“The best artists know what to leave out.” — Charles de Lint
You can create anything you want.
It might not be appreciated, might not make you famous, and might not make you rich, but you can create it.
And you should.
“Because I want to” is a great reason to create something.
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. The First Thing I Send To People Who Give Me Their Email Address
“It’s a big deal when someone gives you their email address. And a big opportunity.”
When you first subscribed to my newsletter you got a welcome email from me and it probably wasn’t that great — that’s why I recently changed it.
In this post, I share the first thing I send to people who give me their email address and explain how to create a welcome email that represents what you want people to know about yourself, your work, and how you can help them.
Related: The best auto-reply email I’ve ever seen.
2. The Definitive Guide To Promoting Your Podcast
“Don’t define your audience. Define yourself.”
This may be the best article I’ve read about how to grow an audience for a podcast and most of the tactics can also be applied to any type of content you want to promote.
Matt Giovanisci’s definitive guide to podcast marketing is based on lessons he learned growing his Listen Money Matters podcast from 1,000 downloads in its first six months into a top 100 podcast on iTunes.
The tips include ways to get listeners involved, use social media, and maximize your show notes.
Btw, I found this in the excellent responses to this tweet where people are sharing their best podcast promotion tips.
Related: Nine marketing lessons for podcasters.
3. How To Turn Off Your Work Thoughts During Your Free Time
“That’s the interesting thing about work stress. We don’t actually experience much of it at work — we’re too busy. We experience it outside of work.”
One of the easiest ways to get burnt out on work is to think about it when you’re technically not working.
In this 12-minute TED Talk video, psychologist Guy Winch explains how to turn off your work thoughts during your free time including how to set boundaries, optimize your environment, and trick your mind.
Related: How I got more done, reduced stress, and mastered time management in 10 minutes a day.
4. How To Brainstorm A Year’s Worth Of Content In A Day
“You must dedicate enough time during one sitting to accumulate the number of article ideas you’ll need to satisfy your goal. I can promise you it will take you longer than you anticipate.”
This one’s about generating 52 article ideas in a single day, but it’s an adaptable system you can use for just about any kind of idea generation.
Jay Squires breaks down how to brainstorm a year’s worth of content in a day and shares the system he used to do that which involves finding inspiration in other sources, generating lists of “Potential Gold” and “Refined Gold,” and plotting it all out on a yearly planner.
Related: How to come up with a great idea for your next blog post.
5. How To Write A Tweetstorm
“In order for your tweetstorm to succeed, your first tweet needs to get people to click through to read the rest of it. Without a first tweet that makes people read on, your tweetstorm is losing a large percentage of its potential audience.”
As someone who loves Twitter (connect with me here), I found this to be a great overview of how to craft effective tweet threads.
Jan-Erik Asplund breaks down how to write a tweetstorm including to use your first tweet as an elevator pitch, use a simple narrative arc, and tag and link to increase your distribution surface area.
Btw, I found this in Jimmy Daly’s newsletter.
Related: Here are your next four tweets if you want to get more value out of Twitter.
Three Quick Things Before You Go…
Want my help with your project? Check out my Creator Accelerator.
Last week’s most popular article was my advice for creators in 30 sentences.
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