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Behind the Scenes of The Fake Steve Jobs Blog – [VIDEO]

Posted By Darren Rowse 17th of November 2007 Case Studies 0 Comments

I came across the following video this morning at InsideGoogle. It’s of a presentation that Dan Lyons (aka Fake Steve Jobs) gave at Google recently.

It actually goes for 51 minutes (but there’s not a lot visual about it so you can listen to it while doing something else) and is basically Dan telling the story of starting the Fake Steve Jobs blog, seeing it take off, struggling to monetize it, the eventual unmasking of him as it’s author (it was an anonymous blog for a long time) and what’s happened since.

I post it here because it’s a fascinating story, made me chuckle, touches on blog monetization and shows some of what can be achieved through a blog with a little luck, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. At it’s peak – his blog was doing 500,000 visitors a day – quite a story.

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. I’ve met him. He’s a pretty funny guy!

  2. I never got to read the blog… I’m going to have to search for it. Is it still up?

  3. Quite interesting indeed, Like Joe said, I’m also going to read the blog.

    I’m going to work On my luck, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. I’ll work on some kind of good spirit/attitude.

  4. David says: 11/17/2007 at 1:44 am

    Very funny guy! He should have a show :)

  5. That’s an awesome story. He is a funny guy.

    Anything to do with Apple usually gets a huge amount of attention.

    Talking about apple on my tech related blogs generally get more attention than anything else.

  6. Perfect Niche. Everyone would want to hear about it. Wonder if the real Steve Jobs got mad about it or if he liked it for publicity.

  7. funny and insightful. thanks so much for posting this.

  8. Seems there’s a lot of money in fake personas – JohnCow anyone?

  9. This man definitely have a creative mind of thinking a niche when he wanted to start blogging.

    I have been reading this blog and amazingly, although it was fake, I find it really interesting.

  10. Isn’t it funny how you can get so interested in a blog that you know is totally fake?

  11. He has a superb blog. I have been following his blog for some time now. His standoff with Bill gates will be given in a professional manner

  12. Yeah, this is a very funny and smart guy… but what is the blog? The URL?

  13. Crappy. Johnny beat me to it. I guess that’s what I get for waiting till the end of the video to hit “submit”

  14. That’s a fantastically interesting video. I don’t really think it’s all that odd to be interested in something “fake”. Satire is what makes life so grand. I think fake Steve will be ranked with Mad, The Daily Show, and the like.

    Good stuff.

  15. I’m going to work On my luck, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. I’ll work on some kind of good spirit/attitude

  16. Sometimes, it’s easy to see how people get to be successful. He is genuinely quick-witted and goofy.

    Thanks for the vid.

  17. I’m going to work On my luck, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. I’ll work on some kind of good spirit/attitude.

  18. Funny man, thanks for sharing.

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