May
16
Build It Better: Marketing With Email Courses (eCourses)
by Crystal Clayton, filed under Build It Better, In General
Image credit: Mzelle Biscotte
When a really good idea is executed in a clearly not-good way, it pays to pause and ponder on what the executor could gain from doing it badly.
For example, I was chatting with Tonya from Fake It Until You Make It [an informative ezine I scavenge for free and affordable business tools to review] and she mentioned a free publicity ecourse that had really good content in a not-really-good delivery format.
Based on the ecourse description, I agreed with her assessment that it was overwhelming, but I signed up for it anyway. When the first lesson arrived, what I saw had me wondering if there was something sinister afoot.
A Great Idea, Executed Poorly
Joan Stewart of The Publicity Hound offers a press release ecourse that is thorough. Like, 89 straight days of lessons kind of thorough.
Does the idea of receiving tips every day for three months alarm you
as much as it did me?
And Dan? And my business coach? Because we all agreed that 89 lessons is unwieldy. Proof was that Tonya has a month’s worth of unread lesson emails piled in a folder, waiting…and accumulating (daily)…and waiting…and accumulating (daily)…and…
Our small but unanimous vote tagged this ecourse as doomed because of its duration, even if the content is both free and good (which it is). Still, I saw on her site that Joan’s “89 Tips” ebook had been repurposed into this collection of free tips. Or maybe vice versa…there’s no way to tell which came first. Good stuff either way, though.
So out of curiosity I signed up for the ecourse. And having received, read, and reviewed my first email lesson, I thought two things:
- The ecourse content is clearly written and well-focused and I’m looking forward to the next lesson, and
- The ecourse format is designed to piss me off such that I’ll forsake the freebie and shell out for the ebook. Seriously.
Pissing Me Off, Part 1
Few things get me truly miffed, particularly with online stuff. However, this ecourse raised my blood pressure a notch before I read a single word of content.
The first lesson arrived in my Inbox right away, and I opened it eagerly to find…nothing.
Okay, not nothing, but close enough. Instead of a lesson, there was one line each for a welcome, an ecourse introduction, a note on lesson bonuses, and a hyperlink to the lesson on her site.
So now I’m a little ticked, right? From where I sit, Joan and I started with a fair and typical exchange. I traded direct access to me via my Inbox for her free information that will include at least one sales offer that I may or may not accept. Now I feel like our arrangement is out of balance because in addition to direct marketing to my email address, she can also leverage my hits on her site, while I didn’t gain anything more.
I’m sensitive to the flow of online currency (not just money, but hits, links, readers, subscribers, followers, retweets, etc.), and I recognize that a small imbalance in this area would stand out. So I decided I was making mountains out of a molehills and thought of two benign and beneficial reasons for Joan to send me to her site for the email course content:
- So she can monitor which lessons get read via her website stats, since the email links weren’t trackable, and
- She had graphics, a layout, or video that wouldn’t work well (if at all) as an email
So I clicked the link with anticipation…
Pissing Me Off, Part 2
DENIED! Here’s what I found at http://www.publicityhound.com/pressreleasetips/tip1.htm
After I recovered from the shock, I thought two things:
- Oh hellllll no! and
- Oh no she di’n't!
If you’ve read other posts at BBB, you know I’m generally professional and reasonably well-spoken. But the unwelcome surprise of finding a wad of Google Adsense where I expected content drained every drop of that. This was a huge issue, and here’s why:
The least of it is that the ads were unavoidable which created an even greater imbalance in our relationship. The Adsense itself was not the problem, it’s where and how it’s positioned. Note that absolutely no content is displayed. Internet Explorer reveals only a bit more under the ads—the lesson’s title.
I felt I had been tricked into looking at it, and I wasn’t at all happy with the prospect of 88 more days of unavoidable Adsense. But mostly I was ticked off because I gave Joan my email address and my first two interactions with her (opening her email and arriving at her site) gave me nothing in return.
Which brings me to the bigger issue: I gave Joan the most valuable thing I can offer an information marketer—my email address. Like I found with Alexandria Brown’s ezine, Joan can leverage access to me for advertising revenue, earning much even if she never sold me a single one of her products. But there’s plenty of opportunity for her to do both.
Because while I ostensibly subscribed to three months of lessons, what I actually signed up for was 89 opportunities for Joan to sell me something. She offers six press release products for me to buy, priced from $27 to $247. She has a $4,000/year mentoring program to coax me into. She has an affiliate program (which I don’t belong to, by the way) that would reward me plenty for successfully selling you on her products, most notably a 20% commission on that pricey mentoring program.
So why in the world was my attention squandered on a heavy-handed Google Adsense technique where an ad clickthrough will likely earn her no more than $1 AND sweep me away to someone else’s press release site? One of two reasons:
- She understands the value of each online income stream very well, but not how to combine them effectively
- There is a conspiracy to frustrate me with a long and irritating ecourse, such that I am driven to buy the ebook in self-defense.
Poor Execution…For The Win?
If it’s #1—that Joan is unfamiliar with combining online income streams—then her marketing tactics are just getting in the way of her great content. If that was so, I’d be willing to stay for the content until the bitter end of the 89th lesson while doing my best to ignore the format.
If it’s #2? Well, that’s risky business. Rather than buy the ebook, my frustration could just as easily lead me to write a heated blog post to highlight the faults in the strategies so my friends and I can have something to chew on. Heh.
But who’s to say that it’s not both…or neither? With that in mind, I’m going to both maintain my subscription AND put it out here for us to talk about. Because the content looks to be that good, and the execution looks to be that not-so-good.
And now that I’ve had my say, I don’t believe Joan would intentionally frustrate her customers in an effort to force a buy. Insurance, pharmaceutical, and antivirus companies try to scare us into buying all the time (and it often works), but a strategy that entails frustrating us into buying would be crappy and, like I said earlier, quite risky. Joan’s too smart, too seasoned, and too professional for that. I doubt she would take the chance we would drop Publicity Hound like a hot rock.
Ideas For A Better eCourse
Reading back over that, I’ve been kinda abrupt. I should make it clear that I don’t dislike ecourses, Joan Stewart, or her products. Quite the opposite, actually!
But her ecourse plucked the same nerve as my peeves with lackluster PDFs: great tools wielded ineffectively cost us results, customers, time, and money.
We can plan and build our lists effortfully and spend our time and money carefully, but poor execution will rob us of our Big Win despite all that effort and care.
That said, here are some ways I think we can build better ecourses:
- Keep it short and give readers time to breathe.
Five to seven lessons is probably plenty for a daily ecourse? If we have more than ten lessons it’s likely time to consider delivery on alternate days. The more lessons we have, the more time our readers will need to keep up. Like, if we have 50 tips then maybe we should deliver one each week for a year, not daily for almost two months. - Put the entire lesson in the email
Put all of it in the email unless there is a compelling reason for readers to go elsewhere, such as heavy and essential graphics, a fabulous and necessary layout that won’t work as an email, or video. - Offer the collection of lessons as an ebook
I think Joan was right on with this. Having all that good content in one easy-to-read PDF file is reason enough to buy, but ecourse subscribers may feel more compelled to purchase if there’s bonus content the ecourse didn’t have, such as extra lessons, downloadable audio files, or exclusive access to how-to videos. - Advertise with subtlety and care
Text links, not banner ads. Discreet but visible placement of Google Adsense. Suggest a product, don’t insist upon it. There are numerous opportunities to sell something in an ecourse, but just one unwelcome hard sell could turn our eager reader into an unsubscriber. - Track everything we can
It’s critical to know what emails our subscribers open, and which links they clicked on. Any good email service can manage this. I use iContact because it has useful features, a clean and friendly interface, and thorough help files.
