Ever since I started in business, I’ve always loved Seth Godin. He’s a brilliant marketer and a great writer. In fact, he runs one of the most popular blogs.
Over the years I’ve read many of Seth’s books, listened to his interviews and have even seen him speak on a number of occasions…
And while many people view him as “America’s greatest marketer,” there is a lot to learn from him about blogging.
Let’s explore 10 of those lessons:
Lesson #1: Blog, prune, experiment, repeat
When it comes to creating content for your blog, the conventional method is to analyze the trends, see what your competitors are doing, develop hybrid ideas and, more importantly, give your readers what they want.
Seth doesn’t do any of that.
Instead, over time he’s developed a voice that attracts people. He’s trained himself to write a lot, see what resonates, experiment, prune, and write some more until something grabs people.
He repeats that process endlessly, which takes time.
Lesson #2: Blog once a day
In an interview on Ad Age last year Seth explained his blogging ritual.
Seth blogs once a day and each blog post is an insight into the world of business, productivity or creativity.
It could be a paragraph long or two pages long. That’s a lot of blogging, and an incredible pace to keep up.
So how does he do it?
He writes once a day…but within that day he could write one blog post or fifteen. He then queues up those other posts. What the queuing allows him to do is replace posts he doesn’t love with ones that he does love.
Lesson #3: Avoid comments and Twitter
If you could say one thing about a blogger like Seth Godin is that he is productive.
What is his secret?
Two things: he doesn’t allow comments on his blog and he doesn’t use Twitter.
He avoids Twitter because he knows he would be very bad at it. The power users of Twitter spend an enormous amount of time cultivating a following, researching quality content to share and promoting others.
Seth says he can’t do that very well…or won’t do it.
The thing about the comments is he wants to avoid the rabbit holes that comments can turn into. Rants and arguments can only turn into a downward spiral that distract and burden him.
He does admit that comments are good to help you clarify your thoughts and sharpen your ideas. But for Seth, it turns out to be a waste of time. Â Or as Seth put it, “An opportunity to stay busy while not actually doing anything, I wonder if that’s a good choice.”
Lesson #4: Don’t watch TV or go to meetings
In an interview with Georgina Laidlaw at Problogger who said that he was “prolific” Seth said that he’s prolific because he never watched television, which…and this is important…was a conscious decision he made.
He doesn’t spend any time doing it. Zero.
Instead, he blogs.
He also admits to being “America’s worst attender of meetings.” Some people do five hours of meetings…cut that out and you’ve just cleared away five hours to do more productive things.
It’s hard to imagine an entrepreneur like Seth never attending a meeting, but he explains in a book his publishing company has recently published Read This Before Our Next Meeting that meetings are very often treated as three or more people talking about problems they can attack.
But if you want to get things done, you only need to talk to one person…which is a conversation and not a meeting.
Seth admits to talking to a lot of people throughout his day…having these conversations…but he is very careful that each one accomplishes something specific.
Lesson #5: Ship, or else it doesn’t count
Another reason he is very productive is his attitude to ship. To get the product to market…no matter what it might be.
For example, a short-order cook gets paid to ship. They’re paid to cook hamburgers. If he or she doesn’t cook hamburgers, they don’t get paid.
The same with a plumber. They get paid to unclog pipes. If they don’t unclog the pipes, they don’t get paid.
Everyone ships for a living, including bloggers, so Seth recommends you get really good at shipping.
Lesson #6: Write like you talk
One tactic that Seth and I share in common, and which many successful bloggers do, is the ability to write like you talk.
This is important because some creative people will say they can only write when the muse strikes. Yet, if you write like you talk nobody has to wait for the muse to strike to talk.
As he puts it, if you wake up and you can’t talk, then go see a doctor.
Writing like you talk will make your copy conversational and as long as you can come up with thoughts worth sharing, then blogging is not particularly hard. You just write down what is on your mind.
Lesson #7: Notice things
You have to wonder where he gets all of his ideas. Let me tell you. He pays attention. And he notices things.
For instance, if he sees something that doesn’t make sense to him or he doesn’t understand…he will try to figure it out. That may turn into an insight that may land on his blog.
The same applies to you. If you are going about your workday and come across a challenging situation…try to figure it out.
