Most of you have probably heard of comedian Louis CK’s success selling his stand up special “Live at the Beacon Theater” on his own website for $5. Like Floyd Mayweather, Louis CK understands the importance of being “in the check cashing business”.
He directed the video and paid for production out of his own pocket, retaining full control over it’s usage. By retaining control over the video and it’s marketing, Louis CK was able to offer his product for $15-$35 less than it would have cost consumers had a company paid him to perform and then marketed the video. Every penny is going to Louis, and he has already earned over $1,000,000 from his website. $500,000 so far has been divided between charitable giving and staff bonuses.
The website, while it looks like Louis CK built it himself, is actually a rock solid LAMP application utilizing the Cloudfront CDN and oddly hosted on dedicated servers at Dreamhost. We can’t imagine why they chose Dreamhost for a high traffic, unpredictable social media powerhouse but it did work for them.
The most successful addition to the site came around December 16, 2011 when they added the ability to purchase the special as a gift just days after Louis revealed that he had retained only $220,000 of the earnings for himself with the lions share being given to charities and staff. Being the Christmas season, generosity and giving was already in the air. Louis made a great move spreading generosity and made you want to be a part of his journey. This likely resulted in thousands of people buying his special as a small token to friends and family – sending him far over the million dollar milestone.
Louis CK proves that you don’t need a massive marketing budget to succeed in E-Commerce. You just need a great product at the right price point. Sure, Louis CK made the talk show rounds and already had a brand following – but with clever social media marketing you can build your own following overnight.
Louis CK on Late Night with Jimmy Falon
Part 2 is available at the end of the video