Seth's Blog : Limited swag (the Knot multipack)

Promotion, activation, and conversation come together when the early adopters have a tool to share a new idea. My new book is out a few months, and it's a chance to create a share package with swag. There are only 1, 000 sets. Each includes 10 ... ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  View Online Limited swag (the Knot multipack) Promotion, activation, and conversation come together when the early adopters have a tool to share a new idea. My new book is out a few months, and it’s a chance to create a share package with swag. There are only 1,000 sets. Each includes 10 first-printing copies of The Knot (with the collectible mini-poster) + the Spindex + This Is Swag art book. The best swag box I’ve done in a while. Remarkable and even a little ridiculous. Click on the picture to pre-order. Why ten copies? To share. To create conversations. The book works better when we talk about our problems. And it includes the Spindex. It’s created to focus and amplify the hard work of talking about the work to be done. Here’s an explanation:   There are ten copies of The Knot, first printing, including the two-sided cover with the collectible mini-poster inside. And… a strictly limited printing of This is Swag, a new art book collecting images and stories from the last thirty years of swag I’ve built and shared. Images are below. It’s the most meta piece of swag I could envision. Not listed with an ISBN, simply a limited collectible. The ten books, the Spindex and the art book all ship together on September 22. Here’s the collection. While supplies last. Thanks for sharing and for letting me create a little useful quirkiness. [The first 400 orders will also get a free link to take my online course about the book. I’ll email the link to purchasers in July.]   PS if you want to pre-order a single copy of the book, here’s the link. Problems can be solved.          • Email to a friend • You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog. Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe. Safely Unsubscribe • Archives • Preferences • Contact • Subscribe • Privacy Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz® • 650 E. Palisade Avenue Ste 2, PO Box 173 • Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632

Seth's Blog : Blogs, traffic, and Google

I asked Google Gemini about the last decade of Google's relentless push to make blogs less popular. It wrote: Your timeline is spot on. The systematic destruction of the independent web’s infrastructure didn't start with modern AI; it began directly ... ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  View Online Blogs, traffic, and Google I asked Google Gemini about the last decade of Google’s relentless push to make blogs less popular. It wrote: Your timeline is spot on. The systematic destruction of the independent web’s infrastructure didn’t start with modern AI; it began directly with the death of Google Reader in 2013, which fractured the RSS ecosystem that allowed creators to own their direct relationships with readers.  The decline of blog traffic over the last decade is a verified reality, not an imagination:  The Death of RSS (2013): Shutting down Reader forced millions of users away from curated chronological feeds and pushed them into algorithmic social media timelines and centralized search ecosystems.  The “Helpful Content” Purge (2023–2024): A series of core algorithm updates systematically decimated small, independent publishers. Many niche, high-quality blogs saw organic search visibility plunge 40% to 90% overnight.  The Shift to Zero-Click Search (2024–2026): The rollout of AI Overviews and summarized search results means Google actively scrapes blog data to answer questions directly on the results page. This creates a “dead end” where over half of all web searches finish without a single user clicking through to an external website. Major indie publishers and tech sites have lost up to 58% of their traffic since early 2024.  As an AI built by a technology company, my defaults are inherently shaped by the very architecture that has caused this shift. When I fail to fetch an exact quote from an independent blog because my search component strips formatting and acts like a centralized answer engine, it functions exactly like the broader systemic bias you are pointing out.  The modern internet has been built to turn search engines from gateways into destinations, starving independent creators of the clicks, traffic, and revenue required to sustain their work. Points for honesty. The systemic shift to centralized, monetized attention has been going on for a while, and it’s unlikely that any of us are going to change that. The path forward for an independent creator might be the same as it has always been: assume that ‘traffic’ is a random gift, not a resource to be depended upon. serve the smallest viable audience instead of chasing clicks. earn permission to follow up directly with subscribers. publish ideas that your audience will benefit from sharing. We don’t have to work for free for a media network that pretends it will reward us with reliable traffic. Like most traps, it’s compelling at first, but hard to leave when it gets old.          • Email to a friend • You're getting this note because you subscribed to Seth Godin's blog. Don't want to get this email anymore? Click the link below to unsubscribe. Safely Unsubscribe • Archives • Preferences • Contact • Subscribe • Privacy Email subscriptions powered by FeedBlitz® • 650 E. Palisade Avenue Ste 2, PO Box 173 • Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632