Latest project

For my latest social networking experiment, head on down to http://www.whowasthat.net

Hyperlinks for the real world.

(this one's a free site)

Clarification

When I say I will display no ads on my site, I mean no banners, Google text ads, pop-ups, or the like, that pay me per click or obscenely large sums of money because my website is so popular. The rates will stay the same. Forever. (though I reserve the right to add additional perks--color, for example--for an additional charge, but it won't be large) What you do to your posting is entirely up to you. It must only follow three rules:

A) Contain some kind of name or name-like object of under 20 characters
B) Any haiku must follow the beat pattern of such
C) Nothing that would probably be considered offensive; and I am the ultimate judge of that.

You may use your haiku to promote a political candidate, save the whales, advertise your sandwich shop on 53rd St., whatever. It is meant as an extension of your name, a more explicit description of what you want people to know about YOU.

Sorry for the apparent contradiction.

Spread the Word

I am quite pleased with the number of hits I've received thus far. I don't know much about statistics, but 3 listings per 5500 doesn't seem horrible. I think the percentage of viewers who list will increase as the list gets a bit more substantial. Then again, it might not.

As I've said again and again, the key to this thing is to get as many people to view it as possible. I WILL NOT ever put advertising on here (unless Blogger makes it mandatory for some reason), if that's any consolation to you folks. The ways in which you can do this are really limitless. For example, you can write the URL on one side of an index card, and on the other "Do Not Go To..." or "This Site Will Give You Herpes" (people are more inclined to do something you don't want them to do, reverse psychology and all that, and it's good for a laugh) and place such cards at various places around your campus/workplace (on bathroom mirrors, under tables, in library books, etc). If you're at a college, to magnify the effect even more, you can write your school newspaper a week after you let out a flood of these cards and say something to the effect of "Hey, did anyone catch those weird index cards floating around? What was up with that?" Or you can do something completely different. Have fun with it!

Oh ye of little faith...

Wow, 777 hits at the time of this post. Thanks mostly to Blunt posting me on his site, I'm sure. I expected at least a few people to put their names up, however. I realize with hardly anyone listed, it's hard to believe this thing will ever work. I could probably put up about 100 fake names to try to persuade people, but that would go against my own self-imposed rules.

Maybe you're all thinking "Hey, I'm gonna prove him wrong, this will never work!" The thing is, I'm trying to prove the media wrong myself, that fads are not a result of any merit in the thing itself. So you're just playing into their hands.



...is my Marxist rhetoric working? ;)



Also, as is probably obvious, I'm in this for the money as well (I'm a starving college student). But seriously, there wouldn't be any point if I gave away list spaces for free, then the list would be flooded and there'd be no distinguishment to having a place on there. And if you claim that money isn't representative of anything, you're being a bit naive.

I considered giving a portion of my profits to random listees if the list ever reached a certain size, but that reeks of pyramid schemes and is probably illegal. But heck, I might later on if I get enough press pressure.

Remember, the significance of your place on the list is directly proportional to how much you publicize it.

Some clarification

This is not meant as advertising space. If you belong to a company, and want to buy haiku space, you may put your company's name in said haiku, that's fine. I need names though, folks, made-up or otherwise.

Also, even if this takes months or years to catch on, I'll be here, so don't think that because you haven't seen me post in a while, that you can't light the spark that finally starts this thing.

Finally, for those curious, "Ninki" means roughly "popularity" in Japanese.

And so it begins...

...the great social experiment

What it is

I am someone who knows nothing about website design, blogging, or anything for that matter. I am attempting to test the idea that people crave popularity above all. For a nominal fee, I will post your name on my list. Then you go out and tell everyone you can about the list, so that they will visit and see how awesome you are. They in turn will want to be just as awesome, post their name, and tell everyone about it. The idea is to turn this into a nationally known list. By supporting the popular growth of the list, you support your own popularity.

Prices:
-Just your name (up to 20 characters): $2
-Your name boldfaced: $4
-Your name, plus a haiku of your writing: $6
-Your name, plus haiku, all boldfaced: $8
-Your name in a post heading: $10

To pay, click on the donate button, and include the necessary information with your payment.

How to spread the word:
-newspaper ads
-newspaper articles
-write your local news show
-submit to online compilations of "links of interest"
-annoying chain letters
-creative posters
-put links on your own page to increase the list's Google PageRank
-et cetera

Furthermore, the first twenty people to post their names get the price of $0.01 (boldface and haiku not included).