Last week, I solicited feedback on my Simple Money Emails course, which I offered briefly this past summer.
To which, I got an appreciative but frustrated response from a successful copywriter who’s got a full-time copywriting job, writing for a big direct response business.
I’m not sure this copywriter wants me to share his name, but here’s what he wrote:
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Hey John, thanks for SME. In theory it’s inspired me to pick up daily emails again… but even though I went through the course immediately… I find myself even less interested in writing the dailies! (There was a time when I did write daily emails, for 2 or 3 years, but then I slowed way down and it’s been on-and-off since…)
The reason? I don’t have an offer other than “copywriting services” and so many ideas are re-hashed that I don’t even feel it’s worth discussing them again. Even though I know I should repeat myself and my story… But putting in time to market to a list that hasn’t bought previous offers (books, interviews, and copy services)… and seems interested in free-ideas-as-fellow-copywriters but not as business-owners-in-need… it’s not made me any direct money.
Daily emails and writing certainly improved my craft and speed, which I use for my copywriting work. But to my own list? The effort has taken a back seat. And I wish it hadn’t… but at the same time I see so many copywriters pitching their rehashed whatever that I don’t really want to join them in that.
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I thought for a moment, searching for just the right words to reply with. When I found them, I wrote back to my reader to encourage him by saying,
“Just shut up and write the stupid emails! If it’s not working, then the problem is with you! The system works if you work it!”
No, actually, I didn’t say any of that, nor did I think it. Because my reader raised two valid points:
1. The number of copywriters writing daily emails has exploded over the past few years
2. If you do write daily emails about copywriting, you are likely to attract a lot of freebie-seeking mooches, or as my reader generously calls them, “fellow copywriters”
There are ways to handle both of these issues head on.
But you can also sidestep both issues entirely.
If you have copywriting skills — or even if you don’t, but you want to develop them by writing regularly — then why not simply write to a different audience than other copywriters/marketers/opportunity seekers?
There are thousands of markets out there and millions of sub-markets.
In many of them, you could be the zebra in George Washington’s menagerie — a never-before-seen animal, with your regular email newsletter, and your intriguing subject lines, and your dramatic hooks. Readers in such a market would be amazed by tricks that copywriters would roll their eyes at.
I understand it can be easy, attractive, and even fun to write about what you know, what you’re doing right now, and what you’re learning about. That’s in fact why I write this daily email newsletter.
But earlier this year, I also launched a second email newsletter, about health. It’s about to pass this newsletter in the number of subscribers. And while it’s only made me a tiny bit of money so far, I hope to have it surpass this newsletter in earnings next year.
Anyways, all this is just something to think about if you’re a copywriter who’s resisting the idea of writing daily emails.
Something else to think about:
If you do decide to go into a different market and start a new newsletter, and if you need to actually choose a platform to send that newsletter, then I can recommend Beehiiv. It’s what I use for my health newsletter. It was the best platform I found when I was starting the newsletter earlier this year, and it keeps surprising me and getting better and better.
I pay for the top level of Beehiiv, and I find it a worthwhile $99 each month. But if you wanna give Beehiiv a try, you can do so for free by going here: