Piracy Can Be Good For Marketing…

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Yes. Ironic as it sounds, it can be - provided you know how to do it right.

I have to confess this apply more effectively towards the informational marketing niche. More specifically digital informational products.

You see. In the digital informational product arena, almost everything gets pirated. It is the reality of the game you have to face up to.

Everything can be downloaded and distributed, whether you like it or not.

E-books. Mp3. Graphics. Videos. Games. All can be easily ripped off.

With the explosion of file sharing sites and peer-to-peer network (P2P), it is only a matter of time before you find your product up there within those ranks too.

So How Do We Solve This Darn Problem?

Well...as they say, if you can't win 'em...join 'em!

Wait up! I'm not talking about being a pirate yourself, silly. But about how to turn it around - to your advantage!

Think about it.

There are millions of free-loaders and pirates wanting your product for FREE! Just check out the tonnes of traffic file sharing or torrent sites like Warez and PirateBay receive.

What does this mean?

There is a big ready audience for you out there! And if they download your product, chances are they are very targeted!

And because they come to your product, instead of YOU...going to them, they are much more qualified. They actually want your product, goddamn it!

If your product gives them sufficient value, you can easily sell to them later!

Can you see the various profitable possibilities forming already?

This is what you can do:

1. Have an opt in form in your e-book product or include a read-me text that gives them a link to your opt in form. Tie that in with an incentive.

Just do anything to allow those 'thieves' to see your incentivized offer, and get their names. Now you actually know who these people are once you capture their names.

Congratulations. You have just leveraged on the pirates to build your list.

Can you sell to them again? Yes you can. Go ahead. Up-sell and cross-sell these suckers! Tie in with one-time offers and all those marketing gimmicks you can think of. It's payback time!

2. Include affiliate links in your product. If they don't want your product, there is always a chance they may click on your affiliate link. And you can profit from that.

Pretty neat eh?

3. Gather all your freebie stuff you already plan to give away. Go distribute to all the file sharing and torrent sites. Just google them if you don't know any.

And incorporate the 2 techniques above.

Better still, make your stuff re-brandable with their affiliate links, and you just give them an incentive to distribute the product for you.

There you go. You can unleash a viral campaign - with the help of pirates! Not too bad if I do say so myself.

Okay. What you waiting for? Let's get cracking!

This is just another way to turn something disadvantageous around to your favor.

As always, I love to hear your views on this. I'm all ears.

All Success,

Popularity: 13% [?]

This technique is becoming one of the best for marketing your business. Spread something for free and reap the benefits. This month’s Wired magazine is full of more stuff with the price of $0, yet beneficial to the business giving it away.

Hi Brackets,

Yep. When you give, you get.

Similarly, there will always be pirates wanting to distribute your stuff at a much lower price or free. Might as well make use of this distribution power to your advantage.

Cheers,
Jag

Anytime I can make someone else do my work, I will take the opportunity!

Interesting trick!

Leveraging this way might lead to a lot of new customers.
But I believe that the quality of this lead is very low and they will hardly convert!

Fare Soldi

Hi Fare Soldi,

I don’t deny that the quality may not be the best since they are freebies seeker. They are certainly targeted though.

And if we give them an immediate one time offer that is irresistibly good, they may just bite.

In any case, putting in the affiliate links has worked quite well for me. Try it. =)

Thanks Fare for your input!

Cheers,
Jag

I once did this. I made an ebook about the iphone and had alot of my affiliate links in it. For once piracy paid off lol. I think I probably would have made less if this had not happened.

Well, I think piracy is already out of control! Piracy works well, because of it’s low price. So it’s an advantage for you.

Some marketers have actually put up product download pages that simulate the look and feel of the page you’d go to after purchasing a product.

That way people could feel like they just some how lucked up and got away with something. They then download a product of course designed for an upsell.

There are so many people motivated by getting away with something that marketing strategies are emerging to advantage it.

I wonder. Is it unethical to deal unethically with unethical people?

Hi Josef,

Thanks for coming by. Interesting comment! You got me thinking.

I would say that piracy is unethical. You are stealing someone’s work and distributing it.

With that said, personally, I do not thinking the methods I’ve described are unethical. Because nothing was stolen or pirated.

We are just preparing for the fact that the product may get stolen, so we put in measure to ensure we get some profitability back - legally.

So in this case, it is more of dealing smartly, but not unethically - with unethical people.

What do you think?

Cheers,
Jag

Nice article. And I totaly agree with the statment-it is more of dealing smartly, but not unethically - with unethical people.

Ya. This is also called viral marketing sometimes. If the digital product have lots of value or it’s from someone famous for example Mike Filsaime, it will go wild and crazy. The traffic will be far more greater than SEO.

Yep. This is viral marketing. And an often under-utilized technique.

Jag

Though piracy is considered to be a crime but it can be a boom for the business. It can increase the business in the way that the pirated product will not work for a longer time and hence increase the sale.

This technique is becoming one of the best for marketing your business. Spread something for free and reap the benefits.

Where ever masses of people consume something, there is potential for marketing somethign to those people. Since these people are into pirated films, they may be interested in other piracy products/services/news. Great article, thanks!

Awesome post. The RIAA has already shown us that we can’t stop piracy no matter how much money we put into stopping it. The smart thing to do is take advantage of it, adapt, change your business model, and do whatever you have to do to profit from the evolving situation.

Hi folks,

Yep. The only constant now is change.

We have to keep evolving to stay ahead of the game!

Jag

i never thought of it that way, but i guess you’re right. piracy can be use for marketing and exposure. people realise that something like this exist and make them take note of it.

You know, I actually ran across something like this the other day. I downloaded a “free for a limited time” PPC report and thought, “why is this guy suggesting I put my name on his report and resell it?! What gives?” Now it makes perfect sense, he must have had some affiliate links or upsells on there I haven’t noticed yet.

Very clever Jag!

Hi Marketing Consultant,

That probably was a rebrandable report. I bet there must be some affiliate links lurking somewhere.

=)

Cheers,
Jag