Content Is Not King, Marketing Is – Interview With Buzz Marketer Dean Hunt

The internet holds limitless amount of information that grows rapidly everyday. What will make you stand out from the crowd? Content – NO, well that’s what most people think.

It’s like this, if no one sees you, you won’t make anything. Even if you have the most prized possession anyone can think of. No eyeballs = no money.

Although yes, content still counts. But think of it as a part of marketing. Don’t concentrate on the content, exert more effort in marketing.

Today, I’ll post my very first interview and I would like to thank my friend Dean who’s an expert in the field of Buzz Marketing to take this opportunity. Read the interview, Dean is a marketing genius.

The Interview

Carl Ocab: Like what all people say in interviews: Thank you Dean for giving us your valuable time (In reference to this page). First of all, give us a little snippet of your life, experiences and what you do.t

Dean Hunt: Thanks Carl. My name is Dean Hunt and I am from the UK. I moved to Madrid Spain in 2004 with my Spanish senorita Elena, and I realized that it was going to take me forever to learn the language. I was therefore faced with two options: 1) work in a bar for two years and master the language 2) find a way of earning money from home.

I found this little thing you may have heard of… it is called “The Internet”, and I dove straight in. I had an 18 month period that I call an “intense self-education”, it pretty much involved 16 hour days behind the PC screen, soaking up as much information and advice as possible.

Anyway, that wasn’t exactly a “little snippet”, sorry, I got carried away on a tide of nostalgia. Ok, back to your question… I am now currently a leading buzz marketing consultant, I buy and sell websites, and I write content for blogs, trade magazines and even books.

Carl Ocab: What is “Buzz Marketing” actually? Is it something dangerous that could zap me?

Dean Hunt: Yes, it will zap you whilst you sleep, and it will touch you in places you never thought possible. Be afraid!

Actually, depending on who you ask, Buzz Marketing can be many different things, to some people it is just a “buzz” word for Viral Marketing, but seeing as you are asking me… Buzz Marketing is the art and science of standing out from the crowd, being talked about and being remembered. Or in other words… it is the ability to create a buzz about a service or product.

I see buzz marketing as the action, and viral as the result of that action.

Carl Ocab: You’re on Buzz marketing… So what’s the biggest buzz that you’ve made?

Dean Hunt: There have been many to date, the majority have been for clients, but probably the biggest for me personally was a story called “The Bizarre Google Request”, it happened last December and involved a guy trying to sue because I ranked higher than he did for a certain key phrase.

In a 7 day period I had over 248,000 unique visitors to my site, a site that previously was getting around 200 per day. I was discussed in 16 languages, and featured on the main page of virtually every social news and social media site on the net.

There are some people who think that the story was fake, and that I invented the whole thing to get tens of thousands of dollars of publicity for free……..

Carl Ocab: I’ve read several pages of your blog and wow, you got me reading there. Where do you get those ideas, especially that $1M Sponsored Review>?

Dean Hunt: I get asked this a lot, “how do you come up with these ideas?” and “how can I come up with similar ideas?”

The truth is that often, they come to me when I least expect it. I may be viewing one site, or reading an article, or even sitting on the toilet, and suddenly a possible idea will pop into my brain box. Then I re-think it, refine it, and give it a go.

I know it is cliché, but the key is to think outside the box, my philosophy is this: The worst response you or your website can get is “meh”. Meh means that they couldn’t care either way, I would much rather have people calling me an idiot than saying nothing at all. So I try and push boundaries, and do some weird and wacky stuff.

The million dollar review is another idea that came to me out of nowhere. I initially wanted to create the Internet’s most expensive paid review, then I wanted to create the most expensive ad slot on the entire net, but then I remembered that I hate paid reviews, so I used that angle mixed with some weird humor, and I created a monster. I still believe that one day some rich oil tycoon will see the media potential in this story and give me the million dollars ;-)

Carl Ocab: You seem like a very successful guy who has been around on the internet for a long time. How much are you earning anyway?

Dean Hunt: That is the funny thing, I haven’t been around that long, but it has been so intense, often with 16 hour+ days that it seems like I have been around forever. I have been doing this as a job for 3 years. I am only 25, so I feel the best is yet to come. In terms of earnings, I make a very nice living! I have a very nice home in Madrid (with a pool), and I am very happy, but I still have more goals I want to achieve.

