using the madden curse for good instead of evil.

(Note from the editor: For archival purposes (and in keeping with our DIY viral marketing philosophy), I'm reprinting a series of articles originally written for circuitcity.com.)
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Published at circuitcitycom on Thursday, September 04, 2008
Syndicated at usatodaycom
Written by ScottyWhy?

I admitted in a previous post (8/26/2008: Gadgets Make Better Fantasy-Ballers) that I am crazy about fantasy football. Today is the start of the NFL (and fantasy football) season and I am fired-up!

I've done all my homework...I've watch every episode of Circuit City's FANalysts on You Tube...I've checked my starting lineups...I'M READY! But how does one prepare for something like the "MADDEN CURSE"?

For those not familiar, the "Madden Curse" states that anyone appearing on a cover of MADDEN NFL is destined to a reduction in productivity, a serious injury or a career ending turn-of-events. Look at the history...

• Dante Culpepper was on the cover in 2002. He blew out his knee.
• Mike Vick was on the cover in 2004. He broke his fibula.
• Shaun Alexander was on the cover in 2007. He fractured his foot.

The list goes on and on...this thing is serious!

So I propose that instead of trying to fight the "Cover Curse", let's embrace it. There are too many celebrities out there in need of a good career-ending. Let's put them on the cover of our favorite video games and let the "Curse" do all the work.

I have yet to see a single episode of the new Beverly Hills 90210. I wouldn't know any of these kids if I ran 'em over with my moped. That hasn't stopped me from already being annoyed. Let's put them on the cover of The Sims and let the "Cover Curse" take care of the rest.

I'm sure you have your list of musicians that you detest more than spinach. For me, put Michael Bolton, Paula Abdul and Britney Spears on the cover of Guitar Hero and put these over-and-done-with popsters out of their misery.



Paris Hilton is the cockroach of celebrities...we just can't get rid of her. She has survived online porn, bad TV and more wardrobe malfunctions than a New Oreleans exotic dancer. Perhaps the "Cover Curse" and Halo is the only way to bring this diva down.


C'monplay along...it's a blast. Suggest some celebrity video covers of your own in the comment section and perhaps will do a "Part II" to this post in the future.

Daft Punk (feat Daft Hands) "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"

Daft Punk Website / Daft Punk CD Store / Fr. Eckles Studio Website

Here's a DIY Sing-a-long. The song is Daft Punk - "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger". By itself, the song has a pretty great DIY message. Added to it is the fact that this video is actually a home-made project by a group called Fr. Eckle Studios.

Time Magazine called this video one of the "Top 10 Viral Videos" of 2007 and wrote..."An impressive hand jive is performed to the tune Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger by French duo Daft Punk. There are seemingly endless pop culture entry-points to this vid: The song title references a line from the intro to the '70s TV show The Six Million Dollar Man and it is sampled in Kanye West's new album. But the video's real virtue is its do-it-yourselfer simplicity. Daft Hands succeeds on the dexterity of one man's dukes."

There ya go...Time Magazine crediting "do-it-yourselfer simplicity". It's exactly what we constantly talk about on this blog. DIY creativity...word-of-mouth marketing...yes the Daft Hands story is simple. But get this...it's nearing 20 million views on youtube! 20 million views. Could your company website profit from an increased of 20 million views? Do you think there are lessons to learn from this video?

(note: the first 52 secs are slow. don't give up...it gets better.)

Try This Tool:Twitter

Another interesting tool for the D.I.Y. Marketer is TWITTER.

Wikipedia says..."Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows users to send "updates" (or "tweets"; text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service (SMS), instant messaging, or a third-party application such as Twitterrific or Facebook."

In other words, it's another free way to use your mobile phone or IM service to update your blog. Most people are using Twitter to update friends of where they are at any given time. I can see an evolution in which Twitter is used to give updates of what you are thinking or seeing at any time.

