The 4-Hour Workweek - Behind the Meme

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

Comments

[Nirav Mehta]

Interesting analysis! I never thought Tim caught on so fast! But it is certainly an illustration of the power of blog world. There are lessons here of course - and you summarize them very well!

Thank you!

[Morten K. Holst]

I feel, I'm going to like this series.

Although it would be nice to have the charts adjusted so they would be easier to compare. I couldn't understand how more people talked about the author rather than the book (since I've only read about the latter), but then I looked at the values.. you get the idea.

[Chris Stroud]

I recently read The Four Work Week and their were some interesting ideas. The one major one I applied to my life is I outsourced a lot of my grunt work for my company. I currently have a Virtual assistants handling all of my customer service emails and billing info. It was good read.

[Tinu Abayomi-Paul]

... "reduce the need for email, meetings, phone calls"- OK I'm sold. I'm literally going to get the audiobook from iTunes right now.

[Mark Rose]

How many hours does it take to read the book that will shave 15 hours a week off your work load? Some of this sounds very doable, some a matter of personal PR - how 'distant' do you want to appear. This sounds cool. Let's follow MSM and see how they pick up on this.

[Mousefinger]

The main thing I did to ease my on-line work load was to hire people to reply to blog posts.

[Todd]

The popularity of this book is absolutely amazing. It could be a case study for outstanding book PR?

[TSUFIT]

Steve,
Awesome rundown on the Tim Ferriss Blogathon! Since I'm releasing my debut bestseller (never hurts to think positively) April 2008, exactly a year after Tim's, I've been researching how he did it and was happy to find your analysis. With graphs yet. Not too shabby!
Question: Any idea how Tim got 5 minutes on stage?
Tsufit
http://www.secretsfromthespotlight.com

[Perfect Life Project]

Steve,

You have documented this really well. I discovered 4HWW through early blog buzz and have watched it take off into the stratosphere. The book is a fantastic manual for creating the life you want and one that i have used as part of my Perfect Life Project. Tim's ideas really work.

[Andy Lopata]

Tim's experience in getting the 'buzz' going about his book is a great one to learn from.

Two years ago, my co-author and I attempted a similar campaign which resulted in our book '...and Death Came Third!' (www.deathcamethird.com) reaching Number 2 on Amazon.co.uk within hours of its launch.

Even such a short time ago, the blogosphere didn't carry the influence it does now. Instead we encouraged personal contacts, key influencers amongst networkers and small businesses across the UK, to tell their networks about the book. We received promises of reach of over 200,000 people.

With the launch of a second edition planned for next year, and hopes for a more global reach for the book, successes such as Tim's show us that it can be possible to achieve similar, or greater, success a second time around.

[Karen Kelly]

Steve,
This is a great blog. One success (a word I know Ferriss doesn't like) aspect of T4HWW that often goes unsaid is its killer title. Never underestimate the power of a great title. The 80/20 rule applies to books and their titles, especially non fiction. Eighty percent of a nonfiction book's success can be due to its title and concept, or to its brand, if it has one. "T4HWW" is immediate and plays into a fantasy many people who work in offices respond to. One of the surprising things I learned about T4HWW was that it took him 2 years to write - although it is more difficult to write something short than to write something long. My book, THE SECRET OF THE SECRET (also on the short end, at just under 60,000 words) had to be researched and written in 6 weeks. When the publisher came to me and asked me to write it, they said that time was of the essence. They also promised a bonus fee for getting it in on time, which I did. I interviewed more than 40 sources, went back into original historical records, and then put my argument about the "law of attraction" together in that time - including the fact that words may not necessarily be things and that physics doesn't prove the law of attraction to be true and that Einstein did not believe in the LOA. Rights were sold to 4 countries before it was published. Now it is up to me to spread the word about how good THE SECRET OF THE SECRET is. What really fascinated me about Ferriss' story is that he seems to have mastered getting to bloggers. However, I bought his book after seeing it on Amazon because of the title.
Karen Kelly
"I grow ideas into books"
www.karenkellywriter.com

[Nathan Ketsdever]

Great analysis, Steve! It seems to me that Ferriss networked with bloggers that had Technorati authority and a cult following (Darren R & 43 Folders are certainly big guns), focused on tech hacks, and included both counter-intuitive and intuitive (80/20) advice all under the rubric of "lifestyle design."

He also tacked onto ongoing memes due to globalization in both outsourcing and geo-arbitrage.

His public speaking and tricks with Digg probably helped too.

Happy holidays! It seems that your friend Rex isn't quite so Ferriss friendly...

[Rex Reed]

Wow - this is really fascinating, and something I hope to learn from as I pursue my own products in the market. In fact, I'm "all in" on the FHWW idea and started my own blog (http://www.fourhourworkweekdiary.com) to document my efforts. Wish me luck.