The term ‘viral’ isn’t new but it’s been coming up in terms of videos online. ‘Viral’ advertising (WIKI) has been around for a long time on the Internet; once a communication method is understood, some folks take advantage of it to advertise virally. Trying to stop this irritation has inspired pop-up blockers, spam e-mail catchers and other content filters.

One source of viral advertsing that can’t really be stopped is bugging your buddies to death and posting advert-like comments on sites of similar content. It’s like driving down the road and seeing a bumper sticker that says someone would rather be fishing. For a split second, you reconsider how interesting driving really is. Maybe I’d rather be fishing too!

Then you remember that you actually are driving and, hopefully, concentrate on the road again. But what if going fishing were just a click away? What if: Driving [click, click] fishing; “Hmmm,” you think, “this fishing thing is kind of [boring/interesting] now that I’m trying it.”

Statistics say that advertising will stick you with only 3% of those to whom you advertised. I have 18 friends on MySpace. Mathematics says I should try something else (promoting Dinarius online is my job). MySpace would produce just over half a person if I advertised through the bulletin board. So how about something else…

Last month saw a gigantic jump in hits and visits when I left a kind comment on a site that gets 100,000 unique visits per day. The statistic of 3% held true. Each day for a few days, visits to Dinarius.com were raised by three to five thousand. Amazing. Now, why did it die off?

Dinarius only has a base audience of about a couple of thousand people around the world (Germany is still a close number 2 visitor after the USA). The nice comment caught the eyeballs of 100,000 new visitors a day until it vanished into the ages. The Comments section grew in volume and got outdated. Simply: The gentle comment got buried.

Interestingly, (though it’s early to tell) of the extra three to five thousand visits, it looks like only about 30% of them are returning for more – Thanks, by the way. So the base looks to have grown by about one and-a-half thousand peeps. Advantage? Viral advertising. Improvement? More of it from more sources.

Dinarius posts on imeem.com, rocketboom.com, youtube.com, podcastingnews.com, selfcasttv.com and, pathetically, myspace.com It’s a full day when it comes time to compliment and comment. What to learn from this? Nice comments won’t be filtered out by any authority, ever. 3% of your efforts will yield 30% of something or another (that’s a little confusing). On the whole, that’s better growth than any other advertising can offer….

DINARIUS Bryan's old Digital Interest blog