If you don’t have time to do it right at that moment, then jot the thought down and come back to it. You will know that you need to definitely return to the idea if you do nothing with it and it sticks with you for days.
It’s worth shipping.
Lesson #8: Use your blog as a proving ground
One thing that I like about my blog QuickSprout is that I can share ideas in a small manner to see what kind of reaction I can get out of people. If the reaction is good, then I pursue it. If it’s not, then I need to either tweak the idea or drop it all together.
This is blogging as the minimum viable product.
Blogging is a minimal investment to see if an idea has wings. The same is true with Godin who floats ideas and watches the reaction.
Lesson #9: Make blog posts, not money
You would be wrong to think that Seth blogs to make money or promote his other businesses like Squidoo. He resists the idea that he has products or that he is trying to monetize blogging.
He’s okay if it monetizes itself, say in speaking fees or book contracts, but even if they didn’t he believes that bloggers should truly blog for the love of it and not the money.
In fact, he thinks people get into trouble when they start to think of their blog as a sales funnel or even a product you can wrap up and sell.
Why?
In our digital world where ideas are abundant creating something that is scarce and worth a price tag is nearly impossible. In other words, the $99 special report is neither special nor a report.
He believes that ubiquity…being everywhere…is a better strategy than trying to create scarcity.
Lesson #10: Establish what motivates you to get out of bed
As you might have guessed, he doesn’t believe people should blog to generate a full-time income. If that’s the reason you are blogging, then you don’t have a passion…you have a job.
So you have to ask yourself, “What makes me get out of the bed in the morning? What am I passionate about?”
In order to be a successful blogger you have to decide what you are passionate about. And the question that Seth says you have to ask yourself is this: “How hard are you willing to push?”
And here’s the thing about becoming the best at something…you need to make it small.
It’s a lot easier to become the world’s best infant heart surgeon than it is to become the world’s most famous scientist.
One is a narrow specialization that allows you repeated practice to get really good…the other one is so broad that you will take a lifetime to get good at even some parts of it…and probably not even make it!
This means if you want to be the world’s greatest SEO blogger, then you should focus on an area of SEO like link building.
If you want to become the world’s best entrepreneur, then you need to pick an industry that you can master…like Henry Ford did with cars.
He didn’t say he wanted to be the best in transportation…he said he wanted to be the best in cars.
And that’s what he did.
Conclusion
The last thing that I need to mention is that you need a plan. Even if it is as simple as writing two or three goals out on a piece of paper, you need to have an idea of what you want to accomplish this year and so on.
Seth Godin didn’t become a brilliant blogger overnight. It took him years of relentlessly trying to master what he was passionate about. And you can do to!
What other things about blogging do you think Seth does well?
This amazing course will teach you, step by step, how to double if not triple your traffic over the next 30 days.
I can’t believe Seth doesn’t allow comments or use Twitter! A giant in his industry, you would think he would use Twitter. I can understand not allowing any comments, you are right about negative things on the comment section.
I completely agree. How does he get feedback and opinions from his readers? Just e-mail?
I sometimes spend more time reading discussions between comments than the info of an actual post.
@Amir, I’ve emailed Seth several times and always received a response. The response can be anything from a single word to a paragraph. Perhaps another thing to learn is you don’t have to be everywhere socially you just have to be awesome in one or two places.
The other side of the coin is that people will seek Seth out to talk to him whereas at my level I need to be as open as possible to cultivate those conversations.
Thanks Sean for sharing with Amir your personal experience.
You are right, when you have a well known name or brand people tend to seek you out. Where if you are just starting out you have to be more open like you said.
He is on Twitter; I follow him. But his Tweets are just links to his latest post. I notice the he doesn’t engage in any conversation, but I imagine he reads any feedback his followers send.
Amazing how he goes against the grain of everything I’ve ever read about successful blogging. Yet it works.
Definitely, Seth has managed to do the opposite of what is proven to work and has still managed to make it work.
That is one reason he is so great!
Yep, like Sean said, he responds to email. And he does it pretty fast, too. I think this helps him focus on one thing and one thing only…it’s like his pipeline…all communication comes down that funnel, which makes it easier to manage. By the way, he doesn’t have an assistant either.
You make a good point. Sometimes comments can tend to distract or take over the original post. People get sidetracked from what they read by what someone said or suggested. At times this is a good thing, but it can be negative as well.
