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http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/04/22/tim-ferriss-and-ramit-sethi/ -
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What an inspiration and a pleasure to be part of your world. Since you you wrote your book my world has completely changed. My muse has taken off, hollywood has called and I've never looked back. Thank You for what your doing.
Rob
inspiration and good ideas - as always really.
Also, nice to see Disqus has been installed. Definitely my favorite blog comment system.
The idea of getting stability in your core elements allowing you the freedom to learn from your mistakes is really interesting. Definitely something to think about some more!
Keep up the great work!
Building the usefulness and reach of my blog has been one of my main focuses of late. The insight you guys offer here is very timely for me!
Also, with one successful book "published" already in electronic form, and another on the way shortly, my co-author and I are thinking about making hard copy editions available. So the discussion about self-publishing vs the traditional route is very useful.
Self-publishing is attractive for the speed of implementation especially. The traditional route still seems better if your goal is to build credibility with your book to support other professional activities.
Thanks so much!
Adam
The obvious solution to virtually any problem is just to write great content. I've found the way to write better content is to write for yourself first and your audience second. We generally don't as much about our readers as we would like, but if we write about things we find interesting or important, usually others will to.
Once you've got great stuff, it's just a matter of making it easy to read. You're blog is great example of taking a lot of information and chopping it up to only what's necessary; using lists, videos, subheadings, etc. Length is only a problem when you have boring content or a wall of text.
I also noticed that timing for blog posts is very important. Especially since I am in the other time zone than the US.
By the way, how do you measure reading time for your post?
Tim, You have helped inspire me to start my own blog. I am a computer programmer so I just blog about what I know!
Ramit, You have showed me the ways of saving. Thanks so much!
Keep up the good work guys!
You mentioned using StumbleUpon and the Google Keyword Tool. Completely agree. I've also used Delicious to determine the most popular articles for a given topic.
Also, if your readers would like to see how quickly and when your pages are being added to Google, they might try this search, which shows how many pages were added in the past week (and you can change the timeframe):
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Afou...
You guy's are my idols! I am doing my homework now for when I meet both of you.
Have a good one.
Doug Lance
Based on the way you both describe the publishing process, it seems like a large publishing house would build a social network and take publishing open source to allow people to better target their audiences in the next couple years.
Thanks for the blog tips, it is nice to see Ramit again. These posts are more like niche presentations than just posts. Very nice!
PS The Videos are great, but difficult to watch at work. Any chance of transcripts being made available?
Thank you for sharing your inside secrets.
What are your best tips for actually changing people's minds in a radical way through a blog? Is that even possible?
Thanks,
Omar
As usual, kick arse content, addressing a problem, and providing information that builds a realistic solution.
Thank you for keeping it real!
Twenty Twenty
(Sorry mate, this is my REAL name, I hope the comment makes the cut!)
You made a very lucid argument for why you should have a big name publisher, when you are building a platform it makes all the difference.
Good tips and stategies Ramit and yourself have
Speed dating for locals.
I thought it hokey,....but it seems better than pocket change per hour at a job where my hearing range is subjected to sheeple conversation, rant and whinings. Yet, somehow tie basic wants and needs in a downturn economy with - human nature - companionship, comfort food, drugs, sex with the Internet and something about advertisers buying space via website....
The article magnificently demonstrates it a choice to deal with mass herd of humans via real time in the magical landscape of corporate work and cyclical planned obsolescence. Even in a down turn economy many are still buying the latte and go to the drive thru at Carl's Jr (I admit I am one who shelled out the $4.69 for the comfort food). Alas, I still chase job security....I hear a train at the end of that tunnel....
My gears have just been greased. Many thanks of gratitude for spreading the cure in a diseased mindframe.
Great timing. I just started a free course for ten students on creating a blog to promote your own social experiment. I could have more credible tutorials to distribute today. As always. You are the man!
MacEwen
PS. I have to agree w/ Robert. At the risk of sounding like a devotee, I too have found an amazing freedom in implementing your guidance.
Thanks!
Can you share any specific tips on how to: 1) get your foot in the door in the first place, 2) effectively pitch your idea (By the way, should a book pitch be similar to a VC pitch?), and 3) negotiate fair royalties?
