Business as self-expression, why I don’t have a mailing list, and announcing my first paid product
In my interview with Benny Lewis last week, he noted that he doesn’t see himself as having a business: “The blog and my travels are just my current lifestyle. Because of this, it’s only natural that it is full to the brim of my personality.”
I know exactly what he means.
Recently a few people have asked me how many hours I work per week. That’s no longer an easy question for me to answer. The line between work and play is becoming increasingly blurred for me. For example, all the challenges I did for Random Acts of Courage — yes, even lying down in a department store, going commando, and flirting with outrageously hot women — could be considered work. That was one of the busiest weeks of my life, and also one of the funnest (that’s a word, right?).
Everything I do now is part of my business, because my business is me. There’s no separation. When I meditate in the morning, that’s part of my business. It gets my mind ready for the day to come. When I have the quick banter with a stranger in line at the supermarket, that’s part of my business. Who knows where the interaction will lead.
That’s not to say I’m always thinking about money. I don’t see profit as the ultimate aim of my business. While making money is definitely important, I’m more concerned with building relationships and providing value. By focusing on those two things, I believe the money will largely take care of itself.
Case in point: I earned my first consulting fee last week, spending a couple of hours with the WhazOn folks, sharing what I know about building an audience online. How did I land that gig? Five weeks ago, I stopped to ask a man on the street about his bicycle.
Not only did that interaction lead to some paid consulting work with a small local business that I greatly admire, but I also ended up with a speaking engagement through the grapevine. And all because I let myself be my curious self that day on the street.
Was I working that day, or just having fun? I’m not sure, and that’s the beauty of it.
Things that don’t feel right
With my business as a form of self-expression, there are a few things I find myself passing up, things other folks tell me are good ideas, smart moves. I pass them up because they don’t feel right to me, and I believe it’s important I stay true to myself.
A few examples…
Building a mailing list
A couple of people kindly suggested that I should ask folks to subscribe to a mailing list before they can download my free manifesto. I’ve heard this advice before, I know it’s well-intentioned, and I’m aware of all the benefits of building a mailing list… but I just can’t bring myself to do it.
Why?
Because it always pisses me off when I’m forced to join a mailing list before I can download something. I’m being asked to give up my e-mail address to a stranger before I get a look at their work? I think it should be the other way around: If you put out a free product, let people download it with a single click, then have a mailing list ready and waiting for them once they’re done reading. If they’re blown away by your work, they’ll sign up.
And I figure those back-end sign-ups have to be worth much more than sign-ups on the front-end. You won’t have anybody signing up on a whim, then unsubscribing immediately or (worse) hitting the spam button when you first e-mail them. You know people want to hear from you when they sign up on the back-end.
(That’s not to say I won’t have a mailing list when I release my paid product next month. Again, I ask myself what feels right when I’m at the other end of the interaction, and I never mind subscribing to a mailing list after I’ve invested good money in a product.)
Welcome popups
I take similar issue with these. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, just browse around the blogosphere for a few minutes and you’ll inevitably be interrupted by a colorful box blocking out the content and asking you to subscribe. Even though such popups are reported to be a surprisingly effective means of building an audience, I have never given up my e-mail address to one of them. I find them very annoying, and so I won’t subject my own readers to one on my site.
Long sales pages
Whenever a blogger releases a paid product, it’s generally accompanied with a crazy-long sales page complete with several BUY NOW! buttons and lots of emphatic formatting. Menothinks I’ve ever read more than a third of the text on those pages.
See, I don’t believe reading a sales page is a good way to decide if you should buy a product or not. I generally only buy something if it has been recommended or produced by someone I already know and trust, and that truth increases as the price does.
When I launch my paid product next month, I intend to keep the sales pitch short and sweet. I’ll have the usual video, a few paragraphs, a few bullet points. I expect most of you who buy the product will have already made your decision before you see any of that. You’ll have been reading my blog for a while and know what I’m all about, or maybe you’ll get a good reference from a reliable source.
…
So I guess a general business rule I’ve come up with is this: If I wouldn’t like the other end of the interaction, I shouldn’t subject other people to it. (I hear yer man Jesus said something similar way back when.)
Yesterday though, I found myself wondering if maybe that’s a bad rule to have. Aren’t I just projecting my browsing and buying preferences onto other internet users? Perhaps other people do appreciate long sales pages and in-your-face mailing lists.
