Book giveaway: The Starfish and the Spider
There’s a new book coming out in a few days called The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations. It’s an interesting book about top-down organizations vs. distributed, peer-based organizations. Think GE vs. Wikipedia, or the RIAA vs. Craigslist. I met Ori, one of the book’s authors, and got interested in the idea.
The book won’t be out until October 5, but I’m giving away 2 copies signed by him right now. And I’m going to try to adopt the book’s strategy during this giveaway by asking you for your creativity. Here’s how it works:
How to win a copy
To enter to win, add a comment to this post (or email me) and show me the best way to spread the word about iwillteachyoutoberich.com.
I made a mistake yesterday
First, though, check this out. Yesterday, I sent an email to my newsletter subscribers asking for the “best idea for spreading the word about iwillteachyoutoberich.com.” This was a big mistake. Here’s what I wrote:
“To enter to win, reply to this email and tell me your best idea for spreading the word about iwillteachyoutoberich.com. Give me your most clever strategy for marketing my site. Bonus points if you actually implement it and send it over. For example…
- Probably won’t win: “You should write more!!!” or “You should buy Facebook ads!”
- Has a good chance of getting noticed: “You should create a landing page for new people who come to your site…something that shares your philosophy of getting rich. Here’s my take on what it would look like: [URL]” or “Your idea of putting stark personal-finance images and letting people link to your site was good, but here’s how to take it to the next level…”
The problem is that I asked for ideas, which are really cheap and don’t help much. Hell, I bet you could come up with 10 ideas for this site right now. Basically, I was stupid and ignored my own advice.
As a result, people suggested things like creating videos for YouTube, doing a MySpace page, and improving my branding. These are fine ideas, but after reading them, I’m still at the same place I was yesterday–nothing’s changed. I’ve had these ideas before, so they don’t help much. It’s my fault: I didn’t specify clearly enough.
The best live concept wins
I really do want to get some great concepts from you and put them into practice. So here’s the deal: To win a signed pre-release copy of the book, create the best way to spread the word about iwillteachyoutoberich.com. I’ll pick the best ones. Let’s try it–I don’t know if this is asking too much, but I want to try to see what people come up with. Whether it’s a tool to let people share iwillteachyoutoberich online/offline, an introduction to someone who could help get the word out, the creation of an iwillteachyoutoberich character, or anything you come up with…I think this will be interesting.
It should be live and ready to go. Ideas don’t count.
(Hint: I brainstormed with my friend this weekend and we went through the challenges we’ve had when spreading the word, like…people are skeptical of the name “I Will Teach You To Be Rich,” they’re bored by personal finance, they’re afraid, the blog isn’t easy for first-time visitors, they don’t know where to start, etc. Maybe those will help, but I’m sure you have your own thoughts.) Fortunately, there’s nobody who understands what I’m trying to communicate through this site than the people who read it.
Deadline for sending your ideas
This Saturday, September 30. More about the book at Amazon.
PS–As a special bonus, the person who sends the single best working concept will get 15 minutes on the phone with Ori, the co-author of The Starfish and the Spider.
Sorry for thinking so transactional. I guess I’ve been blinded by the lack of extra time to give to things I’d like to do (like help people achieve more with their web traffic and promotion).
