Contact
Archives
• Current Entries
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007
• September 2007
• August 2007
• July 2007
• June 2007
• May 2007
• April 2007
Latest Entries
Loading...
Links
Loading...
Report This Blog
Loading...
Search:
Seth Godin's Blog
Bestselling author, Entrepreneur and Agent of change. Seth's blog can be found at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
September 2007
Sunday September 30, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:48AM EST on September 30, 2007
Every weekend there's a line out front of the Avis rental car window on the upper west side of NYC. Every weekend, ostensibly computer-literate upper-middle-class yuppies waste hours trying to pick up a car when they could just use Zipcar....
Saturday September 29, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 2:09PM EST on September 29, 2007
The current Fast Company reports that when Ikea starting charging a nickel for shopping bags, consumption went down by 50% (95% in the UK). Clearly, it's not the nickel. The way you charge for something changes the way people perceive...
Friday September 28, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 2:51PM EST on September 28, 2007
I had breakfast today with a really smart person who works for a really big company (that's just about all he'll let me say). He's frustrated because they're fading, and fast. The ironic thing is that if they focused their...
CSS
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 11:49AM EST on September 28, 2007
Three simple letters. Sit down with your web team, pretend you know what you're talking about (it worked for me) and say them with authority. It's not the next big thing. It's the current big thing. Your site can't help...
Thursday September 27, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:22AM EST on September 27, 2007
Aaron has posted a really powerful mindmap of what he knows about internet marketing (which is a lot). I found several sites I didn't know about and you will too. But the mindmap part just gave me a headache. There...
Wednesday September 26, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:22PM EST on September 26, 2007
Michael Brooke writes, 1. I am not publishing a magazine – I am helping to document and foster change within skateboarding. The magazine is part of a greater movement within skateboarding. Concrete Wave exists to spread specific ideas. The more...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 6:08PM EST on September 26, 2007
There are more than 100,000 published authors in the US. Most of them have publishing houses (and at least a tenuous connection to a publicist). What a great marketing problem. The long tail of authors meets the long tail of...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 7:56AM EST on September 26, 2007
Perhaps you should consider sitting down. When you are asked to give a short talk at the big company gathering, or contribute a few minutes in a large group discussion, and you're ready to stand up and have all eyes...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 7:49AM EST on September 26, 2007

Greatminds

Tuesday September 25, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 7:14PM EST on September 25, 2007
I can't use internal wikis. "It's on the wiki" is a dumb thing to say to me. TV networks know how to put on one show at a time, in order, and broadcast it to whomever is tuning in. These...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:20AM EST on September 25, 2007
David Gardner at the Motley Fool was talking to me today about their CAPS feature. Their users are currently ranking and analyzing more stocks than any firm, including all the big analyst houses, etc. And, you probably won't be surprised...
Monday September 24, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 6:59AM EST on September 24, 2007
In about three months, my next book, Meatball Sundae, will be published. I know, I know, I just published a book. I'm breaking the biggest rule in publishing. I'm trying your patience by doing another book so soon, but it...
Sunday September 23, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 6:30PM EST on September 23, 2007
...and despite the void he'll leave, it's almost impossible not to make a small joke. And that's the point, at least from a marketing point of view. Marceau made it through the Dip. He entered a field that was obscure,...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:12AM EST on September 23, 2007
Residential real estate is sold. You decide to sell your house, hire a broker and advertise and have open houses. The buyer gets the message and responds if interested. NCAA stars are bought. The high school kids play their best...
Saturday September 22, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 5:33PM EST on September 22, 2007
Could it be, "This is just my job"? At least there was one layer of meat on the non-display part of the sandwich... At some point, sooner or later, people take responsibility for what they do. Either that or they're...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 4:32PM EST on September 22, 2007
Now, if he only resists the temptation to become an SNL hack after college... This book is a reminder of how rare simple funny writing is.
Friday September 21, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 7:11AM EST on September 21, 2007
What happens after I click on your Google ad? I was thinking about great Squidoo pages (lenses) yesterday, and realized that many of them, along with many blogs, have the same goal: give someone a handle, a sense of meaning--context--so...
Thursday September 20, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 10:11AM EST on September 20, 2007
Here's what's hard: you're running a 75th reunion for an organization and you want to invite as many past members as possible. The internet should make this easy. Six degrees of separation, social networks, online profiles and Google should all...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:04AM EST on September 20, 2007
Do you have one? With a special parking space and their picture on the wall? What a great idea. The hardest part is getting over the fear that you'll alienate all your other great customers. Give it a try, it's...
