This week, I used a slightly modified technique that I learned from another blog, by watching that blog owner and what he did. I’ve spent a lot of money there, including a monthly service that I pay $100 / month for.
It was that service that has helped me achieve the very fast results I’ve seen.
On Monday, I posted an explanation of something I’d experienced and achieved, plus some irrefutable proof of what I was saying. I promised to share what I’d done to achieve the results I’d seen in a post on Friday.
However, I’d only share that information with people who were subscribed to my blog at the time I posted it. That was the deal. I forced no-one to take it, everyone has a choice in life. You agree?
It was free information, and extremely valuable too for those people that take action on it. Typically, it will be 1%-2% of people reading it.
Anyone subscribing after the post couldn’t get the information.
That was my plan at the start of the week.
But because I’m a softy, I decided to relent and offer the information for $10 for those people who had decided not to subscribe at the time I made the offer. And also to give 100 hours for people to do so.
I may not do that again. Oh who am I kidding? Of course I will, it’s a good idea.
Make a mental note to take action on it yourself right now. No, go write it into your business plan. Now.
I should make it clear here that I sent two emails out this week to existing mailing lists of mine, making the offer. That’s TWO chances for people to read my email and act on it.
Many people did. I’ve seen an increase of 205 subscribers to this blog in the last two days.
That’s 1.44% of my total mailing lists, excluding this blog. (There are also 36 brand new subscribers not on any other mailing list.)
Well, well. 1.44% – between 1% and 2%.
98% did nothing, or didn’t read my emails. It’s the same thing to me, and what I expected.
I don’t send out frivolous emails to my lists, I often send out good quality content, and I don’t promote every product going. So there’s no good reason for ignoring any emails I send out. I don’t send out many.
After all, these people joined my mailing lists willingly at some point, and have never unsubscribed.
Notice that these are all decisions that people are making of their own free will. I can’t force you to take actions. I can offer choices, but that’s about it.
Free will.
Some people though, believe that somehow other people are responsible for the choices they make.
This is a snippet from a petulant email I received from someone when they unsubscribed from one of my mailing lists.
“I don’t have time for games with free blog posts that are now $10 because I wasn’t sitting at mu computer when the announcement came in.”
That was the second announcement he was talking about, not the first which I’d sent two days previously. There were two chances to do the right thing.
Somehow, he thinks I’m responsible for his actions. He chose to be somewhere else on two occasions, and consequently missed out. He’s clearly annoyed that it’s going to cost him $10 to get the information that was free, and now blames me for what he did.
Why would anyone not want to take responsibility for their own life? As a child it’s understandable, but once you reach at least your teens you should have learned by then that every action you take has consequences. And that those actions are your decision and your decision alone. Whose fault is it anyway?
So, he’s missed out this time. But at least he’s on the list now. He won’t miss out when I announce a nickel sale starting at $1 for my new software in a password protected post next week will he? He won’t have to pay $97 when it goes on general release will he?
Oh. Yes he will have to pay $97. He unsubscribed.
Oh dear. Some people just don’t learn.
So, what have you learned from I’ve done this week?
Were you watching closely? Did you understand what was going on? Did you get it?
Have you realised that you could learn just as valuable information by watching what I did this week, as to the post I made yesterday?
http://graham-cox.com/list-building-using-password-protected-posts/
Graham got it straight away, and I can see that a few other people got it too.
Did you?
-Frank Haywood
Thanks a lot for the link back Frank.
Looking forward to checking out your new software next week.
Cheers…Graham
Frank, another excellent post – on several levels. As I said to you on your original post, I thought the variety of ‘closes’ you used were excellent and they clearly worked enough to get you 1.44% – which as you say is about what you would expect anyway.
The fortunate thing is that it leaves lots of space for anyone who does take action to get some results.
It’s all too easy to blame the rest of the world – deep down we all know there’s only 1 person responsible for our success or failure. It’s just that some people find that terrifying – if they’re responsible for success then they are also responsible for their own failure.
And as for using the techniques you’re using to build a list, well yes, I think only a few people will do it – thank goodness.
It’s the same in every field of life, not just IM. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked how to achieve something (in the offline world) and spent my valuable time teaching the ‘how to’, only to see that the person asking, in the end, couldn’t be bothered.
You know what else is funny? Not just that people won’t take action – but that they won’t think for themselves, either. You touched on that in your post about support and the fact that many people clearly don’t even read the instructions you provide.
Makes me wonder what the world would be like if everyone actually achieved their real potential.
A lot more competitive!
It’s interesting how many people get upset and ‘blast’ us when we do something that ires them, and those same folks have probably never sent a kudos.
I wonder if the state of the world is partly what keeps most people on edge, albeit subconsciously… yet that same responsibility you mention can be put to work in the world, miles away from us…
I learned about it reading a book that introduced me to ho’oponopono – a philosophy that goes a few steps beyond the law of attraction.
We all have the power within us to create wondrous things… if we can kick old beliefs and ‘the stuff in our heads from childhood onward’ aside and utilize this amazing power.
Just sending love and peace thoughts out into the Universe on a daily basis has power beyond belief. Try it… your days will go better than ever before.
I got away from what I was trying to say, in response to your posts about taking action, I digress…
Almost everyone wants a magical ‘quick fix’ for their woes, and if your mentoring didn’t allow them to get what they thought they wanted (EASY, FAST MONEY), they jumped on to the next ‘big quick fix’ only to again find disappointment.
We’re all responsible for our actions, our life’s joys and pains, and for many, that’s a hard ‘pill’ to swallow.
I think secretly we’d all like a Brink’s truck to drive into our driveway and someone to knock on the door and hand us a bagful of several million dollars (or a legit phone call telling us we won the lottery, etc) but it’s just a dream…
Your blog contains more useful information that you freely share than most over-priced goo-roo courses around today.
Those of us who know you, realize that paying $10 to access something that took you countless hours to prove, and a few more to write out in an understandable, useable manner is like paying for an economy car and having a BMW delivered!
Thanks, Frank… for all you do to help others.
Donna 🙂
[…] his blog post “What Have You Learned?” he mentions that he saw 205 increase in his list size. He was not surprised to discover that less […]