4 ms·

How Seth Godin became a speaker, writer, and blogger in demand

13 points by hhm 18y ago

fallentimes 18y ago
Unalone had a great quote regarding Seth Godin's popularity on this thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=305741 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=305741. "It's [his popularity is] because he writes short articles that usually make sense on the surface and so people read him because they think it will make them rich."
- greyman 18y ago
  I tend to agree. What he says usually lack substance, I can't help. Don't want to be harsh, but sometimes I consider it just a distraction.
  - unalone 18y ago
    I think that a lot of the time, it is. He's got one or two nicely-written articles and a lot of noise that sounds excellent.
- nostrademons 18y ago
  The same goes for Tim Ferriss, Robert Kiyosaki, Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky, the 37signals crowd, and many other authors. Really, writing about getting rich is probably one of the most surefire ways to get rich.
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    PG was rich before he was known as a writer. Spolsky and the 37signals crowd more than likely would have been rich either way, just not near as quickly. I 100% agree for Tim Ferriss and that pile of shit, vapor peddling, scam fuck, Robert Kiyosaki. http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html
coglethorpe 18y ago
I'm not sure how well Godin's strategies work for people, but he is an absolute master at marketing one thing: himself.
- Alex3917 18y ago
  That's an easy thing to say, but it's just not true. Seth hates promoting himself, it makes him uncomfortable, and he goes out of his way to avoid ever mentioning his own books or his startup on his blog. When he releases a new book he'll usually post a couple paragraphs from it on the blog, and that's about it. In the three years since Squidoo went into private beta he's promoted it maybe three or four times on his blog and probably mentioned it less than ten times total.
  - npk 18y ago
    Alex3917 - I don't disagree. But, isn't Godin's approach still masterful self marketing? Being self-referential is tacky. So, justifiably, he avoids it. My point: the fact that you know his style of promotion means he's self promoting. :)
  - hhm 18y ago
    Thanks for giving a more human side of the story. I think Godin is a very good self promoter, but I also think he's someone like Tom Peters: an out of the box marketer. He has different ideas, he can support them, but also he chooses a more shallow way of explaining them, probably to get them faster to the general public. I don't buy Kiyosaki for example, but Peters and Godin: they have interesting, original and honest ideas. I can't say if they are sooo great, but I think they might be useful sometimes. Anyway, Godin's blog isn't very interesting, but the books are better, at least the ones I read.
wallflower 18y ago
Seth is a free thinker. I may not always agree with what he says. During the Q&A session at a Seth Godin lecture I attended, a parent asked him a question about how he taught his kids. He answered with a story about how the school his children attended was doing a play. Seth suggested that instead of having one kid play the lead role for the entire play that they rotate it - so that every kid could get the chance to be the star/be the main role. The kids loved it, most parents loved it.
- river_styx 18y ago
  This is just more of the every-child-is-special bullcrap that we fill our kids' heads with these days. Come on, people. Some kids are just lousy actors. Why should they get a chance to be in the main role? The real world doesn't work that way. When these same kids grow up, they will be so badly calibrated that they'll have trouble functioning. What's wrong with telling a kid he's bad at something, and should move on to try other things?
  - steveplace 18y ago
    Wait. Do you really think that people are going to give a crap if they are good actors at age 7? No. They're expected to screw up and it looks better on camera anyways.
    - river_styx 18y ago
      Acting was just an example. The point is that if you give every kid in the class a gold star, there's no incentive for any of them to actually work hard. Also they will be shocked when they encounter criticism for the first time.
      - steveplace 18y ago
        There's a difference between doing good and just doing. If your pudgy slow kid wants to pick his nose on the soccer field with chocolate ice cream on his uniform, by God let him. Sure, at some point you help to lead them to excel... but before that point let them engage in whatever they want.
fallentimes 18y ago
"Since then, through trial and error, he has developed a winning formula: brief, simple books with eye-catching covers and provocative titles—and no business-speak. Tribes, for example, is a 147-page, anecdote-filled call to readers to become leaders of a movement, or "tribe." Instead he just makes up or misuses words, which is often just as bad or worse than "business-speak."
enra 18y ago
Patrick Barwise, a London School of Business professor of management and marketing, tut-tuts that while Godin's writing is "very readable with lots of examples, it's not grounded in research. His arguments are oversimplified and overstated." Sounds lot like academic marketing aswell. It's not that rare that highly regarded authors suggest different views or even complitely contradict views and solutions to same problems. Its not like actual science, you know.

