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Seth Godin's Blog
Bestselling author, Entrepreneur and Agent of change. Seth's blog can be found at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
May 2008
Saturday May 31, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 9:24AM EST on May 31, 2008
George Clooney is a movie star. He looks like one. He makes tens of millions of dollars a year, hangs out at Cannes and has starlets falling at his feet. Danny Devito is exactly five feet tall. He was perfectly...
Friday May 30, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 11:52AM EST on May 30, 2008
Just wondering--do you deserve to be recognized by the businesses you patronize, the charities you support and the place you work? Would it feel good to have the barrista remember you? Or the sushi chef at that place you spend...
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:06AM EST on May 30, 2008
An interview with Etsy about gender, shopping and stories. plus A secret way to find archives and subscription options on my blog (just click on the head logo on the top left corner of my blog). plus A longish interview...
Thursday May 29, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 11:58AM EST on May 29, 2008
Never mind Darfur or the volcano in Chile or the earthquake in China or the cyclone in Myanmar. Fortunately, as you can see, your answers to the survey will be (completely) confidential. Thanks for the example, Micah. This isn't nearly...
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:54AM EST on May 29, 2008
That's what professional marketers do. They put on a show, on purpose. There are plenty of naive marketers who are quite (accidentally) successful. My friend Al Yeganeh ("no soup for you!") didn't treat customers at his soup stand the way...
Wednesday May 28, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:07AM EST on May 28, 2008
Angry people are different from other people. They are not just an inch or two along some curve. Instead, there's a gap in the curve, a vertical chasm, separating the angry from everyone else. You may encounter angry prospects (angry...
Tuesday May 27, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:43AM EST on May 27, 2008
I was talking to a teenager this weekend about the attributes of Lucky Charms. It had never occurred to her that they were magically delicious. In fact, they're a lot like most breakfast cereals, except for the marshmallows. Some marketers...
Sunday May 25, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:14PM EST on May 25, 2008
There are two ways to get ahead. You can work the system or you can beat the system. Beating the system usually involves some sort of subterfuge. Once everyone knows how you beat the system, the system adjusts and changes...
Saturday May 24, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:39AM EST on May 24, 2008
Most of the time, people notice the If you want to get noticed, don't be so polished. This UPS truck has a haphazardly affixed SAFETY sign hanging from the back. Think that's unintentional? UPS does it on purpose. You notice...
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 3:24AM EST on May 24, 2008
It's about you, after all. If you'd like to be on the cover--at least in a teeny tiny little section of it-- (no promises, none at all--the cutting room floor is bigger than the cover), send a photo of yourself...
Friday May 23, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:12AM EST on May 23, 2008
I'm standing in line in a strange town, waiting to buy a cup of redbush/honeybush/rooibos tea, the tea so good it needs three names. There's an angry woman at the front of the line. "Double, double," she says. The barrista...
Thursday May 22, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:24AM EST on May 22, 2008
"I'll never buy from you again." "I'll never vote for that candidate if my candidate loses." "I'll never invest in that stock." Never seems like a really long time, doesn't it? Practically forever. Here's the thing. People who say 'never'...
Wednesday May 21, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:52AM EST on May 21, 2008
I like reading magic books. I don’t do magic. Not often (and not well). But reading the books is fun. It’s a vicarious thing, imagining how a trick might work, visualizing the effect and then smiling at how the technique...
Tuesday May 20, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 2:29PM EST on May 20, 2008
A few readers have pinged me, asking how I can post to other blogs that write stuff similar to mine. "Aren't you promoting the competition?" Two part answer. First, I don't think most authors have competition (except television). The more...
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:13AM EST on May 20, 2008
The closer you are to the point of need, the more you can charge. Pizza at the airport costs five times more than pizza on the way to the airport. Tax audit services in the middle of an SEC investigation...
Monday May 19, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:58AM EST on May 19, 2008
If oil is $130 a barrel and if security adds two or three hours to a trip and if people are doing more and more business with those far afield... and if we need to bring together more people from...
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:12AM EST on May 19, 2008
The closer you are to the point of need, the more you can charge. Pizza at the airport costs five times more than pizza on the way to the airport. Tax audit services in the middle of an SEC investigation...
Saturday May 17, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 1:59AM EST on May 17, 2008
From Mark.
Friday May 16, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:26AM EST on May 16, 2008
Sometimes, what you do is done as well as it can be done. It's a service that people truly love, or a product they can't live without. You're doing everything right, but it's not remarkable, at least not in the...
