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    Writing The Perfect Email (The Short, Medium, Long Method)

     

    How do you write a perfect email? The answer is...

    ...

    ......

    .........

    ............

    ...............

    ..................

    .....................

    ......wait for it...

    ...........................

    ..............................

    .................................

    ....................................

    ...you send out 3 different emails!

    1.) Short Email: Ultra short, like a notification.
    2.) Medium Email: Short, but with some added info.
    3.) Long Email: Your full sales pitch.

    Podcast Outreach Example:

    Let's say we have to write an email for podcast outreach with the Short/Medium/Long Email format.

    Here's how we'd do it:

    1.) Short Email: Ultra short, like a notification.

    Hey Nicollete, wanna come on my podcast? About 5,000 downloads per episode.

    -Neville

    This "Short Email" keeps it to the absolute bare minimum of words. 

    Since it's so short it seems very personal, like a friendly email from a friend or a text message. 

    These ultra short messages surprisingly work the best in most cases.

    2.) Medium Email: Short, but with some added info.

    Hey Nicollete, wanna come on my podcast? 

    We do a podcast where we interview interesting copywriters and business people, and delve into their business and life. 

    - Audio gets about 5,000 downloads per episode.
    - YouTube gets about 10,000 views per episode.
    - We cut up between 5 and 12 Short Clips per episode.
    - We also make a blog post with all of these embedded on there. 

    Would 2pm CST on March 18th work for you?

    -Neville

    This "Medium Email" adds a little more content to the message, giving out some great reasons why Nicollete should come on my podcast. 

    If you don't know someone well, then maybe adding some more benefits to the request can help.

    3.) Long Email: Your full sales pitch.

    Hey Nicollete, wanna come on my podcast? 

    We do a podcast where we interview interesting copywriters and business people, and delve into their business and life. 

    - Audio gets about 5,000 downloads per episode.
    - YouTube gets about 10,000 views per episode.
    - We cut up between 5 and 12 Short Clips per episode.
    - We also make a blog post with all of these embedded on there. 
    - You can see some more of the YouTube stats here:

    youtube-stats-cc.png

    You would be joining some great guests we’ve had on such as: 

    Jason Cohen - Founder of 2 different billion dollar companies. 
    Paul Yacoubian - Founder of Copy.ai  
    Noah Kagan - Founder of AppSumo

    youtube-screenshot-thumbnails.png

    I would love to discuss how you started your business, and where you plan on going in the future. 

    Would 2pm CST on March 18th work for you? Or schedule a time here.

    -Neville

    This "Long Email" is like a last ditch effort to spill our guts and deliver allllll the good stuff about coming on the podcast. 

    If we send Nicollete a Short Email, then a Medium Email, then a Long Email and she still doesn't respond, then maybe she just doesn't want to be a guest on it. 

    Ironically these "Long Emails" tend to work the worst in my experience.

    Almost always a shorter email gets a better and quicker response. 

    If you are making a request over email, my advice is usually to try 3 emails in this order:  Short → Medium → Long.

    I hope this was educational my friend!
    Sincerely,
    Neville Medhora - Master Email'er

    The SWIPES Email (Friday March 15st, 2024)

    swipes-Double-line-SPLURGE.gif

    Edition: Friday, March 15th, 2024
    An educational (and fun) email by Copywriting Course. Enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    This graphic shows that learning to use a spreadsheet is probably far more helpful than many advanced math subjects 😂

    math-skills-to-stages-of-life-graph.jpg

    Subjects like calculus were hard to get excited about in high school because they never told you WHY it was helpful.

    If you give zero evidence why something is useful, it’s hard to dedicate time to it.

    This is the same for your product marketing. Are you telling your customers all the reasons your product/service will help them?

    Wisdom:

    Cool quote overheard on a Lex Fridman and Kimbal Musk podcast:

    "Food is a gift we give ourselves 3 times a day.”

    - Kimbal Musk

    I like this quote because I cook almost all my meals, either in the form of meal prep once a week:

    healthy-meal.jpg

    I have in the past bought pre-made meals, but there's something very satisfying about fresh food and you know every ingredient that goes into it.

    Also I enjoy the process of taking a few minutes to grill up some steak or chicken on the grill. There's something very fun about it.

    nev-bbqing.jpg

    Interesting:

    Some angel investing advice Dan Martell said Naval Ravikant gave him (paraphrased):

    “Make 12 investments, all of the same size, over the course of a 4 year period.”

    He said it roughly follows the old normal curve, where most of the investments will either be a washout or you breakeven, but 1 or 2 of those investments will return all the money:

    investment-breakdown.webp

    You can see his advice here at this timestamp: 30:36

     

    Picture:

    If you are reading this on Friday morning, I am probably travelling at the moment, so I pre-wrote this SWIPES Email a few days early.

    I couldn't find any non-personal-event pictures to share, so I am sharing this random picture of my Aprillia Scarabeo 100 scooter that has served me well for the last 10 years (also I had 2 other of the same model before that).

    nevs-garage-vespa.jpg

    I've always lived around Downtown Austin, so if I ever need to get somewhere in a hurry when there's tons of traffic or parking will be bad, this baby has always been there!

    Essay:

    This quote means sometimes JUST DOING THINGS to advance a goal is better than pondering on it:

    motion-quote.png


    motion-beats.gif

    ....it doesn't mean you shouldn’t stop and think, but if you’re feeling inspired you can start writing that article, buying that domain name, or making a mockup…and the motion helps you move forward.

    For example this is just PART of my collection of useless domain names:

    list-of-domains.webp

    ...but buying a $7 domain name is often the first step in helping me take a project seriously.

    So what if I waste $200 in a year buying dumb domains? One success out of those can return 1,000x.

    Some "motion" towards an idea will help you work on it faster.

     

     

    Splurge:

    When I'm alone I goof off, BUT if someone is working with me (and can preferably see my screen) I will get lots of work done.

    Sometimes working at home doesn't provide this, and I'll often hop onto CaveDay (this isn't sponsored I just think it's a cool service).

    I am currently writing this SWIPES Email from a CaveDay Session, and it currently has 75 people on the call just silently co-working

    cave-day-working.jpg

    Hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!

    Sincerely,
    Neville Medhora

    nev-head.webp

    P.S. Checkout some member wins from this month alone:

    cc-wins-this-week.png

    P.P.S. If you want to see results like this too, jump on board right now:

    join-cc-image.png

    The SWIPES Email (Friday March 8th, 2024)

    swipes-double-line-gray-cropped.gif

    Edition: Friday, March 8th, 2024
    An educational (and fun) email by Copywriting Course. Enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    This is the exact letter that made Gary Halbert a millionaire in 1971. 

    It was one page, sealed in an envelope, selling them a “Coat of Arms” picture and report based on their last name, and it peaked at making 20,000 sales per day (and these were physical mail orders) 😮

    This particular letter was sent to every "Macdonald" in the phone book across the United States:

    cooat-of-arms-letter.webp

     

    For $2.00 (in 1971) this is what was sent back to you:

    1.) A coat of arms picture of your family last name, you could then frame it if you liked. Like this (without the frame, it was just sent to you on paper):

    coat-of-arms-photo.jpg

     

    2.) A small report explaining the coat of arms: (h/t to @eston_esau for taking this pic of this in his grandpa's house)!

    coat-of-arms-letter-macdonald.jpg

    Wisdom:

    Here's two quotes I really love:

    This is a quote about having a goal you're working towards:

    Quote

    "When things are hardest, a clear goal is the most important thing. To have a fountain of energy to draw from. Establishing a worthwhile goal is the hardest part. It gives you a place to go and a reason to get up." - Earl Nightingale

    This one is about building confidence, and that it comes from having a bunch of smaller experiences of success:

    Quote

    “Confidence is built upon an experience of success.”

     

    Interesting:

    A cool pattern I've found with regards to reading:

    10 pages of a fiction book at night helps me go to sleep.

    10 pages of a business book in morning helps me wake up and have my brain thinking about work.

    I've noticed I read too much fiction in the morning, it's exciting but then I don't really wanna do work. So this hack is pretty neat!

    The current business book I'm reading is this: Read Write Own

    book-and-breakfast.jpg

    The current fiction book I'm reading is: The Three Body Problem.

    the-three-body-problem.webp

    Apparently the Three Body Problem just came out as a movie or TV trailer....AND I'M PURPOSELY NOT WATCHING THE TRAILER SO I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT'S ABOUT TO HAPPEN!

    Picture:

    Hey check it out I got one of those 100k subscriber YouTube plaques!! 

    youtube-subscribers-plaque.jpg

    I put out 2 long-form videos or interviews per month, and one short form video everyday.

    If that sounds up your alley then give me a subscribe!

    Essay:

    I've been thinking of buying a Tesla Model S, and wanted to try it out for a multi-city, mulit-destination trip, so I rented one with the specs I wanted off Turo (I would’ve preferred a black one but couldn’t find that with my specs).

    I'm not a big car guy....the reality is I want one main thing: Full Self Driving so I can get around without paying attention.

    tesla-driving.jpg

    Almost all my friends have variations of Teslas, and the only one I really love the look of is the Model S:

    tesla-model-s.jpg

    Like I said I just want FULL AUTO DRIVING.

    That’s it.

    That’s the killer feature to me.

    The experience with FSD after 3 days of a lot of driving is: It's definitely kick ass, but not fully there (yet). It's still kinda jerky at times (I notice this a lot more when a passenger is in the car), and 2% of the time it freaks out and scares the hell out of passengers.

    My Pro’s of the Tesla Model S:

    • Stupid fast. Like….so fast you don’t really need all that speed. It’s unreal.
    • Everything is controlled by phone, it’s kinda neat to cool the car or heat it up remotely, or just not have to have a key (just your phone) to operate everything.
    • You can see all the cameras from the phone app..it’s like having an 8-camera security system wherever you’re parked!
    • FSD (Full Self Driving) is amazing….I have some gripes with it, but it’s an awesome safety feature to have, and is really relaxing to drive on.
    • FSD is so good at directions, if I was ever in doubt of which freeway or exit to take, FSD nailed it every time.
    • I love + don’t love that everything needs to be controlled from the screen. Like changing directions of the air vents requires a few clicks to do.
    • The FSD feels good having it as a backup driver for safety, and is nice to sit in slow traffic with it on and not pay much attention.

