Cyber Monday Myth or Now Internet Genre?

Happy Cyber Monday to you all. What is it? In 2005 Shop.org coined a new marketing phrase called "Cyber Monday", based on some data in 2004 about the Monday following "Black Friday" being the biggest online shopping day of the year. Shortly afterwards, and after some actual research they found that it in fact didn't measure up to the hype. The term came under some harsh criticism, and even Rob Hoff posted a retraction of sorts to his article in Business Week. However as most advertiser's know there is no such thing as bad advertising, and many people follow the ideology of bad press is better than no press.

Fast forward another year to 2006. Again more people downplayed the term Cyber Monday. However with each article posted, each comment created the term spread throughout the internet. Shop.org persisted in marketing the term as well as their website CyberMonday.com was launched. Even though many people said that the day was just hype, there were still a few companies that reported great earnings like Ice.com.

Fast forward again to 2007. The term that only showed 779, 000 results in 2005 now pop up almost 2 million results today in Google. Currently as I write this Shop.org's website went down for unknown reasons. Maybe just my connection since I can't find other reports about the site's statistics. While there are some that say that Cyber Monday is a Joke, it can't be denied that this phrase is taking root in the American language. Market Watch, InformationWeek, TechCrunch, and CNet are expecting better results this year compared to previous years.

Their persistence paid off. While this is only the third year that the term has been around, it may become a day similar to "Black Friday" which major businesses aggressively target sales.

Morale of the story? Don't give up, even if you get a bad review. Bad press isn't bad since its always going to get you more exposure (unless of course your Britney Spears [NSFW]).