Carl Ocab: Ok, so you’re a multimillionaire man. Mind giving some tips for ‘us’ bloggers and how we can achieve that too?

Dean Hunt: I am not a millionaire! it would be nice, but I am still in the world of six figures (blush). For all the bloggers out there, I would recommend that you focus on two things: 1) Stand out from the crowd, aim to be different, don’t worry about what people will think. 2) Focus on networking. In my opinion, the single most valuable tool any webmaster has is an email account. The possibilities are endless, just look for the win/win scenario and you can make some killer deals. When I was starting out, my philosophy was simple: “There are no such thing as competitors, they are just potential partners”.

Carl Ocab: How does a rich man live life? What do you do on your typical day?

Dean Hunt: A typical day revolves around the PC. My office is 10 yards from my bedroom, so I don’t have to worry about getting stuck in rush hour traffic. Elena also works from home, so that is pretty cool. I try to go to Madrid city center at least once a week to a nice restaurant, I watch a lot of TV, we are huge fans of Lost, and I am quite handy with an Xbox360 controller. We also just bought an English Bulldog puppy, so he takes up a lot of our time at the moment. Other than that I visit family and friends in the UK a few times per year, I go to seminars and meetings with a lot of the net’s biggest names twice a year, in fact, I will be in Vegas in January if anyone fancies a beer. I also want to get back into playing golf, I use to be a semi-pro, but haven’t hit a ball since moving to Madrid.

Carl Ocab: At this point of time, who do you look up to?

Dean Hunt: I am 6ft 2″, so not many people. I have been impressed with the guy from WoodyMaxim.com, we have a lot in common, and he is one of the people who really gets and appreciates what I do. Also, a guy called Ryan Deiss, he is a very impressive person, I met him in May, and I was like a rabbit in the headlights, he really blew me away, I probably drove him mad, but he is certainly an impressive person and business man. But overall I would say the person I look up to the most is a guy called Barry Dunlop, he is my mentor, and the unique thing about Barry is that he has been a huge success both offline and online. There are not many people who can do that, he really is success personified.

Carl Ocab: What was your biggest mistake in business? You know, when the time where you can’t sleep because you kept on thinking about it.

Dean Hunt: Agreeing to this interview!, just joking. Probably my biggest mistake was, and still is, trying to do everything on my own. You have to trust other people, and let them do what they do best. There are so many aspects of running a successful website, that trying to do them all at once will drive you crazy.

Carl Ocab: Just to sum up the interview. Could you give us your favorite quote? It can be from another person or it could be your own craft.

Dean Hunt: I don’t know who this is from, but here we go: “You have to value your own time before anyone else will”. For anyone interested in this philosophy, read this.

Carl Ocab: Well, that’s it Dean! This interview is such a great experience (Considering that this is my first time to do an interview). Do you have anything else to add?

Dean Hunt: If I may be so bold I would like to mention that I have a book coming out soon entitled “The Website Traffic Orgasm – a how-to guide to buzz marketing on a budget of zero”, in this book I will show exactly how I get hundreds of thousands of visitors for free. In fact, I can proudly state that I have never spent a single cent on promotion or advertising in my life. Everything I have achieved has been on a budget of zero.

This book shows the world of the web traffic orgasm (a huge, exciting rush of mega traffic), and I believe it is the first buzz marketing book to actually show you how to do viral/buzz stuff, instead of all the usual nonsense like “if you want to get your message spread, then put a button on your site” etc…

In fact, I would be happy to send a free buzz marketing case study to all your readers as a thank you for reading. Simply send me a blank email to [email protected] and I will send you the case study of how I took a random article and used 9 buzz secrets to get it onto the Digg main page within 24 hours. If any of your readers fancy an orgasm, then this is the key to getting there.

Thanks Carl, speak soon.

Dean

PS: I also write at www.streetlessons.com – www.retiredat21.com and if people want to buy or sell websites, then www.midascode.co.uk/blog is key.

PPS: I hate using PS and PPS, it is so tacky.

PPPS: Can you technically go as high as PPPS? Is PPS the limit? At what point would there be too many P’s? Arrrgggghhh!!! My head hurts now.

Pause, Think and Disolve

That was words from a Buzz Marketing expert who has been talked about by some big daddies in the game. Pause, think and disolve what you’ve learned today. You won’t regret it.

Oh, and I’m very excited about that book! Keep us updated Dean.