how do I get the hugelkultur article into the brains of 50 million people

Julie Helms wrote:Paul,

Go here http://pinterest.com/source/richsoil.com/
and you can see all the people who have been pinning your articles and which ones were most popular.

Looking at my stats: 199 people have come to richsoil.com in the last 30 days from pinterest. Not bad.

So far, my experience is that 1 person comes from facebook each time somebody shares an article on facebook.

I want you to know I've been thinking on this all day. I kept going back to the hugelkultur web page I pulled up this morning and reading and thinking. Then when I got ready to suggest that a summary is needed at the top of the page so people can be told very quickly what all the benfits are I update the webpage and find you've made changes already.

Great Job. I think the nutshell portion is a huge help. I think it is a great start. It answers a lot of questions.

Here are some additional questions that could be answered in the summary if you find them applicable/useful.

What about people who only have freshly cut wood, can they participate?

Do I need a wood chipper/shredder?

How do I till it every spring?

I'm 81 years old. Does this make gardening less work?

Are you telling me I can plant dead trees and stuff will grow?

How many years can I expect the benefits to last?

I'll try to think of more.

Suzy Bean wrote:

Steph Michelle wrote:Or write something for Mother Earth News?

I submitted the article to Mother Earth News about a month ago, I believe, and got the automatic response that they have lots of article requests and can only take a few, but it is up for consideration.

here is the place for people to email suggestion for article to Mother:
You can also email your suggestions to Mother@MotherEarthNews.com with the subject line “Reader Suggestions.

I suggest for whoever reads this to send a quick email.

Mr. William James was on the right track getting the right thousand people to see this. However he had the wrong thousand. Everytime a gardening newbie ask me about gardening/canning/freezing, or other wise doing what we all believe in. I get excited and I send them to the people that are paid to disseminate just such information the county extension agent. No I don't leave it at that however there is a lot of free stuff that can be had from most extension agents. and they have time and resources to put on canning clinics I do not.

Before you get mad and yell at me, think about the powerfull army they would be. Vertually every county in America.

Further more they know who it is that is incharge of the landfills and can easily divert the precious materials to the hands of gardeners and if we give them something they can print and hand to the fledgling gardeners they will do so acting like it was their idea all along. Personally I do not care who gets credit for fixing out outrageous food system only that it gets fixed.

There is no other group that is paid to help we just need to make sure they are giving the best advice out there. One small suggestion most of them have been taught by our universities the "right way to apply all kinds of thing that we would not think of putting anywhere near or food source. So lets get them helping America buiold better soil and along the way get better info into their hands.

Hope this is helpful.

paul wheaton wrote:

Julie Helms wrote:Paul,

Go here http://pinterest.com/source/richsoil.com/
and you can see all the people who have been pinning your articles and which ones were most popular.

Looking at my stats: 199 people have come to richsoil.com in the last 30 days from pinterest. Not bad.

So far, my experience is that 1 person comes from facebook each time somebody shares an article on facebook.

I post lots of your "stuff" on facebook.

!!! PAUL !! I've got it! (Please, nobody else steal this idea, even if you agree that it's a good 1)... Somebody (You, me, or someone we agree upon) posts the hugel link on Ashton Kutcher's FB page! Is it off-topic for Ashton? Sure! But it looks like ANYONE can post to his page... AND, there are 11mil people who've "Liked" Ashton. This means, that if 10% also got automatically Subscribed (the new FB service to make it easier to stalk your friends haha), then you get an instant 1million people who get the link AUTOMATICALLY posted to their FB feeds.... Think about it & either reply in here, or by email.

This would be like network marketing except nobody has to buy anything. I market gold and silver on facebook. Just a post with a nice picture pulls quite a few views. Also I am a big Ron Paul supporter so I just put in a post here and there throughout our long feeds of news articles to get a pile of views. Of all those views you'll get a couple people who are interested and a couple of those who are actually willing to act.

Marianne West wrote:

Suzy Bean wrote:

Steph Michelle wrote:Or write something for Mother Earth News?

I submitted the article to Mother Earth News about a month ago, I believe, and got the automatic response that they have lots of article requests and can only take a few, but it is up for consideration.

here is the place for people to email suggestion for article to Mother:
You can also email your suggestions to Mother@MotherEarthNews.com with the subject line “Reader Suggestions.

I suggest for whoever reads this to send a quick email.

Excellent idea. Consider also Countryside and Small Stock Journal -- http://www.countrysidemag.com/tellafriend.html
Editorial Submissions: csyeditorial@tds.net

paul wheaton wrote:

Brenda Groth wrote:hmmmmmmmmmm this might not work, but say and area has a huge ice storm, hurricane or tornado, maybe send a contact to the area chamber of commerce or corp of engineers or national guard that is helping with clean up? What a way to use all that debris..piling it into long ditches and covering it up with the soil from the ditches and then planting things on top, like new baby trees?

Oh, and I like the idea of reaching those people. How might one finding people that deal with trees downed from a storm and make them aware of hugelkultur?

FEMA, federal and states. Frame it as a quick, easy and CHEAP way to deal with CLEAN storm damage debris. Save the chipping and hauling of at least a portion of the debris.

a link to State Offices and Agencies of Emergency Management: http://www.fema.gov/about/contact/statedr.shtm

you're thinking in terms of the written word mainly & podcasts are audio

Pictures travel faster than words and are worth a thousand (1000) words each

ALL knowledge in the human brain is stored as pictures -did you know that?
yes....when you say the word apple... the brain may arrive at the letter A
as A is for apple.... but before that..... it sees a picture of a red shiny apple FIRST

That being said.... people will watch a VIDEO before they will read an article
it's easier and the eyes merely have to stare straight ahead and soak it all up

I don't want to make you mad....but i have always had a problem with the word HUGELKULTURE
because it sounds foreign by the way it is spelled... and that alone kept me from being interested at first..

now however, when i see brush piles everywhere then i think they should be incorporated into a HUGELKULTURE
because i understand the process of raising a mound and increasing the organic matter, creating a wind break ect.
instead of creating a place for rodents to thrive in a protective environment

Maybe it's too late to rename the word to something a bit more catchy (swale a whale) ) but consider showing the
advantages of huglekulture's in a video .....unfortunately at this time of year.... a difficult task...

but maybe not, if your getting snow to melt or you can show temperature variations that
demonstrate "visually" the benefits of creating huglekulture's in the first place and not
with just "how to drawings" but actual photo's of Huglekultures in action

from say TIMELAPSE photography but of course that will take time... SO WHAT !
time will be marching by anyway... just try and rethink the instant sell of the IDEA
these are my thoughts....toss them or consider them

I went back and forth with myself about 20 times about whether I should do this. All the while polishing this message. And then this morning, I decided to just do it, and not look back. So I turned off my brain and sent it.

We'll see what happens.

Here is what I sent to my daily-ish email people:

saving the world with hugelkultur and email


A quest to save the world by getting this message to 50 million people.

This is one point in six in dramatically making the world a better place for everybody.

Hugelkultur is a type of raised gardening bed that has wood in it. And yet, this simple thing can save the world.

- reduce global warming by sequestering tons of carbon in your back yard
- reduce world hunger, and better feed your family?
- reduce overconsumption of water by eliminating garden irrigation
- reduce consumption ($$) of hoses, sprinklers and fertilizers
- gardening becomes dramatically easier: fewer trips to the grocery store

Using hugelkultur, gardens have thrived in deserts without a drop if irrigation or fertilizer. Any gardener can make one and eliminate the chore, the hoses, the cost of the water, not to mention just living lighter on the planet while making it far easier to provide food. And can this help to solve world hunger?

This practice can sequester carbon right in your own back yard. Dramatically lower your carbon footprint, and reduce carbon in the atmosphere while getting a huge use from it.

Perfect for places where trees have been downed by storms.