    My Con’s of the Tesla Model S:

    • For passengers the Full Self Driving is kinda jerky when slowing down….even with “Chill Mode” on the way it breaks sometimes is like a bad Uber driver.
    • You kind of have to babysit the FSD….it definitely does the job, but you’re not totally doing nothing, you still have to pay some attention.
    • It’s a total lane hog. On the highway the Tesla will very frequently try to move into the left lane then just stay there, which is a huge pet peeve of mine.
    • The yoke steering wheel looks cool, and is nice for visibility (you can see right over it which is neat), and for the most part feels good….but the buttons stink. The turn signals are not intuitive, and you have to reach your thumb to touch them each time. Same with the horn or lights, definitely not in an intuitive spot.

    Hope for the future of driving:
    I frequently go back and forth between Austin and Houston for family stuff, and I think of the countless hours of driving I’ve done that could’ve been used for something more productive or fun.

    I wish I could do work, or read, or listen to podcasts AND take notes while driving….currently you can just passively consume information in a car and not much more.

    My goal is that I can drowsily hop in the car, fall asleep, and safely wake up in a different city. This seems roughly ~5 years away.

     

    Splurge:

    I love local-business marketing, and I saw this in a neighborhood while driving in Houston:

    It's a simple A-Frame (much like my Shoe Hospital Experiment sign) this window cleaner puts out in front of a house they were cleaning.

    window-cleaning-sign.jpg

    A great way of drumming up business is letting people in the neighborhood know you're helping out one of their neighbors.

    If you're a service provider like this, spend the $150 to get a nice A-Frame made and stick it in front of your service sites!
     

    Hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

    nev-head.webp

    P.S. Checkout some member wins from this month alone:

    members-wins.png

     

    P.P.S. If you want to see results like this too, jump on board:

    join-cc-image.png

    The SWIPES Email (Friday March 1st, 2024)

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    Edition: Friday, March 1st, 2024
    A fun email by Copywriting Course and SwipeFile. Enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    I really liked this Michael Cera + CeraVe advertising campaign 😂

    mCerave-moisturizing-cream.png

    This was developed by WPP and Ogilvy after seeing random rumors on Reddit that Michael Cera the actor created CeraVe Lotion.

    Weeks before their Super Bowl ad they got influencers to fuel the speculation that Michael Cera was the founder...

    Then they hired influencers to release photos and TikTok's saying, "Guys run to this pharmacy in BK, I just saw MICHAEL CERA signing bottles!! 😳😳"

    michael-cera-cerave-jpg-1200×1200-.png

    They also hired influencers to release shots of Michael Cera holding 20+ bottles of CeraVe:

    CeraVe-michael.jpg

    Then after all this buzz on the internet stirred up....they released a funny ad disproving it 😂

     

    Wisdom:

    This is a cool graphic by @KateBour with 12 different pricing psychology tips I really liked:

    pricing-phychology-tips.png

    I'm not sure 100% of this is totally correct, but I loved the way this way laid out for easy reading.

    Interesting:

    On the YouTube tracking site ViewStats, you can now see a "Change Gallery" for any specific video, and see every split-test for headline and thumbnail 👀

    stats.gif

    It'll also show you when that video was updated if the performance went up/down:

    google-tracking.jpg

    It's pretty cool to see some of your favorite creators split testing titles and thumbnails!

    Picture:

    I’ve been moving designs from Figma into actual live web pages, and this meme captures it perfectly 😂

    Design mockups look so awesome in Figma, but when actually translating them into your page builder they get all funky and lose some of the prettiness.

    figma-meme.png

    Here's a real live example:

    figma-before-and-after.webp

    It might be hard to tell at this resolution, but it always looks a lot crummier in production!

    Essay:

    One fun thing to do with whatever new business idea you come up with is apply it to a different type of business model.

    Subscription Model: You charge $X/mo to get access to something. It could be software, or courses, or services. I personally sell a subscription for people to access my community.

    E-commerce Model: You sell a product online, and get it delivered to the customer (either you ship it yourself or send it through a drop-shipper). This was how I made my first company HouseOfRave.

    Affiliate Marketing Model: You talk about products, and put an affiliate link and you get a cut of sales each time someone buys. For example this is an affiliate link to ConvertKit, if you click that link then buy a subscription, every month I'll get a small kickback.

    Ad-based Model: This is where you get traffic to a website, and you put ads all over it. For example if you go to SwipeFile.com it's littered with ads, and when people click those I get a couple cents or a couple bucks.

    Consulting Services Model: This is where someone pays you for consulting. I do this by offering hourly calls that (sometimes) lead into bigger projects.

    Franchising Model: You might not have a great business mind, but you can run a template someone else has, so you can "franchise" their business. You can buy your way into running a McDonald's or SubWay.

    Digital Products Model: You can sell a small (or big) digital product like a how-to video. I once sold a $10 PDF of a "Problem Solving Checklist" that 1,000's of people bought.

    Marketplace Model: These are hard because you have to find people willing to sell a product/service, and people to buy it. Like eBay or Uber or Craigslist. But if you can get one going it can be a strong brand.

    Direct Sales Model: You send people a piece of mail, and they send you money for the product. This 1-page letter was how Gary Halbert originally became a millionaire.

    Splurge:

    In the Essay above I mentioned the "Subscription Model" I sell for people to access my trainings and community.

    The reason I do this followed this logic:
    1.) I originally made one course called Copywriting Course which taught some basic copywriting principles.

    2.) Then I made another course about sending fun & engaging emails called The Email Writing Course.

    3.) Then I made a course on how to use autoresponders to automate a lot of your email marketing.

    4.) Then I made ANOTHER course.......and this goes on times 12!

    5.) Eventually people got confused on which course to buy, so we made a bundle of courses to sell.

    6.) But I realized the real successes came from when people took my courses, but also got feedback on their copy and different projects. This covered the copywriting and business strategy and all the digital marketing in between.

    7.) To best serve students we went to a monthly subscription model so myself and professional writers could give them feedback, improvements, and much of the time just re-write their stuff.

    8.) We also realized people who spent a whole year in the course did the absolute best, so we broke up the plans into Monthly and Yearly.

    Monthly: So it's affordable for people and they could "test drive" us.

    Yearly: So people could get help throughout the entire year, plus all the courses, and we could really spend some time helping them.

    The pricing plan for subscription eventually ended up like this:

    messages.png

    From this model we've been able to generate thousands of Wins for members every year, and on so much more than just copywriting training, we're a community of builders making things:

    wins-image.png

     

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

    nev-head.webp

    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday February 23rd, 2024)

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    Edition: Friday, February 23rd, 2024
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

    Swipe:

    If someone hits a vape during a call I don’t think I’d mind that much 😂

    Music in the background? Well that’s just rude.

    Here's an interesting "Zoom Etiquette" chart of behaviors that people don't think are acceptable:

    zoom-etiquette-chart.jpg

    Wisdom:

    When self publishing a book a few years ago I decided to A/B split test two different covers and titles.

    Version A: "The Ten Commandments of Copywriting"
    Version B: "The Book Will Teach You How To Write Better"

    The result from 842 votes was:
    Version A:
    21% votes (loser)
    Version B: 79% votes (winner!)

    books-split-test.png

    This version of the book cover was just quickly drummed up as the placeholder for the book cover until I could find a better one.

    But of all the book covers and titles we tried this one just dominated every time!

    book-winner.png

    Interesting:

    Exactly two weeks ago I decided to cold turkey stop drinking caffeine. I made sure I had a free-ish weekend to lay in bed and do nothing to cope with the caffeine withdrawals.

    caffine-withdrawl.gif

    The first few days I had minor headaches and felt lethargic, this lasted about 3-4 days, then I started feeling a bit better.

    Basically it took ~5 days to feel normal.

    I've been finding it super easy to wake up in the morning and just start my day without caffeine.

    One morning I woke up around 4:30am (HIGHLY HIGHLY UNUSUAL FOR ME!) and was able to just start working, and had steady energy throughout the whole day.

    My energy each day just seems "stable." It doesn't have the wild spokes up and down as when on caffeine.

     

    Conclusion: My goal was to just break my morning dependency on caffeine by stopping for two weeks....well TODAY I AM ALLOWED TO HAVE COFFEE!

    But it's weird.....I really enjoy not having to rely on it: I like being able to just get up and start the day. I like not having to worry about acquiring 2-3 cups of coffee per day. I like the steady amount of energy I have from morning till night.

    Not sure if this will be a permanent stop, but I could get used to this!

    I'm writing this on a plane headed to Costa Rica right now, and I was able to wake up at 6:15am and workout before my flight without any caffeine (that is unusual for me).

    Picture:

    My friend Noah did a fun b-day party where he did "Birthday Olympics"

    • We all met up in a park and did games like:
    • Who can hold the longest plank challenge (I got 3rd)
    • Who can throw a kettlebell the furthest (I got 3rd)
    • Which team could throw a frisbee furthest (I won this one)!
    • A team "hold a kettlebell and run a lap"
    • A 2-lap sprint and you have to chug a beer or sparkling water before 2 the 2nd lap (I lost this one bad bc couldn't chug the bubble water that fast)....the guy who won had to leave early because he felt sick 😂

    It was fun!

    noah-birthday-olympics.jpg

    Essay:

    Last week I posted this homepage a/b/c/d split test, and asked which you thought would win??

    split-test-cc-signup.webp

    Most people guessed A or D....

    Here's the results →

    It was C!

    split-test-results.jpg

    And it boosted my homepage conversion rate from about 14% to 23%. 

    This means if 100 people come to the homepage, instead of 14 of them signing up to my email list, 23 of them signup. A ~60% increase.

    This was designed in Figma by @benpixel and it looked awesome.

    final-split-test-results.jpg

    Here's the final numbers....and to be fair "D" came in reallllyyy close....almost the same.

    A) 14.51% conversion
    B) 20.52% conversion
    C) 23.69% conversion
    D) 23.20% conversion

    conversion-copywriting-course.jpg

    This simple split test resulted in a 60% improvement for relatively little effort.

    It comes back to the old principle that if you give people less options on a page, they'll take the one you give them.

    Less options and text meant more people just plunked in their email:

    final-result-changes-split-test.jpg

    Splurge:

    I'm currently reading Read Write Own by @cdixon:

    read-write-own-breakfast.jpg

    I like how it breaks down complex topics into simple elements, like this chart of different networks:

    • Protocol is like SMPT email.
    • Corporate is like creators on YouTube.
    • Blockchain is like BTC or ETH.

    protocal-page-sjare.jpg

    He says there's been 2 eras of the internet and we're moving into the 3rd era called "Read Write Own."

    “Read” Era: You could put up a static website. Little to no interaction on websites.

