Agreed. He's shown that he can take anything, even crap, and figure out how to sell it better. I think that this example WOULD sell Firefox, for instance. However, I find that a lot of his stuff IS crap, and marketing doesn't fix that. Squidoo, for instance, is terrible and pointless, even if it IS on the Alexa 500 (and I'll never know WHY it is, for that matter).
Frankly, I'd prefer Firefox NOT market itself and focus on making itself the best browser it can be. It's not good enough right now to create good marketing, so it shouldn't bother.
If you've ever looked at some of these 3rd string Internet marketers (the ones that mostly sell ebooks or talk about adsense arbitrage) you'll eventually see some non-expert talking about SEO and one of the first things they'll mention is Squidoo.
I think it is because Squidoo gives people a platform to put whatever contextual text they want in, with outbound links that provide link-juice to whatever site/affiliate link they want.
If you ask me, it feels more like a spam blog that has multiple authors that can sign up at anytime - but that is just my opinion.
That's an opinion that I share. Squidoo really does have a skeevy feel to it. And after a year of reading Seth's blog, I had to unsubscribe because his writing had the same skeevy feel. I want to get users because I've got the best product out there, not because I'm marketing myself the best.
Well I've never met Seth so my opinion of him is based only what I've read, but I'm not entirely sure I can pin down what it is about him that perplexes me...
Sometimes he seems to have fairly interesting advice and insight on various topics and at other times I've considered that these are the ramblings of a delusional man. I really don't think I can make an apt judgement of him, so perhaps that is why I keep reading? Maybe he is a genius in disguise.
That being said, he reminds me of someone I know and if he is anything like this person, then I think we all have something to be worried about.
He riffs & makes big statements. Unless you're superman that means your going to be wrong a lot (I think he is wrong here too). But the other consequence is that sometimes right in a very powerful way.
For example his baseline stuff, going back years about the advertising, marketing, & consumer-attention complex is right in a powerful way. It means big things: 'It will probably never be possible to create another Coca-Cola or Colgate in the same way again.'
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Actually I think that Seth routinely misses the point.
He's a great marketeer, but he's not a product manager anymore than a usability specialist.
Agreed. He's shown that he can take anything, even crap, and figure out how to sell it better. I think that this example WOULD sell Firefox, for instance. However, I find that a lot of his stuff IS crap, and marketing doesn't fix that. Squidoo, for instance, is terrible and pointless, even if it IS on the Alexa 500 (and I'll never know WHY it is, for that matter).
Frankly, I'd prefer Firefox NOT market itself and focus on making itself the best browser it can be. It's not good enough right now to create good marketing, so it shouldn't bother.
If you've ever looked at some of these 3rd string Internet marketers (the ones that mostly sell ebooks or talk about adsense arbitrage) you'll eventually see some non-expert talking about SEO and one of the first things they'll mention is Squidoo.
I think it is because Squidoo gives people a platform to put whatever contextual text they want in, with outbound links that provide link-juice to whatever site/affiliate link they want.
If you ask me, it feels more like a spam blog that has multiple authors that can sign up at anytime - but that is just my opinion.
That's an opinion that I share. Squidoo really does have a skeevy feel to it. And after a year of reading Seth's blog, I had to unsubscribe because his writing had the same skeevy feel. I want to get users because I've got the best product out there, not because I'm marketing myself the best.
Well I've never met Seth so my opinion of him is based only what I've read, but I'm not entirely sure I can pin down what it is about him that perplexes me...
Sometimes he seems to have fairly interesting advice and insight on various topics and at other times I've considered that these are the ramblings of a delusional man. I really don't think I can make an apt judgement of him, so perhaps that is why I keep reading? Maybe he is a genius in disguise.
That being said, he reminds me of someone I know and if he is anything like this person, then I think we all have something to be worried about.
Nah. He's no genius. Genius is controversial and abrupt. Seth Godin is almost certainly bright, but that's about it.
He riffs & makes big statements. Unless you're superman that means your going to be wrong a lot (I think he is wrong here too). But the other consequence is that sometimes right in a very powerful way.
For example his baseline stuff, going back years about the advertising, marketing, & consumer-attention complex is right in a powerful way. It means big things: 'It will probably never be possible to create another Coca-Cola or Colgate in the same way again.'