I’ve since stopped second-guessing, decided that the rule is a keeper. While I’ll always consider alternative viewpoints and try to give people what they want, I also know I have to stay true to myself. If I don’t like those popups, I’m not putting them on my site. How can I feel good about subjecting my readers to something when I hate being subjected to that very thing myself?
A course in courage
While I’m here, and since I’ve alluded to it several times above, I guess I should let you know what my paid product will be about.
Since it was so well received — thank you, btw! — I’ve decided to take the Random Acts of Courage concept, add more challenges, create a bunch of resources, and turn it all into an online course. The aim will be to help other people level up their courage and experience the same sense of empowerment and confidence that I was left with after RAoC.
Since the initial project, I’ve heard back from too many people saying something along the lines of “I wish I had the balls to do that!” Like I’ve said before, I’d rather not have a passive audience, so hopefully with this course I can help a few people get out there and start living more courageously.
I’ll open it up to a small group of beta testers in mid-March and make sure it can deliver good results before letting everyone in. I haven’t decided on a final name for the course or any pricing yet. Lots of work to do. Should be an interesting few weeks 
I’d love to hear your feedback on this idea. I’m creating the course to be an excellent resource for you, so your suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Testify, my brother!
Yeah, I think that whole not feeling right thing is why I haven’t gotten around to the Mailchimp or the Aweber action yet. I am, however, thinking about the Feedburner list option. You know, if people *want* updates, cool. But I’m not going to hit anyone over the head with it.
Love Benny’s quote, too. Was having a similar discussion with another blogger today and pointed out how a lot of the advice for travel bloggers doesn’t apply to me, since I’m not focused on tips and advice. I’m more about humor in the form of travel stories (with a stealth mission of getting people to travel in order to achieve world peace
. Even advice from some of the web design gurus of the world doesn’t apply, because it’s all about the personality of the blog — and me!
Good for you for sticking with YOU!
Thanks, Katrina. It’s so easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing and follow suit, but methinks that’s always a trap. If a business/blogging practice doesn’t resonate with you, don’t do it, even if that means passing up some shortcuts.
Good on you for sticking to your guns and doing what you feel is right rather than the most profitable.
BUT, there’s always a but lol. I feel you should consider adding a donate option. You see, I’m not the type who will buy products and e-books from blogs, however, you’re keeping me entertained. With that in mind I’d be happy to donate a few quid in order to keep you doing what you do.
Just a thought mate. Cheers.
Thanks, Ste. I really appreciate that suggestion. I’ve seen some sites in the past put a clever spin on the donate option, where they’ll have a link saying something like “Enjoy the above? Buy me a coffee!” at the bottom of their posts, which goes to a Paypal form with $3 in the amount field.
I’ll give more thought to doing something like that (but maybe with tea, since I don’t drink coffee
.
Have you considered Flattr? That’s another very cool option. The PayPal thing is great, too, since you get humor + a suggested donation amount. I really like the concept of Flattr, though.
https://flattr.com
I hadn’t come across Flattr before. I like the concept, too. Have you seen many blogs using Flattr buttons?
You’re right. No one likes giving out their email address to someone in order to get somehing “free”. It’s no longer free at that point, if you have to give something in exchange, is it?
Also, the RAOC course sounds awesome! What a brilliant idea! You really are so clever! Can’t wait to hear more. Good luck! Chat at you Sunday!
Thanks, Nada. Glad you like the sound of the course. Now I just have to go walk my talk
Looking forward to our Sunday chat as well.
Nada, that’s an excellent point about it not being free. Totally resonates with me and explains my parallel discomfort with the concept. Good call.
“Menothinks” – Lol, that one’s going into the rotation.
Another idea: Tailoring the program somewhat to different kinds of folks. For instance, striking up the courage to hit on attractive women might benefit the single man, but it would be problematic for someone like me who is in a loving, committed relationship. Another example: Someone comes to the party needing a different approach than you might normally suggest to get outside of their comfort zone … forcing themselves not to talk and only listen in social situations, for instance. I am not sure if you want to get into this kind of specialization (especially early on), but it’s worth thinking about.
Get yourself a lawyer too, if you don’t have one, and some legalese. You definitely will want to protect yourself from a blame-conscious society.
Good stuff, Dave. I have considered tailoring the course like that. It will be non-linear so people can jump around and try whatever challenges suit themselves. I’m aiming to have plenty of challenges for everyone, and I hope that I can build a little online community where people can suggest more challenges to each other.
