Email Valhalla

3 reason you might want to consider running classified ads

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I’ve run 2 ads in the past few weeks in my daily emails.

The thing is, I wouldn’t have believed you if you told me that last year.

Not because I didn’t think I could do so (everyone can) but simply because, at least back then, I told myself I’d do any ads because why would I advertise for someone else’s stuff if I could just sell my own and earn more?

I still believe that, at least to a certain extent, but, as with anything, there are exceptions.

First, sometimes you just don’t care, don’t want to offer, or simply can’t offer (either because of a lack of expertise, time, or other resources) a certain solution that would help your readers out.

Would it then be fair to withhold such an opportunity from your readers?

No, of course not.

My main goal, first and foremost, will always be to keep the customer and the market in mind, think about what they want (read: need—the customer doesn’t even know what they want, let alone what they truly need) and how I can offer it to them.

So in that case, I’ll gladly refer people to someone else to buy from or do business with—and if I can get paid for it in the meantime, then even better.

Another one.

There’s always unused capacity in everything you do—daily emails are no exception.

Yeah, I can write daily emails selling my own stuff all the time (and I mostly do), but I can’t be running promotions 24/7, and even when I’m not running promotions, there’s always a diminishing return from sending more emails (most people don’t send enough emails to notice it though, me including). So withholding one email here and there to write an affiliate email or do a sponsored post is making use of the unused capacity and filling the gap or “less optimized” email you would otherwise have sent.

Last but not least.

It’s simple to do and doesn’t require much (if any at all) investment on your part (not every reason has to be profound, right?).

Anyway.

This has been an important lesson for me (and one I found valuable enough to share with you) and marks another clear sign of personal growth in my entrepreneurial journey of email marketing.

That said.

If you’d like to pick up pace in your own journey and learn more about email marketing and building, growing, and selling to your list then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


This simple Dan Kennedy lesson could earn you millions

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Today, I was (re-)reading The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy (a must-read)

One of the most vital things I read today was the importance of having a PS at the bottom of your sales letter.

Here’s what he wrote:

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“Every sales letter needs a PS—do not consider your efforts complete until you have composed one. The PS can make or break your letter.”

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So a PS is important. But why?

See, many people simply skip to the end of your letter. Whether that be a sales page, an email, physical mail, or even a Twitter thread or a LinkedIn post.

Why do people do this? Well, they all have different reasons.

Some know there’s often a recap at the end and want to know whether the whole thing is worth reading. Others are simply lunatics and want to know how it ends before they start—believe me, they exist.

Hell, some people look up the ending of movies before they watch them.

Lunatics.

Anyway.

People do weird stuff. But that’s a tremendous opportunity for you.

By summarizing your offer/promise/most important takeaways in your PS, you can inspire the reader to read the whole thing.

And even if you’re dealing with someone who reads your stuff in the order you intended it to. Even then, it can serve as a great incentive to make people respond or commit to your offer.

You can compare it with having a second headline in your sales letter. One of the best high-impact tools any marketer has access to.

PS: if you’d like to learn more evergreen principles to help you write better emails, make more money, and build a thriving business with email as its foundation, check out Email Valhalla today: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


Are you interested in writing emails and making sales?

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Well, I’ll assume you are since you opened this email.

So did you know you don’t have to write 200-300+ word emails all the time?

Yeah, I’m serious.

You could even write sub-50-word emails.

Don’t believe me?

Check out Email Valhalla here and see for yourself: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


How I make more money the more inadequate I feel

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Thanks to the type of business I run, I regularly wake up to notifications telling me someone bought a product of mine.

Less regularly, but not THAT irregularly, comes along a feeling of inadequacy or imposter syndrome where I doubt if my products are actually worth what I’m charging.

It’s a funny feeling that.

And it happens to everyone in this business. I’ve never spoken with someone who hasn’t, at one point (most of the time at many points) in their career, felt the same way.

See, almost every single person with every single product will launch it at a certain price, more often than not severely UNDERvaluing the product.

Then through repeated additions, refinements, and customer feedback, it becomes clear that the product has significantly improvement in quality and a price increase is justified (if not necessary).

Yet after a few of those the question arises: “Is my product actually worth this much?”.

Yes.

Yes, it is.

Case in point: it’s helping more people than it was before, more people are buying it, and most, if not all, people who bought your product continue buying other products of yours (showing they were at least satisfied enough with your product, more likely completely ecstatic about it, to continue trusting you and wanting, even needing, more of your good stuff).

So why do I (and many others) get this feeling?

Well, for one, we clearly remember where we came from and how we started.

That $500 offer? I once sold it for $50. In fact, at one point long ago, people could get it for free (only then nobody seemed to want it, much less get the same amount of results from it—big lesson here).

Another point.

Everything inside my own products is obvious to me. I already know all that stuff. There’s nothing new to me. Nothing I need repeated either because I do it all the time. I created it. It’s based on my experience.

