Viral videos are videos that people forward to other people because they find them so…

you are everything that is wrong with youtube.

i create original content and have averaged 80,000 views per video without “viral” trickery.

but then i’m not in it for dollars or ego.

You’re all idiots if you think such ways of ‘makin’ it go viral’ are not the norm on the Internet. Not just videos…but on blogs, forum posts, whatever. Leaving comments to each other/oneself…oldest trick in the book, practically predates the Web, unprovable and highly effective. The rest of his tricks, just some standard marketing stuff, not even so bad…FB, email lists, ho-hum, yawn – so what? If it’s good, you’ll like it, you’ll never even know you were being marketed at, and everyone wil live happily ever after. Complaining about it is petty bullshit. Go feed the hungry or join the PeaceCorps if you want to act like you have a real cause.

All of this outrage over what? Do you want an excellent video to sit on GooTube with just 400 looks, or for it to get hundreds of thousands of looks and tons of links and lots of discussion and mainstream reporting? Thought so. So do what you gotta do. Puritanical outrage might make you feel morally superior but it will also make you seem judgmental, tight and old-school which won’t help your popularity with the unwashed and generally ignorant masses. Grow up.

And stop pining for the days of lonelygirl15. She was only the biggest (fake) viral marketing effort ever. Dan Ackerman is just a hard-working and blazingly honest guy in comparison to the production company and marketing (including faked Goo comments) behind the lonelygirl15 fiasco – or are you people’s memories really that short?

In the UK we’d call this a “Ratner Moment”: a company CEO who’s got so very out of touch with the world in which he’s operating that he joyfully writes the obituary of his own company. I’m not sure which is worse, the utter lack of ethics exposed by the original post, or the arrogance of the author in thinking he could get away with posting it…

How To Get 100,000 Views On YouTube…

Forget all that you’ve read about YouTube and video marketing. Throw away all those crappy ebooks you’ve bought. And just delete those newbie videos showing you how to put a video on YouTube. What you will see (or read about) with regard to…

I’m failing to understand all the anger here, this kind of thing has been going on since day one, Myspace, Digg, Facebook etc. Somebody somewhere is always going to look to make a buck in any way they can with any popular website. I really do not care if I video I’m watching has been promoted in this way, if the ‘most popular’ clip doesn’t interest me I just move on.

This type of thing is the main reason that I don’t bother with on-line videos any more. It’s not bit, it’;s not clever and it almost certainly isn’t actually boosting the sales of the companies involved.

Yeah, OK, it’s your job to advertise things and you’ve made a lot of money from it. It doesn’t make it socially acceptable and there’s really no need to boast about your scurrilous activities.

This type of thing is the main reason that I don’t bother with on-line videos any more. It’s not big, it’s not clever and it almost certainly isn’t actually boosting the sales of the companies involved.

Yeah, OK, it’s your job to advertise things and you’ve made a lot of money from it. It doesn’t make it socially acceptable and there’s really no need to boast about your scurrilous activities in front of me.

Lately many my video remove by google from youtube. It sad.. :(.

[...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ [...]

If anyone happens to see this douche, punch him in the face.

Look at that goofy grin.

Dan S. Ackerman-Greenberg

Email:
danielag@stanford.edu

At Stanford

Affiliation:
University – Student
Department:
Economics
Position:
Undergraduate

Affiliation:
University – Student
Department:
Management Science and Engineering
Position:
Graduate

At Home

Mailing address:
P.O. Box 15797
Stanford
California 94309

Additional Info

Inter-dept mail code:
9015

Welcome to the internet pal.

To all of you who thinks these techniques are wrong or disgusting…Do you watch Pro Wrestling? Do you think that there is anything wrong with their banter and B.S., scripted and staged moves, etc.?? Do you think the President always tells the truth? Don’t you know he has a whole staff to write speaches and put their own spin on things? How about the News? They want to tell the story in the most compelling way possible to get the most viewers. If you read five different newspapers about a particular story, you will get five completely different stories. (I know this from experience – I worked on a News show at major cable TV station.) How about advertising? They do all they can to manipulate our thoughts and actions.
Open your eyes people!!

[...] read are: Некоторые из лучших в блоге Я прочитал являются:The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos : Have you ever watched a video with 100,000 views on YouTube and thought to yourself: “How the [...]

You can get an alternate view, from people that have made legitimate viral video hits like Rocketboom, Ask A Ninja, Goodnight Burbank and French Maid TV, here:

The Secrets Of Viral Video Hits…..From Actual Viral Video Experts This Time

That’s cheating, I don’t like being manipulated like this, from now on whenever I see and ad or video I like……I’m going to stop watching it.

Now what are you doing to do huh……..I’m not listening, I’m not listening lalalalalalalalalalala.

Case in point. I’ve been viewing this site for a year now and I have never posted anything. But with over 400 comments I think this post has become viral. My only ? how many posts are fake? ;)

>And to those of you that so easily labeled Dan “unethical” or “immoral,” you just
>do not know the man. I do, and have for 22 years. Dan has a very strong sense
>of morals and ethics, of community.

Your son just openly admitted that he creates false conversations with the intent of fooling regular users into believing they’re real. Is lying a part of that “strong sense” of morals, ethics and community?

But it’s just marketing, right? Let’s hear it for Moral Relativism!

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos | TechCrunch: No todos los vídeos virales se convierten en tal por méritos propios, dado que, como cuenta Dan Ackerman en TechCrunch, a veces es necesario forzar su lanzamiento a la fama. [...]

Love the controversial comments posted here… mmm.. I wonder how many of these users work in your office eh? Nice Job.
Lol… and in response to all the “upset” people who “don’t bother with online videos anymore” thats like saying I’m not watching tv because there is advertising… or i’m not going watch movies at all cuz there is product placement… or i’m just gonna walk around blindfolded ‘cuz theres branding like everywhere… lol take care mushrooms…pwned

Horizont: Virales Roundtable-Interview…

Melanie Schehl und Olaf Kolbrück hatten am Freitagnachmittag in Hamburg für das Branchenblatt Horizont einige Gesprächsteilnehmer zu einem Roundtable-Interview eingeladen. Eingerahmt zwischen Dominic Veken, Geschäftsführer Strategie bei Kolle Rebb…

Get over it folks! Just learn to recognise the propaganda. It’s so common it has it’s own name: Astroturfing. You can make advertisers work harder by becoming more savvy to their techniques :-)

What an extraordinary exposé on the rapidly changing face of personal / commercial relationships… like old world networking and the speed of light!

[...] But after posting the video - which was incredibly easy to do – I started wondering how many people have uploaded videos to YouTube since the site was founded in February 2005. It’s difficult to find stats about YouTube because the company (owned by Google) doesn’t often release information on its users, but this Reuters article from July 2006 claims that, when the article was written, 65,000 videos were being posted to the site per day. If that number is accurate, it’s also likely to be much higher by now. (Although another more recent article from TechCrunch estimates that the number of videos being uploaded to the site daily is between 10,000 and 65,000.) [...]

Just by getting this post on TechCrunch Dan has proven himself to be an excellent conman, who’s advice should be taken seriously…. by any marketeer without a shred of of decency.

Oh my God, someone’s using underhanded techniques in their marketing campaign. Whatever next!

Before we know it the people who run our country will be telling lies …

[...] skape virale videoer i sosiale medier. I en smørbrødliste på 9 punkter tar han for seg “hemmelige strategier” for å få høye seertall. I punkt 3 forteller han hvor viktig det er med å oppnå en [...]

[...] skape virale videoer i sosiale medier. I en smørbrødliste på 9 punkter tar han for seg “hemmelige strategier” for å få høye seertall. I punkt 3 forteller han hvor viktig det er med å oppnå en [...]

Duh !

Everyone who is so shocked: WHY? Did you really think that a video posted on Youtube these days receives loads of views without extra help? How naive…

Anyway, why are you so “disgusted”? That marketeers would discover the “new” field of web-based user communities was obvious. So please, come off it!!

And talking of ethics: I think a great amount of adverts you watch on TV every day are much less ethical than this. – “Sweets that contain vitamins”, – great, go and feed them to your child while you are complaining about “cheating with faked user comments” on Youtube…

Honestly, you disgusted lot make me laugh…

Oh dear, what’s the world coming to? The real problem with this is that it though it may be legal, productive, and not at all surprising it eventually results in the rest of us being unable to find the creative, interesting and inspiring videos that made youtube truly viral in the first place. Too much white noise these days anyway. Now we know why.

well…

this kind of viral marketing is BORING

to accidentally leave an usb-stick with some new songs on the toilet during a concert

Lot of negative comments.. well i dont know who’s right or wrong

I don’t see what is supposedly so bad about these techniques? Who of you will swear to god that you NEVER EVER asked a friend for or commented yourself under a different moniker on something you want to be seen?

These marketing tactics are downright Rovian! Turd Blossom would be proud. This kid’s going to be a gigajillionaire.

Amazing 444. comments that’s also viral – it’s the internet ;)

[...] einem Beitrag in der letzten Woche auf TechCrunch wurde beschrieben, mit welchen Maßnahmen Unternehmen ihre virale Video-Werbung künstlich [...]

“…morals aside…”

Well, Dad, your son may be a swell, likable guy — but attitudes like this make me ill. The fact that “everyone is doing it” doesn’t make it right — it just lowers the bar for everyone, everywhere.

No, I wouldn’t want your son to date my daughter, but I don’t think she’d really be interested. You can’t turn morals (or ethical behavior) on and off, at will. That’s too reflective of a person’s character (or lack thereof).

Sorry, Dan (and Dan’s Dad)… you leave yourself open to a full array of reactions by putting your beliefs and practices on display. Get used to it; it’s human nature for people to get upset when they’re provoked like this.

But after reading this, I’m convinced you have an ulterior motive: you’re going to run for political office. Unfortunately, it looks like you’ll fit right in.

Why do I have a sneaky feeling that maybe some of these 446 comments are also thanks to Dan.. lol…

“Sneaky underhand tricks” are what almost every marketer in any media uses. Whether its a newspaper article or a radio jingle. And more often than not, the reactions to this trickery by the publishers, the journalists, the writers and the creative is team is also the same.That of shock n disgust. (When another fellow marketer also expresses disgust its usually bcoz he’s mad he didnt think of it earlier.)

So new media or not, web 2.0 or web 100.0, marketers will continue to push the envelope “lower” as long as there are users who are willing to lap it up.

Please don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Even though I’ve parked “viralvideovillain.com” to redirect to Greenberg’s profile page, he does have some legit strategies (titling, thumbnails). But some of the techniques pushed the ethical line, and I’ve written on my blog about ways to bust people on manipulation. Meanwhile my stupid AdvertisingAge on the same subject got eclipsed by this drama: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=122205

Nice to know I’m now not the most despised person in online video marketing. Thanks, Greenberg.

