Austin Internet Marketing Meetup Resources
Get Your First Email List DONE & Running!
April 29, 2013
Here are some free email marketing downloads available at aWeber
A great tip: Adding A Link To The Web Version Of Your Emails (In 2 Seconds)
AWeber’s Facebook Web Form App
Sign up for free tips and get bonus “Guide to standing out in the Inbox”
AWeber’s Newsletter Quality Checklist is a PDF download, get it here
Ready for a $1 Trial to aWeber? (This is my affiliate link – thanks)
Creating a Follow Up Series Of Emails
This article on aWeber I personally disagree with, to an extent. I think it’s too pushy. I think a “Travis” approach (see below an email that sells) would tend to start out with a story like our Pastor told a while back about when he lived in Houston and “competed” with his neighbor over whose lawn looked the best.
Maybe it also has something to do with by background (going WAY back) where our family owned a lawn care business 😉
Example of an email that SELLS
Notice there is no fancy HTML.
No fancy graphics.
No fancy logo.
But this guy CONNECTS with his readers.
I have removed the links to what he’s selling, not because I don’t like the guy [I do] (and I don’t even really know what product it is), but because that’s not the point.
One improvement I could MAYBE suggest (I really hesitate to think I can improve on one of Travis’ emails) is to include the text format of the link so that when guys like me scan for the blue hyperlink to change/remove we might miss the text version and still have a chance at a sale.
Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Doesn’t matter if you like to fish or not; whether you knew or liked your dad or not; tell me this email doesn’t connect…
[P.S. – The last time I saw my dad didn’t go like I would have hoped either, so maybe I’m not the best judge; but the first time I read this a year ago I had a similar reaction and my dad was still alive then]
[P.P.S. – If you twist my arm I’ll get you the PDF that is being given away as a bonus to the product below, Million Dollar Marketing Sequence. Tells how to setup a series of emails for an affiliate campaign.]
* * *
Please Read First: Because this was the most popular
series of messages I ever sent and nearing the 1 year anniversary
of what I dedicated to my Pap, I’m sending this to
you again. Thank you for your ear and heart:-)
Travis here…
I regret the last conversation I ever had
with my dad.
In his late seventies…Dad asked me…
“Hey Travy, my hip and knees are feeling pretty good, could
we go bass fishing soon? You and I haven’t been fishing in
years.”
My dad bringing up his “hip and knees” was his way
of taking blame for us not spending time fishing together
anymore.
But it wasn’t his fault.
I called my dad…”Pappy” or “Pap”…an old southern nickname.
One Summer when I was still a freckle face teeny bopper, Pap took me
fishing at an old spot on the Petit Jean River.
It was a muddy little bend where a big oak
tree had fell part way across the river.
tree had fell part way across the river.
We tippy toed out on the log and armed with a bucket
of minnows we dropped our lines and bobber in
the water.
In less than 2 seconds our red and
white bobbers plunge deep into the murky soup
and disappear.
(for non-fishers, that means we both had a bite!)
We both looked at each other and laughed.
And both of us pulled up two fat Bream (they call ’em Blue Gill
on the west coast)
We rapidly put both chubby fish on our stringer and hit
it again.
BAM! B-A-A-M!
I’m telling ya…The SECOND our bait hit the water…we caught two more!
…at the SAME TIME…
Pap laughed. I laughed, I’m sure with my voice changing I sounded
more like a giggling girl.
We hook those two fish on our stringer.
Then…
We bait our hooks again….
We smile and both look at each other without saying a word, but each
knowing exactly what each of us was thinking…
NO way this will happen a third time!
“Kerplunk…Kerplunk…” as our bobbers slap the
water for the third time.
tick…tick…tick…
Woosh! Woosh!
A-G-A-I-N…
Our bobbers get sucked under.
HA! HA! HAAAAAAAA!
This time we’re both cackling so hard
we’re absolutely drunk on laughter.
In our stupor we can barely pull up our catch.
This went on for nearly half an hour.
It only ended when we ran out of minnows!
That special day…For about 30 minutes…
All you could hear on that spot on the river was the uproarious laughter
of a father and son having the time of their lives together.
We ate GOOD that night too.
Pap was a pretty happy guy, but I can’t remember
too many times I’ve ever seen him happier.
Well once…when we gave him a bike for Christmas. He was so
happy he cried because growing up during The Great Depression he’d
never had a bike as a kid.
I actually taught my pap how to ride a bike!
Funny huh?
So…Pap and I going fishing together was our special thing.
As an adult, even though we lived in the same town, we
had grown distant from the special relationship we had
as fishing buddies.
The last time we’d ever talk…
Pap was trying to reconnect with his son when he asked…
“Hey Travy, my hip and knees are feeling pretty good, could
we go bass fishing soon? You and I haven’t been fishing in
years.”
He was too much of a gentleman to say anything, but
I could see in his steely aged eyes how hurt he was when I declined
I could see in his steely aged eyes how hurt he was when I declined
his request to take him fishing.
Well, I didn’t really “decline”.
You know how you do right? To “get out” of something?
You don’t say “no”…you just say “not right now”.
I had my lines down pat…
“Pap, I’m so busy at work, I’ve got an installation
out of town next week or we’re short handed…BLAH…BLAH…
WHATEVER…WHATEVER.”
He had his lines down pat too…
“Oh, it’s okay Travy, I’m so proud of you. Let’s go fishing
as soon as you’re free.”
Two weeks later…
I’m on the job at a new BBQ restaurant in Little Rock
training the owners on how to read the reports and such
on their new cash register system.
