Some days I swear they should revoke my “marketing license.” Maybe put me to work sorting beer cans at the recycling center or something. Last week I had one of those days… I’d been scurrying to put together a quick 2-day “flash sale” for one of our video courses at Simple Programmer. These sales are […]
Continue readingLast week I blasted out an email to the entire Simple Programmer list to take their temperature on the new book cover we’re having designed. I linked out to a poll where subscribers could assign star ratings to each of 8 different cover designs. There were a couple of things that really surprised me about […]
Continue readingIn our quest to launch the best-selling software development book of all time, my business partner John and I have spent a ridiculous amount of time on designing the perfect cover. This might seem like one of those gigantic time-wasters, kinda like the way first-time business owners spend their first 12 weeks designing a logo […]
Continue readingRecently I started mentoring a programmer-entrepreneur named Dan. Last year Dan wrote a book about Sublime Text for the Python programming language, and he thought I might be interested in promoting it to my large email list of Sublime Text fans. I said, I’ll go ya one better: Let’s team up on this. Turn that […]
Continue readingFew weeks back I sent out a survey asking whether you had any questions about launching and marketing a book. I happened to be traveling the day the email went out. Heh. Pro-tip: Don’t ask your list for replies when you’ll be away from your computer. Took me *days* to dig out from that. But […]
Continue readingIn my first “real” programming job I worked at a large healthcare company in Pittsburgh called UPMC. At the time, Google was making a push into the healthcare market with a product called (what else) Google Health. And the team I worked on was tasked with building an app to help patients get their UPMC […]
Continue readingLast week I sent an email that boiled down to this: When you’re not seeing the sales come in like they should, don’t panic. Chances are what you’re doing is working, and you just need to be patient as more people trickle through your marketing funnel. Well, reader Tobey cracked me up with this reply: […]
Continue reading!!! There— Just burned through the rest of my 2016 ration of exclamation points. I like to waste ’em like this so I don’t get tempted to use them in a non-ironic context. Because exclamation points are usually the first sign that you’re listing dangerously toward *hype*… And I HATE hype in marketing. So does […]
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 readingAugust, 2012: I’m pounding out pages for an ebook about Sublime Text. The book is growing steadily, and with it, a sense of panic: What happens when I’m done? My entire promotional strategy consists of pushing the publish button! I’m a programmer, not a sales wizard. Marketing seems like black magic. The thought of my […]
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