Definitely email, I’m not sure how the guy does it, but he seems to response to everyone.
He doesn’t need to — That’s the nice thing about becoming famous first.
He writes books, which are so famous that if he opens comments, he will have 1000 on each post.
That could be very true, and I am sure that is one of the reasons he has refrained from allowing comments.
I agree, he does his own thing and it works.
Yep, comments take time to manage, so if you don’t or can’t afford to take the time to do so it is better not to have them at all. Twitter is the same way, either you use it and use it well or just leave it. This way you can apply your time to your main priorities.
Godin has actually made it clear i a blog post about why he doesn’t allow comments on his blog (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/06/why_i_dont_have.html)
It’s basically because it takes to much time to monitor, because people expect to get an answer… I actually think it’s a solid argument and it havn’t prevented Seth from having one of the most visited blogs in the world..
Thanks for sharing.
I think the explanation as to why Seth doesn’t enable comments on his blog is pretty explanatory and plausible.
I’ve also big fan of Seth. Really love his book ‘The Purple Cow’ and ‘Linchpin’. Every single words that he published in his blog are gold.
Same goes to you, Neil. Thank you for another awesome post.
Awesome, thanks for your support not only to Seth but to Quick Sprout as well!
What I’ve always noticed is that his posts are anecdotal but never complaining or cutting.
I’ll often imagine he’s had poor experience on the phone with someone and rather than rant about how terrible it was he talks about how it could be better. He let’s you know how he would have preferred the interaction to go and with nice metaphors and catchy headlines.
Yep, he knows how to write well and can make a point without being critical or making a judgment.
I love how fearless Seth is. His visions are his own, he has conviction in them, and he OWNS them.
Definitely, he is an inspiration. He doesn’t follow the “norm” and makes it work!
I think Seth has done an excellent job of stressing the importance of quality.
He does talk a lot about shipping, but he also makes a point to say not to ship crap.
I like that. He also has this very clear “freedom through technique” approach that makes you wonder why you spend so much time thrashing around in so many areas when you can become really good in one spot.
And he’s incredibly generous. I’ve had a few email conversations with him, and by far has the fastest response time to email than anyone else I’ve seen.
I don’t know how he does it, but he truly is amazing.
Yes, that is very true. He makes sure what he ships out is of value rather then random junk.
I am sure one of the factors contributing to his timely responses is what makes him so unique in blogging. With the time gained from not having to manage comments or Twitter he is able to put it towards his main priorities, which I am sure includes responding to emails.
I am really wondering how keeping away from twitter and shutting down comments can help a newbie @blogging!!
I mean ..wastage of time @twitter is understandable … but how stopping comments on blog can be useful??
what is the funda behind it??
The point is comments can influence your motivation in arbitrary ways. You can also get lost in the whole traffic-time spent-comment analysis cycle and not be able to focus on writing. Some can, some can’t.
Thanks for sharing your input.
Comments can be good and bad. On the positive side they allow for conversations and connections. On the negative side is can be very time consuming and can sometimes distract from the post.
I once had a post where only one line of it was discussed and debated because someone had taken it the wrong way and left a negative comment. The post was soon ignored and I found myself having to explain and defend my words to every other comment left. Definitely not time well spent.
I completely agree:
1. Authenticity is irreplaceable – Authenticity of personality, character, motives, products, actions.
2. Less is more – In terms of time, design, thinking, speaking, sharing, conversing, incubating. (But not in terms of listening, learning, and authenticity.)
Great summary with lessons throughout. Thanks!
Thank you Mahea,
Glad you enjoyed it.
I think this is one of the first posts I’ve seen anywhere that says you should blog for the sake of blogging. Every “guru” tells you that blogging is not an end in itself. If you’re not making money directly from your blog you’re wasting your time. Makes me feel better. A blog can also establish your authority for what you’re selling offline. Thanks for a very informative and well-written blog.
Thanks Jeannette,
I am glad you enjoyed it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the topic, Neil. I find bullet No. 3 particularly interesting. While I can appreciate the idea of avoiding time-wasting activities as well as the idea that you shouldn’t do things that you can’t do well, I do feel that there are some major shortcomings when you apply either one of these logical ideas to either Twitter or blog comments:
1) While I love Godin’s concept of “permission marketing” I think that interacting with potential consumers (after they’ve given you implicit “permission”) by commenting on your blog or @ replying you in a relevant way is crucial in today’s ecosystem, especially if you’re marketing to marketers (which is what people like Seth, you, and myself all do to a certain extent). And every missed opportunity to engage with someone that has basically asked you to engage is a missed opportunity to foster a relationship with a potential influencer in that niche. I try to engage each and every commentor and @ reply that comes my way for this reason; because I know that at least subconsciously, I’m more apt to advocate for people/brands that take the time to respond to me when I try to engage them in a respectful and relevant way.
2) There are a lot of things that we were all not good at once upon a time, and so my question to Seth would be if he’s ever considered simply taking the time to learn how to do some of these things (interact via comments, Twitter, etc.) in a effective, scalable manner. Granted, that’s easier said than done when you have a massive herd of followers/readers, but where there’s a will there’s a way.
Mind you, I work for a TV network and interact with celebrities that built their followings in the pre-digital, pre-social media age and what they are finding is that it’s hard to sustain new customer growth in this new market, because their competitors are able to outmaneuver them when it comes to interacting and engaging via social mediums like blog comments and Twitter.
I sometimes wonder if Mr. Godin will suffer a similar fate in the future (e.g. struggle to sustain growth in new readers from newer generations that are accustomed to directly engaging with thought leaders) when his contemporaries begin to outflank him by mastering the engagement techniques he has decided to shun.
There’s one special thing about the internet and about creating a brand of your own.
Seth’s brand is not to use twitter and other social sites but when he notice that its affecting him (maybe) he’ll change his mind then.
Sheyi
If it starts to effect him maybe, however it may surprisingly last.
Each person has his or her own way of doing things. For you and me it works best to respond and encourage comments. For Seth it is the opposite, that does’t necessarily mean he does not engage at all it just works best for him to limit his engagements.
It may work or may not work out long term for Seth, we will just have to wait and see.
obviouslly Seth is amazing at what he does, but I think it’s worth metioning that (IMO) this proves that there is more then one way to be a suscessful blogger. For example, Rand from SEOmoz says that contraversy and debate actually fuels a community and that it’s an important part of the MOZ blog.
Success can be accomplished in all sorts of different ways. You just have to figure out what works best for you.
While the rest of these don’t really work for me, #1 is big and really resonated with me. I tried that conventional method of blogging, and do you know what I discovered? I couldn’t do what everyone else was doing… because I’m not everyone else.
Yep, what works for one person may not work for another. You have to figure out what works for you and keep trying new things along the way.
I’ve often thought about his idea of not allowing comments on blogs. My concern is that if you don’t allow people to comment and they have something to say, they’ll probably still say it, but they’ll do it somewhere else. So you lose the opportunity to stay engaged on the topic.
For example, if someone disagrees with what I’ve said in a blog post, I can see it and respond to it—if they’ve left a comment. But if they take their beef with somewhere else, (to another website or blog) I may never know about it. Or even if I do find out about it, I still don’t get as much opportunity to respond.
I’m not saying I agree or disagree… I’m just saying I’m conflicted. It’s food for thought. I can certainly see how turning off comments will save a lot of time!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ron, definitely something to consider.
Great blog post Neil. The point on being passionate about what you do struck a chord with me.
Many times, people become passionate about what they do AFTER they become particularly good at it. It’s a fact that many people have no idea what their passion is, and sit around browsing the web hoping they’ll find the answer. In fact, they actually have to ship and start doing something they think they like, get really good at it, and then the passion comes.
This is important to know, because one cannot simply do nothing waiting to find a passion because passion is not the starting point. Motivation comes before passion. One just has to set a goal, and be serious about achieving it. The challenge will make one passionate.
Does this make sense to you?
It does make sense, you have to put yourself out there and work at different things in order to learn what motivates you. Once you find motivation, you will gain passion like you said. It just takes time and effort to find that. You cannot find passion sitting around doing nothing.
Hey Neil. I’m a big fan of Seth’s (and yours.) And I saw his post recently referencing the 7 blog requirements you suggest that he spurns (or, at least, ignores.) Great to see this response, which is, I think, at the heart of blogging for value, not necessarily fortune.
Thank you Sean, glad you enjoyed it.