First let me admit, I haven’t had time to read all 448 comments in a row. But they all seem to just repeat eachother, is that getting us anywhere? No.
Second. How is this “unethical”? Personally on myspace I recieve 3-4 porn-bot spams a day if not more, I just deal with it. It isn’t unethical, it’s buissiness. It’s the same thing as having celebrities walk around with nike symbols in everyone one of their publicity shots. Do you really think that’s a coincidence? This is how it’s done, deal with it or go back under your rock. When people start “killing kittens” I think that’s too far, but this is just buissiness.
And finally. Has anyone ever worked on a street-team for a band? It’s exactly the same thing. They even give promotions to people for getting the most comments or site hits. Do you think everyday people are going to generate mass publicity without some of these techniques?
All this company is is a professional, mercenary, street team. Why do people see that as so wrong? If you find that wrong and yet you still support bands such as Linkin Park, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, or Simple Plan you’re a complete hypocrite. These are just a few bands I’m a member of the street team for and have been told how to do exactly this in order to get the band more publicity, only I don’t get paid.
In summary. Dan, you found a way to make money off of something people have already been doing for years. That is what capitalism is all about. I think you’re company is well founded, and definitely not unethical. But hey, this comes from an everyday mass market consumer. So maybe being in the majority here makes me wrong?

You know what … kudos to Dan for being honest. I’m not saying these tactics are just, but let’s face it people … they are being done! If nothing else, I hope this pulling aside of the curtain leads to further actions taken by MySpace, Facebook, bloggers, et al to ensure they resist these kinds of nefarious tactics. This is the Wild West, everyone, anyone who’s seen ‘Deadwood’ knows that wasn’t a nice place. It did, however, lead to the expansion and culturalization of the American West.

haha this is amazing.

you guys act like this is the first time hearing that marketing or promotions can be dishonest.

In fact here’s the evolution of the dramatic chipmonk internet sensation…

Why should we wait for Google, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, etc. to make rules to govern how to ethically market our products and services. A previous comment compared these new mediums of marketing to the “Wild West”, where there were no rules. How do we know what it was really like back then? Yeah, I’ve seen Deadwood. I’ve also seen Little House on the Prairie. Fact is both are TV shows and both are fiction. I choose to act based on my own ethics and morals. And while many of these black hat tactics might bring increased traffic, it doesn’t justify their use.

If you game a system for clients, you are telling them that their video shit sucks so bad, it has no intrinsic merit or infotainment value, so you have to trick people into viewing it.

I am opposed to gaming any system, it means your product or work has no intrinsic value that can create a genuine word of mouth campaign, spontaneously generated by satisfied and enthusiastic fans.

Multiple accounts and fake comments in a contrived and insincere “blogocombat battle” is a weak way to drive traffic to a video on YouTube or an ecommerce site.

I could enter fake comments in my blogs all day long, using fake names and legit URLs, but just doing so would prove that I’m desperate, vain, dishonest, pathetic, and not skillful at promoting my blogs in an authentic manner.

http://twitter.com/vaspers

I’m shocked… shocked!

Must be the stupid postmodern ideology of “there is no truth or morality, but whatever my pampering says is true for me”.

Using spam techniques and con artistry to drive traffic to a video? What a moron and asshat this puke is!

I havent read all the 450+ comments but all you people who are banging on about morality and how people should not game systems you are living in a dream world.

Wake up and smell the coffee the whole internet is being gamed by everyone from black hat bedroom spammers to large corporations, dont be so fu*king naive as to think that things just happen.

Fair play to Dan, a great and informative post, cheers.

How do you know this entire comment section isn’t fabricated? I wouldn’t trust anything this guy says. The bottom line appears to be all he holds holy.

This entire thing is fabricated. I wouldn’t trust this guy at all. The bottom line is all he holds holy. Deedle deedle dee, wubba wubba wubba (let’s see if it tells me I said that already and deletes my post…after all, deleteing other’s posts is ok if it works, right?)

lonelygirl15….

The YouTube superstar turns out to be a paid actor from New Zealand and everyone thinks its ‘cool’ and ‘web2.0′

A viral marketing guy promotes videos by using the social fabric of the internet and everyone thinks its immoral…

If everyone chose to ‘explore’ YouTube and not just visit the ‘Most Viewed’ section Dan’s company would have no business.

Most Viewed = Advertising 1.0

maybe those TV-advertising guys were right all along.

Good grief, look at all the hungry trout Dan and his crew have reeled in!

Seeding the comment section with controversy (HINT, HINT) is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Goes back to newspaper days, playwright George Bernard Shaw used to fire up an alter ego who would write letters to the editor for the New York Times just tearing into a new work by Shaw. Shaw would then reply to his own alter ego and so on and so on… with the Times an unwitting dupe in helping to fuel a “buzz” about the play.

Dan has updated the technique for the web… but he’s really only streamlined it. People and causes and political jackals have been running this type of scam forever in the digital world.

And it works because, for whatever the psychology is behind it, people just CANNOT leave it alone when they are called out.

So many trout, such a little pond.

This is the most boring thing i’ve ever read. I couldn’t get to the end.

This is MADNESS!!!

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos “Have you ever watched a video with 100,000 views on YouTube and thought to yourself: “How the hell did that video get so many views?” Chances are pretty good that this didn’t happen naturally, but rather that some company worked hard to make it hap (tags: ads blog blogs community content Ethics digital marketing internet media socialnetworks statistics strategy tips tools viral web youtube video) [...]

hmmmm….
http://www.youtube.com/willster9

[...] of weeks ago on TechCrunch that caused a fair amount of comment and controversy in the blogosphere. The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos was a spectacularly ill-advised and unintentionally revealing account of one marketer’s [...]

good article . what is amazing is that the “anti people” still think marketing is about truth or morality.when a company hides the way they sell they are still manipulating us. so sit down and try to laugh it is more fun.

Internet combines media alltogether……then the infection becomes much larger, and offcourse there’s nothing new under our sun.

Any type of Marketing is for the naive..people buy it if its fun or if there neighbour bought it too……Me too!

People are people, the truth & morality is all around them.
If you take it as an example…. follow.

Thanks Dan Ackerman Greenberg for sharing these good tips!

Dan,

This sounds like SO much bullshit. Exactly what videos have your amazing “techniques” used to make boring ass commercials be anything close to a viral video?

If you say you can’t name them, then your simply lying. A true viral video has amazing shock and awe, something disgusting, or amazingly funny, usually created by a person, hence the reason it is so funny, because it is NOT from a lame ass corporate sponsor.

Your just another in a LONG line of internet fluff companies to fall to the side of the road. Can’t imagine how companies would expect to become famoulsy popular using fake hits from a “fluffer” company such as yours.

How lame, just get a real job man.

the way i see it these guys are the modern day equivalent to the first t.v. guides, if we’d never had listings in our newspapers than we’d have been guessing and channel hopping forever, perhaps never watching a single thing of interest. it’s not as if you wake up one day thinking “you know what, i’d like nothing better than to watch a gorilla play the drums whilst chillin to some phil collins, and after that i’d really love to spend five minutes of my life watching someone’s hands dancing to daft punk…” every good viral is marketed somehow, at least these guys are being honest about it, and hell, why not make a buck or two out of it? continue doing the devil’s work lads, someone has to!

and dude, yoseppi, you had nothing better to do at 3:26 am than write on here…that’s some real job you must have.

For those of you who aren’t comfortable with this “clandestine” approach, here’s another take on viral marketing: http://www.theb2blead.com/viral-marketing/the-b2b-lead-vidcast-%e2%80%93-a-case-study-in-viral-video-marketing/

“Martin

November 22nd, 2007 at 1:15 pm

Definitely an interesting article but Dan, are you happy having built your business model on this kind of operations, being confronted with cheating and faking day by day? Doesn’t sound like a fullfilling job to me, regardless of how much money you could make with this.”

Let’s talk government ;-)

Dan – please marry me!!!!

Nov 22nd, 2007 at 1:15 pm

“cheating and faking day by day? Doesn’t sound like a fullfilling job to me, regardless of how much money you could make with this.”

Let’s talk government ;-)

Dan – please marry me!!!!

I always had a feeling people paid companies to get their videos viral. You just confirmed it.

Hey 474)))

great post, and I think this guy really knows how to market a video and himself))

Not a Dragon strategies?

Yes it’s good to make a lot of money..

It is a superb posting and really informative. Lets go viral video marketing from now on.

He should be doing the marketing for the airline my blog is outing – they’d make good bedfellows – http://airasiaannus.blogspot.com/ integrity – empathy – honesty – social conscience …. puke

[...] Los nuevos contenidos de internet requieren nuevas formas de publicidad. [...]

Dan, Thanks for a great post!!!

I’m really surprised by all the immoral, unethical, etc. comments… it’s a bit like blaming SEO’s for writing a call to action meta description.

I have one question to your exellent article: How do you make the connection between the YouTube video and the website the video is intented to promote?

Thanks again

Peter

This guy makes me want to vomit. Especially the fake comments he is posting on this very forum.

I think what he is doing is fantastic, and I wouldn’t hesitate hiring him if he can get my product exposed to the world in a short time.

When was business strategy ever fair people?

Great post. And I think that everything is permitted in today’s Web.

[...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ [...]

Wake up you techie twats!
It’s people like Dan – and myself – who push boundaries in WoM, buzz and viral marketing. In the grand scheme of things, these are the kind of actions that drive progress and raise the bar in this industry.
If you want to police us get of your fat nerdy arses and try and stop us rather than crying into your keyboards!

Wow, that was one great post as far as I’m concerned. I’m bookmarking it to use it as a bit of a guide for upcoming vids. Thanx

Davin

[...] quem quiser ler o artigo na integra, segue o link. Tem exemplos de virais realmente [...]

[...] to push, for a price, selected content on major social media destinations like Digg and YouTube. As you may have learned recently from Techcrunch, getting video clips to get viral is not really a matter of having a particular talent at shooting [...]

[...] to push, for a price, selected content on major social media destinations like Digg and YouTube. As you may have learned recently from Techcrunch, getting video clips to get viral is not really a matter of having a particular talent at shooting [...]

[...] y a presque un mois, nous avions publié un billet controversé de Dan Ackerman Greenberg appelé “The Secret Strategies Behind Many ‘Viral’ Videos” qui expliquait les différentes étapes et astuces nécessaires pour tout amateur qui souhaite se [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

[...] que d’autres ? Bien sûr, leur contenu est important, mais leur succès repose avant sur une démarche savamment orchestrée. Sans entrer dans les détails, sachez que la vidéo doit être courte et surtout ne pas ressembler [...]

