Someone recently told me that there is a guy making bank going door to door selling Google local listing services to local businesses. He wrote up a nice salespage with some slick graphics and literally started knocking on doors. How much is he charging for this nifty service of his, you ask?

$300 dollars.

That’s right, three hundred fucking dollars to do something that you can literally do yourself in about ten minutes.  I heard about another guy who is charging $50 bucks a month to locals to be a member of his “how to use wordpress” elite business whatever group. He’s doing six figures just sitting around monitoring a fucking forum and answering questions. And he isn’t pulling any leads from the interwebs, it’s all from networking and handing out business cards. Further, have you seen the amount of “social media experts” that fill Twitter?

Thanks to our ever-crumbling economy, more and more unemployable people are being forced to learn how to hype themselves up so they can afford dinner at The Olive Garden. 99% of them are idiots and we all know that.

However, it does bring up an interesting point about the power of hype. Hype gets you attention. And attention gives you a chance to pitch yourself and your wares.

Have you noticed that over the past–five?–years  or so movie studios have begun marketing their big budget films almost a year in advance of their release? (Why the fuck do I need to wait 10 months for Iron Man II?) It’s all about the hype.

Case in point: Remember this trailer?

This was one of the best cut trailers I’d ever seen and it was released almost a full year before the release of the film. Check out the search data for the 300 graphic novel during that time:

Crazy, amirite? Sales for a relatively obscure graphic novel shot through the roof long before the film ever hit the theater.

Thankfully, there was a little bit of substance (if only aesthetic) to support the hype behind 300. But really, does it matter?

The moral of the story, in my humble opinion, is that hype never goes out of style. Parents aren’t well connected? Get to hypin’. Can’t afford tuition to go back and get that degree from the University of Phoenix? Learn how to hype : )

Sidenote: Check out this rehearsal for the song from that 300 trailer:

Just Like You Imagined-Trent Reznor/NIN