This is from the latest Marketing Sherpa Case Study about the folks at Despair Inc.:

The Sewell’s and their partner Dr. E.L. Kersten (who has since become infamous as the ‘bad manager’ photographed on the site) founded Despair Inc. They soon discovered it’s fairly easy to get great viral traffic if your content is funny enough.

(Side note: They also learned well-meaning fans would steal the content to post elsewhere. Now Despair includes an URL on all images that a fan might be tempted to take.) [Emphasis Rob Z.]

Can you imagine? Customers blatantly steal their content from their websites and, rather than, oh, I dunno, launch a multi-million dollar campaign to catch the crooks, they find a way to not only capitalize on this theft but make it actually work in their favor.

Oh those silly, silly, wealthy fools.

One thing I didn’t mention in my last post is the fact that I think I have a plan in place for what to do with the money coming in from life insurance, proceeds on the house, etc. I don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss too much of the details here – rest assured, though, that a significant amount will be placed into long-term savings – but there’s one use I’m especially enamored of that I want to share.

Mom is not monetarily wealthy, but I’ve been very impressed with how well she got her finances together. Were she wealthier, I genuinely believe she would have been very generous with her money. She has always cared about other people, always been a very compassionate woman. She was always generous when it came to Dani and myself. It’s a generosity I want to share with the world.

I intend on taking some of the proceeds from her estate and starting a charitable fund in her name. My hope is that it will eventually grow into a full-fledged foundation. The money I put in this fund initially will be intended solely to generate interest, which will then be partially spent on various charitable causes we support and partially re-invested into the fund to foster its growth. I’m even considering soliciting donations to the fund. Mom left a solid, impressive legacy that I want to continue so that she can still contribute and do good things in this world, even if it’s by proxy. I’m very, very proud of this idea so any advice and support you can provide would be much appreciated.

Just an update on things with my mother’s estate, in the hopes that someone else in this situation may be able to get some help from it.

Because she pays mortgage and taxes on a condo in Southern California, both of which are due within a week, my lawyer petitioned the court to grant me special administrative rights to Mom’s estate while aiting for probate to complete so that I can begin collecting money to pay for these things. After a couple of snafus, I finally got the original docs as well as the death certificates last week, but my attempts at opening an executor’s bank account have been repeatedly thwarted by my own lack of organization. I’ve been trying to keep all of the docs together in a single folder, but I keep inevitably leaving one or two out. Here’s what you need to open an executor’s account:

• An original or certified copy of the court letters testamentary or special administration
• The tax payer’s ID (or EIN) for the estate (not your SSN)
• A certified copy or original of the death certificate

If you forget one or more of these items, no dice. I should have them all today, so I should be able to finally get the account open and begin collecting her assets.

I also still need to close out her utilities, a credit card or two and her car insurance policies. Fortunately, she had her finances more or less in order since she only purchased her home in May. A good friend is currently doing some work on the condo to make it more salable. We’ll probably attend to that early in 2006.

I’m still dealing with her death from an emotional standpoint. The holidays really suck. I have very fond memories of holidays past, and they all involve her. Christmas was one of her favorites, even though she didn’t celebrate it quite as fervently after I moved up here. I think she may have been looking forward to decorating her condo, though. The other night, Danielle and I began decorating our house. We hung the stocking we bought for Mom a couple of years ago when she opted to come up and spend the holidays with us rather than have us go down there. I sobbed as I hung it.

The worst feeling right now is this weird guilt I have for not calling her. There’s like a timer in my head when it comes to calling her. She usually called me on Sunday nights, so I never felt like I had to make too much effort to give her a ring – I’d just wait for her call. If she went a week without calling, I’d start to get a little anxious and, eventually, call her myself. It’s been almost a month since I last spoke with her, and that timer is going off loudly in my head – “Call your mom! Call your mom! Call your Mom!” And, of course, I immediately remind myself, “Can’t call her, not anymore.”

See? Captain Buzzkill.

I expect this whole thing will leave me being a moody bastard for a while. I apologize in advance.

Seth Godin links to a blog post about exposure on MySpace today that’s a fairly interesting read.

I’ve had several endeavors so far that I have gained a ton of exposure for by tailoring the content to the interests of certain powerful blogs and asking them to post a link on their site. This kind of honest and simple marketing is cheap and effective if you’re trying to score eyeballs. Faking it will hurt more than it will help.

In my opinion, getting a rush of eyeballs is actually pretty easy, provided you create good content and get your links up on the right areas. Bloggers are like newspaper journalists – constantly hungering for content. Give them something to whet their appetite for a day, and you’ll be handsomely rewarded.

The real challenge is what to do when you get those eyeballs. Despite the huge influx of visitors to the sites I’ve successfully promoted, I’ve rarely been able to maintain more than 20% of those numbers on an ongoing basis, and I’ve made almost no money on the propositions. In other words, getting the exposure you want is easy. Maintaining interest takes effort.

In all honesty, I simply haven’t cared that much so far because the sites I have promoted were never intended to be massive affairs. This will soon be changing, though, as there are a few things I really want to build buzz around. So my new challenge is keeping folks coming back, getting them to click on the things I want them to visit or buy and getting some value out of my work.

Typically, I put the word out there about something way before I’m ready for the traffic, which makes everything extremely daunting. It’s a tough risk, but I believe the best plan of action is to put all of your effort into making your site complete, clean and built around the goals you are striving to achieve (i.e. selling your wares, getting folks to click on your Google ads, etc.) before you bother going for the big numbers. Wine Spotter is a good example of this strategy. I’ve already put in about 50 hours worth of work, and I estimate I have 30 or so to go before it’s “ready for prime time”. I think it would be a breeze to start promoting what I have, but I’m afraid that folks will come and see what’s there rather than what’s to come. You only get one chance to make a good first impression, and that first impression really counts for everything in the short attention span world.

This is, of course, why having a well-defined plan for a site is of the utmost importance. Take all of the goals and desires for your site and get them down on paper. Once you’re confident you have just about everything, begin prioritizing the features. Break them down into three groups:

• Required for Launch
• Valuable Enhancement
• Nice to Have

Required for Launch covers everything you consider vital to making the site work and making it valuable to your visitors. If you had to cut out every single feature but a vital few, these would be the ones marked “Required for Launch”. Those items that add significant value to the site but don’t keep it from being valuable or usable should be dropped in the second category. Everything else goes in the third. This is a very subjective, touchy-feely process, but it’s the best way to ensure that your site serves its purpose.

Don’t heavily promote your site until everything laid out in the first category has been completely implemented, tested and re-tested. You want to make sure that, when you gain exposure, the folks coming to your site immediately find what you want them to find. Don’t be coy – lay it right out there. If you’re selling something, put the “Buy” button prominently in front of your visitors. If you’re making money off of ad sales, put your ads in places where they’ll actually look, not in the places they’re trained to ignore. Perform some user testing on your friends and family. It can be as simple and asking them to visit the site and take a look around. Watch and record every move they make. Are they going to the locations you want them to? How long until they get bored and click away from your site? Don’t get frustrated and don’t lead them around – let them explore while you objectively observe how the average user uses your site. If you’re unhappy with the results, change the site around. Ask questions about why they went a particular route, what caught their eye first, etc. Ask them to narrate their surfing, to think out loud as they visit your site. All of this will lead to a much better experience for everyone and ensure that, once you do get the exposure you want, you’ll be able to make the most of it.