    “Read-Write” Era (current): Posting and publishing for anyone to a large audience. You can use and interact on networks like X, Amazon, or YouTube....but not own them.

    “Read-Write-Own” Era: You can own pieces of the network you participate in. This is like the Ethereum network where you can interact with it, use it, but also own pieces of it as tokens.

    Good book so far!

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

    nev-head.webp

    Homepage A/B/C/D Split Test (14% to 23% improvement)!

    Last week I posted this homepage a/b/c/d split test, which do you think would win??

    Most people guessed A or D.... 

    split-test-cc-signup.webp

     

    Here's the results →

    It was C!

    And it boosted my homepage conversion rate from about 14% to 23%. 

    This means if 100 people come to the homepage, instead of 14 of them signing up to my email list, 23 of them signup. A ~60% increase.

    split-test-results.jpg

    Here's what the whole page looks like:

    This was designed in Figma by @benpixel and it looked awesome.

    final-split-test-results.jpg

    Here's the final numbers....and to be fair "D" came in reallllyyy close....almost the same.

    A) 14.51% conversion
    B) 20.52% conversion
    C) 23.69% conversion
    D) 23.20% conversion

    conversion-copywriting-course.jpg

    This simple split test resulted in a 60% improvement for relatively little effort. 

    It comes back to the old principle that if you give people less options on a page, they'll take the one you give them. 

    Less options and text meant more people just plunked in their email.

    final-result-changes-split-test.jpg

    The S.W.I.P.E.S Email (Friday February 16th, 2024)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, February 16th, 2024
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    This is an interesting little chart: 
    YouTube is the widest used social platform.

    most-social-platforms-used-bar-graph.png

     

    Wisdom:

    What has been the most profitable technical tool you’ve learned how to use?

    Here's my personal tool stack I use plus the proficiency level:
    - Figma (10%)
    - Photoshop (40%)
    - Descript (40%)
    - Wordpress (75%)
    - Canva (80%)
    - ChatGPT (80%)
    - Google Docs, Presentations, Sheets (80%)
    - ConvertKit (90%)
    - Camtasia (90%)

    Some others have told me some really helpful skills they've learned are:
    - WebFlow
    - ClickUp
    - Make
    - Superhuman
    - AirTable
    - Framer

    Interesting:

    This is an ultra-simplified explanation of how AI image generation works.

    They train a neural network to know what things are:

    You give it a prompt like "Corgi Sitting In A Field."

    It starts off with random noise like this:

    corgi-noise.jpg

    Then the neural network tries to figure out which tiny pixels it thinks kind of look like a Corgi and which pixels look like a field, so something resembling that starts to emerge:

    corgie-mix-noise.jpg

    The neural net then keeps repeating this until an image is formed:

    corgie-final.jpg

    So from rubbish-to-finished picture is might look something like this:

    this-is-me.gif

    This is of course a very simplified version, but isn't it interesting how much processing is being done behind the scenes to create AI images!

    Image Credits: Ethan Mollick and AltexSoft

    Picture:

    Apparently when Steve Urkel first came on TV he was 12 years old....I looked kinda similar at 12....at least the glasses were the same 😂

    neville-urkle.jpg

    Neville on the Left, Urkel on the Right 

    Essay:

    Look at this “Split Testing” Noah Kagan did to find the right book cover: He took a picture from a book store shelf, then rendered different colors of the book to see which stood out the most. The yellow book blended in, but the green stood out!

    yellow-green-split-test.png

    He also ran Facebook Ads to test which book covers/colors people would click on the most:

    mockup-covers.png

    The end result looking like this!

    split-testing-end.jpg

    You can also watch Noah talk about how he reverse-engineered reaching NYTimes Bestseller with his book launch here:

     

     

    Splurge:

    Speaking of books....

    In our Copywriting Course Office Hours member Rob Roseman said he wanted to a release a book to his Instagram followers:

     

    Just 4 weeks after thinking of the idea I'm holding Rob's physical book in my hand! That's impressively fast execution!

    wtf-book.jpg

    I've procrastinated writing books by months and years, so to see someone do this in ONE MONTH was impressive.

    He did it like this:

    WEEK 1: He got the concept for the book, then split tested titles and covers on Instagram.

    wtf-covers.jpg

    He also did some sample book store split testing for fun:

    store-split-test.jpg

     

    WEEK 2: In Office Hours sessions we came up with content formats for inside the book, he split test those as well on his Instagram account:

    inside-wtf-book.jpg

     

    WEEK 3: Once he got the content types down, he created all the content and published. He heavily leveraged his divorce Instagram account for content which helped show what content was socially proven.

    **Side Note: His Instagram just started to pop a few months ago, so he didn't have an already giant community until very very very recently.

     

    followers-gained-wtfdivorce-instagram.jpg

     

    WEEK 4: I'm holding the book in my hand 🤯

    wtf-book.jpg

     

    Now that's some HUSTLE seen right inside our copywriting community!

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

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    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday February 9th, 2024)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, February 9th, 2024
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    This is the average cruising speed of commercial aircraft, and you can see it leveled out at ~500mph and has stayed there for 45 years.

    commercial-airline-speed.png

    I love images like this that teach you "a little sumthin" in a quick visual!

    Wisdom:

    I heard a quote "The New Year actually starts in February" 😂

    I personally didn't do much in January this year, so here's to finishing my February Goals!

    feb-goals.jpg

    Hope you've got your goals set for this month and this year!

    Interesting:

    My buddy @RamonVanMeer sold his last company then started several companies in the pet space, and went on SHARK TANK trying to sell "Genius Litter" dressed as Albert Einstein 😂

    genius litter.jpg

    I can't wait to hear his experience of how they film the show!

    shirt-image.gif

    He got Lori, Mark, and Robert to invest in his company together at $250,000 for 10%:

    ending-hugs-shark-tank.webp

    You can see the negotiation here:

    What's really interesting is how he practiced his pitch at home with picture cutouts of the Sharks 😂:

    new.gif

    Picture:

    Here's an A/B/C/D Split Test I'm currently running on the Copywriting Course Homepage (where most of our email signups come from).

    Which variation do you have a hunch will win??

    I'll report back results next week on the winners!

    split-test-cc-signup.webp

     

    Essay:

    I'm just gonna do it: I'm not gonna drink caffeine for the next two weeks.

    I’ve tried tapering off and keep failing, so it's time to rip the Band-Aid and go cold turkey.

    I'm posting here for accountability.....otherwise I'll slide back into the sweet sweet sensation of caffeine 😬

    nev-caffeine.jpg

    My last caffeine was 10am yesterday (Thursday), I assume withdrawals will kick in within 24 hours from then.

    "What's the big deal?? This doesn't sound hard!!" That's what I thought, and every time I try to give up caffeine for a bit I cave after 2 days.

    I drink between 250mg and 400mg of caffeine per day in either the form of black coffee or sugar free energy drinks.

    I love caffeine, but it's now become a MUST HAVE in the morning and not an optional thing. I just hate that I'm dependent on it and want a reset.

    I purposely picked a weekend to suffer through the caffeine withdrawals so I don't have much work to do.

    February 22nd (two weeks) I'm allowed to have caffeine again

    Splurge:

    I just did an interview with my bestest buddy Noah Kagan about reverse engineering business and his book Million Dollar Weekend.

     

    SEE FULL NOTES -->

    • 0:00:27 Watch Noah go through the different split tests they tried to pick out the book cover.
    • 0:02:10 The way to design a book cover is look at it like a tiny little thumbnail, as if someone is browsing on Amazon on their phone.
    • 0:05:05 People don’t usually randomly get “lucky” with success, there’s often a ton more methodology behind those people. Tim Ferriss and James Clear examples.
    • 0:07:07 Most people are shy about marketing.
    • 0:08:18 If you build something people want, it’s easier to market it and tell people about it because you’re proud.
    • 0:08:34 Noah lists products he’s tried that DIDN’T work, easy to forget when you have success that tons of stuff didn’t work.
    • 0:10:19 Make sure people want the thing you’re about to sell. Start Today. Ask People. Stick With It.
    • 0:10:40 Cliches are true.
    • 0:11:35 Example: Guy built a podcast guest research tool for $20/mo. Meh. BUT if you send people more podcast listeners that’s more valuable. When you don’t have to convince someone to buy it, that’s when you know it’s valuable.
    • 0:12:22 I validated a newsletter writing service (or dis-validated). Get closer to the money. Help people save more money or make more money.
    • 0:14:00 The right answers are often simple and boring. The complex answers are more exciting. Keep things very simple. Complexity is not better.
    • 0:15:58 I’m calling it TwitterX from now on.
    • 0:16:11 Companies will do things end customers don’t care about, like new logos. Instead just gimme a cheaper price!
    • 0:16:37 Why did you wanna write a book? I wanted to embrace something that will take a long time. Have done self published books before, but wanted to do full publisher route. Started writing proposal on March 2020 and book came out February 2024.
    • 0:20:30 Noah’s book goals: 1,000 reviews. 25,000 sales in first 7 days.
    • 0:21:42 We got a publisher to agree to publish a book, and they didn’t care what it was about so long as you can sell 10,000 books.
    • 0:22:50 Almanack of Naval Ravikant self published, crossed a million in sales, but won’t appear as a NYTimes best seller.
    • 0:24:35 A book proposal needs stuff like how big is your audience, first full chapter, table of contents and market differentiation.
    • 0:25:00 Self Publishing vs traditional publishing. Traditional feels like you have to swing for the fences and take it more seriously. Self publishing is probably the future, but for now traditional still feels different.
    • 0:25:53 Noah asks Neville what he saw from his vantage point when creating this book.
    • 0:28:19 “Yesterday we did $284,000 in sales, but that originally started from a PayPal button and Gmail.”
    • 0:30:07 Find things that don’t feel like effort to you. Craft your life to include more of those things.
    • 0:32:56 Seinfeld said he loves the boring “long Shawshank slog through the sewer” which is why he lasted in comedy.
    • 0:35:44 Copywriting Course email marketers and freelancers making more money.
    • 0:38:29 We watched two of Noah’s videos, the supposedly “cheesier” one about asking yacht owners what they do was far more educational.t
    • 0:44:23 The Ten Year Rule: Can I do this for 10 years? Will it be easy or hard for me?
    • 0:46:05 Do you write much? For the book launch 30 days of content for social media, plus 5 emails for launch week, plus a weekly email. I really enjoyed doing the actual writing and marketing. Creating an email that’s so f’ing good that even if you don’t buy you enjoy it.
    • 0:47:05 There’s an absence of really good long-form blog articles. Seems like newsletters have taken over.
    • 0:47:43 I started writing on NevBlog again. No comments. No distribution. But it’s a cool place I can write in semi-peace.
    • 0:49:25 “The Artist’s Way” book. When you just sit and write stuff you can come up with more ideas than you expect.
    • 0:51:42 Where do you come up with ideas? Mostly just shared Google Docs
    • 0:53:43 How do you develop taste? You taste a lot of dishes!
    • 0:57:53 Do more of what works over a very long period of time.
    • 0:59:25 Noah’s guiding star to keep focus. “I hate losing. I like competition. I need an enemy.”
    • 1:01:55 Noah likes having a team because then outputting a lot of stuff is sustainable.
    • 1:02:28 Noah actually works very hard. Knowing him for years I see that when he works, HE WORKS, and he’s locked in for long periods of time.
    • 1:03:10 There are certain days I don’t do anything…but systems in place keep things going.
    • 1:03:58 “Anger is a gift.” Use frustration to work harder. Don’t mask it.
    • 1:10:15 Internet allows you to live way different lives than a few years ago that weren’t possible. You can live in a small town in Ireland and be the creative director of Red Bull.