As for the legal stuff, I’m not going to dive too far into that. I’m thinking I’ll have a big fat disclaimer at the start of the course. I’ll also emphasize that while we can’t always avoid making other people feel uncomfortable, participants should strive to leave everyone better off than they found them.
Glad you’re thinking about those things! Your idea is an appealing one, so I’ll be curious to see what your structure/price point ends up being.
I know exactly what you mean about work/play even though I’m in a different position. I’m lucky to have a fulltime job where i kind of have to be in the same place all day long. But out and about the rest of the time I am still thinking with my work head, ready for inspiration, new contacts, new ways of working – meanwhile back in the office I’m living my life, following up my personal projects during the working day.
I guess with some jobs that might be hell, and for most employers I might have been fired years ago – but when you love what you do it does seem to be effective.
Of course cutting loose altogether like you is another way of doing it! But riding the random wave of luck and life is still possible within the confines of a ‘regular’ job too.
Agreed, Nicki. There’s nothing wrong with working a job you love. That’s success! The problem is that most people dislike their jobs and long for more freedom. Their primary reason for clocking in every day is to collect that paycheck. No fun.
I’m with you 100% Niall. I hate pop-ups almost as much as I hate having to give my email address to download a free eBook (Nada is right, it’s not free if you have to give something for it). In fact, I pretty much go out of my way to avoid sites that have the welcome pop-ups unless they have REALLY awesome articles (and even then I’ll only read those articles through RSS).
Yeah, they’re a big turn off. Chris Guillebeau has one of those pop-ups on his blog and I believe it’s supposed to set a cookie when you close it so it doesn’t show up repeatedly. It used to show up repeatedly in my browser though (doesn’t anymore for some reason), and it bugged the hell out of me. If Chris didn’t write suck kick-ass articles, I would have been out of there in a hurry.
Humourously enough, Chris’ site is the exact one I had in mind. But yeah, Chris is great, so I still follow him. I even came out to hear him speak here in Vancouver a few weeks ago for his book tour.
Hey Niall,
Thats sounds like an awesome idea for a paid product. I have to agree with you that Courage Week was great to read about and watching your videos was entertaining. I agree in principle and the challenges look great and I understand their benefits, but there is no way I would go out and do what you done. So maybe a paid course would create force me to take action.
I also agree and disagree with some of your business decisions.
I think your point on getting subscribers on the back end rather than the font is genius and will probably lead to a more qualified prospect.
I also hate pop ups. But who is to say that the two of us are right. maybe some people love them????
Long sales copy, I dont read it either, but again in a lot of cases It seems to work.
Although we may not like some tactics, at the end of the day we are running a business so does it not make sense to maybe split test…
Long sales copy vs short
pop ups vs no pop ups
pre download optins vs backend optins
I know their maybe an issue of ‘not fully agreeing’ with certain tactics. Persoanlly I would like to split test different tactics and if I get it wrong, so what, I have tried something new and learned from my experience. And heck, it might even be a success. Its part of the journey, I wouldnt like to live with the mentality that I am only allowed make the right decisions. Sometimes we learn more fron making bad decisions.
bLAZE yOUR TRAIL
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Ryan. I’m all in favor of split testing. I’ve done some small split tests on projects in the past and will use them again in future to help make decisions.
However, I only intend to use split tests to decide on things that I don’t feel strongly about one way or the other. If I didn’t really care about long vs. short sales pages, I’d split test to find out which one is more effective, then roll with the winner. But since I see my business as an extension of me and I really don’t like long sales pages, then I’m going to avoid subjecting my readers to them no matter what the data says.
Again, it comes down to me being true to myself and treating others how I like to be treated. I’ll probably lose some sales and traffic that way, but I’ll also sleep better at night.
Niall, if you make investigations and add theory and statistics to your practice it would be great course!
BTW, I didn’t notice your anouuncing the product in the title. It turned out to be too long to understand at least for me.
Thanks for the comment, Pavel. I’m working to get better at writing headlines!
I love your style. Consider yourself added to my Google Reader.
Although I’m a bit skeptical of an Irishman who doesn’t drink!
Haha, most people are. Although I’m finding that I’ve actually become more social since I stopped drinking. Money is no longer a factor for me on a night out
Thanks for reading.