Do you want to grow a profitable content business? If so, join 25,000 readers. I share daily insights about personal brand building, writing online and growing a profitable business. It's for creators, coaches and business owners.
I don’t want to annoy my list
|
Hi Reader, Being polite to your list is expensive. I was chatting with a small business owner the other day. They’ve built a reasonably sized email list of several thousand subscribers. But they only send a newsletter about what their business is up to once or twice a month. “Why don’t you want to email your list more often?” I asked. “I don’t want to annoy my list,” the owner said. That’s a common objection from many list owners. But being over-polite is costing him sales. When I fired up MailChimp back in the day, I worried about contacting my list too much. So I sent them an email… once a month. I discovered the hard way that low sales are FAR more annoying. And trying to sell on social media is FAR harder than over email. You have to work with the algo and compete against the glut of content in people’s feeds. It’s easier to stand out in someone’s inbox. I’ve long since abandoned MailChimp, perhaps because it’s built for e-comm brands, not creators like us. Now, I spend 30 minutes a day writing and sending an email to readers of this list. Those who enjoy my emails usually write in. Those who don’t? They also write in! A few unsubscribe. And a few buy my digital products and courses. I read an interesting case study about a newsletter operator in the dating niche. He emails his list three and even four times a day. He explained, “I want my readers to be the first thing my subscribers see after a breakup.” That’s a hardcore email marketing strategy, but most list owners can and should contact their lists more frequently. Once you do this, a few things happen… Practicing in public improves your email copywriting skills. And doing the work gives you more ideas for stories or topics to write about. Your readers will start to enjoy and then expect your daily emails. Your open rates will increase. And more of your readers will buy your products and services. If you present an offer to your list regularly, that’ll turn into more Stripe payment notifications. This virtuous flywheel is FAR more fun and profitable than trying to go viral on social. Believe me, I discovered the hard way the frustrating and unprofitable truth about viral content. Today, my email monetization strategy is straightforward. I don’t spend all day on it either. I can show you how it works on a live workshop this Wednesday. Tickets are only available till tomorrow night.
|
Letters From the Desk of Bryan Collins
Do you want to grow a profitable content business? If so, join 25,000 readers. I share daily insights about personal brand building, writing online and growing a profitable business. It's for creators, coaches and business owners.
I tested Google Gemini’s content creation capabilities. I wanted to see how it stacks up against ChatGPT and Claude for creating business copy. Google Gemini offers two interesting “gems” (think custom GPTs) for content creators: Copy Creator and Writing Editor. Copy Creator helps write taglines, mission statements, and social media posts. Writing Editor focuses on fixing grammar and improving content structure. I put both through their paces using content from my daily newsletter. When I fed...
Your existing content is like an untapped gold mine - most creators keep digging new holes instead of mining what they already have. I’ve spent years writing online, It can easily become a full-time, low-paying job if you keep digging. One method for getting around this problem is building a content library of your greatest hits. It’s easier to repurpose content if you have a library that you can draw from. Another method is tracking a few key weekly stats across each channel so you can see...
I spent years obsessing over niche selection. When I was a Forbes columnist, branding myself as “the productivity and leadership guy” seemed like a safe bet. I covered topics like time management, leadership, and getting sh*t done at work.I mapped dozens of hot niche-specific topics in a spreadsheet and published articles like: The Fastest Way To Accomplish More This Week How To Use The 4 Ds Of Time Management 4 Common Mistakes New Home Workers Make I wrote about these topics not because they...