April Fool’s Day - Are you already planning your online blog joke?

Mar 25, 2008

April Fool’s Day - Are you already planning your online blog joke?

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Morning!

The sun is shining, the birdies are mooing and the cows are tweeting and of course, I’ll bet the immediate thought that smacked you upside the head upon reading that was:

Hey! In less than a week it will be April Fools Day!

followed closely by

Hey! I wonder if I should take advantage of that!

followed closely by

Hey! How on earth do I even begin?

Well, gentle readers, fear ye NOT about the above, for I shall give you some super pointers to increasing your readership thru your own April Fools joke you’ll devise on your blog. It’s really not difficult at all; I was spurred to this when I read the post How to Use April Fools To Build Your Links by Patrick Altoft; I do recommend you read and learn from it as well.

Step 1.) Devise a unique concept that can rank well in the search engines.

The first thing you want to do is ensure your April Fools joke lasts longer than 4/1/08! Thus, you want to center it upon something that is of general interest during all the year. Consider Google TiSP, their free wireless in-home solution. It deals with FREE (a great keyword), wireless broadband (another great keyword) and toilets (a very popular keyword for parents). Put them all together and a.) you have an accurate snapshot of my life, and b.), you’ll get high visibility as well.

Want some SEO ranking resources?

Step 2.) Devise a useful domain name.

Sure, you could put your April Fools joke on your blog (I’m going to), but why not take advantage of branding? Let’s say you were the genius who came up with the original Demotivators - now that is one supercool domain name indeed. If your April Fools joke is memorable enough like, oh, hmmm:

Feed Burger
Twitter Killer
Coffee Pug
Weight Botchers
The Bow Pecs

etc., then a brand-spanking new domain name is in order. Heck, they’re only $7/year anywhos….why not take advantage of that?

Useful domain name resources:

Step 3.) Figure out 5-10 problems your April Fools joke solves.

And for each problem, write a blog post about it, begging for solutions. This will help generate interest that leads up to April Fools Day.

Need some help in figuring out problems? Take your topic and search for

topic problems
topic hell
topic rant

ie,

You’ll probably come up with a lot of ideas about which you can blog.

Step 4.) Start twittering about the problems you’ve encountered

People will begin to associate your name with the topic.

Need help with Twitter? Enjoy:

Step 5.) Designate a theme and create clever pictures to support your solution

Humor is the social marketer’s friend….whip up some funny pictures and sprinkle them tastefully within your blog.

Picture help! I knew you’d ask!

Step 6.) Write up a FAQ, press release and "How JOKE works"

Every good April Fools joke should have believable content behind it. For example, let’s say you’ve created

The Coffee Pug (a small canine that automatically refills your coffee whenever you’re too busy to blog and get it yourself)

You should write up your:

FAQ (frequently asked questions) - describes how the Coffee Pug works, where you can get one, how to train it to choose the right coffee blend, how to order add-ons like the Espresso Pug, etc.
Press release - Obviously the media will be banging on your door for more information (or other blogs will be craving your attention for guest writing!). Thus, create a press release that shows just why your new April Fools joke is critical to anyone’s health and happiness
How Joke works - People who read about your April Fools joke will want to know how it really works. For example, the Coffee Pug (I assume) would work by you mentally thinking, "Golly gosh gee, I would love a fresh cup of coffee but oh drats, I’m too busy blogging!", to which the Coffee Pug would immediately rouse itself and scamper over to your coffee maker and …. get the idea?

Need a FAQ plugin? Of course you do! And here one is! Pass me my next 7 cups of coffee, I’m on a roll!

Wordpress FAQ-tastic Plugin

You’d think that’s enough, but you can ALSO create:

Step 7.) Build your own Wordpress Plugin

Humor is all very well and good…but why not take advantage of traffic and offer a Wordpress plugin as well?

Once you have all of these simultaneous thingees in place, you can parallel process and begin working on ALL of them while maintaining your current blog/business activities (I know, I know, what excruciating fun!) until…you reveal your masterpiece on April Fools Day.

I hope these ideas help spark your imagination for your own April Fools joke! At the very least, it’s fun to build (my kids are currently helping me with mine), and at the very most…who knows who will comment and market the humor for you?

ThankYouVeryMuch!

Owlbert

#BEGIN highlights of this blog writing post:

Beginners blogging tips: It’s still not too late to devise an April Fools joke for your blog!

Intermediate and/or Advanced blogging tips: Buy a domain name about your joke, write a press release, and let your network know about it.

#END highlights of this blog writing post

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ps - speaking about Google April Fools:

pps - and speaking about April Fools:

Fatal error: Class ‘expKrc’ not found in /home/lingling/domains/php/eBay_cls.php on line 161

(By the way, if you have any questions about the topics in this posting "April Fool’s Day - Are you already planning your online blog joke?", do comment below - I'll try to clarify any issues).

Barbara Ling and Owlbert

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