It's easier to surf an ocean than a puddle: Getting your product in front of the masses

By Nicholas Townsend Smith, June, 2016

I recently posted some before and after pictures of myself on two popular websites. I didn’t expect much, since prior to this experience there was not much interest in what I had to share. Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube gave me a place to post my image, but my following (my puddle) was so small, that it barely made a ripple. I was excited about the results, so I wanted to share and brag a bit—I assume I am not the only one that wants attention.

I am a fan of Reddit, an entertainment, news, and social media site that is full of ideas and strong opinions. I decided I would post my article with a brief explanation of my thoughts in a subreddit called r/fitness. I was blown away by the results. Within hours, I had over 30,000 views and hundreds of comments. Most of the comments were positive, some were negative, but in the end, they were comments, and views. Later in the day, the moderators removed my post because I did not follow that forum’s rules; a learning lesson for me. In place of re-doing the post, I decided to try another site; Imgur (a popular image sharing site). I posted my article and shot it out again just to see what would happen. I threw in a couple of keywords (e.g. rad dad, fitness, health), and let it fly. It was like throwing my content in front of a tidal wave. Within two days, I had over 100,000 views and the image went viral. Granted, this is a small number compared to many of the images and videos that are out there, but it was more than I had ever received in all my years of trying to get eyes on my product (You can see the image here https://imgur.com/IQ63F7P).

Here's the point I am trying to make. I am what is known as an ambivert, I can be social when needed, but prefer to be alone, yet part of me wants social attention. In the past, I would create products (i.e. videos, articles, and podcasts), and attempt to create a following. I was highly successful at generating a healthy following of about 5 people; definitely not enough to retire on. In a sense, I was throwing my product in front of a puddle of people. I have a friend. He calls himself the King of Random. Within a few short years, he created a following of over 5 million people on YouTube. Let’s just say that his is doing quite well. I always wondered how he got so much attention and I got so very little. A few days ago, I found out how. While I was promoting my product to a puddle, he was placing his in front of a tidal wave. If promotion was like surfing, he would be a world champion and I would have no sense of what a wave is because I was used to ripples. In essence, it is easier to surf the ocean than it is a puddle. I hope you catch my meaning with that.

He would create products and throw them in front of a wave of eyeballs. The wave would do all of the work. The wave brought his subscribers to him. I, on the other hand, was merely creating a ripple; in many cases, that was hardly noticeable; only because I was not putting my product in the right place. It says nothing of the product, it simply says that I did not put my product in front of enough eyeballs to surf.

In summary, if you are going to promote your product, whatever that is, make sure you place it where the eyeballs are. Let them do the hard part. Let them carry your product. You can attempt to build a following from nothing, or you can capture some of the people that are already a part of the wave (for me, that was Reddit and Imgur). I stumbled onto something that was in front of me all along, but it took a random experience to see it. I hope this helps you to have the same experience.