13 points by hhm 18y ago

Unalone had a great quote regarding Seth Godin's popularity on this thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=305741 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=305741. "It's [his popularity is] because he writes short articles that usually make sense on the surface and so people read him because they think it will make them rich."

greyman 18y ago
I tend to agree. What he says usually lack substance, I can't help. Don't want to be harsh, but sometimes I consider it just a distraction.
- unalone 18y ago
  I think that a lot of the time, it is. He's got one or two nicely-written articles and a lot of noise that sounds excellent.
nostrademons 18y ago
The same goes for Tim Ferriss, Robert Kiyosaki, Paul Graham, Joel Spolsky, the 37signals crowd, and many other authors. Really, writing about getting rich is probably one of the most surefire ways to get rich.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  PG was rich before he was known as a writer. Spolsky and the 37signals crowd more than likely would have been rich either way, just not near as quickly. I 100% agree for Tim Ferriss and that pile of shit, vapor peddling, scam fuck, Robert Kiyosaki. http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html http://www.johntreed.com/Kiyosaki.html

coglethorpe 18y ago

I'm not sure how well Godin's strategies work for people, but he is an absolute master at marketing one thing: himself.

Alex3917 18y ago
That's an easy thing to say, but it's just not true. Seth hates promoting himself, it makes him uncomfortable, and he goes out of his way to avoid ever mentioning his own books or his startup on his blog. When he releases a new book he'll usually post a couple paragraphs from it on the blog, and that's about it. In the three years since Squidoo went into private beta he's promoted it maybe three or four times on his blog and probably mentioned it less than ten times total.
- npk 18y ago
  Alex3917 - I don't disagree. But, isn't Godin's approach still masterful self marketing? Being self-referential is tacky. So, justifiably, he avoids it. My point: the fact that you know his style of promotion means he's self promoting. :)
- hhm 18y ago
  Thanks for giving a more human side of the story. I think Godin is a very good self promoter, but I also think he's someone like Tom Peters: an out of the box marketer. He has different ideas, he can support them, but also he chooses a more shallow way of explaining them, probably to get them faster to the general public. I don't buy Kiyosaki for example, but Peters and Godin: they have interesting, original and honest ideas. I can't say if they are sooo great, but I think they might be useful sometimes. Anyway, Godin's blog isn't very interesting, but the books are better, at least the ones I read.

wallflower 18y ago

Seth is a free thinker. I may not always agree with what he says. During the Q&A session at a Seth Godin lecture I attended, a parent asked him a question about how he taught his kids. He answered with a story about how the school his children attended was doing a play. Seth suggested that instead of having one kid play the lead role for the entire play that they rotate it - so that every kid could get the chance to be the star/be the main role. The kids loved it, most parents loved it.

river_styx 18y ago
This is just more of the every-child-is-special bullcrap that we fill our kids' heads with these days. Come on, people. Some kids are just lousy actors. Why should they get a chance to be in the main role? The real world doesn't work that way. When these same kids grow up, they will be so badly calibrated that they'll have trouble functioning. What's wrong with telling a kid he's bad at something, and should move on to try other things?
- steveplace 18y ago
  Wait. Do you really think that people are going to give a crap if they are good actors at age 7? No. They're expected to screw up and it looks better on camera anyways.
  - river_styx 18y ago
    Acting was just an example. The point is that if you give every kid in the class a gold star, there's no incentive for any of them to actually work hard. Also they will be shocked when they encounter criticism for the first time.
    - steveplace 18y ago
      There's a difference between doing good and just doing. If your pudgy slow kid wants to pick his nose on the soccer field with chocolate ice cream on his uniform, by God let him. Sure, at some point you help to lead them to excel... but before that point let them engage in whatever they want.

fallentimes 18y ago

"Since then, through trial and error, he has developed a winning formula: brief, simple books with eye-catching covers and provocative titles—and no business-speak. Tribes, for example, is a 147-page, anecdote-filled call to readers to become leaders of a movement, or "tribe." Instead he just makes up or misuses words, which is often just as bad or worse than "business-speak."

enra 18y ago

Patrick Barwise, a London School of Business professor of management and marketing, tut-tuts that while Godin's writing is "very readable with lots of examples, it's not grounded in research. His arguments are oversimplified and overstated." Sounds lot like academic marketing aswell. It's not that rare that highly regarded authors suggest different views or even complitely contradict views and solutions to same problems. Its not like actual science, you know.