Too much choice can paralyze. Send a tired person into Borders for a half hour and he will scan a bunch of stuff, feel fatigued and overwhelmed, and walk out with nothing except a newspaper and the vague urge to return later.

Dr. Barry Schwartz, in his exceptional TED presentation, explains the paradox of choice (also, the title of his book on this subject). His warns that too much choice:

1. Creates paralysis, which is the decision not to buy any CD out of the thousands for sale, and

2. Destroys satisfaction, because a choice however perfect, suffers if compared against too many alternatives.

Dr. Schwartz’s ideas further illustrate how too much choice destroys satisfaction:

1. Regret and anticipated regret: this CD is good, but I know there was a better one that I didn’t buy.

2. Opportunity cost: maybe what I really wanted was a book.

3. Escalating expectations: with so many choices, I’m sure one must be awesome.

4. Self blame: since I picked a CD that was only good, I made a mistake and could have picked a better one.

In Almost Famous, Lester Bangs actually addresses the issue of choice. To quote:

Here’s a theory for you to disregard completely. Music, you know true music, not just Rock & Roll, chooses you. It lives in your car, or alone listening to your head phones, with the vast scenic bridges and angelic choirs in your brain. It’s a place apart from the vast, benign laugh of America.

In aggregate, the contents of a near-by Borders is Lester Bang’s vast, benign laugh of America. A person is lost there. A fan, someone for whom the music has been chosen, is apart from that consequence of too much choice, that laughing vastness.

How can an author or musician change his relationship with that person walking into Borders?

Dennis Hope, the new band manager for Stillwater, recognizes the answer when he agrees (“truly, respectfully”) with Russell Hammond’s statement, “it’s not about the money, it’s about music and turning people on.”

Turning people on. Creating relationships. Or to again quote Seth Godin, “turning strangers into friends and friends into customers.”

How? Drip on people. How? Web sites are extraordinary tools for this interplay of permission and dripping. Readers choose to go to a web site. They volunteer, and should be rewarded. Seth coaxes out minor permission and then nurtures that slim focus to a broader relationship.

On Seth’s web site, he creates timely commentary and fresh thinking. He’ll point out other interesting work. It’s a place where he and his readers recognize a mutual interest. He turns web surfers into audience members.

And when he has a new book, he can explain its value calmly and succinctly without distraction, without the presence of alternatives. He has eliminated the paradox of choice. Instead he can say, “there are four reasons my book is great, would you like to buy it?”

That question is a yes/no question. It is simple choice without the explicit challenges that Dr. Schwartz details above. That is a powerful change. It’s good for the audience. It’s good for the author.

———
Comments on Almost Famous:

When Lester Bangs and William Miller first talk, they are walking up a hill. Because, well, William has a hill to climb, yet.

Lester Bangs describes the record labels constant efforts to glorify rock stars as the “Industry of Cool.” Doesn’t walking into Borders or browsing Amazon feel kind of like going to Coolapalooza?

———
This concludes Part 6 of:

All I Needed To Know About The Value Of The Web I Learned From Russell Hammond

Or

Why Merlin Mann Should Write, Fear & Loathing At The Algonquin Round Table.

Earlier Parts:
The Halo Effect
Merlin mann Is Emily Rugburn
All Halo Merlin Mann
Feather Boas, Yeah!
Enter A New Manager: Seth Godin

The Halo Effect is one part branding, two parts permission seeking, and many parts authenticity. The Halo Effect is the means of brightening your presence in the minds of your audience so that when you have something you want them to buy, they are maximally disposed to purchase. It’s what Merlin Mann does so well. We’ll talk more about Merlin later.

Instead, one more scene from Almost Famous:

Dick Roswell, Band Manager: Well, it seems the rumors were true, the record company has sent a big time manager here to try to talk you into replacing me. His name is Dennis Hope. I know you’ve all heard of him. He’s got all the big bands. And he’s outside right now, and he wants 5 minutes with you. And I, well, I think we’ve got to do this.

Russell Hammond: Well send him in.

Jeff Bebe: Yeah. Bring him in. We’ll send him out on a rail.

Seth Godin is the Dennis Hope of my story. He has a great body of work that provides significant insight into how an artist leverage the web. Seth Gogin is my replacement. I was just the old friend and hack band manager.

