DISQUS

You should be mad-proud of this. What an enormous effort!

well said

as always!

Proof! (sorry for the typo)

Sorry to disagree, but just because someone asks a question doesn't mean you need to answer it. There was no upside in Kay demonizing the defeated, humiliaited and shamed Liddy Dole. Couldn't help her one bit to do so.

So what if no one listened? Rope a dope is a totally valid strategy in this case. The media loves x vs. y controversy, but that doesn't make good government and smart politicians and ceos just avoid it.

I heard the same interview and once I realized what Kay was doing, I just turned it off. Which is exactly what she wanted me to do, because the dialogue wasn't helping her constituents.

Scott

It would be a lot easier for you to start offering laser engraving than it would be for me to change my book.

thanks.

I never disagree with you Fred, but why not cut the burn rate to zero? then you have an infinite runway, right?

The entire purpose of building a company is to grow it, and that's why VCs invest. So, you ought to have people working for you that help you grow, to get somewhere. REGARDLESS of the state of the economy. In other words, why was it okay for lunkheads lauded by the tech blogs to hire dozens of people they didn't need 18 months ago, but not okay for them to hire them today?

If someone is adding real value to your team, helping you grow share and get where you're going, then hire them. If they don't, then don't.

The current "lay people off" craze ought to be replaced with a long term "hire good people you can afford" mantra, I think.

Squidoo hasn't laid anyone off, and we're really proud of that.

House elf?

House elf!!!?

Come over here and say that, buddy.

Thanks Mark

I wasn't blaming the robots. I was blaming the people who run them so poorly.

Hi Aaron

I think your point is a great one, but it makes an assumption about what is being accomplished. I don't want a large audience to sell ads against. I don't sell ads. I don't even want to sell books (I mostly sell ideas, for free). The advantage of a tribe is that the members are special, they are insiders, they trust each other. The only way to do that is with some sort of exclusion. It might not make you the biggest, but it gives you a chance to build connections that are more powerful.

At least I hope so.

Just because I don't interact the way you want me to doesn't mean I'm not interacting. I personally read and answer every single email I get (and it's a lot) and I read most of the blogs that mention a post of mine. I've posted about the comment thing and the Twit thing is a true investment to get right. I can't get it right, not if I want to do the other things I do.

Sorry to disappoint, but here's the thing: I haven't had comments since I was a n00b, so I think I broke your graph.

Also, Ontario's point is an excellent one. I think there's a different between personal interactions driven by the reader and outbound interactions driven by the blogger.

Great point.

I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it. One thing I'd point out is that there's a huge difference between being popular and being effective.

Of course, Fred, you didn't mention the "give" that goes with get. I got lucky when Jerry and you showed up for lunch that day and my company became Flatiron's first deal.

Thanks for that.

(Boy are we old or what?)

Mike, I was wondering the same thing!

I guess it was that guy who looked like me...

Thanks! what a nice post.

jott.com lets you do this with books now, via voice.

last time I checked, the devil didn't need an advocate.

I probably should have been more clear. My point was that regardless of how hard he tried, how loudly he played, Young couldn't get the crowd excited about certain songs. In other words, it was the song, not his effort, that made a difference



too many marketers put all the effort into effort instead of coming up with better songs

Thanks for the post and the experiment.

First, I want to correct one assumption that's easy to make but doesn't match the facts: Squidoo is getting way more than a million visits a month (that's not an estimate, it's from Google Analytics) and the biggest chunk is a direct result of google searches.

For example:
dragon tattoo
zlist
laptop bags
smartest orgs

The reason it's so easy to not notice this is that it's a really big universe. The long tail kicks in sooner or later, though, and the traffic keeps growing (about 50% a month, month on month).

You also commented on the lack of flexibility in the look of pages. Wikipedia has the same 'problem'. The reason we didn't build a world similar to blogs is that most of our visitors come once to a page and then quickly leave, following one of the links. When they arrive, they want to see things in a standard format so they can quickly figure out where they want to go. This is the opposite of the experience most sites want.

Finally, I think your decision (early in the post) to discard what we stated the big win here is (to have lots and lots of your fans build lenses about you) gets to the heart of the issue. If this is a long tail play, building just one lens is quick and fun but not a homerun. But a> why not? and b> multiply by 100 and it gets interesting.

The thing we're most proud of at Squidoo is that more than 40% of our lensmasters give their royalties to charity and that we've built a school in Cambodia, funded a scientist doing research on JDRF and supported more than 40 other worthwhile charities. I figure if we can do that at the same time we direct relevant, interested traffic to sites, it's worth doing.

thanks again for giving it a shot.

Great points, Robert. (Because I agree with you!) From a year ago:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/05...