How to use fake news to promote a website

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

This has been the mantra of the UK tabloid press for years and it makes for very entertaining reading, taken with a pinch of salt.

Let’s take a look first at Nick Coates who last year made The Sun and Daily Mail (aged just 17) with a story about him turning down £8.5 million for a website that didn’t look to have any traffic at all. After the publicity the site was worth 100 times the original amount (still not £8.5 million of course).

Then there was Alex Tew and his milliondollarhomepage.com which was picked up by the BBC and every other website in the world. Do you really think Alex sold any pixels before his PR company started pitching the idea to newspapers? In reality he probably gave the first 200,000 away and then made his money on the final slots. The story was in the fact a young student had made loads of money even though he probably hadn’t.

You need to fake it until you make it whether you are marketing online or offline.

BY Patrick Altoft AT 4:45pm ON Thursday, 22 May 2008

Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Branded3 and has worked in the SEO industry for over 10 years. With experience across some of the worlds largest brands as well as startup businesses Patrick is well known in the industry and speaks regularly at the major SEO conferences and events. Follow Patrick on Twitter or Google+