The Dennis Hope scene continues:

Russell Hammond: We already have a manager. [Thanks for the support]

Dennis Hope: Respectfully. We all have our roots. I believe in bands holding on to their roots. Those roots need to be augmented. Your manager here, needs a manager. [Unfortunately, I do]

Seth Godin wrote the book, Permission Marketing. Its subtitle is, “turning strangers into friends and friends into customers.” Doesn’t that sound exactly what a band or an author should do? I will quote the book for this piece. Please do me and Seth the courtesy of buying it. Here is the link on Seth’s website.

As if requested, he updated his blog with a summary of Permission Marketing. A quote:

Permission is like dating. You don’t start by asking for the sale at first impression. You earn the right, over time, bit by bit.

One of the key drivers of permission marketing, in addition to the scarcity of attention, is the extraordinarily low cost of dripping to people who want to hear from you. RSS and email and other techniques mean you don’t have to worry about stamps or network ad buys every time you have something to say. Home delivery is the milkman’s revenge… it’s the essence of permission.

Seth Godin is Dennis Hope, and he has chartered a plane.

———
Some points on Almost Famous.

Jeff Bebe is the frontman of Stillwater, and therefore the frontman for Rock & Roll. He greets Dennis Hope by remaining prone on the couch. He won’t even sit up. Dennis gives his awesome permission seeking, “respectfully” speech, a stirring affirmation of the power of professional management. By the end, Jeff Bebe has fully sat up. He expresses complete agreement with Dennis Hope even if it means abandoning Dolores, their bus - the home and soul of the band.

Dennis Hope gets them to abandon Dolores, which is brilliant:

dolorous |ˈdōlərəs|
adjective poetic/literary
feeling or expressing great sorrow or distress.

———
This concludes Part 5 of:

All I Needed To Know About The Value Of The Web I Learned From Russell Hammond

Or

Why Merlin Mann Should Write, Fear & Loathing At The Algonquin Round Table.

Earlier Parts:
The Halo Effect
Merlin mann Is Emily Rugburn
All Halo Merlin Mann
Feather Boas, Yeah!

Seth Godin wrote yet another pithy, insightful blog post. This time about marketing on the internet. His insight:

I think there are two strategies that are shaping up online.

The first: burn your permission. Every time you have something to sell, either buy enough ads on popular sites to achieve frequency, or just burn out your core base by repeating your message over and over again. At least you’ll make enough money to be able to rebuild your audience later.

The second: go easy on the frequency and embrace your audience. Give them what they want (interesting, new stuff) instead of what you need (frequency). Play for the long run.

You chose plan-b, right? Now that you have the marketing stuff down pat, what next?

If you provide content frequently, and embrace the audience, interacting in fresh, enlivened ways, then you can and should express how a relationship works. Tell them what you think is fair, and give them the means to honor a shared sense of fairness.

A donate button, or $20 tee shirt, or better, some form of exclusive content. Something simple and impulsive mixed in with more traditional offers of content in classic form, sold only after several clicks and perhaps a journey to another site.

I know the instinctive retort is, “well, they can just go buy my book, or my CD.” Maybe they will. Still, make contributing as easy as possible because some of them will. Leaving your audience uneasy with a vague sense of obligation really isn’t easy, or fair.

Seth, please stop bogarting all the insightful, smart ideas. Thanks.

Earlier post inspired by Seth: Promote, Well Defined

Seth Godin writes brilliantly insightful stuff. I highly recommend his blog. He articulates the concept of promotion with striking clarity:

Nobody says, “That Yo Yo Ma, he’s so self-promotional,” or, “can you believe what a self-promoter the Dalai Lama is?” That’s because they’re not promoting themselves. They’re promoting useful ideas. They’re promoting tactics or products that actually benefit the person they’re reaching out to.

Paris Hilton is a self-promoter. You don’t get any benefit out of her appearances other than temporary entertainment value and some schadenfreude.

I wish I had written that.

Promotion is a simple, and often repetitive, declaration of benefit. It is an act of branding. I might promote this blog - pwnership.com - in the following manner:

Pwnership. Pithy commentary about the internet and the Artist. Insight wrapped with humor, a sense of hope and possibility. Artists can find validation and income on the web. Pwnership.com discusses how.