[...] were shot and released on the web, and then HEAVILY promoted by The Commotion Group, using various tactics to ensure that these clips received as many views, comments, and link-backs as [...]

[...] Here is one guy’s take on it.  [...]

Got Viral Video?…

The most controversial post on TechCrunch on 2007 – “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos”
I missed this when it came out a few months ago so here it is – Viral Video 101.
Dan Ackerman Greenberg sheds some light on what it …

[...] UGC is huge and it’s not going away. Nobody can fight—or should fight—the moving train. There are millions of videos and blogs on the web. The problem is that there is no system that efficiently and quickly makes the best content rise to the top. Youtube, Digg, Truemors, etc. allow voting/rating to play a big role in ranking the best content. However, this system is inert—to be voted to the top, you need to have a big audience to begin with. This leaves it open to manipulation. [...]

[...] Jupiter Research report to the LA Times’ recent lambasting of Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s ‘‘ article, bad press seems to be an inevitable companion to this [...]

[...] 一些自称有道德的博客，在他们的营销中玩着好警察坏警察的游戏。在这个口碑营销窍门的帖子中，Michael Arrington说他感觉恶心的想吐。其实他不至于真的想吐，不然为什么要把这个视频放在他的网站上，那些浏览给他赚了不少钱。 [...]

[...] Greenberg took a bit of a beating in his guest post earlier this week where he revealed his strategies for taking a client’s otherwise ho-hum [...]

[...] intitulat etici se joaca de politistul bun, politistul rau In marketingul pe care Il practica. In aceste ponturi despre viral video postate pe blog, Michael Arrington s-a declarat revoltat de aceasta practica. [...]

[...] don’t know about the rest of you, but after reading The Secret Strategy Behind Many “Viral” Videos, I had a very bad taste in my mouth. I like YouTube as much as the next person (because I can [...]

[...] as we read in Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s “The Secret Strategies Behind Many ‘Viral’ Videos”, there are certain guidelines and steps to viral video marketing that were discovered and outlined [...]

[...] intitulat etici se joaca de politistul bun, politistul rau In marketingul pe care Il practica. In aceste ponturi despre viral video postate pe blog, Michael Arrington s-a declarat revoltat de aceasta practica. [...]

[...] Bloggers spelen good cop/bad cop met hun marketing. Michael Arrington gaf naar aanleiding van dit viral video tips blog post te kennen hoe walgelijk hij het wel niet vond. Kennlijk vond hij het niet geheel walgelijk, [...]

[...] more to it. Dan Ackerman Greenberg, a viral marketer has set out some of the tactics in a recent Techcrunch post. Some of the tactics, such as creating controversial discussions on forums seem unsavoury, if not [...]

[...] Related reads: Saving a Favorite Web Video Viral Videos for Small Businesses The Secret Strategies Behind Viral Videos [...]

[...] if not the most controversial post ever published on TechCrunch was Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos. A TechCrunch reader took this post and mixed it into his own viral video, as above. Great summary [...]

[...] if not the most controversial post ever published on TechCrunch was Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos. A TechCrunch reader took this post and mixed it into his own viral video, as above. Great summary [...]

[...] Through this video Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s has summarize his original post “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos, once you watch this video I am sure you will wish to know more about the core strategies to make viral videos. [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos (tags: viral marketing video youtube advertising tips) [...]

[...] 6, 2008 · No Comments I don’t know how I found it, but I found myself looking at this article in TechCrunch about viral video strategies and the extensive amount of comments that [...]

[...] pubblicò un ottimo post di Dan Ackerman Greenberg The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos in cui venivano spiegate in dettaglio tutte le tecniche per far diventare virale un video lanciato [...]

[...] if not the most controversial post ever published on TechCrunch was Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos. A TechCrunch reader took this post and mixed it into his own viral video, as above. Great summary [...]

[...] Ackerman Greenberg a prezentat pe TechCrunch, la finalul anului trecut, un scurt tutorial despre modul in care poti transforma in videoclip de [...]

[...] Viral marketing is truly guerrilla marketing as this guest post from Techcrunch shows. If you post videos on YouTube it is a must read. [...]

[...] discussions have been all over the blogosphere since Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s guest post on TechCrunch about gaming YouTube to get more [...]

[...] selverklærede etiske bloggere leger good cop bad cop i deres marketing. I dette “viral video tips” blogindlæg kommenterer Michael Arrington, at han er forarget over det. Han kan nu ikke have været så [...]

[...] Ahora, si de verdad queres saber una formula para lograr un buen viral, lee este post de Techcrunch. [...]

[...] [bullets supplied by TechCrunch article found here] Posted in video, viral. [...]

[...] tutti coloro che sono grati a Dan Ackerman Greenberg per il suo preziosissimo post The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos pubblicato a novembre 2007 su TechCrunch, ecco una ragione in più per sentirsi in debito con [...]

[...] an post on techcrunch.com, Dan Ackerman Greenberg, co-founder of the viral video marketing company The Comotion Group, [...]

[...] 前段时间shute给了一个提醒，最近劲舞团、80后和90后两代人视频对骂的风波还没过，可以去火上浇油。正好看到stanford管理工程科的学生Dan Ackerman Greenberg成立了一个视频营销公司（The Comotion Group ），并在techcrunch详细介绍了如何运作一个视频营销的流程，于是自己也去尝试了一下，略有成效。 [...]

Handig! Hoe scoor je met een filmpje op Youtube?…

Op zoek naar een paar simpele tricks om een succesvolle viral op te zetten en miljoenen bezoekers te trekken? Hierbij de geheimen van de guru van miral marketing en video optimizatie op Youtube….

[...] Mám však radost, že se nám podařilo dotáhnout celou řadu detailů, které usnadní pohyb po serveru a jeho používání. Z toho, co je hotové, mohu ukázat animované náhledy. Náhled videa je téměř nejcennější informace o videu, kterou divák před jeho spuštěním má. Název,  popis či nálepky mohou být velmi klamavé, jak vtipně ilustruje jedno video na Streamu. Náhled se ošidit nedá (nebo alespoň ne lehce, na YouTube se již “optimalizuje” i ten). [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos – Similar Posts…Links of the week… by Lon on June 26th, 2006Solar Crash: 2007 round-up by Lon on January 9th, 2008Still alive… by Lon on October 26th, 2005What’s new… by Lon on October 19th, 2007 Share this post with others: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

[...] to make viral videos” video (check below), based on the infamous Techcrunch post by Dan Greenberg. [...]

[...] firm The Comotion Group, wrote one of the most discussed articles ever on TechCrunch about how to launch a viral campaign. And the rules he writes about are not exactly the ones that are generally considered ethical. You [...]

[...] נלאה אתכם יותר בפרטים, את הכתבה המלאה תוכלו לקרוא ב- Techcrunch – בינתיים השענו אחורה, ליחצו play ותבינו [...]

[...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ [...]

[...] online. Back in November they published an article, written by the owner of a viral PR firm, on how to make effective viral videos. In the irony of ironies, someone made that post into a viral video — and a pretty good one [...]

[...] secrets pour que ça marche, et c’est la concrétisation d’un long article paru sur Techcrunch “secret strategies behind many viral [...]

[...] more to it. Dan Ackerman Greenberg, a viral marketer has set out some of the tactics in a recent Techcrunch post. Some of the tactics, such as creating controversial discussions on forums seem unsavoury, if not [...]

[...] Dan Ackerman Greenberg, oprichter van viral marketing firma The Comotion Group, en handelde over de geheime strategie die achter vele viral videos schuilt. Dat deze geheime strategie ingaat tegen alle regels die tot dan algemeen golden en zelfs op het [...]

[...] a few thousand hits over night, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, check this article out on TechCrunch. No Comments so far Leave a comment RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos Dan Ackerman Greenberg shows us the light, or does he? The comments here highlight some of the issues with trying to game the system for traffic. [...]

[...] recent post on Tech Crunch talks about how “two top Hollywood movie studios, a major record label, a variety [...]

[...] etici giocano, nel loro marketing, al poliziotto buono contro il poliziotto cattivo. In questo video-articolo sul viral, Michael Arrington ha commentato quanto era disgustato da questo approccio. Non poteva essere [...]

[...] Eigentlich eine simple Logik und unkomliziert zu schaffen. Früher war es TV, Radio und Zeitung die als Multiplikatoren dienten. Heute ist es das Interent mit den ganzen Multikommunikationskanälen. Die gezielte oder auch nicht gezielte Platzierung in Blogs, Social Networks, Foren, Communitys und weitere Zwitscherkanäle helfen dabei. Ich denke selbst vor Freunden, Bekannten, Verwandten oder Geschäftspartnern wird man nicht halt machen. Ich denke jede kennt das wenn ein lustiges Video im Posteingang ankommt und man es dann selbst wieder an einige Freunde verschickt. Dann wird man auch zum freiwiligen Multiplikator.  Die Empfänger werden sicherlich das Video wieder weiterverschicken. Es ist sogar schon vorgekommen, dass ich Videos dann von einen anderen Seite zu geschickt bekommen habe. So funktioniert als virales Marketing ;) verdammt ich bin freiwiliger Multiplikator. Weitere Tipps bekommt von TechCrunch. [...]

[...] helped teach an entire course at Stanford about Facebook and online marketing techniques — wrote a post for TechCrunch in which he detailed some of the tricks. There are even sites that claim to be able [...]

[...] 一些自称有道德的博客，在他们的营销中玩着好警察坏警察的游戏。在这个口碑营销窍门的帖子中，Michael Arrington说他感觉恶心的想吐。其实他不至于真的想吐，不然为什么要把这个视频放在他的网站上，那些浏览给他赚了不少钱。 [...]

[...] like that up. In case you don’t recognize the name, he’s the guy who wrote the TechCrunch article about how marketers can “game” YouTube with fake thumbnails, fake comments, et cetera. This blog called him the Wicked Witch of the West [...]

[...] Los nuevos contenidos de internet requieren nuevas formas de publicidad. [...]

[...] the infamous and hackled post by Dan Ackerman Greenberg? This viral video professional revealed some of his secrets in a guest [...]

[...] the infamous and hackled post by Dan Ackerman Greenberg? This viral video professional revealed some of his secrets in a guest [...]

[...] la pietra dello scandalo? Bhé, vi riporto di seguito alcune “regole” del post di Dan che vi consiglio di andare a leggere [...]

[...] hier könnte es sich übrigens um virale Werbung handeln, der Clip ist möglicherweise nachbearbeitet. Nur WER macht sowas – und WOFÜR? Ein [...]

[...] of WOO Agency, in a statement.” Which proves that his success is not random or just calculated corporate YouTube manipulation. Teens and tweens do really think he’s awesome. More details on [...]