Thursday May 15, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:39AM EST on May 15, 2008
Item 1: My Logitech cordless remote (which I like a lot) came in plastic, non-recyclable packaging that weighed twice as much as the remote itself.* The plastic was so well sealed and so thick that I actually broke a kitchen...
Wednesday May 14, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:17AM EST on May 14, 2008
[Intentionally posted on a day that's not Mother's Day]. My mom always disliked Mother's Day. She had a few good reasons. First, she pointed out that anytime you do something because you're supposed to, or because everyone else is doing...
Tuesday May 13, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 9:43AM EST on May 13, 2008
If the world is really bigger, if you can find the best in the world to do what you want, no matter what it is you want, does that change things? If I need an animator, I can find the...
Monday May 12, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 9:46AM EST on May 12, 2008
Torey points us to brand tags. It's a simple game where you pick one-word associations to go with major brands. The result pages are actually pretty inane, but the magical way each and every one of these brands compels you...
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:08AM EST on May 12, 2008
Sixteen tips for getting your Mac or iPhone fixed: The contact number is (800) 275 2273 While you're on hold, go to Google and type: Troubleshoot Mac xxx, where xxx represents the error message you got or the sparsest description...
Saturday May 10, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 4:22PM EST on May 10, 2008
Three years ago, I published this list, which was very much a riff, not a carefully planned manifesto. It has held up pretty well. Feel free to reprint or otherwise use, as long as you include a credit line. I've...
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:32AM EST on May 10, 2008
Here's what happens when you rearrange YouTube to make it work. Architecture matters.
Friday May 9, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 9:13AM EST on May 9, 2008
How much would you pay for a twenty dollar bill? In tough times, many schools and non-profits rely on charity fundraisers, and a popular one is the auction. The method is simple: supporters donate things, and then they're auctioned off,...
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:19AM EST on May 9, 2008
John sends us this astounding thought piece. It's a clock, turned off, not ticking, showing no progress, encased in glass. When you're ready to make the leap, to commit, to make something happen, you break the glass. The sculpture is...
Thursday May 8, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:56AM EST on May 8, 2008
Connect like-minded people. My previous post only captured one part of the equation... the work of the marketer marketing to (or at) the consumer. It leaves out the future, which involves finding and leading and empowering the tribe of people...
Wednesday May 7, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:07AM EST on May 7, 2008
The product they sell is drama. When I went to business school, we spent an entire 90 minute class on how to read the Wall Street Journal. That's a rare treat... being taught how to understand and psyche out the...
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 6:05AM EST on May 7, 2008
The New York Times, like all newspapers, is in big trouble. Unlike other papers, though, they've got a shot. And we can all learn a lesson about focusing on the great (by looking at what they should be doing, anyway)....
Tuesday May 6, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 12:27PM EST on May 6, 2008
The post about the gulf between passion and pop touched a chord. A few readers remembered Geoff Moore’s classic Crossing the Chasm. This is a super book (particularly the original (used) edition, not the updated one). Geoff has a different...
Monday May 5, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 10:49AM EST on May 5, 2008
Here's a new curve for you: I'm calling it the passion/pop curve. That bell curve to the left represents acceptance by the focused/excited/tastemaking community. Those are the people who love microbeers and haute couture and Civil War memorabilia. Like all...
Sunday May 4, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:29AM EST on May 4, 2008
Make big promises; overdeliver. If you can define great marketing in fewer words than that, you win. "Big promises": treating people with respect, improving self-esteem, delivering results, contacting as often as you say you will but not more, including side...
Saturday May 3, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 9:58AM EST on May 3, 2008
Micah points us to this campaign from Tumi Luggage. Buy some nylon luggage, they'll plant some trees (one tree? A bush? It's not clear how many trees per suitcase). It's entirely possible that Tumi's campaign is nothing short of generous,...
Friday May 2, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 7:00AM EST on May 2, 2008
Dave Pell has a brand new site. It's pretty simple. It gives you a popurls type view of the web for any search term you can imagine. Nicely done.
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 5:59AM EST on May 2, 2008
Just got some work back from a new copyeditor hired by my publisher. She did a flawless job. She also wrecked my work. Totally wrecked it. By sanding off every edge, removing every idiom, making each and every fact literally...
Thursday May 1, 2008
Permalink Posted by: Seth Godin at 8:31PM EST on May 1, 2008