What to do when the new thing doesn't work

Every once in a while I hear from frustrated bloggers and other new media denizens. They're frustrated that their work isn't spreading fast enough, that the new tools aren't working the way they want them to.

The kneejerk rejection is always the same: Spam! Promote! Advertise! Enough with this zen nonsense, I want to be in charge. Who can I hire? How can I spend? Who do you know? The new tools didn't work, I need the old tools.

Winning an online popularity contest, being mentioned on boingboing, doing a direct mail campaign... these things are tempting, but they are the panicked half-measures of someone who is going to lose.

From the start, you have to choose a path and stick with it. Either you are on the path of the TV Industrial complex, and you're prepared to promote and spam and spend and make average stuff for average people... or you are busy embracing the new media for everything it can offer.

Don't get stuck in the middle. It's painful.

When the new stuff doesn't work, do the new stuff more and better.