Psst! Psst! Wanna know an Internet Marketing trick?
Feb 14th, 2007 by mark
I stumbled upon an Internet/Affiliate Marketing trick just a few days ago. It is a very clever trick that I’m sure generated lots of click throughs and downloads, which in turn generates income for the person who used the trick. In fact, it took me a short while to actually figure out this very unsuspecting trick and I was amazed at the simplicity of it. The person who came up with it, is really a genius. However, whether this trick is “legal” or “legit” to be used, is another matter.
Well I better get straight on to it because I’m sure by now you readers are dying to know more.
This trick utilizes a very common form of file sharing called BitTorrrent. First, the marketer creates a file and then zips it up in a zip file or rar file, protecting it with a password. Next, he creates a short guide, either in a text file or a html file, informing the downloader the steps to obtain the password to the zipped file. The downloader is told to navigate to a certain website, then is instructed to click on a certain product link found on the site, proceed on to the target product site, download the application the site is offering, install it, then use some information in the installed application, such as the product version number, as the password for the zip file! Quite a mouthful eh? Finally, the marketer packages it as a BitTorrent package and serves it up on BitTorrent networks.
By just clicking through the link from the marketer’s website to the product website and then downloading, in effect, the downloader has already gone through the minimum steps required for a successful for the marketer to be paid. That’s it! Simple.
If you’re still wondering why it works, it is because the file being used, or should I say, being named, is a popular or in demand item, for example one of the latest dvd ripped movies and tv series episodes that is very commonly found on BitTorrent networks. This trick succeeds in two parts. It leverages on BitTorrent, a very large network of peer-to-peer file sharing network which solves the distribution and traffic generation portion. Usually, in demand files on average can be shared by over a thousand users. The second part of it works on our human greed to get something for free. Imagine, after waiting a couple of hours or days downloading a movie, you’d be itching to watch it. The only thing that stands in your way is the password. So without much thinking, you follow the instructions and “bang!”, you’ve done what the marketer wanted you to do all along.
There is one other thing though.
The password doesn’t work! So in actual fact, the downloader has just been duped to download a fairly large file that can’t be accessed but the downloader has generated income for the marketer. Just do a little math on this. Take the number of unsuspecting downloaders, multiplied by the amount being paid, that gives you the earnings of the marketer. Now also take into account that the same unsuspecting downloader might repeat the whole process more than once when he discovers the first time that the password didn’t work, just to make sure he didn’t get it wrong. Add that to the initial earnings. If such a torrent is shared between a thousand users or more, the final earnings certainly won’t be a small sum. Smart trick isn’t it?
Now that you’ve known the trick, don’t get conned!
i wouldnt really call that marketing. If you really want attention, you could hire a big guy to punch someone then yell “BUY APPLE PRODUCTS” for example. That would certainly get attention but it doesnt do anything about really marketing a brand (unless your brand is all about deception). Even if its awareness, its not just about getting the name out but doing it right. Legal or not - surely there’s some ethics in marketing?
hi eddie,
well these guys who uses such a trick don’t really care about branding or name or ethics. They employ such tricks to up their clickthroughs which translates to $$ for them