Neil,
Great post and appreciate your comments. Seth has done some incredible things. Distance running has been my passion for the last 20+ years and being able to reach more runners, fitness-minded individuals and even non-athletic types is what I am working to do. Seth (as well as you) are great examples of doing it the right way.
Nate
Thanks Nate,
I appreciate the kind words. Good luck in achieving your goals.
Neil:
I’m a semi-recent follower and have really enjoyed most of your posts [including this one!] but was slightly perturbed by your statement: “It’s a lot easier to become the world’s best infant heart surgeon than it is to become the world’s most famous scientist.” — as a current medical student, I would argue that becoming the world’s best infant heart surgeon is equivalent in difficulty to becoming the world’s most famous scientist, but that in the end you are trying to compare the “best” apples to the “most famous” oranges.
Anyway, I thought the rest of the post was insightful!
Amanda
Neil, thanks for a really good post and I too am avid fan of Seth , but until I reach his kind of readership, I need the comments to help me mold my blogs & hopefully mentoring from people like you.
Most people do need the help of comments not only for connections but for feedback as well. Seth is lucky to be at a point in his career where he does not need them anymore.
Thank you Amanda,
Just so you know, the point I was trying to make is that being the most famous scientist is to harder to determine, due to the many fields of science. Oppose to who the best infant heart surgeon is because it’s a specific field
Seth Godin is a concise writer full of witty ideas. I think it will be a great experience to follow and learn from this guy.
Definitely, I hope you do.
I also followed seth on his blog as you mentioned he does not allow comment on this blog-true but always people love to read him, He is in my opinion a -visionary.
The another great tip from this article is -notice, notice and notice. Thanks a lot neil for this wonderful post.
~rakesh kumar
I agree, he is indeed a visionary.
Great advice, I agree that Seth Godin is a great blogger to learn from, thanks for sharing the mvp article!
Thank you Cristiano,
Happy to share, glad you liked it.
Great tips! I don’t know about not allowing comments on your blog, but I also don’t get 100+ comments like I know he would get if he had them turned on.
LoL, yep that probably would happen if he did.
I think that Seth does a great job making things clear.
He most certainly does.
Steve Jobs didn’t need “focus groups” to know what products to invent, design, build and “ship” either. When you’re a visionary like these men and/or have something truely worth sharing with the world, that’s what you should focus on. I agree with Seth and Steve, let’s ditch the “comments” and “tweets” and excelerate making this world a better place. Just think of the exciting “conversations” we’ll have some day at a cocktail party with Seth, Neil and the next Steve Jobs!
Sounds good to me, I am looking forward to it.
Hi Neil,
This is a great article. I think the last point, no.10 should be the first. When Seth learned what motivated him to get out of bed daily, he started doing from number 1 to 9 so that he can make himself the best at it.
That is exactly what my take away here is. Btw I have heard so much about Seth Godin but never read his blog until today…so I will read his blog and appreciate your post more.
Thanks for sharing this Neil.
Definitely check out his blog, I hope you find it enjoyable.
I love his streamline approach. There’s too much time waisting in the world
I agree, time is wasted on many things. Seth has found a way that works for him to save a lot of time and that is great.
I thought this post had some great information about becoming more focused and productive with your time. I like how he completely avoids Twitter and comments. I do think they are helpful, but that you can do without and make up for it by how much more productive you can be. Great post!
Thanks Pete,
I am glad you liked it.
Nice article! Agreed with most of the lessons given. I had some problem totally agreeing with the lesson about not caring about comments and twitter. I think giving your readers the possibility to interact with you makes them more motivated to continue reading you.
It is definitely not for everyone, Seth is just fortunate enough to be able to make it work.
Hello Neil, these points are really useful but if bloggers stop allowing comments on their blogs and don’t promote and interact with users on Social Networking Sites like Twitter and Facebook, then how the blog can improve?
Readership and subscribers are better indicators of a blog’s success. Comments can be seen as immediate feedback but they can be misleading too.
Some people leave comments to get backlinks, and many others take commenting as a form of social networking, which may add visitors to their own blogs.
Also, when you allow comments you have to spend hours in moderating them. So, many successful bloggers chose not to get into the whole cycle.
Couldn’t have answered better myself. Thank you for your response.
There are other ways to receive feedback and make improvements.
