Jade Craven

Late last week I wrote a post as part of The Netsetter relaunch called 50 Netsetters You Should Know About. This was a paid project for Envato but it was so much fun. For me, it was an experiment that I felt would pay off and it did. If this post, I just wanted to share a bit of the background story so people could understand the processes and sheer hard work that goes into creating an epic post.

The background.

I was approached to create buzz surrounding the relaunch by Joel from Envato. Skellie, who I idolize, recommended me, and Envato is probably my favourite company. I was so ecstatic to be approached and pitched the idea of this post. I did the 30 Bloggers To Watch post 6 months ago and while that was successful, I had wanted to try some of the new techniques I had learned.

For full disclosure, the original job offer was to build awareness and create buzz. I pitched this post because so I could start the conversation and continue it when people decided to take it elsewhere. It was a non icky way to be useful and earn money. I've put in way more hours then the original brief but that's cool, because this is how I work.

Then I heard my Pitch got accepted. I had four days to complete it, and had an amazingly hectic real life schedule between then and the deadline. Eek.

My approach

Creating segments

The five areas you see weren't part of the original post. That was just a method for me to keep track of people in my head to make sure the list didn't become too incestuous.

I quickly realized that it made the post so much more useful. The individual sections helped people continue the conversations in the comments. Many people in the support team group were especially grateful that someone drew attention to their work.

If you are considering creating a list, I'd look at how you can segment it into groups. And, within each segment, look at ways you can shine the spotlight on people who aren't normally talked about.

Focus on people from different hubs

I discovered the concept of hubs in Emanuel Rosens brilliant book 'Buzz' but had trouble finding a good definition. A good example from the book was someone that was connected to a lot of different clusters and "served as an information broker amongst these different groups."

Now, if you apply that to an online setting then you are looking for someone that dabbles in multiple niches. They can have the majority of their influence in once niche but have the skills to identify the right people to approach in other areas.

I'm a hub. That's what makes me kick arse. However, if you talk about people who are members of multiple clusters then you increase the chances of the post being sneezed beyond your own.

This sounds market-y and a bit icky, but it is possible to do it in a way that helps them. In my case, I placed them in a list amongst their peers and idols. They wanted to share it out of the sheer joy of being acknowledged. And, that was my intention with creating this list. I wanted to test my theory of hubs but I wanted to make people happy.

Do you know people that are friends outside of your niche? If you, touch base with them to see if there are ways you can work together and help each other.

Identify the people that aren't being talked about

There are some brilliant people out there that aren't being talked about because they aren't easy to label, or are hidden gems. I know many of these and, where appropriate, am helping them out. One is BlogcastFM.

This is very effective because in most cases, the people are very grateful. It opens up the dialogue and opportunities to collaborate. It also means that people are willing to sneeze it because they are genuinely happy at finding new role models and people to engage with. Those people will then start to talk to you to find more cool resources and even send you tips of cool stuff to share.

The good stuff

I got a lot of social credibility

I got this gig on a very short notice and had a tight deadline. I was more worried about doing the right thing about Envato then how it would affect me. That meant that when the GilkMeister emailed me to ask me what I planned to do now, I genuinely had no idea. I'd just moved, been sick and had a depressive episode. I haven't had the time to focus on the next phase of my business.

My short term goal is to build up the relationships with some of the people who now know who I am. I also want to strengthen the ones with good friends who I haven't talked to in a while. Today I got to speak on the phone with Annabel Candy and that was awesome.

I got to test crazy theories

I read a lot of marketing books and I'm always trying to find cool techniques traditionally used by big businesses with the budget for viral campaigns. What I loved is that I was able to take knowledge from a book - a simple 300 page book - and create a post that has echoed around the blogosphere. I have learned so much and can't wait to test more theories with future guest posts.

The Hard Stuff

I couldn't play favourites.

There were so many people that I wanted to include. Lavonne Ellis, Siobhan Bulfin, Natalie Peluso. I felt really bad because I would have loved to be able to share them with people from other hubs, but I didn't want it to be a list of people I liked.

I also had to be careful what communities I picked people from. I excluded some people because I had a lot from that paid community or even the country.

I wanted to create a list that was so useful that people would be coming back to it for months. I want people to discover brilliant minds and resources that could help them. This meant that many people couldn't go on it but that's fine. I'm a sneezer by trade and I always find ways to share the awesomeness.

It was hard to step back and let the conversation happen naturally

This was a paid gig so even though I was immensely proud of my work, I had to step back from the conversation. I am very, very careful about what I share and do not want to compromise the relationship I have with those that follow my work.

I did sneakily tell a few people about it. People like Annabel and Catherine. My motivation there was to unburden a secret moreso then create pre-launch buzz. I was very fortunate in that most of the craziness happened while I was asleep.

