I read Seth Godin’s blog every time he has a post. I’m subscribed via RSS feed. I love to read it. I’m smarter for having read it. Today I saw something that was strange to me.
I read something on his blog (scroll down to see original post by Seth) that I hadn’t even known and I’ve visited his blog about 50 times in the last 2 months.
1. He’s read by more people than read 95% of the magazines published in the USA.
2. He doesn’t monetize his blog.
I was shocked because I thought, surely I would have noticed. I looked on the pages and I found a list of his books on the left hand side. All for sale. So I don’t really understand what he’s trying to say. The person that “pointed out” to him about his large readership also asked why he didn’t try to monetize it. Seth says he couldn’t imagine “charging for my blog”.
It was a quick spin on words that maybe fooled some folks. But, he almost geniusly twisted the original message so it looks like he’s just such a nice guy that he couldn’t bear to monetize the blog… but it IS monetized with the books that are available. Instead of repeat what the original person said – that he couldn’t monetize his blog -he said he couldn’t ‘imaging charging for my blog’.
Wait, nobody was talking about charging for your blog – which is quite different from monetizing it.
Then he goes on to say how appreciative he is that his readers are giving him the gift of “attention” as if that’s all he’s getting out of posting at his blog everyday.
Seth is a spin-master!
I like him just the same, but this is a great example of how someone that knows what they’re doing can put a twist on things so that we don’t even really know it happened. If I hadn’t have been wondering about his blog not being monetized I’d have overlooked it too.
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Below is Seth’s post, “Thanks”
The other day, someone pointed out to me that my blog is read by more people than 95% of all the magazines published in the US. She wanted to know why I don’t try to monetize it. “Run ads,” she said. “Or find a sponsor, or maybe even charge for it!” That’s a lot of nickels, after all.
I tried to sum it up like this: Not only can’t I imagine charging for my blog, I’m practically in debt to the people who read it. I ought to pay them, not the other way around.
Every time you read something I write here, you’re giving me a gift… attention. It’s getting more precious all the time, you have more choices every day, and it’s harder and harder to find the time. I know. I’m grateful. I’m doing my best to make your attention worth it.
So, have a great Thanksgiving. And thanks.
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