Hula-Hoop It Up

Entrepreneur, July, 2000 by Geoff Williams

Welcome to the world of Internet phenomena, where you actually want to hear the words "Oh, it's lust a fad."

The Dancing Baby. The Blair Witch. Mahir Cagri, the Turkish man whose own personal Web fame got him a guest spot on The Late Show with David Letterman. And let's not forget Deidre LaCarte, the graphic-design student who put up a Web site full of dancing hamsters as a lark-didn't even spell "hamster" correctly--and will soon sell hamster mugs, key chains and T-shirts, and was even featured in an Earthlink Internet television commercial. A CD of hamster music is due soon, so you know HampsterDance: The Movie can't be far behind.

Do you want in? Do you want the world to chat about your company's Web site around water coolers and over e-mail? Do you want to be invited to appear with David Letterman to tell a world full of potential fans to log on to your Internet address, Cheese-armpir[sim]worm.com (having come to the Web a little late, your first 17,246 domain-name choices were already taken)? In short, do you want your business to become the next Internet phenomenon?