Comic Book Pirated On 4Chan, Author Joins Discussion... Watches Sales Soar
 

I have no opinion on this, and if I had one I would defer to others since I am not a content producer, but I thought this article was interesting nonetheless.

I don't know if its true or not, just pointing it out here.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...les-soar.shtml

There's a happy ending because the product in question has a PHYSICAL component. Piracy of purely digital products, on the other hand, don't often lead to happy endings. Unless there's a technical fix like MICROPAYMENTS see: http://gofuckyourself.com/showthread.php?t=992979 In the micropayments situation, the pirated stuff becomes BRANDING and VIRALIZATION tools as opposed to merely stealing from the content producer.

the same thing happend on a a mainstream board im on ... someone posted stolen software ... the owner came to the board...gave everyone a 50% off coupon code if they just bought his software ... tons of people bought it and they are still on the board promoting other new products they come out with :)

You can't take a few isolated examples and just make blanket assumptions that digital theft will help sales of any product -- that's assuming this story isn't a bunch of bullshit -- which it just might be.

Not addressing the OP directly, BTW.

I'm actually doing a very similar thing myself with pure digital product, after 5 years of planning stages I've finally started to put together and release a digital magazine...

Each issue contains 116 pages, 32 pages of CLICKABLE ads, 6 pictorials, PLAYABLE videos, Interview, and paysite review.

Issues are put up on the 3 most popular file sharing hosts (Rapidshare, Filehosts and Depositfiles) as well as torrent sites.

The core promotion is being done via Twitter, Myspace and Facebook, and so far collectively about 1,000 downloads have been done between the first 3 issues so far.

As for the clickable ads, at last count there have been about 600 unique clicks (no sales yet)

It is honestly FAR TOO EARLY for me to call a success of fail as I'm still in the middle of the first stage of a four stage plan for this whole project, BUT so far just with what I'm seing so far the outlook seems positive!

Once I get the first 11 issues created and up for distro I will begin with the next stage which will invlove more viral marketing, I will update as the project progresses though.

-Loki-

Maybe you can help me design and brainstorm on a book I'm releasing, we should talk.

great he went from selling 4 a year to 8 books per year. amazing.

I don't think it was the theft that helped his sales, the theft was simply evidence of consumer demand for his product.

It was engaging his consumers (even though they were thieves) that helped sales.

I think it was a mix of both (if not bullshit lol)

The theft = new eyes that might not ever have seen it without the theft

The Interaction = allowed the 'fans' to connect on a 'personal' level to the author, and that puts a more personal attachment for the viewer/consumer then just buying or stealing a product from some 'faceless entity'

but that's just my take.



Duck, I'll get in touch with you after the weekend, unless I find some downtime before.

-Loki-

Yeah I have seen that happen before as well.