    The marketing and behind the scenes he goes into is a masterclass in book marketing alone!

    Watch the interview here -->

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

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    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday February 2nd, 2024)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, February 2nd, 2024
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    I never realized what a monopoly on mountains the West had till I saw this color coded topographical map!

    map-image.jpg

    I’m more used to seeing maps like this which don’t convey much information besides state borders:

    map-image-2.webp

    Wisdom:

    Checkout this image of a San Bernadino locomotive factory from 1928:

    train-station.jpg

    Thoughts that come to mind when I see this image:
    • Capitalism
    • Hard Work
    • Commerce
    • Engineering
    • Job Creation
    • Elbow Grease

    This is what built America.

    I’m very thankful people in this harsh work environment paved the way for me to sit in air conditioning on a laptop while I'm sick with flu and working from bed:

    work-from-bed.jpg

    Interesting:

    Woot! I hit 100,000 subs on YouTube!

    Do they still send out those silver plaque thingies?? Hope I can get one still!
    copywriting-course-youtube.jpg

    Here's the lifetime channel stats, with most of the action happening only recently:

    youtube-stats.jpg

    Picture:

    This is the best office ever: Laying in bed on a rainy day finishing up a book 😁

    in-bed-reading.jpg

    P.S. Yes I realize there are TWO pictures of me working from bed this past week 😂

    I was down with flu so there was a lot of bed hanging out time!

    Essay:

    Wow…since 2019 there are roughly 60,000 more design agencies listed on Clutch.
    This is likely caused by: 
    • More solopreneurs entering the game. 
    • Remote work makes this more possible. 
    • Starting an agency is very low effort thanks to the internet + organizational tools like Slack, Notion, Google Docs, AirTable etc.

    clutch-jobs.jpg

    Original thread on Reddit

    It's been really cool to watch the barrier to entry to starting a business (like an agency) drop so low. 

    It used to take lots of money, time, and employees to start something like this 20 years ago....now with a laptop and a few hours you can get it done. 

    Paul tells this cool story about how his daughter started in online shop in 26 minutes:

     

     

    Splurge:

    Compared to blog posts and social media, there's something about a BOOK that feels immortal.

    Today marks the day my friend Noah Kagan's writings and teachings are cemented in history with his book Million Dollar Weekend 🙂

    bookshelf-book.jpg

    There was a book launch party, and here's @noahkagan hitting a piñata during the party....can you guess what's inside it?!?!

    I hope you have an awesome February!!

     

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

    nev-head.webp

    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday January 26th, 2023)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, January 26th, 2024
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    This is kind of fun, look at this “Visual Style Guide” used by the animation team for the King of the Hill TV show:

    king-of-the-hill-1.png

    It's neat to see all the very-intricate details for every tiny movement and gesture!

    Here’s a few more slides of the style guide:
    style-guide.png

    Wisdom:

    This cool illustration shows how much you learn from theory, from practice, and from mistakes:

    How-much-you-learn-from-different-methods-400x374.jpg

    Interesting:

    Best office ever: Laying in bed on a rainy day finishing up a book 😁

    nev-reading.jpg

    I really love laying in bed reading (when I have a good book I'm into). One of the best feelings!

    Picture:

    I spent last weekend in Palm Springs and it was awesome 😎

    nev-swimming.jpg

    We stayed at one of those big crazy AirBnB's for a friends bday and it was very cool.

    palm-springs-airbnb.jpg

    palm-springs-airbnb2.jpg

    One interesting tid-bit about Palm Springs was the airport is 90% outdoors, felt more like a farmers market or festival than airport!

    The view from the airport entrance alone was amazing!

    palm-springs-airport-group.png

    Essay:

    Toughen up.

    toughen-up-brain-transparent.png

    There’s a lot of talk about mental health, and that’s great. But like any movement, some people take it too far.

    It’s starting to get common for people to take “mental health days” anytime they’re sad, don’t feel like doing something, or something is even remotely hard.

    Well toughen up.

    Being sad sometimes is normal.
    Being tired sometimes is normal.
    Being anxious sometimes is normal.

    These are not always mental disorders. There are normal, everyday, human feelings.

    If you just tell yourself whilst feeling sad, “This is a pretty normal human emotion. Many people have experienced it. It’s usually temporary. It can almost always be solved by hanging out with loved ones, getting some exercise, taking a walk outside, or making a concrete plan on how to get out of your funk.”

    You will then be able to bear this emotion like a big boy or girl.

    A story in my mind that sticks out:

    Someone once asked Arnold Schwarzenegger whilst he was going through a nasty divorce, and a cheating scandal, and other political stuff how he was holding up. And he replied, “Well it’s better than being in the coal mines in Austria.”

    be-tough-brain.webp

    Splurge:

    I always dread finishing a good book, because then I go into a LACK of having a gripping book to read!

    I just finished a hard-science book called House of Suns (my brother recommended it):

    house-of-suns.jpg

    I asked people some other book recommendations and they came up with:
    @henhaohank Pushing Ice
    @theryanhelms Spin, Three Body Problem
    @MouyyadA The Expanse 
    @JohnJBlatchford The Windup Girl
    @Ldnbox Under the Dome
    @loganletsgo Anything from Ted Chiang


    Do you have any other book recs for me, (hard-science fiction or just great books)??
     

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

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    Jason Cohen - Founder of TWO unicorn companies (WPengine + Smart Bear)

    Jason is the founder of two unicorn companies: WPengine and ASmartBear.

    Notes:

    • 0:00:00 Intro: Jason started two unicorn companies.
    • 0:00:11 What is Smart Bear?
    • 0:00:53 What is WPengine? Largest managed Wordpress host in the world. 
    • 43% of the web builds on Wordpress
    • 0:01:42 How did you know you could charge 10x or 20x more than the competitors. 
    • He had the problem so he fixed it for himself, but most of the time that’s not really a business. 
    • To make a company out of a problem you have, it must be cost effective enough. 
    • 0:03:35 He did 50 customer interviews and 5 months later, he found out people would pay 10x more for a Wordpress host if it was fast, scaleable, secure, and have engineer-level tech support. 
    • 0:05:15 I’ve personally used Wordpress for 15+ years, and every few years I’d get hacked until I moved to WPengine then it stopped.
    • 0:06:11 When a company is small if you call their “support line” you’ll likely get an engineer or the founder themselves….it’s a huge advantage for small companies over bigger companies with bigger support teams.
    • 0:07:47 “Inciting Moments” or “Inciting Events” = When someone gets hacked all of a sudden they really want a more secure website….but maybe it takes them several times of getting hacked before moving.
    • 0:09:35 They found their biggest allies in getting people to signup was SEO people. Their recommendations caused people to take action. Those were the keywords and niches they first went after. 
    • 0:10:23 It’s like selling burglar alarms, you don’t need one 
    • 0:10:35 WPengine had an office next to me, and had a TV on the wall with their MRR which was $2,000/mo (Now it’s…well, WAY higher) 😂
    • 0:11:19 “It’s fun to put your most important number on the wall and say we’re going after that.”
    • 0:13:35 I like optimization. “Here I am in a great market doing something I love.” That’s a good place to start as an entrepreneur. What are my assets, talents, experience sets, and what in combination is unique, what do I love doing so much you wouldn’t have to pay me? Now figure what in there an actually be a business (not all of it). 
    • 0:16:04 It was easy to go after the Wordpress market because even at the time it was 11% of the internet which is just soooo big and still growing. Large and growing markets are great because there’s always niches to service within that.
    • 0:18:43 How do you come up with business ideas? Do you write a bunch down? “I don’t build too many 1st products, but we build a lot 2nd and 3rd additional products to our main product.”
    • 0:23:04 Talking to customers is the only way to figure out the right product. “If you can’t get them on the phone now, how will you get them on the phone ever?” You can be creative and use platforms like LinkedIn to reach out. “I’m building a startup that’s supposed to be for people like you. I know your time is valuable, so I’m happy to pay even more than your normal hourly rate to get your feedback. 40 out of 50 people agreed, and only one person charged him. 
    • 0:24:52 It’s hard to go look for a problem, you generally stumble upon it. So the answer is exposing yourself to stuff. Then try to validate. Doing something like McKinsey Consulting will exposure you to all sorts of businesses and industries.
    • 0:27:11 Talking about Wordpress. 
    • 0:31:30 Forums → FB Groups → Private Communities 
    • 0:03:30 What platforms do you use? Twitter, LinkedIn, Threads…standard stuff. I post the same thing everywhere. I don’t primarily do social media but I write longform that’s unique to me. That’s where I want to spend most of my time. I have hundreds of drafts. 
    • 0:35:33 How did you get your first WPengine clients. “I had 18,000 RSS feed subscribers, I launched it, and only 2 people signed up.” You have to muscle your first customers in. 
    • 0:37:20 Why did you first start writing online? “Started the blog for Smart Bear and wanted to be the voice of the company like the 37 Signals blog, but no one wrote on it but me.” It became the largest driver of traffic to the corporate site.
    • 0:38:39 Personal Brands vs Corporate Brand? Write under your own name or company name? There’s a macro-trend of younger people not having personal secrets as much. If the goal is to sell the company you have to have a corporate blog.
    • 0:43:44 Using AI? Using mainly for coding and it’s so good it’s frightening. 
    • 0:44:14 Writing for me is personal expression, trying to hone my craft, and my own ideas which are new. Using AI to write that is completely counter to that. I sometimes use it as a super-thesaurus or to generate social content angles from a longer article.
    • 0:46:46 Are you afraid of where AI is going? “I’m afraid of it’s impact on everyone. I think longrun its net impact will likely be good, but it might happen to quickly.” The speed at which it happens is the issue, not that things change. In the 80’s people thought robots would take their jobs, but what happened was the jobs moved to other countries. This time instead of blue collar it’s the writers and accountants and such. It’s frightening how fast and uncertain things are and nobody has a comprehensive answer.
    • 0:49:37 Are things moving faster and changing…or are we just old?
    • 0:54:45 What skills are you teaching your children to future proof them for AI? “Kids are better than this stuff already. THEY are going to be deciding what skills will be important, not us.”
    • 0:55:35 The most popular Wordpress trend? Block based themes. You’ll be able to drag and drop everything.
    • 0:56:49 How would you go about starting a new business? Take what I currently know about and see where I could solve a problem and need.
    • 0:57:37 Are there any marketing hacks you tried that worked or flopped? Going to events did a lot better than we thought…you don’t even need a booth. You can walk around with a logo backpack and talk to 100 people.
    • 0:59:48 A book that’s changed your life? Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt
    • 1:13:33 Being around people with extreme levels of wealth, where do people get the most fulfillment? Internal fulfillment, some have external purposes like religion or other causes. Teaching gives you some ego plus feels like you’re paying it back. 
    • 1:16:47 Generally many very rich are not happy, not fulfilled, and don’t have a good family life. Leaving a company often leaves you directionless. “Life After Exit.” 
    • 1:18:35 The Seinfeld story after the end of the show, Seinfeld was a hardcore road comic, and that saved him.
       

