WHERE
The response has been surprising. The only thing Smith did in the way of promotion, at the outset, was to submit it to coolhomepages.com. “I assumed that if it got listed I’d get a little response, and that a few people out in cyberspace would find it amusing,” he says. He didn’t bargain for the response he got. “Within a few months, I was getting more hits than I would have ever guessed. It can average anywhere from 40,000 to 80,000 hits per month. The coolest thing to me is not so much the number of hits, but the variety. My stats show that it’s getting good traffic in just about every country in the world. I guess corporate bullshit is pretty universal.”

WHEN
The site even has ads. “I use Google’s AdSense ads, so I don’t have any real control over whose ads get listed. They spider your content and bring in ads dynamically based on your copy. So, in return for a little click revenue, I’m giving tons of exposure to other design and marketing agencies.”

Of course, all that exposure has also generated copycats. “I find it strange how many times the site gets ripped off. I’ll get a heads-up from someone who has come across another site that has lifted my design and plagiarized my copy. I can’t really think of anything funnier: A site that I’m making fun of that rips off my material to promote themselves. That’s such a great paradox. I couldn’t buy that kind of PR if I tried,” he says.

WHY
“Believe it or not, my only intention with this site was to amuse myself—and perhaps the few friends I would e-mail it to once it was online. I think, as a humorist, that’s usually the origin of any good idea. You just jump on something because it makes you laugh, with little regard to how anyone else will react to it. Some ideas catch on. Some don’t. This one just happened to hit home with a lot of people out there in the ‘working world’ who deal with this kind of bullshit on a daily basis,” he notes.

The biggest question Smith gets is, “Is this real?” He says, “It’s a parody, but it’s also a real company that works pretty hard for me. It now gets me more exposure than anything I have online. And for a designer, that translates into good leads. I’ve gotten some of my best freelance gigs from people who contacted me through that site. So, in the end, it’s become my best marketing tool, and the best portfolio piece I could ever show someone. So now it gets me work doing ... um, the stuff I’m making fun of. You figure that one out.”

GREG SMITH | www.huhcorp.com