Seth Godin

This biographical article relies on references to primary sources. Please add references to secondary or tertiary sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2013)

This article may contain promotional material and other spam. Please remove any content which is not encyclopedic, and any promotional external links in accordance with the external links guideline. (June 2013)

Seth Godin
Born	(1960-07-10) July 10, 1960 (age 52)
Alma mater	Tufts University Stanford University
Occupation	author, marketing guru
Website
sethgodin.com

Seth Godin (born July 10, 1960) is an American entrepreneur, author and public speaker.

Background[edit]

Born in Mount Vernon, New York, Seth Godin graduated from Tufts University in 1979 with a degree in computer science and philosophy. Godin earned his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. From 1983 to 1986, he worked as a brand manager at Spinnaker Software. For a time Godin commuted every week between California and Boston both to do his new job and to complete his MBA.

After leaving Spinnaker Software in 1986, Godin used $20,000 in savings to found Seth Godin Productions, primarily a book packaging business, out of a studio apartment in New York City.^[1] It was in the same offices that Godin met Mark Hurst and founded Yoyodyne. After a few years Godin sold the book packaging business to his employees and focused his efforts on Yoyodyne. It was with Yoyodyne that Godin promoted the concept of permission marketing originally developed by Perlstein.^[2] For a period of time, Godin served as a columnist for Fast Company.^[3]

Godin and his wife Helene now live in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, with their two sons.

Viewpoints[edit]

Godin believes that the end of the "TV-Industrial complex" means that marketers no longer have the power to command the attention of anyone they choose, whenever they choose. Second, in a marketplace in which consumers have more power, he thinks marketers must show more respect; this means no spam, no deceit and a bias for keeping promises. Finally, Godin asserts that the only way to spread the word about an idea is for that idea to earn the buzz by being remarkable. Godin refers to those who spread these ideas as "Sneezers", and to the spreading idea as an "IdeaVirus." He calls a remarkable product or service a purple cow.

Advertisements on television and radio are classified as 'interruption marketing' which interrupt the customer while they are doing something of their preference. Godin promoted the concept of "permission marketing" where the business provides something "anticipated, personal, and relevant".

Business ventures[edit]

Yoyodyne[edit]

In 1995, Godin launched Yoyodyne which used contests, online games, and scavenger hunts to market companies to participating users. In August, 1996, venture-capital firm Flatiron Partners invested $4 million in Yoyodyne in return for a 20% stake.^[4] The site gained significant traction, with over one million viewers visiting the site, and companies like America Online, American Express, H&R Block, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Sony Music, Sprint, and Volvo using its services.^[5]

At Yoyodyne, Godin authored Permission Marketing: Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers.

In 1998, Godin sold Yoyodyne to Yahoo! for $30 million^[6] and became Yahoo's vice president of direct marketing, a position he held until 2000.^[7]

Squidoo[edit]

In March 2006, Godin launched Squidoo, a community website allowing users to create pages (called "lenses") for subjects of interest.^[8] The site donates 5% of the profits to charity, and 50% to the lensmasters. Godin and Squidoo have been profiled on CNN and the Washington Post.^[9][10] The site was given top prize in SXSW's community/wiki category.^[11] In July 2008, Squidoo was one of the 500 most visited sites in the world.^[12]

Other projects[edit]

ChangeThis[edit]

Godin developed the idea for ChangeThis, a website aimed at spreading ideas through PDF files.^[13] In the summer of 2004, Godin hired five interns—Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu and Michelle Sriwongtong—to build and develop the website.^[14] The website went live on August 14, 2004.^[15] Tom Peters, Chris Anderson, and Guy Kawasaki all had manifestos featured on ChangeThis.^[16] In July 2005, ChangeThis was turned over to 800-CEO-READ, a distributor of business literature in the United States.^[17][18]

Six month alternative MBA program[edit]

In December 2008, Godin announced in a blog post that he would be offering a six-month alternative MBA program at his office in Hastings on Hudson, NY.^[19] 48,000 people looked at the post and 340 applied. He invited 27 applicants to his office for a group interview. They spent two hours interviewing one another. After co-mingling, they and Godin together wrote down the names of their favorite candidates. Three weeks later the chosen 9 showed up at Godin's office.^[20] This group graduated in July 2009.^[21]

The Domino Project[edit]

In December 2010, Godin announced on his blog that he would be working directly with Amazon on a venture called The Domino Project.^[22]

Stop Stealing Dreams (what is school for)[edit]

