...mainly because the busy-ness of writing and publishing is just one part of everything I do here. (This post available as a PDF.) Hi again, Going through all my subscribers today was an interesting exercise. Many of you are interested in several things I talk about, and some of you may have slipped in the cracks - so this may be an email out of the blue, perhaps. The Overall Scene - I may may have mentioned you before that a way to analyze any body of data and build your own workable world-view is to look for these four points: Philosophy, Principles, Patterns, and Products. Philosophy is defined as "appreciation for things that work." Principles are core, repeating data that keep showing up. Patterns are like systems, where the principle inter-relate regularly (like … [Read more...]
The Great Fiction Writing Challenge – Week 37 Results
The Great Fiction Writing Challenge – Week 37 Results Regular writing becomes regular, plus more inspired ideas of how to roll out a conversion plan.. Metrics Published Words Fiction: – free – 6581 (Wattpad) – paid – 21948 Published Words Non-Fiction: – free – 1389 – paid – 0 (Medium) Free Views: – Medium - 16 – Wattpad - 2 Subscribers: Mailerlite: 34 (non-IF), MailChimp: 24, Instafreebie –242 (down from 363 and 848) New Total: 4046 (from 4247, decrease of 201, earlier 4193) Book sales this week: Amazon – 4, Draft2Digital – 1, Gumroad – 1= Total Week’s sales – 6 Books (pre-)published this week: For the Love of 'Cagga https://calm.li/LoveCagga A Case of Missing Wings https://calm.li/MissingWingsCase In Progress: Hooman Saga: Book Two, Part Two, … [Read more...]
Hooks & Descriptions: Getting the Fiction Readers to Buy
Hooks & Descriptions: Getting the Fiction Readers to Buy Fiction readers are like fish: You can't land a fish unless you get it to bite your bait with a hook in it. Most authors have a hard enough time writing their story, let alone working up a marketing approach that will get people to claim (or buy) their book. Working with Instafreebie brought this to view. On one particular giveaway, analyzing my completed giveaways and the books which had the most claims, it really narrowed down to a single book. Which got me curious - why this book? Instafreebie is different from Amazon and other book outlets, in that there is no preview. To claim a free book, you have to select by the cover and the 800 character description. What's in that book doesn't matter. (And is a subject for … [Read more...]
Email Marketing: Giving Away Free Books, Opt-in’s, and GDPR.
Email Marketing: Giving Away Free Books, Opt-in's, and GDPR. Why This Came Up Yesterday I was reminded how the GDPR deadline was coming up. And Instafreebie was not going to recommend any giveaway or book on their web sight that was still "mandatory opt-in" in order to download a free book. Frankly, this was a no-brainer to me, as I explain below. I then communicated this to my groups, telling them that I was probably going to have to remove any books that were still mandatory opt-in by the time the giveaway went live - so that Instafreebie would help us get subscribers with their promotions. But a very small handful of people - less than 10 - out of the 9 giveaways I am currently organizing had any comment to add. Only two were at all negative. The rest just wanted their book(s) … [Read more...]
Online Business: Why Email Always Works Better Than Social Media
Online Business: Why Email Always Works Better Than Social Media by Rae Steinbach at Taktical.co Digital marketers use a lot of platforms these days. Social media. Content marketing. Apps. Podcasts. But email marketing is still more effective than most. It’s also effective with most consumer demographic groups. That includes millennials and GenZ. Why? Email gives you a direct reach to your customers without distractions. And email lets you reach more internet users than you could with any other strategy. Research shows that approximately 3.7 billion people worldwide had email accounts by the end of 2017. Facebook can’t match those numbers. The popular social media platform still only attracts about 1.9 billion unique visitors a month. Email is more widespread simply because … [Read more...]
Even Fiction Writing Experts and MLM Gurus End Up Here
Even Fiction Writing Experts and MLM Gurus End Up Here They all started with nothing. They all learned they had to build their own list. And eventually, they all wound up doing the same thing, using the same basic approach. While getting very rich. Let me tell you how I found this: Nothing to Nothing My first nothing to nothing story was being a staff member for 20 years in a corporate cult on the West Coast. While this was supposedly devoted to helping people improve their spiritual abilities, the core reason it existed was to make the Founder (and current CEO) rich. And it succeeded at all of these. (Staff, however, devoted their lives to the first ideal and stayed poor.) When I finally came to my senses and left, I had no retirement or savings and was starting over in … [Read more...]
