Seth Godin: Who's There? - free e-book

Seth Godin's "Who's There?" is a free ebook available here

I’m definitely a Seth fan – he is my favorite bald celebrity, now that Telly Savalas (Kojak) is unfortunately not with us anymore. I suggest everyone get Seth’s new (free) ebook “Who’s There?” – well worth the read.

“Who’s there?” is a 45 pages of classic Seth Godin. Seth talks about Seth-Godin-type stuff, like why small is better than big (more responsive, etc), why blogs matter, and more.

And as a brief intro to his book, Seth has a unique yet valid categorization of blogs. He says there are 3 type of blogs: Cat blogs, Boss blogs, and Viral blogs

Cat blogs: These are personal idiosyncratic blogs, that probably no one will want to read unless they know the author. But then again, people watch stupid sitcoms on TV, so some Cat blogs are very popular.

A typical Cat blog post:

I didn’t want to shave this morning because I’m feeling a little depressed. It might be because my wife’s doc took her off her medication and she’s now nuts and driving me nuts too. My shrink insisted I can’t leave her until she adjusts to being off the meds or her doc has her start back up. Or maybe because I ate so much and blew my diet last weekend – which incidentally gave me HORRIBLE gas all Sat and Sun. Man I really stunk up my kids school play, but my wife’s so whacko and there was a dog in the play too that no one noticed it was me – I think. The smell even bothered me! The play sucked too, except for my son, the dog, and my son’s teacher who is just so hot the little boys would be excited if they weren’t little boys!

Although maybe amusing, do we really want to read this unless we know the author? And if we know who wrote it, even really well, do we really want such detail?? Probably not!

Boss blogs: These are blogs for people working together. Blogs can be amazing tools for communication among a team. They’re often NOT accessible via the Internet but just a corporate intranet.

A typical Boss blog post:

I have a great idea for the Gregory Peccary advertising compaign. Actually, my wife Samantha came up with it. It involves a large inflatable mascot – probably of some cute furry animal. My daughter Tabitha loves it, and she does represent our target demographic. If you remember Larry, Mr. Peccary himself said small furry animals are nice. I'd like to discuss this approach at our Monday morning meeting if we can . . .

Useless, unless you're on the team or closely associated with it (or the competition).

Viral bogs: Viral blogs are blogs that want to spread ideas. Bloggers have thoughts and opinions and use their blogs to promote their ideas. Most people think of Viral blogs when they think of blogs.

A typical Viral blog post:

I just tried an XYZ widget for the first time and must admit I’m starting to understand what all the buzz is about. XYZ users, although maybe small in number, are so amazingly loyal. This is such a great product! It simultaneously helped me lose weight, made me smarter, less bald, more attractive to the opposite sex, and shined my shoes.

More importantly, it great in the personalization category. These people really customize the user experience, and maybe with just a few more tweaks will conquer the world, or at least Starbucks. This is a release 1.0 product after all . . .

“Who’s There” is the second Seth Godin e-book in a series of three, The first, “Knock Knock,” I haven’t read yet, and the third is due soon. Check out sethgodin.com for details (click on his bald head for his blog).

Hmmm, I guess all blogs are part “Cat blog” - even Seth's . . .