Today has been a productive “thinking” day for me.

With that I mean, I figured out most (if not all) of the marketing for my new upcoming non-fiction book I’ll be self-publishing on Amazon (and should release in the next one or two weeks).

More specifically, I figured out the positioning of my book.

Positioning.

Such a fun, yet powerful, and often spooky word to many people who aren’t quite sure how to take on the challenge of “positioning” their offer in the market.

But it doesn’t have to be scary at all.

All positioning really boils down to is painting your offer in such a way that it’ll interest your target customer.

To do this you need to answer a few questions:

Who are you targeting?

What do they desire (go deep)?

What problems do they face?

You’ll have to do a bit of research to answer these questions, but that’s the way of life.

After you’ve found some answers to those questions, simply combine them and approach your product from an angle that encompasses your findings.

Example:

(this was part of my brainstorming, but I ended up not going with this angle for a few reasons)

I have a book focused on “How to enjoy the writing process”. That’s boring. Nobody’s going to buy it framed like that.

So let’s position it.

Who will I sell it to? Freelance writers with children (they’re known to always be working long hours under tight deadlines)

What do they desire? To work fewer hours so they can spend time with their children

What problems do they face? They have so much BORING writing to do it’s absolute hell to get through it all and they never have any motivation to write about some bullshit topics they can’t give a rat’s ass about.

Combine all of this into an angle so my product becomes the perfect solution:

Free up more of your time to spend with your children by learning how to truly enjoy the writing process, no matter what you’re writing about, or who you’re writing it for so you’re always full of motivation and excitement, so much so that your fingers start writing on their own the moment you sit down and they don’t stop until you're done… leading you to write more and better stuff in less than half the time it usually takes to complete all of your tasks.

Now tell me.

Which one would sell better, this one or the generic “How to enjoy the writing process”.

I can’t overstate how incredibly important developing this skill is.

So here’s what we’ll do today.

(an exercise)

You send me a short summary of your offer and how you want to market it (read: the positioning/angle you chose) and I’ll tell you whether it’s good or needs more refinement.

Simply hit reply and let me know.

A question popped up in a self-publishing writer’s community:

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I published my memoir in late January of this year. I was able to get quite a few sales (I was amazed tbh because my previous book I had published barely even sold…).

I’ve been trying my best to promote it this last month because the sales are dropping and I think it’s simply because people have no idea it exists…? But I don’t think I’m catching people’s attention with it.

I published it on Amazon kdp. I can’t pay for ads currently so…am I SOL? I really want my story to be heard

===

Classic case of short-sightedness.

You see it everywhere. People trying to get others to buy their products or services so they start looking for ways to advertise that specific product… only to get a few one-time sales and then struggle to keep that momentum (if they even got any to begin with) going—never actually making a business out of what they’ve got.

Here’s the tl;dr of what I’d suggest to anyone in a similar situation:

• Step 1: Create an email list

• Step 2: Drive people to your opt-in page through content creation

• Step 3: Email them as often as you can about the common interests that connect you and them to whatever you’re selling.

• Step 4: Sit back and relax while growing a business that doesn’t rely on one-time sales because you’re not losing your customers. Instead you’re actively growing your customer list and building a better and tighter relationship with them, guaranteeing more sales (consistently) in the future as long as you keep giving people what they want.

Ain’t nothing complicated to it (and if you think this only works for authors, you couldn’t be more mistaken).

If you’d like a more in-depth view of this process, then check out Email Valhalla to learn all about building, growing, and monetizing your email list.

Click here to check it out: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

I’m big into film music.

John Williams, Hans Zimmer, John Powell, Steve Jablonsky, James Horner, and many, many more, I can’t stop listening to their work. So much so that I started dabbling in orchestral music production and film scoring myself—something that has definitely come in handy when creating original scores for my self-made video games or to accompany my fiction writing.

Either way, there’s so much going on, psychologically, when it comes to film music.

There’s a reason why most professional composers choose to write themes or “leitmotifs” for every major character, faction, and location in a story (and reusing them every time it makes sense) rather than just creating “good sounding music” that fits the scene.

And the reason why is fascinating.

See, it has to do with our brains and how they remember and store feelings and emotions.

If a piece of music is played during a sad and tragic scene, then your brain will “inject” the feelings and emotions you have during that scene into the piece of music. So the next time your brain hears that specific piece of music, it’ll remember how it felt the last time it heard it and make you re-live and re-experience those same emotions (or at least to a certain degree).

This is why re-using the same pieces of music and connecting them to certain characters in the film is so powerful.

The music is, quite literally, a “musical identity” of the character on screen. Just think about The Imperial March from Star Wars and how you immediately experience Darth Vader’s identity—someone who’s never seen the film won’t have nearly as strong a reaction to that piece of music.

So what can we take from this?