A use for branches, twigs and trees without having to haul them to the dump.

http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/


It has been suggested that I send this out and ask people to forward it on. And reforward. And reforward. The idea is that with enough forwarding, this will reach millions of people (including Kevin Bacon The world is struggling due to a lack of knowledge about simple solutions. This is one tidbit. If you believe that this tidbit of knowledge can, indeed, make the world a better place if EVERYBODY knew it, please forward this message.

I suppose the message could have been polished further. But a lot of me was thinking that as long as I kept festering on that, I would be spending less time on other things.

We'll see what happens.

I think that people see the word "hugelkultur" and think...this is too advanced for me. How about titling it "Recycling Rotten Wood, also known as Hugelkultur"...or something with a punch word that is "in" right now.

C.J. Murray wrote:I want you to know I've been thinking on this all day. I kept going back to the hugelkultur web page I pulled up this morning and reading and thinking. Then when I got ready to suggest that a summary is needed at the top of the page so people can be told very quickly what all the benfits are I update the webpage and find you've made changes already.

Great Job. I think the nutshell portion is a huge help. I think it is a great start. It answers a lot of questions.

Here are some additional questions that could be answered in the summary if you find them applicable/useful.

What about people who only have freshly cut wood, can they participate?

Do I need a wood chipper/shredder?

How do I till it every spring?

I'm 81 years old. Does this make gardening less work?

Are you telling me I can plant dead trees and stuff will grow?

How many years can I expect the benefits to last?

I'll try to think of more.

I added several to the article. Good idea.

I like the idea of (yet) another youtube video, but in a different format that the other ones.

Think of it like one of those network marketing video's, or infomercial, with some of that chuck testa guy built in (he was annoying, but catchy). I can picture Paul's head popping up over a hugelkultur mound just saying HUGELKULTUR, with a goofy grin, birth control glasses, and his white labcoat. He would pop up at different, unpredictable times, throughout the video, even during the testimonials (dubbed in probably).

The video would also contain testimonials from NORMAL people on how hugelkultur has increased their lives, health, wildlife abundance, whatever comes to their mind. Also contain a quick time lapse video of a hugelkultur bed being made with only couple people and no expensive tools, so that it can be achieved by anyone. Remember to appeal to the masses.

This would not be a quick video to put together, but feel it could achieve great status. Have someone, or more than one, team with you to give it a more "artsy" look instead of the software engineer look (trust me, I know how difficult it is to stop thinking software engineery type).

Post on youtube and think viral, viral, viral, chanting it with all your mojo!

Edit, fixed spelling

Marianne West wrote:

Suzy Bean wrote:

Steph Michelle wrote:Or write something for Mother Earth News?

I submitted the article to Mother Earth News about a month ago, I believe, and got the automatic response that they have lots of article requests and can only take a few, but it is up for consideration.

here is the place for people to email suggestion for article to Mother:
You can also email your suggestions to Mother@MotherEarthNews.com with the subject line “Reader Suggestions.

I suggest for whoever reads this to send a quick email.

Oh, you are devious! very good. I like it!

Marty Pixley wrote: ... I send them to the people that are paid to disseminate just such information the county extension agent.

I agree. It would be awesome to have the army of extension offices convey this information.

My first thought is that there are over a thousand. And I seem to be challenged at getting into even just one. So this looks like hard work. Not impossible - just hard.

Next, I know that over the last 20 years, their funding is dominantly from the state ag school. Who's funding is dominantly from chem ag. Helen Atthowe worked as the missoula county extension agent for fifteen years and (as we discussed in at least one of my podcasts) she is now tickled pink to be done with that so she can tell people what she REALLY thinks. While working for the extension office she was muzzled in eight different ways - all to favor chem ag.

So hugelkultur is something that helps to eliminate fertilizers, irrigation and ... well ... buying stuff. So chem ag is not gonna be okay with that.

Again: difficult. Not impossible.

So - how do we get this information into these offices?

