What should I do on your birthday? (18)
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On July 4, birthday of the USA, we're supposed to blow off fireworks, eat hot dogs and buy a Chevrolet.On Columbus Day, birthday of an early imperialist, we're supposed to shop and march in a parade.On Martin Luther King Jr. day, marvelously, we're supposed to participate in a national day of service.So, what should we do on your birthday?With all due respect to Hallmark, the idea of sending people cards and presents on their birthday ...
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Mark J said:
What's your story?
What to do with special requests (29)
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The bike shop is busy in June. If you bring your bike in for a tune up, it will cost $39 and take a week.A week!What if someone says, "I have a bike trip coming up in three days, can you do it by then?"At most bike shops, the answer is a shrug, followed by, "I'm sorry, we're swamped."The problem with telling people to go away is that they go away. And the problem with ...
The purpose of a book cover (35)
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(and I think it works for lots of products)Is the purpose of the cover to sell books, to accurately describe what's in the book, or to tee up the reader so the book has maximum impact?The third.It's the third because if the book has maximum impact, then word of mouth is created, and word of mouth is what sells your product, not the cover.Tactically, the cover sells the back cover, the back cover sells the ...
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p0ps said:
always judge a book by it's cover...
The risk/reward confusion (49)
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It's easy to to adopt the policy of avoiding risk at all costs, that whenever possible, the products you launch or the engagements you have should be flawless and without downside.Here's the problem: in most endeavors, a small increase in risk can double the reward. It's the second doubling of reward that brings serious risk with it. But the first leap is relatively painless.In the chart above, notice that going from point A to point ...
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Michael said:
You have to be willing to take risks. But start off slow, don't jump right in and say to h#@l with risk.
Malcolm is wrong (158)
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I've never written those three words before, but he's never disagreed with Chris Anderson before, so there you go.Free is the name of Chris's new book, and it's going to be wildly misunderstood and widely argued about.The first argument that makes no sense is, "should we want free to be the future?" Who cares if we want it? It is. The second argument that makes no sense is, "how will this new business model support ...
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Rob Sellen said:
I was thinking about the free model just today... this has helped. ;o)
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Gerd Leonhard said:
Totally !
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Nick said:
battle of gurus, i wanna watch it.
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bbebop said:
love gruber's description of how daringfireball is not free. and he forgot to mention the tee shirts which, while not free, are worth the price!
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Rich Apodaca said:
Like all dying industries, the old perfect businesses will whine, criticize, demonize and most of all, lobby for relief. It won't work. The big reason is simple:In a world of free, everyone can play.
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Joakim Jardenberg said:
Seth dyker in i fighten mellan Malcolm Gladwell (http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2009/07/06/090706crbo_books_gladwell?currentPage=all) och Chris Anderson (http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2009/06/dear-malcolm-why-so-threatened.html) och det är helt fantastisk läsning från de här tre.
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笑炊 said:
waiting to read for free
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Keith Bossey said:
This is such a huge issue, I'm not sure what to say about it. Seth basically gives away his content, he gets paid to speak, live. Musicians are doing the same thing, as the live concert business is still doing great. You can't really experience live any other way but live. As consultants, I think we are going to realize that a lot of our thinking, our methodologies, will be given away for free and that our source of income will be for those personal interactions, those very customized solutions that are of the moment.
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MichaelMJ said:
Times, they are a changing...
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Tankboy said:
It's on!
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Jarred said:
hear hear. this is what i've been feeling but haven't been able to articulate so simply. the question isn't do we want Free, the question is how do we adapt to Free. the only way to prevent Free is regulation or collusion, each of which would be efforts to protect industries that are more interested in making enormous profits and protecting themselves than in innovating or serving their customers. this is a crisis in some sense, but the largest opportunities for progress come out of crises.
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Colin said:
interesting debate among smart people
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Margus said:
Huvitav seisukoht (millega ma nõustun) Eesti meediakompaniide viimatiste "ärme võrgus paberlehtede uudiseid üldse avalda" tegude valguses
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Erik Ford said:
"People will pay for content if it is so unique they can't get it anywhere else, so fast they benefit from getting it before anyone else, or so related to their tribe that paying for it brings them closer to other people. We'll always be willing to pay for souvenirs of news, as well, things to go on a shelf or badges of honor to share...Like all dying industries, the old perfect businesses will whine, criticize, demonize and most of all, lobby for relief. It won't work. The big reason is simple:In a world of free, everyone can play."