[...] guys at Techcrunch last year mentioned a few strategies for successful viral campaigns. Our view is that no matter how [...]

[...] Regardless of how on point the show seems to be, there are still surely ways to monetize and utilize the power of viral video. Ad companies can take advantage of the aspects that make a video “viral” as long as they remember to point people back to the product they are selling. If the technology and opportunity exists, then why not take advantage of it? But is viral video an effective marketing strategy? It might be a few years before we are able to see the same kind of effect as traditional media, but we can’t wait around to get the ball rolling the way we want it to. Unfortunately, you can’t exactly make a video for your product, expect it to go viral on its own and then sit back and watch the dollars pour in, though. If you’re wondering how to make and aggregate a viral video— there’s a good post about it here. [...]

[...] samoprozvani etični blogeri se igraju dobrog i lošeg policajca u svrhu promocije. U ovom viralnom video isječku, Michael Arrington komentira kako mu se takva igra gadi. No Michael očito nije bio dovoljno protiv [...]

[...] as far as online movies go — is to strike lucky with a viral  video. A while ago Tech Crunch carried a candid piece by viral marketer Dan Ackerman Greenberg which detailed the lengths he went to with his Comotion Group to achieve viral [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

[...] pine for great viral videos, of course, but no matter how much sweat and HTML is spilled over the subject, there will never be a surefire formula for smash hit, mega-famo success. And if [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos – de titel zegt het al. Er komt veel bij kijken als je een filmpje “viral” wilt maken. [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

[...] Dan Ackerman Greenberg is a master at getting lots of views for online videos. Last year he wrote a less-than-well-received post here on TechCrunch called “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos.” [...]

[...] just got a $1 million investment. Dan Ackerman Greenberg, who caused quite a stir with his “Secret Strategies Behind Viral Videos,” is now 750 Industries. Or as TechCrunch put it, “The Viral Video Guy Gets $1 [...]

[...] Delicious Account The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos August 5, 2008BBC NEWS | Technology | The accelerator of the modern age August 5, 2008Flickr [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many (tags: viralmarketing tips marketing social viral toread) [...]

[...] article can be found here: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/, and the video can be found here: [...]

[...] Dan Ackerman Greenberg, “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos”, Tech Cru…, Michael Arrington, “Follow Up To The Viral Video Post: Dan Wants Another Word”, Tech [...]

[...] “The Secret Strategies Behind Many ‘Viral’ Videos” – TechCrunch “How To Make a Video Go Viral” – Technobabble “8 Tips to Make Your YouTube Video Go Viral” – WebInkNow [...]

[...] There are very dirty strategies to maximize your hits on video sharing websites. I doubt they are efficient for your conversion and satisfaction [...]

[...] Dan Ackerman Greenberg is a master at getting lots of views for online videos. Last year he wrote a less-than-well-received post here on TechCrunch called “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos.” [...]

[...] · Reply · View craigoda: This is Dan’s famous blog posting about viral videos http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ 2008-08-12 22:27:37 · Reply · View ShaniquaB: The secret ingredient is: ‘whimsy’. [...]

[...] of big brand virals have a lot of help, as the famously controversial (and essential) TechCrunch expose by Dan Ackerman Greenberg revealed. With so much content going up on the web each day, it would be [...]

[...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ [...]

[...] great guest article last week, where one of these professionals lets us in on the secrets of making videos explode over the [...]

[...] November 23, 2007 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ [...]

[...] guest post on TechCrunch revealed one firm’s approach to creating viral videos for clients, and it [...]

HEY VISIST MY WEBSITE NOW YOU WON”T REGRET IT.

BizzNett is the largest social network of its kind!

BizzNett is a Business, News, Lifestyle, and Entertainment social platform that connects its members to the world around them. People use BizzNett to keep up with the latest Business strategies, latest breaking News, Lifestyle, and the latest happenings in the Entertainment world. BizzNett users can upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, post Blogs and Events, share ideas and write columns in our Forums.

Anyone over the age of 18 can join BizzNett
All that’s needed to join BizzNett is a valid email address. Once you register and create your BizzNett account, you are enabling millions of people to find information about your business. With BizzNett, you can share your business interests, your products & services, your business experiences, and anything else you would like to share about you and your business.

Discover the people and the world around you
All content on BizzNett, from business blogs to business discussions to product and service listings are collectively rated by the users of BizzNett. Top rated content is pushed to the top of our content listings so you can find the most popular and trusted business information quickly and easily. So if you are looking for valuable business information online to help you build your business, don’t waste time searching for it anywhere else, it’s all right here on BizzNett!

Do and learn more with BizzNett
BizzNett’s Platform enables anyone, anywhere, to build a strong online presence. While you are building your current business by meeting, exploring and creating with other people online, you will also be exploring and sharing ways of making more money for your business. We know that this is a unique and powerful concept in the world of BizzNett. The concept is simple. The more content that you build at BizzNett, the more exposure you will have online. Your content can include things like your profile, video, photos, network bulletins, blogs, groups, discussions, forums, and so on. The more quality content you have means the more online presence you will have. Come and join the BizzNett Community now to enjoy and share the latest information about business how to’s, business news, marketing tips, success stories, search engine marketing, lifestyle, entertainment, and much more. Explore, discover and learn!

[...] http://sync.nl/superformule-voor-virals-di-900/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ [...]

[...] The second piece of bad news is that the immense power of Youtube is NOT a hidden secret.  It is a well known avenue for promotion and is becoming more competitive by the day.  Luckily, there is a lot that you can do to maximize the chances of your video’s success.  The nuts and bolts of a successful Youtube video — including choosing a title, selecting the proper video length, optimizing for thumbnails, promotion, tagging and more — are all covered by Dan Ackerman Greenberg in The Secret Strategies Behind Many Viral Videos. [...]

[...] equity, more sales, loyal customers, etc.  And while the methods for making viral videos can be kind of sleazy, creating something viral interests me from both a marketer’s and film enthusiast’s [...]

[...] Read Greenburg, A. (2007). The secret strategies many “viral” videos. TechCrunch. [0:10] link [...]

[...] reading Dan Akerman Greenberg’s post, The Secret Strategiest Behind Many “Viral” Videos. I at first though, well that’s kind of neat. You have a company, marketing company mind you, [...]

[...] nowadays spend vast amounts of time and money trying to get videos to go “viral”, the idea is to get enough people to watch the video that it starts hitting the “most [...]

[...] Here is a very good guide to create viral video. [...]

in other words, everyone on the internet should get a life or die. Especially virals, and viral maker(the biggest bitch)

[...] a rather revealing Internet article titled: The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos, author Dan Ackerman Greenburg gives his tried and true methods to push his clients YouTube videos [...]

[...] like a great way to reach a larger audience.  But the post written by Dan Ackerman Greenberg, The Secret Strategies Behind Many ”Viral” Videos says there is a science behind getting your video to be viewed by [...]

[...] the article, “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos“, Dan Ackerman Greenberg posts a few secret strategies used to get promotional [...]

[...] example, Dan Ackerman Greenberg wrote an article for techcrunch.com detailing “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos” and this article was commented on over 600 times and plenty of those comments were negative, [...]

This might be the most directly helpful post every written on TechCrunch, from a marketer’s perspective. I’ve been using this as the “viral video” introduction for everyone in my agency and all my clients who tell me I need to make their video viral for them.

Thanks Dan for “pulling back the curtains” on this.

Maybe Mike will let Dan do a followup post about how “viral video marketing” evolved from 2007 to 2008, now that landscape (including YouTube) has changed.

HMMM… I suspect that one of the clients he is talking about is the Nigahia movie that is being made at the moment – I knew it was too good to be true lol…

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

It truely amazes me that so many people still dont understand the benifit to having a video on the web. Here in South Africa we are fighting low speed high price internet, and most folks think viral video is something of the future – the comment I get is ” maybe in two years or so…” I just reply “the time is now”
My company Live Culture Entertainment has started to promote actors and other artists on youtube, giving them and their managers a powerfull marketing tool by producing
Audition Videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlfx80vnwZE
- the viral part is still hard for them to fully understand, but it puts the ball in their court -
My dalema is: how do I make people understand the power of this type of marketing?

just checking : Daniel Swain – Audition Video

[...] alle finte “recensioni degli utenti”. È passato molto tempo dallo scandaloso post di Dan Ackerman Greenberg su TechCrunch, che candidamente elencava le bieche tecniche usate dalla sua azienda di viral marketing per [...]

Get free HD movies and Trailers now !!

Thanks for the vid. Some good points, I have a few other free promotional ideas listed here:

[...] que d’autres ? Bien sûr, leur contenu est important, mais leur succès repose avant sur une démarche savamment orchestrée. Sans entrer dans les détails, sachez que la vidéo doit être courte et surtout ne pas ressembler [...]

[...] year, TechCrunch featured an article entitled “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos“, which basically walked through a process of how to game and spam YouTube for viral video [...]

[...] Read Greenburg, A. (2007). The secret strategies many “viral” videos. TechCrunch. [0:10] link [...]

[...] I first read this controversial post by Dan Ackerman Greenberg, I had mixed feelings.My nagging suspicions of wondering if some [...]

[...] Regardless of how on point the show seems to be, there are still surely ways to monetize and utilize the power of viral video. Ad companies can take advantage of the aspects that make a video “viral” as long as they remember to point people back to the product they are selling. If the technology and opportunity exists, then why not take advantage of it? But is viral video an effective marketing strategy? It might be a few years before we are able to see the same kind of effect as traditional media, but we can’t wait around to get the ball rolling the way we want it to. Unfortunately, you can’t exactly make a video for your product, expect it to go viral on its own and then sit back and watch the dollars pour in, though. If you’re wondering how to make and aggregate a viral video— there’s a good post about it here. [...]

very informative :)

Got some really nice tips.. i havent thought that you can do such a huge campaign in viral marketing..thanks for sharing ..i bookmarked it ;)

Very interesting post, i bookmarked your blog, thanks for share
i will visit your blog later

[...] opmærksomhed. Dan Ackerman Greenberg fra The Comotion Group har i et indlæg på TechCrunch listet flere mere eller mindre beskedte metoder til viral markedsføring. [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos (tags: youtube viral video) [...]

Hey
great post!

TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR THIS BADLY PLANNED IDEA!!! THIS GUY AND THIS GROUP OF WANNABEES ARE GOING TO SELF IMPLODE.

[...] would help consumers understand the moldability of information. For example, in “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos,” Dan Ackerman Greenberg confesses to manipulating search engines, RSS feeds and even [...]

CONGRATS on your success Dan!……I do like your style.

[...] Greenburg, A. (2007). The secret strategies many “viral” videos. TechCrunch. [...]