Now that the initial buzz has died down, I am able to step in and help continue the conversation. Pat Flynn had a fascinating post on his blog and I added a few insights there. Other people are creating projects based on this and I've been in email contact with them.

I've exceeded the paid hours so I'm allowed to do this is a fan, rather than a client. I truly believe that this is where the awesomeness begins.

Was it worth it?

Gosh yes. On so many levels. It was awesome to wake up to so many positive tweets, emails and comments. It has given me a lot of material for my own business and has inspired me to think bigger.

I would recommend that anybody creates a list but only if the list serves a purpose other than attention. Create something so darn useful that people feel compelled to share.

If you have any questions or want to share your own experiences, I'd love to hear them.

I may be *this* close to hyperventilating. I just checked our stats, and since its release we have sold 40 copies of the e-course. In total, $880 USD.

I find this hilarious. We “launched” on May 8^th and it flopped in just about every way possible. It hurt at the time but was so important to the growth of our business.

I was uncomfortable with all elements of selling and starting a mailing list. I decided that I was going to have an anti launch and take the internet marketing world by storm by showing that you don’t need a huge strategy to rock the sales.

Despite my defiance, I knew there was a good chance I would fail. I knew this was important for learning. It wasn’t enough for Dave Navarro to repeatedly tell me I needed a list. I needed to experience a launch cycle without the list and learn how to sell without it making me feel physically ill.

This post deals with some of key lessons we’ve learned.

High Profile Coverage Will Not Lead to an Influx of Sales.

Photo by reintjedevos

I already knew this as I had done several product reviews on Problogger and TwiTip. I am friends with Darren and usually knew the product creator so I was able to get an insight into how it converted.

I recently did a Problogger guest post called The Unmissable Secret of Long Term Blogging Success. I included both a link to my email list and the course in the footer of the post.

We’ve had a significant increase in the newsletter subscribers but only one sale. That’s cool, and expected. Part of low key marketing is that it is low key. I had a couple of people email me saying that they’d been told to check me out, but the guest post cinched it.

I’ve always done guest posts for the networking benefits and this was the first one I did for potential sales. It didn’t convert but that was just part of my experiment. I could have done many things to improve the odds including providing a tighter call to action or making it the sole focus of that section.

I have this technique convert rather well for other bloggers. They usually include a custom discount code for that audience and include a call to action. I had planned to do this but had made a number of errors with discounts and decided that it didn’t fit with my marketing style.

I’m going to continue guest posting but won’t seek out high profile blogs. I’ll seek out blogs of friends which allow me to experiment with my style. Sales are now a secondary goal but I find the less I focus on them, the more I make.

What I’ve learned:

• Make your first priority helping people. If people feel like they are being used, they will ignore your message. No matter how awesome it is.
• If you really want to increase sales, give the readers a reason to buy. Provide an incentive and a compelling reason to buy.

A Mailing List Isn’t Necessary

Image by s-t-r-a-n-g-e

None of these sales have come from the mailing list. Some have come from interviews and guest posts. Many are people those that I have helped via Twitter and email and are looking for ways to support my work. However just because its not necessary, doesn’t mean that you aren’t leaving money on the table.

The problem with ignoring a mailing list is that you are missing out on that initial boost of sales. This isn’t just good for the pocket – its good for the ego AND it’s good business. More buyers results in more potential affiliates. More people who could opt into other sales messages.

Selling, and mailing lists, doesn’t have to be sleazy. It is scary but I recommend getting over the fear. I just hit 110 newsletter subscribers and love the level of engagement I get with you guys. I’ll be creating and releasing more products via the list. My primary focus will be to help but I will start drawing attention to my paid products.

What I’ve learned:

• Mailings lists aren’t scary. However, there is nothing wrong with avoiding a mailing list altogether for a launch. You will limit potential income but you will earn so much more just by taking action. If it is the list that is preventing you from taking action, then focus on it post launch.

I Didn’t Ask People to Write About It.

Image by photos8.com

When most people launch a product, they coordinate a group of people to talk about it. They provide incentives, review copies and suggested tweets. I didn’t have anything like that.

I intentionally tried to avoid the ‘buzz’ element. When other people do this, they usually have a significant price rise that encourages people to buy. I didn’t want to make people feel rushed so stood clear from these methods.

I chose not to do this because I didn’t have the energy to coordinate something that huge. I felt that if someone wanted to talk about it, they would. People are now starting to talk about it but it took a lot of time to build up traction. And, rather than talk about the product, people are talking about my personal approach to blogging and how they resonate with what I’m doing.

Now, this isn’t to say these techniques aren’t worth doing. Many people are able to do this tastefully and, along with a mailing list, it does lead to a significant influx in sales. I chose to go with my gut rather than what the industry was doing and I believe this worked for me.