Et tu? Got more suggestions on what would make a great ecourse? Have doubts or questions about these? Lemme know down below!
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37 Responses to “Build It Better: Marketing With Email Courses (eCourses)”
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Whew! Taking a short break from blogging, folks. More posts coming soon. Thanks for your patience!
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**crickets**
Uh oh. I guess y’all didn’t like the case study? Lemme know.
Nothing turns me off faster than hitting a page whose first glance shows me obvious placement of banners or adsense or anything that is not intended to be actual content of the website on which I have landed.
Doubly so from something like an email newsletter I’ve opted to get. Also there’s nothing email can do that RSS can’t do just as well if not better. Although I realize that RSS doesn’t have nearly the reach.
With that in mind, what about combining tip #2 and #3 with an RSS option and an onsite option? It provides way more opportunities to advertise with subtlety and also encourages more personal sponsors because of all the ad delivery options. (Paid examples in lessons like “this business is doing this right! + link”)
Totally agree with #5. Tracking is critical.
@Giania! Welcome! TG!
Good point about the RSS…lesser reach is no reason to ignore it. It makes excellent sense to work both email & RSS, and also your clever RSS & onsite idea, to be assured of catching everyone we can.
Absolutely love the “paid examples” + link …!
Thanks for dropping and giving me some ideas to chew on
Crystal,
(I hate the cricket days. Makes me want to bite my nails or something. Sorry!)
I just got to reading the post, and I love it, laughed heartily, and agree totally.
Actually, I’ve been seeing a lot of this not-quite bait and switch lately, with tons-o-teasers when they had me at Hello, and the am I being flim-flammed or is this person naïve approach seems to be part of it.
With zero firsthand knowledge of the program I am going to wonder if Teaching Sells (Brian Clark) is behind several of them, because that’s the first program I noticed doing it to me. Maybe I’m wrong (again, I don’t know for sure and don’t mean to malign the dude), but I think he’s getting people to follow his approach a little too closely, without making it their own. This 2.0 world is too connected for that. We start to notice the eerie similarities. It feels like a stereotypical used-car salesman is after me.
Here I am, I’m psyched, I’m really interested, and then I’m coated in some goo. I can’t buy like that. All I’ve done is collect all the teasers and muse on them (looking for obvious connections), but haven’t signed up for a thing. I keep getting the feeling I’m being slimed, however pleasantly.
However it is coming about, this eCourse is not the only one. I look forward to hearing more about it from you.
Regards,
Kelly
Recent blog post from Kelly: Why is Go Daddy so Gosh Darn Ugly?
I signed up for her e-course once and didn’t felt bothered with the way she was doing her thing (ads, frequency of delivery, etc.).
I usually block whatever is on the way and focus on what I’m after. In fact, I ended up purchasing 3 reports from her.
Now, I wasn’t happy with the follow up. No thank you sequence, no upsell, blah, blah, blah.
Diana
Recent blog post from Diana Fontanez: 1
Kelly-”I think he’s getting people to follow his approach a little too closely, without making it their own. ”
I am seeing the first trickles from the program (Charter member here) and I think you are on to something. It’s a hugely comprehensive look at how to create an asset online, overwhelming in a lot of respects. I for one am taking the time to do the upfront work so that it is mine, customized. Some of the things I am seeing are more like bricolage, some of the steps without the ownership and heart, or the psychology that Brian puts into the sessions. Michael Seltzner’s White Paper series is a prime example of how to, Naomi is getting ready to do her version, which will be so Naomi and she won’t tick off her hard won ideal clients. This case study is how not to. Period. I’d have to bail…89? Ridiculous.
