partial paste of a great post by seth godin, surprisingly in 2001, funny how its just now being taken seriously, and its not too late .... we need to build a permission monopoly with our RIN users .... thats success my friend.

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So now, the good news:

Oprah Winfrey launched a magazine in the Spring. It has millions of readers, starting from zero. Probably profitable from day 1.

Stephen King wrote a book and more than 150,000 gladly paid him for a chance to read the first chapter.

Jimmy Buffet is one of the most successfully recording artists working today, and he rarely makes a record.

The answer to your monopoly problem is to create a new monopoly. I call it the Permission Monopoly.

Here's how it works:

Everyone has a limited attention span. We can't read all the books we want, listen to all the music we want, go to all the movies. So we filter. We ignore. We procrastinate. And we hide.

Have you heard the new album from Bill Frisell? Read Descarte's Error? Seen Croupier? Didn't think so. No time. Of course, if someone you trusted insisted that you spend the time to try them out, you might. Of course, if they were created by people you'd liked in the past, you'd be more likely to try them out. If you could try them out for free, you'd be more likely to try them out as well.

In the past, Tower Records or The Tattered Cover or WNEW or General Cinema was appointed (by default) as the arbiter of what we'd pay attention to. If it got played on the radio, we heard it. If it was by the cash register, we saw it. If Brandon Tartikoff liked it, we watched it.

In today's million channel universe, though, those arbiters are a lot less powerful. Now, maybe I want Slate to recommend it. Now, maybe the programmer of my internet radio station has to cue it up.

So, without powerful arbiters, it's way harder for powerful media companies to modify the marketing conversation. Way harder for ten well-funded salespeople to get shelf space everywhere that matters. Way harder for a crack PR person to get you a review in just the right publication.

What's a megalomaniac media mogul to do?

The wrong strategy, it seems to me, is to go court and try to stop the leaky bucket. It also seems like a mistake to call the authors and filmmakers and others who abandon you, "crazy" or "short-term focused" or to say, "well, they can get away with that but the others can't."

The defectors know something you don't. The defectors know that if they hurry, they can build a new monopoly, a monopoly you don't control. They know that they can build a direct and long-term relationship with the end user, one that will survive competitive incursions and will last a long time. if they hurry.

And so, learn from these folks. you should hurry. You must hurry. If you understand that the game is radically and permanently being changed, you can go out today and start building mutually beneficial relationships with your listeners/readers/watchers. You can offer these folks something of value in exchange for their attention. You can then build a new monopoly.

Imagine trying to get Bill Clinton to allow you to publish his new autobiography. What happens when you can say, "We have a permission-based relationship with 32 million Americans, all of whom look forward to hearing from us every two weeks with our hot new book offerings. And by the way, our competition doesn't even have 10 names."

What happens when you're trying to break a great new trance band, and you have permission to send the first single, by e-mail, to 600,000 kids who loved the last trance band you broke? Think that helps your career?

PLEASE NOTE: I'm talking about treating consumers the way you and other marketers have been treating them for a century. No churn and burn. No contemptuous, "we'll talk to you when we want to, otherwise keep quiet!" And no renting, buying or selling lists. No, I'm talking about treating this new client the same way you treat your most important retail account or radio station or theater owner. You don't show up at his house in the middle of the night (or if you do, you bring a big box of cubans). You don't send them e-mail spam, or call them on the phone over and over again.

You have a relationship. You understand that every interaction has to benefit BOTH of you or the relationship is over. If you're going to build a monopoly on consumer attention, you'll need to do the same thing.

Here's how I boil it down to as few words as possible:
1. Make it easy for your happy users to tell as many of their friends as possible.
2. Give away free samples early and often.
3. Get permission from anyone who likes what you do to follow up with anticipated, personal and relevant messages that benefit both of you.
4. If this requires changing what you make and what you charge for, fine.
5. If steps 1,2, 3 and 4 mess up your current business model, fine.