At the time I’m helping a cashier ring up
customers…the Whole Hog BBQ was packed
to the rafters on their first day.
My cell rings…
It’s my sister’s number?
WTH?
She never calls on this cell.
I usually don’t answer when I’m training, but I do today because
it’s just weird my sister is calling.
“Hey Sis…whassup?”
“Hey Travis, I’ve got bad news, Pappy just…Pappy just…just… passed away today.” She stammered.
Honestly, I don’t remember what I said?
I remember the room spinning. I remember a sinking
sadness…and then I felt something so strong it
still sticks in my craw to this day.
A crushing shame and guilt overtakes me…
I couldn’t get out of the restaurant fast enough.
I run to the exit knocking down chairs along the
way because I couldn’t see with burning tears
welling up in my eyes.
I push the glass door open with both hands
and I know I’m outside because I’m blanketed in
damp Arkansas humidity.
I take just enough steps to where I think nobody
in the restaurant could see me and then I fall to
the pavement.
As a man, it was the hardest I’ve ever cried.
Do you have any idea what I would’ve given
to have one last fishing trip with my pap?
I called my boss…and told her my dad had
passed suddenly. It took a while to get someone
to cover me, but a few hours later I started the 90 minute
drive to Russellville.
I remember the drive well and the conversations
I had with myself.
“Was I REALLY so busy I couldn’t have found time
to go fishing with Pap one last time?”
“How many more of my son’s birthdays was I
going to miss? He wasn’t going to be a kid forever!”
“How many more anniversaries would we
have to celebrate on the “weekend” after
our anniversary?”
I pounded the steering wheel.
I felt completely trapped.
Trapped between earning enough money to
support the ones I loved AND still being part
of their lives.
Sigmund Freud said “A man doesn’t become a man until
his father dies.”
I always thought that was a big steaming pile
of fish guts…
I didn’t know it at the time, but on that drive home…on
the day Pap went to the big fishing hole in the sky
was the day I started morphing into an independent man.
I promised to find a way to become truly SELF SUFFICIENT.
…To NOT depend on any one person, one entity, one anything
to not just live, but to THRIVE.
…to STOP LIVING IN FEAR because I wasn’t ultimately
in control of my life.
I had already begun looking and working on a plan BEFORE
this day and it was working too. (Bum Marketing Method)
But to become truly self sufficient…. my plan had some scary FLAWS…
It depended too much on one entity.
Can you guess which one?
Google.
You see…
I KNEW to be free, independent AND have peace
about it all.
I couldn’t ditch one boss…
Just to start dancing like a puppet for another boss with a different
name…
GOOGLE or one.
Listen…I want you to hear this…getting close to over 10 years later…
After all the Adwords slaps, Panda Updates and the latest blog network
clamp downs…not too mention a “recession”.
IM’ers are sadder, madder, more depressed and feeling
more trapped than ever before.
Am I?
No.
In fact…I’ve never been at more peace.
Has it been an inconvenience at times?
Sure.
But…
I’m more profitable now than I EVER have been.
But more important than the money is the confidence
in knowing…
NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS…I can ALWAYS
provide for my family without sucking up to ANY boss who
could care less about me or my loved ones.
From time to time…
I invite fellow marketers to my home.
We talk about business. We talk about life. We listen to
music, play pool and have a few drinks together.
Ya know what surprises the heck out of me?
It’s what surprises them about me.
It comes out in different ways…
But their general sentiments are…
“Travis you’re the most calm and peaceful guy I’ve met in this business.”
And you might be thinking?
“Sure, after I’ve made a bank load of loot, I’d be calm too.”
TRUTH IS quite the opposite in my experience…a majority of the people
doing IM full time are MORE SCARED than folks with a job.
Go figure!
They are scared POOPLESS that their “trick” is going to stop
working…or their big boss…Google, Facebook, Twitter…etc
is going to “can” them any second.
Who wants that?
Now…
If I could…
I’d invite you and everyone over to my little casa.
I’d put on some Al Green…
We’d shoot some pool and rap about NOT EVER putting all your eggs in
one basket.
And how…
If your mind is right…and with some tiny tweaks to
how you run your gig…
You can find never ending baskets and sleep like a log at night.
Now, obviously… I can’t invite everyone.
One fella who has spent quite a while at my home came
up with what I now think is a brilliant idea.
(I was totally against it at first.)
What’s the idea?
Well…it’s probably the next best thing to having
you at my home and me teaching you one on one?
I’ve been rattling on for quite a while now so I
am going to come back later to tell you more
about it…
Thanks heaps for your ear, I pray you “take in”
what I’m telling you now about NEVER relying on one boss.
I’m wondering if you’re excited to see it before
I come back though?
You would? I’m honored.
[Blue Collar Marketing]
Couple things before I go…
First, you’re one of the first people to see this…
There are a couple things that need to be changed.
Like…
Where he says I have no “technical” ability.
I am NO technical jeenius…
But I do okay.
What shouldbe said is…
My designing skills totally blow.
I can’t make pretty websites or blogs…but I CAN make them.
Cool?
You can instantly tell it was not me who did the “design”
on the site you’re about to see.
[Here’s Your Early Bird Link Again]
I’ll stop back by with more details and more
lessons I learned the hard way which I think
will really help you find your OWN independence.
Rooting For You,
Travis
PS I haven’t had the heart to pick up a fishing pole since my
dad died.
I think it would be appropriate to dedicate this to Pap.
Maybe if I feel I help just one mom/dad and son/daughter
go fishing… it’ll make me feel better about missing our last trip together?
…