Seven months ago, Pat Douglas and a few buddies spent an afternoon with a few beers in an editing room. Two million YouTube views, a blog and a burgeoning television production career later, Douglas has learned how powerful a well-produced viral video can be.

Since Douglas, CEO of Shark Diver (a local business that takes people on caged shark-watching tours of Isla Guadalupe), posted the below video on YouTube, interest in business is up; the host of the video, Luke Tipple, has signed a multiyear deal with a TV production company; and Douglas was able to launch a blog that gets more views per month than his website.

"This was a marketing test," says Douglas. "Direct mail was the old school way of doing it. Today, somebody will watch that video and say, 'Yes, this is the company I want to go with.'"

Now, Douglas doesn't buy any advertising. He creates videos and other kinds of content, relying on true stories and information to drive interest in his business. I wouldn't mess with this success...or this great white: