What you can do to spread the word about ERE

[jacob]

I'm starting this thread because more than one person has emailed me and asked me what they could do to help spread the word about ERE. (Or other kinds of words for that matter.)
Motivations may be many: Creating more like-minded people at your age for FI/RE, building robust sustainable cultures, preparing for doom, entrepreneuring, etc. (basically what's in section 1.1 of the book)
So here are some ideas
1) Facebook (tell your friends, "like" the ERE page)
2) Twitter
3) Forums (other than this one)
4) Blogs (other than this one) (could be your own, or in comments, don't spam however)
5) Goodreads (add me as a friend) or shelfari.com.
6) Amazon (reviews really help, not just amazon.com, also amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, etc. + bn.com and other places)
7) Squidoo, hubpages, etc.
8) Book clubs (if you're a member)
9) Libraries (get your library to carry the book, usually they'll have a form (online or paper) you can fill out). You can see which libraries that have procured it.
10) Bookstores (get your local bookstore to carry it, may be trickier). Coffee shops, especially in intellectual circles, like college towns, may be easier.
11) Workshops where like-minded people meet. For instance, minimalists, travelers, permaculturists, doomers, ...
12) Sympathetic people with a lot of clout. (They don't need to be famous. Maybe you know a blogger or local radio guy personally; or maybe you could "work on" that facebook friend of yours who always seem to have 30 comments on everything he/she says.)
13) School paper
14) Newspaper (maybe you know a journalist)
15) Your customers (if you want to resell the book---and have a reseller permit---you can get it at wholesale prices)
16) Bookmarks (hand them out to interested parties, leave them where allowed, include one if you sell stuff on amazon, ...)
17) Design a t-shirt (let me know if you do)
As with anything, you will have the most success if you find "virgin territory" which is "fertile". For instance, I have not talked about permaculture a lot and thus permaculture is somewhat virgin to ERE, but many things are compatible and so it is also fertile.
I would also suggest using methods you're already familiar with. If you're active on facebook, use that. If you're a goodreads veteran, use that. If you're a top 100 amazon reviewer, go that way, etc.
If you do want to make a difference, a lot of difference is made simply be doing something and doing it persistently. Out of a random group, 20% will take action and do something and out of those, 20% will do it persistently. This results in 4% which is pretty much the leader/follower ratio, that is, the influence/influenced ratio. In a sense, I'm a four-percenter. If you implement ERE in silence, you're a twenty-percenter.

[jacob]

Oi! That must have been from my "let's try to make it mainstream phase".

These days I have an entirely different approach. I now think of ERE as the top of the mountain and this forum is the guru. To maintain the quality of the message/philosophy, I therefore deliberately have a selection process that makes it harder to find. Specifically, I'm trying to optimize for "it's easy to find once/if and only if you know where to look". It's the breadcrumb approach.

This is now doable because unlike 2010, the entire Wheaton table is now populated by other bloggers, *casters, and websites---whereas in 2010 there was a huge gap between 4 and 7(*)---which makes it possible to "climb" the mountain according to one's desire for "enlightenment" or whatever we should call it.

Of course the risk is getting stuck thinking one's reached the top, e.g. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10897 ... not entirely ignoring that this is probably also the case for ERE in general because there's no saying if an even smarter "way" is not possible.

(*) YMOYL was in the doldrums and a somewhat forgotten book, not selling like hotcakes again like today.

[Tyler9000]

Yep -- I know exactly where you're coming from. Working to actively convert the masses to a non-mainstream idea invites all types of people both productive and distracting, and dealing with the resulting cacophony is exhausting. But leading by example and leaving just enough breadcrumbs that people can follow to learn more has the double benefit of building credibility and naturally filtering out those who are perfectly comfortable where they are so that they never get close enough to waste everyone's time by throwing stones at something they don't realize they don't understand. It's a fine line, but when you get it right it's way more sustainable.

I do agree that the influx of other voices in the genre has helped bridge the gap so you don't have to. That's a nice place to be.

[unemployable]

I was gonna suggest living by example.

A lot of high-Wheaton opportunities involve taking advantage of inefficiencies of others' low-Wheaton lifestyles. I'd encourage these people to keep up keeping up.

[jacob]

I actually try to avoid that [living in the waste-stream] because ultimately it won't scale.

[fiby41]

First rule of the fight club is you do not talk of the fight club.