Blog once a day, this is an important thing we have to learn from Seth Godin. Consitency in posts is vital for a good blog that brings lot of repeated visitors.
Including consistency, uniqueness and freshness are also the important for each and every post of the blog.
Yep, you have got it.
Consistency, indeed is key. If you have the time to blog once a day then that is great, if not then it is important to make sure you post have some sort of consistency to them.
“So you have to ask yourself, What makes me get out of the bed in the morning? What am I passionate about?â€
This could be the most important quote in this post. If all humans asked themselves this question when getting out of bed in the morning, the world would be a better place.
Of course, few may be enamored with the idea of being stuck in a low level job. However with enough passion and intelligence, perhaps low level jobs could be made enjoyable, or eliminated by technology in a way that provides abundance for our society, instead of a “job loss”.
Those questions are the big ones. Once you figure those out the rest is just busy work and keeping at it.
Just read through the comments and , Yup! I know what Seth Godin is good at – getting folk to talk about him!
I now feel absolutely certain I must be the only person in the world who isn’t bowled over by his approach. Can’t say I dislike it, just that it does nothing for me.
In the ‘real world’ people produce copious amounts of quality work in many and diverse ways on a daily basis, without all the ‘hoo-haa’ that Mr Godin attracts. Their work is none the less valuable for this, yet they don’t get accolades. I’m thinking teachers, Nurses, Doctors, Firemen…… to name but a few, without whose services we would all be much worse off.
Thank you Linda for you added input, there are certainly many people in the world that do great work and go unnoticed for it.
Loved it!! Finding how to avoid time consuming task like meeting that just eat at your time is a great idea.
Finding ways to save time or better spend it is aways a good idea.
I personally enjoy his short posts. Not that his longer stuff is not as good, but writing great short posts is what I am trying to work on. As the old saying goes, “I did not have time to write you a shorter letter”, it is often difficult to be concise.
Awesome, glad to hear it.
It is wrong to say Seth doesn’t use Twitter… in fact while he doesn’t tweet himself, a who;e swag of his fans flood Twitter every time he blogs and drive traffic to his blog.
I say that is very smart.
He does in a sense use Twitter very limitedly. This does help him drive traffic but he only uses it to alert and inform his followers about his latest post. Smart indeed.
Great post Neil!
I have always wanted to learn more about Seth Godin and how or what he does to make his blog work, just as a few others top bloggers.
I guess the key factor remains not watching television, not being on Twitter (though is he on Facebook or other kind of social medias?), and not having to reply to comments (or perhaps he doesn’t even need to comment on other blogs). These sure are HUGE time savers, and the time we spend of these 3 major things can easily be used to write 1-2 posts per day.
Great lessons to learn and thanks for motivating me as well
Thanks Harleena,
I am glad you found this post helpful as well as motivational.
Great post. Yes people do spend a lot of time watching TV and waste it. And that time can be spent for blogging. Very inspiring article and thanks Neil for this great share.
Thanks Shilpi, TV is indeed a great distraction. If you can manage to stop watching it, you will find you have so much more time.
Comments is the trickiest part. It’s hard to do away with the chatter, the excitement of seeing random people taking the time to read and leave some thoughts behind.
I had decided that I will never get into the comment business…it’s just a distraction. But once I started the blog, comments seemed too obvious to omit.
So, I looked at the others blogs I read and did an analysis of what the successful bloggers are doing. You can chime in too.
Comments can be great sometimes but not always. When you start to receive a large amount of them it becomes time consuming. Which can be a problem if you don’t have the time to respond to your comments because it will reflect poorly on your blog.
I agree with the part about noticing things, focusing on one small thing such as becoming the worl’d best SEOer.
One thing though: Different people define ‘focusing on one small thing’ differently. So just working hard towards becoming the best SEO expert or or top infant surgeon may be viewed by others as too small or too big.
So one needs to sit down and come up with their own definition. Deal with excitement first fast before you sit down to narrow your focus on one of the things you are passionate about.
And remember you don’t have to be the next Seth Godin.
Thanks for this piece Neil..
Thanks for your thoughts Philos, it is important to make sure you figure out what you want and what your plans are to get it. If anything changes along the way then you must regroup and figure out how to handle or adapt to the changes.
Thanks Neil for that great post.
