Even without a Super Bowl Commercial: Tumblr turns visitors away

The 30 Day Man: Tumblr turns visitors away

I wanted to share the article above - thought it covered a great perspective on the whole tumblr situation. Reading the article triggered something for me - and I was able to see something else in all of this tumblr mess: a lesson in viral marketing. Now let me tell being able to witness viral marketing in real time, is like finally seeing a snipe in the woods. Viral marketing is something that many internet marketers only dream about getting. And here tumblr got it in a big way, they just weren't prepared for it.

Now some of you might be wondering just what the term - viral marketing - means. At the most basic level it is free advertising - think word of mouth times 1000 - getting 1000's of people to use your product and never having to spend a penny to do it.

Dan and Ed, over at the 30 Day Challenge headquarters, had made the statement that tumblr blogs were a good, free service to use for hosting good basic content. Well upon hearing this, many challengers rushed over and began creating accounts. (I do not know the actual number, but I do know that tumblr has deleted 22,000 blogs now.) This unofficial endorsement resulted in tumblr receiving a massive influx of new users and free web advertising. And most importantly, with such a influx of users that it gave tumblr the opportunity to play along side the current big boys of blogging - wordpress and blogger. Did I mention this all happened without a Super Bowl Commercial? Unfortunately tumblr wasn't prepared and the such an event. Now I am not sure what will happen - just hoping that tumblr is able to pull its head out of sad pretty quickly.