I thought I would make a quick post today regarding a link I received. It is a site claiming that Jared Fogel the popular Subway Spokesperson had passed away  see http://jaredremembered.com/ . I checked Google and other news sites which had nothing on it. So I am 99% sure it’s false. So why am I writing about it? You can learn something from it.

Whoever created this site put a little planning into it.

1) The Domain Name: Contains keyword “Jared”; Whois is Private; Created on March 16, 2008 (month before going viral).

2) Site itself: Fairly decent; took time to create custom header; has videos and other pages of interest; content seems genuine.

Now we get to the pretty cool stuff this guy/gal did.  First off they created a site based on a topic that would arouse curiosity and hopefully go viral. They want people to e-mail it to other folks and even make blog entries about it.

Here is where the guy/gal gets pretty slick. Monetizing it. If you notice there are no banners or AdSense on the site anywhere. Here is where he’s making his cash.

Home Page: At the bottom of the page you see a text link that says “please donate condiments” that link takes you to a parking page where he will earn from AdSense clicks. That link is on the bottom of everypage.

Contact Page: See the two 800 numbers? Don’t let your wife catch you calling them..lol.

Now, if I had to guess this person probably isn’t making much on the site. Maybe a few cents here and there. The creator could have probably added a couple CPA offers within the site that would have probably converted better.

For example, they could have added a small poll type CPA offer. The site has two type of Jared’s favorite sandwichs listed.  They could haved used a little more imagination…

 ”Help Us Pick Which Sub to Name after Jared Fogel.  In rememberance of such an insperational person who touched so many lives, we will officialy name the chosen winner ”The Jared”. As a sign of our appreciation we will be giving all of you a chance to win one of several I-pod’s for taking the time to help us out with such a hard emotional task. All you need to do is just choose which sandwich, and enter a valid e-mail address.”

So everytime someone entered an e-mail you would get around $1.75. Sure beats AdSense!

Okay back to the main topic. I guess what I’m trying to drill into you is be creative and use that squishy thing between your ears. You don’t need to go so far as making up stories like this, but ask your self what you can do to get a viral effect. Re-examine your site or postings  and ask yourself, does this really peak my curiosity? Would I forward this to all my friends? Why or why not?

 Look at how your monetizing your sites. Are they packed with AdSense, Affiliate banners and other junk? Is it so much that it is taking away from your content [this can be a good thing, just depends on your type of marketing ;) ].

The next thing you should do is research to see what’s working. Just look at the front page of Digg and Technorati. Examine the headlines and content and apply the same methods. Also, search Google with your keywords. Look at each front page site and jot down notes about what you liked and disliked about each site. Then take those notes and compare them to your current site and see what changes you should incorporate.

And the last but equally important….Refine!

Never ever stop refining and tweaking your site. You can always make it better.