Godin the Flip-Flopper

This was supposed to be a quiet weekend in old Blogosville, until Seth Godin posts this post about how to get traffic for your blog. Sound innocuous enough, right? it's a list of 56 items, many of which are questionable and arguably controversial, for example:

14. Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.

(fyi, I discuss this on the coming episode of ATS - #35 - and it ain't pretty)

...oh, did I mention that Seth finally turned on comments on this particular post and as of post time, the post in question had 54 comments and 22 trackbacks, which were either complimentary to Seth (as in "welcome to the conversation" from myself) or part of the conversation as in...

57. Include a funny YouTube video : ) from Jackie Huba

In addition, blogs like Customer Experience Strategy and Logic + Emotion weighed in.

But then, as quickly as comments came, they went...prompting another Godin post - this one titled, "Why I don't have comments."

This post is not snarky...it's condescending, aloof and arrogant and I think it ignores a fundamental tenant of authentic social media: forget whether a blog should have comments or not (and I fundamentally believe in the former...especially from a "walking the talk" standpoint); this is about appreciating and valuing an audience or reader base. At the end of the day, all the inbound and outbound links, all the tips/tactics in the book are meaningless without anyone that gives a damn.

Here are some additional comments from Logic + Emotion (that references my comment on Seth's blog and then compares the two of us on the authenticity versus B.S. meter) and Beyond Madison Avenue.

Is Seth a good marketer? Absolutely. But that's not always a compliment. He's clearly demonstrated his ability to get a plethora of traffic, buzz and chatter to and through his site and "lens". But at what cost?

I can only think that he turned comments on by mistake. It could prove to be a big one (strike 2 if you're keeping score.) btw...he now has some bland post about coupons - comments ZERO, trackbacks ZERO - to hide the previous two.

David at Logic + Emotion is going to take Godin off his blogroll and I'd suggest you do the same. Let's see how long Godin can hold his breath without the support of the community he just shunned.