I am starting a new semi-regular feature here called Behind the Meme. You've heard of the VH1 show Behind the Music. This is similar. Each post will take a look at a meme (e.g. an idea that spread through conversations) and how it started in the Web 2.0 sphere.
This time I am looking at Timothy Ferriss' new book, The 4-Hour Workweek. I just finished listening to the unabridged audiobook on my iPod Shuffle,which I use as my go-everywhere audiobook player. You can get it at your bookstore or on iTunes. (Some report glitches with other iPods. Word is the Audble.com version works fine.)
Even if you never plan to leave the rat race, Tim's book is outstanding and sure to be popular on beaches and iPods this summer. In it Tim describes in great detail how to use 80/20 rule, Parkinson's Law and "batching" to reduce the need for email, meetings, phone calls. This is music to minimalists and GTD fans like me.
Ferriss also talks about how to put big chunks of your life on autopilot with everything from personal outsourcing to online businesses. Some of it is applicable to everyone immediately, other parts - like selling much of what you own to go live in Argentina for a few months - are not for the faint of heart.
Tim's book hit store shelves on April 23 - just a few weeks ago. It debuted at an astounding #123 on Amazon.com and rapidly ascended the charts. As of this writing it's #21 overall. So how did Tim do it? Was he on Oprah? Did he have huge media coverage or an ad campaign to support the book? Nope. He did it all via word of mouth on blogs. (In the past Tim has outsourced his PR needs to his virtual assistants India, who he uses to book media interviews. It's in the book. Think about that!)
The following chart shows how The 4-Hour Workweek has sold since it debuted on Amazon ...
As of this writing there are exactly eight news stories about the book Google News. And some of these, like WebWorkerDaily, are blogs. That's not exactly what you would expect for a book that's ascended up the charts the way The 4-Hour Workweek has. I bet the media will pick up on this book soon.
Think about the competition too. This is the beginning of the busy summer book-selling season when everyone is looking for vacation reads. Tim is competing with everyone from Lee Iacocca's new leadership book to Don Rickels' memoir. The 4-Hour Workweek is ahead of both of these on Amazon, as well as perennial favorites Getting Things Done and The Tipping Point. Amazing for a first-timer.
So how'd he do it? By bonding with geeks like us. Tim spoke at the SXSW Conference in late March. His brief, five minute presentation set the blog world on fire. Plus, he built relationships there with lots of influencers. He also relaunched his own blog around the same time.
In April he spoke for just five minutes at the Web 2.0 Expo Ignite event. The speech was so riveting, he was invited back to the stage the next day for more. He also hooked up last month with Brian Oberkirch for a super podcast, which I highly recommend. The buzz only continued to build from there. Uber-blogger Merlin Mann, who writes the incredible 43 Folders productivity blog, picked up on the podcast, so did Problogger's Darren Rowse and the meme was off to the races.
All this buzz increased pre-orders for the book, which is why it debuted so high. Finally, earlier this month Robert Scoble got hooked and now all of his minions - myself included - are on board.
Here's a look at some incredible charts I pulled from Technorati to illustrate just how much buzz there has been for the book. The first chart shows mentions of Tim Ferriss (I used a few variations to compensate for misspellings). The second does the same for the title of the book.The lessons?
- Go where bloggers go
- Be there with a message and a story that will appeal to their interests, not yours
- Build and maintain those relationships through your own blog too
