Hey, I started this weekly newsletter five years ago – almost to the day. It's time to give it a name. Welcome to… Decoders. *canned applause* I've always used Decoders internally for this newsletter; I've just decided to make the branding official now, with a logo and all, as this newsletter moves to the next stage – more on that in a moment. Anyway, as is traditional in January, I've been taking stock and planning ahead – and I've a full slate of exciting things coming for you in 2023. Business is going very well for me, and I want to continue making lots of valuable resources free to authors wherever possible. I talk about the how and the why in much more detail below. So I don't bury the lede, let me tell share the biggest change coming to this newsletter.
That's it, that's the big change. And I'll explain a little more about it and then get right back to this week's topic. Before that, can you please take this quick 8-question survey? That would help a lot. (Honestly, it's really quick - took me like 30 seconds when I tested it just now.) This data is required for a new program called the ConvertKit Sponsor Network, to which I've been invited, where ConvertKit essentially acts as my newsletter's agent, pitches sponsorship to suitable brands (hence the survey), and handles all the backend stuff on my behalf. The data from the survey above will be used by ConvertKit in an aggregated sense, simply to get a read on the basic demographics of my list for potential sponsors. Most importantly, I get to veto any companies I don't want to work with – which is a dealbreaker for me. Even with that safety valve, this is all quite new so we'll see how it plays out. I have quite a bit of control here, and I envisage one small sponsorship message in the middle of each email so it's not too intrusive, but we might test a few variations of that – while monitoring any feedback. If you have any questions or concerns, now or in the future, let me know. Just don't email me asking about sponsoring this newsletter - all that is handled by ConvertKit at the above link. OK, where were we? Why I Give So Much Stuff AwayI often get asked why I give potentially lucrative things away, why I don't charge for my course, or why I took my bestselling non-fiction book – still a real profit center on its own – and decided to let anyone download it for nothing, or why I don't have a Patreon, a tip jar, or a paid tier for this newsletter, or whatever. This isn't because I'm weirdly averse to money – quite the opposite: the more stuff I give away, the more my revenue increases. I've always wanted Decoders to feel more like a cool club. Well, not that kind of club… unless we meet at a conference and someone wheels out the mezcal. But I do want Decoders to be something with lots of fun perks – exclusive doodads you can't get anywhere else. You get a bunch of stuff for joining Decoders already:
That's a decent haul, in exchange for an email address, but I want to make it even cooler, and add more. People might think that's crazy but this really works well for me. I've grown my subscriber count by 1000% in the five years since I switched to the weekly newsletter format and started "giving away the farm," as one fellow writer described it to me at the time when I was mulling the idea. You probably want to know what else I did to boost things so much. However, it's more revealing to look at what I was doing wrong IMO. I had a mailing list for six or seven years before the switch but was doing everything backwards:
…and that was just the beginning. All this was manifesting in a list full of terminally disengaged subscribers – and please excuse the clinical terminology, especially if you are one of my subscribers who stayed with me throughout the fallow period. I'm super grateful to everyone who hung in there when I was only emailing my list when I wanted something (i.e. money, for a book), when I didn't welcome people properly to my newsletter, when I didn't give them anything in exchange for their email address, and especially when I thought it would be a good idea to simply have one mailing list for everyone – fiction and non-fiction. What was I thinking? Something had to change. Open rates were plummeting, responses were all-but-gone, and, most importantly, my mailing list simply wasn't driving purchases anything like it should have been, or anything like it used to. My newsletter wasn't dead, but the zombie bite was already festering. A course from Tammi Labrecque brought my list back to life – one which would form the basis of her wonderful book on email marketing: Newsletter Ninja. Then I made the very smart decision of hiring Tammi to edit the latest edition of Let's Get Digital. I had already decided to start putting the Newsletter Ninja principles into practice. I was in the process of splitting my list up into fiction and non-fiction peeps, coming up with a content plan so I had something to talk about when I switched to a weekly newsletter, and crafting a welcome sequence so that new subscribers were onboarded properly. Maybe everything had been done badly in the past, but I was determined to right the ship, and not shirk from any difficult decisions. And there was a really big one to make about my reader magnet. As things stood, readers got nothing for signing up to my list – not even any kind of basic welcome content, let alone the kind of enticing sign-up bonus that could act as a draw all on its own. I wanted one of those. Problem was, I didn't have one of those. What I had were some crappy ideas about giving away some old, out of date book, or a tarted up blog post. Not exactly going to melt my server with that line-up. When my brain came back online again, I came up with the idea of writing a short booklet on how Amazon really works, and how that could (and should) affect your approach to marketing. Amazon Decoded. My new email set-up was supposed to go live in about a week, and I needed to call my new non-fiction-only mailing list something in the interface, so I just went with Decoders. I just never told you guys! The rollout of all this was lining up with a major book launch – which couldn't be delayed – so the pressure really was on. But by hook or by crook, I wrote that little book in three sleepless days. And it was somehow good, apparently, despite its difficult birth. (In case you are looking for that book in 2023, it's no longer a sign-up bonus. After expanding the book to a full-length version, with much more hands-on marketing advice added based on your feedback, the second edition of Amazon Decoded was launched for $4.99.) Decoding Amazon was certainly a hot topic; this was a book that I knew I could sell for real money, and move quite a few copies of – even as short guide. But I remembered Tammi's advice and decided to make it exclusive. In other words, if you wanted Amazon Decoded, you had to join my newsletter – there was no other way to get it. The effect was immediate, and then only grew from there. I cannot stress enough the importance of having a good reader magnet – i.e. one that is enticing and exclusive. (Newsletter Ninja 2 is out now BTW and dedicated to that topic.) And, of course, I switched things up and added more freebies over time. But it wasn't just doling out free stuff which boosted my list. It was taking the principles from Newsletter Ninja and iterating them every week for five years. Having all the right intentions – or the best tools – is great and all, but none of that matters unless you actually turn up, and do the work. I'm saying that as much to myself, as anything, as I've spent the last few months building out various capabilities in advance of the Contentpalooza I have planned for 2023. While I can't reveal the specifics of what's coming quite yet, I can tell you that I have essentially built myself a little recording studio here at home, and now have all the tools and equipment I need to produce any piece of text, video, audio, or graphics I might need. (I just need to do the work.) But what I can promise you is that you have all sorts of help coming with marketing and advertising, with lots of new and creative ways to reach readers, as well as more in-depth help on the old reliables. My audio is a lot better now – and thank you to everyone who gave helpful feedback. Video will be much higher quality also and everything should just be more… pro. This newsletter grew a lot in 2021 and 2022, and it's already a big driver of revenue for me. More subscribers equals more time and money to produce better resources for you guys, which in turn should drive further growth. Sponsorships will allow me to accelerate that process and bring you more fun stuff sooner. (Remember, if you have a few minutes to fill out this quick survey, it really helps with this.) OK, I've gotta go… do the work. Guess what my mantra is for 2023 😉 Dave P.S. Writing music today is The Pretenders with Back on the Chain Gang. |
Monday, January 9, 2023
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