Once again Seth Godin has bet the farm and seems to have won, already. (Probably not the farm, but you get the point, don’t you.)

He decided to bypass the traditional act of sending out dozens of review copies of his latest book to journalists of main stream media. The book title — you might have heard about it already — is

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Instead he sent preview copies to people who care, members of his tribe.

As a result the Internet is already flooded — in a good way — with blog posts, tweets, videos, … all sorts of real world testimonials about how much they love the book.

Is there anything else that could help sell the book better?

I do not think so.

Are You Indispensable?

What type of people are indispensable in those difficult times, in which we are very close to the edge economically and environmentally.

I have assembled variations of short excerpts and thoughts from many conversations between Seth Godin and his readers who have received a preview hard-copy of Linchpin: Are You indispensable?.

101 Reasons For Personal Change

Now I have promised to give you 101 reason why you should change. Well, what about this,

“Imagine you could be one of the persons described here. Wouldn’t that be enough reason to change?

Here is the secret, You can!”

It seems that striving for further improving with personal development will be a key factor for being successful in 2010. When I say I will reach out more to other people in 2010, that is a statement for personal development, isn't it.

And Seth Godin also has devoted his latest book Linchpin to be a very personal one.

Two long videos about

• Taking a Stand
• Change
• Law of Attraction
• Challenges
• Success
• Leadership
• Passion
• Engagement

I just have put a couple of tidbits and gems in my personal vault.

Pick or watch all.
Enjoy; yes, the videos are long.

Timothy Ferriss: “… I have fear this is dangerous. There is a thin line between being brave and between being foolish.”

The First Time Online — Enjoy While You Can (↑)
Trial by Fire (~45 min)

Video by Kevin Rose starring Tim Ferriss


Tony Robbins: “Progress is what makes us happy”

New Year, New Life-Don’t be trapped by the calendar. Create the life you want right now. Here’s where to start. (↑)
(~20 min)

What do you think?

Feedback welcome.

What were the one or two highlights, quotes for you?
Do you want to share them? Yes, you want.
Come on.

Brevity is king!

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: Thanks a lot for your feedback.

P.P.S.: I know it's a lot at once. Why not bookmark this page and come back in your leisure time.

P.P.P.S.: Share with your friends if you liked it, please.

I joined the discussion on Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian’s blog quite late, but since I gave it some thought, I decided to share my response with you.

In mid November last year Internet infopreneur, author and social entrepreneur Dr. Mani published a list with his predictions about what’s IN and what’s OUT in 2010 (↑).

The first item on his list:

Email Is OUT, Social Media Is IN

I am buying the second part of his statement immediately, but “Email OUT?”

Just discovered this little test on Youtube and it made me think. It made me think about marketing, advertising, and copywriting.

Probably you should take the test first. It's easy, the instructions are in the video, and I promise you will learn something.

Take The Test

Okay, you might say, “I knew this of course.”

Then I will ask you, “Well, but are you using that knowledge to your advantage in business or not?”

This example demonstrates actually a lot…

Seth Godin does not exactly have the reputation of writing How To books for dummies. And his latest book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? — to be released on January 26, 2010 (audio book on February, 9) will not be an exception.

Let me talk a little bit about this amazing book. I also had the honor that Seth answered me a couple of questions about the book. All here in this blog post. Stay tuned.

Update January 12, 2010:
Review of the whole book by Becky Blanton
   …and even more reviews by my friends from <Triiibes.com>.

I have the feeling that I will write another post very soon. Therefore, I keep this one extra short.

How many emails do you receive each day?

Let’s cut out spam and probably transactional emails like New Subscriber, New Comment, …

I’ll usually get up to 100 a day. However, there are still individual emails that I am looking forward to with great anticipation.

Last Sunday was such a day.

I got up knowing I should receive an important email. But nothing. Not at 9am, not at 10am, 11am, … It simply didn’t find its way into my inbox or the spam folder. It actually has not been sent before Monday as I learned later.

As insignificant as this episode might be, it taught me and other marketers with whom I have discussed this an important lesson.

I really felt disappointed; Actually already had made plans to deal with the subject matter. (I know. It was Sunday. So what.)

As I see now, strangely enough, it did not come to my mind to simply grab the phone, or write an email to the source saying,

“What’s up? Weren’t you supposed to send me something?”

Sure that would have been a smart thing to do. Probably I am not that smart. But I bet your customers or members of your email list aren’t that smart either. Let me rephrase that: Just do not assume that they are that smart or even care.

Here Comes The Lesson

That’s actually a dream come true for anybody who is going through the effort of building a permission based email list when your members can’t wait to get your next message.

“Happy 2010”

I have recorded a short video with two tips for improving your marketing in 2010.

Update: This will work in 2011, and 2012, …

Actually I have already recorded it on December 28, but so far only had uploaded it to a private membership. But why not share it with everybody?

Here it is.

This year I will focus on improving how I use words and further build relationships.

Download the full transcript

• Two Tips For Marketing In 2010 (↑)
  [PDF file, 130 kibytes]