She's Back

Afternoon!

I’m sorry, you may get this email more than once, as I’m sending it to my lists on Beehiiv, Substack and ActiveCampaign.  It will be the last time I do that.

I’m going back to ActiveCampaign as my main mailing list host, for reasons I’ll explain below.

This week you’ll find, as usual, What’s Worked?, What Hasn’t? And What Is Changing? This last section used to be called ‘What Will I Do Differently” but ‘What Is Changing?’ is shorter and punchier.

I’m also adding a new section, which is ‘Hot Links - Mindset, Marketing & Money’ and I’m simply going to be giving a minimum of one hot link, to the best articles, videos or interviews I’ve come across this week in each of those topics.  No explanation, just the links.  You either trust me and/or have an enquiring mind, or you don’t and you haven’t. 

I feel compelled to share, so that one day I can say ‘I did what I could’.

This newsletter is sponsored by Clicks & Leads Academy this week.  If you want to learn how to ‘be everywhere online’ and attract your ideal customer or client, with someone with 25+ years of experience holding you hand every step of the way, joining the Academy is the way forward. Try us out by joining the ‘Be Everywhere Online 5-Day Challenge’.  More info at BeEverywhereOnline.com

Hot Links This Week


Mindset
‘A War On Humanity’ Neil Oliver’s Saturday Monologue

Marketing
My YouTube Marketing Mentor - Nate Black starts his own channel.

Money

The World’s Best Speech On Money by Robert Breedlove

What’s Worked?

As I finished a couple of client projects this week (so room to take on a new one!) I decided to move the WPExpertUK.com website from Carrd.co to self-hosted WordPress.  

What? I hear you cry, wasn’t it on WordPress already?  

No, it wasn’t, because in the style of the ‘Getting To Plan B’ and ‘Lean Startup’ books, I like to test business ideas fast, and there’s no denying Carrd.co is MUCH faster than WordPress. 

I got the initial website up in about an hour on Carrd.co and was able to offer out the service the same day.

However, as I was going out with cold email approaches to local businesses, I felt a bit uneasy that at some point I would get called out for not hosting my own site on the thing I was recommending for others.  There were also some limitations with Carrd.co, nothing insurmountable but very easily remedied with my own hosted site.

So rather than having to explain myself, or fiddle around, I just bit the bullet and did the right thing.

The Curse Of The Entrepreneur

I had a brilliant business idea this week, you know, one of those that make you go tingly all over and fired up to test it immediately.  Well, that’s how it takes me.  

I thought I was past this, as I have a couple of lovely businesses that I enjoy, that I’m good at and that make a difference.  I thought that was going to be enough for me for the rest of my working life.  But there’s always the eternal lure of the ‘big one’, the international business with a really hungry market…

This is such a good idea, I haven’t even looked for a domain name yet, as I feel so compelled to take action FOR MYSELF.  Yes, I’m my own best customer and then, if it works for me, I might offer it out.

If you are an author, with a book selling well on Amazon already (fiction or non-fiction) this might be of interest to you so keep reading this newsletter and I’ll share more as the weeks unfold.

What Hasn’t?

If you have received this email more than once. I’m sorry, it’s part of a failed experiment. I was testing whether I could live without a standalone email list host.  I thought I could manage with Substack and perhaps Beehiiv.  But I couldn’t. 

You know I like to be transparent and tell you what didn’t work as well as what did. See below for how this might affect you if you are just starting up or just picking a mailing list host.

What To Do If You Got This Newsletter More Than Once

if you do get this newsletter more than once, please feel free to unsubscribe from the Beehiiv broadcast.

However, if you subscribe to my Substack you’ll only get new video notifications going forward.

If you didn’t get one from ActiveCampaign, if you want to keep hearing from me in this format, you just need to register for ActiveCampaign emails by downloading my free book here because ActiveCampaign is where I’m going to be sending this newsletter out from, in the future.  

Why I Made This Decision & How That Helps You

Beehiiv is great but I didn’t realise it’s so much more expensive (once you want any of the great features ActiveCampaign offers for much less).  

I will probably keep Substack for now as it’s a huge blogging platform, it’s free, I do get subscribers on it and I’ll just use that to send out notifications of new videos on YouTube.  It’s also very easy to turn that post into a podcast.

Your Business Mailing List

I’m not saying that, if you are just starting up, you can’t live without spending $70 a month on ActiveCampaign.  

Substack is a good choice if you don’t want a website, as they don’t integrate with anything, but if you only want a blog and mailing list, with perhaps a podcast and/or a free/paid membership, you can utilise Substack just fine.  See how great it is?

What’s not great is that they don’t open up their API so it’s near on impossible to connect your website with your mailing list.

If you want a website too, go with the free level of Beehiiv instead, as they will give you the opt-in code to put in your website to start building a mailing list.  You can always export your list later.

However, if you are going to be getting into selling products or tagging and following up your mailing list depending on what they opt in for or buy, you might as well go straight to ActiveCampaign.

What’s Changing?

This week I’m going to finish the new project as it doesn’t look like I’ll get it done today.  That gives me a good idea of timings if I want to work it up into a productised service business.

THEN I’ll be able to go back to emailing potential future customers.  This is a dull job but has to be done until I get to at least 100 contacts, ideally more.

MUST NOT get distracted!

So…

What are you doing in your business this week and can I help with any of that?

Cheers

Nicola

p.s. When you are ready, there are three ways I can help your business:

1. If you want to create a powerful personal brand, download my latest book ‘Attract 3.0’. Visit here to get your book today.

2. Then, discover how to ‘Be Everywhere Online’ in under half an hour a week with my support, by joining the 5-Day Challenge! This challenge runs regularly and you get my undivided attention while you work through it.

3. Or if you just want some help & support with your WordPress Website check out WPExpertUK.com. Started for our clients, we know how to make your website work for you!