[doug_m]

When I read Joel's articles I know I enjoy them, I know they're interesting and I learn from them but also that I'm reading marketing for his products and brand - its win-win and I subscribe to his marketing output along with everything else he publishes willingly.

I'd like to read about the impact "Joel on Software" and his celebrity has had on his success/sales though.

Its almost like you read the article and he discusses "this made my company successful", "this was a mistake of mine" but talking about his blog and celebrity is seemingly off limits, to a layman like me its a huge factor in the appeal of his products but it goes unsaid in his articles - as though it had no impact.

I wonder if there's a worry openly discussing the marketing benefit to Joel of us reading his articles would be almost breaking down a wall and change our perception of them.

Or am I wrong, has Joel (and/or Jeff Atwood) discussed openly the difference their blog-marketing has made to their business success?

[discojesus]

I'd like to read about the impact "Joel on Software" and his celebrity has had on his success/sales though.

within epsilon of 100%. I love Joel, his articles, and the Stack Overflow podcast, but nobody would have heard of him (or FogBugz) if he weren't such a brilliant marketer. He established FogBugz and Joel Spolsky as pretty big brands in the programming community, and made a previously unknown software company into what is now seen as one of the elite places to work in the industry.

He's got the technical chops to back it up, but that doesn't matter - he is amazingly good at marketing, and he really gets the power of brands.

[csallen]

I remember reading Joel's articles a couple years ago when I was studying for job interviews, and thinking, "Wow Joel sure is smart - Fog Creek must a really badass company." I had no idea what products they made. Now I'm working on my own company, and one of the first things I did was sign up for the 45-day free trial of FogBugz.