Recent blog post from Janice Cartier: Lavender Lingerie
Hi Kelly! Whew! I thought you guys read it and didn’t like my negative stance, then I checked my stats and found that no one had been by to read it. Oddly comforting, actually
And really, I’m sorry I havent been to your site more for reading and comments and fun. I’m still working on my blogging time management skills. When I get it right, it will be great to chat with you throughout the week at all those blog-haunts that we share
Crazy ain’t it? All that effort for a sell, then the delivery is so……you know? I heard from a Ali Brown Online Success Blueprint Workshop in a Box purchaser that the content was super, but the binder was just PowerPoint slides with notes. And while they appreciate having exactly what workshop attendees had, they were disappointed that more effort wasn’t taken with the presentation for the $1497.
And you’ve given me a new perspective…that there could be a strategy to appearing naive about delivery. I’d rather believe that than the alternative, which probably makes me the naive one!
I don’t know Teaching Sells either, except for the occasional blog post, but he’s an effective salesman, and if his students are keen on his model, and it doesn’t have much wiggle room (intentionally or not), and this is his model, then this kind of thing would certainly be the result. When someone is making money and you’re not, and they’re willing to share all the ins and outs so you can, I suspect many just do what they’re told with the hope that they’ll get the exact same results if they do the exact same thing. Not picking on Brian’s model, that’s across the board. It’s real easy to spot Ali’s people.
Which is a shame, really, because of those “eerie similarities” that make the whole sell boringly formulaic (If I see one more headline that starts “Finally!” I’ll cry. I really will). Maybe this is a product of our seeing much and analyzing much? Because the first time I saw a “Finally!” headline I thought it was totally hot. I just happened to see 5 or 6 of those this week, so it’s not-so-hot for me anymore.
And yah, I felt like you said: I’ve already opted in…why are you schmoozing me? It makes me dread a continued relationship, which, of course, is the kiss of death. Naomi has it right in her recent pre-launch post…I’d much rather go for the long term love.
Glad you’re up for more case studies, because there will be a bunch coming up in the next few weeks as part of my own pre-launch. We’ll have lots more to poke at…looking forward to your take on ‘em!
Thanks for your comment, as always…good thoughts all around
Hi Diana, and welcome! Good to hear from someone who’s been farther down the course than I have. Your buying 3 reports is a testimony to Joan’s good content. Makes me glad that I’m sticking with the ecourse despite the ads.
And I’m stunned that she didn’t have big thanks and hammer home the upsell?! Perfect opportunities wasted
But not for us! Many lessons to be learned from this one, and unfortunately, as Janice said, some of the lessons are on how-not-to.
Thanks for adding to our convo…drop in anytime
Hi Janice! How cool that you’d share an insider’s perspective with us! I had to look up bricolage… “a piece created from diverse resources.” So with the rest of what you said, I’m hearing that some parts of the program aren’t as thoroughly addressed as others?
I’ve signed up for Seltzner, and haven’t had 10 darned seconds to give to it yet. Thanks for your vote of confidence on his stuff. Wendi Kelly turned me onto him with 4 exclamation marks worth of excitement, so I’m looking forward to it even as I’m eagerly awaiting Naomi’s.
I promise the next case study will be a stellar example. I’d hate for yo guys to see me as a ragingly Negative Nelly
But if I share only the good stuff, I’m doing only half of my job.
Yup, 89.
Giania- Thanks for the “subtle sell” pointers. These are something I am really looking for. I am in some pretty smart company here. We are after, oh Kelly here I am again, the maximum customer experience for our clients online, if we want to retain them. And I do. So why on earth piss them off like this. I’ll throw out Garr Reynolds Presentation Zen here. It’s the whole Bento Box design concept. We’re short on time and long on clutter these days. Here I go with packaging again, Crystal. But seriously who wants to opt in for more in an inbox that makes you wade through a lot of junk to get a morsel of okay. Give me a smaller, tighter little package with delicious inside and I ‘ll be back.
Recent blog post from Janice Cartier: Lavender Lingerie
Crystal- Let me clarify. I think this person is the person doing the bricolage, uh, Joan is it, not Brian. If she is in the course. I do not recognize the name.