Wednesday September 19, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 11:49AM EST on September 19, 2007
When I was in college, a local human rights group posted up signs around campus one Monday. They read: On WednesdayWear Blue JeansIf You Are Gay This is brilliant marketing. On Wednesday morning, you needed to have a discussion with...
Tuesday September 18, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 2:14PM EST on September 18, 2007
How to be wrong: measure the mean when you really should measure the median. Consider a website that reports a mean (average) of 2.1 pages per visitor. Then realize that the median is 9. That's because there's a large number...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 2:06PM EST on September 18, 2007
Acumen has just posted this year's application. Not only do 100% of the participants report an astonishing experience, but the people they touch (thousands of them) do as well.
Monday September 17, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:16PM EST on September 17, 2007
I don't know French. I can't play the piano. I have no clue how to catch a bony spinefish. This is the first kind of don't know. Stuff you don't know because you haven't been taught it yet. Books are...
Sunday September 16, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:44AM EST on September 16, 2007
Golf (or maybe tennis) has the true myth of the sweet spot. That special part of the club (racket) that magically makes the ball go farther and straighter. There's a sweet spot in promotion and PR as well. Let me...
Saturday September 15, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 7:25AM EST on September 15, 2007
For twenty cents or so, alarm clock manufacturers can add a chip that not only knows the time (via a radio signal) but knows what day it is too. Which means that they can add a switch that says "weekends."...
Friday September 14, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:58AM EST on September 14, 2007
That's the cool thing about marketing. Unlike most other functions in the organization, you get to choose where and how you do what you do. If you don't have the money to do a full-scale TV campaign that's going to...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:39AM EST on September 14, 2007
Google analytics has been available for free for a while now, and most of us still aren't using it properly. Here's a book (and blog, etc.) that really helped me get started.
Thursday September 13, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 10:43AM EST on September 13, 2007
New times demand new conventions. In a world where twitter and facebook and blogs can spread an idea around the world in a few seconds, how do you have a conversation with someone in confidence? Just say NFYB ("not for...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 10:04AM EST on September 13, 2007
The net loves lists. Sometimes, they're even really inspiring and really useful.
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:53AM EST on September 13, 2007
Mushahid points out that a nearby McDonald's has a sauce policy. If you want six or eight packets of dipping sauce for your chicken knuckles (or whatever), they charge you for them. The sign is big and loud and probably...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:04AM EST on September 13, 2007
Andrew sends us this video. The local TV element is hysterical, but what I commend you to is the extremely viral nature of the tattoo. By turning something passive (body art) into something active, the item spread like wildfire. (It...
Wednesday September 12, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:25AM EST on September 12, 2007
Many stories that spread and stick do so because we so desperately want them to be true. Urban legends (and urban truths) fill a niche that we've built for them. Miss Teen South Carolina has been watched nearly 20 million...
Tuesday September 11, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:35AM EST on September 11, 2007
The Times reports today that the MPAA has released a study that DVD pirates are costing New York City $903 million a year in lost wages. Making up numbers is a brilliant marketing technique, especially when the numbers are precise...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:11AM EST on September 11, 2007
Padmanabhan wrote me a nice note today, asking why I so freely give away ideas. (It was nice because he thought some of the ideas were actually good ones). I responded that ideas are easy, doing stuff is hard. My...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:43AM EST on September 11, 2007
This is the first war that's a marketing war. The New York Police Department just released a report on Jihad and terrorism. [It seems as though the NYPD has taken the document down. Not sure why....Here it is.] It's controversial,...
Monday September 10, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 1:47PM EST on September 10, 2007
It's easy to be wowed by what a magical job the search engines do in finding you just the right needle in the haystack. The fact is that search engines are very good at fairly simple searches, and very good...
Sunday September 9, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:24AM EST on September 9, 2007
As a young first-year student at the Stanford MBA program (most of the other 300 students had wasted a few years working at a bank, but he came straight from undergrad) Chip Conley picked out four other students--strangers to him...
Saturday September 8, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:48AM EST on September 8, 2007
Treating different customers differently is important. Customers actually like it if you do it right. People in coach don't mind the folks in first class getting more service, because they'd like to be there one day. (Or because they like...