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Bose said:
Excerpt:"People will not pay for by-the-book rewrites of news that belongs to all of us. People will not pay for yesterday's news, driven to our house, delivered a day late, static, without connection or comments or relevance. Why should we? A good book review on Amazon is more reliable and easier to find than a paid-for professional review that used to run in your local newspaper, isn't it?"Absolutely!
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Snowmit said:
The battle about FREE CONTINUES.
There's always room for Jello (22)
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This is one of the great cultural touchstone slogans of our era. A culture where there's so much to eat we need to try to find a food that we can eat even if we're stuffed.Often, we'll decide that something is full, stuffed, untouchable but then some Jello shows up, and suddenly there's room.Think about your schedule... is there room for an emergency, an SEC investigation, a server crash? If you took a day off ...
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Beth said:
A new quote to save: "So, if there's time for an emergency (Jello), why isn't there time for brilliance, generosity or learning?"
How to be a packager (36)
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For fifteen years, I was a book packager. It has nothing to do with packaging and a bit more to do with books, but it's a great gig and there are useful lessons, because there are dozens of industries just waiting for you to do something like this. Let me explain:A book packager is like a movie producer, but for books. You invent an idea, find the content and the authors, find the publisher and ...
The paradox of the middle of the market (44)
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The middle of the market is the juicy part, where profit meets scale.The paradox is that it's almost impossible to make a product or service for this segment, because they want the tried, the true and the boring.A friend writes a blog and books for this market. They need his writing. He delivers a lot of value. And yet, it's going to take years (if ever) before he reaches them. That's because this market doesn't ...
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Rahul Gaitonde said:
This is true with Google Adsense. A smart guy/gal is more likely to notice an ad that's peddling something that interests him/her. Getting those eyeballs is the easy part. But this audience is also the type that'll copy/paste the URL into a new browser tab (instead of clicking on the ad) just for the heck of it. I've seen this happen several times.
Fast in, fast out (31)
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Mark points us to this study of fads and trends.It turns out that a fast-growing trend is also likely to become a fast-fading trend. My analysis: the people who jump on a fast-moving trend are fickle early adopters. This group is most likely to race on to the next thing, and is also least likely to want to sign up for something that feels tired.Another way to look at it: if you want to stick ...
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Artem said:
interesting observation about trends
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Erik Ford said:
Metaphor for twitter? Capitalizing on trends (exploitation) has been around forever, but analyzing the trend in depth has its merits as well. If you are going to play this game, make sure you are willing to keep up with the necessary shifts-
Can summer camp change your life? (19)
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I think it can. It did for me. I went to the best summer camp in the world (the pictures to the right are by the now-famous but then teenaged Jill Greenberg). Most of what I know, I learned there.This summer, you could send your kids to a video editing camp where they would learn a skill for life. Or you could find a barcamp or even be invited to a foocamp. It would make ...
The difference between strangers and friends (39)
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Strangers are justifiably suspicious.Friends give you the benefit of the doubt.“Friend” is more broadly defined as someone you have a beer with or meet up with to go on a hike. A friend is someone who has interacted with you, or who knows your parents or reads your blog—someone with history. If you’ve made a promise to someone and then kept it, you’re a friend. If you’ve changed someone for the better, you’re a friend ...
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Alan Stevens said:
I had this same conversation last night with Steve Andrews regarding what comments are appropriate in mixed company. "Friends give you the benefit of the doubt."
Priming the pump of efficiency (34)
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There's always a gap between the short-term results of a well-polished system and the first results of a switch to a more efficient one.If you stick with that thing you've worked so hard to perfect, the next few hours or weeks or months will surely outperform the results you'll get from the new thing. That's because there are switching costs, glitches and a learning curve.When you rearrange the shop floor, switch to email, convert your ...
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Benedict said:
Something we need to do
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Jack said:
Emphasis mine. Working on establishing a more effective and efficient communications platform at the moment.
Magicians, sausage makers and transparency (46)
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Does everything have to become completely transparent?One of the ideas du jour online is the rush to make things transparent. To tear down the barriers and raise the blinds on the way organizations do business and to expose as much as possible.Does Apple become a more exciting or profitable company if they share their sketches, their plans, open source their new designs and engage the company fully? Does Steve Jobs have an obligation to tell ...