You’ll see the difference immediately.
Stop whatever you are doing and watch Michael’s first email video. Now. Seriously . Go do it.
I think we learn a lot from what not to do’s though. Kelly took Go Daddy to task this week. It reminds me of those magazine shots with the black strip over the face and some god awful outfit. DON’T DO THIS!! Not a bad reminder.
Recent blog post from Janice Cartier: Lavender Lingerie
LOL - I saw it in my feed reader and starred it to read, now have finally come back to get to it… sorry you thought (initially) you only had crickets to keep you company.
I can see how this would have ticked you off. It sort of ticked me off just reading it…
Recent blog post from Brett Legree: running debrief - the five year plan.
@Brett—The crickets were okay for awhile, but thankfully @giania was around late on Friday to save me from ever-growing self-consciousness
Happy Victoria Day!
(did I say that right?)
@Crystal,
Yes you did! Good old Queen Victoria, may she rest in peace and thanks to her we have a reason to have barbecues and beer
Recent blog post from Brett Legree: running debrief - the five year plan.
Hi Janice! Ohoh, my bad entirely. And yes, that’s the PERFECT word for it, and something to probably expand on in a post? It’s not entirely effective for us to implement others’ step-by-step plans without assessing the value of each step for our purpose.
Sure, I could copy everything Ali Brown does but would that be best for my content? Would that be good for y’all? Doubt it. Why and how the strategies work is critical info. Hmm…maybe there’s an ebook in there?
And you are SO funny. I first read this comment on my phone, in the grocery store parking lot and didn’t DARE watch it when it got home because I knew I’d get sucked into it with glee. Today is a reading day, hope it can be a ‘watching’ day too. Looking forward to it…
Thanks for the encouragement to ‘just say no’
Will feel more free to do that in the future. Kelly’s GoDaddy post was fab, wasn’t it? I especially liked “buy a race car driver for $1.99″…
@Jan — And there you go with the packaging again…and I am ever so glad for it. Subscribed to PZ tout de suite.
But in reading and agreeing with this: “Give me a smaller, tighter little package with delicious inside and I’ll be back.”, am I a hypocrite for regularly having 1500 word posts? Should I be trimming them down to 100-200 like Seth Godin? Or (like many others) would that be taking on a strategy that works well, but may not work for me?
Not that it’s all about me
, but the BBB blog concept is getting revisited so your comment raises questions and a few doubts. Your Bento Box concept is so appealing, but may not be practical.
Thanks for the think!
Crystal- aw shucks.Thanks. Here’s what I take away from the Bento Box Idea. Garr Reynolds is talking specifically about PowerPoint presentations, but it translates. It doesn’t mean short or long, it means essential. And it means flavor. Essential Crystal ( Crystal is a hot sauce where I come from BTW) will not be the same as Essential Seth. But the smart money is on finding what the essential is and packaging that in it’s own totally appropriate Bento Box. Does that make sense?
Recent blog post from Janice Cartier: 86 Million Reasons A Passion Position Works
@Jan Crystal is a hot sauce where I come from too! Source of many jokes that I thankfully can’t remember
That makes perfect sense. And it makes a perfect design theme for maybe any blog, and now definitely for mine:
“Package the essential. With flavor.”
Whattaya think? Seems like it addresses lots of things well: overall content, individual posts, design, layout, and which widgets to include
Absolutely. Exactly what I am saying.
Now it is essentially important I get a brush out and get to that large painting on the easel. Flavor du jour.. I am thinking some raw and burnt siennas…
Recent blog post from Janice Cartier: 86 Million Reasons A Passion Position Works
Thanks folks, for the compliments about my Go Daddy post. I appreciate that.
Crystal,
I was gently taken to task a week or so ago by someone whose writing I very much admire, for the length of my posts. The idea being that new folks may not read a whole longer post. My response was that I try to mix it up, with short-medium-long, and that I let the topic tell me when it’s done. Stumblers will just have to catch me on the short days.
