A few months ago, I wrote an email about the “prat out,” a technique used by con men to get their marks salivating and eager for larceny.
I sent that email out and then also put it on my bare-bones, zero-images, black-and-white website. And I forgot all about it.
Until this morning that is, when I got the following message from a new reader, who wrote:
===
Im now about six years into designing and developing websites.
Your website just fucked my mind.
I was reading a book by Iceberg Slim, he talked about the prat out.
I had no idea wtf that was and found your article.
After reading, i realized that you just pulled the prat-out on me and I’m now much more ready to give you my money. You sneaky fucker.
But i forgive you because you just taught me how much can be done with just words.
I haven’t left your website for an hour. I’m fascinated by what you do with just words. Nothing else is needed. The words create the colors, images and shapes in my head.
As a designer, its blowing my mind how much can be done with words alone and it has opened my mind to all kinds of new possibilities.
Thank you man.
===
No, thank you, kind anonymous reader who wrote in with a testimonial.
I bring this up 1) to feature a flattering testimonial and to encourage more of the same from other readers, and 2) to explain why I have not really been selling much of anything over the past couple weeks.
There are multiple reasons actually.
One is that I made enough money for my modest standards very early this month, thanks to the affiliate promo that Kieran Drew did of my Simple Money Emails course, and the new readers who came in the wake of that promo.
Another reason is that I have found that most of my sales do come via promotion events, whether that be a new launch, or me promoting an affiliate offer for a limited time, or somebody else promoting my offers for a limited time.
So one lesson I’ve learned is to regularly have such events if I hope to keep paying for rent and my daily supply of lentils and canned sardines.
At the same time, I’ve learned to cut myself some slack, and not force myself to shoehorn every daily email into a promotion of one of my existing offers.
Linking to something like an Amazon book (yesterday) or simply inviting a response (Sunday) keeps more of my readers reading to the end, and makes it more interesting for me since I can write about a broader set of stuff.
So in case you were curious why I’m linking to random stuff recently, now you know.
That said, it is important to remind readers of my offers from time to time so they can’t use the excuse, “Oh I didn’t even know!” to not buy.
And today, following a testimonial in which a reader says I pulled the prat-out on him, is a particularly good time to remind you of my best selling course, in terms of copies sold at least.
In case you’re curious, you can find out all about it here: