Comedians Stumble Upon New Viral Marketing Idea

SAN DIEGO – Two stand-up comedians from San Diego think they may have accidentally discovered something big — something besides just laughs. Steve Roye and Paul Stoecklein were trying to think of creative ways to market their new web site killerstandup.com when the idea seemed to hit them from nowhere — free interactive joke books on the Internet. Before they knew it, freejokebooks.com was born.

We were shocked to discover that nobody else was doing this already," says Roye. People are circulating jokes, and people are circulating eBooks, but nobody is circulating joke eBooks. As far as we can tell, were the first people to try this."

Freejokebooks.com offers downloadable joke books and humorous fairy tales that can be sent as executable files through email. Created with the help of a compiler, the eBooks look much different than the standard jokes circulated across the Internet as regular emails.

Stoecklein explains, We wanted something that looked professional, didnt irritate readers, and was drop-dead funny. When we finished creating the eBooks, we realized they looked like little mobile web sites. So we ended up calling them floating web sites."

The site launched on March 3 and has already seen incredible results. Roye and Stoecklein began by sending one of their joke books to just a handful of friends and family members. Within days, they had recorded over 15,000 hits on their site from several countries all over the world.

And that was all without submitting to one search engine or using one traditional marketing technique," says Roye. We didnt do anything! We just sent out a few emails to friends and family, and we left it alone. Within 48 hours, we had people in Finland and Italy looking at our web site and downloading our books. I dont know about you, but I dont know anybody in Finland. Fresno yes, Finland no."

Stoecklein states that the joke and fairy tale books combine the best aspects of circulated email jokes and standard eBooks. Like circulated email jokes, he says that their eBooks have the potential to reach millions of people with minimal effort, simply because people like to laugh and share laughter with others through email. This also means they are ideal for marketing products and services, whether they are their own or somebody elses.

He adds, The big difference is that people who use email jokes to advertise often end up swamping readers with obnoxious ads. You have trouble even finding the funny stuff. Its irritating and what happens is that people copy only the joke text and forward that on, leaving the ads behind. With our eBooks, that doesnt happen. Our ads are minimal, we add humor to them, and they cant be stripped from the eBooks. Theyre circulated everywhere the eBooks go."

Like other eBooks, the comedians say that theirs take advantage of modern web design and technology, such as streaming audio. They admit that eBooks are certainly nothing new, but they insist that most eBooks do not have the viral marketing potential that a joke eBook has.

Roye explains, Only so many people are interested in an eBook about skydiving. But everybody likes to laugh. Weve taken the best parts of circulated email jokes and traditional eBooks and weve combined them."

Roye and Stoecklein also believe they have an advantage when it comes to content. The comedians write much of the material that appears in their joke books, as well as all of the twisted fairy tales that are also available from their site. Therefore, they claim that their material overall is much fresher than that produced by the many Internet joke service sites.

Were comedians," says Roye. Thats what we do every day. We have a lot of experience with whats funny and whats not. Were picky about the material we perform on stage, and were picky about the material we put in our books. Thats why our eBooks are spreading like a virus. Theyre making people laugh, from beginning to end."

When asked about any negatives associated with the new floating web site concept, Stoecklein mentioned that currently only PC users can open the books. Because they wanted their eBooks to expire, they had to use a compiler that offered an expiration feature. Unfortunately, the compiled version does not work for Macs — yet.

Thats something were working on," he adds. Its only a matter of time before the Mac people can open the books too."

Were learning from our mistakes as we go," Roye interjects. Listen, were comedians, not Internet gurus. Our biggest flaw is that we often ignore the rules."

And what is their biggest strength?

Roye doesnt hesitate, We often ignore the rules."

For more information, contact:
Paul Stoecklein at (760) 212-2314 or pstoecklein@freejokebooks.com