This summer the Interwebs were abuzz with Weird Al Yankovic, who released eight new parody music videos in eight days to promote his new album, “Mandatory Fun.”

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,” a parody of last year's big hit, “Blurred Lines.” Check out the video and you'll see why.)

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

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

But times have changed. While it's always been tough to make a living in pop music, today it's virtually impossible, with the prevalence of free online music sharing and the pennies-on-the-dollar royalties artists get when their music is actually purchased.

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

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

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

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

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

Insurance can learn a lot from Weird Al. In a recent NPR interview, he muses on the fact that song parodies by amateurs are a dime a dozen on YouTube, and he has to compete with all of them.

He knows the beauty and the curse of the Internet is that content goes viral and is forgotten in the blink of an eye. Website advertisers focus on page views and other metrics, and stale material doesn't get hits. By focusing on singles, Weird Al can stay on top of the rapidly shifting terrain of pop music—generating content that gets views, keeps websites and their advertisers happy, and spurs download sales of his own music.

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

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

Sounds like good advice for anyone trying to make a living today.

Special Reports /

An Internet marketing lesson&mdash;from Weird Al

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