The Incomplete Guide

I just finished reading Seth Godin’s Incomplete Guide to Blogs titled “Who’s There?” It’s a free e-book that’s worth a read through if you’ve got 15 minutes or you don’t know much of anything about blogging.

There are a number of points on which I disagree with him, however.

Seth contends a number of times in the e-book that big media is dead on its feet (how the hell do you link to spots within a pdf file, anyway?) I guess I’ll take one more opportunity to link to my version of why big media is here to stay.

I’ll also point out, since it’s related, that he quotes his “most popular blog post ever” about how Small is the new big. I disagree.

Small has been in for a while, this is true. But big is still here, and still important. Seth cites a number of smaller companies that experience a lot more growth than bigger companies, but as Jason Calcanis notes, smaller companies are supposed to see a lot more growth than large companies. This is true in web and real life.

Seth also mentions that small companies outsource manufacture or related work to (guess what? not large? yes, large) companies who can leverage their economies of scale to produce the goods that smaller companies lack the resources to produce. And most of these products (say CD production) only really work in mass quanitites. Try running a small-time business producing CDs.

In short, large has it’s advantages. And large is still needed. So yes—I’d rather be the head of UPS than Craigslist (just think of what I could do to the UPS web presence!).

I also disagree with him on comments. He likes to use trackbacks because it reduces anonymity and generates links. I think the anonymity of comments can be an advantage—everyone’s ashamed of an opinion or two, and besides, sometimes you get flamed and there’s something valid in the comment.

Beyond that, I come from a place where comments=love (livejournal), and I’m very attached to the idea of having people contribute directly to a post via the comments. It’s always easier to read something without having to click five times. It facilitates discussion.

Seth divided blogs into three categories: cat blogs, boss blogs, and viral blogs. I’m not sure it all fits that neatly, and I wish he’d found a name with better connotations than “viral blogs” (since that’s where I fit best).

I should just write my own damn e-book…

But regardless, it’s a good read. Especially if you’ve been looking for a good 101 on why blogging is cool, important, and fun. Download it here.

(EDIT: Clearly, I also disagree with his “keep it short” ultimatum).