Marketing Your Startup. Any comments?

Here's a counter-example to this idea. I made justoneclubcard.com a few years ago. I think it's a clever idea and useful to a lot of people. I even get emails all the time from people telling me how great they think it is.

But it is rare that people spread the word to other people i.e., very little traffic comes from email websites, small blogs, or directly typing in the URL. Instead almost all of the traffic comes from lifehack type websites discovering it and linking to it.

So in my case I don't see the specific p2p type word of mouth he talks about. I think that only applies to certain products where you actually want your friends to use the same product as you e.g., "dude, you've got to get a myspace account".

What do you guys think?

Excellent article, and the illustrations do a fantastic job of visualizing your points.

I agree with your assertion, by the way. However, it does take something 'extra' (the "if you really want to spend money" part at the bottom) to make something into a total social phenomenon. That said, I still believe the magic sauce could be inventing something that is just so downright amazing (ex.: a perpetual motion machine) that people (and the news) must talk about it. That is the dream-stricken inventor in me, at least.

This is a good article with a interesting point of view. I would simply add that sometimes a great product sitting in my development environment or hidden from the world is worthless. You have to consider even a minimal amount of effort in getting your viral marketing started. Hopefully the theory focused on by the article will save you tons in marketing expenses once it gets going.

The graphical depictions are actually very good at explaining this concept. Great article.

I disagree that traditional marketing is useless.

Marketing is and always will be very real and very effective.