Seth Godin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Seth Godin
Godin in 2009
Alma materStanford University
Tufts University
Occupation(s)Author, entrepreneur
SpouseHelene Aronson
Websitesethgodin.com

Seth W. Godin, who sometimes uses the alias "F.X. Nine," is an American author and a former dot com business executive.[1][2][3]

Background[edit]

In 1977, Godin worked at a bagel factory that produced everything bagels.[4] After leaving Spinnaker in 1986, he used $20,000 in savings to establish Seth Godin Productions, which primarily operated as a book packaging business. He operated this venture out of a studio apartment in New York City.[5] He then met Mark Hurst and founded Yoyodyne (named in jest after the fictional Yoyodyne in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension[6]). After a few years, Godin sold the book packaging business to his employees and focused his efforts on Yoyodyne, where he promoted the concept of permission marketing.[7]

Business ventures[edit]

Yoyodyne, launched in 1995, used contests, online games, and scavenger hunts to market companies to participating users. In August 1996, Flatiron Partners invested $4 million in Yoyodyne in return for a 20% stake.[5][8] At Yoyodyne, Godin published Permission Marketing: Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers. In 1998, he sold Yoyodyne to Yahoo! for about $30 million[9][10] and became Yahoo's vice president of direct marketing.[11]

In March 2006, Godin launched Squidoo.[12] By July 2008, Squidoo had become one of the 500 most visited sites in the world.[13] However, by 2014, it was no longer considered financially viable and was sold to HubPages.[14]

Writing[edit]

Godin is the author of many books. Free Prize Inside was a Forbes Business Book of the Year in 2004,[15] while Purple Cow sold over 150,000 copies in more than 23 print runs in its first two years.[16] The Dip was a Business Week and New York Times bestseller;[17][18] Business Week also named Linchpin among its "20 of the best books by the most influential thinkers in business" on November 13, 2015.[19]

In June 2013, Godin raised more than $250,000 from readers with a Kickstarter campaign, which in turn secured him a book contract with his publisher for his book "The Icarus Deception".[1]

Godin was inducted into the American Marketing Association's Marketing Hall of Fame in 2018.[20]

Blog[edit]

Seth Godin's blog was named by Time among its 25 best blogs of 2009.[21]

Personal life[edit]

Godin and his wife Helene live in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, with their two sons.[22]

Bibliography[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Trachtenberg, Jeffrey (June 24, 2012). "Giving Book Readers a Say". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  2. ^ Walker, Rob (November 14, 2014). "Self-Promotion, but With Self-Respect". New York Times. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  3. ^ Adams, Bryan (April 28, 2016). "The 3 Rules of Successful Business as Taught by Seth Godin (and Your Mother)". Inc. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  4. ^ https://seths.blog/2008/03/apparently-i-in/
  5. ^ a b Kuntz, Mary (September 9, 1998). "Entrepreneur Profiles: Point, Click--And Here's The Pitch: Yoyodyne uses prizes to get you to read those online ads". BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on March 4, 2000. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  6. ^ Yee, Bernard (September 1996). "Joyriding: Play Games on the Internet and Win Big Prizes". Next Generation. No. 21. Imagine Media. p. 27.
  7. ^ Taylor, William C. (March 31, 1998). "Permission Marketing". Fast Company. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  8. ^ Yahoo! to Acquire Yoyodyne, Earthweb News, October 12, 1998, archived from the original on 2005-02-14
  9. ^ Junnarkar, Sandeep. "Yahoo to buy Yoyodyne". CNET News. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  10. ^ Yahoo Acquiring Yoyodyne Wired.com. October 12, 1998.
  11. ^ "Speaker: Seth Godin". Business Week's "Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age". Special Libraries Association. June 18, 2008. Archived from the original on July 4, 2008. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
  12. ^ Eric Enge Interviews Seth Godin on Stone Temple Consulting. June 20, 2007
  13. ^ Traffic Details: Squidoo.com on Alexa.com. Retrieved July 18, 2008
  14. ^ "Seth Godin's Squidoo Acquired by HubPages". SearchEngineWatch. August 19, 2014.
  15. ^ "Forbes.com Business Book of the Year". Forbes. Retrieved 2014-01-20."
  16. ^ Hogan, Ron (2005-05-16). "How to Succeed in Business (Books)". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved 2014-01-20."...reports that the two-year-old title has more than 150,000 copies in print after 23 printings"
  17. ^ Business Week Bestseller List: October 8th, 2007
  18. ^ New York Times Bestseller List: June 8th 2007
  19. ^ Feloni, Richard (November 13, 2015). "20 of the best books by the most influential thinkers in business". Business Week. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  20. ^ Richards, Katie (2 April 2018). "Meet the 3 Newest Members to The American Marketing Association's Marketing Hall of Fame". Adweek.com. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
  21. ^ "Seth Godin's Blog". Time. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  22. ^ Seth Godin on Stepping Up and Making it Happen

External links[edit]