Round-up of newsletter 7

Posted by Rachelle Money on 11 June 2008

The reaction to the last newsletter (number 7) was fantastic. I hadn't realized there were so many Seth Godin devotees out there. I was really interested to hear your thoughts on the Question and Answer article we published as Seth's latest book, Meatball Sundae, was released.

You guys were not shy about sharing your thoughts about the self-styled marketing guru - with 58 comments posted online we got a real debate going. Marcy said she felt social networking sites were great for sourcing “sneezers.”

“The kind of people who spread your idea virus. Get good at locating sneezers who will fall in love with your business and you may not be able to stop your popularity.”

It seems like Seth's comments on clients who are too concerned with taking short cuts hit a nerve.

Eran Malloch, Adwords Manager told us: “These days, I seem to spend half my time trying to persuade clients that there ARE no shortcuts EXCEPT to do it right in the first place.

“They waste so much time, energy and money on trying to cheat the system that they miss out on the benefits of doing it right, just because it's wrapped in a little (or sometimes a lot of) hard work.”

RedEvo seemed to agree: “Once again a well respected guru tells it in plain English and once again reinforces the 'write great content' mantra. “I particularly liked "My position is that the clients are the problem, not the consultants". Pure gold.”

It was nice to hear that some of you appreciated my digressions with Seth on the future of newspapers. As a journalist I am fascinated with how the media will reconcile the differences between online and print mediums, and clearly our readers are interested in this too.

Ken Zweigel said: “Rachelle, your interview quickly hits on some important points about SEO and the future of paper newspapers. Good job. The common thread between some of the comments in your interview is the connection made by great content between the provider and the reader.

“The downside is that future news readers won't have the visceral pleasure of a hands-on experience with a natural material. It is an intimate and personal pleasure that will soon be lost to future generation.... no matter the medium, connecting with people was, is, and always will be about unique, captivating storytelling about relevant ideas.”

Ken raises an interesting point here - with the jump from print to online journalism we may lose the physical experience of holding a newspaper, but the importance of a good story will never be lost.

Sherry T is optimistic about the newspaper's future: “Fortunately newspapers have just what people, Google and advertisers are hungry for - content. Adaptability is going to be key to companies whose income is based on content,” she wrote in her post.

In our interview Seth was ardent about his position that great content is an absolute must. This is something Rich pointed out in his post: “Great content can be built, promoted and found (or not!). Quick fixes are hard to come by. I agree with Godin's comments about shortcuts - there is no substitute for hard work and incremental advances.” Sounds like Rich is talking from experience.

Elmo wanted to hear more detail in Seth's answer to my question about how the little guy can market more effectively online. I have to say Elmo, the interview was pretty difficult. Seth was recovering from a sinus infection which had left him partially deaf in one ear, and my Scottish brogue was causing him some consternation. It seemed the slower I talked the longer my vowels became! It didn't help that he was trying to catch a cab as I was interviewing him either, but somehow I managed to cobble together an article from our chat.

Not all of you were loving Seth though. Evan it seems wasn't too impressed. “Not sure why you bothered with the interview, it could have been culled from a press release - same stuff and a little hype for his new book.”

"Clients are the problem" - I'll guess that he's a consultant.

“Having read lots of marketing books his stuff is far from unique (and at one idea a book it's not exactly gripping). Get attention, position yourself: all this is marketing standard. Seth is a master at marketing (himself).

“I think the mistake is to believe that popularity means quality (Seth is popular therefore he must be insightful or have better things to say).

“Happy Birthday I don't think is the world's best song: there is more to quality than popularity. It doesn't hurt your guru status to confuse the two though, as long as you're popular.”

I'm glad to see you got that off your chest Evan, but the fact is that Seth evidently has a huge following - doesn't that prove he really is a master at marketing? He's kept a free blog, given away free books and chapters online and yet people still go out and buy his books by the truck load.

It seems that our Savvy Vegetarian case study with Judy Kingsbury was a real inspiration to some of our readers. Ron Robertson said: “Thanks for a wonderful and inspiring article. It is so exciting to think that a subject for which Judy developed such passion without any local input has flowered into this lifestyle and business.

“I am struggling to develop a retail online business niche in the outdoor sports electronics field. I have had limited success with my present venues and hope to develop more than a web site linked to my auction listings in the near future. Judy's experience has given me hope and made me think that I might want to do some out-of-the-box thinking about what I want to accomplish in the future.”

At Wordtracker we love giving you these case studies, not just because we like to blow our own trumpet, but because it shows a real human story on how they use our tool.

Caroline posted a comment which read: “I suppose we all learn in different ways but I tend to get a lot from reading case studies. It's probably the human element that appeals to me but if I can relate to the story then I'm more likely to absorb the information on offer.”

Judy's story also threw up some pointers on how to gain access to niche markets via keyword research, which our readers like Euro Millions and Patty were quick to catch on to.

“It took me a lot of wasted time and money before I realised how important good keyword research was in finding a niche market to explore. I built my first site www.euro-millions-review.com using a package called SiteSell and the things I have learned in just 2 years is incredible. I am now receiving between 400 and 500 unique visitors everyday. These are stats that I could only dream of 2 years ago. For anyone who is just starting out in web world, I can not stress enough the importance of keyword research in building a successful online business.”

While Patty told us: “I also manage an online retailer called www.familybedding.com and have found the niche words bring the greatest traffic and Google listings to my site, rather than something general like children's bedding. I tend to go for something like girls canopy bedding or tropical fish bedding rather than the generalized words.

“Thanks for your info. Keep up the good work.”