    People are willing to pay more when it's something that matters to them and they know it will work.

     

    It's not enough for your strategy to be good, you have to know how to execute it well.

     

    As an entrepreneur, how can you be sure that what you're doing is really what you want?

     

    Begin by targeting a small niche and gradually work your way towards expansion

     

    The most popular trend on WordPress at the moment.

     

    This is why children should be involved with the internet.

     

    This strategy can bring you good results.

     

    You need to learn how to use AI now.

     

    We don't know who will be replaced due to AI

     

    Listen to the Podcast

    I hope you enjoyed this interview!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

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    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday January 19th, 2024)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, January 19th, 2024
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    IKEA: "We want you to design a simple ad."

    Copywriter: "Hold my beer..." 😏

    ikea-bill-board.png

    This Ikea billboard was seen on Oxford Street in London....I love it because it's soooo simple, yet everyone knows what it's for because of IKEA's iconic big blue bags.

    Hilarious side note, a few years ago New York made a policy where you couldn't bring dogs on the subway unless they could fit in a bag.....and people used big IKEA bags to skirt this rule 😂

    ikea-bag-dogs-NY.png

    Wisdom:

    On January 15th I completed 2 months of eating no added sugar (and had a bet with my friend Sam Parr for $1,000 to keep us honest)! 

    F_jybDzWsAAAgbs.jpg

    On that day we pigged out on sugar, then committed to another few months of no added sugar.

    I ate a huge slice of cake, ate 5 cookies, around 3 cups of ice cream, and at least 15 pieces of chocolate....and I felt very sick after it all 😂

    TO BE HONEST.....this was not that hard.

    All through Thanksgiving and Christmas I didn't have a single bite of cookie, cake, pie, or dessert.

    I didn't even try the cookies and cake I decorated (I'm especially proud of my Grover cookie) 😂

    grover-cookies-xmas-treats.png

    Once I stopped eating added sugar for 2-3 days the cravings went away. The HABIT is hard to kick (not eating dessert when everyone else is).

    This may become more of a permanent change for me in the next year.

    Sugar is my uncontrollable vice. It's hard for me to "just eat a little" and stick to that. I always eat wayyyyy more than I intend, and then feel bad about it.

    I'm slowly seeing less-and-less benefit to it.

    I see more benefit in drinking alcohol (because it's fun) than consuming added sugar.

    Interesting:

    Check it out, this guy built 20+ tools over 4 years before finding one that’s starting to work!

    Look at his list of projects:

    guy-builds-post.png

    Lesson #1: Try lots of stuff. Pivot quick. Act fast.

    Lesson #2: The real winner here is GoDaddy for all those domains 😂

    Picture:

    jason-interview.jpg

    "The post-economic nerd" is one of my favorite people...because even with wild success and no need to work, they remain curious and creative and active and often still code or go down rabbit holes of interest.

    One of my favorite ones is a guy named Jason Cohen. He started TWO unicorn companies:

    Smart Bear: Finds bugs in software -and-
    WPengine: Managed Wordpress hosting

    These are both billion dollar companies, super profitable, and still growing. His blog is one my favorites on the web: longform.asmartbear.com

    I recently did an interview with Jason I'll send out on Monday.

    Essay:

    We asked some people where they plan to write more in 2024, and here's what people said:

    where-are-you-going-to-write.webp

    The answers were in this order:

    1. Blog: 36
    2. LinkedIn: 31
    3. Newsletter: 29
    4. Twitter/X: 25
    5. Facebook: 23
    6. Journaling: 21
    7. Instagram: 17
    8. Medium: 17
    9. YouTube: 15
    10. Other: 13
    11. TikTok: 8
    12. None: 6
    13. Reddit: 3

    Blog, LinkedIn, Newsletter, and Twitter/X were the big winners:

    where-are-you-going-to-write-pie.webp

    Super interesting!

    Splurge:

    My favorite category of fiction books is “Hard Science” where the story is obviously fake but the physics are real.

    My current read I'm super into is “House of Suns.” 

    house-of-suns.jpg

    I’m halfway through the book and gripped!

    I'm open to more hard science suggestions if you have them.
     

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

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    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday January 12th, 2024)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Sketch✍
    Edition: Friday, January 12th, 2024
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    Here's some great copywriting in real life:

    • Meh Headline: “Lost Cat”
    • Great Headline: “Dude Where’s My Cat?”
    dude-wheres-my-cat.png

    Something that stands out even just a little more than usual can get way more attention!

    Wisdom:

    I heard a cool quote from Reid Hoffman in an interview (I'm paraphrasing):

    Quote

    It’s not a “pivot” if you don’t lose a bunch of customers.

    pivoting.png

     

    The actual words he said were, "A pivot changes the product enough that there’s a risk of transition to lose customers or fail."

    Interesting:

    What do you think of a pricing structure like this?

    pricing-schedule.jpg

    This pricing structure was taken from this page.

    In one chart it has 3 different services:
    $ = Self Paced Course
    $$ = Self Paced Course + 1:1 Live Consult
    $$$ = Done For You Package

    I personally love 3-tiered pricing like this:

    3-tiered-pricing.png

    I think the good part of this pricing structure is going with the lower option seems like a super bargain now. 

    The downside is it gives "more options" to consider, and therefore more brain power to expend before purchasing. 
     

    Picture:

    If you’ve got a badass name, you gotta use it 😂

    I see this guys billboard all over Austin and it makes me laugh every time, and his website is stuck in my head 😂

    get-dang-billboard.jpg

    Essay:

    Personal hobbies often end up having business value, I love this Tweet about having hobbies outside of your work:

    david-hobbies-tweet.jpg

    Personal hobbies also also:
    - Keep you sharp and learning. 
    - Help avoid burnout. 
    - Are fun!

    Sketch:

    This incredibly detailed image instruction set gives the full instructions on how to make ~40 drinks. It’s kind of cool how much data is easy visualized in this one image:

    drink-data-chart.jpg

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

    nev-head.webp

    Writing Online For Fun (Where will YOU write in 2024?

    Here's why I love writing...and not just for business reasons (Video):

    Over time writing online has become intertwined with “making money online” but I’d say there’s a HUGE COMPONENT of fun, curiosity and personal mental exploration to it!

    “Writing” is often less typing, and more thinking and organizing your thoughts.

    That process often looks like this:

    1.) You have a bunch of disorganized thoughts:

    5_disorganized-writing-thoughts.gif

    2.) You edit, organize, and tighten those thoughts:

    5_editing-a-doc.gif

    3.) You end up with a quick & clean output!

    5_good-writing-fast-and-fun.gif

    There's so many reasons to write for fun that are beneficial personally and business-wise: 

    • It's like mental exercise.
    • The more you do it, the easier it gets.
    • You get lots more ideas by writing things down.
    • It forces your brain to organize and think deeper about your random thoughts.
    • Sometimes an idea sounds awesome in your head, but when you write it down it feels half-baked, so you tighten it.
    • Some of your good writings can turn into social media posts, video scripts, business ideas and more.

    lets-do-a-survey.jpg

    Where do you plan on writing more in 2024? 
    Reply to this email with your choices and let me know!
    A.) Blog
    B.) Facebook
    C.) Instagram
    D.) Journaling
    E.) LinkedIn
    F.) Medium
    G.) Newsletter
    H.) Reddit
    I.) TikTok
    J.) Twitter/X
    K.) YouTube
    L.) Other (Which platform?)
    M.) None

    I will report back with the results from everyone. 
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora - Writer
    nev-head.webp

    P.S. Here’s the results:
     

    where-are-you-going-to-write.webp

    The answers were in this order:

    1. Blog: 36
    2. LinkedIn: 31
    3. Newsletter: 29
    4. Twitter/X: 25
    5. Facebook: 23
    6. Journaling: 21
    7. Instagram: 17
    8. Medium: 17
    9. YouTube: 15
    10. Other: 13
    11. TikTok: 8
    12. None: 6
    13. Reddit: 3

    Blog, LinkedIn, Newsletter, and Twitter/X were the big winners:

    where-are-you-going-to-write-pie.webp

    Super interesting!

    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday January 5th, 2023)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, January 5th, 2024
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    The Las Vegas Sphere: "We turned our entire building into a billboard."

    las-vegas-qr-code.png

    The Luxor: "Hold my beer!"

    luxer-dorito.jpeg

    The Luxor Hotel (the big pyramid shaped thingy)....

    luxor-hotel.jpg

    ....turned one of it's sides into a massive Dorito 😂

    dorito.jpg

    I don't know who thought of this but they deserve a raise! The amount of attention they'll get from this will likely far outweigh what they paid.