[...] Ackerman acknowledges a part of this idea in his blog posting “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos.” In his attempt to get 50,000 views of a video he has posted, he would “reach out to [...]

[...] or idea known or in some cases a random video known.  According to Greenburg’s article “The Secret Strategies Behind Mant “Viral” Videos” YouTube gets uploading with “estimates between 10-65,000 video per day.”  They key to [...]

[...] “Okemo trail ride” were easily swallowed up by other videos posted with the same file name.  Greenberg points out those social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are key to advertising your work [...]

[...] Don’t misunderstand me, Greenberg is an enormously bright entrepreneurial spirit, I am just disappointed to know that people can make money – and I’d bet lots of it – by figuring out ways to make millions of people watch a video online despite the acknowledgment that “good content is not necessary.” [...]

[...] effectively seeded and marketed in order for people to see it and spread it to others. The entry “The Secret Strategies Behind Many ‘Viral’ Videos” on the blog TechCruch was posted by guest blogger, Dan Ackerman Greenberg, about his work [...]

[...] Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s Secret Strategies Behind Many ‘Viral’ Videos article, he shares his tips on how he helps companies get their videos online to go viral (at least [...]

[...] meine Forschung bin ich unter anderem auf einen interessanten Artikel gestoßen, der sich mit der „professionellen“ Manipulation von Youtube-Nutzern befasst. Genauer gesagt geht es um die Tricks und Kniffe, die angewandt werden, um Videos dabei zu [...]

hey, i have over 260,000 views on one of my videos and even 372,000 views on another, and i never cheated by using any of these techniques.
i just uploaded, gave an honest title and description, and they now have a butt load of views.
you can get views AND have integrity.
this article teaches you how to be a spammer and get evryone to hate you.

the point of posting videos every few days is to get more subs post all at once to get more views but a nice series keeps you uploading more often and makes people sub and not say oh he never uploads and then they leave

Wow. This is a great article! I would love to have Dan come train my fleet of interns and turn them into viral experts! Dan, you interested?

Nice Article ,, it will help us while using you tubes,,I think we should follow these tips.

——–

brianna

Link Building

[...] very helpful piece of advise from Professor Halavais is one of the links form module 4, “The Secret Strategies Behind Many ‘Viral’ Videos“. This article mostly speaks about how to make a video a “Viral Video”. But it [...]

Hmmm, pay bloggers to play videos, misleading titles, playing the demographics, creating a buzz…sounds like network television advertising to me.

dciwy fpysvoglh mjov ofnesav acevsqtn spwmnfz layrqbhwt

This has given me a great new idea to scam people out of thousands of dollars. I’ll start my own online marketing company and make peoples videos go viral. I’m going to start the beginnings of it right now.

Anyone else interested in starting an online marketing company that does the same things as this with me?

Dwayne.
http://probablysucks.com/

[...] week ago Dan Greenberg wrote a post on Techcrunch which describes how to game YouTube to make videos go viral.  This has created quite [...]

[...] I first read this controversial post by Dan Ackerman Greenberg, I had mixed [...]

[...] problem working with PIP and submitting Youtube videos to stay hip with the times as explained by Greenburg from the last [...]

hello

Oh god

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=763vmCrRBDg

hope to like it…

Anna Vissi is a Cypriot-Greek singer, famous mainly in Greece, and her home country Cyprus, with minor international success in the United States. Since 1995, she has gone 28x platinum in Greece and in 2005, she also enjoyed success in the US, claiming the number one position on the Billboard Dance Charts with “Call Me”.

[...] the ire of the very vocal online community. So marketers need to tread lightly. Just check out the comments from people who responded to Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s post on TechCrunch titled, “The [...]

[...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ [...]

Good post

[...] Hoe krijg je een goede virale campagne volgens: Remco Bron http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ Hoe krijg je een goede virale campange volgens: Guest Author van techcrunch.com. [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos Get tips on how to make your videos go viral. (tags: media mediaconsortium buildtheecho You_Tube impact) [...]

This post is GENIOUS! For all us kapitalists I mean.
Everybody whining on this thread are probably alternative hippies :d

but thx a lot for the info
great post!

[...] Ackerman Greenberg, en un artículo publicado a finales del año pasado en TechCrunch (del que me entero gracias a Ramiro), cuenta algunos secretos que él ha utilizado para crear este [...]

good

[...] mga manunulat na na gumagamit ng stratehiyang ‘god cop bad cop’. Sa viral na videong ito, Michael Arrington ihinhayag niya kung paano cya nasuklam dito. Sukdulan ang kanyang pagkasuklam na [...]

Keep in mind you should be tracking your efforts on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Then divide all the people you sponsored this month, by the monthly lead purchase expense. This will result in showing you exactly how much it costs to sponsor one person. This is the figure you should use to determine whether a lead system is good, bad or average
———–
kesha

massachusetts drug rehab

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

[...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ [...]

[...] viral.” But it’s been my experience that it’s never something you can plan for, unless you pay for it like Dan Greenberg suggests but that just means it really isn’t viral at all – it’s [...]

Absolutely awesome advice! You are right on about making the videos go viral by seeding them as much as possible. Also i have noticed PR firms struggle with this new media craze and can only write press releases and send them out! Keep up the good knowledge sharing!

[...] gibt zwar auf dem Internet haufenweise Tipps für die Gestaltung eines erfolgreichen viralen Videos, wissenschaftliche Arbeiten zum Thema gibt es aber noch sehr wenige. Ich will in diesem [...]

[...] Het blijft echter wel een etische kwestie hoe ver je daar in gaat, zo was wel te merken toen dit controversiele lijstje werd [...]

nice work

Pretty unethical, I would say, as one who grew up with a sense of ethics. Paying bloggers to post videos? Having your staff post phony comments? Those are the kind of tactics that give PR a black eye.

[...] in Uncategorized at 15:28 by neinteresant In timp ce citeam aici despre cum ajunge un filmulet viral, am dat peste asta(pe care nu il stiam desi era [...]

Hi,
Your name seems so familar; where are you from?
Casey

[...] sim, e faz tempo. vídeos virais são parte da estratégia de muita gente e há muito tempo. há companhias que se especializaram nisso, [...]

[...] Bloggers spelen good cop/bad cop met hun marketing. Michael Arrington gaf naar aanleiding van dit viral video tips blog post te kennen hoe walgelijk hij het wel niet vond. Kennlijk vond hij het niet geheel walgelijk, [...]

[...] more ideas? Here’s a great article from [...]

this is a pretty good articial but I know how to dominate YouTube and Google In under 48 hrs see the proof at

http://www.youtubesecretsexposed.com

I guarantee you will be amazed by what you see

[...] über 500 Kommentare hat dieser TechCrunch Artikel erhalten und wurde höchst kritisch an mancher Stellen wie hier oder hier [...]

Good article. A quick google search on “how to make a viral video” brought me here. BTW the article was the 3rd on the result page. What you said is true and is not illegal. For example Microsoft did not get to where it is today by adopting a “softly softly” approach. I aim to use the tips to create my own viral:)

all advertising is a manipulation…..nothing new here just a different strategy as technology creates new methods; read the Simulacra by Beaudrllard…the west is a fabricated illusion. Ads just add to it.

[...] Read it here. [...]

[...] more great video marketing idea visit a post on techcrunch Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Viral Video MarketingCan online viral video clips [...]

click =P

watch meeeeeeee

[...] a vírusmarketing videó tippek blog bejegyzésben, Michael Arrington azt írta kommentjében, mennyire felháborodott a bejegyzést olvasva. Nos, [...]

Had this page open in my browser for ages, just read it now. Pure genius. Respect…!

check out this video; the next big thing:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVZW6TRpbtQ

Awesome post, thanks for sharing!

http://www.videomarketerpro.com

[...] The secret strategies behind many “viral videos” [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

Starting conversations with yourself to get views? Wouldn’t that make you some kind of nutjob who talks to a sockpuppet? And besides, if you get famous through this, won’t you end up losing all of your dignity in the process?

wow.. a celebrity has been spotted in a hotel:) http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ax9dmTbu8mM

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ba6cuTJFBDo

[...] of his career, or the most brilliant … depending on how you look at it.   The post was a guest piece for TechCrunch, one of the most widely read blogs in the world.   In it, he described the real tactics his firm [...]

marketing is a dishonest business. always has been, always will be. with the internet comes bold new platforms for media and therefore bold new methods of burning brands into people’s brains.

i applaud dan for openly discussing his strategies, even though i think it was more him being oblivious to the fact that people may take offense than anything.

to all who are disgusted… it’s up to you what you watch on the net, what you buy at the store, what films you see, etc. wield the mighty power of the consumer well and simply do not lend yourselves towards dan’s impressions. if you’re going to be appalled by the commercialization described here, then you best also boycott most hollywood films, tv shows, music videos, etc. almost every piece of media being released to the world in 2009 has some for of product placement or outright endorsement… in fact, you probably should not even be reading or writing anything on this site… because every time you do you are helping Tech Crunch get their metrics up and get more $$$ for their ad space…

rage against the machine if you must, but lay off dan. for every one of he who is brave enough to disclose and discuss his business, there’s 1,000 others engaged in similar if not worse tactics that you will never hear admit a thing.

welcome to 2009 people.

Those are some great tips.

answeraddict.com

[...] Do I Get My Videos Viewed? Keven, You should definitely check out this excellent article: The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos – [...]

[...] of nowhere. They somehow capture the zeitgeist of the Web and often involve dancing. But can the success of a viral video be repeated with a sequel? After all, these often don’t have brand-name stars or big [...]

[...] tutti quelli che sono interessati a saperne di più rimando a questo link. [...]

“Friends: Make sure everyone we know watches the video and try to get them to email it out to their friends, or at least share it on Facebook.”

Screw the rest, nothing new or unexpected. Getting popular on digg or someplace else ain’t much different. But I really like to know is the above okay and understandable for everyone?

CONTENT IS NOT KING!!! damn right! good job. good article. we have the same view in viral marketing.

bottom line is that you make the product/service famous! people just don’t notice that by them making an issue out of it, makes the viral video a success.

hope to work with you someday!

Viral video marketing is a tough area. Corporates need to get better at it in order to make a big splash although they still seem stuck in the world of pointless TV ads. Thanks for the informative article.

[...] “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos” Written by Dan Ackerman Greenberg. [...]

Thank you! This is really helpful =)

[...] The secret strategies behind many viral videos – TechCrunch article into viral video promotion from the head of viral video marketing company The Comotion Group. See also this follow-up article, which clears up a few misundertandings from the original post. [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos __________________ VB has me on vacation… no HB’s allowed I guess [...]

