Did you know that I’ve been doing online marketing since 1999? Neither did I. But online marketing is exactly what I was doing back in the pre-social-media days of the late 90s, spending all of my free time (a.k.a. “afterschool time”) on websites and forums marketing the crap out of *NSYNC.

Back when I was even 12 years old, I went from having a cutsie AOL email account to joining public forums on music and, more specifically, my boyband of choice. The problem with these super popular forums was that other boybands (you know which ones I’m talking about — no need to name them here in my special place) had fans that liked to join in the conversation and launch their glitter-colored and GIF animation attacks on us, fighting over who was the best boyband out there.

Let me tell you — it got ugly. So, we started marketing.

We held contests. We did some online voting, way before SurveyMonkey or similar tools ever existed. We did blogger outreach — it just wasn’t called that yet. We launched microsites on specific topics and new CDs. There were even offensive attacks on the competition via viral campaigns — similar to the lolcats and memes of today’s digital natives. We marketed and fought hard, and, in the end, I think we pretty much won. (You don’t need me to rehash boyband history here, but the sales numbers say it all.)

So, when you see me writing about marketing and mixing it with things I enjoy — fitness, for example — don’t squirm or think I’m weird. Think about it. Wouldn’t you want to mix business with pleasure?

Drop me a line and learn how. Now.

More badassery:

1. A Year in Scenes.
2. On the First Day of Christmas, the Marketer Said to Me…
3. Top 10 Things Out of Touch Marketers Should Learn.