In my email yesterday, I asked for reader questions and replies. Well, I got ’em. To start, a reader named Kenneth wrote in to ask:
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Yeah, at this point you are reading my mind.
I’ve always wanted to ask a question, but wondered whether you respond to emails.
Well, the question “How do you get opt-ins to your list?”
I can’t say I know because I got into your list by a strange way.
I am in a copywriting group and a member of the group shared your sales letter as a way to use reverse psychology, I think it was your MVE product.
He didn’t even share a link, I had to copy the link in the screenshot(I think that’s what happened), got on your homepage and got on your list.
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… and that’s pretty much how I get people to opt-in to my list:
I write stuff… wait until people share that on the Internet of their own accord… then rub my hands in anticipation as others see those shares, google the clues available, search through the Google results, find my website, figure out that I’m actually the guy they were searching for, and then opt in.
I’ve heard this described as “upstream leads” — as in, people who had to swim upstream to find you. I’ve also heard it said these are the most valuable kinds of leads.
Is that true? I don’t know. I can imagine it is… I can also imagine it’s just an excuse by people who like to do it that way.
But that’s less interesting to me than the following:
I’ve gotten variants of Kenneth’s question before. And maybe I’m reading into it, but my feeling is that when people ask “How do you get subscribers” there’s a hidden assumption there.
That assumption is that, if you got no subscribers, no readers, there’s no sense in writing, particularly an email a day, like I do.
Sounds reasonable. But again, is it true?
The answer is no, at least to my mind. Even if nobody is reading what you write, a daily email:
1. Gets you to think about whatever you’re teaching or selling or doing, sharpens your own opinions on the subject, and builds up your expertise
2. Makes you a better writer and a better communicator, in all formats, not just email, without any pressure
3. Builds up a warchest of interesting content, which you can reuse for paid products, for ads, as book chapters, for SEO, for live presentations and trainings, for client work, or as a portfolio
4. Acts as proof of your authority to anybody who does come across you, whether that’s a potential client, customer, or simply fan
5. Can be enjoyable on its own, much how toast with butter is enjoyable on its own
6. Beats Wordle as a daily habit (though you can do both, as I do)
7. Makes you referable, for all the reasons 1-6 above combined, so that in time you do get people subscribing to read what you have to say
I’m telling you this because:
1) I’m grateful to Kenneth for writing in with his question, and I wanted to answer it thoroughly in a newsletter email, and
2) because starting tomorrow, I will be rolling out Daily Email Habit.
Daily Email Habit is my new service to help you be consistent with daily emails. It will give you a daily email prompt/constraint to take away idling over what to write, to keep you on track, and even to help you be more creative.
I will be rolling out Daily Email Habit gradually. But if you like, reply to this email, tell me what like about this service, why it sounds like it might be valuable to you, and I will add you to the priority list, so have a chance to try out Daily Email Habit sooner rather than later.