You wouldn’t pay someone $1,000 to tell you what your name is, where you live, how old you are, and what kind of work you do or to have them help you solve a math problem you solved 10 minutes ago.

My point is.

It takes a lot of experience, wisdom, and time to understand/see the value in the information you can offer people (As Dan Koe, who probably got it from someone else, often says, every single person has a $1,000,000 idea in their head right now, they just don’t see it).

But there’s a benefit to all of this as well.

Everytime I get this feeling, I can’t just sit around and do nothing until it passes. No I have to do something. I have to justify it to myself again and again and again that these products are in fact worth the price, if not many times more.

I just can’t help it.

And so I add new content, improve upon my old content, I add bonuses, share more value, write better stories, or even create new additional offers (more often than not entirely for free or at a large discount for existing customers) just to improve the product even more.

So I’m not sure if I’ll ever have a 100% completed product I’ll stop tampering with.

But then again, I’m not sure if I’d want to. After all, stagnation is a fate worse than death.

Anyway.

If you want to learn how to sell your own products so you can get a similar feeling of inadequacy so that you’ll in turn get the undying motivation to create more and better products, only to later increase the price and keep the cycle going (beware, it’s addictive).

Then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


A simpler and more passive list-growing method than social media

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I’ve been gradually getting more passive email subscribers the past few days.

All because I took the time to create and host my very own WordPress site, publish all of my emails online, and learn some of the basics of SEO and making it so my emails (or “posts” as WordPress calls them) show up in search engines.

This combined with Beehiiv’s Boost function, and me teasing my Email Valhalla course on sign-up also means I’m semi-passively (I still have to write the emails after all) earning an income because of it.

Not only that, but I’ll keep earning based on past emails I’ve written—emails that will only grow in numbers and get better in quality the more I write.

To me there’s truly no better business model out there.

Find me another business where you can earn a living by writing whenever you want, from wherever you want, all the while helping people accomplish their own dreams, getting thank-you emails on the regular, and, last but not least, do all of this without a income ceiling limited by any one resource such as time, distribution, money, or costs.

I applaud anyone building a coaching business, working as a freelancer, owning their own agency, or any other service-based business for that matter—let alone selling physical products.

But that’s not for me (at least not yet, who knows when the Banana Viking merchandise might be released?)

I like to keep it simple, efficient, and with a freedom-first aspect.

Anyway.

If you’re only using social media to get leads, you’re seriously missing out.

Go get your online real estate up and running.

And if you’re not even building your own email list yet, what are you waiting for?

Check out Email Valhalla today and get started right away: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


Why stagnation is a fate worse than death

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A couple of weeks ago, I went to a high school reunion.

There I saw so many of the recognizable faces who made up the bigger part of my 6 years in high school quite a while ago, some of whom I’ve kept in touch with and have regularly seen after high school, others I hadn’t seen for over 5, 6, or 7 years.

And the craziest thing to me wasn’t how much some people have changed, that’s certainly fun to see (and talk about). No, the craziest thing was how LITTLE some people changed.

Which is quite saddening to think about.

Here are people who had something going for them, who were developing themselves in high school, had support all around them, yet somehow, someway, that same support suddenly stopped after high school graduation.

They got pushed into a career they weren’t keen about, were forced to do stuff they didn’t want (but other people wanted for them) and they lost their spark.

They stopped innovating. They stopped experimenting. They stopped trying.

Essentially, they stagnated.

Which, just as in business as in life, means death.

If you’re not growing, you’re dying goes the saying. And that’s absolutely true in every regard.

You could be the biggest business in your market for years, even decades. But the moment you stop growing, you start to crumble and fade away. Others will start catching up. Others will pass you by. You will become forgotten and obsolete.

There’s also no point arguing or getting mad about this.

That’s just the way things go.

It’s up to you to decide what to do with this information. Realize this truth and try to make the best of it or act as if it isn’t true and slowly, sometimes even unknowingly, wither away until there’s nothing left.

So many people are alive, yet not living.

And like so, many businesses exist, yet aren’t functioning.

Now, I don’t know about you. But I’d rather accept this truth at face value, and rightly act upon it—growing both my business and myself.

Anyway.

I’m not the personal guru teaching you self-growth (maybe I sometimes do, if so, that’s an accidental benefit). But I can help you grow your business, especially when it comes to your marketing and your email game.

If that’s your jam, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


My first actual “long” walk

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With my backpack on my back, a bottle of water and some sandwiches packed, and a destination in mind (to meet up with some old friends) I walked 17km in a little over 3 hours.

That’s what I did yesterday.

It’s the most I’ve ever walked in my life (so far).

And I’m glad I did it.

In fact, I wasn’t quite sure if I could do this right now. The opportunity arose (meeting friends in a location 17km from my house) and I just went for it. Skipping my original 10km practice walk I had planned to slowly build up the distance.

That said.

It wasn’t without challenges. From the 2-hour mark I started seriously feeling it. My body clearly wasn’t used to walking these distances.

