Evergreen Products And Common Questions

I’m currently writing
in a subgenre of Romance
that is evergreen.
The books (products)
never become dated.

Evergreen products are great.
You build them once.
They sell forever.

Because they sell forever,
you will likely receive
the same types of
customer messages/questions
forever.

Prepare for this.

Consider building
a file of customer questions
and your answers.

Whenever you receive
a new question,
no matter how strange it is,
add it and your answer
to the file.

If your product
is around for 50 years,
someone will likely
ask it again.

Then all you have to do
is cut and paste
the answer.
(Don’t refer them to a webpage.
That’s impersonal and often irritating.)

Put a little more work
into building a file
of questions and answers
for evergreen products.
That time will be worth it.

Customer Problems We Can’t Solve

I have never released
a book (product)
everyone was happy with.
Never.

I’ve released
extremely popular books
but I still received
complaints from some readers
about them.

I listen to those complaints.
I sympathize with those readers.
I don’t change a damn thing.

The books are the final versions.
If the readers don’t like them,
they don’t like them.

As Seth Godin
shares,

Sometimes
“empathy leads to,
“I hear you,
I see you,
and if you need to walk away,
we’ll understand.

We hope you’ll see it
the way we do
one day,
but right now,
I can’t solve your problem.””

Sometimes simply listening
will defuse the situation.
Sometimes that is all
we should be prepared
to do.

Once Is Not Enough

There’s a reason
negativity rules the news.
We give it more attention
than we give positive acts.

Seth Godin
shares

“Positive signals are
often weak signals.
We need to be prepared
to offer them with consistency,
to keep showing up
in the face of apparent apathy.”

Many of us are building our businesses
because we believe
our businesses will make the world
a better place
in a small way or a huge way.

That’s a positive act,
a positive signal,
which means
we have to share
our products/services more often,
promote them more often.

Have you promoted
your product/service
today?

Being A Small Partner

85% of my sales
come through Amazon.
Amazon likes to be first
to list books.

I schedule my books
to release at all of the booksellers
at the same time.

One of the other booksellers
released my most recent book early.

This angered Amazon
and the 85% of my readers
who buy from Amazon.

I won’t list my next release
at the other bookseller.
I can’t risk it.

If you’re a small partner,
and we all start
as small partners,
don’t f*ck up
the relationships with the bigger partners.
That won’t end well
for you.

Race As A Factor

A client k reader
contacted me,
asking me
why I had to bring up race
as a reason
to use or not use our photos
in our marketing materials.

I brought it up
because it IS a factor.
This blog isn’t about being
politically correct.
It is about reality.

The reality is…
we are more likely to buy
from people who look like us.

The reality is…
there’s discrimination against
some groups of people
wherever you happen
to be building your business.
Often these groups have race
as a characteristic.

Ignoring this
doesn’t make it go away.

Learning how to decrease
its impact
should increase our sales
and the probability
our businesses
will be successes.

Race IS a factor.
As is
gender,
body size,
physical appearance.
Plan for this current reality.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Using Your Photo In Marketing Material

Many marketing experts
will tell you
to use your photo
in marketing material.
It inspires ‘trust.’

Those marketing experts
are usually
young, thin, white
and
good looking.

I don’t use my photo
anywhere.
I’m plus-sized.
I’m not good looking.
I have a scary
resting bitch face.
My photo isn’t selling any products.

If you are your product,
you likely don’t have a choice.
You have to show prospects
your face eventually.

If you aren’t your product,
think about whether or not
your face will sell that product.

Be honest with yourself.
If your face won’t sell your product,
use an image of something else.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

How To Ask For Advice

At least once a day,
a writer on Facebook
complains about low sales.

9 times out of 10,
they aren’t looking
for advice.
They’re looking
for sympathy.

They don’t want to
take action.

So…
I don’t offer advice.
My time is valuable.
I don’t waste it
on offering ideas
no one will ever implement.

What does that mean
for YOU
when you DO want advice?

You have to ask for it.
Don’t expect an expert
to volunteer the information
based on comments alone.

Ask for the advice you need
and then thank the person
for taking the time,
for caring enough
to give it to you.

(The second step
is how you get advice
in the future.)

All Advice Isn’t Equal

We have a writer
in one of our writing groups
who always contradicts
the expert posts.

A member of
the Million Dollar A Year Club
will share a strategy.

This writer will comment
about why he KNOWS
the strategy doesn’t work.
He will share percentage sales lifts, etc.,
concrete numbers.

It sounds like he knows
what he’s talking about.

Today,
he posted one of his tests.
Instead of percentages,
it accidentally revealed his sales
for the month.
They were less than my sales
for the DAY.

The results for his ‘tests’
wouldn’t even be a rounding error
for many of us.

All advice isn’t equal.
Evaluate the source.

Promote Harder

I host a weekly round up
of romance novels
that have released or are releasing.

I try to cover all of them
but every week,
a friend asks me
why I missed her release.

I give her a ‘nice’ response.
However, the real reason
is because her marketing sucks.

If our friends don’t know
our products have released,
we are NOT promoting them
hard enough.

We shouldn’t blame our friends
or our Moms
or our sisters
for not paying attention.
We should blame ourselves
for slacking.

It is a sign
we should promote harder.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Being Exceptional

I’m lazy.
I’m guessing you’re lazy also.
Most people are.

And most people
in life
do the bare minimum.

They do the minimum
an employer requires.

They build a business
that gives the customer
what he/she needs
to be satisfied
and nothing extra.

Some people think
being exceptional
is difficult.

It isn’t.
Being exceptional
can be as easy
as doing one extra thing.

Do that extra thing.
Be exceptional.