We All Need Heroes

UNLEASHING THE IDEAVIRUS

Chapter: Awesome Marketing

Seth Godin, is an American entrepreneur, author and public speaker. In the year 2000 he went to his publisher with his newly written book Unleashing the Ideavirus and was asking to publish it on some conditions. Godin needed the book to come out right away, and he also wanted to give it away online for free. The company was unwilling to go along with his marketing ideas, so what did Godin do? He took matters into his own hands and released the book as a free electronic book (e-book) through his website. The whole book, in one PDF file. This turned out to be a very smart move. Handing out Unleasing the Ideavirus for free ended up spreading Godin’s ideas faster than his previous book Permission Marketing, which was a New York Times best-seller. The result: Unleashing the Ideavirus is today claimed to be the most downloaded e-book of all time.
    As the fan base of the book grew fast, many contacted Godin wishing for a real physical book. Through a self-publishing service, the printed version of the book sold for $40 on Amazon, and made a ton of money – simply because people had already known about the book from the e-version. Godin completely worked the other way around from the traditional ways. The book has, since the release, been translated into ten languages and published in both hardcover and paperback form.

Possible Moral
Handing out your creations for free is really a great way to market your product. In today’s society many things have become “free”. It has almost turned into a public demand. We’re streaming movies, TV-shows and music for free. We read news online instead of purchasing the paper. Many games and applications for smartphones/tablets are free. The downside is that we come across more commercials and advertisement, but the good news is that we can be offered more entertainment for no cost. In the early year 2000 this wasn’t the case. When marketing his book, Seth Godin was a pioneer in many ways. By offering it for free he pushed the limits and went to the extreme. He proved a valid point and showed the rest of the world that the industry was dead. Godin inspired hundreds of authors to follow his idea. He dared to do something new, bold and different. This story inspires me to contribute with something unique and exciting for my time. Simply not just to follow a trend, but to create it.

Story from We All Need Heroes: Stories of the Brave and Foolish.
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