    Wisdom:

    Friendly reminder to everyone with a website, change your footer from: 

    © Website 2023 
               -to- 
    © Website 2024

    This is a common problem I see with a lot of websites and it makes them look out of date. 

    I don't think it has a HUGE impact on sales, but anything that triggers a users "Spidey Sense" to make your website look illegitimate is not helpful.

    Go check if yours is updated now! 
     

    Interesting:

    Mike was selling air purifiers for $1,000. They did not sell well. 
    But when he upped the price to $2,000, he couldn’t keep them in stock!

    What changed?

    The competition was selling at a $2,000 price point, so when he matched their price, the product seemed in the same league:
     

     

    Interesting thing about pricing:
    No one gets mad if you lower your price...
    ...but everyone goes nuts if you raise your price.
    ...so you may as well start with a high price early on:

     

    Picture:

    After a year of making fun of the fandom over these giant Stanley mugs, I was gifted one for Christmas…and I gotta say it’s pretty awesome!

    • Feels indestructible.
    • It keeps stuff cold for DAYS.
    • Doesn’t condensate and get things wet when I put ice in it.

    I’m a convert!
    stanley.jpg

    Essay:

    Here's the things that worked well for me in 2023:

    • NEWSLETTER: Great for interacting with audience (you're reading it right now)! It helps to stay top of mind and even sell things.

    • SHORT CLIPS: Great for staying top of people's social media feeds, get new audience on YouTube and Instagram. Hard to make a lot of these.

    • LONG FORM PODCASTS to meet people, cut up into clips, have interesting conversations. Meh for views.

    • COMMUNITY as a form of scaled training, work on tons of cool projects inside, make deeper connections with audience.

    • SOCIAL MEDIA, mainly X, to meet people IRL, bounce ideas, and interact with people. Great for connecting, not great for direct sales.

    • USING AI as an assistant to making content…but using it sparingly. In fact anything that's been "too much AI" has fallen flat for me.

    • UNIQUENESS in content or brand. With content getting easier to make with AI, leaning into your uniqueness will become an advantage.

    Splurge:

    Do you have a big email list for your company but don't do a good job maintaining it? 

    What if myself and other professional writers....just did it for you?
    Introducing:

    EasyMode.studio: Get A Done-For-You Email Newsletter

    newsprinter.png

    I've been the voice behind brands such as AppSumo (2.5m emails), TheHustle (3.5m emails), and are helping other brands like Codie Sanchez nail down their writing style and newsletter. 

    In 2024 we'll be taking on a few clients to send out a newsletter every two weeks for them.

    Read more about Easy Mode Studio here →

    newsletter-people.jpg

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

    nev-head.webp

    365 Days of Short Videos: My Results and Learnings

    image.png

    Starting at the beginning of 2023 I started posting a short video clip everyday on:

    It's a little difficult to gauge popularity of these clips because different platforms get different results.

    For example this video on TikTok got 350,000+ views, but on YouTube it got 12,000 views:

    TikTok: 350,000 YouTube 12,000
    image.png image.png

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    The top 12 of these videos is below (I'll share all my findings at the end of the post below).

     

    #1.) People hate landlords

     

          image.png

    #2.) What type of people should you hire to make your business successful?

     

          image.png

    #3.) Small money move vs big money move

     

          image.png

    #4.) You probably didn't imagine this about Walmart

     

          image.png

    #5.) Project Hail Mary is the must-read book that everyone loves.

     

          image.png

    #6.) This is the essential skill every podcaster should have.

     

          image.png

    #7.) Don’t believe everything Andrew Tate says about copywriting.

     

          image.png

    #8.) This is how raising the price of a product can help you.

     

          image.png

    #9.) As a boss, you should be careful not to have too many monkeys on your back.

     

          image.png

    #10.) What may seem odd today could easily become the norm in 20 years.

          image.png

    #11.) Correct these aspects in your company to create a good work environment.

     

          image.png

    #12.) Being an entrepreneur? Well, you better enjoy sales! 📈🚀

     

    Findings from posting Shorts for 1 year:

    Ok so what did I learn? Here's a list of some lessons.

    • Putting out a video a day is hard. It's a good amount of work to get done. I would say you should hire someone to do this for you, as it'll make you go insane doing these everyday.
    • Consistency definitely helps. 
    • Higher quality video seems to help a lot. I noticed the videos that "popped" often had higher quality recordings.
    • My interview-style videos usually did the best, rather than just me talking at the camera. 
    • Finding the right clip or topic is the hardest part. 
    • You can use software like Descript to "tighten" the clips by taking out errs & umms and cutting out sentences that aren't 100% necessary. 
    • It would be nearly impossible to record a separate clip each day. Rather batching them is best.
    • The flow is Long Form Video --> Cut Into Short Form Video.
    • The numbers can fool you: 100,000 views on a short video can mean....nothing! The attention is quick and fleeting. They are cool vanity metrics, but they sometimes mean nothing.
    • Short Form Video is great for discovery, but long form video is wayyyyyy better for getting subscribers.

    I was really surprised that in my personal life family friends that never consumed any of my content were now seeing it because of social media. This is because they may not follow any of my copywriting stuff, but they probably follow me on Instagram or LinkedIn, so they end up seeing it. 

    I'm also starting to notice that more and more people found my content through these clips than they did through SEO. 

    SEO used to be a big part of my getting discovered, and still is, but I'm seeing these clips do more of it now.

    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday December 29th, 2023)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, December 29th, 2023
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    Easily visualize the caffeine content you’re getting from different drinks with this cool graphic.

    caffeine-spectrum.jpg

    **This is generalized data, actual content can greatly vary.
    Here's me right now after my coffee 😬
    caffine-stickman.jpg

    Wisdom:

    Almost everyone who has a blog or YouTube Channel notices the same phenomenon where 3 to 5 articles/videos bring in alllllllll the subscribers:

    organic-key-words.jpg

    I think this phenomenon (known as a "Normal Distribution") will be increased in 2024 because of generative AI content.

    Quality and Uniqueness will triumph over Quantity and Speed.

    The same “Normal Distribution” shows up in almost every area of life:
    • Test scores
    • Height
    • Stock market returns
    • Intelligence
    • Attractiveness
    normal-distribution.gif

    It also shows up in your customer demographics:
    • 68% will be a similar avatar.
    • 16% will be skewed left.
    • 16% will be skewed right.

    Interesting:

    brain-on-gaurd.png

    This usually involves: 
    - Putting my phone upside down or far away. 
    - Turning on a Chrome website blocker (like Focus45).
    - Going full-screen to avoid distractions. 
    - Covering to-do list so don’t get distracted.

    Otherwise this is what happens:
    work-focus.jpg

    Picture:

    I love seeing local flyers like this in the wild because you can turn $2 worth of printing and $2 worth of tape into thousands of eyeballs on your flyers and thousands of dollars in revenue!

    flyers-comedy-bar.jpg

    I used to have a client who was a Top 3 real estate broker in a mid-sized city. 

    She then went on a two year tangent trying to become the top broker ONLINE....so she paid a bunch of companies to make websites, do SEO, and all sorts of paid advertising campaigns. 

    It went nowhere. 

    Trying to compete online meant she was going against many very-technically-advanced companies like Zillow or RedFin. 

    I asked her what she did to become one of the top brokers, and her answer was surprising. She said:

    Quote

    Every Tuesday and Thursday I would knock on doors asking if people wanted to sell their house, or buy a house. 

    I was really good at it. 

    I got all my clients by knocking on doors and posting signs. It worked extremely well if I consistently did it.

    I asked why she didn't do this anymore, and she just thought online was the way to go. There was not much thought to it.

    After spending around $95,000 on websites and SEO which she knew nothing about, she switched back to doing old-school offline sales by knocking on doors and posting signs. 

    It worked. 

    This is why I love old-school advertising like posting signs on poles. It sometimes just triumphs over advanced online campaigns!

    Essay:

    In a perfect world without inefficiencies, a content creator should get paid for their work directly from the person consuming:

    • You watch my video –> You pay me a fraction of a cent.
    • You read my article –> You pay me a fraction of a cent.

    aida-action-animated.gif

    Pretty simple!

    However there’s many limitations to this:

    Our payment systems can’t do fractions-of-a-cent transactions efficiently. Sending $0.01 would cost you at least $0.30.  That's 30X the cost of the transaction itself!

    People also don't wanna click "pay" for every vid/article consumed.

    Basically the answer I can see is crypto.

    With BTC you can send one-hundred-millionth of a BitCoin (0.00000001 BTC).

    The transaction fees will eventually be so small they’ll essentially be “free.”

    I sent a test BitCoin Cash transaction and the fee was 0.000019 BCH, or $0.0043.

    That means I can send someone 1 Cent USD and the transaction fee wouldn’t even dent the transaction.

    Presumably as all these networks become better, faster, cheaper, and more ubiquitous, we’ll be able to see systems where creators get directly paid for their content.

    I envision a browser setting that allows you to “Tip The Internet $5 Every Month.”

    ...it would tally up the content you liked then distribute that $5 to creators:

    • $0.03 to Neville
    • $0.45 to Mr. Breast
    • $0.12 to Green Day
    • $0.04 to The New York Times
    • $0.32 to The Joe Rogan Podcast

    You could directly support your fav content and barely break a sweat on your budget!

    You would be sending maybe fractions of a cent to some creators, but if they make millions of views it could really add up.

    I don’t think this is the end-all answer, but it’ll be a new revenue stream for creators in the coming years!

    End rant 🙂

    Splurge:

    Our yearly close-out deal is ending, and your last chance to get over 50% or $375 off the course! This is the best time of the year to buy:

    copywriting-course-present.webp

    Checkout just a tiny fraction of the wins experienced inside our community this year:

    🎤-S-W-I-P-E-S-Email-Friday-December-29th-2023-lesley-copywritingcourse-com-KopywritingKourse-Mail.png

    Most of what we do inside Copywriting Course is strategy to grow a side project or small business, and accountability and motivation to push out content & projects quickly:

    After procrastinating writing a book, we helped Matt push his book out the door and optimize the email signups and launch:

    matt-published-his-book.jpg

     

    Or through Office Hours + the Forum Rob was able to build his Instagram account about divorce part 105,000 followers, and is growing rapidly!

    This is the chance to get into the course for all of 2024 at one easy price.

    Often times we help people with just ONE THING before it 10x's their investment back.

    SO....

