Disqus - Latest Comments for seth godin

Re: Texting In Purchases

seth godin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:50:02 -0000

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

Re: I Got Lucky

seth godin — Fri, 30 May 2008 08:19:59 -0000

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?)

Re: The Survival Matrix

seth godin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:36:22 -0000

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.

Re: Can You Afford Not to Be Funny?

seth godin — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:46:11 -0000

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.

Re: Godin and Peters: Blogs are best thing ever

seth godin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:09:18 -0000

House elf?

House elf!!!?

Come over here and say that, buddy.

Re: Have I told you that I admire Seth Godin?

seth godin — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:03:23 -0000

Thanks! what a nice post.

Re: louisgray.com: Bloggers' Interactions with Readers Decrease With Prominence

seth godin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:53:16 -0000

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.

Re: rizzn's personal blog

seth godin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:22:03 -0000

Thanks Mark

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

Re: Walled Gardens and Business Models in the 21st Century

seth godin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:10:31 -0000

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.

Re: SXSW 2008 Alta Visa Party Mentioned In Tribes by Seth Godin

seth godin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:40:47 -0000

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.

Re: On Message? You Missed The Point.

seth godin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:10:03 -0000

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.

Re: On Message? You Missed The Point.

seth godin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:02:43 -0000

Proof! (sorry for the typo)

Re: What’s the Value in Creating a Squidoo Lens?

seth godin — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:06:37 -0000

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.

Re: Rock…Paper…Scissors…Abuse!

seth godin — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 21:39:50 -0000

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

Re: ADAM BRUCKER dot COM

seth godin — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:20:37 -0000

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

Re: 2008/05/23/social-media-marketing/

seth godin — Fri, 23 May 2008 13:39:22 -0000

Mike, I was wondering the same thing!

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

Re: Late to the Party

seth godin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:14:36 -0000

well said

as always!

Re: The Tribes Q&A (by the Triiibe)

seth godin — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 15:43:51 -0000

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

Re: Podcasting not a good name? Huh?

seth godin — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 06:39:39 -0000

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

Re: It’s All About the FILTER

seth godin — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 08:34:12 -0000

I wasn't calling for restraint. I was indeed pointing out that if you, as a micro-publisher, want to build an audience of people who count on you, look to you, expect that you will act as a filter for them... if you want to be that source, then blogging all the time might not be the long-term way to get there.

The front page of the Times, the front page of Digg, the front page of your blog... that's a filtered space. The difference is that the Times can't make there's "bigger" and you, the blogger, can. In the short run, that'll get more hits. My question was, is that the way to be the filter winner in the long run?

Re: http://blog.inc.com/archives/2005/02/biggest_web_des.html

seth godin — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 11:22:30 -0000

I don't think he was criticizing my blog. I think he was criticizing my site (www.sethgodin.com)

which I sort of like.

Re: Seth Godin is a quitter

seth godin — Mon, 28 May 2007 14:37:28 -0000

Thanks, Sean, for a great post and a summary better than I could have ever written.

James, I have two answers to your criticism about clever patter and anecdotes.

First: the books are supposed to provoke, not answer. Clearly, they haven't worked on you, but lucky for me, a lot of my readers find that they give them enough of a firestarter that they're actually willing to go do something about it.

Second: I have a fairly good record, going back to 1994 (eMarketing) of writing books that describe not just worked in the past, but what's likely to work in the future. If AdWords aren't permission marketing, then I don't know what is...