Very important question at the end of this post that I want your opinion on.
Anyway, today was a wild day. First day of a new job, and in many respects, the start of a new career.
Up until now, I’ve relied on being a subject matter expert. Worked really well for me as I have an encyclopedic personality. Now, I’m a data manager…and my job is to lead with data and influence with data…using all the knowledge I have. And much of my day is now spent in Excel (aaaaaaaaaagh—it’s actually not that bad). Anyway, I spent the day up to eyeballs in spreadsheets and then jumped into learning about marketing, then jumped into writing about 500 words of fiction, then jumped did some exercise, then sat down and wrote this blog post.
Also practiced for my upcoming Writer’s Digest speech. Had to hire a part-time assistant to help me with the Q&A since there will be a lot of people. I spent some time training her and teaching her what I needed. Saturday will be crazy: Writer’s Digest speech at 9AM, followed by a writing POWER HOUR at 11:15AM Central Time (mark yo calendars). Then, Sunday, I’m leading a Scrivener workshop. Absolutely nuts.
Anyway, marketing.
I’m reading Copy That Sells by Ray Edwards, and I have to say, this is by far the best book I’ve ever read on copywriting. I’ve read about 3-4 other books ahead of this one, and this is the first one where it “clicked.”
Check it out here: https://geni.us/BsiP2 (paid link). I’m only recommending it because it’s fantastic and many of you can learn from it. I’ve taken pages of notes already, and I’m not even done yet. It’s got my mind spinning in a million different directions. I’ll share lessons learned from Edwards starting tomorrow.
LESSON LEARNED TODAY
I was reading a copywriting book yesterday (I won’t name the author or book title), and it was a decent book. Gave me some good information that I had forgotten.
Smack dab in the middle of the book, literally in the middle of a chapter, the author said something like, “Oh, and that reminds me. I want to give you a special BONUS as a thank you for reading this book!”
Then came the details of said bonus with a call to action. Then the book continued like normal.
I thought, “hmm…I have amnesia, but even if I didn’t, that seems like a bad idea.”
This technique probably worked for the author, but it got me thinking about whether it would be effective for me. I try to keep links in my books to a minimum because I know that once a reader clicks on it, they may never come back to the book. There’s way too much distraction on the Internet, and once people’s minds start to wander, it’s game over. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve stopped reading momentarily, only to return MONTHS later.
I looked in my portfolio, and sure enough, I have a handful of links here and there that can probably be converted to footnotes to keep the focus off the link and on the text. Bad Michael! Bad Michael!
LESSON EXECUTED:
Reading this Ray Edwards book. There’s nothing to execute right now, but when I’m done, I will be doing some mind mapping and moving very quickly with lessons learned. It also made me realize that there’s a good tech solution to the age-old swipe file. One of the big problems with swipe files is organizing them—where do you keep it, how do you organize it, etc. I think I can solve this problem so that when it’s time to write a book description or email, I can open the file and get ideas instantly in just a few clicks. That would be a big improvement. Anyway, more to come.
MY QUESTION OF THE DAY:
What do you think about interrupting a book to sell something? Would that annoy you as a reader, or do you think it could work under the right circumstances?
MARKETING PARKING LOT (oh boy, it’s growing):
- Clean up old lead magnet links and redirect them. ROI: Could add a few more subscribers to my list per year.
- Convert unnecessary links in my nonfiction to footnotes to improve “reader stickiness.”
- Zero in on any broken links and redirect them. ROI: Improves user experience on my website.
