Hula-Hoop It Up

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-armpit~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?

This article was originally published in the July 2000 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Hula-Hoop It Up.