Wednesday, 7:18 PM
Dear Friend,
I’ve been thinking about seeing a psychologist.
I don’t have any mental problems… that I’m aware of.
It’s just that I have nobody to talk with.
Nobody.
Sure, I’ve got some really good friends… but the conversations are always about them.
See, I realized a long time ago that nobody gives a damn about what I think, feel or believe.
Well, that’s not exactly true.
It’s not that they don’t care… it’s just that they have their own problems to deal with. And I don’t feel good about dumping my problems on them, too.
So I try to spend about 95% of my time talking about what they want to talk about.
Whenever I accidentally start to talk about me, I remind myself that nobody wants to hear it… and I get back on the topic of them.
With one of the friends I regular speak with, I’m lucky to even get a word in edge-wise. Even if I could talk, he wouldn’t even hear it… because he never shuts up.
So I never really get a chance to talk with anybody about what’s on my mind.
Plus, none of my friends would even even understand most of my problems and concerns. They just don’t operate in the same world I do. Even if I wanted to share that stuff, they just wouldn’t understand.
Gary Halbert understood.
It was always nice to know he was just a phone call away… and even if he didn’t have any solutions for me… at least he understood.
But last I checked, unless somebody constructed a long distance phone line to copywriter heaven, that’s not an option any longer.
So THAT is why I’m willing to pay a shrink $200 an hour… just to have someone listen to me.
I’ll be the first to admit… I somewhat of a cheapskate. I don’t really want to spend money on a psychologist.
So I MIGHT have figured out a way to save myself that $200 an hour … and maybe help YOU in the process, too.
Here’s What This Is All About:
I just got Ben Settle’s newest product, The Street Smart E-mail System.
It totally kicks “boo-tay” for making money with an e-mail list.
I’m already testing a couple things he recommends and they’re already (just within the past 3 days) starting to bring in a lot more sales. I think it might even DOUBLE the sales I’ve been getting from e-mail marketing.
Anyhoo… one of the things Ben recommends is sending out e-mails every day. Not long articles like I’ve been writing on the blog lately, but short 300 to 500 word articles… with the entire article sent by e-mail.
I’ve noticed something about this:
First of all, Ben seems to have a VERY high open rate and readership.
Secondly, he also posts every article on his blog every day.
And Google LOVES that.
In fact, he gets a nice amount of traffic and new subscribers every day because of his Google ranking.
And all that traffic and new subscribers from Google is…
100% Free!
I like THAT. (Remember the cheapskate thing.)
So here’s what I’m thinking…
I think I’m going to test writing more frequent messages for my DobermanDan.com subscribers.
I’ll keep them relatively brief and send them out by e-mail.
I’ll also post them on the blog.
Here’s what I hope to accomplish:
- Writing my Doberman Dan newsletter is therapeutic. It makes me feel like SOMEBODY is listening to me… even if you’re not. So I hope this will take the place of that $200/hour shrink I was thinking about renting once a week.
- I’m going to do my best to bring value to your life with these more frequent messages. Hopefully you’ll learn some valuable stuff that will enrich your life, make you more money… or both. Even if every single message isn’t life-changing, at the very least I hope you’ll be entertained a little.
- I’m hoping the more frequent content on DobermanDan.com will make me more popular with Google. I sincerely want to build my subscriber base… it’s just that it would be nice to do that without paying for it. (See “cheapskate” referenced twice above.)
So that’s the plan.
I’m saying “more frequent” messages right now because I’m not sure I want to commit to a daily message.
We’ll see.
For now I’m thinking it will be about 3 times a week.
We’ll see how that goes and what kind of feedback I get. If it’s good, maybe I’ll consider going to a 5 message a week plan like Ben.
Anyhoo… if all goes as planned… THANK YOU for saving me $800 a month on that shrink.
I owe you a lunch or something.