Hello. And Bye. :)

[...] video viral kan gaan. Maar liefst 112.165.794 keer bekeken! Hoe wordt een video een goede viral? Hier enkele inzichten. Wil je meer goede viral videospul zien? Klik hier voor een Top [...]

[...] video marketing company, was the subject of a guest interview in Techcrunch. His article, entitled The Secret Strategies behind many “Viral” videos, received a barrage of criticism. Mostly due to the perceived dubious techniques he claimed to [...]

[...] relatively old post by viral marketeer Dan Greenberg should lead some people to say … probably [...]

Genius! Thanks Dan!

Yeah and Jay-z Did a song about Skinny jeans!

ON Itunes!

goog

Thanks for pulling back the curtain on all of this and leveling the playing field. But now that all these strategies are public (and I assume not as useful anymore), when are you going to write about the REAL Secret Strategies?

[...] President of WOO Agency, in a statement.” Which proves that his success is not random or just calculated corporate YouTube manipulation. Teens and tweens do really think he’s awesome. More details on [...]

Really unethical article, although it is true that you must do whatever is possible to expand a brand, actually deceiving the public just because you can is not the best way either, besides, when people have the slightest feeling something is purposely attached to advertising then people back off. It shouldn’t be about cheating, it should be about being creative, people like that, and if it is creative it will grow by itself

cool. I plan on using these strategies and see if the video of my dachsund licking his balls gets a million views.

[...] This extract was taken from a post written by Dan Ackerman Greenberg, co-founder of viral video marketing company The Comotion Group and lead TA for the Stanford Facebook Class. Dan will graduate from the Stanford Management Science & Engineering Masters program in June. (Orginal Post Here) [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many "Viral" Videos addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fwww.symposia.se%2F2009%2F02%2Flinks-for-2009-02-17%2F’; addthis_title = ‘links+for+2009-02-17′; addthis_pub = ”; « links for 2009-02-16 [...]

[...] great guest article last week, where one of these professionals lets us in on the secrets of making videos explode over the [...]

[...] to an article on TechCrunch.com, there are “secret strategies” to getting a ton of views on your video – that viral [...]

This is an interesting comment. I might actually follow your advice when I’m done editing the other makeup tutorial videos I have for youtube upload.

Here is an example

[...] an article last week on TechCrunch it was described how enterprises push its viral video-advertisement artificially. Besides, the [...]

these methods r needed if u want your video to be seen…10,000 new vids a day and most being a total waste of time..if your vid is worth seeing use the methods…

Given your ethics, how can a potential client be sure that you and your employees (or some electronic gadget) are not clicking on any given video, making it look viral?

Sophie

[...] you a video that has gained “viral” status, keep your sanitizing wipes handy. In a guest post on TechCrunch, Dan Greenberg details how his company, The Comotion Group, takes promotional videos [...]

[...] Start with this article … [...]

I thought it was a real informative blog actually!

[...] post by Dan Ackerman Greenberg on the TechCrunch blog highlights some secret strategies these firms use to make videos “go” popular [...]

[...] James, Here’s an awesome resource that dissects the different elements of creating a viral video: The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos Here’s one of my favorite viral marketing [...]

The easiest and quickest way to get famous on YouTube is to get on the most viewed channels list, and how do you get there?
Simple: you buy channel views from me $3 per 1000 views! Your channel will be on that list in no time!

e-mail me if interested: kevin_drijver13@hotmail.com

This isn’t surprising. It’s good to hear someone come forward and spell out how big companies are manipulating things in their favor. Overall a cool read. Thx.

Now watch this and feel better:

[...] Originally Posted by Playoff1 I don’t have enough links to post a link but search this on youtube Exclusive! Leaked! How to make Viral Videos! It’s a fairly new concept that I will be doing a lot more research on. I think that I will invest some time in attempting to make some videos that garner some attention. The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

LoL, man, are the people on here from the twilight zone? Since when is YouTube some kind of sacred lamb? I go on YouTube to be entertained, which includes often reading the fights that break out between users. It seems that most of the people leaving comments on here about these tactics being “immoral” or “unethical” because they create the illusion of popularity on a video… give me a break! What, you can’t tell if it’s entertaining for yourself? You’re afraid that if other people seem interested (who are company employees) it will taint your perception of how cool the video is and you might make a fool of yourself by recommending it to someone else? Yeesh

[...] Originally Posted by grandstar Thanks a lot guys. Keep it coming if you have more info The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

[...] this guy’s talent… he is definitely going places. Here’s an awesome article about viral videos: The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos – [...]

[...] [...]

[...] marketing è Dan Ackerman Greenberg che ha scritto un brillante ed esaustivo post sul tema del viral marketing su Youtube, svelando tutti i trucchi e segreti del [...]

[...] viral? It’s pretty freakin hard as it turns out. Some of the successful ones out there were secretly promoted by companies hired to ensure virality. Some just got lucky. And some are really just… That. [...]

So a bunch of spammers and trolls hired to spam your video and troll the comment section? and people wonder why spam works…

Like it or not, this will be Dan’s legacy. It would be difficult to top the kind of attention this post has got.

What Dan promote’s is only a certain category of Viral Videos. But I am going to have to disagree with the content is not king statement. If you have a crap video, your friends won’t post it on MySpace because it’s embarrassing. Bloggers won’t do it because they get outed.

The content he works with is higher quality than average so it automatically makes content a big part of the equation.

[...] Dirty viral marketing Dit is veel succesvoller maar op het randje van de regelgeving en zeker niet eerlijk. En daarom stiekem veel toegepast door de grote partijen, claimen sommige. [...]

[...] Dirty viral marketing Dit is veel succesvoller maar op het randje van de regelgeving en zeker niet eerlijk. En daarom stiekem veel toegepast door de grote partijen, claimen sommige. [...]

What a way to work… Remember the day when a person produced a video to show aspects of their company and placed it on a video site so people could see it. That’s really what it’s all about. Not someone who posts videos for the fun of it because the video is cool, exciting, shocking…etc. What this is really getting is attempting to duplicate the success of some “dude’s” video for corporate purposes…and it’s very transparent.

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

[...] TechCrunch tiene las siguientes estrategias para crear un vídeo viral: [...]

[...] creating branding awareness through generally available social media marketing channels (such as video, email, social media applications, i.e.).  This type of viral marketing can be exploited by any [...]

[...] ejemplo, TechCrunch habla de 15-30’’, Amo a Laura duraba casi 2 minutos, en la lista de 2006 de ViralFactory (que [...]

[...] Don’t have millions of dollars to hire an ad agency like these guys did? Good. Most viral videos can (and should) be cheap to make. There’s no 5 step check list to ensuring your You Tube video gets 5 million views (unless you outsource an army of “clickers”) but as a reminder, here’s an old (but I might say classic) breakdown on the secrets of viral videos. [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” videos [TechCrunch] [...]

[...] “The internet is fake, you can see the strings” – web comment no. 217 on The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

hm… love it..

Any strategies you can share for building a more targeted audience?

[...] Youtube, Dan colecionou algumas dicas que compartilhou com os leitores do Techcrunch hoje à tarde, num post para o qual foi convidado a colaborar. Segue um [...]

[...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ [...]

[...] ejemplo, TechCrunch habla de 15-30’’, Amo a Laura duraba casi 2 minutos, en la lista de 2006 de ViralFactory (que [...]

I know this post was made a year and a half ago but it still makes for very interesting reading. I’m curious if you know what steps (if any) YouTube has taken to thwart this amazing series of steps you employ for your clients’ videos?

[...] YouTube videos is nothing new. Here’s a great guest post by Dan Ackerman on TechCrunch about making videos go viral. Pay particular attention to tip # 5 about selecting the right midpoint image/thumbnail image for [...]

Good one.

Can someone help me?

I need to get this video viral;

I’ve tried some of the strategies on this page, but without any success.
Anyone up for the challenge? I could really use some assistance.
Thanks

It is a misleading strategy but one people definitely use. Using the wrong keywords or putting an attractive woman in for no reason might get the video hits but a lot of those people will be clicking off right away. You have to ask yourself what you really want, as many views as possible no matter if they watch it or not, or views by people who are truly interested. If you ask me nothing replaces word of mouth. Tell people about it in person, over email, post on message boards, subscribe to similar YouTube channels. Just do the legwork and it will get some views. Like the guy says fire your PR firm and do it yourself.

[...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/   [...]

Its Really a good site. I have Collected lot of info in here.Thanks For Sharing

Very interesting article… sounds like a lot of work that “might” pay off.. its all about video application… I own a small media company in Niagara Falls… I truly can understand the importance of marketing under the radar such as this…but when the end of the day arrives… and you lay your head down at night…. how many people have your really fucked along the way….NONE!!! how many of you will follow this message because I’m not creating a straight answer… I’m on the fence…. exactly what is to be expected….

employee…

[...] Het blijft echter wel een ethische kwestie hoe ver je daar in gaat, zo was wel te merken toen dit controversiele lijstje werd [...]

[...] ejemplo, TechCrunch habla de 15-30’’, Amo a Laura duraba casi 2 minutos, en la lista de 2006 [...]

[...] Dan Ackerman Greenberg, esperto di viral marketing su internet fornisce qualche consiglio in un post, che seppur un po’ datato, contiene regole sempreverdi per rendere veramente virale un video su [...]

[...] is a fantastic, yet controversial, post on TechCrunch that does provide valuable information on how you can get attention for your video on [...]

wow this is the best article on viral video marketing

Great Articles! Thanks for sharing your ideas. Somehow helpful. :-)

Hi there, If you don’t like topics with many links, just delete this topic.
Thankyou.

[...] Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos. When a million people see the same video, it’s often the result [...]

[...] auto-proclamados blogueiros éticos brincam de mocinho e vilão em seu mercado. Nesse post com dicas para vídeos virais, Michael Arrington comentou sobre como ele estava incomodado com isso. Ele não poderia estar tão [...]

How many of these comments are faked? :P

Taking a note from your own book i see…

[...] mga manunulat na na gumagamit ng stratehiyang ‘god cop bad cop’. Sa viral na videong ito, Michael Arrington ihinhayag niya kung paano cya nasuklam dito. Sukdulan ang kanyang pagkasuklam na [...]

well i dont need you guys.

Wow, great article, thanks a lot

[...] do you make your video, idea or business promotion go viral? Here are some tips from a pro marketer to make your help your video go viral. Paying attention to what is going on around you is [...]

A good guide, I don’t think I’ll be attempting to make a viral video anytime soon though (Or will I.. Hmmm…)

I am doing a research on viral marketing for my master. The purpose of the research is to analyze three successful viral marketing campaigns. If you want to participate, please click this link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=kir1HOU0ur4YjWIbqTy1QQ_3d_3d

Thanks

you are 1000000000000000000% right. take a look at one of the best web comedy on youtube
and you will get all your answers how 2 make
a good viral vid.

well, you could use viewtubetrain.com.

nice secrets thank you dear. and your blog too rocking.

