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The Galapagos Post Office

Written by: Seth Godin

Article Overview: Not sure what you can do with this story, but here you go:

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The Galapagos Post Office

Not sure what you can do with this story, but here you go:

On a deserted beach on a small island near the equator, there's a barrel and some ziploc bags. This post office has been here for more than a hundred years. It was built by whalers who needed a way to get letters home to England. The idea was that the last stop you would make on your way home was to the post office. You'd pick up whatever letters were there and bring them back to England.

I dropped two postcards in the barrel ten days ago (no stamps, of course). They arrived on Wednesday. I'm told some notes take as long as a month or two. Apparently, you can send a letter anywhere in the world and count on it showing up. There's actually a shortage of mail... more people want to carry the letters then write them.

Ideas spread in funny ways. In this case, the joy of the person who helps out by delivering the note is probably greater than that of the sender. And the story is so irresistible for both parties that it can't help but spread. By word of mouth or by blog...

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Home > Entrepreneur-Advice > Seth Godin > The Galapagos Post Office
Article Tags: deserted beach, england, equator, funny ways, galapagos, hundred years, letters home, mail, post office, postcards, stamps, whalers, word of mouth, ziploc bags

About the Author: Seth Godin
RSS for Seth's articles - Visit Seth's website

Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. Godin is author of six books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. Permission Marketing was an Amazon.com Top 100 bestseller for a year, a Fortune Best Business Book and it spent four months on the Business Week bestseller list. It also appeared on the New York Times business book bestseller list.

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Related Forum Posts
Speaking of shipping.... Speaking of shipping.... - The US Post Office raised its rates a few months ago, and it's rates for magazines has trebled, I believe, which is going to drive the small press magazine publisher out of business... Anyone deal with shippig on a regular basis, and what do you use? Your in-country regular postal service FedEx UPS DHL Freight carriers and what are your experiences with each one?
Re: Contact Information Re: Contact Information - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":2ovrkhgq] Hi Shri, I think a lot of those people are probably new to blogs or the use of online communities as they're probably more guarded against things like spam and identity theft. You mentioned that you even include a PO Box address. How important is it to have a "physical" address for people to contact you or send you stuff when you own a blog?[/quote:2ovrkhgq] Just chiming in - I've been in business for about 15 years and have had a website for about 5 or 6 and I use my Post Office box on all my promotion - online and offline. Very few people have requested a physical address. Chris
Contact Information Contact Information - I've been amazed at the number of people who have blogs and/or websites to promote and there is no contact information. What's the point of having an online presence presence if people can't get in touch with you???? I don't list my phone number or home address - but my email address and Post Office box is on every page of my websites at least once and my email address is in my blog profile. The other "fun" option is when people do provide an email address, but its out of date and inactive or they only check it every week or two. Seems that these people can't be overly serious about the product or service they are promoting. Any other thoughts??? Shri
Re: Postal Wars... Re: Postal Wars... - Hey David, I can understand your frustrations. Nice to see you're still keeping a positive attitude despite the setbacks. Looks like your high spirits paid off as the ban was lifted. Do you know what the reason was for the ban? I have similar gripes with the Post Office here. One time they lost my Clickbank check (before I convinced Clickbank to enable direct deposit for my account), and I received it two months late, only because the person it was sent to, many States away, was nice enough to mail it to me themselves. Another issue I had was shipping a small computer wireless card for a Powerbook (Mac laptop). The person never received it, so I had to buy another one and mail it again (this time with delivery confirmation, insurance, the whole nine yards). I wasn't too happy as that ate any profit I would have made. Needless to say, crap happens, and this time of year, with Christmas right around the corner and everything, delivery times are super slow as they're being jammed with mailings. Do mailings get delayed in your area as well during the holidays?
Re: Twiiter an sales Re: Twiiter an sales - Twitter is very useful for sales and marketing specially for the promotion of products and services. Do the following while active on Twitter:- 1. Follow the people having same interest 2. Post Unique and eye catching content 3. Post Images 4. Take your user name as your favorite product name or brand name. 5. Re tweet, replies and make favorite the posts 6. Create list of people interacting with you 7. Try to active at least 5 day a week.


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