viral ebooks: are Jeff Dedrick and Harvey Segal relevant?

I want to thank everyone for their contributions so far. And to reiterate why I thought this was an important question regardless of any immediate goal I might have in mind ( AJ ) There has not been so much as a single rigorous discussion on WF of the merits of rebranding versus other viral strategies, that directly addresses the potential suggested by Segal or Dedrick's system. (Edelweis' posts below come as close to that as anything I've seen). This despite the fact that these men are very big in IM and there should have been ample opportunity to have intelligent and thorough reviews of their systems at this point. By contrast, you can reach a level of confidence regarding almost any well-known tool or system (Market Samurai, Digiresults) with a very casual search on WF. So my question filled a gap.

The reason that this question was so relevant to me personally is that I have already committed to the idea of free ebook distribution as an important part of my content creation. In the near term, I want to popularize a little known corner of the marketing industry where I have significant personal experience. I want to bring attention to that industry, clarify certain misperceptions and establish myself as an authority. In the process, of course, I would hope to develop a list and begin interacting with them. So the idea is not at the level of metrics--yet. (I will probably create a paid product on a parallel track). It is closer to public relations than sales. As such, you can see how attracted I was to viral strategies.

Which leads back to the consideration of finding the best tools and thus Dedrick and Segal. Getting some kind of reference from one's peers is very useful at that stage --the same way we become more confident to jump on a WSO by the time we see 10 or 15 positive comments that seem to say more or less the same sort of thing.

Recent social proof is precisely what I feel is lacking for Segal or Dedrick's platform at this point. Perhaps I should have posed my original question on the thread for Internet Product Reviews. That's what this really is--a call for evaluation of a system. My own immediate goals are not really necessary for that to be an important question in its own right.

Maybe one of the reasons that we don't see more on Segal or Dedrick is precisely because what they offer is not as definable as a single entity (as compared to DigiResults or Market Samurai for example). Each man has a large number of interconnecting parts to their system--the parts function to some extent as standalone products of their own but they do interrelate. Some sort of overview of their total system would be useful. Maybe they have it on one their sites but if so I haven't seen it yet.

Here's where I'm at: There is something about the rebranding of my own work that just doesn't feel right at the moment. I think that I will stick with other viral strategies that I'm already comfortable with for that angle. As far as using Segal or Dedrick's platform to distribute the work of OTHERS and rebranding it to give aways as bonuses or whatever--that's an entirely different thing. That looks like a no-brainer to add to the arsenal.

I will say that Harvey Segal has been kind enough to engage me outside of WF on my inquiry. Very helpful. Kudos to him for that I am beginning to realize the possibility that part of my confusion is relatable to the simple fact that I'm fairly new--Harvey no doubt established what he is all about in the minds of many veterans long ago. The fact that there hasn't been much direct discussion recently may just be something of an accident of timing.