[...] Re: I’m looking for HIGHLY EFFECTIVE viral marketing techniques… Here’s a great article about Viral Videos: The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

thansk for explaining all this, so wonderful.

Nice, i love the thinking… and although it might be ethically wobbly, its started the conversation and given all the videos more exposure. Job well done then.

Love it or hate it, these things really work amazingly well no doubt. So obvious and yet it had never crossed my mind,

I don’t see how giving a little misleading info can violate anything, how many adverts have you all seen on tv and genuinely thought it was on about something else,

like for instance an advert featuring top of the range sports cars, only it turns out to be an advert for coffee!! surely this is just a similar thing, its just gripping others attention,

yeah, maybe the majority of those who click on your video maybe be annoyed and click straight off, but on average there will always be those few who won’t care that the title was misleading as their attention will turn to the video you’ve presented to them,

they’ll forget what they were ever looking for and suddenly they are listening to your latest music release, etc.

overall I think it’s a very clever idea and it helps to promote people who don’t have access to huge advertising budgets,

When a company places an advert on TV, they know full well that not everyone who see’s it is going to be a potential customer, but do they care, no, because they know that someone will se it who is interested in their product and thats all that matters.

Thanks for a great post :)

Most of this information is old hat and against TOS, but there are a few good nuggets in here if you look.

If anyone is looking for is for help in making and distributing viral videos …please contact us at http://www.productionboys.com

i dunno about the article but the comments are a great read!!

[...] orinal interview with Dan can be found here at TechCrunch Related posts:YouTube Announces New Revenue Sharing Program2 Ways to Get More Traffic, 1 Way to [...]

[...] da die durchschaubaren Sortierungen zum Manipulieren einladen. Nicht umsonst existieren jede Menge Anleitungen, wie man diese Listen zu seinen Gunsten nutzen [...]

[...] 一些自称有道德的博客，在他们的营销中玩着好警察坏警察的游戏。在这个口碑营销窍门的帖子中，Michael Arrington说他感觉恶心的想吐。其实他不至于真的想吐，不然为什么要把这个视频放在他的网站上，那些浏览给他赚了不少钱。 [...]

[...] an original TechCrunch article by Dan Ackerman [...]

[...] anche io voglio pubblicare un video che raccolga 100.000 visite, ho preso spunto dal post di TechCrunch (l’indirizzo è giusto ma l’articolo è scomparso) per buttare giù questa lista di 11 [...]

I like “Strategic Tagging: Leading viewers down the rabbit hole” the most. I have to try that with my one videos. Great post and real good advice, thanks.

[...] anche io voglio pubblicare un video che raccolga 100.000 visite, ho preso spunto dal post di TechCrunch (l’indirizzo è giusto ma l’articolo è scomparso) per buttare giù questa lista di 11 [...]

[...] Generatia spam care nu mai vizeasa sa inventeze ceva, ca nu are de ce. Tot ce trebuie sa stii este aici, imediat, la dispozitie. Spus de altii care stiu cum se face. [...]

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.

I am glad to see a real expert talking about video marketing and “Viral Videos”. There’s a lot of mess out there floating around and the truth is that a true Viral Video is definitely not going to succeed without a little help these days!…. That’s the reason I created http://www.videomarketingonline.com
To show people just whats out there and how they can get it when it comes to optimizing their online video campaigns.

[...] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/ [...]

[...] Risks to Your Company When Using Social Media, which reminded me of TechCrunch’s article, The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos, from a while back. Although the activities discussed in these two articles are quite different [...]

[...] All-In-One: Social Marketing Strategies List of useful Social Marketing Strategy links: The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos 101 Business Twitter Ideas, Tactics, and Strategies | 123 Social Media Social Media News and Web [...]

[...] products and services, often in a non-obvious manner, such as with viral videos. In the blog post ‘The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos’, Dan Ackerman Greenberg, co-founder of viral video marketing company The Comotion Group explains in [...]

[...] so thats how they do it…cheaters. Wow Dan Greenberg’s piece The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos gives awesome tips on how to increase views of your videos. I always wondered how certain people [...]

[...] to be made here about the work that goes into pushing our blogs to the rest of the world. In “The Secret Strategies Behind Many Viral Videos,” the author shares many of his tactics to making YouTube videos become so popular. I personally [...]

[...] is the case with Dan Greenberg, whose viral video strategies we read about in Module 4. While it is probably naive for anyone that shares or views videos [...]

Is that possibly a universtity workshop project to trace viral distribution on themes with moral ambiguity? Dans too silly argumentation about his motives point that way.
Companies working like that never make their business case and methods really public, they would be cold meat to their best customers.
But the methods shown are real and obviously widespread.
I always wondered about the scoring in Youtube, even provided methods of fraudulent ranking are quite common – but now I seem to know.

great article, more and more small business will move towards video ads to market their company/products

“Fake” views aren’t an issue if you’re tracking the click-through count. Plus the “fake” views are views after all.

[...] I know our friend Dan Greenberg is not a blogger. But after reading about his viral video strategies,  it was encouraging to hear this Marketplace report on new federal guidelines for certain types [...]

[...] YouTube Guide [...]

Why not just have your minions create 100,000 accounts, login in all day and watch the same videos across 50 computers, 5 browsers a piece. I’m ok with the pay per pst stuff in working with bloggers, etc. But the phony comment arguments, that is ridiculous. How do you report the 100′s of video views that your team is obviously wracking up? I’m surprised at how dense your clients must be… and your work proves that bad business is still business.

Or he’s posting a large load of crap to do nothing but start conversation, and have a few more people click to his videos… DUH. I would have used a picture of Cher or something thought, insyead of the picture from my phone that my high school gf took of me

The funny thing is that the term “viral video” is not something that is to be marveled at like ooo, that’s new. Everything that goes on the web is “viral”. If people are looking for somehing other than the standard seo techniques and video linking which is time consuming, atlhough very, VERY worthwhile. Try something that takes plays on the Actual viewers eyes. I use this for on 4 of my videos and it works great since I incorporated it. The URL is long so sorry for that. This is a script that you put in to your YouTube profile. If you have problems with it you can email the owner at the bottom of the page. He was quick to respond when I had questions. Hope his helps,
http://www.stumbleuponguru.com/AFFILIATE%20marketing%20categories/youtube/killervideoconversions/index.html

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos – Dan Ackermann Greenberg [...]

I’m glad he did a follow up. he needed it. pretty shady sounding

This article is a perfect example of creating controversy…as I look at the comments above IT WORKS!!! Ha ha ha!

These days all you really need for a viral video is something out of the ordinary. Something that to anyone watching it will find it amazing.

[...] the video’s response had nothing to do with these so-called viral video rules: Make it short: 15-30 seconds is ideal; break down long stories into bite-sized clips Design for [...]

[...] of viral videos here, so stay tuned. A brief post about Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s, “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos” is coming up [...]

[...] viral videos ICM 501 A | For those of you unfamiliar with Dan Ackerman Greenberg ’s article, “The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos”, I suggest that you read it. This article was certainly news to me… and is something to be [...]

[...] his short but informative offering on TechCrunch, “The Secret Strategies Behind Many ‘Viral’ Videos,” Dan [...]

[...] toward new technology is really obvious. For example, Greenburg, A. (2007), in his article “The secret strategies many “viral” videos“, indicated that he was working in a company and his job is to make videos [...]

[...] cost way for companies to market themselves to the public. The second, and slightly more sinister Secret Strategies… blog posting from Dan Greenberg was more of a how-to manual on the best ways to exploit it. Of [...]

How many of y’all commenters are from the same company?

[...] the article, The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos, I see a strange and dangerous turn taking place. These marketing campaigns are trying to control [...]

[...] reading The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos, it made me think of how stupid some of the viral videos that are being put up on Youtube this year [...]

[...] the xplosion of information on the internet means high signal-noise ratio. we need filtering mechanisms – friends, trusted sources, or our own motivation to check it out for ourselves. as my mother told me: ‘question everything’. but even our friends and large media outlets have limited time and resources. things need to posted as soon as received, otherwise it’s not current – 48 hours after posting to youtube, you gotta get your vid 50,000 hits to get up there on the daily most-watched, otherwise you go down to the weekly most watched according to dan ackerman greenburg. [...]

Very enlightening, didn’t know this sort of stuff actually went on!

[...] clear that we don’t “find” things on the web – they’re sold to us. Consider this article from Techcrunch about “secret web strategies.” Among the big secrets, the author suggests (if you’re posting on YouTube, for example) to [...]

[...] on the Blog Marketing Journal today, we discussed this post that popped up on TechCrunch yesterday. As we said in the other post, this has become quite the [...]

[...] viral videos with points taken from the original TechCrunch article by Dan Ackerman. Check it out The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos. Categories: Aquapax Brief Tags: Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Leave a comment [...]

[...] Dan Ackerman wrote a blog post on TechCrunch about how to get viral videos and his #2 tip is titled “Content Is Not King”.  He believes that there are many other factors that are more important than just what you actually put in the video.  You can read the blog post here. [...]

[...] Ein “Geheimrezept” für erfolgreiche Virale Videos bietet Dan Ackerman Greenberg auf http://www.techcrunch.com. [...]

[...] that time our band of ICMers was discussing the disgusting viral video manipulation described in The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos. Something has been bothering me about those two seemingly unrelated stories and I couldn’t [...]

This post is like my bible…

[...] article on what makes a video viral Advertising Age article on successful viral ad campaigns TechCrunch article about viral video strategy Web Ink article on viral success on Youtube Now that you are finished reading, check out the [...]

This may be effective and I don’t doubt for one second that there’s a lot of people and businesses using tactics like this but that doesn’t mean it’s right.

It’s hard enough to get noticed on YouTube as it is without spamming companies like this working like crazy to make it even more difficult.

What you’re really doing is raising the bar higher so that the “little guy” has less of a chance than ever.

Also, from what I’ve seen on the YouTube blog and forums lately, manipulating the thumbnail image has gotten harder to do because they no longer pick a frame from the exact middle of the video. They’re now using an algorithm that, among other things, avoids picking frames anywhere near a hard cut.

I get questions about distributing viral videos often with my HD Production Company, Saturnalia Productions – http://www.saturnaliaproductions.com/

There is some good information in this blog. I’ll try to post some more information when I have a bit more time.

[...] over at TechCrunch a post was made by a guest blogger Dan Ackerman Greenberg that was, to say the least, controversial. Mr. [...]

[...] bloggar: Viral marketing (Rolig film + YouTube) + Slipad PR byrå ———————- = Uppmärksamhet Jag har inget att tillägga. Jo OK lite. En kund i Danmark [...]