    Join Copywriting Course for 2024!
    Use coupon code NEWYEAR2024 for 50% off:

     

    rob-keeps-growing.jpg

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

    nev-head.webp

    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday December 22nd, 2023)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, December 22nd, 2023
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    Good morning! Let’s re-do this classic 1950’s David Ogilvy ad for Schweppes Tonic Water →

    Here’s the original…

    schweppes-ad-campaign-ogilvy-copywork.png

     

    Let’s give it a more modernized headline 😂

    Schweppes-ad-Headline.png

     

    What if we made it more seasonal and festive??

    Schweppes-ad-Festive.png

     

    Let’s give it a totally different 90’s vibe (AI):

    Schweppes-ad-redos-ai.png

     

    Let’s make it a little more eye-catching.
    …get it…EYE catching 😏

    Schweppes-ad-visual.png
     

    Let’s make it tropical feeling 🌴

    Schweppes-ad-tropical.png

    That was a fun exercise!  🙂

    Wisdom:

    I love seeing local flyers like this in the wild because :
    $2 worth of printing
    +
    $2 worth of tape
    =
    Thousands of eyeballs and thousands of dollars in revenue.

    comedy-show-flyer.jpg

    Interesting:

    Here's the world’s top podcasts from 2023:

    top-podcasters.jpg

    It's interesting that each one is from a specific individual:

    Picture:

    Saw my buddy @thesamparr taking an evening stroll with the baby, and definitely thought he was wearing a bullet-proof vest 😂

    sam-baby-gear.jpg

    Essay:

    Jay Leno accidentally gives some great marketing advice when talking about the CyberTruck's controversial design.

    Reminds me of the quote: "Dare to polarize; it's better to be loved by some and hated by others, than to be forgotten by all."

    jay-leno-animation.gif

    Jay Leno says: “I just watch people get angry and either hate it, or love it. Bob Lutz told me when the Viper came out, half the people hated it an half the people loved it. But we’re not selling cars to the half that hate it. If you have 100 people that means 50 of them are buying it.”

    It reminds me of this quote: “In a world full of ‘meh,’ be a ‘wow’. Blandness gets lost in the noise, but boldness has a chance to be heard.”

    And also this quote: “If you try to be everything to everyone, you’ll be nothing to no one. Dare to polarize; it’s better to be loved by some and hated by others than to be forgotten by all.”

    Splurge:

    Which of these is the better name for an agency that does newsletters and high converting content marketing?
    A.) Copy10x
    B.) Kopy10x
    C.) Email10x
    D.) Content Fun
    E.) CopyGang
    F.) Kontent
    G.) Optimize Upgrade
    H.) Upgrade
    I.) Upgraders
    J.) Generate
    K.) ConGen
    L.) Show Don't Tell
    M.) BuildUp
    N.) Rebuild
    O.) GoBig
    P.) BigCheck
    Q.) Create10x

    Reply and let me know which you like! Or you can tell me they're all "meh" or give me your own suggestion!
     

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

    nev-head.webp

    Go where there's "Peak Demand" for $1m/mo - Mike Feldstein and Neville Medhora Interview

    Mike Feldstein runs Jaspr Air, and has had a career in the "Disaster Industry."

    This means you go somewhere where there's "Peak Demand" and fulfill that demand. 

    So if there's a hail storm that damages 100,000 roofs, you go to that city and start fixing roofs. 

    If there's a flood, you go to that city, hire labor, and get to work. 

    He's seen people make $1,000,000/mo, and one case of a guy making ~$70,000,000 in 4 months.

    His main company Jaspr Air was started when he was fixing fire damaged houses, and built an industrial-level air purifier for homes.

    My Notes on this conversation

    • Started in the "Disaster Business" by going where there's super-ultra-high peak demand and fulfilling that demand. Wild fire damage, hail storms, 
    • He priced his air purifier for under $1,000 and it didn't sell. Simply changing the price to $2,000 made it sell out quick. It indicated to buyers it was more valuable. 
    • "By charging higher prices you have margin to make a better product and deliver better customer service."
    • "You may as well start your pricing high, because nobody cares if you lower your price, but everyone goes nuts if you raise your price."
    • If you price too low, you can raise money and sell to lots of people, but you now have to service tons of low-paying customers and fill tons of demand. Pricing high is better. 
    • When there's volatility and chaos, if you're good at making decisions on the fly you can make a lot of money in the chaos business. You can also go broke, but also create a lot of value.
    • Disasters include things like Floods, Fires, Earthquakes, Power Outages.
    • You can throw up a simple web page and ads to get leads after a major disaster and pickup work.
    • Once got 2,000 calls in one hour. Spent $10,000 on Ruby Reception in 40 minutes to answer 600 simultaneous calls.
    • Doing just drywall work is $600...but if you do drywall to replace mold it would cost $12,000. He learned many industries can charge 20X more for doing similar work. 
    • Insurance companies come into disaster areas ready to spend billions of dollars on repairs. 
    • Canada is way less litigious than the US, so getting insurance money is faster, whereas in US the insurance companies will frequently refuse to pay unless you force them. Much harder in US to compete than Canada. \
    • Hired 55 guys in one week in a disaster zone. Hire a pressure washing company with 10+ guys, and instead of pressure washing he told them to clean the inside of homes. If they can pressure wash houses, it's likely they could do other related tasks. So he got huge labor forces quickly like this. 
    • Would hire companies from 3 or 4 hours out, and hire their entire crew, and pay a daily rate and guarantee them 2+ months of work. This helped quickly build an organized workforce with their own equipment. 
    • Internet business seems to easy compared to the war-time-like environment of the disaster industry.
    • Insurance is messed up because it's cost-plus pricing, so companies are almost 
    • You can "hit it and quit it" and make $1,000,000/mo for about 2 or 3 months.
    • Some people make $20,000 from selling courses for a year, but in this business you can make $100,000 in a month because of just insanely high demand.
    • There's big arbitrage opportunities during these times, but you have to be super quick, and it's extremely stressful. 
    • Some pest control companies made tonnnsss of money during Covid because instead of spraying pesticides they did disinfecting services (with the same equipment) for large buildings and venues. 
    • His biggest "sellers" for Jaspr Air were the dental hygienists raving about the Jasprs in their offices for cleaning the air. 
    • Most big air purifiers were ugly and loud, so Mike made one who was good looking and super quiet....this did really well. 
    • What water is to fish, air is to us.
    • Thinks of himself as a "Street Engineer"
    • Some people are really good at interior design, and have an "eye for design", but don't realize that same skill applied to something else (such as hardware) can be worth 10x more. 
    • Bought 25 different giant air purifiers to find the best qualities of each and designed his own. 
    • Trend he's noticing: People are "relaxing hard" like sauna, cold plunges, etc.
    • When growing up thought rich people had to be evil, but as he knows more rich people realizes that's not really true at all. Also notices they're not that busy, almost easier to meet up with them.

    $12,000 day during an ice storm + other Disaster Time opportunities

    Mike saw some kids in Austin, TX. making $12,000 a DAY by hauling away tree branches and debris after a major ice storm.

    Small money move vs big money move

    After a hail storm, the small money is repairing roofs since that is slow, the big money that's scaleable is tarping roofs.

    Why do some businesses outperform others during certain events or times?

     

    A drywall installer can do a job for $600, or remove mold for $12,000....it's the same thing, but when the job involves something scary like mold, it can 20X the price.

    "Mold Is Gold."

    Gary Halbert's mindset was incredible.

     

    Gary Halbert always talked about finding "the hungriest customers" and nothing else really mattered. 

    If you wanna sell a lot of hot dogs from a hot dog stand, good marketing can help a little, but being around a bunch of really hungry people is even better.

    Are you looking to make $80,000 quickly? Here's an idea.

     There's all sorts of "Peak Demand" events like when Burning Man flooded and people couldn't get out. 

    Mike talks about how we would've booked up every helicopter service in the area to just fly out Burning Man attendees. 

    How to make $1,000,000 in one week?

     Go where there's peak demand, and you can make tons of money. 

    Some kids with a pickup truck and small utility trailer were hauling away tree debris after a big freeze, and were making $12,000/day. 

    Is there a business that makes $70,000,000 in 4 months? YES.

     One guy in Ft. McMurray made $70,000,000 in 4 months. He made a website as a homebuilder. 

    Normal prices for homes are $250/sqft, but he was charging $600/sqft because demand was so high after a flood. 

    Listen to the Podcast

    The S.W.I.P.E.S Email (Friday December 15th, 2023)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, December 14th, 2023
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    In our community site Laurie Bell completed this A/B split test:

    Which of these Facebook ads will do better?
    A: White Background
    B: Black/Green Background

    Take a guess before reading further! 

    facebook-ad.jpg

    Which of these do you think would do better? A or B?

    Pick your guess. I'll wait....
    ....
    ........
    ............
    ................
    ....................
    ........................
    ............................
    ................................
    ....................................
    ........................................
    ....................................
    ................................
    ............................
    ........................
    ....................
    ................
    ............
    ........
    ....
    Version A (white background) was the winner! 

    It did about 3x higher conversions:

    winner.jpg

    See the full conversion details on Facebook Ads:

    conversion.jpg

    This test was pulled from inside our forum and performed by @LBellBell Love seeing these types of tests! The full winning ad looked like this:

    winning-ad.jpg
     

    Wisdom:

    I love this quote:

    "Choose a problem, not a product."


    It means that if you're trying to sell a product, don't think "oh this would be a cool product to sell." 

    Rather think: 

    "What's a problem people are having, and is there a way I can solve it, preferably at scale."

    question-confused-hmmm.png.00218821a746bc63522e6ce93ce6fe01.png

    Solving an actual problem is way better than "just thinking of something cool to sell."

    Interesting:

    I went to a big house out in the burbs of Austin, TX and saw this sign on the gate 😂

    beware-of-dog-sign.jpg

    If you were a burglar, would you break and enter if someone had this sign?? 😬

    Picture:

    I finally saw a CyberTruck up close!

    nev-car-closeup.jpg

    I've seen a bunch on the road since they're being manufactured here in Austin, but this is the first up-n-close look I got: 

    TESLA-truck.gif

    I think this was the CyberTruck Joe Rogan shot with an arrow during an Elon Musk interview as it had a replaced door. 

    Also, this thing looks WAY COOLER IN PERSON than it does on camera. 

    It's hard to explain but it just looks different IRL!
     

    Essay:

    “Copywriting” is associated with writing words on a page, but my definition has always been: 

    “Installing information into another persons head and getting them to take action.”
    Copywriting-brain.webp

    The medium could be:
    - Writing
    - Images
    - Videos
    - Software
    - Combo of all above

    The medium may vary, the concept does not.