All the best,
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{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
I did reply Dan, but it sounded so damn foolish that I deleted it. Maybe it's cabin fever pal, male menopause, needing to get out more, see other real people, talk instead of type, be silly, child like,
have fun, play, doing something completely different? Yeah! it is a good idea anything that builds a list is. Is that lunch threat in your neck of the woods or……..mine? Just curious.
"…see other real people, talk instead of type, be silly, child like, have fun, play, doing something completely different?"
That sounds good, Byron. I think I should take your advice.
And lunch would be a lot more fun for me in your neck of the woods. I've never been there before.
You could be right Dan. I've been to there a good few times and love it. Get on over here and i'll take you out to lunch somewhere you'd love.
Hey Dan,
It's always good to hear from you, so keep talking… you know I'm always listening. Though I almost became a shrink once…
Andy Iskandar
Thanks, Andy.
If you had become a psychologist, I'd be honored to be your first patient.
Yay! Glad we get to hear more from you. I have Ben's email course also. I haven't finished it yet, but what I have gone thru is excellent!
Lance
That's nice of you to say, Lance. Thank you.
Yeah, Ben's course rocks. It has already paid for itself about 10 times over. Seriously.
I don't want to read anyones emails everyday. I tend to either unsubscribe or filter them to a special folder where they never get read (including Ben Settles). To me an email everyday is like talking to someone that always gets way too physicaly close to speak and invades your personal space. Even if they don't have bad breath, it's kind of creepy and obnoxious. Maybe this says more about me than anyone else. It's like all the people I see constantly talking on cell phones. I don't want to be that plugged in.
But then again, the late great Billy Mays certainly sold a lot of product by repeatedly being loud and in your face. It's hard to argue with that kind of success.
I feel ya, Jeff.
A few years ago a very successful A-list copywriter started a blog/eZine. He sent out an article every Monday. I waited with baited breath every Monday for that e-mail. I REALLY looked forward to his messages.
Then he went to sending a message every day, 5 days a week. His was on Mondays like before and other contributors the rest of the week.
The other contributors were all good, too. But simply because of overwhelm, I usually have to delete the e-mails Tuesday through Friday… and many times don't get to read Monday's message either.
That's why I'm initially only going to test twice or three times a week. If it annoys people maybe I'll just post the articles on the blog and stop sending them out by e-mail.
We'll see.
The whole point of this is to build a list of loyal raving fans. For all others there is always an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of every e-mail.
A few months back I unsubscribed from almost EVERYTHING. It was very liberating.
Besides, the most valuable and important information to me is still sent out in hard copy… like Dan Kennedy, Terry Dean, Ben Settle, etc.
Sounds like a plan to me. I've noticed that I have several people signed up on my email list, but my auto responder isn't working properly. Speaking of me…Now what?
I have yet to read Ben's Street Smart Email System. That's my goal for this week and get busy. Don't you just enjoy the heck out of his stuff? Looking forward to hearing from you!
As Ben would say,
Giddy up
Shirley Bass
I'm so glad you now put the entire post in the email. That alone will make a difference, whether you send an email every day or not.
I'd also recommend letting your whole post appear in your RSS feed. Between the teaser emails and truncated RSS feed there were many times I didn't get around to reading your posts. I'm glad that will no longer be the case.
I'm completely clueless about RSS feeds. I think that's a WordPress thing.
RSS feeds apply to all blogs, not just WordPress.
By the way, I completely sympathize with how talkaholics make you feel. As an introvert I somehow manage to attract an extraordinary amount of chatter from other people and marvel at how some people don't know how to STFU.
I've never seen the abbreviation "STFU" before but I IMMEDIATELY knew what it stands for. lol!
I think I'm going to start using that.
After reading your previous "Gurus" post you definetly don't need a shrink
Happy to see more emails just doubt they will be read daily but, I can play catch-up like anyone.
Besides a shrink never realy cures anyone. They just have a life time patient to help pay the Mercede's or their yacht bill. Just watch Bill Murray in "What About Bob" to get a good idea.
Peace out
I own that movie. Hilarious. It's one of my favorites.
I agree with Jeff.