I can see how that would create views but how would it affect the people who are looking at the video expecting to be either entertained or educated. We have a few videos up on youtube but I don’t think I would ever condone the type of trickery he is referring to, we are the church of seven planes, I happen to be the president of the church.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Sevenplanes
http://www.sevenplanes.org

Interesting ARticle,
speaking of youtube
if Chester Bennington, Quintin Tarantino and David Drainman had an orgy, this guy would somehow be born.

Can’t help but wonder how many of these comments starting controversy are really by the author….

[...] Beitrag von Dan Ackerman Greenberg über virale Videos (englisch) Tipps für inhaltlich orientierte Videos (englisch) Blogeintrag Suchmaschinenoptimierung [...]

All of you act like it’s immoral to comment back and forth on a video between your own accounts.

Seriously?

Who gives a rats ass? Dan is being a smart business man.

Tiger Woods screws around on his wife and you guys probably still wack it to him while telling Dan how immoral he is.

Get the hell off here and go donate to Green Peace or something important rather than getting high and mighty on such an innocent thing as posting comments on your own video.

[...] 一些自称有道德的博客，在他们的营销中玩着好警察坏警察的游戏。在这个口碑营销窍门的帖子中，Michael Arrington说他感觉恶心的想吐。其实他不至于真的想吐，不然为什么要把这个视频放在他的网站上，那些浏览给他赚了不少钱。 [...]

Yeah but you can’t argue with results. Are you guys employees of said company? lol

Quite an old post…so hoping the new FTC Ruling has had an effect on this.

I recently tried the Fake Headline trick and already improved my hits. But most of my films have actual content… sobering article, received w/ thanks just the same.

[...] Interesting Example, [...]

I’ve read alot of these comments. People seem to really be bothered by this.

PEOPLE: it’s the fucking INTERNET. Where was I when everyone raised their standards here. Wait, are we even allowed to have standards on the internet?

What a great article! I never knew viral marketing is this important!

[...] The secret strategies behind many viral videos – TechCrunch article into viral video promotion from the head of viral video marketing company The Comotion Group. See also this follow-up article, which clears up a few misundertandings from the original post. [...]

[...] by accident, but if you do your research, you can increase your chances of having a viral success. TechCrunch’s The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos gives us some ideas, including choosing the right title for your piece, as well as tagging, [...]

I’ll host videos on my blog for cash. I’m on a limited income and anything helps. :o)

I guess it’s “Fake it till you make it”

I have about 90 songs posted on Youtube and people are saying I will someday be well known. My ratings are pretty high – almost 5 for all 90 and I am told by many I am very good at singing! I am a cousin to Eva Tanguay and Celine Dion – (Eva was the 1920′s Do Not Care Girl – I have someone who tweets me…and I have other stuff here and there…I have almost 300 subscribers and lots of fans to my channel….but would really like to get heard by more and go viral. I am just turned 18 and have one contract offer…with a possible better second. I sing Country, Opera, and Pop…. and people tell me I am very beautiful….so what am I not doing on Youtube to get heard by more people?????? Help?

[...] Related Articles: Is S Viral + Monetizable = StartUp Magic Quadrant The Secret Strategies behind Viral Videos OfficeMax’s Perfect Viral Campaign? Is Sharing the New Search? Will Viral Marketing Sink or Swim? [...]

2 years later, has anything changed?

WOW!!! That content is worth lots of GOLD!!! I am surprised you released it for free. Anyway, I just learned a ton of valuable information. I thought I knew all that, but I was Mistaken. Thanks For the great post, keep up the good work

Dan thanks heaps for this down to earth explaination of all the ins and outs of youtubing. I am totally new to the game of youtubes and before reading your post didn’t even know what viral vids were. Well looks like I hit Gold first time in my search for knowledge. Thanks again, Alyssa

[...] You're on the Blog. If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment!This parody video exposes the “secret strategies” behind many viral videos! Based on the TechCrunch article by Dan Ackerman Greenberg. [...]

[...] are many others out there that can help push stations forward. We can look at Greenburg’s The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos as another example. “A great way to maximize the number of people who watch our videos is to [...]

[...] 6) Greenburg, A. (2007) The Secret Strategies Behind Many Viral Videos. TechCrunch [...]

[...] past week at my new gym and decided to put the TechCrunch’s article by Dan Ackerman Greenberg The secret strategies behind many “viral” videos to the [...]

I JUST GOT 10 MORE VIEWS, THANKS

[...] da die durchschaubaren Sortierungen zum Manipulieren einladen. Nicht umsonst existieren jede Menge Anleitungen, wie man diese Listen zu seinen Gunsten nutzen [...]

I would love to get my views to 10,000 or more!! my ID is tntsalesco if anyone would like to subscribe I will return the favor I am just getting started!! Thanks

LOL you sound like an athlete on steroids and hgh.. How can I do well if everyone else is cheating, too??

[...] of sites with tips and articles for making viral videos "7 Tips for Successful Viral Video" and "The Secret Strategies Behind Many Viral Videos" [...]

Well reading below, i can see that there strategy to create controversy has clearly worked, bad attention is better than no attention correct?

Very informative, the only thing i didnt like was the creating fake conversations, there really is no need there are that many “haters” out there anyway so it always starts naturally anyhow

Just a link to a video :D

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many "Viral" Videos [...]

[...] The Secret Strategies Behind Many "Viral" Videos [...]

[...] of sites with tips and articles for making viral videos "7 Tips for Successful Viral Video" and "The Secret Strategies Behind Many Viral Videos" [...]

Are you real? Why would you wan’t to be a whore? Sing if you like it but don’t become a celebritywhore.

You sound like you should concentrate on growing your mind and character for a couple of years. I bet you get called pretty all the time …and you believe it everytime.

Watch SandJfilm’s new video here:

lol since im here,

http://digg.com/d31Mxi7

[...] insightful stuff. I also like Tech Crunch’s look into more so-called secrets behind viral campaigns. Tagged with: blogging • paid search [...]

Here is a viral video if i have ever seen on before. viral based on funny content. this guy is funny

How about this for a viral video haha

[youtube

[...] millions) of views. What is it that determines which videos will get those thousands of views? (http://techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/the-secret-strategies-behind-many-viral-videos/) How does one create a YouTube video that will rise to the top and become visible to the general [...]

[...] whose company The Comotion Group exists entirely to make videos go viral, there are plenty of tricks to the trade. Among his [...]

Business has never had a moral compass, If it did America would not be in the predicament it is in today and Toyota would not be apologizing. It's not the 1950s anymore ladies and gentleman , now it's all about the money.

[...] TechCrunch: The Secret Strategies Behind Many Viral Videos [...]

This is indeed useful,we try to keep our multimedia video exposure at a high level of visibility.

Please help this award winning music video go viral

http://doyouwantobeayoutubepartner.blogspot.com/

This is probably the best articl i have read as far as helping me get views….i get tons of views by following what it says

What about us shmucks who want to create, watch and read genuine content without spending time wading through the turds that unprincipled people like you spend your time throwing into the pot.

What value do you add to anything?

[...] It’s interesting to know to what level people go to get those clicks/ hits on the web.check it here: The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos [...]

YouTube.com/JokerOnesTV I need more hits thanks for the info man

This is a great read.. thanks for the info!
I was checking up on the topic and i also came across an article that listed out some of the most successful campaigns on youtube: http://blog.socialmaximizer.com/youtube-business-...

nice tricks!!!

it really works!!! join and receive money http://www.zoombucks.com/join.php?ref=kingwawa1

Lol i love it. Everyday i post 25 random videos that are about 1-5 seconds long each and give them random names and tags. Ty for help and you guys who are hating are morons seriously

Using viral videos and creating it is not as easy it may seem. You mention about the content. You are exactly right that the content is what will drive visitors back to your site, it must have a decent concept. Video marketing will help you boost traffic back into your website.

Videos will help anyone succeeding in online business. It can drive more targeted traffic to your online business. It is easier then you think and does not have to be made for Hollywood or cost you a small fortune to produce.

Interesting to come back and re-read this after nearly 3 years. So many of these tactics and issues are still prevalent today, however the biggest difference may be that viral video content has to be even better these days just due to the sheer volume of quality videos out there and increasing budget expenditures on viral videos across the board.

Yikes! An awful lot of negativity here. I frankly don't see the difference between the strategies Dan outlined and many SEO techniques. The only distinction is that it's video – something new – rather than Search Optimization for the web.

It's very helpful for us all to know how the system can be gamed. These techniques are certainly being used, why jump on the fellow who had the decency to tell us the truth? Several years from now, the naysayers will probably be using some of these strategies just like we all use SEO.

Ok so I don't get it then .. all these comments bagging the post of up front honest thoughts and views and it seems actual occurances. Sure the word integrity doesn't come to mind with what some Companies do do or even what they're capable of turning a blind eye to .. but hey .. to act as tho this is a new thing is ridiculously naive.

They just admitted to Trolling.

Do. Not. Like.

"Heated debate" my ass, you're spreading hatred.

this is a disgrace.

Quick question. Having more views does yahoo count this for moving you up in there search engine?

that's great that we could have ways to advertise in google with viral videos..

thanks for sharing thoes informations , It is interesting, i like it!

Wow, Great article. I love unique video tag idea

Well written article on your site, thank you for sharing, I will come again.Best regards!

Hahahaha, where can I sign up?

Check out this video on YouTube:

I like this blog post. In this blog they discussed about Content is NOT King, Core Strategy, Title Optimization and about many topics. That are all very informative for people. Thanks for sharing with us.
online entertainment

Doesnt YouTube have a problem with paying bloggers to embed the video? I looked on their site and see some general prohibitive terms about embedding and profiting, but cant find specifics on this. What is their position?

i am totaly into bubble logic and viral video i loved the slimy articule about the bad boys of you tube back stabbing to get to the top of a pile of media hell

Wow – now this is great viral marketing…

:)

hey I just started a Vlog on youtube.
it would be awesome if you could wath it and let me know if you think I’m on the right track. http://www.youtube.com/user/LoveAnnKathleen

Here’s my latest winery video … let’s go viral ! ;-)

Haha I was just having a conversation with a friend about how I didn’t understand viral video distribution, this sheds some light on the process for sure. And, now that I think about it, these techniques are what make me click on vids, particularly thumbnail optimization. Nice

does anyone know what it costs to do one of these 100,000 expected clicks youtube campaigns?

thanks
ryan
ryan.hightower@yahoo.com

” rel=”nofollow”>=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgVM8tqqtIY&hl=en_US&fs=1]

” rel=”nofollow”>=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM05CYktsU8&hl=en_US&fs=1]