Billy the Human Billboard
Written by Brent Oxley on May 22, 2009 – 7:45 pm -I’m going to share some quick facts about our business with you. HostGator currently spends:
- More than $30,000 per month advertising with Google Adwords
- More than $350,000 per month on affiliate commissions
- And $100,000’s more per year on random advertising.
When you spend as much as we do on advertising, you start to run out of places to advertise online. This has left us with no other choice but to become a lot more creative and a lot crazier with our choice of advertising venues and locations. I present to you Billy the Billboard.
Billy proudly wears the first ever permanent HostGator Tattoo on the back of his neck. Billy, an accomplished boxer and entrepreneur who is currently located in Anchorage, Alaska, sold the first chunk of his body to Goldenpalace.com. The funds were used to purchase a flight to San Diego, where he donated his kidney to a complete stranger that he met off of MatchingDonors.com. Billy has even tried to donate part of his liver to patients in need (he was denied due to having already donated a kidney).
Billy’s current goal in life is to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most advertisements tattooed on him. He currently has six tattoos and won’t be stopping until every inch of his body is sold. “I guess I’m like a male prostitute; I sell my body,” he told me when we were talking one day.
So what does branding someone’s neck for the rest of their life go for?
We paid $3,000 for what will most likely be one of the best investments we’ve made to date. If we get one sale a year we break even. Plus, with all the media attention this will generate, we should easily be able to make back ten or even a hundred times our investment in Billy’s lifetime.
Billy still has plenty of prime locations available. In fact, he’s currently taking bids to sell his forehead! If you are interested you can reach him at BoxingChampAK-at-aol.com or at his blog: Billy The Human Billboard
I believe in the potential of tattoo advertising so much I had this awesome plan to pay the first 200 people willing to get a HostGator tattoo more than $300,000 combined. Within 24 hours of the word getting around our office, I had over a dozen employees offering to sell their skin. The plan was going to be huge and the media attention was going to be even bigger!
Everything was going great until we pitched the idea to our lawyers. They basically said that it would have been impossible to protect ourselves from lawsuits, no matter what contract we came up with. They went on to say that the fact that Billy is an entertainer is completely different than the average person in need of quick cash by getting a tattoo with our logo on it.
Since the HostGator Tattoo Stimulus plan had to be killed, we are just going to have to find other ways to get our name out to the public. In the spirit of more traditional advertising, we recently signed a deal for ten billboards on some of Houston’s busiest freeways.
And even more recently we bought some air time on The High-Tech Texan Show with radio personality Michael Garfield. You can listen to his show online if you’re not in Houston, and you can hear an audio clip from our advertisement here: HostGator’s Radio Ad. on High Tech Texan
We don’t want to stop here though. If you have a creative way for us to get our name out there, please let us know.
Posted in Advertising | 37 Comments »
By Michael VanDeMar on May 22, 2009 | Reply
Wait a minute… this guy has a blog, but it’s on *blogspot*? He let’s you rent lifetime ad space on the back on his neck, and you don’t even throw in free hosting and offer to set him up with Wordpress??
Dudes… that’s kinda whacked…
Just saying.
By KenWicklein on May 23, 2009 | Reply
Who do we contact for great advertising ideas?
By Lee Rickler on May 23, 2009 | Reply
Seeing that Billy has Space Spare, he should put up a listing on SpaceSpare.com
By HostGator.com - Douglas on May 23, 2009 | Reply
Ken,
You can post them as a comment at this blog post. :)
By KenWicklein on May 23, 2009 | Reply
Okay I will then
Advertise on the fastest growing medium Podcasts. Podcasts have a better chance of action per listen because the listeners support the podcasts through action on ads. Blubrry offers advertises a chance to get their ads out to thousands of listeners on many different podcasts for one fee.
Mention my name. ;)
Contact Todd Cochrane
CEO RawVoice
808-741-4923 (Cell)
877-RawVoic(e)
ceo(at)rawvoice.com
If bulk advertising is not your think contact me we can work something out for advertising for my NFL podcast The endzone
By Copter on May 25, 2009 | Reply
You must be kidding, it is make up, i bet.
By BillyTheBillboard on May 25, 2009 | Reply
I assure you its not fake I am Billy The tattoo advertiser and that is a real tattoo in the pics I know beacuse its me in the pics.
By Lennart Sauter on May 27, 2009 | Reply
LOL – worst thing gi’ve ever seen.
Oh – are you guys interested in car advertisement? Lifetime of my car might be short though^^
Kind regards
By Garf on May 27, 2009 | Reply
He should have put the HostGator tat on his face, forehead and back! That is the only company he should be pimpin’!!!
By Michael on May 28, 2009 | Reply
That is awesome. I’m thinking about a Spider-Man tattoo. I wonder how much Marvel will pay me to cover it up. Warning HostGator, if you don’t give me $5k, I’ll tattoo your logo on my not so skinny body. Picture your gator with stretch marks.
By BillyTheBillboard on May 28, 2009 | Reply
This is BillyTheBillboard in the pics just wanting to let everyone know My Forehead is ready to be advertised on and I will advertise on you for life for $8,000 please spread the word if you would like to advertise contact me at boxingchampak@aol.com and we can work something out I have alot of areas left to advertise on!