In February 2012, Godin released a 30,000 word manifesto on Squidoo in response to the question "What do you think we ought to do about education?". This manifesto is "totally free to read, share, translate, print and, most of all, use to start an essential conversation".^[23]

The Icarus Deception[edit]

In June 2012, Godin launched a new project—an experiment in crowdfunding a published book. Instead of approaching his publisher for his next book, The Icarus Deception: Why Make Art?, Godin launched a Kickstarter campaign.^[24] In the first week, he raised more than $250,000 from readers, which in turn secured him a book contract with his publisher.^[25]

Startup School[edit]

In October 2012, Godin started a podcast on the Earwolf network. The weekly podcast follows Seth as he guides thirty entrepreneurs through a workshop exploring how they can build and run their dream business.^[26]

Books[edit]

Godin is the author of 11 books; his Free Prize Inside was a Forbes Business Book of the Year in 2004,^[27] in its first two years of release, Purple Cow sold over 150,000 copies in more than 23 printings.^[28] The Dip was a Business Week and New York Times bestseller.^[29][30] In the early 1990s he created a ten book series for children titled Worlds of Power, which was written by various writers. In each the plot of a single video game was told in a novelized form.^[31]

Beginning with Permission Marketing, Godin uses the concepts discussed in the books to promote the book. For Permission Marketing, Godin gave 1/3 of the book away for free to anyone who sent an e-mail. For Unleashing the Ideavirus, Godin released the entire eBook on the Internet for free, which led to eventual publishing deals in 41 countries and a public speaking career. For Purple Cow, Godin created a milk carton container for the book which generated attention from work colleagues. For Tribes, Godin launched an exclusive online community for the first 3000 people who pre-ordered the book. For Linchpin, Godin gave the book away for three weeks before its release for free to anyone willing to give $30 to the Acumen Fund for the $20 book, and raised $100,000 for the Acumen Fund.

Bibliography[edit]

• Godin, Seth (1993). The Smiley Dictionary. Berkeley: Peachpit Press. ISBN 1-56609-008-3. 
• Godin, Seth (1995). eMarketing: Reaping Profits on the Information Highway. New York: Berkley Pub. Group. ISBN 0-399-51904-1. 
• Godin, Seth (1999). Permission marketing: turning strangers into friends, and friends into customers. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-85636-0. 
• Godin, Seth (2001). Unleashing the Ideavirus. New York: Hyperion. ISBN 0-7868-8717-6.  Book online - Detailing the idea of Viral marketing
• Godin, Seth (2002). The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better. New York: Free Press. p. 112. ISBN 0-7432-2790-5. 
• Godin, Seth (2002). Survival is not enough: zooming, evolution, and the future of your company. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-2571-6. 
• Godin, Seth (2003). Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable. Portfolio. p. 224. ISBN 1-59184-021-X. 
• Godin, Seth (2004). Free Prize Inside!: The Next Big Marketing Idea. Penguin USA Portfolio. p. 256. ISBN 1-59184-041-4. 
• Godin, Seth (2005). All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World. Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-59184-100-3. 
• Godin, Seth; the Group of 33 (2005). The Big Moo: Stop Trying to be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable. Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-59184-103-8. 
• Godin, Seth (2006). Small Is the New Big: and 193 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas. Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-59184-126-7. 
• Godin, Seth (2007). The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-59184-166-6. 
• Godin, Seth (2008). Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?. Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-59184-174-7. 
• Godin, Seth (2008). Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. Portfolio Hardcover. p. 160. ISBN 1-59184-233-6. 
• Godin, Seth (2010). Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?. Portfolio Hardcover. p. 256. ISBN 1-59184-316-2. 
• Godin, Seth (2011). Poke the Box. Portfolio Hardcover. ISBN 1-936719-00-2. 
• Godin, Seth (2011). We Are All Weird. The Domino Project. ISBN 1-936719-22-3. 
• Godin, Seth (2012). The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?. Portfolio Penguin. ISBN 0-6709-2292-7. 

Blog[edit]

In May 2009, Godin's Seth's Blog^[32] was ranked in the AdAge Power 150 as the #1 marketing blog out of 976 tracked. ^[33]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Seth Godin

• Official website
• Seth Godin's Hall of Fame page includes his videos, articles and so on.
• Seth Godin on TED
• Seth Godin at the Internet Movie Database
• Subvert Magazine interview
• Smart People Podcast - interview (2011)
• The Marketplace of Ideas - interview (2010)