A reader forwarded me another marketer's email that said, "Are email agencies fucked?" And she (the reader who forwarded me the message) asked: "I wanted to know what you thought of this - is the writing on the wall for email copywriting?" That was two days ago. Yesterday I saw a promo (in my email inbox) with the subject line, "R.I.P. Email Marketing." And last week, I polled my readers on a different question, and got a response from a reader (and member of Daily Email House), who runs a 6-figure info publishing and coaching business. He wrote: "The sales from emails are really down, I sell maybe 10 % of my revenue through email, the rest is from ads and I am sending good emails, if I say so myself and almost daily." Is something in the water that I failed to notice? Or is email marketing dying? Any thoughts or better yet direct experiences?

UPDATE: This riddle has been solved. You can find the answer in the comments below BUT... ... for your own benefit (meaning, increased chances you will actually remember and even apply this idea), it makes sense to read this riddle and try to solve it yourself first. ********************** RIDDLE STARTS HERE: Yesterday I got on a call with Doberman Dan Gallapoo, who is a bit of a direct marketing legend. Endorsements Dan's gotten: "He's got my seal of approval" - Gary Halbert "His newsletter is outstanding. He's a very smart copywriter." - Dan Kennedy Dan and I got on a call because he saw my Daily Email Habit subscription service. He liked the sound of it. He asked how it's doing. I said, fine but could always be better. Dan offered to get on a call and give me some suggestions. So we got on a call... and talked for a long time about everything but DEH. (I'm not complaining. I was happy — this is a dude I had only know about as a legend for close to ten years now.) Eventually we worked our way back to subscription offers. Dan asked, "Have you always been making this same basic offer, 'Sign up for Daily Email Habit?'" I wasn't really sure what he was getting at, but I said, yes, because it's the truth. Turns out, Dan has had a lot of experience selling subscription offers in his earlier businesses (supplements)... and then for clients, back when he was freelancing as a copywriter. He's also been selling a paid print newsletter for the past 15 years. For a long time, Dan had been selling his newsletter and making it the actual "offer" in his marketing material. Then some time ago Dan made a change. He called it "applying the Agora model." "I don't remember the exact numbers," Dan said, "but suddenly conversions went WAAAAY up." So here's a layup question for you: What do you think the Agora model is here? And if you have a membership or a subscription, how could you apply it?

I mean, what are you working on these days? Any new offers you made to your list this week? Did you make any surprising sales? Any list growth wins you want to crow about?