For the first time today, one of my works has gone viral. My humorous whynot page has received over 1000 visitors from around the world in the last hour .
How it started
Like all things viral, it started small. A discussion on my favorite forum was going on about the merits of bluntness on one’s landing page. So for fun i took all but 10 minutes to create a quick and blunt personal landing page to have some late night fun.
After posting it on the freelanceswitch forums and getting a couple of LOLs, the link started spreading on twitter. People enjoy a small giggle, and my words rang true for a lot of designers.
Then came StumbleUpon
I still need to fully understand how popular news aggregators really work, but somehow, StumbleUpon got hold of my page and visitors started pouring to the site.
And now bloggers
When a story hits the social media scene, bloggers are quick to follow. A quick google search on my name helped me find this blog for example, and I’m sure there’s more out there.
Facing the consequences
Do i want to be known as a “rude designer”? Certainly not!
But somehow, if i caused a few hundred giggles for a page i created in 10 minutes, it’s been worth it. Perhaps no publicity is bad publicity, and this is a powerful way to put my name in people’s mind.
i believe the page is so OTT that no sane person will take it seriously.
It’s also interesting to notice that most visitors are visiting the other pages of my site, which proves that they are intrigued and wish to find out more about me. This in turn helps show my portfolio to a wide array of people.
And you, have you ever gone viral ?