Cold calling, YOLO, and the cure for fear

The email I sent a few days back about my guest posting “mental block” musta struck a nerve—my inbox lit up with replies. One of them was from a biz owner named Holger: Late last year I launched a SaaS for tele-marketing freelancers and small agencies (strictly b2b). It’s been three years in the making […]

Continue reading

Advice to a writer who’s “stuck”

Andy runs a jewelry business, and he’s looking for a breakthrough. He writes: I keep flirting with the idea of sending emails like this to our clients…but something keeps me from doing it. Maybe it’s because I’ve been at it (the jewelry business) so long that it bores me. Or maybe I’m tired of a […]

Continue reading

Running “stump the chump” job hunt gauntlet

How To Sell Your Online Course With Email Back in 2009 I was desperately hunting for a job. At the time I was 2 years into my 6 month contract as a temp. Every day when I’d swipe my badge to get into the building, I’d half expect to see the little light on the […]

Continue reading

Is Your Sales Funnel Starving?

Here’s something I didn’t fully grasp when I launched my first product: Not everyone is your customer. Now I wasn’t expecting EVERYONE who signed up for my email list to buy my book. But deep down, I kinda thought I could convince MOST of them. What I learned, though, is that the real world works […]

Continue reading

The MailChimp monkey gets a run for his money

I got seduced by the friendly monkey and the pretty UI. It didn’t take long for the ugly cracks to start showing through that fresh coat of paint. “Oh, you want to send a welcome email with lead magnet A to these subscribers, and a different message with lead magnet B to those subscribers? “Good […]

Continue reading

Help! My product launch is over and sales have stopped

Before we had electricity, internal combustion engines and nuclear power, the entire world economy depended on the wind. And when ships ventured near the equator, sometimes the wind would just die, leaving sailors stranded for weeks or even months until they ran out of food and water. They called these pockets of deadly calm “the […]

Continue reading

Enough about me, let’s talk about me

You know that guy who just won’t shut up about himself? He talks a mile a minute, too—so good luck trying to change the subject. And if you DO manage to squeeze in a word, he doesn’t miss a beat: “Oh, totally! That reminds me of a time when I…” Reader Rick doesn’t want to […]

Continue reading

Are you making this customer-repelling mistake in your copy?

Ruby programmer Jesus just launched his first product, a how-to course for newbie software developers. At first everything was great… He sent several emails to his tiny list (170 and growing) and popped the link into several forums and Slack groups he belongs to. Two-week results: 17 sales and $677.73 in income. High-five! Way to […]

Continue reading

What beliefs are holding you back?

Right now in my business, I’m struggling with this major roadblock. My #1 goal this year is to grow my email list to 10,000 subscribers. I know exactly what I need to do to make this happen. The plan is to start guest posting regularly on major sites with huge audiences. Over time those articles […]

Continue reading

Why aren’t people buying my course?

Software developer Jesus recently launched a course on the Ruby programming language. He asks: I was wondering if you had any tips for keeping sales coming in after a product launch. After my launch the result was a total of 17 sales, resulting in $677.73 of net income. I have got 0 sales since then. […]

Continue reading

How to tell a riveting story

When I was 12, my family moved from the suburbs of Warren, Ohio to a 100-year-old farmhouse in the country. For as long as I could remember, my dad had always planted a garden. Even on our tiny lots in the city. Now out in the boonies, we had a lot more room to spread […]

Continue reading

Your account has been disabled

This morning I stumbled downstairs to my office, cup of coffee in hand, to find this friendly little message from Facebook waiting in my inbox: Facebook Ads alert: Ad Account Disabled Hi Josh, It looks like your ad account was used to create ads that violate Facebook’s Advertising Guidelines. Facebook’s policies protect everyone on Facebook […]

Continue reading

They don’t want my product. Now what?

The other day I got an email from Jesus, a software developer selling a course on the popular Ruby programming language. He asks: +++ I was wondering if you had any tips for keeping sales coming in after a product launch. This is something I struggle with. I don’t want to spam people every day. […]

Continue reading

A little mistake that cost my business $1,423

Over the past 2 years, I’ve spent $1,423 on bookkeeping. I can tell you that now, but 6 hours ago I couldn’t have. Why? Because despite all the money I’ve spent on this, my “books” were royally screwed up. It wasn’t for lack of trying. I’ve spent hours with several different bookkeepers, answering questions and […]

Continue reading

The “beef gristle fix” for jaded markets

I love me some beef. Flank steak. Sirloin. Jerky. If it mooed, I’ll eat it. Now whenever possible I want my cows grass fed, organic, and hormone-free. And a couple years back I found a place online that will ship this stuff to your door at a reasonable price. I got in the habit of […]

Continue reading

How to make an ice-cold brain write red hot copy

Every time I sit down to write I have this agonizing dilemma: I can’t figure out where to start. So I peck out a few words on the keyboard, delete them. Try a few more words, delete those too. The late great John Caples compared this to starting a car on a cold day: “The […]

Continue reading

Furnace Fails, Copy Cruft and Han Solo

Yesterday when my alarm jingled me awake at 5 a.m., my first thought was: “Yikes, it’s cold in here…” I stumbled down the pitch-black hallway to the living room… A quick glance at the thermostat confirmed my suspicion—overnight the temperatures here in The Berry dropped to 24 degrees, and my furnace was struggling to keep […]

Continue reading

Arnold’s Christmas advertising blitzkrieg

For the past couple of years I’ve had a fun little Christmas tradition with my boys. I download this free app called “Christmas Countdown,” and every night at bedtime we open the app talk about how many days are left while the app plays a cheerful Christmas carol. But this year the app developer made […]

Continue reading

Why “swiping” headlines is for chumps

Confession: I HATE writing headlines. Here’s why… When you start studying copywriting, one of the first things you hear is the famous quote from adman David Ogilvy: “When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.” In other words, the headline is responsible for 80% of the results of […]

Continue reading

a + b + c = c + b + a

My takedown of Wikipedia’s “gimme gimme gimme” ad copy drew this response from subscriber Matt: +++ Funny you should mention wikipedia. I’ve actually sat in a presentation by their data scientists and they have probably done more a/b testing on that banner than 99% of websites….. and they make bank… millions. +++ Awesome—didn’t know that. […]

Continue reading

How to shock your subscribers (and win lifelong fans)

There’s a little trick I like to use in every “welcome” email (the first email that goes out immediately when someone joins the list). And that is: Ask a question. What type of question? That’s what my coaching client Felix wanted to know: +++ Would an open-ended question have a better response rate than a […]

Continue reading

Locked in “lead magnet purgatory”

A few days ago I bared my soul about my tortured struggle to come up with a lead magnet. My friend Rob Drummond, a crack email copywriter from across the pond, replied with an insightful comment: +++ I think you want to get to the point where people want to hear from you, rather than […]

Continue reading
1 14 15 16 17 18 22