Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web

Seth Godin’s latest ebook, Who’s There? Seth Godin’s Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web, is just a little 46 page PDF file but it’s packed with lots of small but profound insights. The kind of stuff you read and think, “You know, he’s right.” Some of my favorites:

We’ve become astonishingly picky. Picky about what we buy and picky about what we watch and picky about what we read. In a world where there’s a lot of clutter and where everything is good enough, most of the time we just pick the stuff that’s close or cheap or familiar. But when it’s something we care about, we go to enormous lengths to find the very best.

Radio is officially dead, especially when wireless internet access comes to your car.

The stuff you’re putting on your marketing site or in your blog or even in your brochures or in your business letters is too long. Too much inside baseball. Too many unasked questions getting answered too soon. The stuff you’re sending out in your email and your memos is too vague.

It used to matter a lot where an idea came from. When an idea came from a mainstream media company (MSM) or from a Fortune 500 company, it was a lot more likely to spread. That’s because media companies had free airwaves or paid for newsprint, while big corporations had the money to buy interruptions. Today, all printing presses are created equal. And everyone owns one. Which means that a good idea on a little blog has a very good chance of spreading. In fact, an idea from outside the mainstream might have an even better chance of spreading.

If you write something great, and do it over and over and over again, then you’ll be unstoppable. Whether or not someone helps you.

The problem is that the very things big companies, public companies, stable companies and established companies are good at are the things that make a blog boring.

Small means you can tell the truth on your blog.

If you care about your personal brand and career and impact, you need a blog. And you should start the cycle of getting better at blogging.

Phone photo of phone

Photo of a woman playing with her phone taken by a woman playing with her phone. Barb snapped (clicked?) this with her Treo 650. Would have been much better with my Casio but I left home without it. How wonderful it would have been to be able to call that woman and whisper, “Don’t turn around.”

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Best Album Name: A Ass Pocket of Whiskey

Terry McVey recently pointed us to the Best Album (CD?) Cover Art, and now has a nominee for Best Album Name: A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (Fat Possum Records) by R. L. Burnside. Sadly, R. L. died on September 1, 2005, in a Memphis hospital.

“A Ass Pocket of Whiskey is a collaborative effort between well-known artists R.L. Burnside and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Recorded in a rented out hunters cabin near Holly Springs, Mississippi, both acts bring their best to the table with amps turned all the way up, drums pounding and R.L. and Jon Spencer screaming with their charismatic voices back and forth at one another.”

Based solely on track names, my favorites are: Snake Drive and Tojo Told Hitler.

Podcasting Next Big Thing?

“An executive at Disney will be in a meeting and ask the staff how many people knew this was going on, and three geeks in the back will raise their hands. Then slowly two-thirds of the room will raise their hands. None of these people will have known that everyone already knew. It’s about then that podcasting will suddenly become the rage. It’ll be a Time magazine cover. That will be by the middle of next year. Then the money will start flying around like crazy.”

— PC Magazine columnist John C. Dvorak thinks podcasting will be the Next Big Thing:

Lance Armstrong to come out of retirement?

Lance Armstrong says he could come out of retirement to try for an eighth straight Tour de France victory.

“I’m thinking it’s the best way to piss [the French] off. I’m not willing to put a percentage on the chances but I will no longer rule it out.”

Armstrong believes he is the target of a “witch hunt” by the French media. French sports daily L’Equipe reported in August that urine samples taken from Armstrong during his first Tour victory in 1999 tested positive for the banned substance EPO.

XM launces “Red Cross Radio”

The American Red Cross and XM Satellite Radio have joined forces to launch Red Cross Radio, a 24-hour, nationwide XM channel to provide help and information for Hurricane Katrina victims, Red Cross staff and volunteers along the Gulf Coast, and other Red Cross workers across the country. Former Learfielder and Jeff City expat Ben Krech played a big role in getting the project airborne.

Gibson’s Virtual Light forsaw 7-Eleven take-over

Seven-Eleven Japan –Japan’s largest convenience store operator with more than 10,000 locations– is going to try to buy 7-Eleven USA. William Gibson predicted this in Virtual Light several years ago but I am damned if I can find my copy so I can illustrate this properly. So, tomorrow, I’m going down to Barnes & Noble and buy another copy so I can properly make this point. Stay tuned.

Sheryl and Lance pedal into the sunset

Okay, it’s official. Lance and Sheryl are engaged, according to statement by Lance on Monday (9/5). Thanks to our Kennett sources, we had it at 9:44 p.m. on Friday (9/2).

Correction courtesy of Everett: “I expect this sort of thing from the Democrat (who made same error), but not from my hero. Peddling has to do with selling stuff out of your backpack or car. Pedaling is what bicyclists do.”

Bad News: Education in Kennett Public School System
Good News: Old Kennett friends read your blog and correct your mistakes.

New Learfield Sports Ops Center

I’ve posted a few times about the year-long renovation project that’s been underway where I work. Big push to have the new Sports Operations Center ready by the first football weekend (September 3, 2005) and they made it.

I stopped by with my camcorder. Once they get this thing fully tweaked, they’ll bring in a professional and really capture just how nice this facility is. Until then, here’s a little taste (6 min, 14 meg, wmv). If you have any trouble watching this, drop me a line.

Podcasting: It’s all about the links

“What’s special about podcasting, though, is how it makes it simple for individuals or companies to express themselves and, if what they have to say is interesting, enlightening, or clever, to earn attention. You can point someone to a worthy podcast through a link on your blog, or an e-mail to a friend, in a way you could never point them to a snippet of radio. That’s powerful.”

“Podcasting isn’t about to kill radio or take it over, but as blogs are doing to publishing, it will make the radio industry reevaluate its relationship with the audience and leverage its strength as a mass medium.”

— Boston.com via Dave Winer