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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/
October 2007
Wednesday October 31, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:48PM EST on October 31, 2007
What if I told you about an industry which: Indebts most of its customers, sometimes for twenty or more years a person Not only consumes most of four years of its customer's time, but impacts its prospects for years before...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 5:00PM EST on October 31, 2007
Chris Anderson has had enough: Sorry PR people: you're blocked. He's calling out all the PR flaks spammers, who, in the name of "it's my job," spammed him. I doubt it's going to work. That's because PR people who spam...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 10:27AM EST on October 31, 2007
If you got an email in the last two weeks from godinseth@gmail.com, that wasn't me or anyone I know. This is an incredibly simple hack that works so well because we now trust email as a magical, instant and secure...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:00AM EST on October 31, 2007
Amy points us to The Digg Toolbox: 70 Digg-related Scripts, Tools, and Tutorials.
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 7:03AM EST on October 31, 2007
Thanks to the hundreds of folks who chimed in with advice about my new glasses. There are several options in the works, but in the meantime, my holiday pair just arrived. As promised, here's a glimpse.
Tuesday October 30, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 1:45PM EST on October 30, 2007
To pick up a bit on yesterday's post, one strategy that smart domain owners are pursuing isn't particularly groundbreaking: they're putting up good content. When you have millions of free visits, it's okay if you're sloppy, it's okay if you...
Monday October 29, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 5:35PM EST on October 29, 2007
Gil points us to this new piece of malware. Basically, it's a way for spammers to get around that horrible Captcha code. The short version: A spammer tricks you into answering a captcha in order to get into a striptease...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 12:37PM EST on October 29, 2007
Thirteen years ago, Josh Quittner wrote an article in Wired that almost made me richer than Donald Trump. He wrote about how many domain names were up for grabs, including McDonalds.com. Inspired, I sat down and registered hundreds of them....
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 11:33AM EST on October 29, 2007
Trick Lit is the term for a chick lit novel that pretends to be something else, hoping to rope people in with an interesting premise. 30 pages later, you discover that you were deceived, that it's just another piece of...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:04AM EST on October 29, 2007
Attention spans are getting shorter, thanks to clutter. In 1960, the typical stay for a book on the New York Times bestseller list was 22 weeks. In 2006, it was two. Forty years ago, it was typical for three novels...
Sunday October 28, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 12:52PM EST on October 28, 2007
Here's an interesting question for the next telemarketer who calls you, or for the next clerk or customer service person you touch base with: "What's the name of the president of your company?" There's a reason it matters. If the...
Friday October 26, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 3:12PM EST on October 26, 2007
One reason for organizational paralysis is that it's easy to believe that if your tasks go away, your job goes away. If you're the district manager for the Yukon Territory and the company stops serving the Yukon, you're going to...
Thursday October 25, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 11:02AM EST on October 25, 2007
Are you Foucault or Gladwell? Steven Johnson has done some interesting (but not surprising) research on the complexity of the work of a few writers. Basically, short, simple sentences not only sell more books, but spread ideas farther and faster....
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 10:06AM EST on October 25, 2007
That's not true. At least it's not true almost all the time. Very few of your prospects literally can't afford it. What they are really trying to say is, "it's not worth it." As in, it's not worth reprioritizing my...
Wednesday October 24, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:03AM EST on October 24, 2007
Thanks to the internet, surveys are a lot cheaper than they used to be. And the prevalence of roll-your-own amateur surveys means that we all have a lot to learn. A survey can teach your customers or it can help...
Tuesday October 23, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 12:21PM EST on October 23, 2007
Some of you have been asking about live, public events. Here are two: THE Conference on Marketing: in Florida. The real reason to come is that Malcolm will be there. February 4-6. Marketing to Men, Women & Boomers: in New...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 10:49AM EST on October 23, 2007
In the middle of its biggest growth spurt ever, just before Christmas, Apple fired 800 of its employees for stealing. They were caught grabbing $100 rebates on the iPhones Apple had given them for free. The impact of this sort...
Monday October 22, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 6:09PM EST on October 22, 2007
Cumulative advantage is a powerful side effect of story telling. Get out front, even a little, and you sell more because many people like to invest in a winner. We like to read what other people are reading. A classic...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:15AM EST on October 22, 2007
Everyone is a critic. One of my dearest friends is Joanne Kates, the restaurant critic for The Globe and Mail, the most important newspaper in Toronto. Joanne carries a credit card with someone else's name on it (I promised I...