Ryan Bradley wrote:!!! PAUL !! I've got it! (Please, nobody else steal this idea, even if you agree that it's a good 1)... Somebody (You, me, or someone we agree upon) posts the hugel link on Ashton Kutcher's FB page! Is it off-topic for Ashton? Sure! But it looks like ANYONE can post to his page... AND, there are 11mil people who've "Liked" Ashton. This means, that if 10% also got automatically Subscribed (the new FB service to make it easier to stalk your friends haha), then you get an instant 1million people who get the link AUTOMATICALLY posted to their FB feeds.... Think about it & either reply in here, or by email.

I like your style of devious thinking. Go for it!

Josh Rocky wrote:This would be like network marketing except nobody has to buy anything. I market gold and silver on facebook. Just a post with a nice picture pulls quite a few views. Also I am a big Ron Paul supporter so I just put in a post here and there throughout our long feeds of news articles to get a pile of views. Of all those views you'll get a couple people who are interested and a couple of those who are actually willing to act.

I have to admit that the whole facebook thing still baffles me.

Two months ago I was pretty much ready to write off facebook as worthless. And then about a month ago I overhauled the rocket mass heater article and suddenly saw about 5000 people come to the article from facebook. Neat.

Josh - can I step away from this and know that you will work your facebook magic for the hugelkultur article?

Jackson Barnett wrote:

Excellent idea. Consider also Countryside and Small Stock Journal -- http://www.countrysidemag.com/tellafriend.html
Editorial Submissions: csyeditorial@tds.net

Suzy Bean has taken several of my articles into countryside already. Our earliest thoughts were that if she did that, we would see a whole lot of people coming to my empire to learn about all this stuff. That didn't seem to happen.

Mix into that: if somebody like mother earth news runs the article, it will be seen by more people - thus have a larger impact. But MEN won't run it if it has already run in something else.

Jackson Barnett wrote:

FEMA, federal and states. Frame it as a quick, easy and CHEAP way to deal with CLEAN storm damage debris. Save the chipping and hauling of at least a portion of the debris.

a link to State Offices and Agencies of Emergency Management:

On the one hand: you are right and have a good point.

On the other hand, just looking at that link kinda gave me the willies. My thought was "oh yeah, ask bored beuraucrats with guns to look at me and my stuff."

I think the idea is, technically, smart. I think it should go on the "to do" list. And ..... I'm putting it at the bottom of the list because the idea of talking to those guys gives me a stomach ache.

FYI: we had about 600 extra visits to the article yesterday from facebook. And the article was posted on 250 extra facebook walls/pages

Raven Sutherland wrote:
I don't want to make you mad....but

The word "but" sorta kinda negates what comes just before it. So I read this a funny way.

I do have three videos. And there are more. And I think the new images on the article are excellent - me and Daniel spent a LOT of time going round and round on those.

I have a TON of video footage of hugelkultur beds being built in the summer of 2009. I plan on visiting those this summer to see them in all their glory.

Sally Underwood wrote:I think that people see the word "hugelkultur" and think...this is too advanced for me. How about titling it "Recycling Rotten Wood, also known as Hugelkultur"...or something with a punch word that is "in" right now.

Well .... certainly a debatable topic.

And I have met some people that really like "the thing" but dislike the word.

On the up side - we have come to all know what we are talking about when we use this word. And there is a lot of momentum built around this word.

paul wheaton wrote:

Ryan Bradley wrote:!!! PAUL !! I've got it! (Please, nobody else steal this idea, even if you agree that it's a good 1)... Somebody (You, me, or someone we agree upon) posts the hugel link on Ashton Kutcher's FB page! Is it off-topic for Ashton? Sure! But it looks like ANYONE can post to his page... AND, there are 11mil people who've "Liked" Ashton. This means, that if 10% also got automatically Subscribed (the new FB service to make it easier to stalk your friends haha), then you get an instant 1million people who get the link AUTOMATICALLY posted to their FB feeds.... Think about it & either reply in here, or by email.

I like your style of devious thinking. Go for it!

