Chad has a bone to pick with me. Recently I responded to another subscriber who was looking for a quick way to share blog posts and score some easy traffic, and my response bummed Chad out: Strange email this time, Josh. I’d put this one in the “negative promise” category. MeetEdgar — doesn’t sound like […]
Continue readingCouple weeks back I ranted about “gimmicky” marketing tactics. These techniques work initially because they’re novel—web browsers aren’t used to them, and that curiosity factor makes these techniques seem a lot more effective than they wind up being. Subscriber Fiona wonders whether a popular list building tactic falls in this camp: I’ve been stalking your […]
Continue readingShould you delete “dead” email subscribers from your list? Subscriber Jason is pondering the pros and cons. He asks: What’s your view on culling inactive subscribers from your list? On the one hand, culling reduces costs, and increases open/click rates. But I’ve heard of research done which suggests that inactive users may still be valuable, […]
Continue reading“How bad do you think we burned our list?” My business partner John recently posed the question during a “post-mortem” on our most recent Simple Programmer product promotion. This time we’d launched, of all crazy things, a T-shirt. I typically hate “branded” T-shirts, but this one is actually really cool. The shirt is emblazoned with […]
Continue readingEvery 17 years, Western Pennsylvania where I make my home gets *invaded*. These nasty-looking bugs the size of your thumb called 17 Year Cicadas crawl up out of the ground and start buzzing around everywhere. Unfortunately they’re slow, clumsy fliers. When you’re out driving around, they splatter on the windshield. It’s not so bad when […]
Continue readingSubscriber Sönke says his #1 problem is: My super-sensitive market when it comes to marketing… I am offering online support for psychotherapists. Many standards of email marketing don’t fit that well. Giveaways? To sales-y. Survey participation? Depends. Just trying to figure out how things work well with my audience. The #1 advantage of this market? […]
Continue readingSeveral times a month, I get a skeptical email that goes something like this one from a guy named Carl: Hey Josh, quick question. Why did you stop the sublime text tips site if you got so many email subscribers from the giveaway? Did they not convert to become buyers so you pivoted to your […]
Continue readingSeveral years ago I moved my still-tiny “Sublime Text Tips” email list from Aweber to MailChimp. MailChimp had a feature where they’d send you a daily email update on your list growth. Seemed cool, so I set it up. Every morning I’d get a message: 4 New Subscribers 4 Unsubscribed 515 List Subscribers Let me […]
Continue readingSo here’s a dilemma for ya: Is it better to spend time optimizing your existing sales funnel—split-testing optin forms, experimenting with new lead magnets, fine-tuning the copy on your website… Or should you just bust your butt and hustle to get more traffic to your site? My take on this is, there’s a time for […]
Continue readingA couple years back I consulted with a business owner who wanted to grow his email list. His idea was to hire me to turn me loose on his home page, which at the time was a kind of a “showcase” for his services… And have me rework it into a high-converting landing page to […]
Continue readingA buddy of mine named Adrian is worried he’s trashed his email list: I have a quick question for you. Are you doing anything to keep your email list healthy, such as using Drip’s “Pruning” feature? My list has gotten pretty big and I’m pretty sure it’s hurting me when I do large broadcasts. Some […]
Continue readingNot long after I published my first ebook about Sublime Text I found myself getting impatient with the slow growth in my sales. At the time I was earning maybe $1,200 a month or so from the book—not bad for a side project, but I wanted to build a little publishing empire and quit my […]
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 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 readingLately I’ve been on a tear to boost the number of email signups we get at Simple Programmer. This all started about a month ago. I was feeling pretty frustrated with the slow pace of our email list growth at Simple Programmer. Most of our signups come from this full-screen popup: When I joined Simple […]
Continue readingFrom subscriber Jesus comes this excellent question: Do you do anything specific to keep your subscribers happy & your open rates high? Everyone talks about having a good relationship with your list, but I haven’t seen many examples on how to do that. Jesus is exactly right. Everyone does talk about how important it is […]
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