Sunday October 21, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 4:38PM EST on October 21, 2007
Have you noticed that every single car made has a logo on it? Jeans, too. Not business shoes, but computers, certainly. Phones. Not ties, except maybe Hermes. Not most jewelry, either. It's funny. We probably wouldn't take $50 or $100...
Saturday October 20, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 7:15PM EST on October 20, 2007
Product of the week:
Friday October 19, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 10:41PM EST on October 19, 2007
1.2 million albums sold, $8 each, no middleman, one week: Radiohead Kicks the Middleman to the Curb. The thing to keep in mind is this: the value of the permission. The fact that the group now has more than a...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 6:19PM EST on October 19, 2007
Fiona wrote in to ask what the alternatives were to being outsourced, to having a job where you're very good at following a manual that someone else might be able to follow for a lot less money. Here's a starter...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:04AM EST on October 19, 2007
The folks at mashable do absolutely amazing work. In addition to a useful news feed about what's up online, they regularly put together lists of stuff to make you more productive. To make it easier for you to find the...
Thursday October 18, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 10:24PM EST on October 18, 2007
So, the eye glasses post led to a deluge of useful and kind advice. Please hold off, I'm still working my way through it all! I'll build a summary soon for the similarly perplexed. But along the way, I realized...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 3:08PM EST on October 18, 2007
I just found out I need glasses. This is a traumatic moment for someone who never before fretted about aging. It's one of the parts of my body that I could always depend on, and then boom, no more. As...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 2:48PM EST on October 18, 2007
I don't think you can underestimate how important it is to most people to be right. People choose jobs, products, partnerships... just about everything... in many ways because it makes them feel right or at least diminishes the chance that...
Wednesday October 17, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 7:04PM EST on October 17, 2007
I wonder who the first teacher was who said to his class, "Okay, we have ball point pens now. No need to use class time to learn how to use a fountain pen." I heard from two people this week...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:13AM EST on October 17, 2007
I got a note from a college student last week, explaining that his professor told him he couldn't use the term 'viral marketing' in a paper. It doesn't exist, apparently, it's just a new-fangled form of word of mouth. I...
Tuesday October 16, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 6:50AM EST on October 16, 2007
Of course not. I heard from a dozen people last night, all pointing me to: I Heart Zappos. A woman had a touching and memorable experience with Zappos and wrote about it. It's really clear that there was no PR...
Monday October 15, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 6:54AM EST on October 15, 2007
Perhaps the biggest change the new marketing brings is the easiest to overlook, mostly because it's so obvious. Every organization now has the ability (and probably the responsibility) to deal directly with the world. With customers, with prospects and with...
Saturday October 13, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 9:10PM EST on October 13, 2007
I got a ton of email this week about the Radiohead rollout. The short version: Radiohead (a million-selling rock band) launched their new album as a pay-what-you-want MP3 combined with an expensive boxed set. This is the sort thing I've...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 8:16AM EST on October 13, 2007
For some reason, Americans love polls. We make very big decisions based on what we think everyone else is doing or going to do. I guess people don't like to be 'wrong' even if wrong means doing what they believe...
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 7:56AM EST on October 13, 2007
Christmas has always been the king of retail holidays in the US and it probably always will be. Many families spend 25% of their discretionary income each year on gifts and trinkets for the holiday. But Halloween is coming on...
Friday October 12, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 6:59AM EST on October 12, 2007
Megan points us to this photo of a package returned by the post office. For being less than 1% short on postage. Obviously, it's cheaper to deliver the package than to go to all the trouble to void the postage...
Thursday October 11, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 10:30AM EST on October 11, 2007
Here are principles I think you can’t avoid: 1. Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a dealbreaker. 2. Change the interaction. What makes great websites...
Wednesday October 10, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 10:53AM EST on October 10, 2007
For most people, that's all you need. A website that's good enough. Not that breaks new ground, establishes a new identity, discovers new ways for people to interact online. Just a good enough website that didn't kill you to launch....
Tuesday October 9, 2007
Permalink Posted by: Gregory Ferrell at 6:02AM EST on October 9, 2007
This guy makes swords. Actually, he bought charcoal, built a furnace, smelted his own steel, created his own ingots, then created his own magical pastes. He sharpened and built a blade and on and on and on to build an...