Learning Something from Seth Godin

Posted on 26. Jun, 2008 by Roy in Business

Ok, there is no point in denying that like a lot of other people out there, I am a big fan of Seth Godin. And I just like to follow what he is writing or how he is packaging his products or how he is selling himself.

In my last post [writing a blog post] I was talking about Squidoo. Lets complete that discussion. What do you find the most interesting thing in Squidoo?

I asked this question to some fellow content writers and web designers. And as expected, there were two answers – “emphasis on user generated content” and the other is “simple design”. Do you want to add anything to it?

Ok, here are my observations on Squidoo:

1. The most stunning thing about Squidoo is its navigation – it does not have traditional navigational pattern like – home | submit article | Contact Us | About Us | etc. And this is the section, where Seth has left Hub Pages miles behind. In Squidoo, you have just a drop down image that is inviting you to ?build your own’ lens.

What webmasters generally does when they start such a website? Just take a look at any other article directory and you will have the answer. We would have definitely kept a common navigation bar for the reason that, the users may not be as much web savvy as we are and may face problems to use the site.

What does this mean? We are actually giving them the freedom to move around as they wish. And Seth (may be with his team) is guiding the visitor through the process of creating a lens. And, undoubtedly, it takes lots of courage to take such a drastic step when you are dealing with general people and Seth has successfully done the job.

2. Another most important aspect of Squidoo is its use of language. All through the process, the website is more playful than serious and he is selling it every time.

3. And the idea itself is great – a one page blog on anything with as many link as you want.

There are lots of other issues that you may notice in Squidoo. And this is what I call Web 2.0.

By the way, did you click on Seth’s Head in his blog? What do you call it? Just a design or idea branding?