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I’ve been talking with a lot of people lately about ‘building your email list.” Rule #1, they say, is give something away for free. Okay, there’s merit in that suggestion I suppose. But quantity does not equal quality. If you want quality subscribers who are more likely to buy whatever it is you’re going to sell down the line, you want people who’ve already shown a willingness to buy from you. You want to charge people on your list for what they get. (more…)
Wow, that sounds dramatic.
Hopefully it isn’t as catastrophic as it appears to be. I finished a draft of my book Profitable Web Hosting last week, three full weeks before the due date. I’ve got the next one outlined on 3×5 cards (yes, really!). But they fell on the floor and got messed up. What’s a guy to do?
Well, I have had a free program for a while that allows you to input bits and pieces of text and rearrange them into something more coherent. But I just didn’t like the damned thing! So I went looking for another one. (more…)
My wife and I are spending some quality time in the Southwest US. Specifically, Albuquerque New Mexico. A couple days back, we went to the 10th Annual Salsa Fiesta held in Old Town, ABQ.
I’m a wimp. I was only able to make it through two of the three tents filled with contestants and their salsa samples. In one of the tents, one of the contestants was urging the public to vote for them as the winners. The staff at the booth asked, in loud voices: “Please vote for booth #18. Remember, when you vote, please vote for booth 18.” (more…)
I'm against the use of gimmees (freebies, give-aways, junk, etc) in trade show booths. If you don't start doing it, you'll never have to stop. Just like smoking cigarettes. Both can be bad for your health.
I've had a dozen conversations like this one, but it serves as a good example. I'd had a booth at several B2B trade shows where I was near the same printing company. During this one, they were giving away pads that looked like melon slices. At the top was printed "Honeydew List." They had stacks of other pads out on display, but this was the most popular by far. People were coming by and literally taking away half a dozen at a time, without asking or even being talked to by the booth staff. Word was getting around, apparently, as I heard people coming up the aisle saying, "Those honeydew lists are around here someplace." By the middle of the afternoon, those pads were all gone.