K. I think I'll probably use one of your pics (from richsoil), and a link to the main article. Then I'll put some of what I hope will be the most "eye catching" keywords within the post (some of it will be from your email this morning). Hopefully the little I know about SEO will pay off with this

--added details

Richard Kutscher wrote:I like the idea of (yet) another youtube video, but in a different format that the other ones.

Go for it! I look forward to seeing it!

I don't mind being in a video like that, or doing something kinda like that, but just getting the footage is a huge job.

Hugelkultur is an unconventional word for us, but a big advantage of using it is that it does stick in the mind and distinguish itself from the currently inescapable chic-environmentalist greenwashing static. Embracing foreign ideas is often liberating, after the initial strangeness is overcome, and astute marketing can work wonders with softening up natural disinclinations of the people. Once popular opinion reach a tipping point, an idea becomes mainstream. Hugelkultur should be promoted as exotic, instead of "foreign," which can have a negative connotation, inciting xenophobia in a surprising number of people programmed by popular culture (instead of hugelkultur-hah!). And giving the literal translation also takes the edge off, and educates people.

I've always liked the word, and spew it everywhere I go. Talking about it shouldn't be overlooked as a viable strategy. We can evangelize our friends and acquaintances. Hey, they already know I'm a bit eccentric, but enough of my crazy schemes have worked that they'll listen and think about it. And if I'm in a conversation with a stranger about gardening, I'll throw it out there. I tell everyone. People who never go online can be reached that way. As we have seen, religious revivals intended to "save the world" have spread like wildfire, mostly through person to person contact. Polls in churches routinely indicate that more people are influenced into conversion by personal contact than by all other means, usually by a wide margin. So be fervent, brothers and sisters! Enthusiasm is contagious. Help spread the gospel of hugelkulture so we can get on with saving the world!

Plus, I just like the sound of the word. It's fun.

Go Paul! Go Team Permies!
Amazing what can happen in a short time when people get together with common cause...
You are achieving synergy...

R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor and futurist - Bucky's spirit is infusing the hearts and minds of humanitarians working to implement global change through sustainable design science. The time for change is now and our synergy can save the world.
(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120103/SF26599)
1+2 can equal 4 !!!
Bucky coined the term "synergy", as represented by the picture above, to demonstrate how the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the individuals. Through the synergy of the inventive mind and generous hearts of humanity we can turn "Spaceship Earth" around. He understood that we have all the technology and resources necessary to foster Earth as an integrated regenerative system.

Link: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/03/4159467/occupy-dome-ocracy-synergy-can.html
Link: http://hines.blogspot.com/2011/12/buckminster-fuller-everything-i-know.html Bucky quotes +++

I am trying to do my part of this synergy through links, emails, and other discussion groups
http://hines.blogspot.com/2012/01/raised-garden-beds-hugelkultur-instead.html
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/sustainjeff/iFSywxpYy-0

Keep on keepin' on Paul & Permies.com & Richsoil.com

Regards to all
Monte Hines
Hines Farm Blog

Posted to FB.... It didn't go through... working on the wall-post still... It seems like you are shown the "option" of posting, but it doesn't stay.
! I did an @tweet to Ashton, and that went through. Unfortunately, looks like he gets a bunch of those, and so it will likely get lost in the swarm. Still looking/thinking about how to do this.

What I sent as the tweet:
@aplusk http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
Hugelkultur->(Who-gull-culture)
Use rotting wood to REDUCE waste of $$, Water, hoses, sprinklers
^#SaveEarth

paul wheaton wrote:Plus, I just like the sound of the word. It's fun.

Originally, the name was the hook for me. I saw "hugelkultur" and said to myself, what the heck is that? then clicked the link out of curiosity. I don't think "buried trunks" would have made me stop and look.

If the term Hugelkulter is going to be the draw with very little context given at the same time then it needs to in front of more people to give them the option to search for it specifically if it sounds interesting to them. How about stickers, bumper or otherwise to be given away at various events? It may be possible to get some or all of the cost underwritten by waste disposal companies. Even though they money disposing of waste they don't like heavy stuff unless they are being paid by the pound to dispose of it. Thus the average garbage hauler prefers not to have heavy wood in their waste stream. Additionally many waste companies like to appear as if they are encouraging less waste and recycling. Seems to me like it would be a a win-win for them to put a sticker on the inside of the lid of their garbage cans in the normal course of distributing new cans. I don't think they would put it on the outside. They may be willing to put it on their trucks. Especially since it's not a commercial ad but rather a gardening technique which reduces waste, recycles and enrichs.