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swerveball said:
I don't think this is entirely at odds with some of the more sage advice from those looking to the data web. Certainly, there has to be times when companies don't share.
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Thomas Kriese said:
I appreciate Seth's analogies on this transparency topic. Transparency in the workplace doesn't have to be binary, and those who oppose transparency because they only see it in terms of all or nothing are the hardest to convince it doesn't have to be that way.
Find your voice (36)
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Marketing (in all its forms) is unlike everything else an organization does, because it's always different. There's no manual because everyone does it differently, and what successful marketers have in common is that they are successful.The only way your organization is going to make an impact is to market in the way only you can. Not by following some expert's rules or following the herd, but by doing it in the way that works. For ...
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Erik Ford said:
Spot on. Every organization is different. Finding best practices, even in a common industry, is a great step forward, but ALWAYS create your own system and evaluate. Don't depend on others; that would imply that their business is identical, and it's not!
Learning from Singer (49)
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At one point, the Singer Corporation had more than 12,000 people working in a single plant. They were selling more than a million sewing machines a year and had hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. By any measure, it was one of the most important manufacturers in America. It was fun while it lasted.Back then, it was easy to believe that Singer represented everything that was right with our economy, and that our future ...
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Michael Hyatt said:
This is a great reminder that if we are going to remain relevant, we must be intentional. We can't be defending the status quo. Instead, we have to actively work to destroy it!
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Front Porch said:
Seth Godin challenges us that our "best marketing strategy is to destroy our industry before the competition does." I understand his example, but the syntax is hanging me up.
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urban said:
The best marketing strategy is to destroy your industry before your competition does.
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Alex Klein said:
well said, sethie
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barry said:
"The best marketing strategy is to destroy your industry before your competition does." S Godin
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Jonathan Washburn said:
The best marketing strategy is to destroy your industry before your competition does.
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Margus said:
The best marketing strategy is to destroy your industry before your competition does.
Circling the big domino (39)
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Clay taught me a good lesson about making things happen with your brand.Envision the events that might happen to a brand (shelf space at Walmart, an appearance on Oprah, a bestseller, worldwide recognition, a new edition, worldwide rights, chosen by the Queen, whatever) as a series of dominos.It turns out that if you start with all of them at once, you'll fail.And if you start with the big one, you'll fail.But if you line up ...
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Dobes Vandermeer said:
I wonder if niche-focused strategies are something Seth would consider a domino approach.
Spotto! (14)
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Justine plays a game that involves finding yellow cars on the road and shouting the appropriate term as you see them.What you discover after just a few minutes is just how many yellow cars there are. A lot.We notice what we choose to notice.Consider playing a version of spotto involving great customer service or organizations going the extra mile, or employees giving more than they have to. What you'll notice very quickly is that there's ...
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deeped said:
Man borde tipsa Seth om bloggen gulabilar.wordpress.com :)
On the road to mediocrity (76)
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Along the way, we settle.We settle for something not quite right, or an outfit that isn't our best look, or a job that doesn't quite maximize our talents. We settle for relationships that don't give us joy, or a website that's, "good enough."The only way to get mediocre is one step at a time.You don't have to settle. It's a choice you get to make every day.
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Front Porch said:
You settle one step at time. Its like sheep, they nibble their way lost. Don't settle, don't wander away from your purpose!
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Nelson de Witt said:
Love this advice. It's the way I go about everyday. Never settle!
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Keith Bossey said:
Eveeverything in your day is a choice, EVERYTHING!
Spectacles (16)
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The OlympicsKumba MelaTimes Square on midnightBurning ManTEDThe Super BowlCalcio StoricoWarren Buffet's annual meetingThe Macy's Thanksgiving Day ParadeYour birthdayPeople love them. We generally agree we don't have them often enough. What if you started one? More than half of the events on the list above were started by one person or a small organization.
Two ways to build trust (42)
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You can be a trusted institution or a trusted individual.A few weeks ago, I set out to buy some imprinted items. I probably looked at a dozen t-shirt options online before I picked CustomInk. Why did I pick them?They weren't the cheapest (but it's actually very hard to compare). I picked them because the site is clean and professional. I liked that they're not weasels (they quote actual prices and actual ship dates) and they ...
