Content marketing tools and training.
Freelance writers make lots of mistakes, especially when they’re starting out online.
Mistakes are useful. They’re fertilizer for entrepreneurial growth. They keep you learning and moving forward.
However, if you fail to make the right mistakes — and to learn from them — you may as well just keep your writing as a weekend hobby.
You want to make the mistakes that teach you how to build a better writing business or show you things you only learned because you were reaching.
You love books. Printed books.
And like most writers, you’re probably an avid reader who has spent thousands of hours with print books over your lifetime.
Perhaps you’re mourning their passing.
No, print isn’t quite dead, but it is struggling. And when publishing is fully reborn, it will be utterly different.
When was the last time you wrote something with the intent to specifically motivate your readers to take action?
Admit it or not, we’re all in the same game.
Whether you want someone to buy your product, join your email list, retweet or +1 your post, you’re doing one thing — leading your audience down a path at the end of which lies the action they’ll take.
You want them to do something.
Every writer and marketer could learn a thing or two from Don Draper — the anti-hero of AMC’s hit series Mad Men, which is set in the swinging 60s world of advertising.
Born from dirt, Don is a verbal Superman who uses his unique outlook on life to articulate his way into influence, money, and creative success.
Isn’t that the recipe all us marketing raconteurs are looking for?
“You Are Not Alone”
In two and a half years of sending all kinds of emails to all kinds of lists, the simple phrase “You Are Not Alone” is the most-opened subject line I’ve ever seen — by far.
Because Aweber counts each email that’s been opened, even if they’re from the same user, that single subject line has had an average open rate of 90%, and has surpassed the 100% mark several times.
I’ve seen this subject line used successfully on emails ranging from content marketing to personal development to potty training, with a dozen verticals in between.
The results are always the same.
I was amazed.
Jaw-on-the-floor astounded.
I’d been imagining what it would feel like for a long time, and truly believed if I put my mind to the task and nose to the grindstone, it was sure to happen.
But the reality was like seeing a six-pack after 100,000 crunches (not that I’d know anything about that).
I never thought I would know what it felt like to hit a million dollars with a first launch.
