Seth Godin writes a lot of interesting posts on marketing and design etc. yeah you’ve probably known about him for a long time. : )
this post caught my attention: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/02/get-rich-quick.html
i think some entrepreneurs, i can at least empathize, start off in the networking community as seekers, and i imagine (at least this is my perception) discover that the same people are doing the seeking, over and over, recruiting others to seek as well (affiliate) and some stick, some don’t, but then… do some of these seekers begin to wonder whether they’re swimming in a small pond with fish that all can’t find the way to the ocean?
as a graphic artist and novice web designer, i’ve been really grappling with design questions. how to have a business that moves along the stream to larger waters, in the sense that it has substance. how to communicate that substance? content is king, right? how to marketing sales blitz letters have any substance? even if they are selling something “worthwhile” in the eyes of consumers or even the entrepreneur(s) themselves?
As long as there have been people who want to get rich, there have been get rich quick schemes. The guys who sell mailing lists have a name for people who buy these schemes: “opportunity seekers.”
Raising ostriches, or timing the market or investing in tulips–there’s a long history here. The schemes tend to have a few things in common. They tend to have the same tone of voice (part breathless, part bad design, part ‘we’re just like you’) and most of all, they are too good to be true.
this really keyed me into something important:
Online, of course, like most things online, this has blossomed. You’ll see the long long web pages filled with ALL CAPS and bright colors and testimonials and “wait there’s more!” They look alike for a reason–it’s a signal to the opportunity seeker that this is one of those.
*it’s a signal* — hmm. so in a sense, these pages with the ALL CAPS and bright colours are a signal — the bait that works the best to catch fish in the small pond.
of COURSE there are many who disagree with Seth Godin. and of course, i do not. i say again, it’s the bait that works best to catch fish in the small pond. it’s a type of generic “branding”. people make money off it. and yet i remain skeptical. if you read the article, skepticism in the seeker is very important. except the bait doesn’t work for me.
honestly, i think the law of attraction is similar, in the sense that the language is a *signal*. it’s not that the LOA is a bunch of hooey, exactly. LOA is based in very very old spiritual wisdom. However the current trend is language stripped of substance, somehow, a drug that lures the seekers and leaves them there, kind of like weight loss programs, leaving people hungry for more and not entirely sure why they can’t shut off all the negative thoughts in order to attract only the positive. why are they stuck?? well, so that they’ll keep coming back for more, that’s why. LOA stripped of its hindu, buddhist, and i think kabbalic roots is like yoga stripped of all the philosophy — a great exercise, makes you feel good, but like a drug that has very temporary effects. even when its peddlers insist that there is more substance there. yes, there is, in ancient texts, that have a lot more to say than the LOA marketers and coaching, have a LOT of depth, and wait — they’re free? what?
you can read, for instance, The Upanishads and if you find the old texts inaccessible to you, look for commentary, and as much as you can find. from published sources. read the dalai lama, who is quite accessible. (search on Amazon for his books here)
i think about those five questions - what, who, when, and how. and then why. there are combinations of these, right? all hinging around the why.. as each person around the circle, or at every stage of the business has a why. there is a why-what, a why-who, a why-when, and a why-how. communications design falls into a few of these, or all of these. very important, i think, is the why-who and why-how. when designing a web page one has to ask both these questions.
