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]

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

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