Measure Viral Product Distribution with ViralMeter
You release an ebook. It goes viral. And you have no idea
where the people are coming from.
Who made it go viral? Maybe it was Uncle Joe, who sent it to
all his gun club members. Or was it Jane, whom you did a
favor for about that time? Maybe it was a forum post, or a
certain ad.
The free ViralMeter is designed to answer those questions.
It will meter two levels of distribution. But you have to
set it up in advance.
Not that there would be any complaints about a free product
going viral. After all, that would be the point, getting it
widely distributed.
On the other hand, knowing where the people are coming from
can be a solid asset when getting ready to launch the next
viral product.
A person can wonder which of several dozen launch avenues
was the one that worked. Or, a person can know with
certainty that it was a certain post in a forum which
caused the viral reaction.
Results from the next launch could be similar. Or not. From
past experience, however, it can be considered more likely
to do so than avenues which have never worked.
The number of downloads from each avenue used to introduce a
viral product can be metered. And the reaction caused by the
individual avenues can also be metered. ViralMeter measures
2 levels of distribution.
For example, you can meter the number of ebook downloads as
the result of a forum post and meter the number of ebook
downloads as the result of an advertisement. Those are
launch avenues, the first level.
On the second level, you can meter the number of ebook
downloads that result from the ebook downloads of each
launch avenue. It can be done because the downloaded ebook
itself has a direct download link.
Continuing the examples, the second level is a metering of
the ebook downloads from links in the ebooks originally
downloaded from the forum post link. And a separate
metering on the second level for the advertisement link.
There is no ViralMeter software imposed limit to the number
of launch avenues that can be metered. And there is no limit
to when the launches occur or how long they last. For
example, if a dozen avenues are used to launch a viral
product, and it doesn't go so well, or maybe only one
avenue panned out, then more launch avenues can be utilized.
You know the winners and you know the losers.
If not appropriate, the second level of metering can be
omitted.
This is how ViralMeter works: A code is embedded in a
direct download link. PHP extracts the code, logs the event,
and initiates the download. The log is a CSV file that can
be imported into desktop spreadsheet programs.
The users' manual has suggestions for creating codes to make
the two metering levels easy to differentiate.
A side effect of how ViralMeter works is that the real
location of the file being downloaded from your server is
not revealed. Further, the downloadable file may be in a
password protected directory or hidden in the cgi-bin.
This prevents people from linking directly to the file.
All downloads must go through Viral Meter.
A "thank you" to Phil Tanny of http://Publisher-For-You.com/
for the idea that got ViralMeter started.
Will Bontrager
©Copyright 2007 Bontrager Connection, LLC Bontrager Connection, LLC
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