Author Archive for Seth Godin
Godin is author of ten books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages, and his ebooks are among the most popular ever published. He is responsible for many words in the marketer's vocabulary, including permission marketing, ideaviruses, purple cows, the dip and sneezers. His irrepressible speaking style and no-holds-barred blog have helped him create a large following around the world.
There isn’t one bestseller list
Corey showed me the list of the most popular Wikipedia articles.
It’s insane. It makes no sense. It has rock stars, dead dictators and body parts on it.
Huh? If you look at the top music of December,…
Crowded at the top
In the 260 weeks from 1966 to 1970, there were only thirteen musical acts responsible for every #1 song on the Billboard charts.
In the 260 weeks that accounted for the first half of the 1970s, it was 26.…
Less than zero
The long tail is real, but sometimes the longest parts reach underwater. When there’s enough choices, it means that some things will never get picked.
Charles Blow reports in the NY Times that:
“A study last
…
Sinusitus relief
30,000,000 people suffer from sinusitis, making it the most popular (!) disease in the US. I’ve had it off and on for years.
After much research, I’d like to share three tips:
This book is the single best one…
Building books that sell in the digital age
Jeff sent over this video, which I didn’t know was online. It’s almost two years old, and more informal (and a lot more self-focused) than my usual talks.
In my presentations, I don’t often go into detail about…
Sell like you buy
Here are the two most common pleas I hear from marketers,
“Our product is as remarkable as we can make it, and we’re trying really hard and it’s very important to us that people buy it, but despite our…
“Hop in, I’ll drive.”
Just because someone offers you a lift, doesn’t mean you have to take it.
In a joint venture or possible business arrangement, it’s reassuring when the other person offers to drive. “Leave it to me,” they might say, or,…
Seminar for good causes
I haven’t done a live public seminar in a while, and I hope to announce two before the end of the year. Stay tuned.
I also haven’t done my favorite kind, though, which is a seminar for…
If Craigslist cost $1
Some things are better when they’re not free.
If Craigslist charged a dollar for every listing, what would happen?
Well, the number of bogus listings and repetitive listings would plummet, making the site far easier to use.
The number…
The future is just like the past (but shinier)
Of course, it’s not true.
The record business, for example, is fundamentally altered by easily sharable, zero-incremental-cost digital files. It’s not just vinyl but shiny.
Your industry has been completely and permanently altered by the connections offered by the…
The problem with the transom
It’s not difficult to throw something over the transom. That’s not the problem.
The problem is it’s a waste.
The internet has made it so easy to wrap your idea/proposal around a brick and throw it that we forget…
Do marketers have assets?
I gave a talk the other day, and at the end a woman sheepishly asked, “when you talk about an asset, what do you mean?”
It’s a fair question.
For a marketer, an asset is a tool or a…
Adjusting as we go
Two days ago, I posted about Brands in Public.
The response from the brands we’ve shared it with has been terrific, but other people didn’t like elements of it. And they were direct in letting me know. …
Cultural Wisdom
It’s very easy to underrate the value of cultural wisdom, otherwise known as sophistication.
Walk into a doctor’s office and the paneling is wrong, the carpeting is wrong and it feels dated. Instant lack of trust.
Meet a…
The platform vs. the eyeballs
This might be the most subtle yet important shift that marketers face as they deal with the reality of new media. Marketers aren’t renters, now they own.
For generations, marketers were trained to buy (actually rent) eyeballs.
A media…
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