With all those affiliate "incoming" messages about the same product every day information overload is frustrating at times.
I often spend an hour or so unsubscribing, and that's time that I need to spend elsewhere really.
Still, some of that stuff I want to read, and it takes a few of those mailings to determine the ones of value.
This is good for me to get this feedback.
I recently went through the same thing, Joe. I had to ask myself… why did I subscribe to all this stuff in the first place? Most of it was guru that pounded me every day with affiliate pitches and various launches. The only reason I subscribed was to see what they're up to. I got zero value out of it.
If you feel you're not getting any value out of that stuff, you should unsubscribe. Life is too short.
The same goes for my blog, too.
I remember you saying, not too long ago, that it takes devastation sometimes to come face to face with life. Life is too short to not have some fun and use the delete button. I believe Paul Myers said that too, about the same time.
I'm excited about your decision.
When you did 30 videos in a row, I thought I might get sick of new content coming in every day. I didn't get tired of it, though. The stuff you send out is quality, so I am looking forward to it.
I'm happy to do my part as a member of your eclectic team of shrinks.
I was concerned about that, too, Dan.
There were a couple crazy days when I had to come up with a topic and content and crank out a video at 40 minutes til midnight. I was worried that people might find the content sucky and get sick of hearing from me. I hope that doesn't happen with my more frequent e-mails.
Thanks, Shirley.
You write good blog posts. When I opted in on your site I was hoping you'd be sending frequent emails.
Your email this morning was good news. An email from you every morning would be welcomed. I look forward to reading Ben Settle's emails every day (heck, I re-read his), and would read them even more often, and I am looking forward to yours as well.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an email addict. Settle is the only email I read daily. If yours is as good as I expect I hope I'll have two emails I look forward to reading daily.
Thanks, Kevin.
You sure know how to make a guy feel better when he's down in the dumps a little.
Hey Dan…
It's been a long time since we last spoke. Not sure if you remember.
Had to comment. Absolutely LOVED the last two posts!
I got Ben's course about 2 weeks ago and have listened to it twice. Amazing stuff. One of a kind. Totally made me re-think my approach to email marketing. (And I'm in the email automation business!)
Going to test it out the daily email strategy too with a couple projects we are working on at SP/OAP.
At first, the idea got shot down like a clay pigeon around here. Emailing everyday is not something an email service provider finds appealing or recommends. But I started writing my daily emails anyway to practice. Once I showed them how the format is educational and not straight sales pitch, they saw the infotainment value and I got the green light.
Should be fun.
Can't wait to see what you discover. (I'll let you know what I find out too.)
Take care,
~jm
Hi Jay,
Good to hear from you.
Definitely keep me informed about how it goes. I expect it will do well for you.
We shouldn't distance ourselves from each other, that all happened a long time ago and nowadays, we are entirely to ourselves. If we reverse the way that we communicate and reinstate our emotions openly, it would serve for a better, more fulfilling web 2.0 experience every single time we log-on. Haven't you noticed how we think today, we're all basically wrapped up in fear of prosecution that we are going to say something that we will regret or perhaps, be mistaken for it and end up with a legal suit against us? We are this way because we allowed ourselves to be trapped, its a conscience thing that wont go away by itself, we have to work more openly and closely if we are to achieve anything online. It is Time for Change, and if we defeat the underbelly of the beast, perhaps we will get back to talking and learning from each other.
Dan, this is a good move. I don't remember if it was Ben or me who started emailing daily first. (I had to stop due to client work.) But when I was doing it my sales went up about 100%. The email list was active. People responded and emailed back. If you do this right, especially tying it with a blog, you should see great results.
That's good to hear, John. Thanks.
Keep it up Dan.
I read Ben's post everyday and I will sure read yours.
In my old timers stage I still have a thirst for knowledge and you produce more for free than the goorus sell.
Keep it up.
"Old timers stage…"
With your thirst for knowledge, you'll never truly get old, Medreth.
And your Colombiana keeps you young, I bet!