    Splurge:

    Get a world-class email newsletter custom made for your company:

    Do you work at a mid sized company that wants a done-for-you newsletter created and sent to customers? 

    newsletter-writing.webp

    • The emails are designed to educate, entertain, and sell.
    • They would go out every two weeks to the email list. 
    • They would be written by world-class writers. 

    If you are this person reply and let me know some details!
     

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

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    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday December 8th, 2023)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Sketch✍
    Edition: Friday, December 8th, 2023
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

     

    Swipe:

    I learned a lot about pools from this simple Instagram Ad...the combo of showing an unfinished pool without water then highlighting (with text and arrows) the different parts of it was quite educational!

    texas-pools.webp

    I love simple things, that teach a lot.

    Wisdom:

    Sprinkling in some "Social Proof" is one of the simplest additions to sales copy.
    Look at this email footer, and how it gains so much credibility by adding a few words of Social Proof!
    social-proof.jpg

    Interesting:

    I personally think:

    Newsletters are just blogs!

    you-are-all-wrong.jpg

    Newsletters are usually a bunch of short posts and thoughts listed out. This is what most blogs were.

    The thing that newsletters solved versus blogs: DISTRIBUTION.

    When you publish a blog post it enters the void...

    ...but lets say you create this newsletter and send it out:

    email-animated-gif.gif

    ....when you publish the newsletter via email it gets read by 30% to 60% of your list!

    Picture:

    The founder of an A.I. company (Paul Yacoubian of Copy.ai) sent me this awesome Olivetti Lettera 32 manual typewriter from the 1960's!

    typewriter-one.jpg

    Watching the inner workings of this thing is fascinating. The amount of parts and precision for all this to work is pretty crazy:

    typewriter-2.jpg

    I've been typing on it for fun...there's definitely a learning curve (some letters are in different places so there's frequent spelling mistakes)!

    learn-to-type.jpg

    One interesting observation: Since you are manually putting ink on paper, and can't erase, you think VERY HARD before typing! 

    This is the opposite of a computer where typing has no penalty.
     

    Essay:

    I'm currently reading this great book about Prohibition, the banning of all alcohol from 1920 to 1933:

    Prohibition-book.jpg

    Originally it was called "The Temperance Movement" which pushed for moderate drinking and avoiding raging drunkenness.

    But like most well-meaning movements it got hijacked by radicals in the group. The radicals pushed for fully abolishing alcohol, and they passed a law that was wayyyy too restrictive (it banned all sales and distribution or alcohol).

    Eventually the law was repealed in 1933 because Prohibition massively backfired and caused MORE drinking and crime.

    Sketch:

    "Copywork" is the act of hand-copying a piece of marketing to better understand how the author laid it out and wrote it. 

    We recently did this with one of my favorite types of marketing: The classic "Before and After" format, which in a small space shows a transformation:

    clixlo-price-comparison-before-after-ad-1024x1004.jpg

    We asked people to hand-draw this ad and got tons of people joining in the exercise!

    copywork-images.jpg

     

    You can do the exercise yourself here:

    ⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇⬇

     

    ...if you respond to this email with your hand-drawn picture, I'll add it to the post!

     

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

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    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday December 1st, 2023)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, December 1st, 2023
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    The CyberTruck buzz reminds me of the iPhone launch: 
    - Everyone thought it was partially stupid (no keyboard was a VERY big deal back then). 
    - It's so drastically different than the norm it felt like it could take over the world or totally flop.
    - At the same time, EVERYONE wanted to see one in person!

    Worlds-toughest-truck.jpg

    Wisdom:

    Was on a phone call with @PaulYacoubian (CEO of Copy AI), he's recently started using a mechanical typewriter more often and found these benefits:

    "Each word comes with an effort penalty."

    "Everything that's in your brain comes out but with less words and less bloat."

    image.jpeg

    I do agree that there's something very pure about writing with no electricity. It inspired me to buy a bunch more of these "cow notebooks" to fill up with notes:

    image.jpeg

     

    Interesting:

    It was ChatGPT's 1st birthday yesterday!

    image.jpeg

    So ChatGPT is only 1 year old....

    This reminds me of the dawn of the internet:
    - At first it was fringe and hard to use (GPT-3).
    - Then it became pretty good and useful (GPT-4).
    - Then it became very easy to use (ChatGPT).
    - Then it became SUPER easy with mobile phones it took over the entire world (???).

    The future of people working with their brains will become very interesting.

    Picture:

    Me and some friends went to a "Game Show Birthday" where you compete on different games:

    image.jpeg

    I think this video would better explain it:

    It was actually REALLY FUN and highly recommended!

    Essay:

    In November 2023 these are the number of accounts reached from each tentacle of Copywriting Course:


    • YouTube: 124,000
    • CopywritingCourse.com: 87,922
    • SwipeFile.com: 42,517
    • Instagram: 51,000
    • TikTok: 258,000
    • Email: 58,650
    Total: 622,089

    I have noticed social media is faaaarrr eclipsing organic SEO.

    I'm not 100% sure yet, but I THINK I have a plan to reverse that in 2024 where reliance on social platforms is decreased.

    Our community is so fun and awesome, and I want to expand it (without ruining the good vibe).
     

    Splurge:

    These are better than drugs...

    image.jpeg

    One of my all-time favorite products on the planet are: Soft ear plugs!

    I use them to sleep every night, and I use them to get deep focused work done.

    I keep a pair in my bedroom, my desk, and my laptop bag.

    I re-use each pair many times but they are essentially disposable.

    image.jpeg

    I can use basically any old ear plugs for a while, but if you wear them all the time some brands hurt your ears. These also block 32 decibels of sound.

    I like this brand because they're "softer" than traditional ear plugs.

    image.jpeg

    Maybe these would be a cool stocking stuff for someone you know! I use these things every single day and love them 🙂

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

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    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday November 24th, 2023)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, November 24th, 2023
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

     

    Swipe:

    This billboard is simple and totally brilliant!

    Plot Twist: It’s not real, it was just a fun Reddit thread, but this billboard would probably work well IRL (although it would need some contact info on it)!

    injured-good.jpg

    Wisdom:

    A $2,200 laptop, used ~8 hours a day, after 3 years costs $0.31/hour.

    Totally worth it!

    2000-laptop.jpg

    I dropped $3,000 on a new iMac M3, the previous iMac was great, but the new one is so fast it saves seconds doing many small tasks and saves hours rendering videos. 

    Divide that cost by usage and it comes to:
    Year 1: $1.25/hour
    Year 2: $0.63/hour
    Year 3: $.42/hour

    imac-cost-per-year.jpg

    If you can....always spend the extra money for a machine you work on 8 hours a day!

     

    Interesting:

    What do people want to work on in 2024??

    I asked this question in this newsletter, here's the most common answers:
    • Start a side hustle
    • Create an online store
    • Create a blog
    • Write a book/eBook
    • Build or scale a business
    • Create a website
    • Sell a digital product
    • Build a course

    what-people-want-to-work-on.jpg

    I was surprised to see how high "build an online store" and "build a blog" still rank!

    Picture:

    Checkout this awesome retro advertising for an AppSumo promotion! This is emulating the box of Windows 95….except with a taco 🌮

    appsumo-black-friday-retro-packaging.png

    Essay:

    This whole Sam Altman getting fired by the OpenAI board drama has been fun!

    sam-altman-image.jpg

    • It’s like nerd version of Kardashians.
    • Everyone is following along together.
    • The story unfolds more every hour.
    • We all have a personal connection to ChatGPT.
    • “Guilt Free” drama bc not about a war.

    Since everyone in the world now has hyper-personalized entertainment (YouTube Channels, people they follow on social media, streaming anytime), it's kind of fun when a news story un-furls live for everyone!

    Splurge:

    Did you know...
    That right this moment....
    You can get my Copywriting Course for 50% off + 2 Free Months??

    blackfirday-sale.webp

    This is by far the lowest price we've ever offered in our history.

    The Copywriting Course for 12 months would normally cost $750...but...

    If you use coupon code BLACKFRIDAY right now, you'll get it for $375 for FOURTEEN MONTHS (that's 2 months to slack off, then 1 full year to utilize us to build/rewrite/learn)!

    billing-address.jpg

    This is a pretty dang awesome deal (best in history), so grab it now!

    I mean this is a no-brainer if you were thinking of buying and waiting for the best price. Offer ends tonight!

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

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    The S.W.I.P.E.S. Email (Friday November 17th, 2023)

    Swipe📁Wisdom🧠Interesting🧐Picture🖼 • Essay📄Splurge✍
    Edition: Friday, November 17th, 2023
    A fun email for Friday. I hope you enjoy!

     

    🎤 Listen to this email here:

    Swipe:

    What a cool advertisement displaying the value of learning English:

    image.jpeg

    Wisdom:

    If you use a Mac, snapping windows sucks, but here’s how to solve it:

    Download "Rectangle."

    Now you can snap windows sideways, up, or any angle you set.

    It’s free. It’s open source. It’s amazing.

    See it in action here:

    apple.gif

    Interesting:

     

    I did an interview with Nathan Barry

    where we talk about who is making money with newsletters. Also: 
    - Setting up “Creator Flywheels” (important!) 
    - ConvertKit marching towards a billion dollars 
    - Tectonic shifts in SEO in the last 3 years 
    - Best platforms with the best audiences

     

    Picture:

    This is the paint equivalent of good copy: Slightly modify where the paint is (and isn't) changes up the whole thing:

    image.jpeg

    Essay:

    I understand over zealous management killed off WeWork, but I am a bit saddened by the WeWork collapse because I've had WeWork offices all over the place and loved them.

    Wework-wecrashed-post.jpg

    Lots of fond memories and connections created at WeWorks...

    WeWork's always represented to me:

    • A place to go with friends when you didn't want to go to a bar.
    • Work late nights.
    • Go to events.Get free food & drinks from said events 😬
    • Acted as a "3rd Place" where everyone knew your name.
    • They always were kept super clean.
    • Internet was always fast. Great bathrooms.
    • Good coffee. 

    Sucks they crashed and burned.
     

    Splurge:

    What if I were to tell you we're having a quick flash sale, at THE lowest price in our history for Copywriting Course

    ....oh and you'll get 2 free months so you enjoy the remainder of 2023 and use it all of 2024?

    copywriting-course-bag.jpg

    Get 50% off and 2 months free right now →

    I hope you enjoyed these Friday tid-bits!
    Sincerely, 
    Neville Medhora

    nev-head.webp

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