I set up a Twitter account to use for WHY? Media: the Blog. I embeded the Twitter RSS feed to the top of this column. It will stick there and update any time I make a twitter report. I plan to use it to send examples of D.I.Y. sightings in my everyday life. It also has a community aspect, so I can allow site visitors to access and make reports as well. It's easy to use...it will take 2 mins to write a post...and then I'm back to my life.

See above where I reported that I need to remember to do a blog post on the D.I.Y. concept in the 1980s Punk Rock movement...

...I hope I remember to do that.

Try This Tool:The Mobile Blog

Another easy D.I.Y. Web tool that anyone can use to add content to a website is the Mobile Blog. Mobile blogging (also called MoBlogging) is the process of using your cell phone to produce a blog post. There are many services (Blog Planet, KaBlog) that allow you to send photos, short videos and blog posts from your cell phone directly to your blog. I use Google Blogger to produce this blog (I'll talk more about why in future posts). Blogger has a built in tool in which you can setup a text message and email account to receive mobile phone blog entries. The title of the email message becomes the title of the blog...the text of the email message becomes the text of the blog.

We use this tool in radio alot. Imagine...backstage at a concert...Mick Jagger walks by with a duck under his arm...a quick cell phone photo...a quick text message back to the station blog...we have a one-of-a-kind Rolling Stone sighting as content to attract users and increase hits.

Now imagine how you could use this tool in your industry. A Real Estate blog could send photos from a new property. A Travel Agency blog could send photos from a great vacation site. A Wildlife blog could send photos of Mick Jagger's duck...

I've said it before...entertaining, informative content keeps users coming back to your website. If you think creatively, Mobile Blogging can be a big help in achieving those objectives.

(photo and blog post sent via mobile phone)

Try This Tool:Snapvine Voice Blog

Here's a handy tool for the D.I.Y. Web Marketer to help you keep fresh content on your blog even when you can't be at your computer. It's snapvine.com. With snapvine, you set up a telephone number that you can call and leave a voice message. Your voice message then becomes a Voice Blog that can be embeded on to your website or blog.

Click the "play" button in the widget below and I'll tell you some creative ways you can use this tool to offer uniqe content and build a better web brand.

How To Package Blog Content In A Widget.

Now that we have a few posts under our belt, let's unleash "WHY? Media: the Blog" virally. This is where the widget comes in.

Observe...

Get this widget!

A widget is a small, sharable, sticky website that packages the content of your blog into a format that users can embed into their blogs, forums, websites, facebook & myspace pages, igoogle pages and more. Once your users put it on their pages, it's then available to their users to grab and share. It's like the old shampoo commercial...

"you tell 2 friends...and they'll tell two friends...and so on..and so on..."

There are several ways to make widgets from the content on your blog.
>You can make one on your own if you know html and flash.
>You can pay a professional like WHY? Media to build one for you.
>You can use one of the many free online services to make one.

Since this blog advocates the concept of DIY, we are going to use the last option because it's cheap and easy.

Here's the basic steps...
1. Burn your feed. We recommend you do this at www.feedburner.com. It's free and easy. There are advanced options to maxamize your feed and analytic tools to help you track your widgets traffic. I'm not going to go into the step-by-step. It's pretty cut-and-dry. I would recommend on the first page that you check the box that says "I am a podcaster!". If you are not currently podcasting on your blog, i hope to talk you into it in a later post.
2. Once you've burned your feed, copy the XML code from feedburner and use it to build a widget. There are several services that do this...
www.widgetbox.com
www.yourminis.com
www.springwidgets.com
there are more...do a google search on "build a widget". I like the springwidget because it will allow you to play a podcast directly from the widget, but they are all equally good. We recommend that you take the time to build a widget using several of the services. Each has it's own gallery that is often searched by it's own users. It gives you just one more way to spread your message.
3. Once you build your widgets, post them on your blog and invite your users to "Grab It" and "Share It".

(Oh, by the way...your welcome to "Grab" and "Share" the "WHY? Media: the Blog" widget from above. Just click "Get This Widget".)

Building and sharing a widget this way is simple, cheap and very effective and promoting your brand. If you run into any problems or have any questions, leave a comment below. We'll walk you through it.