This summer the Interwebs were abuzz with Weird Al Yankovic, whoreleased eight new parody music videos in eight days to promote hisnew album, “MandatoryFun.”

In case you've been living under a rock for the past 30 years,Weird Al is famous for his spot-on parodies of famous pop songs.(My personal favorite from the current batch is “Word Crimes,” aparody of last year's big hit, “Blurred Lines.” Check out the videoand you'll see why.)

If you think it's tough making a living in insurance, withcompetition from direct writers and online sales, consider WeirdAl. When he was coming up in the early 1980s, the record (yes,record) industry was coming under fire from the emergence of MTVand the new CD technology.

Weird Al came along at just the right time to take advantage ofall those tech shifts. He got famous with MTV videos like “Eat It”and since then has made money from records, movies, touring andmerch. Back in the day, he had the song parody field locked.

But times have changed. While it's always been tough to make aliving in pop music, today it's virtually impossible, with theprevalence of free online music sharing and thepennies-on-the-dollar royalties artists get when their music isactually purchased.

Like every other business, the recording industry has beenrevolutionized by online sharing and changing consumer demand.Attempts to crack down on free online sharing resulted in theNapster case—seven years of litigation between the recordingindustry and an Internet startup involving copyrightviolations.

The irony is that since then, free online music sharing hasbecome ubiquitous.

Weird Al's strategy is to partner with popular web contentsites, which pay to produce his videos: “They're all looking forcontent and I'm looking for a video so we partner and it's awin-win situation.”

In turn, Weird Al uses those videos as “commercials for thealbum,” which he hopes sells big.

Weird Al has been locked into an album deal since 1982, and hiscurrent release marks the end of that contract. Going forward, hisbusiness model will focus on releasing singles to keep his materialfresh, and partnering with online content sites to sell hiswork.

Insurance can learn a lot from Weird Al. In a recent NPRinterview, he muses on the fact that song parodies by amateurs area dime a dozen on YouTube, and he has to compete with all ofthem.

He knows the beauty and the curse of the Internet is thatcontent goes viral and is forgotten in the blink of an eye. Websiteadvertisers focus on page views and other metrics, and stalematerial doesn't get hits. By focusing on singles, Weird Al canstay on top of the rapidly shifting terrain of pop music—generatingcontent that gets views, keeps websites and their advertisershappy, and spurs download sales of his own music.

He also knows that promoting his material can't stop with theInternet. Building from the loyal fan base he's developed over theyears, he tours regularly, giving face time to hisconstituents.

And although there's plenty of cheap competition out therelooking to steal his thunder, Weird Al knows he's built a solidbrand over the years, and that staying true to himself is thesmartest way to stay in business.

Sounds like good advice for anyone trying to make a livingtoday.