Thank you all
By Mike on May 30, 2009 | Reply
I’ll give Billy $5 to add my affiliate code at the end. :P
By Nicky on Jun 7, 2009 | Reply
I would love to be a billboard and make money, how do I do it?
By joe on Jun 11, 2009 | Reply
I will make a hostgator crop circle for you for $10.000
Just don’t ask how i do it
lol
By Geno Prussakov on Jun 12, 2009 | Reply
@Mike: only $5 for the affiliate code at the end? If I were you, I’d add a couple more zeros to that number. ;)
By Dead Serious on Jun 18, 2009 | Reply
I’d get small-ish tattoo, size and placement (within reason) of my choosing for lifetime web hosting.
By Ryan Paul on Jun 26, 2009 | Reply
Hostgator should’ve paid him a monthly fee rather than a flat rate – that’s LIFETIME advertising for only $3000? C’mon Brent you could’ve done better than that.
Once again… LIFETIME ADVERTISING!
By Good Health on Jul 18, 2009 | Reply
Hi
Everyone can do what they want with their bodies but I certainly wouldn’t have mine used as an advertising billboard.
Good Health
By Dana on Jul 21, 2009 | Reply
I agree with the first poster. Billy deserves a free hosting account! The blogspot page has got to go.
By Ron James on Jul 24, 2009 | Reply
I pitty hostgator for not providing him with atleast a free hosting account. and i pitty Billy for the circumstances he has to do a life time tattoo just for 3k. its a sad story over all.
Hostgator please don’t encourage these type of advertisement.
By Richard on Jul 24, 2009 | Reply
Wow, never thought as that as a way to advertise.
By Russ on Jul 24, 2009 | Reply
I’m not going to tell you how to spend your money, but what if this guy turns out to be a person who is caught for hacking websites, or child molester a mass murderer, in the Future?
How much will you spend on Covering it up that you gave this type of person 3k?
By Gordon Marie on Jul 24, 2009 | Reply
I agree that it would be better press for Hostgator to also have him “Hosted” at Hostgator just just tatto’d with it.
By Evans on Jul 24, 2009 | Reply
I don’t how visible this will be from afar and how often will he be seen.I think he has tow a line and those who want will follow.with this but him
By Brian on Jul 24, 2009 | Reply
Ah, he must not be that great of a boxer if he has to do this for money!
As for the Guinness Book of World Records, there can’t be that much competition in this category!
You go Billy boy.
By Jphn on Jul 24, 2009 | Reply
So sad to see such a young man prostitute himself for a few measly dollars of advertising.
He would have made more selling a kidney and the result would not have been permanent mutilation.
By Gerard on Jul 25, 2009 | Reply
Great idea and an eye catcher for sure. Billy better behave in public or he is going to become a pain in the neck. Wanna stretch your budget ? Try a giraffe. LOL
By Wallace on Jul 25, 2009 | Reply
Hai,
WHat i was thinking is which not only support give billy a free life time web hosting and also hostgator should fully support fund to billy as he was very kind person that try donate organ to people that need.
Regards,
Wallace
By Colin on Jul 25, 2009 | Reply
Ha ha, thats awesome.
I have some prime real estate on my left thigh if you want it? ;)
By Colin on Jul 25, 2009 | Reply
Agree with Ryan and Dana :)
By Richard on Jul 25, 2009 | Reply
Now, I have an idea that I think would help not only Host Gator, but all us of little guys who use your service! How about a deal like this: We put a host gator bumper sticker on our cars and we get a discount for do that! You get advertising, we get a break. And if you don’t like that one, how about a discount if we put a banner on our web sites?
By Miguel on Jul 27, 2009 | Reply
Billy should have put his own affiliate link on the end and did it for free. He could have made more than 3k that way.
By Joseph on Jul 29, 2009 | Reply
I am just finishing up a new 25′ sailboat. How about we put a nice big Hostgator ad on the mainsail for all to see. This boat will be making a trip starting in Eastern Canada along the eastern seaboard to NYC then into the ICW down to Florida. From there I will head to the Gulf of Mexico and meet up with the Texas 200 Sailboat Challenge and compete in the 200 mile trip along the Texas coast. This boat will get tons of media over the next couple of years. My theme on all this is :Be Green’ and to hopefully be able to raise money for charity. Contact me at my email address if you wish to discuss the possibilities but I’ll say right up front – I’ll be needing sails within a month so will have to order them soon.
Looking forward to your reply.
Joseph Murray
PS: Pics of the boat are on my facebook profile at facebook (dot) com/7dollarbooks
The new boat is the white one – I have a few :)
By roy on Aug 2, 2009 | Reply
I’m sickened by this. I thought godaddy was cheesy by selling women The reason I transfered to hostgator.com. What happened to “your body is a temple”.
Roy
By Robert Blair on Sep 6, 2009 | Reply
Just noticed the “Cowboy” billboard off I-30- welcome to Dallas!! Glad to see HostGator being advertised. I saw a commercial for NoDaddy on Adult Swim the other night and I wanted to puke!
By Hosting on Oct 22, 2009 | Reply
Now it’s really good topic.Thanks for sharing.
By Can Devecioğlu on Oct 28, 2009 | Reply
HostGator is great company for web hosting services.