Got Hugelkultur?
Dead Wood IS The New Green!
www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur

I'm willing to chip in some cash to get the first 10,000 printed. Anyone else?

I'm willing to approach the 3 commercial/residential waste disposal companies in my area.

I believe that quality photos and video of real hugel beds at peak production are needed. Most of what is available on YouTube and elsewhere are fanciful drawings or how to stuff. Great for those of us who are already sold but not totally believable to Joe permies. Nice drawings are used to sell many far fetched schemes. Real photographs are used to sell things that are real.

Eye popping photos trump literary value in causing the casual observer to click. I'll bet Mr Holzer has plenty of good pictures to share. My beds are just mud and log piles. The newness of the practice in North America means most of us simply don't have beautiful finished product to display.

Totally Agree!

Paul, it is time to collect any Sepp IOU's...

Dale Hodgins wrote:The newness of the practice in North America means most of us simply don't have beautiful finished product to display.

The only thing that gives me any restraint in promoting hugelkultur is the fact that I haven't grown any beds yet. I've got a decent one built, but like yours, it's just a pile of sticks and dirt so far, and right now it's frozen under a layer of snow. I'm optimistic enough to believe it will have significant advantages, but in a few years I expect to have proven that out, and then it will be a potent example and tool of persuasion. Right now, all I can do is talk about the theory, which appears sound. However, nothing lends authority like successful experience, and that's what I'm after now.

Personally, to get a large following on facebook, I would start pages named Hugelkultur Permaculture, or Rocket Mass Heater, or something along those lines. Then post only the subject matter related. I know it would amount to a lot of pages to maintain, but, people will add you as a friend from all over the world that way, and it increases your network. It would be good if you could get regular pages for those, instead of fan pages. If you have friends instead of fans, you can give them feedback, post comments, and cultivate relationships. With a fan page you can't.

Dale Hodgins wrote:I believe that quality photos and video of real hugel beds at peak production are needed. Most of what is available on YouTube and elsewhere are fanciful drawings or how to stuff. Great for those of us who are already sold but not totally believable to Joe permies. Nice drawings are used to sell many far fetched schemes. Real photographs are used to sell things that are real.

Eye popping photos trump literary value in causing the casual observer to click. I'll bet Mr Holzer has plenty of good pictures to share. My beds are just mud and log piles. The newness of the practice in North America means most of us simply don't have beautiful finished product to display.

Go to Sepp Holzer's website. This is a link to his projects http://www.krameterhof.at/index.php?id=projekte/
If you click on the tab Ausbildung on the left, you see pictures of a bunch of the courses he taught. The writing is in German, but the pictures speak for themselves.

C.J. Murray wrote:... How about stickers, bumper or otherwise to be given away at various events? ...

That got me thinking... I made a quick "graphic" and put a bunch of hugelkultur products on my CafePress shop. You can see them here.

What the hey, it's another channel for the meme... This OK with you, Paul?

this is a link to daily good. http://www.good.is/the-next-big-thing/

i submitted the article as a suggestion, but you might want to contact them and submit as the author.

another good one:

http://wakeup-world.com/

posted it to their Facebook page, but in the mag would be better.

Jackson Barnett wrote:

C.J. Murray wrote:... How about stickers, bumper or otherwise to be given away at various events? ...

That got me thinking... I made a quick "graphic" and put a bunch of hugelkultur products on my CafePress shop. You can see them here.

What the hey, it's another channel for the meme... This OK with you, Paul?

looking good. i especially like the Hugelkultur maternity shirt..... visible huegel right there

Holy Smokes, Jackson, your t-shirt ads are following me on the internet already.