I have the worst luck with go karts. This all started back in college when I went racing with a buddy of mine. I got stuck with what had to be the slowest car in the pack. There I was, the nerdy college senior, standing on the accelerator while 13-year-old punks zip by me and […]
Continue readingIn the programming world, there’s this tongue-in-cheek term that gets tossed around a lot: “Bikeshedding” Bikeshedding means: Obsessing over the trivial while ignoring what REALLY matters. This happens because these small details are easier to understand than the big picture questions that actually make a difference. Most people aren’t bold enough to venture an (uniformed) […]
Continue readingPicking up the discussion of “incubation” from last week, subscriber Lana writes: Another thing I noticed is people stop opening emails with time (life gets in the way) so the most receptive audience seems to be at the start. This is *definitely* true—to an extent. The majority of your subscribers have only a passing interest […]
Continue readingThis always makes me smile: Every so often I’ll check my page views in Google Analytics and see that dozens of older blog posts have each gotten a single page view. Usually that means that someone stumbled across my site and is digging back through the archives to read everything they can find. (Hint: 0.5% […]
Continue readingSubscriber Jason is rapidly building an audience in a hot niche: Programming for virtual reality. His email list is growing fast—and now he has a problem. He writes: I’ve been trying to follow your advice and blogging pretty consistently as well as doing some promotion for the site. Daily unique user count has gone up […]
Continue readingWhen it comes to getting people to take action, one of the most powerful tools in the marketer’s arsenal is FOMO— Fear of Missing Out. In other words, “scarcity.” If you’re not using scarcity in your email courses and promotions, well… YOU’RE the one missing out. The best way to do that is not always […]
Continue readingOne of my all-time favorite marketing sayings is: “Nobody ever buys a drill because they wanted a drill. They buy a drill because they wanted a hole.” This came up in my recent interview on the Freelancer Show. Resume coach (and up-and-coming email marketer) Jennifer caught the interview and says: I just finished listening to […]
Continue readingOn a private forum I belong to, the whole topic of “incubating” new subscribers came up recently. There are two warring schools of thought on this. One group INSISTS that you can’t just sell to your new subscribers straight out of the chute. That just turns people off. You have to “incubate” them for a […]
Continue readingA few months back I jotted down an idea for one of these emails: “I just wrote a sales page, and I’m scared” That’s typically how I feel whenever I turn a new piece of writing loose on the world. But it’s ESPECIALLY true of copywriting projects like email courses and sales pages… Compared to […]
Continue readingGot a question from a subscriber named Jim. (OK, OK, you got me. Jim is my dad. Yes, my dad AND my mom are both on my list. Hi Mom and Dad!) ANYWAY… After a couple of decades running his business, my dad has a list of maybe 1,000 or more past and current clients, […]
Continue readingAt the lake where I take my boys fishing, every so often you’ll sometimes see these HUGE black shadows that cruise just below the surface of the water. These fish are easily as big as my leg. MONSTERS, especially compared to the tiny little sunfish we usually catch. Last time I went fishing with my […]
Continue readingRight now I’m running a little social media “experiment.” There’s this site called Medium.com that seems kinda cool. The idea is, you write a great blog post and publish it on Medium. And when a handful of people read and “recommend” your post, Medium gives you a boost—they make your post go viral. At least […]
Continue readingWhen I was but a wee young “copy cub,” my copywriting mentor Richard assigned me to write an email sequence. I was pitching a 3-day “fix your business” summit for struggling independent tax advisors. I started doing some research to find out what keeps your average tax advisor awake at night, and I stumbled onto […]
Continue readingRecently a subscriber asked for my feedback on an email he’d written. The email caught my attention instantly with the first few lines. He was telling a story that I could relate to, and I was eager to see where he was leading me. But a few short paragraphs later, my eyes glazed over. I […]
Continue readingBrand new subscriber Sam is juuuust getting his business off the ground. He writes: Really enjoyed all of your emails so far, and I’m looking forward to learning more. Here’s where I’m at: – Just starting out with 200+ subs – Using mailchimps free account – A Bryan Harris, 10k subs student – No autoresponder […]
Continue readingA few weeks ago I took my oldest son fishing for the first time, and we shared the lake with this young married couple. They were doing the typical “fishing thing”: You pick a spot, plop yourself down, spear a fat juicy worm on your hook, throw it out there and… Wait. Patiently. And wait […]
Continue readingSeems like once a week I get an email from a subscriber who’s amazed that I can crank out these emails so consistently, day after day. How are you so disciplined, they say. Confession time: Writing consistently has long been a HUGE struggle for me. I’ve wanted to blog consistently since, oh, about 2009. Back […]
Continue readingBack in college I edited the student newspaper, so I was always sniffing around campus for juicy rumors. One of my favorite sources for stories was the “faculty senate”—a giant monthly committee meeting where all the professors would get together to debate college policies. Now the reason I liked going to faculty senate was NOT […]
Continue readingOn the rural dirt road where I spent my teen years, there was this weird “house.” The guy who lived there didn’t have enough money to build a house the traditional way… You know, dig out the basement, pour a foundation, frame out the living room and kitchen and bedrooms, put on a roof… What […]
Continue readingGot an email the other week from a reader named Roos who wants to email his list more but finds it a struggle. Roos mused: Dan Kennedy says fatigue makes cowards of us all. I have trouble writing emails in the later time of the day. Especially the ones that should both entertain and sell. […]
Continue readingMy first reaction when I learned that LeadPages had acquired Drip was: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ After all, Drip is one of my 2 favorite marketing tools. And LeadPages? Well, let’s just say that we have a checkered past that sent me running straight into the arms of Thrive. So I was NOT a happy camper when […]
Continue readingBack when I was a wet behind the ears “copy cub,” one of the projects I tackled was a script for a short, explainer-style video. The product in this case was a supplement designed to boost energy and fat-loss. During the initial interview with the client, I picked up on some MAJOR red flags. The […]
Continue readingLast week an email with this bombshell subject line detonated in my inbox: That time I almost hired a Baby Snatcher…THIS is why recruiters research you I have to say, after years of following the best email marketers in the biz, I’m pretty jaded when it comes to subject lines these days. But there was […]
Continue readingLove this one: “Ask me, ‘What is the secret of comedy?’” “OK, what is the secret -” “TIMING!!!” That’s from one of my all-time favorite writing books, Wired for Story. This question of timing comes up with email courses too. Namely: When should I pitch my product? Timing is a HUGE factor in making sales—and […]
Continue readingThis is an embarrassing story I’ve never admitted in public. It’s kinda gross too—consider yourself warned. When I was around 10 years old, I used to spend the whole summer playing outside in our little suburban yard. And one summer in particular, I remember noticing that my arms were getting pretty tanned. This was a […]
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