(My other response was “oh, piffle,” but that wasn’t part of the printed answer.)
My feeling is that worrying about whether you have a lot to say that day is silly. Worry about whether it’s a complete thought. Edit if you’re beating a dead horse. Make it a series if that feels right, but remember that people can get as irritated with series as, say, you are with Joan’s.
Magazines run articles of all lengths and readers survive.
Sure, more random clicks will stay around for a one-minute read than for a six-minute read. They aren’t your core people, the ones you want to become “true fans.” Random clicks are gone in a flash anyway, even when they do read the post. They aren’t worth pandering to.
Your “essential” is going to be different from Seth’s. He’s got his true fans, and he dispenses pithy preaching daily to them. No comments. Why? Because he doesn’t need ‘em. He’s using the blog to stay top-of-the-mind, not to become t-o-t-m.
You are teaching, learning, exploring, interacting along with your readers. That ain’t always possible in 250 words.
I haven’t read a post here yet that I thought ran over what it needed.
My 2¢.
Regards,
Kelly
Recent blog post from Kelly: I Know It Was Earth-Shattering! But I Lost It in Bed!
@Kelly—Now you know that’s funny as hell and worth a million because it came from you?
Funny because you write the longest comments I’ve ever had or seen anywhere (and I wouldn’t shave a single character from any of ‘em, so don’t go changing).
And worth a mil because I have a feeling that you are one of the few I can depend on to, if my posts ran over, find a non-sarcastic (hehe!) but not-too-gentle way of telling me to shut up already and get to the point.
So vast thanks for the feedback! That’s a load off. I’ll keep going as I am, and trust that y’all will rein me in …
LOL! I was thinking that as I wrote it. Like the Queen of the Run-on Sentence is gonna say, “Yeah, Crystal, these posts are too, LONG, girl.”
Don’t forget: Piffle is always an available retort when someday you catch it. The person who called me out knew I was saying it under my breath while typing “Thanks for your thoughts.” He knew.
*piffle piffle piffle*
Know thyself. Your writing is good.
Recent blog post from Kelly: I Know It Was Earth-Shattering! But I Lost It in Bed!
<-- can't leave an appropriate comment reply, too busy laughing!
@Crystal & Kelly,
Both of you write very well, and sometimes you write long posts. So? Sometimes you can’t say stuff in 250 words or less.
I know the “blog experts” will say you need to keep it under 250 words or everyone will leave.
Fine. Go read a comic book then, ADHD King…
Keep doing what you’re doing - I like it!
(This goes for both of you.)
-Brett
Recent blog post from Brett Legree: running debrief - the five year plan.
@Brett & Kelly:
Woohoo! Another vote of confidence for the long post
However, I think a shorter post once a week would alter my schedule for the better.
My much appreciated takeaway from all of this (thanks so much youz guys) is that you won’t kick me to the curb if they stay long OR if they’re shorter, or even short, so long as the content is there for you. I can do that. Can and will.
Thanks for the compliments on my writing too! All those years of reading are finally paying off
Brett,
You can call him Le Roi du ADHD.
He was bustin’ my chops. He knows I’l give it right back, ’cause I’ve got Brass in Pocket. And in cajones.
*piffle piffle piffle*
Later,
Kelly
Recent blog post from Kelly: Tipping Points Go Both Ways
@Crystal,
The content is there - you can and you will do it. That much is certain.
@Kelly,
Oh, I had a feeling it was Le Roi and I figured I’d poke some fun, he’ll probably give me crap for it later
that’s okay though, I can take it and it’s all in fun…
Recent blog post from Brett Legree: running debrief - the five year plan.
Le Roi sees right through me and I see right through him. He knew he’d get my goat, and no doubt at all he knew I’d sock him in the nose.
