Don’t use Photoshop while driving
Matt Galloway recorded KnockKnock as an audio book: Seth Godin’s Knock Knock – The Audio eBook.
Probably should avoid any sort of heavy machinery while using, but it’s there if you want it. Thanks, Matt!
Hired!
Thanks to all who responded to my recent post about a bounty for a new engineer. And especially to those that bothered to post the ad.
Gil, a New Orleans native and Katrina victim, starts tomorrow. He’s incredibly talented. Just what we were looking for. We’re excited…
Thanks again.
Justin and Ashley
According to the latest government data, those are the two most common names given to children of Hispanic parents in NY last year.
For Asian parents the story is different: name number one is Emily.
Names are a funny thing. Now, naming a company Google or Squidoo or BlueTurnip in the dot com world isn’t weird… it’s the equivalent of naming your kid Michael.
A recent study (sorry, I’m linkless here) by the government found that distinctly ethnic first names got fewer callbacks on otherwise identical resumes. Fair? Of course not. Not surprising, though, either.
Standing out is not the same thing as being remarkable. Standing out can just as easily get you ostracized. I don’t think Purple is the same as just being different.
Catching up on my blog
If you haven’t been here in a while:
2 free ebooks can be found here: Seth’s Blog: Who’s There? the new ebook
A recent popular post (not about Akron): Desire for gain
How to sign up for RSS (what’s that?)
AND my new book (with Guy and Malcolm and Promise and April and Heath and Randall and dozens of other authors) all for charity: THE BIG MOO
Sold out!
We’re about four weeks away from the ship date for The Big Moo by The Group of 33.
and I was just told that they have completely sold out the first and second print runs of the book. Stuff like this happens to my co-authors all the time, but not to me, so thanks. (and don’t worry, they’re printing more as we speak, so you should have no trouble getting yours, especially if you pre-order).
100% of all author proceeds go to charity. We’ve already raised $140,000 thanks to you. If you haven’t ordered a few dozen for your organization, now is the time. I got my finished books yesterday and it came out just the way it was supposed to. Hope you like it.
The only book on my coffee table…
Is this beauty from our hero, Tom Peters: tompeters! management consulting leadership training development project management.
The fact is, few people sit down and read non-fiction the way they used to. Tom is on the cutting edge in figuring out how to turn books into snacks.
How much would you pay to be on Oprah’s TV show?
What would happen to your organization if you had a solid ten minutes with her majesty? How much benefit would you receive if you were able to tell your story to millions of people on television? Of course, you can’t pay to be on Oprah, but if you could, no doubt you would.
This simple thought exercise exposes the paradox that we’re finding online.
Should authors get paid to put their work into Google Print, the online service that lets you search for information inside a book?
How do you measure how much to invest in a blog?
The persistent reporter who spoke to me the other day wouldn’t stop asking the same question, “What percentage of your annual sales are directly attributable to your blog?” Perhaps you’ve heard the same question from your boss. Proof is what they seek! Management doesn’t want to invest in new media without understanding what the short-term payoff is. Authors don’t want to “give away” content without proof that it’ll pay off.
But they’d all pay to be on Oprah.
That local paper, the one that struggles to make its subscription and newsstand guarantee every day, wants you to register before you can read an article online. And they want to know a lot about you (your gender, your date of birth) before they will allow you to pay attention to your site.
The same company that runs ads hoping you’ll buy a newspaper that costs more to print than it does to sell, puts up roadblocks to keep you from reading online.
Wait.
“Pay attention” are the key words. The consumer is already paying. You’re paying with a precious commodity called attention. Instead of fending you off and holding you back, perhaps the newspaper ought to be making it easier to give your precious attention to them…
A quick gut check will probably confirm what many of us truly believe: the number of channels of communication is going to continue to increase. And either you’ll have a channel or you won’t. Either you’ll have access to the attention of the people you need to talk with, (notice I didn’t say talk “at”) or you won’t.
So, the real question to ask isn’t, “how much will I get paid to talk with these people?” The real question is, “how much will I PAY to talk with these people?”
Wow! a great viral blog…
Samir points us to Presentation Zen.
This is what I was talking about in Who’s There? the new ebook. And it’s all about the kinds of presentations I was pitching you in the now missing Really Bad Powerpoint.
You really should check this out.
Be like Dell?
Aaron Sagray sends us this scathing review of Dell’s new Ditty (and the marketing thereof). Daring Fireball: Rhymes With Ditty.
update: of course, Dell sells a whole bunch of stuff. They have a market share that is nothing to complain about… but, just for a second, imagine if they decided to add some style as well…
Billboard irony
Adrants via Eder Callejas