Step No. 8: Persist.
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Jakob Lodwick, entrepreneur turned fameball.
(Photo: Patrick McMullan) |
If you've followed the road map, taken your time, and slowly climbed your way up the ladder, you should be at the point where, if you really want microfame, it's yours for the taking.
Your next big problem will be staying relevant.
Remember Judson Laipply? Though the name probably looks unfamiliar, you are likely among the 86 million people who have seen him in “Evolution of Dance,” the most popular video of all time on YouTube.
Exactly. That guy.
While the page views on that video continue to tick upward, he has been unable to reproduce his past success. The Internet is flush with these one-hit wonders, a list that includes D.C. sex blogger Washingtonienne, treadmill rockers OK Go, faux-Japanese Webcammer Magibon, and even, so far, Ashley Dupré, who has been unable to turn her moment in the spotlight into any significant type of fame or financial gain.
While some people quickly fade from public consciousness, another kind of person seems to mysteriously—sometimes frustratingly—persist. Jakob Lodwick called these people fameballs, "individuals whose fame snowballs because journalists cover what they think other people want them to cover." Lodwick himself is a good example. Though he probably wants to be known for his entrepreneurial efforts, like co-founding Vimeo and Normative, he's probably best known as Julia Allison's ex-boyfriend. And he also happens to have a photo spread in Esquire this month.
To persevere in the new age of celebrity, you need to return to the well, repeating these steps of creating, oversharing, and responding.

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