What I’ve learned:

• Stories sell. I didn’t see it, but there are a number of elements to my story that help improve my authority. Pushing through the anxiety disorder is one of them.
• You can empower other people to  create the buzz. I did a brutally honest interview with Ije Ude about my struggles, and a really casual podcast with Catherine Caine. Both were talked about in blogs and forums during a time when I was unable to be online much.

Don’t Touch Discounts Unless you Know what you are Doing

Image by camkage

I assumed that since all the retail stores offline used discounts that it was ok for me to do so. And it is – there certainly isn’t anything negative about it. The problem is that in a retail situation there are multiple people selling your product. They can do whatever they like to attract customers.

As soon as you start offering discounts, you devalue your product. People buy because of people and will be upset at the particular person if you knowingly let them purchase a product when they have a promotion elsewhere.

I did discounts as an experiment and they worked. People responded to them on the twitter landing page and in forums. They are useful as an incentive.

I had one lovely person contact me, kindly pointing out that they’d bought the product on good faith and asking if they could take advantage of the discount I provided after they had bought the course. I had felt uneasy about discounts for a while and this cinched it. I removed most of them and will be researching them heavily before using them again.

What I’ve learned:

• If you are going to provide a discount, make it no more than 5-10%.
• If you have a promotion planned with a significant discount, let your list/readers know in advance.

How are things now?

We make a couple of sales a week dependent on my promotional activities. I haven’t done many guest posts this year, nor do I really publicize what I do. I feel that the sales will increase as others start to talk about me more.

I know I made a lot of mistakes during my launch process but I am very glad that I did it the way I did. My goal was to get as much practical experience as possible and this was achieved.

I’ve changed my style somewhat during this process. I plan to offer products that target a small group of my readers covering topics that no-one else has heard of. I’m not sure if they will be as successful as a generalist product like this one but, well, you only learn by getting out there and giving it a go.

Over to you:

What are your experiences with product launches? Have you turned mistakes into learning experiences?

We’ve officially had the Blog Networking Tips newsletter for a month. It has been a huge learning curve but, surprisingly, it has also been really fun. We’ve reached 72 subscribers with very little promotion. This is awesome for someone that doesn’t have an incentive or pop up.

This post covers some of the little lessons I’ve learned over the past month. I’d recommend setting up a newsletter just for the learning experience. Taking action doesn’t compare to just reading about it.

Conversational writing translates really well in emails

One of my concerns with building an email list was that I disliked hype laden emails. I wanted to write something that is friendly but didn’t know how that fit in with all the pitches I was getting in my inbox.

I decided that I’d wing it. I’d go with my gut and would let the audience tell me what they disliked. This method resonated with me as I had trouble finding an email style that resonated with me. This risk paid off.

When I wrote my last email about moving, I got a lot of responses from people with support and advice. I got two emails congratulating me on my writing style saying that they normally don’t respond to emails.

I’m sure I’m probably breaking the rules as I’m learning, but doing it this way has allowed me to test out a new tool that I’m really uncomfortable with.

Your feelings will get hurt when people unsubscribe

When I discovered our first official unsubscriber, I got angry. I took it as a personal rejection. I was hurt when I saw the person still followed me on twitter.

I quickly realized that some people just wanted pure content and less personality.  That’s cool. It’s not a slight against you. You just have to figure out if more people are engaging with your content than unsubscribing.

Don’t expect an instant response

When I sent out my first newsletters, I expected instant action. I thought that I’d get lots of responses, affiliate sales and traffic to the links contained in the post. In some cases, I’d get an instant reply. Paul Cunningham and Andy Hayes have been really helpful and supporting in this process.

What I have found is that it is great for networking. I’ve been contacted by people thanking me for recommending them in their newsletter. People have responded with their own feedback on the products I have recommended. This is really valuable information for someone that acts as a filter.

We have made several affiliate sales based on the newsletters, and it’s great for building my brand. I don’t believe that a simple newsletter will solve your problems until you’ve built up traction.

I regret not starting a list sooner

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that you should not let your fear rule your business decisions.

I was terrified of starting a list. I was comfortable with blogging, no, I was awesome at what I did. I didn’t want to start that learning curve and make mistakes quite publicly when I had just found my freelance mojo.

It has been difficult, but it has been worth it. I’ve been able to learn so much by observe how people interact with the content and by asking for feedback within the post. It helps me ascertain what my core audience wants. The learning experience has far outweighed any negatives.

Over to you.

I’m probably in the minority for being such a mailing list newbie, but I’d be really interested to hear about your early experiences. How did you figure out what to do when you started? How did your approach change as you got more established?