My long-neglected lens #13 was Web Flotsam: Viral Videos and Funny Memes, posted on 6/6/07. (Too bad it wasn’t a year earlier — 13 and 6/6/06?) It was a good idea, but I didn’t know what I was doing when I made it, so it’s never been successful. Now, with extensive revamping, it may be.

What This Lens is About

Many famous funny videos, memes and major humor websites that people have been sharing since the beginning of the web.

Excerpt

Carson Williams’ famous Christmas lights display synched to Trans Siberian Orchestra became a Christmas 2005 viral video sensation — not to mention a Budweiser commercial. Like many viral videos, it launched a trend — many people now do this!

Why I Made This Lens

I wanted to share the humor sites and early memes that entertained me and friends in 1994-1995, when the web was new and gangly. More recently, I’ve been adding the modern popular memes and videos that attract more notice nowadays.

Things I Learned Making This Lens

People don’t vote on Plexos. People also don’t click on long lists of links. This lens had good content, but didn’t present it well. Now I’ve divided it into logical sections: Viral Videos, Movie Mashups, Flash Mobs, etc. I’ve trimmed out some of the less-funny stuff and added some full-sized video modules to attract quick clicks.  Organization is key, especially on a lens this long.

Last year I tried an experiment: giving an annual award to the best viral video. People like awards and badges. But I didn’t publicize it. This year I tweeted the winner hoping for a RT, and also emailed the site. We’ll see if I can get a little viralness of my own going with that award.

Things I DIDN’T Learn Making This Lens

Originally the title was, “Web Flotsam: A Connoisseur’s Collection.” That has NO keywords in it — nor does the url, “web flotsam.” I was similarly ignorant with tags. I did zero keyword research in an incredibly competitive niche — there are MILLIONS of web humor and funny video sites. I wasn’t even using jargon like “viral video” and “meme” when I started; I was calling it by my pet name “web flotsam.”

It would’ve been better if a) I’d done SEO and b) I had focused in on a narrower topic. Web humor is too broad for a short lens.

Lens Stats and Milestones

As of today: Lensrank # 30,723, 8 ratings, 2 favorites, 1406 lifetime visitors.

Best lensrank achieved: #3004. Lifetime earnings: $4.13.

Poor little lens. It deserved a kinder fate. Let’s see if it does better now that I’ve fixed useless tags and headers, done basic SEO, reorganized the content and added more video.

Link:

Web Flotsam: Funny Viral Videos and Memes

Related Lenses:

Funny Signs :: Student Bloopers

Student Bloopers: Funny Stuff Kids Write went live on May 9th, 2007 under the less-effective-SEO name, “Student Bloopers: A Connoisseur’s Collection”.

What This Lens is About

It’s my archive of funny, odd, and hilariously wrong statements from students I taught, plus links to other collections of student bloopers.

Excerpts

“Kouroi were created to portray young men and women about the age of puberty to show people in the moment in time at which the mortals were at the same perfection of the gods. Us mortals quickly lose this state of perfection.”

Q: The twins who are credited with founding Rome are…
A: Barbie twins

Why I Made This Lens

Student bloopers are FUNNY! I used to share them on my website. I was originally inspired by a student history of Europe that’s been floating around for decades, a compilation of student mistakes on various exams. It’s a time-honored practice among many teachers to keep a blooper file.

Things I Learned Making This Lens

• People tend not to contribute to plexos, apart from link plexos.
• Text plexos don’t take HTML formatting. Or quotes!
• But plexos are a snazzy way to list random funny things or quotes.
• The Amazon Spotlight is a really effective way to showcase one item.

Things I DIDN’T Learn Making This Lens

• If you set a lens to an R-rating (a student had used a four-letter word) no one will EVER FIND IT. This lens languished for years without any traffic before I bleeped the swear word and reset the rating to G.
• Save the puns and flowery titles for the page’s subtitle. The Title of the page is the link people will click on, so it needs to make clear what the page is about! That’s also important for SEO.
  “Student Bloopers: A Connoisseurs Collection” is an intimidating title. “Student Bloopers: Funny Stuff Kids Write” is more accessible, and includes the keyword “Funny” and “Stuff”. (“Stuff” is a very common search term!)
• Don’t make it so blinking long no one will read it! Lenses are not newspapers. They’re 1-page pamphlets.

Related Lenses

Funny Signs and Bizarre Billboards :: The Care and Feeding of Apostrophes

Lens Stats and Milestones

As of today: Lensrank #11,288, 10 ratings, 1 favorite, 1088 lifetime visitors. (It’s now getting 30-40 visits a week. Pity I didn’t fix the rating sooner.)
Best lensrank achieved: #3695. Lifetime earnings: $3.49

Link:

Student Bloopers: Funny Things Kids Write