I found the book to be full of ideas that had a virus.

For example, on page 29, under the heading "Seven Ways An Ideavirus Can Help You" #6 says, When the demo recording you made becomes a best seller on MP3.com and you get a call from Sony, who wants to give you a recording contract.

Poor sentence construction aside, how hard did Seth have to work was that to think up that idea?

Back up to page 27 and you'll find six "key steps for Internet companies looking to build a virus". #2 says, Have the idea behind your online experience go viral, bring you a large chunk of the group you're targeting without haveing to spend a fortune advertising the new service.

Now that's a revelation. It's kind of like the joke, "Do you want to know the easiest way to become a millionaire? First, get a million dollars."

On page 141 we're counseled, "One of the best ways to facilitate adoption of your ideavirus is to find a bestseller list that makes sense and then dominate it."

Further down we're given insight into some not so novel ways of how to stuff the ballot box. How do you artificially boost the bestseller status of files for download on the Web? Download the file over and over again, increasing the counter of how often it has been downloaded.

Want to launch a new liquor? Pay the bar to post a bestselling drinks list. "Now, bribe enough folks to go in and buy themselves a drink."

While this may not be the most ethical advice it's certainly not new. Ask the folks at Heineken how they got to be the number one beer import way back in the 50's.

The book of course has some high points and it is a fun read at times but don't look for any breakthrough ideas here or else you just might get sick.

38 of 41 found the following review helpful:


Virus Killer  Oct 03, 2000 By Dale A. Brill
Hats off to the author for practicing what he preaches. "Free" was exactly what I needed to engage in this virtual buy-in. I regret that I just couldn't buy the concepts.

I'll limit my criticism to three issues. First, I can only conclude from the author's logic that every successful product/service is an ideavirus. On page 36 he introduces the OXO brand vegetable peeler as an ideavirus. Others include Polaroid brand instant cameras, Carmine's Restaurant, Beanie Babies, Moser Furniture and Tommy Hilfiger. If it's popular and a lot of people want it-which of course makes folks talk about it-you've got yourself an ideavirus. According to the author, the difference between this and word-of-mouth promotion is (1) the transmission medium and (2) the duration. He says, "...word of mouth tends to spread slower, be more analog....word of mouth dies off" (p. 31). These differences seem arbitrary--at least underdeveloped--however true to the pervasive obsession with things digital. The entire book would be easier to handle if the author didn't try to apply the concepts to every ostensibly successful venture.

Second, wholesale advertising bashing, which can be found in "Permission Marketing," appears again. The lockstep mantra equating marketing with advertising is unfortunate. The author's exuberance served as an early-and unnecessary-inoculation to the ideavirus.

Third, while the author never pretends that the foundational concepts upon which he draws are his original ideas, my academic training makes it difficult to quietly accept the lack of attention to the original authors and works from which this "manifesto" is really created. Godin defines a manifesto as "a powerful, logical `essay' that assembles a bunch of existing ideas and creates a new one" (page 13). I believe creating a new manifesto is better served when the old manifestos are acknowledged with sufficient detail. Indeed, many missing concepts from original works would have improved the ideavirus. Rather than just pulling a graph from the 1990's work by Geoffrey Moore, decades of insight on the adoption curve could have been drawn upon from any of Everett Rogers' books, most recently the fifth edition of his "Diffusion of Innovations." Rogers and other researchers detail the characteristic differences between innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. Godin lumps together the first two adoption groups and obscures helpful knowledge related to the "chasm" that an ideavirus must traverse. Also, competitive advantage concepts can be traced to Michael Porter and beyond. Positioning concepts used in the ideavirus can be traced at least to Trout and Ries; and branding to David Aaker and others. I realize Godin never intended to write a dissertation, but even a little homework may have put some meat on this skeletal work.

Seth Godin is to be admired. He's mastered much and has the track record to prove his prowess. I openly admit my dot.com envy. My general problem with this book and others like it is that it feeds on the hype of the global digital obsession only to deliver the same one-dimensional perspective that preceded the current reality check now hitting the dot.com world.

NOTE: Page references taken from the .PDF version.

15 of 15 found the following review helpful:


Very Disappointed  Feb 26, 2004
I am not sure what book others read, but this book was aweful. It is unfortunate because the concept is interesting. The execution, however, is best described as a literary train wreck.

Afer reviewing this book and looking at these reviews, I think that the author/publisher, applied some of the concepts in the book to mis-lead people looking for real reviews.

One of the concepts discussed in the book is to pay people to spead your idea/virus, so that others will become interested, purchase your product. There is clearly a disconnect between many of these reviews and the actual execution of the book itself. In fact, I have never seen such a huge disconnect. I find it difficult to believe that it is only a matter of a difference of opinion based on my experiences with other reviews.

Not only is it poorly organized, but the information presented as fact is sometimes clearly wrong (referencing the Prius example used in the book) and recommendations are taken out of context. Proposing solutions without framing them in real-world business context (that is factually accurate) is worthless. Answers work ONLY in the context in which they are applied.

I would strongly recommend that you don't buy this book or waste the time to read it. Far better books are on the market dealing with marketing solutions.

(This is my first review. I decided to write it to counter some of the oddly positive reviews written by others. If you read these reviews, you will have a better understanding of what the author is trying to say. Some of the reviewers have completed a better, more efficient explanation of the concept in less than 1000 words than the author could do in an entire book.)

28 of 33 found the following review helpful:


Great Concept, but "Tell a Friend" Feature Has a Flaw  Sep 17, 2000 By Anne M. Marble "Anne"
When I started reading this book, I was ready to be suspicious of the concept of the ideavirus. I downloaded it because it was free, and that made it attractive to me. As I read the book, though, I realized that the ideas are common sense. It hit home the first time I signed up for PayPal -- one of the best examples of an ideavirus.

In fact, now that I have read "Unleashing the Ideavirus," I can spot mistakes made by Internet-based companies. For example, companies that change the rules in midstream are doomed to lose business.

While Seth Godin loves the idea of the "Tell a Friend" feature, I think it has one flaw he forgot to address. Some people are afraid to enter their friends' e-mail addresses because they don't want their friends to get spam. While many companies don't sell those addresses, some do. Until more companies learn the importance of privacy, I will be reluctant to use the "Tell a Friend" feature.

My other complaint was that the book gets repetitive in some spots. Certain ideas are repeated so often that I started skimming those pages.

Anne M. Marble -- All About Romance

9 of 9 found the following review helpful:


Seth takes credit for Memetics  May 29, 2001
I picked this book up to see if there were any new ideas under the sun. At first I read along hoping to see some original thought on marketing ideas. I quickly realized I had heard of this 'ideavirus' concept before, only it was called memes before.

The book makes a very sloppy stab at translating the science of Memetics into a 'revolutionary' marketing strategy. This would be fine had it succeeded. A workable introduction into the marketing implication of Memetics would be a very valuable tool to anyone trying to propogate an idea. However this book fails in accomplishing that goal. As it stands the book simply creates a feeble representation of Memetics, rebrands it as the 'ideavirus' and proclaims the author as head of a revolutionary new marketing technology.

I started hoping to find some new ideas under the sun. This was not to be. The book earned its place, and that place is where the sun don't shine.

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