In my Technical Blogging book I wrote the following on marketing:
--
Correct a Self-Sabotaging Mindset
--
Marketing is bullshit. Marketing is evil. Marketing is everything that’s wrong
with this world. Marketing is the root of all evil. Marketers should be shot.
I have heard all these statements—and plenty more like them.
If you agree with any of them, you are not alone in your dislike of marketing.
I’ve found that technical people, particularly programmers, tend to have a
strong hatred for marketing.
Antimarketing stances stem partly from bad experiences with manipulative
marketers and partly from a misunderstanding of what marketing actually
is.
Wikipedia defines marketing in this way:
"Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers and what strategy to use in sales, communications, and business development."
At its core, marketing is about connecting people to solutions. For example,
some people may have an interest in buying an environmentally friendly car.
Good marketing involves identifying this segment of the population, then
devising a strategy to let that portion of the population know about the existence
of your brand-new hybrid car and its benefits (in a style and manner
that will appeal to them).
Though the ultimate goal is to sell a car, marketing isn’t about convincing
people who are not interested in your product to buy it. It’s about exposing
the right product to the right audience. Done correctly and in an ethical
manner, it’s possible to promote without deceiving, manipulating, or forcing
people to spend their hard-earned money on goods they don’t want or need.
It’s important to understand that marketing is so much more than just
advertising. Marketing encompasses countless aspects of your product,
including what you name it before it even exists.
If you still feel that marketing is mostly evil, I encourage you to reflect on the
forms of marketing you already do, perhaps without even realizing that they’re
marketing. Ever applied for a new job? Or dated someone? While you probably
didn’t misrepresent yourself with your future employer or partner by blatantly
lying, you still wore nice clothes and tried to showcase your favorable traits.
In doing so you were marketing yourself.
In blogging, the aim of your marketing is to reach as many people who are
potentially interested in your content as possible. As we’ll see in future
chapters, you may also have related additional goals, such as promoting
yourself professionally, marketing yours and other people’s products, and so
on.
Like all tools, marketing can be used for good or in unethical, obnoxious ways.
In this book, I advocate only white-hat marketing techniques that will get
your content in front of the people who need to see it. So if you are the
stereotypical antimarketing developer, please approach the rest of the chapter
with an open mind. I promise that you won’t have to sell your soul.
no offense...but you couldn't even reply to him without marketing your book? this also occurred in the OP, where you get to the bottom of his post and it's revealed that the whole thing was supposed to get you interested in his book. this is why i fucking hate marketing. nothing is genuine, everything has an ulterior motive. it destroys peoples' authenticity and trustworthiness.
Really? He answered his parents' question by providing some content from his book that was very relevant to it. He then says that if you're still interested in knowing more, you could buy/get his book. Would you have wanted him to give it for free? Would you rather have he didn't inform him that a book existed that focused on this problem?....
well, this is the point. his intentions are thrown into question. was he simply being helpful, giving advice, and mentioning the title of the book if the parent wanted to get more information? or was he craftily building trust with a helpful comment, enticing the parent into buying his book? who's to say?
real gifts are given unconditionally, with no expectation of anything in return. if you can simply give advice with no marketing, plugging, or bullshit, it shows your intentions are pure. you expect nothing and simply want to better someone else's life. when you market to me, i have to assume that you are using me to make money.
people have to eat out here, but there is an appropriate time and place for marketing your services and products. when you blur the line between who you are as a businessman and who you are as a person, you are severely tarnishing your character imo. (not that the comment was even that bad, but i'm talking about marketing in general)
was he craftily building trust with a helpful comment, enticing the parent into buying his book? who's to say?
There's nothing wrong with charging for goods and services. If someone needs something, and I provide it, it's totally ethical to get some money for that. It's still 100% possible to use good judgement and "simply want to better someone else's life" without throwing your morals to the wind.
People can make businesses out of things they are really passionate about, and things that other people really need. It's not necessary to have any line between "you" and "businessperson you". If you want to be a good businessperson, you must first be a good human being.
> was he simply being helpful, giving advice, and mentioning
> the title of the book if the parent wanted to get more
> information? or was he craftily building trust with a
> helpful comment, enticing the parent into buying his book?
> who's to say?
If the comment was helpful, as you say it was, then who gives a shit?
Such is life my friend. Developing a sense of authenticity and trustworthiness is what separates good marketing from bad marketing. Being opportunistic is bad marketing. But contrast the above post with someone like patio11. We all know him, we respect him (at least I do). If anyone ever needed appointment reminder software or bingo cards, well I know where I'm sending them. That is good marketing. Patrick doesn't end his posts on HN with a sales pitch. He offers quality content, is authentic and genuine....but at the same time, the work he does in the community here is a form of "marketing".
It isn't a sales pitch. I read it as such myself, but it looks like it's just a verbatim excerpt - ".. in this book .. " can be taken as both a pitch, and a section from an introductory chapter in the book. An unfortunate coincidence.
-- Correct a Self-Sabotaging Mindset --
Marketing is bullshit. Marketing is evil. Marketing is everything that’s wrong with this world. Marketing is the root of all evil. Marketers should be shot. I have heard all these statements—and plenty more like them.
If you agree with any of them, you are not alone in your dislike of marketing. I’ve found that technical people, particularly programmers, tend to have a strong hatred for marketing.
Antimarketing stances stem partly from bad experiences with manipulative marketers and partly from a misunderstanding of what marketing actually is.
Wikipedia defines marketing in this way:
"Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers and what strategy to use in sales, communications, and business development."
At its core, marketing is about connecting people to solutions. For example, some people may have an interest in buying an environmentally friendly car.
Good marketing involves identifying this segment of the population, then devising a strategy to let that portion of the population know about the existence of your brand-new hybrid car and its benefits (in a style and manner that will appeal to them).
Though the ultimate goal is to sell a car, marketing isn’t about convincing people who are not interested in your product to buy it. It’s about exposing the right product to the right audience. Done correctly and in an ethical manner, it’s possible to promote without deceiving, manipulating, or forcing people to spend their hard-earned money on goods they don’t want or need.
It’s important to understand that marketing is so much more than just advertising. Marketing encompasses countless aspects of your product, including what you name it before it even exists.
If you still feel that marketing is mostly evil, I encourage you to reflect on the forms of marketing you already do, perhaps without even realizing that they’re marketing. Ever applied for a new job? Or dated someone? While you probably didn’t misrepresent yourself with your future employer or partner by blatantly lying, you still wore nice clothes and tried to showcase your favorable traits. In doing so you were marketing yourself.
In blogging, the aim of your marketing is to reach as many people who are potentially interested in your content as possible. As we’ll see in future chapters, you may also have related additional goals, such as promoting yourself professionally, marketing yours and other people’s products, and so on.
Like all tools, marketing can be used for good or in unethical, obnoxious ways. In this book, I advocate only white-hat marketing techniques that will get your content in front of the people who need to see it. So if you are the stereotypical antimarketing developer, please approach the rest of the chapter with an open mind. I promise that you won’t have to sell your soul.