Me and Google. That’s right – I am pulling out of China. Ok, we have no operations there and we have no customers there and… well we really had no plans of ever being there. So, why am I pulling out? As John Dvorak says: “This is all PR”. I am just hoping that someone will find this post and rescue my readership numbers and rocket me into the stratosphere. After all, I did not get picked by Leo Laporte or Stephen Colbert in the Twitter lottery – so this is my newest strategy.
You see, GoDaddy did it. They pulled out of China with Google. They don’t have any more business there than I do. But I am just lovin’ Danica Patrick and I will do anything she does. She doesn’t have anything to do with the internet, other than being fast, (actually I don’t really know that). But Bob Parsons is a great marketer and so I am with Danica and Bob and I am pulling out of China.
Danica will tell you that in car racing drafting behind the leader will save you fuel and get you in a good position to win later. This is a strategy employed in marketing too. Draft behind the big stories and boost your numbers. When I saw GoDaddy drafting behind Google my first thought was – hey, that’s pretty tricky – do you think anyone will go for that? Here is a great time to use that word “clever” when it is really not a compliment.
Really though, this brings up what I call the “Pay or Be Paid” issue. Would it be better to get paid to speak to people who want to hear you, or pay to speak to people who have never heard of you? … or sneak in the back door and jump on stage and say “Hey, I want to speak too!”