Also, you mentioned in The 4-Hour Workweek that information products are a great way to go for muse creation. But you mentioned elsewhere that you should not publish a book if income is your goal. What do you think is the most efficient medium for information based products?
This is my first post on your blog. I really like your book and your blog. Thanks for such great advice.
I really liked your comment on measuring self worth, by taking away what is in your bank account, and seeing what you are really worth. I have never thought of that before.
I totally agree with writing good content, on one of my sites I have notices that the better the content is the more hits I generally get.
Keep up the video posts I really like them.
Thanks
Jose Castro-Frenzel
Thanks for the good advice. Let's assume a blog 1) has strong content and 2) is well organized; how important do you find it's graphic design / overall appearance to be?
- Ben
P.S. - Watched the clip about increasing numbers of low-lever employees who outsource their own work. Seems like companies would begin to cut out more and more of these self-appointed middlemen. Do you think those types of jobs (data entry, accounting) may soon go extinct in the US.
...
Still struggling to make my muse take off but each post you put up provides me with a little more inspiration and insight into what I need to do to succeed. At 23 years of age I've already had enough experience in both large corporate settings and startups to know that my calling is to be an entrepreneur. Had I not been handed your book, I would still have been too afraid to actually ask myself that all important questions, "whats the worst that could happen?". The answer? At age 23 without children or a house payment, nothing. At worst, I will go back to working for someone else until I save up enough to try again. I will continue to use your book and blog as a source of inspiration to help me out of those discouraging times until I succeed.
Thanks so much for your continued efforts!
- CH
I am a fiction novelist so I've been doing a fair amount of research on the publishing vs. self-publishing topic for my writer's critique group. I absolutely agree with many of the points made in the video. Self-publishing was typically called vanity press and for good reason, it was only done to stroke the author's ego. Now it has become a viable alternative to the big houses.
I have two main points about this discussion. The first is that the big house publishing is starting to strain, because of the profit model. Many authors are paid upfront for books they will probably never sell, and the books on the shelves at B&N (and other sellers) are owned by the publishers. This causes them to hold an extremely large unsold inventory which ties up their cash flow. The result is the dependance on mega-sellers to pay for the rest of the catalog.
With print-on-demand, eBooks, and direct to consumer marketing (blogs); authors, with some elbow grease, can get into the game without a lot of upfront costs (<$1000), assuming they have a good product.
The option I'm considering for my science fiction trilogy is, after rigourous editing and vetting from my critique group, to self-publish the first using my blog and creative marketting (idea's gleened from Seth and Tim's blogs). Then after I've established I am a viable author, negotiate with a publishing house for the follow up novels (and to rerelease the first).
I'm still not finished editing, and have more research and critical thinking to do, but I think I have the outline of a good plan.
Another very good, informative post.
For people who are still 'learning' when it comes to Blogging, etc., they should really appreciate this type of info - especially when its free.
One thing I love about your blog is that it changes so much, from post to post, in terms of content topic. But, never on quality.
Keep up the great work!
Chris
I've recently been following you both very closely and it was exciting to see you collaborate on a topic that is very important to me right now. I'm currently working on my first book so these questions were awesome!
I recently met with AJ Jacobs, author of 'The Year of Living Biblically' about my book and am excited to get the support of someone with such great experience. Your tactics to meet someone who is "famous/important" are many of the same one's I employed to get that introduction. It takes time, but it's fun!
Ramit, I already reached out to you but would love the opportunity to chat briefly about how to market the book while writing it. Do I have to have a finished product to promote it? I would assume not but would love your advice!
Talk to you both soon.
Cheers,
Ryan
I was on the Huffinton Post and they have this widget where you can leave a comment and turn it into a blog on your post. I put a sample on my blog here (I typically do not blog about movie stars, but for example's sake): http://officialbuziness.blogspot.com/2009/04/bi...
Tim, I think this is a great automation tool for spreading your blog. I think the Huffington Post uses Six Apart, so I'm not even sure how to implement it.
This was pretty interesting... esp. the true networth !