Creative Entertaining Website - It's Dot Com!

Fun sites can be used in serious marketing efforts, but some sites exist for pure and simple fun. My absolute favorite pure fun site by far is Homestar Runner (www.homestarrunner.com). This site was created by Matt and Mike Chapman a.k.a. "The Brothers Chaps." It evolved from a simple children's book idea they had back in 1996. In 2000 it made its internet début. Since then it has garnered the attention of Wired, Time, MSNBC, and NEWSWEEK. The site has millions of fans, including the band They Might Be Giants, who teamed up with the Homestar creators to write a song/animated video called "Experimental Film" (www.homestarrunner.com/expfilm.html). What was originally just a way for the Chapman brothers to learn Flash became an amazingly popular site.

One of the things I admire most about Homestar Runner is that it has been successful based on its creative merits alone. It has no corporate sponsors, no advertising, and no marketing agenda. In fact, when I first started visiting the site I couldn't figure out how in the world anyone could devote so much time without a discernable budget source or revenue model. But as a result of good writing, creative ideas, skillful execution and an incredible sense of humor Homestarrunner.com has become so popular that these two brothers now have several employees and earn plenty of money simply by selling shirts and character figurines.

If you've never been to Homestarrunner.com before, you're in for a lot of fun. However, what I said earlier about having a few minutes to spare does not apply to Homestar. It would literally take hours maybe days to watch everything on the site. My introduction to the site was a particular Strong Bad email (one of the most popular features of the site) appropriately dubbed "website" (www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail51.html). Homestar Runner has serious "Far Side Effect" potential, so be careful. I'd suggest only a few Strong Bad emails or a couple of 'toons at a time; maybe a Teen Girl Squad, or Holiday Short too, but that's it - pace yourself.   next >