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