Ever tried to console a sobbing 2-year-old? I’ve been through this stage three times now with my boys. With my youngest, a typical conversation might go something like this: Him: WHAAAA!!!! Me: What’s wrong? Him: YEAH. Me: Are you hungry? Him: YEAH. Me: Did you get hurt? Him: YEAH. Me: Did you lose your toy? […]
Continue readingHere’s a slippery slope: Josh – do you ever give “one-off” discounts to customers if they as for them? Or just tell them that the full price is the price, but to look out for discounts that pop up from time to time? My philosophy on one-off discounts is: Hand up, not a hand out. […]
Continue readingOf all the topics that I write about here, the one that consistently generates the most response is: Me sending emails… about people… who complain about me sending emails. This subject REALLY gets people fired up. I never fail to get an inbox full of replies. Here’s my theory about why: As an entrepreneur, chances […]
Continue readingSo you know you’re supposed to build a relationship with your email list, right? But what does that even *mean*? How do you “build a relationship” with a faceless group of database entities in some email software off in the cloud somewhere? Answer: You don’t. You can’t. You can only build relationships with *individuals*. Subscriber […]
Continue readingI was pretty tickled with myself when I hatched the plan to bury a nasty Amazon review of my business partner’s book. All I had to do was send one email to 41,000 people asking for “not helpful” votes and that review would be history. Ah, but I forgot about the “white knights.” Whenever you […]
Continue readingA few weeks ago my business partner John was complaining about this Amazon review on his first book, Soft Skills: A Software Developer’s Life Manual. A little backstory is in order: This book has sold tens of thousands of copies, making it one of the best-selling titles for software developers ever published, and overall it […]
Continue readingMy all-time favorite quote from Mark Twain is: “Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” When you have an audience, whether it’s an email list, blog or social media “tribe,” that means YOU are the one with the storage room full of ink. And when you’re in this position, you […]
Continue readingLast week I did a little 3-day affiliate push for my new digital product sales weapon of choice, Coach. After email #2 went out, I got my hand slapped by a subscriber I’ll call “Jeremy”: Consecutive emails shilling for Coach is a bit heavy handed, IMO. Otherwise, I’ve loved your daily notes. My reply: Thanks […]
Continue readingNot too long ago I signed up for one of those “grow your email list” tools. It looked pretty good, so I invested a couple of hours to get it set up, then let it run for a week— And netted a grand total of 11 new email signups. Blech. I’m getting more and more […]
Continue readingHere’s a common story sent in by a reader named Trae: First of all thank you so much for your time and resources. Super helpful! Here is my question…. I have a customer list of about 13,000 email addresses. The problem is all of these emails came from the transaction of when they bought my […]
Continue readingConsulting client Geneve is using an email course to generate leads for her high-end photography business marketing program. So far several subscribers have raised their hand for more info. Score! Geneve replies to them promptly, and then the train jumps the tracks: … they are not returning any of my follow up emails. I think […]
Continue readingCouple weeks back I sent an email about a subscriber who demanded that I opt him out of any and all sales pitches—and just send him the specific content he wants. Nuh uh, I said. This ain’t Burger King—”have it your way” doesn’t apply. There’s an unsubscribe link for a reason. Sales pitches are just […]
Continue readingSubscriber Ant is a consultant who helps companies use elearning in their businesses. He writes: I recently purchased your product on writing an email course and am getting a lot of value out of it – so thank you for that. One question I have – I have read elsewhere that you should try and […]
Continue readingI was hangin’ in this private online group the other day when an entrepreneur named Joe piped up and asked: I need to work on a nurture sequence for new folks on my list. Does anyone have templates of examples (or book recommendation on this topic) of what a nurture sequence should look like? Should […]
Continue readingLast week I tried an interesting experiment with the Simple Programmer email list. Over the course of 2 days, I sent out 3 “broadcast” emails with just one major difference between them. And just check out the difference in open rates: Email #1 got an abysmal 1.8% open rate (yes 1.8%, that’s NOT a typo). […]
Continue readingLast week I wrote up an email for Simple Programmer about a topic all developers love to hate. Namely, “coding puzzles.” Coding puzzles are these annoying riddles they hit you with during job interviews. Most developers hate these puzzles because they’re so far outside the type of problems you actually encounter day to day as […]
Continue readingLately my wife and I are binge-watching our way through “Parks and Recreation” for the fifth (possibly sixth?) time. (“Parks and Rec” is my all-time favorite sit-com—sorry, Seinfield lovers, George Castanza can’t hold a candle to Ron Swanson.) The other night we watched an episode from season 7. And in one of the sub-plots city […]
Continue readingOne fear that newcomers to email marketing have is: SPAM COMPLAINTS. Spam complaints are nothing to take lightly. Rack up enough of them and you could find yourself locked out of your email software. Or you could wind up on the “naughty list” like subscriber Justin, who writes: Have you had to deal with de-listing […]
Continue readingOne time when I was a kid, I was splashing around in a creek with a few friends of mine. At one point one of the other boys happened to look down, and he saw something stuck to his leg. It looked like a worm, but it was in fact— A leech. Utterly repulsive. I […]
Continue readingWord of warning: I’m cranky this morning. Why’s that? Well, I just had to handle a refund request from a customer who goes by the name of Nick W. Normally I do NOT mind refund requests. The whole point of this for me is providing a service, and if a customer feels they didn’t get […]
Continue readingBack when I was bootstrapping my way into a new career as a programmer, I remember hearing about this hot new tool for building websites called Ruby on Rails. The idea behind RoR was to streamline the process of creating a new website from scratch—and allow developers to build complicated features quickly and painlessly. The […]
Continue readingSubscriber Sam recently ran a 24-hour product launch for his very first product—a video course with an accompanying workbook that helps students to improve their skills speaking English. He writes: So a little update. I made just over $350 in sales in the 24 hour promo – which I’m pretty happy with for my first time […]
Continue readingBefore I got into copywriting, I had a side job as a home photographer with a local real estate agent. Whenever the realtor would go to list a home for sale, he’d bring me and my professional lighting equipment in for a couple of hours to make sure the property looked presentable. (Most real estate […]
Continue readingA few weeks back my alarm went off as usual at 4:55 a.m. And when I grabbed for my iPhone, I saw that I had a message waiting from Bryan Harris. If you don’t know Bryan, he is THE MAN when it comes to building your email list. He’s created an excellent program called Get […]
Continue readingSubscriber Carl is a copywriter in the make money online and alternative health niches. He asks: Q: What methods do you use to really fine tune in and connect with your subscribers needs – drill right down to the core emotion – and how do you then use this information to communicate with them in: […]
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