<p>Being a Web Developer myself, I keep finding myself thinking of new ideas of web 2.0 sites to build. And now being a Railer, it seems it gives much more power to actually build a killer web app :)</p> <p>This guy, Seth Godin, is a well-known Marketing professional and speaker. He really captures the essence in what the costumer wants in a product or service.</p> <p>The things you learn when you have a blog, or at least when you try to build a great blog on a certain subject, are probably the same things you'll use when creating a web 2.0 application. That leads to this very interesting article I found on Seth's blog, which I re-post here.</p> <p>That makes a lot of sense. After you read that book you love, where can you go to get more of that insight? The author's blog. Like, once when I read "Freakonomics" I went straight to the author's blog. I knew I could go there to keep update on the stuff he mentions in the actual book.</p> <p>37signals is leading a tribe through their <a href="http://www.37signals.com/svn/">blog</a>. In Brazi <a href="http://www.akitaonrails.com">Fabio Akita</a> and <a href="http://www.nomedojogo.com">Carlos Brando</a> for instance, are leading a tribe of passionate Rails developers.</p> <p>What tribe are you willing to lead? :)</p> <p>Without further ado, here's the article.</p> <h2>The number one secret of the great blogs</h2> <quote><a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/the-number-one.html">by Seth Godin</a></quote> <p>Every one of them leads a <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/tribesbook">tribe.</a></p> <p><a href="http://www.boingboing.net">Boingboing</a> readers recognize each other at conferences. We use the same shorthand, we recognize the same memes. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com">Huffingtonpost</a> editors don't try to reach everyone. Instead, they are hosting a digital cocktail party for invited guests that have something in common. <a href="http://www.presentationzen.com">Garr Reynolds</a> doesn't try to teach everyone about Powerpoint... instead, he leads a tribe of people committed to changing the way the world communicates in meetings.</p> <p>Go down the list. <a href="http://www.gapingvoid.com">Hugh</a> leads a tribe.<a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/"> <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Josh</span></a><a href="http://www.jaffejuice.com">&nbsp;</a> leads a tribe. So does <a href="http://www.twistimage.com/blog/">Mitch.</a> And <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reality-Check-Outsmarting-Outmanaging-Outmarketing/dp/1591842239/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1226579258&amp;sr=1-2">Guy,</a> who just wrote a book for his tribe too. It's not hard to <a href="http://www.flowerdust.net/">find</a> other <a href="http://www.startupnation.com/">examples</a> for my thesis.</p> <p>In each case, the function of the blog is to be a standard bearer, the north star that tribe members can point to as a place to meet or for ideas to circle around. The blog isn't about the writer, it's about the readers.</p> <p>The key takeaway is this: once you realize that your job is to find and connect and lead a tribe, to give them something to talk about and a place to go, it's a lot easier to write a blog that works.</p> 30 2008-11-14T18:24:24Z 4 the-secret 2008-11-14T18:24:24Z