.... list. LIST. I sent my own 9-word email yesterday: "Do you have an email list of 5,000+ subscribers?" I got about 20 people, many of whom I had never heard anything from before, replying YES. For some reason I had never simply asked people on my list about their list size before, even though it's very relevant to what I do and the kinds of offers I make. In the past, I've danced around the topic, by asking people how many subscribers they get per week... or which software they use... or by not asking at all and by simply writing emails in the hope that the right people will reach out. My point is: You can ask. You can be direct. You can even be what might seem to you to be intrusive. The worst that happens is that people don't reply or (gasp) unsubscribe. (3 unsubscribes so far to my email yesterday.) The best that happens is you start a conversation that can be worth tens of thousands of dollars to you in the short- to mid-term, or that might open doors you cannot even imagine exist.

John mentioned this some time ago... that even when you run a poll for an auction, and the auction doesn't happen, you can still unearth some interested leads. So, I recently tried to run two auctions, but neither had enough interest during the initial polling. While I was kinda sad about that, I remembered what John said, reached out to a few people, and sold a couple of licenses. How cool is that?! In short. Auctions may or may not work. But polls definitely do. Do what you want with it.... ✌️

Let's start to wrap up this exciting challenge up because: - The first step got 18 people participating - The second got 13 people participating We are now on the 3rd step. I figure we can't keep going much longer before we run out of people completely. If you've done the previous two steps, this third step will be easy. It's to look over your answers to Step 1 (your offer) and Step 2 (your one specific person to sell that offer to) and ask yourself: ===> 3. What short question could I ask my ideal person to just open a conversation? A couple easy handraiser questions: 1. If they joined your email list with a lead magnet that ties into your current offer, you can simply ask them if they still want the outcome the lead magnet offers: "Are you still looking for a house in Georgetown?" (assuming they signed up for Georgetown house listings or a Georgetown-area house pricing info) 2. If you wrote up an identifying fact about your idea person in your Step 2, description, you can simply call them out with something specific about them. Take Nick Bandy's recent email as an example, connected to his Step 2 description: "Do you run an agency with at least one employee or contractor?" There are many many other ways to craft your 9-word email. But rather than trying to spell them all out, I'll encourage you to just write up your best short question you can ask your ideal prospect to open a conversation... post it below in the comments... and we can workshop it together. Sounds good? Then get to it. I'll be watching you!

My WordPress site apparently has close to 2k users, none of which I've created, all of which seem to be created to hack into my site. (Screenshot attached. Just found this today.) Has anybody had this problem before? Or do you have any advice for me?

You voted! The response was... lukewarm! But while we wait for @Nick Bandy's poll results to turn into a magical new offer... while @Maliha M is mulling over a new auction idea... and while @Svetoslav Dimitrov is riding around on his tractor... ... I've decided it's time to run the highly teased, mildly anticipated 9-Word Email Challenge!!! Forget about the 9-word email for the moment. This challenge is really about getting you out of any of the following grimy and depressing prisons: - Failed promotions and offers that nobody wants - Spending tons of time to write emails, and they still aren't making sales - Having a list, and knowing you should do something with it, but it's such a chore - No opens, no clicks, no replies - An old list that's either gone to sleep or died - No money, and rent is due We'll do this challenge bit by bit to make it easy. Today is Day 1. Step 1. Very easy. Simply ask yourself: ====> 1. What do I wanna sell as part of this challenge? It could be your own coaching or services. It could be a course or membership you're selling, It could be a custom offer you're going to be putting out and want feedback on. It could be an affiliate offer. IMPORTANT: The 9-word email is a handraiser campaign that starts an email conversation that can naturally lead to a sale. That means you want people to reply to the email, and you will then have to interact with them 1-1. Normally, a 9-word email is used to sell something sizable, which justifies the 1-1 contact and the time and effort that requires. A low-ticket offer can make sense, but only if you have other reasons for promoting it than the sales you're making. Otherwise you'll probably just want to send folks to an order page. KEY TO MAKING STEP 1 WORK: Make your offer specific and concrete. Don't say, "copywriting services." Do say, "story-based advertorial an ecom business can just drop into their cold traffic funnel."