Seth Godin's free Tribes ebook

In case you don't read Seth Godin's blog, here's a link to his post about his new ebook. It acts as a sort of companion to his new book Tribes, which launches today.

I haven't had a chance to read all of the case studies in the ebook yet, but I read a good deal of them on the Tribes site that Godin set up. He really found an amazing group of people with vast, fresh ideas, and the studies that I've read so far have been thought-provoking.

Aaaaand, because I love a shameless plug, two of the case studies were written by yours truly. Look for "Group Mind & the Improv Musical" and "The 12-Hour Geek Tribe." I would love to hear what you think, good or bad.

Free Comic Book Day 2008

In exchange for reminding him about RSS Awareness Day, my friend Kris reminded me that today we celebrate the geek holiday that is Free Comic Book Day.

My brother (pictured) and I headed down to Captain Comic in Beechmont, to see what FCBD was all about. There was a huge selection of comics that you could choose between as your freebies-- I came away with Hellboy and X-Men issues, while Bradley chose Sonic and Iron Man. (Uh, separate comics-- I don't believe there's a "Sonic and Iron Man" storyline just yet.)


And of course I felt weird about only patronizing the store for free stuff (especially because this was the mom-and-pop comic book store of my fantasies), so Bradley and I also bought a few issues. I found a series called Grimm Fairy Tales that I probably shouldn't post pictures of on this family-friendly blog, but if you're imagining a buxom Alice in Wonderland you're right on.

Lately I've come across a lot of articles about the psychology of free stuff, and how it's still one of the most effective marketing strategies out there. What do you think? Any swag pull you into a store lately, only for you to come away with a small collection of racy fairy tales?