September 23, 2005
i love it when this happens
I just recieved the following e-mail from James Torio, whose Master’s Thesis I blogged about last week:
Hello Hugh,
Just wanted to give you and update about the thesis.
Since you posted it last week the site has been hit 78,480 times. Not bad since the site is still beta, and before your post I was getting a couple of hundred hits a day.
The thesis has been downloaded 2,072 times. That’s got to be a world record for an academic paper.
I have been contacted by a number of companies to talk about work opportunities.
Thanks for the post that changed my life.
Enjoy the weekend,
James
Congratulations, James. That’s really good news.
A lot of people think blogs are little more than media for mutual-masturbation. Something only the “A-Listers”, internet techies or cynical wine pimps [SFX: Evil Laugh] can benefit from. I strongly disagree.
I suggest that every one should have his site on RSS as James republishes the thesis in blog format (appended with updated content/fresh examples)
James,sounds like you took you own advice.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE GLOBAL
CONVERSATION
“When Mavens and Connectors get together, they can spread information through word of mouth which can start trends.” and so on.
Somehow I feel I have been duped by your email. Or maybe you were just trying to prove a point or look for a job. I see a used car salesman job in your future.
“A lot of people think blogs are little more than media for mutual-masturbation. Something only the “A-Listers”… can benefit from. I strongly disagree.”
Hugh, I think you’ve just proved the opposite. The only reason James was able to spread his meme as far and as wide as he has was through your high readership numbers.
That’s not a bad thing, but it does point out that, just like in traditionally published magazines, circulation matters.
Andreas, I think you’re missing the point.
Perhaps the quality of his thesis had something to do with him getting the job offers? I may have a high “circulation”, but I’m not the one signing the payroll.
Secondly, yes, circulation matters, but not as much as you would think. EnglishCut.com just got written about in the New York Times. Has it made a huge difference to our business? Eh. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to get it, and it generated sales, but it didn’t fundementally affect the business model.
My conclusion? Paradoxically, the best way to get the attention of the “gatekeepers” is to not need them. A good story doesn’t need gatekeepers. But gatekeepers need good stories.
JoeyTomatoes, he wasn’t duping you. We shared a few e-mails back and forth, I asked him if his resumee was online. He sent me back the link and I linked to that as well. I asked him if he was looking for a job, he never mentioned it till after I asked him. That’s the shameless marketer in me.
btw James, when you do something with blogs, and it succeeds, expect flak. Right, JoeyTomatoes?
Right, always expect flack when you do well, its just human nature.
I took his bait, “Please feel free to share it or post it.” He skillfully made his presentation via a short email. Like gapingvoid I was about to give him his 15 min on http://www.joeytomatoes.com with a link to his blog.
His paper was no big deal, a lot on stating the obvious as I was hard pressed to find a gotcha quote to use to motivate our viewers to click to go to his site. I’m sitting there having the car’s oil changed and state inspection, read the whole thing, was not impressed.
Give his paper a ‘C’, his marketing of James Torio a ‘B’.
Two thumbs up James if you get a job out of your effort.
“Secondly, yes, circulation matters, but not as much as you would think. EnglishCut.com just got written about in the New York Times. Has it made a huge difference to our business? Eh. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to get it, and it generated sales, but it didn’t fundementally affect the business model.”
Forgive me, but it look to me like you’re comparing apples with oranges here. The market for English Cut is by the nature of the product a small, high yield market. The shotgun approach cannot possibly work here in any meaningful way and that’s apparent in the results you’ve experienced from the write up.
However, if your market is larger, with a low yield per sale, let’s say for a wine maker, then circulation, read reach, is becoming incredibly important. The same, in my opinion, is true for James who needed to reach as many people as quickly as possible.
Andreas, the best way for your meme to reach a lot of people is to have a story other people will want to spread, be they “high-cirulation” or otherwise.
Unless you want to use advertising, which sadly is very expensive.
A Bit More on the Blogging in Business/Advertising Design Master’s Thesis
James Torio, who wrote his master’s thesis about blogs as tools in business, shares some stats regarding downloads of and site visits to his thesis.