Review of “The Dipâ€
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I mentioned yesterday that I had been reading some of Seth Godin’s stuff on the web and had decided to read his book, “The Dipâ€. Well I went last night and wound up buying three of his titles. “The Dipâ€, “Small is the Next Bigâ€, and “The Purple Cow†all came home with me. I just could not really decide. The Dip is a fairly small book and I read the majority of it while I was waiting for my wife to find a book. I could have put it down and not purchased it but I wanted to read the rest of it and I figured I needed a copy to post a review. I finished it off last night and my head has been spinning ever since.
Originally I thought this book was about quitting, but that is not what it’s about at all. Its about quitting the right things and focusing your limited resources on the things that matter. While Seth did not specifically mention Internet Marketing in the book, I got the distinct feeling he was speaking to people out on the web that want to earn money online. I would suggest that before you spend any more money on whatever eBook whatever Guru is touting at the moment, that you go spend 12 bucks if you buy it in a bookstore or 7 bucks if you buy it at Amazon and get hold of this little book.
I don’t want to give away all Seth’s secrets here, but basically this book is about how to focus your efforts on making one thing work and not trying to spread your limited resources too thin while chasing a dream.
I’ve always thought the things listed in the book, which is why I started this blog in the first place. There is so much garbage on the net about making money that I wanted to get it out. Seth has done a little better at getting out this message. So many people will tell you that you need to create hundreds of MFA websites and make a couple of dollars a day off each. While this may work in the short term it will not give you a long term self sustaining income. If you spent all that energy building just one site and making it the best site in your niche then the long term benefits will greatly outweigh and short term sacrifices.
Now I understand this post will not be popular with the Gurus, but I doubt they will even see it or even care. Their job is to sell you a dream and as long as you think there is a magic formula to earning money on the web then they will be able to continually sell you the next best thing. And you will buy it. Will it help you achieve your goals. I don’t know. Perhaps, Perhaps not. The thing to remember is to think critically about what you want to achieve and determine the best method for getting to that dream. I’ve only seen a few Gurus who show off any quality sites they have been a part of. Why do you think that is? Its because most of the Guru’s business model entails them selling you as many products as possible. When you give up then there will be another person chasing the dream. As long as you call them Gurus and worship their ideas, then they will continue to make money and prosper. Many of these Gurus say they want share sites because someone will steal them. Perhaps that is true, but its more than likely because they don’t know crap except how to write an effective sales letter to separate you from your hard earned money.
I’ve only been playing around with earning money online for a little while, but I do have a decent amount of technical knowledge on web technologies. I’ve seen supposed Gurus ask baby technical questions about Web Hosting that anyone who just runs a hobby site would know. How can you be great at earning money on the web when you don’t understand the fundamentals of how a web server works? You could argue that they spend their time on marketing and not the technical side of the house, but anyone that works with this stuff would have to be able to pick up the basics just in the process of managing a site.
Besides why don’t you hear about how some of these Gurus( I’m not talking about all, because some of them have) have been a part of a major site like WebMD, CNET, TechRepublic, MySpace, or many others that have been launched. You would think if they knew that much and made a lot of money then perhaps they would have been involved with one of these type sites.
Well I went off on a tangent. The bottom line is if you want to make a few dollars on the web and you desire to create a self sustaining income that you will not have to work 20 hours a day to maintain, then you may need to change your ideas. Focus on one Niche, on one idea, and put your resources into making that idea work and strategically quit all the things that do not help you achieve those goals. Then you will be on the right track and not be trying to ride a bicycle with a half pumped up tire.
If you are wallowing with what to do next, then I highly recommend Seth’s “The Dipâ€. It’s a very short read and will only take you an hour or less to read, but it has a lot of truth. Figure out who you want to be and why you want to be there. It may take work to be the best, but the benefits will be worth it. Well, I’m off to read “The Purple Cow” while I have some time off from the day job.
[tags]Seth Godin, making money online, building websites, gurus[/tags]
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
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