tyler cowen: thomas edison of the academic blog

Fabio

I submit that Tyler Cowen is a great innovator of the academic blog:

• Early blog adopter among economists.
• Understood the value of networking with other blogs like the Volokh Conspiracy and Crooked Timber.
• Great taste in guest bloggers.
• Invented secret blog to sell his new book, with legal and philosophical discussion by Kieran.
• Knows all the tricks of the trade – regular features, answers reader’s questions, etc.
• One of the first users, I think, of the “personalized podcast” on an academic blog.

We should all learn from the master…

Update: Once again, Tyler shows his canny – today he offered free copies of his new book to the first 15 commenters who wrote paragraph length reasons for why they should get free books. Response? 119 comments and counting!