ViperChill

This is a really awkward blog post to write. Mostly because I now have to backtrack on a lot of the things I said recently. I’ll cut a long story short: I’m no longer writing Viral Marketing for Dummies. This was not a decision by Wiley, nor the person who approached me with the book offer. It was entirely mine, and an entirely difficult one at that.

And maybe not even the write right one to make. I’ve had to tell this story countless times to family and friends over the last few weeks, usually leading to disappointed faces and people not really understanding my decision, so hopefully I can express myself better when I carefully craft the words.

In an early episode of HBO’s hit TV-show, Hung, a financially troubled Ray Drecker finds himself looking for alternative ways to support his family in addition to his high school basketball coaching position. He settles on the uncomfortable idea of becoming a male prostitute, hesitantly enlisting his friend Tanya to become his “pimp”.

In her enthusiastic style, she suggests to Ray that they partake in Viral Marketing in order to bring more clients to their ‘Happiness Consultants’ business. Ray quickly responds, “What the hell is viral marketing?”

Though the episode premiered in 2009, his response wouldn’t be too out of place in 2012. The phrase is certainly known, but how to go about Viral Marketing still baffles many a media executive, small business owner, and anyone with something to promote. This book aims to change that.

As many of you will know, last week I stuck to my promise of launching a Podcast in the new year and released the first episode, ‘How I Would Make Money Online If I Was Starting from Scratch‘. I had hoped that a lot of people would get some value from the recording and be able to start 2012 in style, but I didn’t anticipate what happened next. Within 24 hours the podcast made it to #1 in Marketing and #2 in Business on iTunes which totally blew me away – sandwiched in between 9 podcasts by the BBC and the Financial Times.

In just 6 days (I don’t have stats for the last 24 hours yet) the first show has been downloaded over 18,000 times. Keep in mind that I didn’t even write a blog post about the launch, so the majority of my audience are only hearing about the episodes now. Episodes was not a typo. I’m adding another recording in the next 24 hours.

It’s been 18 months since I launched this blog and what a great 18 months it has been. ViperChill has almost 16,000 RSS subscribers (thank you!), over 3,000 people are signed up to cloud:niche and there are over 8,500 comments now posted on this blog. Keep in mind that there are only 83 blog posts here, so that’s well over 100 comments per post on average.

In the last few weeks, ViperChill was ranked 9th in a list of the biggest marketing blogs in the world, just ahead of blogging powerhouse’s like Seth Godin and Aaron Wall of SEOBook. The rankings were based on how many times people come back to a site each month, and how many pages they visit. The data was put together by a respected analytics company, and you can find the full list here.

This time last year I wrote a blog post entitled ’21 Lessons I’ve Learned in 21 Years”. It was launched on my 21st birthday, which must mean that today I turn 22. Though it would be awesome if you all flooded me with gifts in the form of strippers and money (just kidding…maybe), I actually want to turn the tables and give you a gift.

I’ve been absent because I’ve been working on a number of non-marketing things I can’t really get into, but in my spare time I’ve managed to create something I think you’ll love: CloudBlueprint, a 100% free video course on how I plan to Make Money Online in the future.

Since I no longer write monthly updates, I don’t really have a section here where I get to share the personal goings on in my life. Whilst thinking about this, I realised that unless you’ve purchased a product from me, you have no idea what I did to get to where I am today.

The bullet points on my about page tell a little bit about my story, but they definitely don’t give you the full picture. I decided that now would be a good a time as any to share my journey in the hope that it will inspire, motivate, and show you what is possible when you really want to succeed in this industry badly enough.

When I write a blog post about WordPress, I don’t just post a link to a few of my favourite plugins, but instead write a 3,000+ word resource post. When I release a plugin like I did on Reputation Management, I don’t charge for it but instead give it away for free to the masses. So, when I have an announcement to make, you should know that I’m going to have some very big things to say.

The most noticeable change to ViperChill, is the introduction of a brand new redesign which makes its debut today. Though it’s the most noticeable, it’s not the biggest news I have to share with you all. If you’re anything like me, you probably want to see what the site looks like before you continue reading, so check it out if you’re currently seeing this in your inbox or feed reader.

I’m surprised it has taken me over a year to put together a post like this, since I love reading them on other blogs. Often, I’m already aware of many of the suggested reading material and products, which may be the case for you here. However, if I just discover one great book, product, or resource from them, then reading the article is invaluable.

Everything here is a genuine recommendation, meaning that I actually read all of the blogs, have read all of the books, and use all of the products. I would love to make this a community discussion as well, so please feel free to share your favourite resources in the comments below.