Jake & Will: CONTEST WARRIORS

Jake and I have always wondered how to get featured on sites like YouTube.

I've read articles and even watched videos on creating viral videos. Most offer suggestions like "Put a sexy and/or naked woman at the middle point of your video" (that's how YouTube determines the icon for your vid) or "Put the word 'exclusive' and 'leaked' in the title"... both of which are gimmicky and apparently proven to work.

But the one that interested me the most is the idea of posting in forums related to your video and promoting it undercover.

So I signed up with multiple "green" internet forums and promoted My Girl, The World. Already we have racked up around 650 views-- this is 200 views more than any video currently on the contest page.

I've realized that getting views is a lot like starting a fire using sticks and no lighter fluid. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to get started, but once you have a tiny spark you can stoke it to a flame.

So our process so far has been sending it out to everyone we know, which in itself brings us around 400 views. This is the initial stick-rubbing and spark. Then something interesting happened: the flame stoked itself. Because this is a contest, the first thing people do after uploading is look for their biggest competition-- normally identified as the video with the most views. Because we ARE that video, we rack up views automatically on a daily basis just because of people's curiosity. Interesting.

By the way, have you seen our latest video?