But hey, nobody improves without pushing themselves once in a while.

Now, maybe walking just isn’t something for you. In that case this email doesn’t interest you nor motivate you whatsoever.

But you might be interest in learning how to build and write to your email list to improve the relationship you have with your audience, help them accomplish their goals, and increase your revenue in the process.

If so, then definitely check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


Why Every marketer should read more fiction

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It’s really ironic how I’m the person saying this.

See, I used to hate reading books. School forced me to write book assignments on stuff I didn't even care about, sucking all the joy out of it and making it feel like a job instead of enjoyment.

But I gave reading another go in late 2022.

And boy how everything changed. First of all, I got recommended to read the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson and immediately fell in love. I then bought myself the Stormlight archive and I'm already through the first two books.

In fact, I loved it so much that I bought a whole load of other fantasy novels and even started writing my own.

(I’m currently reading LOTR and ASOIAF)

But enough about that.

Why should YOU start to read?

Well, for one, marketing essentially boils down to telling a great story.

And if you want to be good at telling stories, then you'll first need to learn what makes up a great story and truly surround yourself with them.

You'll also learn what makes people emotional, how to use your writing to not just make people know what happened but to make them FEEL what happened.

To make them part of the story, almost as if it's happening all around them.

You want to grab their attention and suck them into your world so hard they'll never want to leave again and won't even think about buying from someone else.

That's what true writing is capable of.

And that's why, if you look it up, many of the top marketers and copywriters would spend hours reading, listening, and watching stories—many of them even write their own fiction.

So go get yourself a book (preferably one you truly enjoy) and start reading.

And if you want a place where you can apply what you’ve learned and share it with others, while getting paid for it. Then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


Complexity is overrated

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Complexity seems to be “in” right now, unfortunately.

And it makes no sense at all.

Everywhere you look, you’ll see some new social media influencer praising his new 50-step funnel, his 30 different opt-in pages, with 15 different lead magnets, for which he’s using 100 different ads, each meticulously being tracked to determine the optimal copy, creative, targeting settings, and every other option you could ever imagine.

The irony is that the same influencer, in reality, has no idea what they’re doing, is putting in hundreds of hours to get this all to work, and might only be getting a 5% increase in total revenue for his effort (if he’s even getting an increase in revenue at all).

See, both in live and in business, it’s always the simple solutions that perform best.

I’m obviously biased when I say this.

But I’ve never seen it not be the case, where a simple solution not only allows someone to 1) free up more time to work on more important things or not have to work at all, and instead spend their time doing the things they love most in life 2) understand how everything functions a lot better and a lot clearer, making it not only much easier to make their solutions perform better but almost guaranteeing the success of the effort they put in and 3) if they happen to work with clients, they’ll undoubtedly get better results because of how easy and simple it is to both explain their frameworks and implement the framework in the client’s business.

While complexity looks cooler and might attract newbies and shiny object addicts…It’s the simple solutions that attract the best customers, get the most optimal results, and make for a more enjoyable experience.

See, I have three main business pillars: simplicity, freedom, and enjoyment. If something doesn’t align with one of those pillars, I don’t do it.

And that should tell you a lot about my business models.

Anyway.

If you’d like to see for yourself how to thrive with a simple email business, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla


I decided to walk 100km

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In 136 days, on the 9th of August, I’ll be joining a long-distance march of 100 kilometers (walked in less than 24 hours) aptly named the “Dodentocht” (Dutch for Death March).

I’ve never done anything like this.

In fact, I’ve never been hiking or going on long-distance walks before. The only “long-distance” walking I’ve ever done before where a few times when I had to walk home after a night out or when I didn’t have any other transport at that time, and those walks never took longer than 2 hours at most.

With that said.

I’ve got a lot of training to do. Walking 100km is no easy feat. But I just know I’m able to do this if I put my mind to it. If I put in the work and start building up slowly but surely.

In fact, I’ve started going on some walks in the past few days already.

I’ll start with some nice 5–10km walks, then bump it up to 20–30 and so on. I’ve got exactly 19 weeks to get to my goal. And that’s more than enough time.

Another benefit, beside the health-related ones, is the increased creativity you get from going on a walk. I don’t know how or why it works. But for some reason, and this has been confirmed to be the case scientifically, anecdotally, and some other -ally I can’t think of right now, something about walking in nature, letting your mind wander, being away from distraction, and going about your ways helps your brain organize everything and heightens your creativity.

Just try it out for yourself.

You’ll get so many ideas you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. Emails, sales pages, videos, tweets, LinkedIn posts, articles, products, you name it, going on a walk makes the creation of those 10x easier.

All you need is your feet to move and somewhere to jot down the ideas you get while walking.

Anyway.

I’m off to go walking right now.

And afterwards I’ll write some more content, create some more products, and earn some more money while doing so. If you’d like to learn how to build your Email Empire to get you paid for sharing your ideas through email and creating products or offering your services to people to help them improve their lives.

Then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla