by Gil De Palma

Burning Man is a simple HTML website that tells the story of a 23-year-old artist afflicted with a mysterious chronic burning disease who discovers that the flames killing him little by little have miraculous healing powers.

Many people have said that this Website is really weird and ugly, but they keep on coming back just the same.

They read the compelling stories. They view whimsical art works. They join blog campaigns. They react. They leave comments. They buy stuff. They recommend it to others.

And they even profit from the FREE success secret it revealed!

But, really, the Website is the secret. It is like some kind of "curiosity central." It is a potent people magnet. And, yes, it is the stuff of super affiliates. It gets thousands of hits daily without really trying.

Perhaps being weird and ugly is really its revenge for being so.

You can learn a lot from its success. Discover the secret right now...

"Frankly, it’s technically weird and ugly."

Although no one can say exactly what it looks like when a Website is weird and ugly, a Web designer actually E-mailed 23-year old artist Burny Madden with an offer to "beautify his Website technically."

Indeed, in the Internet – where the word "techie" is synonymous to godling, and the word "newbie" is almost an insult – a "technically cool" Website seems inevitable.

Whether a Flash eye-candy Website with animated buttons, titles, images, streaming video, cinematic sound effects, pop-ups, and techie cool what-have-yous is visually distracting is beside the point.

Never mind what you’ve heard about beauty in simplicity. In cyberspace, techie cool is what’s beautiful.

Burny and his best friend Nona have built a Website to tell his life story to the world. Burny is afflicted with a mysterious chronic burning disease that causes parts of his body to ignite at random. Burn scars constellate his body. He walks with a limp. He is too mortified to be with people. Some even call him a freak.

Then, he discovers that the flames killing him, little by little, have miraculous healing powers. His life has never been the same again, especially after going online.

But, now, Burny and Nona feel that if a Website is called weird and ugly; it probably looks a lot like their Burning Man story site.

It certainly feels that way when people say the Website will have tremendous potential if they show a short animated feature about the story. It certainly feels that way when they receive e-mails asking in so many ways why the site is "sooo static." And it certainly feels that way when they read this message from a returning site visitor: "Hey, no offense guys, but I think your old Flash Website looks a lot better than this dead mind-numbing stuff."

Burning Man is an offshoot of a fancy Flash Burny Madden Website, their newbie attempt at being Webbies. It was an absolute "techie beauty." Cinematic intro. Scrolling text. An array of moving thingies. Even an animated page-turner. All this plus some Hollywood-style effects. It gave that peculiar feeling of watching a mystery movie.

But where’s the rest of the story? That was the question of most site visitors.

Burny and NonaI intended to tell the Burny’s story in that Website. Trouble is, the animated page-turner limited them to a maximum of sixteen pages – about 106 pages short of the site’s designed content.

Their first Website became some kind of an unfinished visual treat that people would visit once or twice at the most, and then never again. Adding more animated effects served like a one-time adrenaline boost for the site, that’s all.

Requesting those who purchased the ebook to recommend it to others led some people to accuse them of spamming. They even tried using sophisticated linking software to increase its exposure to no avail. Webmasters would visit, but only a handful would link to it. Their Website traffic seemed to trudge to a dreary drumbeat – one…two…bye.

They built it and they came, and they left forever.

It took an unusual degree of humility for them to accept that the techie beauty they were so proud of did not actually work for them. After all, it revealed to them the extent to which people responded to the Website’s story more than its looks.

They discovered that, although head-turning imagery and special effects raise Web design to a higher level, they will only work if they are built on a good concept. The cool stuff is in the content. When an idea translates into a compelling content with which audiences can relate, it causes them to hook up psychologically to the Website. When it makes an emotional bond by showing people an idea or experience they’ve had, an idea or experience they’d like to have, or the information they’ve been looking for, real cool content stuff happens.

The Website connects to the audience.

In this case, the premise of Burny’s story connected to the audience. And it turned out that they wanted more.

You never really appreciate a story until you enter the door of a character’s head and walk around in it. But, Burny’s original Website was a beautiful door that opened up to nothing!

So, Burny and Nona said "goodbye" to the techie beauty and built the Burning Man Website. Simple HTML. No cool effects. It only uses Burny’s original artworks to illustrate the story. The only thing that moves in it is the visitor’s cursor.

In this new Website, they continue telling the story, revealing that while Burny’s mother insists that his burning condition is a symptom of demonic possession, his stepfather is forcing him to burn and heal others for a huge fee.

Because of this, Nona has launched an online campaign to save Burny from burning to death.

Here’s Nona’s Save A Burning Man message:

"PLEASE HELP ME SAVE MY BEST FRIEND WHO IS AFFLICTED WITH A MYSTERIOUS BURNING DISEASE.

"PLEASE READ HIS STORY, POST A MESSAGE TO HIS CRUEL STEPFATHER WHO WANTS TO USE HIM TO MAKE MONEY, OR SIMPLY FORWARD THIS MESSAGE ON.

"I hope that if people pass this on, his stepfather will get tons of petitions asking him to stop this madness before he forces my friend to burn to death.

"My childhood friend, Burny Madden, is a young artist who is burning little by little to death. Something unexplainable is causing parts of his body to ignite for no apparent reason at all.

"Burny usually bursts into flames when he is too upset or too excited. And the burnings are getting worse every time. Now I’m afraid that if he burns again – he might die.

"A few weeks ago, a weird incident involving a dead dog that has allegedly sprung back to life when Burny touched it with his flaming hand, caused his stepfather, Stanley "Stan" Lucierno, to conclude that the fire has some kind of healing power. Stan is now trying to force Burny to burn – threatening him, hurting him, abusing both him and his mother in sickening ways – so he could cash in on it.

"I built a Web site for Burny and published his story so that, through the Internet, people may know about his terrible situation and help me save him.

"PLEASE HELP ME STOP BURNY’S STEPFATHER.

"Please visit Burny’s Website, read his story, and E-mail Stan. I will make sure that your messages get to him.

"Also, please drop Burny a line, if you can. He is in pain, afraid, and very lonely. He really could use a kind word right now.

"I WILL GIVE A FREE T-SHIRT (MADE BY BURNY HIMSELF) TO THE ONE WHO WILL SEND THE E-MAIL THAT BURNY WILL LIKE BEST. I will even pay for delivery to anywhere in the world. It’s the least I can do for a childhood friend.

"PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. IT WILL ONLY TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO SAVE A BURNING MAN.

"Thank you very much.

Nona http://www.burning-man.palmagick.com/index.htm"

The Burning Man Website generated five times more hits in just one month than what the old Flash Website made for an entire year. This time, people are coming back to the Website several time a week. They are sending Burny and Nona E-mails. Some of them post messages on the blogs. A lot of them are buying Burning Man stuff.

It’s almost a real success story, except for the fact that Burny and Nona are not real persons.

I am a writer, an artist, and a filmmaker. Burny Madden and Nona are just characters from my screenplay "BURNY." I decided to put them online to help me develop their characters and write the story. I am also a newbie and the real owner of the Burning Man Website.

Burny and Nona still do not know that they are just fictional characters. They are still running the Burning Man Website, posting new content, reading and answering E-mails. If you visit the Website and click the "author" button, you will understand why.

I passed on Nona’s letter to a few friends who got so amused by it – they passed it on to others. Without really trying, it became a form of word-of-mouth advertising via E-mail. The Website got over 50,000 hits the next day!

So, if you receive Nona’s letter from someone you know, he or she probably got this forwarded E-mail from a friend or colleague or even a family member who also got it from someone, who also ... well, you know.

Here’s a little secret. As a Psychology major back in college, I have understood that people have a subconscious desire to communicate about things that have no relevance to their primary needs for existence. The urge to tell others about the Burning Man is actually working for the Website.

I think Nona’s letter has gone round the world much farther and faster than any advertising I could hope to do at the moment. Now people are asking if Nona has new letters. It still amazes me.

I am yet to hear somebody say that Burning Man is a beautiful Website. People keep on giving Burny and Nona tips on how to improve it, instead. One site visitor even gave a link to a free Flash tutorial! Nice guy.

I’ve seen the word "ugly" in several E-mails, though.

I guess a techie beauty is not a bad idea at all. Stretching one’s imagination to push technology far beyond its comfort zone to create the coolest visually stunning Websites in cyberspace is certainly a big thrill to the senses. Hey, I like them, too. But I’d like them even more if they fulfill what I believe is the primary mandate of a Website – to connect to the audience.

The Burning Man did it with a simple interactive story. It may be weird and ugly, but I guess it is its own revenge for being so.

"You’ve got great content," the persistent Web designer said in his recent E-mail to Burny, "even I keep on coming back to know what happens next. It’s a shame that you didn’t give its overall design much thought."

"Yeah, it’s a shame," I thought to myself.

Burny did not hire him.

Palmagick http://www.palmagick.com/burnymadden/index.htm

Gil De Palma is a writer, artist, filmmaker, and the CEO of Palmagick Entertainment. He is the author of "BURNY" (http://www.palmagick.com/burnymadden/) and creator of the superhero pack TAEKWONDOGGS (http://www.taekwondoggs.com/).