The Power Of Blogs
Are you best off:
2. Getting published in the Sunday Opinion section of the "New York Times" and having your column reach #6 on the most emailed list.
3. Having "a guest post you wrote, published on the blog of one lone dude in SF obsessed with fat loss, female orgasms, and lifting Russian kettle bells?"
For the record, the blog in number 3 is that of Tim Ferriss.
And the answer is #3. It is the only promotion that significantly moved books for Michael Ellsberg, driving sales of his tome from #1,295 to #45 on Amazon.
But how did Mr. Ellsberg get this guest post position? By becoming friends with Mr. Ferriss, not asking for anything for a very long time. Ellsberg suggests investing two to ten years in the relationship. Which is very different from blasting e-mail to a zillion bloggers which doesn’t work because bloggers are being pitched all day long and have more power than the mainstream media.
Because bloggers have clearly defined personalities, their readers are passionate. Hell, if you want to know what’s going on in the political world don’t read the newspaper, read the blogs!
And I’m saying all this not because I want you to curry favor with me, please no, refrain from that, but because in the past week we’ve seen the mainstream media get it wrong so many times.
1. SOPA/PIPA
The mainstream media had no idea of the power of the Web.
2. South Carolina Primary
The mainstream media said it was a fait accompli, Romney had the nomination sewn up. And now suddenly, Gingrich wins. Huh?
I think the issues inherent in SOPA/PIPA are important, but the big stories this week are how both the movie and music industries found out that the public is not on their side and that Congress is all about satiating the public, that individual votes trump huge corporate donations.
In other words, everything’s up for grabs. The institutions are not to be trusted, we’ve had a virtual earthquake and everybody’s in a panic and we won’t know what’s going on until the tsunami recedes, which could take years.
I won’t quite endorse the Firesign Theatre’s philosophy, that everything you know is wrong, but it’s close. The power is now with the individual.
And this changes everything.
For those averse to reading, you can get the essence of the article here:
But I highly recommend reading from the beginning, especially if you’re wealthy and powerful, this changes everything:
