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Blog of mouth

20 Jan 2005 by Jason Fried

A few weeks ago I posted about the power of blog-based marketing and today I have some more news to report.

In just the first 24 hours of operation, and just through blog word-of-mouth (and subsequent real word of mouth), over 2500 people have signed up for Ta-da List accounts. We haven’t even sent out a note to our few-thousand strong mailing list. 2500 accounts started from a single blog post on SvN. And then more blogs took note. And the beat goes on.

It amazes me how this network operates.

24 comments so far (Post a Comment)

20 Jan 2005 | Jamie said...

That's great! You'll have to keep us posted on how many convert over to Basecamp.

20 Jan 2005 | Dysfunksional.Monkey said...

While a good method of advertising, its not that good if you don't get many visitors, or more specifically, many A/B-list blogging visitors.

20 Jan 2005 | chr said...

word-of-mouse. nice one!

20 Jan 2005 | waylman said...

Currently 276 del.icio.us links and growing. Wow, that sure was fast. Although is certainly dwarfts the 2500 acounts. Word of mouth always was the best (a cheapest) marketing tool.

20 Jan 2005 | waylman said...

er ... dwarfed by the 2500 acounts. D'oh! (Is amazing how just a few missing letters can change the whole meaning.)

20 Jan 2005 | Tiziano said...

That's the power of blogs.

20 Jan 2005 | ~bc said...

What's truly funny is that NNW got the feed for this post all of 20seconds before your (list) email hit my inbox. But I had already signed up anyhow... Enjoying... wish I could cut and paste that code into my personal, around-the-house blog... I think the best I could do is set up an in-page aggregator to grab the rss feed, and then post a link on there for me to edit the lists...

20 Jan 2005 | Mark said...

"That's the power of blogs."

The power of blogs, or the power of 37 Signals PR machine / reputation?

If the unknown 36 Dustbunnies had created this tool and announced it on their blog, would anyone in the b'sphere have taken notice? Or at least as much notice?

Doubtful.

20 Jan 2005 | JF said...

If the unknown 36 Dustbunnies had created this tool and announced it on their blog, would anyone in the b'sphere have taken notice? Or at least as much notice?

Sure they would. Build a great product, get it in front of the right people, and folks will notice and spread the word. It's never been easier.

20 Jan 2005 | Mark said...

"...get it in front of the right people..."

No argument there. That's the key to any good PR effort. Getting your product in the face of your connectors and mavens as Malcolm Gladwell might phrase it.

37 Signals has obviously built a strong following of connectors and mavens, that's why you can release stuff and it's an instant hit. Of course, you have the quality working for you as well.

If 36 Dustbunnies doesn't yet have their sneezer network setup to spread their ideavirus, thery're not going to have the same success as you, becuase they don't have the reputation (yet) or following.

I maintain it's a powerful PR we're seeing here more so than the power of blogs alone.

20 Jan 2005 | Will Hayworth said...

Also note that there's no mention of Ta-Da on the Basecamp or 37S homepages!

Pretty impressive ad-hoc marketing.

20 Jan 2005 | Darrel said...

Sure they would. Build a great product, get it in front of the right people, and folks will notice and spread the word. It's never been easier.

The catch is getting it in front of the right people. 37sig is blessed with a popular blog and a target demographic that is very attuned to both web development and world of blogs.

So, yea, it's a great marketing tool when targetting that specific market.

20 Jan 2005 | Ryan Mahoney said...

Yeah, I'm going to have to agree that the success has little to do with the fact that it was posted in a blog and a lot to do with the fact that this is a highly trafficed website that a lot of people read daily (hourly!). Obviosly, having a well written blog is a major part of the strenth of 37S brand/image... but if the average person/mini-company posted a blog entry about a new product, only their mother would know about it ;)

20 Jan 2005 | Brad said...

Dang, I just tried to register the domain 36dustbunnies.com but it's already taken!

20 Jan 2005 | Don Schenck said...

For Sale: 36dustbunnies.

No ... not the domain ... I have 36 dust bunnies under my bed.

:-)

TaDa, Basecamp, 43Things, etc etc they all are good examples of - I'm sorry to use the buzzword - good viral marketing.

I'm trying to get my business blog "out there", and it's difficult. So, I'm impressed by Jason, et al.

20 Jan 2005 | Brad said...

Don, I'm disappointed in you. Only 36 dustbunnies under the bed? You can do better than that.

20 Jan 2005 | MrBlank said...

Add waxy.org to the list of linkers.

http://www.waxy.org/links/

21 Jan 2005 | John Zeratsky said...

I am curious: Did you guys contact any bloggers directly to tell them about Ta-da?

21 Jan 2005 | paul haine said...

So, of those 2,500, how many do you think will have just signed up to see what all the fuss was about, shrugged their shoulders, and will never return to it again?

21 Jan 2005 | Kim (Cre8pc) said...

Don't forget the power of forums. I caught your blog feed, and posted the news of the To Do list at Cre8asiteforums.com...

21 Jan 2005 | Jonny Roader said...

"So, of those 2,500, how many do you think will have just signed up to see what all the fuss was about, shrugged their shoulders, and will never return to it again?"

I see what your saying, but JF's point is about marketing and not product quality.

21 Jan 2005 | Jonny Roader said...

...*you're* saying...

26 Jan 2005 | Don Schenck said...

Thanks, jean, for adding your intelligent comments to this discussion. Do us all a favor and get dysentery.

For a month.

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