All Things Random

WHERE THE HELL IS MATT?

Go to www.wherethehellismatt.com to find out!

ABOUT:
This website is all about this guy named Matt.

It’s a simple story really. Matt gained his fame when he uploaded a video onto his webpage. It showed Matt performing a special dance. Matt travelled the world performing this dance and thought it would be a good idea to make a short movie of them all. He uploaded it onto his website for his friends and family to see and a couple of months later, it got picked-up by the chewing gum company, Stride-Gum. Since that day, Matt’s life has never been the same.

Matt’s videos soon took over the net. One day a bum, the next a star. It’s interesting you know. I can’t imagine how many artists, comedians and actors that have gained fame and fortune from the net. It’s craziness. It is a life changing thing. Just look at Matt!

Read below about Matt’s history and you will understand!

INTERESTS:

I became interested in this site about a month ago when I saw an interview on the ABC with Andrew Denton and Matt. At first I felt quite jealous, as who wouldn’t want to get paid to travel around the world? Damn. I would love to do that!

After getting over my envy, I decided to find out more about Matt’s world. I was secretly hoping to see if there was some sort of special M.O to gaining fame! However, I wasn’t so lucky.

I found Matt’s site to be humorous with the many funny and quirky blog entries and offcourse the halerious videos!!! I got addicted to reading all of what he had to say about his travels as well as seeing all of his ridiculous dance moves. I was intrigued!

I loved reading his “Journal” posts. They are really insightful and more to the point realistic. They are not some guidebook saying go here, see this, do that.

However, one thing that I would like to see on the website would be a photo album of some sort. Though I do enjoy watching Matt’s videos and reading his blog, I would also like to see more visuals from his trips.

HISTORY:

It all started in 2003 when this American guy who used to do nothing but play video games quit his job in Brisbane and decided to go travelling around Asia. During his travels, he created a website showing all his videos and journals. He did this so his family and friends could conveniently visit the website and see where he was and what he was up to.

Matt’s video evolved when he and a good buddy of his where in Hanoi. His buddy suggested that he “do that dance” whilst being recorded. After some time, the video was discovered on Matt’s website and leaked out to millions worldwide via a mass email- an “internet meme”. The email got passed onto someone, then another someone else and so on until Matt became an inadvertent celebrity.

With his website getting 20,000 hits a day since it was discovered in 2003, Matt’s videos became viewable on Youtube, Google Video, Vimeo.

Shortly after this, Matt gained the universal name- “That guy who dances on the internet”.

With the website getting thousands of hits a day, Matt shortly became noticed by the people at Stride Gum – “The ridiculously long lasting gum”.

They contacted Matt asking if he would consider taking another trip around the world to make a new video and promote their new flavoured gum. Of course Matt accepted, and before he knew it, Stride Gum was his primary sponsor.

What a dream, right?!

When 2006 came around, Matt took yet another trip around the world. What distinguished this particular trip from his previous trips was that he was sponsored. Matt visited 39 countries on 7 continents in 6 months and believe it or not, every single one of these countries saw Matt’s dance.

After creating his second video, Matt had become “semi-famous”. Wanting more, in the year of 2007, Matt had another idea - To travel the world again but this time inviting the public to join him. Matt received millions of emails worldwide through his website. There were countless amounts of people who wanted to join him.

Being his most recent trip and his third video, Matt aims to do more performing and create more videos.

Today, Matt receives millions of views on his website. Since June of this year, for example, Matt’s videos have had around 10, 871, 835 hits on Youtube alone. I wonder how many hits his webpage gets?

DESIGN:

The webpage is designed by the company “The 6th Republic, Creative Liberation”. This is the same company that has directed projects for Johnson and Johnson as well as Hallmark Entertainment and Microsoft.

The design of the webpage is appropriately themed. For example, the background is of all different postage stamps from all over the world and on top of this is a faded map of the world. At the top of the page is where all the tabs are located. Too easy!

There is Matt’s “Journal”- his blog- “Maps”- this shows the location of Matt. It shows where he has visited since he began his journey all the way up to where is he today- “Videos”- this has all of the videos Matt has created along with some others, which he likes to call, “what I enjoy”. Then there is the “About Matt” tab which takes you into a story about Matt and how he got to be where he is- next to this is the “FAQ” tab- this takes you into the “Frequently asked questions”. Finally after this there’s the link “Email Me”- where anyone can email Matt about what ever it is they want to talk to him about.

The page overall is quite grabbing. There are a lot of images from Matt’s travelling on each page, though I would like to see more.

The fonts used are also quite striking- almost like the Indiana Jones font- adventure packed! This makes the page quite attractive to its viewers. I definitely know it dragged me in!

The titles, phrases and overall style of writing used, is quite colloquial. For example, “Where the hell is matt”, “Where in Google Earth is Matt?”, and “Where the hell am I going to be this week?” and so on.

Matt writes his journal with the intention of informing his audience. Each entry mentions his whereabouts and what he’s been up to on that particular day. He talks about his experiences, thoughts at the time whilst also telling funny other little things.

The website is fairly easy to use and is well organised. For example, Matt has set it up so that people who want to read a particular post can either search by the date it was written, what country he was in at the time it was written or by seeing the most recently added entries.

He also has the comment tool on his website, allowing people to comment on his entries- boy do they comment! These are organised as well by the most recent comments showing first.

Although, the FAQ page is a little messy, Matt even says that at the top of the page, it is still arranged under headings, “Frequently Asked Questions” and “Less Frequently Asked Questions”.

LINKS:

Throughout the website and each of his entries, readers will find many links to other webpage’s. For example, in one of Matt’s most recent posts he says how on his third and most recent trip he decided not to take any media interviews like he did in his second trip. He said he declined all except for Australia-he had a link to the story about him in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Overall, I think the links used on the website are all used in the appropriate context. I would hopefully like to achieve something like this on my own blog one day!

STANDOUTS:

One particular part of the website that stands out to me is the Google Map facility and the Google Earth facility. It allows you to actually see where Matt has visited and where he is today… like TODAY TODAY! Google Earth allows you to also follow Matt but allows you to further explore the places he has landed even allowing you to see street views. For example, you can see the Eifel Tower in France! It’s amazing yet freaky at the same time.

I must also mention the way Matt has used his links. He has covered pretty much everything that can be linked. For example, Matt has even made a link to download the music that is played during his videos!

ADVERTISEMENTS:

The only advertisements on the page are those that promote themselves as well as Matt. I.e. YOUTUBE, GOOGLE, STRIDE GUM, WIKIPEDIA and so on.

OTHER WEBSITES THAT REFER BACK TO THIS WEBPAGE:

There is a wikipedia page on Matt and his site. There is also a profile on Matt on his primary sponsor, Stride Gum , as well as the many pages that have mentioned him like NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day page.

Overall, I highly recommend this site! If your up for a laugh and/or interested in travel, then this is the site for you!

Matt at the moment is in Seattle!