Recent blog post from Kelly: Tipping Points Go Both Ways
I love talking to Tonya. When ever I need advice, I always go to her first. Thanks for the info though.
@Brad — Thanks for your comment, and welcome! Happy to help, tell Tonya I said Hi
This was a phenomenal post Crystal. Great content and an honest opinion.
@Kelly - I totally disagree with your Teaching Sells comment. I’m subscribed and I never had the feeling of being hammered in such a way as Crystal has described in this post.
And his ‘formula’ actually isn’t any formula at all really. It certainly hasn’t run through doing it as this Joan Stewart Publicity Hound has done it.
In fact, really the majority of Teaching Sells walks you through how to develop the content and the avenue in which to distribute it.
I honestly think the glut of poor marketing and websites we are seeing is out of ignorance and the desire to ;do it yourself’ of so many people. They hear that they can make money with adsense - they see every website HAS adsense. They have 100 tips to share? Well why not have 1 tip go out every day? That would be ALOT of great free information and people will love it!
I know someone who is a phenomenal copywriter who makes ALOT of money doing it. He put together a course, and offers a free 4 part video series about it. It’s over 4 hours of video. Send every two weeks. He’s doing the opposite of Joan Stewert and at the same time it’s just as bad - because they are so far apart people completely forget they even opted into his course.
My point is that I don’t think much of it is on purpose - it’s all people doing their best to get noticed and as such - are really doing a bad job of it.
Also - I agree - as long as you’ve got good content the length doesn’t matter.
If you can pull me in early - i’ll stay as long as it takes.
The whole “Short Post is Best’ philosophy is really out there for the bloggers that just aren’t that good (Like I’ll need to be).
[...] the positive feedback on the Alexandria Brown/1000 True Fans case study and last week’s Publicity Hound critique, I’d like to introduce Big Bright Bulb’s strategic collaboration and consulting [...]
@Shaw—Howdy, and great comment(s)! Two things
You said: “I honestly think the glut of poor marketing and websites we are seeing is out of ignorance and the desire to ‘do it yourself’ of so many people.”
And I see a lot of that all over. Many people get Microsoft Office and know it gives them the power to make things. But some people get Office and think using Access, Excel, Word, and Publisher makes them a star Developer, Data Analyst, Author, Graphic Designer (intentional caps there). Maybe I’m being a snob, but here’s the thing:
Office is a grand tool with a vast support network, but labeling myself a Graphic Designer because I can use Publisher is like saying that I’d be a Painter if I was holding a paintbrush. I’d be capable of ‘painting’ for certain, and if I have some inherent skills, maybe a ‘painter’, but just because I’m able doesn’t mean I’m skilled. There’s a dif between being a painter and a Painter.
Touching again on what I said earlier, if folks wield Adsense without knowing how it works, or who’s making the big money and why, they’re going to be disappointed. Many of the people I’ve read who earn big bucks with Adsense have mad traffic one of two ways: 1) a sticky, single-focused site with mad traffic like a forum, or 2) mad traffic via sum from dozens (if not hundreds) of varying niche sites.
As for your friend the copywriter, I’ve heard two weeks as a good distribution if you’re starting out. I know of a research consultant that blew the top off her microbusiness in 8 months with a monthly newsletter. That said, he’d do well to watch his stats, I think? Maybe if there’s a trend to drop off halfway through, it could be worth trying weekly for awhile to see if the follow-through improves.
As I look at new directions for the blog and my other projects, my worst fear is that I’ll be one of those “doing their best…and really doing a bad job of it” people LoL But hey…no try, no win!
Thanks again
@Shawn — Oops, missed your short comment on short posts
I don’t believe that short posts will cloak crappy blogging, and I also don’t think you’ll need to worry about that when you get one started
[...] and even stuff that pisses me off [...]
[...] previous Build It Better articles we learned how not to administer an ecourse, poked at PDF ebooks, and redesigned some business [...]