I liked the idea of not having comments, that’s a very bold step.
Those are great lessons learnt and will help me with my posts at http://www.ezinebase.net.
No problem, glad you found this post helpful.
Hey its totally against you Neil, he is a calm and slow but you and your techniques are much faster to him Interesting :-O
Seth is indeed opposite of me. Yet we both make are own ways work.
Great insights, Neil! I am a big fan of Seth Godin as well – who isn’t! He’s completely opposite figure of John Chow, who is famous because of his money making from blog.
Interesting how these different personalities stand out and how you can write blogging tips with completely different mindset. Seth is indeed one of a kind.
Definitely, each person has to figure out what works best for them. Seth has found a way that is not typically and yet works for him.
Thanks Neil for that great post.
I liked the idea of not having comments, that’s a very bold step.
It is bold indeed, not everyone can get way with it.
Surely you can’t agree about not letting people commenting?
It doesn’t work for me, but it works for Seth.
Finding it very interesting that the thing most people pick up on here are the “no comments” point. One thing that people may want to consider is that this is also sometimes a great way to earn links… eg. write something controversial, and if comments are not allowed, people may be fired up enough to write their own post in rebuttal (and link to your post).
That is a great way to see it Matt. Hopefully that is what happens for Seth.
Great tips sure will have to try some of points with my blog Thanks Neil
Great, I hope you do. Let me know how they work out for you.
Hi Neil,
Great post again, what do you make on him not allowing comments ? I think comments are good as it helps keeps the page fresh and allow feedback ?
Everyone should do what works best for their site. Seth has made it work for his so far, so he should stick to what works.
Read your tips Neil with interest and love your supportive tone with all your “commenters”. I won’t comment on Seth’s tips because they clearly work for him but the day we decide to turn off the TV and read books is the day we are really serious about our own growth and development … and then the money flows from that. I work really hard in my consulting and speaking practice and do justify an episode of West Wing or 3 here and there late at night but there are so many brilliant books and all the truly happy people I know including the wealth creators and top professional speakers are really intentional about their growth. I reckon there’s something big in that commitment.
Thank you Leanne,
I myself couldn’t imagine not getting my tv fix in every once in a while.
mm. OK . So What basis we are doing for getting benefits? I am ready to spend more than 7 hours per day .. Is comments are really worth or waste of time . Because while commenting i am looking only for the blog post not for do follow or No follow . In this blog Seth not using comments and twitter . by daily blog post will help for getting more traffic ??? ( money) with out doing Off page optimization like link building forum Posting etc .. Really confuse machi … Pls advice
C.Mohan
It depends on your site and your preference. Many people find comments helpful for feedback and making connections. In Seth’s case he finds it more efficient to not allow comments.
Daily post should help increase traffic, but they need to be quality post and contain valuable content or else it won’t help.
Great tips, Neil. In #9 you write something pretty abstract: “He believes that ubiquity…being everywhere…is a better strategy than trying to create scarcity.” can this be explained a bit more thoroughly? What am i mssing?
I was referring to Seth’s lack of interest in creating something “scarce” like a product in order to make a profit. He prefers the “ubiquity” of unique and many ideas shared freely.
I agree with most of Seth’s article, however i believe watching some TV can be good sometimes because i have had motivation to write articles from what i have watched. I believe blogging everyday is a good thing, i would love to do that but i wonder what Seth ritual is. When does he write? how does he choose his topics?
Watching TV and reading various articles and blogs on a regular basis is also good source to write unique blog.
Yep, it can be.
Definitely, I get some interesting ideas myself from shows and movies.
Seth dedicates almost all his time to blogging and other work. I don’t know if he has a set schedule or routine that he follows. Each blogger needs to find their own when it comes to writing and inspiration. What works for Seth may not work for anyone else.
Hmmm. That is a new one to me – not allowing comments. I learn so much from people’s comments and often follow their link to their blog. It’s a great way to connect with like-minded people. Of course, I can see why he might not want to spend time answering comments, but I even enjoy that too.
There are definitely many benefits to comments, but they are not for everyone.
Great tips sure will have to try some of points with my blog Thanks Neil
Thanks Katriz, hope they help.
Blogging once a day is probably not the most fun thing you can do to spend time.
Maybe not for you, but for some people writing is everything and they enjoy doing it all the time.
