Weird week. All the reasons in the world for not getting things done. At least I’m fighting the catch-up earlier this week. Glad to have you along for this journey…
“Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Metrics
Subscribers:
Total Subscribers – 2489
Heritage Subscribers – 67
IF Subscribers – 2305
New IF subs – 10
New Non-IF subs – 1
Webform Subs – 5
Inactive – 8
Veteran Subs – 358
Still dwindling. Need to ramp up promotion to get subscribers from other areas.
(I did get a yahoo pointing out that text-only readers of email don’t flag the “opened” bit – so they’ll simply be unsubscribed eventually. Last week, I set that back to two years before I delete them for non-opening during the last 90 days. Should help out that tiny bit of people. I’ll check that out sometime later…)
Book Sales: Back to usual. Higher with the scamdemic scare.
Books (pre-)published:
Fiction Books In Progress:
- “Idylls of a Lazurai” has come into view, which then aligns the whole series with the “Their Eyes” kids.
- “Their Eyes” characters to establish: Felicity, Augie -> What Their Eyes See -> Book Five (Augie is next – this coming week.)
- Corona-Xi series and anthology – way back-burner now.
- Case of the Sand Dune Demise, Death and the Dreamcatcher > Book Five
- Book Four needs villain established.
- Two Ghost’s Salvation Book Two (series) -> Book Three
- Wolfer’s Nation -> Book Three
Non-Fiction Books In Progress:
- Get Everything You Want Out of Life Anthology – ebook only (see below).
- PMA Science of Success Introduction – revision
- PMA Science of Success Complete Lessons
- Why Leftists Fail with Violence
- A Parody Outline of History (Parody/Satire – actually fiction)
- A book of talks by George Washington Carver
Courses in Progress:
- “PMA: Science of Success” (now in beta)
- “Strangest Secret” (now in beta),
- “Get Everything You Want Out of Life”, (now in beta)
- “If You Can Count to Four…” (now in beta),
- “Completely Change Your Life in 30 Seconds” – still in alpha.
- Common-Sense Marketing That Works – pre-alpha
- Raising Gentle Cattle – pre-alpha
- How to Write Less and Profit More – pre-alpha
- And some more that I already recorded for podcasts…
Analysis
There’s more to do on subscribers, as usual. And somethings that don’t make sense.
Instafreebie/PW
Occasionally, I do a retrospective to find out how effective IF/PW actually is. And since I have a high rate of unsubscribes (freebie seekers) I know the actual retention rate is quite low. Most of it is far worse if I compare how many books I give away there without getting subscribers to opt-in. It always raises more questions when I start something like this. I’d love to dig in, but I’m a full day behind, if not close to two.
Up to a year ago today, IF/PW said they sent me 9748 subscribers. My mailing list has only 1168 of these still onboard. 12% retention. So, if you include those books you give away on that site (50% more) then you have 6% of those people. What I can work with is the 12%. And converting then through other opt-ins (back of book, site, other book sales.) A rough figure out had 77 that weren’t from IF/PW, but around 362 who came from other sources, not just IF/PW. Meaning that I’m cross-converting them at 5 to 1. Small potatoes, but this is where I need to concentrate in order to have stable opt-ins.
Does it pay? IF/PW costs me $120 a year. 4247 subscribers from them. 1172 actually made it onto my list. So, 12% of those is 140 subscribers. I paid just under $10 for each of these.
Simple math.
Original Fiction
Going back to this, since my habits are now bringing me more stories on a regular basis. They don’t get fewer because I don’t write them. But writing tends to make everyone queue up. And this is my real joy in life, where I can lose myself for a couple of days of bliss.
Walking among the cows give similar relief – where the world just drops away for awhile.
Peace of mind is one of the 12 riches Nap Hill talks about.
Meanwhile, Classic Publishing Continues
Worked out a way to promote these – which is to post a short story every week to my blog, which then also posts to Medium. Take a short story out of one of the books, and then split it up into parts. Give the link on my site where they can find out more about that book – which then promotes sales.
Don’t know when I’
Pointing to Next Year’s Challenge
Most of where I’m headed is in testing Nap Hill’s PMA: Science of Success lessons for myself. I already have an independent income, but making more would be nice.
Two podcasts each week is what I want to move up to. Those are for the PMA:SOS course itself as a generic course, then one which is tailored just to writers. Pulizzi had 6 stated parts to his Content Inc system, but he devoted a huge part at the beginning to Nap Hill’s TGR and goals. So that makes a seventh.
Courses
Each course I make should come backwards from the podcast. 14-minute TED talk is ideal, then split that up into 3-5 lessons of 3-5 minutes each. So the podcast becomes a module or a mini course. The podcasts repeat several times during the year – so each of those audio bits will play three times for the 17 parts of PMA:SOS. There are three parts to the “Becoming a Wealthy Author” mega-course, so it’s feasible to get this huge course built in a year. Provided I stick to it.
Last week’s to-do’s:
- Sun: This analysis & emails – Late, but yup
- Write the next short fiction – Nope
- Publish one each of PD SF and Mysteries – Yup
- Any “other” time – produce courses (PMA:SOS Intro) – Nope
- Set up blog/podcast/lesson pattern – Nope
This week’s to-do’s:
- Sun: This analysis & emails
- Write the next short fiction
- Publish one each of PD SF and Mysteries
- Any “other” time – produce courses (PMA:SOS Intro)
- Set up blog/podcast/lesson pattern
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