The title of this article may have a few of you confused. After all, newsletter signup forms have been up on my blog ever since it launched in June of 2011. So what’s the deal?
I am an idiot; that’s the deal. Yep – I was a fool last week, and I am an idiot today. I must learn to be less abusive to myself!
Whilst my email list is rather modest at just 393 strong (at the time of writing), it represents 393 people who want to hear what I have to say. And I have been largely ignoring them – just occasionally sending out a notification when I have published what I consider to be an interesting post. That is no way to treat people who have shown an interest in your blog, is it?
A Change In Approach
Some of you may recall that I made a rather ambitious attempt a few months back at creating a newsletter autoresponder series that offered a step by step guide to leaving work behind. Such an undertaking was ultimately doomed to failure, because there is no “one size fits all” guide to leaving work behind – it depends entirely upon your circumstances. So this time around, I have decided to relieve the pressure and produce an auto-responder series that focuses on straightforward and actionable advice relating to the topics I focus on here at Leaving Work Behind.
The material is unique to the newsletter and of a high quality (if I do say so myself). I am employing the strategy championed by Pat Flynn – a completely non-aggressive, non-salesy approach, which aligns perfectly with the reputation for honesty and transparency that I am trying to cultivate.
So What Are You Waiting For?
If you are not yet subscribed to my newsletter, please sign up now by entering your email address into the box below! Oh, and you get a free keyword research and competition analysis guide as well – did I mention that?
I am confident that you will not regret joining my list, and besides, what do you have to lose?
Just one more thing – I would love to get your feedback on the auto-responder series. Your opinions are incredibly valuable to me and your comments and feedback would be humbly received and appreciated.
Edit: it has been brought to my attention by my good friend Bon that the content of this article didn’t make it precisely clear as to what the “1 Reason” stated in the title was. So for clarity’s sake, I am talking about your auto responder. But not just about simply having an auto responder, but about using it in a well thought-out and structured manner to create and maintain engagement readers’ with your blog. “The money is in the list”, as they say, but the value of that list is only determined by how engaged newsletter readers are with your content.
Creative Commons photos courtesy of Carlos Octavio Uranga and Diogo A. Figueira
Steve Roy says
Tom,
I am in the exact same boat as you. I suck at keeping in contact with my email subscribers and have to make it a priority. Pat of course does a great job and Spencer from NichePursuits.com does an incredible job of providing useful emails to his subs.
I’m one of your 393 so let’s see what you got!
Tom Ewer says
Thanks Steve, no pressure 😉
It’s a double-edged sword. I think you should only start your auto-responder series when you have a really solid idea of what you want to write about for at least a few week’s worth of content. Otherwise you can work yourself into a corner (like I did previously).
Perhaps getting your auto-responder in order should be one of your business goals for this month?
Cheers,
Tom
Steve Roy says
I actually do have an idea for all the content, I just haven’t taken the time to do it! Going on the goals list!!
Bon Crowder says
Steve,
I hole up for a day or two every couple/few months just to do AR stuff.
I was just starting to write out all the details of the “system” I’ve been using (that works REALLY well). Alas, it’s hugely long.
Tom,
Want me to write it out as a guest post?
Bon
Tom Ewer says
Bon, that sounds awesome! Your guest posts are always welcome 🙂
Ruth - The Freelance Writing Blog says
Add me to the group of those guilty of neglecting their subscribers! Let’s pow wow about this FOR SURE!
I feel like I need to do something creative, out of the box…not your formulaic correspondence.
Ideas?
Tom Ewer says
How about a series of emails that take your readers through your journey from part time writer to six figure freelancer, which doubles as lessons for being successful in freelancing? Take them through your trials and tribulations, what you struggled with, how you overcame things, and obviously show them how to do it themselves!
Ruth - The Freelance Writing Blog says
Love it!
Tom Ewer says
I’d join that list 😉
Michal says
I have the same problem. My e-mail list of flash game players includes nearly 300 people and I have not sent them any information about new games. The problem is that I just cannot figure out how to “semi-automate” the task. I tried to use MailChimp but gave up because it seemed very difficult to learn. The problem is that I need to use 5 different languages and while it works well with English I have some issues with Czech (special characters).
Tom Ewer says
That is an unusual challenge! 🙂 But I don’t really understand – are you saying you need to send out your newsletter in 5 different languages, to 5 different sections of your list?
Michal says
Tom Ewer: What I need is to send a newsletter to five different groups, each using a different language. This means that there will be 5 e-mails, each one in a different language. I have a problem with text encoding as Czech characters are not shown properly in the e-mail client of some recipients.
Tom Ewer says
Interesting…there should be no problem with sending in HTML format, as Czech characters should be covered (please forgive me if I am wrong). Sending emails as plain text is probably a no-no though.
If you need translation services (if you can speak 5 languages, I am extremely impressed!), you may want to check out oDesk and/or eLance.
If your list is only 300 strong at the moment, I assume that there is a majority language (say 200 who speak English, and 100 split between the rest). That being the case, it may be best to just concentrate on the majority demographic for now – targeting only a few people is probably not economical. Or perhaps send an email to foreign language speakers in English, with a native-language introduction that explains that your newsletter is currently only available in English, but you are working on translations.
Ryan Hanley says
Tom,
Great article… I’ve seen so much more engagement on my website since I made more Newsletter and it’s subscribers a priority.
I believe the content has to be original and can’t be all sales. There has to value in the newsletter.
Thanks!
Ryan H.
Tom Ewer says
Absolutely – you’ve got to offer people something of value, otherwise they will unsubscribe and possibly never go back to your blog. A poorly executed newsletter is not much better than no newsletter at all!