Funnily enough, the latest word on the ‘net is that the studio had always intended to go wider with the movie. But the awareness that was built with the “Demand It” campaign even snookered an Internet-savvy entertainment guru such as myself; read my review of “Paranormal Activity”. I think it’s a masterstroke of viral marketing, generating an incredible of buzz — 1,000,000 demands and counting — for a movie that would’ve otherwise gone straight-to-DVD.

The success of “Paranormal Activity” recalls the lightning-in-a-bottle phenomenon that was “The Blair Witch Project” in 1999. Not only are both films of the “found footage” horror sub-genre, but their limited marketing budgets were wisely spent on aggressive online marketing campaigns with websites that enhanced their mystique.

That being said, the day after I saw “Paranormal Activity,” I went to a special screening of “Trick ‘R Treat,” a film that also had sat on a shelf for two years. After a few token screenings at festivals, conventions and revival houses, “Trick ‘R Treat” came out on DVD last week. However, awareness for the film among genre movie fans was incredible, having been built up on entertainment sites for the past 24 months. The director announced at the screening I attended that “Trick ‘R Treat” had more DVD pre-sales on Amazon.com than “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.” Fans were willing to spend $20 for a movie they hadn’t seen. It’s a foregone conclusion they’d have spent half of that to have seen the film theatrically.

I think the success of “Paranormal Activity” can be directly attributed to the frustration that the horror and genre movie fanbase feels when films like “Trick ‘R Treat” are denied a theatrical release. The fanbase is there, and the Internet is the best way to reach them. It’s my hope that studios will begin to implement more clever Internet marketing strategies like the “Demand It” campaign, engaging fans in a way that most of their other marketing efforts do not.

-Brad Lohan

There really are no hard and fast rules for blogging. You don’t have an editor or deadlines looming over you. That said, I have a few personal guidelines I like to follow:

• I try to keep things brief, since big blocks of text are off-putting for casual readers. If you’re getting a little long winded, see what you can trim out or maybe put into another blog.
• I always proofread my blogs. I want readers to not be distracted by typos or bad grammar. People will be more inclined to bookmark your blog if it reads well.
• It’s important to update your blog often. I try to write at least one blog a day, taking Saturdays and Sundays off. If I have an idea during the weekend, I’ll write it out and save it for Monday or some other day when I’m short on ideas.
• If you get an idea for a blog by reading another online article, make sure you cite the source in your blog and provide a link. I almost always blog about industry news I read on entertainment sites and provide embedded links for readers to see the original piece.
• Try to embed a picture in your blog or maybe a YouTube clip if applicable. Give your readers something to look at beyond simple text. It’ll make your blog more dynamic.
• Remember that what you’re saying is going out onto the Interwebs. It’s not a diary or a journal that only you have access to. Keep personal information limited, since you never know who’s going to read it.

Blogging has helped me develop a writing style that I’m no longer so self-conscious about. All through college, I agonized over every word I committed to the page. Now I’m more comfortable putting things down on paper. If you’re a writer or an aspiring to be one, you absolutely should be blogging. Get comfortable throwing your ideas out there, learn to deal with writer’s block and become more confident in your writing ability.