Disabling comments and not having Twitter is a bald move if you ask me.
It is a bold move indeed, Seth is the only person I know who has pulled it off.
You can get a blog called anything you want (obviously, the URL has to be available), and it’s free so long as you let them put a little ‘.wordpress.com’ on the end. Otherwise, you can pay around $17/year.
Cool, thanks for the tip.
Neil, Thanks for sharing these thoughts. Every time I read something with the words Seth Godin in them I know I’m probably going to read the whole thing. That was the case here.
I especially liked lessons #2 & 4.
Awesome, glad you liked the lessons you read here.
I really enjoyed this read. Especially the bit “write as you talk”. I was confused thought if Seth doesnt allow comments or uses twitter, how does “Godin who floats ideas and watches the reaction.”
He sees reaction to his ideas through the traffic is produces and the amount of social media approval it gets.
#4: Don’t watch TV or go to meetings / #2: Blog once a day are worthy suggestion for bloggers even i do the same. Thanks for awesome post.
Thanks for reading, glad you enjoyed it.
Wanna know why we can’t blog like Seth Godin? Answer: Because we’re not Seth Godin
He gets away with his blogging style because of who he is. Most of us have to stick to the traditional routes, or somehow become a quasi-celebrity like he is.
You have got it!
Definitely an irony – Seth loves to share ideas but it’s only one way through his blog. Everyone talks about Seth but Seth is only talking about himself. Including me now. Is this comment itself ironic?! I buy his books, read his blog, watch his videos, and he still doesn’t talk back. And I still like him. He definitely bucks the standard ‘conversation’ rules. nice post Neil, good summary.
LoL,
Seth definitely is unique and makes it work for himself.
Thanks Neil for for highlighting Seth’s lessons in this post.
It is clear that like any other successful man Seth is committed to his passion.
Discipline is the key to his success and so his no to TV and meetings are not surprising.
Thanks for this great post, Neil.
Yep, Seth is certainly disciplined and it shows through his success.
This article is indeed very helpful.
I started my website just this first week of April. I only managed to have 8 articles mostly because most of them are research and event articles.
Thank you so much for the enlightenment. Now, this website goes into my favorites. =) More power!
Thanks Jakeson, I appreciate it!
Don’t watch TV or go to meetings –
I do agree with you that don’t go to meeting like lot’s of time waste in meeting just complaining each other and try to prove there ideas are best and attacking each other but i want to say many programme on television are so useful that we gain lot of new things & new ideas & TV programme timing is fixed so we can use that particular hour and gain some knowledge, so i can suggest to everyone [ including Niel
] watch TV and gain something, it will not waste your time but you will learn something new and off course you will enjoy too.
For some it can be informational, but for most it is more distracting and time consuming to watch TV. I myself could never give it up fully but I could and probably should cut back.
I’m not an avid reader of Seth’s blog, but I did really think he hit a home run with the following post on how to make money online:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/05/how-to-make-money-online.html
Solid, solid advice and one of the best posts I’ve read recently.
He certainly has a lot of smart ideas, thanks for sharing this link with everyone.
Point 1 is on the money in my opinion. Just writing A LOT is probably the best strategy for blogging.
Thanks, the more consistently you write the easier it will become.
Blogging consistently has been the biggest one BY FAR for me. Great post.
Yep, the more you write the easier it gets!
Hi Neil,
I really enjoyed this post! It makes so much sense. I can see I have some things to work on. By the way, Arvind from Make It Happen sent me over.
Awesome, tell Arvind that I say thanks for the recommendation.
It is always interesting to read some tips and trick from succesful bloggers..Thank you Neil!
Your welcome, more than happy to help.
Seems like you don’t follow the no comments approach and even take the time to respond to a large number of your readers.
Yep, I enjoy the comments. I feel they bring a ton of good information.
If HE isn’t using Twitter, other people probably are tweeting his posts on his behalf. Same difference. He’s just avoiding the follow-up work.
That is probably true.
hey neil,
interesting post. i really liked Lesson #6: Write like you talk. that would be effective. once again nice article by you.
Thanks.
Matt
Thanks Matt, I have found writing like you are speaking to your readers works best. At least it has for me.
Hello,
Thanks for that guidelines. I really appreciated your efforts just to show such helpful thoughts.