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 readingRuby 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 readingAshley Hoyland is just getting started as a freelancer. She’s looking to make a name for herself writing direct response copy—but she’s intimidated by the thought of getting clients. She says: Hi Josh, Let me begin by saying how impressed I am by your copywriting skills. After looking at your website, I could tell I […]
Continue readingRight 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 readingSoftware 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 readingWhen 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 readingThis 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 readingThe 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 readingOver 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 readingI 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 readingEvery 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 readingYesterday 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 readingFor 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 readingConfession: 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 readingMy 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 readingThere’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 readingA 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 readingOne of my all-time favorite bits of programmer slang is: “yak shaving” Here’s a good example of a yak shave: Let’s say you have a simple task—you want to send a quick email to a friend. You head down to your office in the basement to and flip the light switch. Pfift! The bulb in […]
Continue readingWhile I’m making embarrassing admissions, here’s another one: When I launched this blog there was NO way for people to opt-in to my email list. The reason? I couldn’t decide what to offer as a “lead magnet.” I wasted MONTHS thrashing around over this. After all, I knew I needed a great “bribe” if I […]
Continue readingDuring my senior year in college, I spent a semester living in Washington D.C. And while I was there, I worked as an intern (I preferred the term “cub reporter”) at The Washington Times. For the first few weeks I thought everything was going great— I’d met my deadlines and had several articles published in […]
Continue readingWhenever I really want to get the programmers on my Sublime Text list all worked up, I write an email about “tabs vs. spaces.” See, when you’re staring at lines of gibberish code all day, on of the few things that saves your sanity is— NEAT FORMATTING. Small differences in punctuation and indentation can make […]
Continue readingToday I have an incredible secret to share with you… It’s a secret that is shared by an elite group of fearless adventurers… These daredevils willingly venture into the heart of the Earth… Winding their way through secret tunnels and hidden passages, some so narrow that these daring souls have to inch forward on their […]
Continue readingThe results of my Thrive Themes Giveaway are in, and the winner is… Bridgit Kong! Bridgit lives in Calgary, Canada. She owns a virtual assistant business and her husband has a handyman/renovation business. They plan to use their website (and Thrive!) to escape “pay check to pay check,” “project to project” living and start a […]
Continue readingDon’t you just HATE popups? Well, the guy who invented the popup back when (14.4 baud modems roamed the Earth) recently crawled out of his bunker… Turns out we can blame all this on an MIT scientist named Ethan Zuckerman. He said: “I wrote the code to launch the window and run an ad in […]
Continue readingA few months back I was skyping with a client, “Jack,” he had me agitated. Jack ran what most people would consider a successful blog. He’d invested 3-4 years building up his traffic and his audience, and over a million people a year visited his site. Now Jack wanted to launch a product so he […]
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