Well, if you haven’t already figured it out, then you might want to get my new book that’s all about how to actually enjoy the writing process while writing faster than ever before.

Yesterday I mentioned how I planned on releasing it this Monday (tomorrow). But stupid old me didn’t even realize there was a review period to get my book launched and published.

So you’ll have to wait until at least next week, if not the week after.

In the meantime, let me know if you’re looking forward to the new book. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Just reply to this email.

I’m so close to self-publishing my very first non-fiction book on Amazon.

More precisely, I plan on launching my book (paperback & ebook), which is about how to make the act of writing fun, enjoyable, and quick, this Monday. That’s assuming everything goes according to plan—I have no idea what problems might await me since this is, in fact, the very first time I’m trying this out.

All I still have to do is craft myself a book cover and write two or three more chapters I thought about last minute (read: an hour ago).

So far it’s been a boatload of fun (surprise, surprise) writing up all the chapters and figuring out how this self-publishing thing works.

I’ve had many revelations these past few weeks.

But one of the most important revelations has been how easy and smooth this process has been until now. I’ve put this off for so long, thinking it would be a real challenge, and something I wasn’t quite ready for, yet. I wanted to create a true “masterpiece” and get everything perfect.

Truth was, I just didn’t want to move out of my comfort zone and create something that’s not digital—something I have plenty of experience with.

But as with anything, starting is always the hardest part. Most things in life are a lot simpler than your inner ego scares you into believing.

So you can expect a truckload of more books from me in the future if everything goes well this Monday. Hell, you can expect a whole lot more stuff from me even if it doesn’t do well.

The only way to fail is to stop trying after all.

So that’s that for today. Just a quick announcement and hopefully an insightful and motivational lesson.

That said, while I haven’t got anything on how to publish books on Amazon (not yet at least), I’ve got plenty of experience creating and launching digital courses, including a top-selling product that’ll teach you exactly how you can do so too (and in 21 days or less from start to finish!)

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/product

Have you ever read or seen Game Of Thrones?

Well, if you’re anything like me (or unlike me I should say) you probably have. The show has been around for 13 years already, and George R.R. Martin published the series' first book over 28 years ago.

Now, I proclaim myself to be a lover of the genre (with my current favorite author being Brandon Sanderson), but I hadn’t seen nor read any of the entries that make up Game of Thrones (or ASOIAF for the book lovers).

It’s only recently that I’ve picked up the books and started reading them.

So recently, in fact, that I’m currently only on book 2, A Clash of Kings.

And it’s been an absolute blast reading through the pages. I don’t know why I never picked up on this series earlier.

Aside from the writing, the story, the worldbuilding, and the depth of each of the characters being immaculate, there’s another reason why I like it so much.

More specifically.

It’s because of how the book displays who’s in charge. And I’m not merely talking about who’s wearing the crown or who’s got the most muscle. No, I’m talking about the people who actually make things happen. They who get shit done—the people behind the scenes pulling the strings.

They all have one thing in common—something highly valuable and practical for us marketers as well.

They all know how to persuade people. They know what each and every person wants most. And even if they don’t, they’ll soon figure it out…

Armed with this information they’re able to create the best and most favorable of deals.

No one in the series—not anyone with true power at least—tries to convince other people to do something they want or tries to talk other people into why what they have is something valuable.

And so it is in the real world.

Don’t try to get people to buy what you want to sell. Sell what people want to buy instead.

This, and many other highly crucial principles and lessons, can be found in my highly regarded course Product Creation Made Easy to help you create more products faster, better, and more profitable than ever before.

Click here for more information: https://alexvandromme.com/product

I came across a post on a well-known forum from a musician who released his latest song the day before.

Apparently, he worked long and hard on the song, did everything he could to make it as good as he possibly could, then went on to try his hand at “marketing” it—clever guy—by convincing a couple of blog writers and a few popular Instagram music pages make a post about his latest song.

The guy was so excited thinking about the fame and riches he’d amass from this song he almost couldn’t sleep.

Yet when he woke up the next day… nothing happened. And I truly mean nothing. Nobody except probably a few friends listened to his latest song.

36 hours after release and all he got for it were 15 plays.

I can’t help but feel sorry for the man.

So here’s the issue:

He’s a nobody. Not as in the pessimistic “he doesn’t have any talent and will never amount to anything”. No, he clearly has some talent.

But right now, nobody knows him. Plain and simple as that.

It pays to be aware of the current situation instead of fighting or running from it.

To his credit, he tried doing some marketing and getting the song out there. But he did so in the wrong way.

See, nobody cares about your new song, your new book, your new product, your new game, your new cocaine addiction you developed because your mother never told you she loved you when were younger.

None of that.

People only care about two things: themselves and other people (in that order).

What does this mean for you?

Instead of trying to market your song a day before it releases, start by marketing YOURSELF all year-around. Build a fanbase of you, not your song. You’re more than just that one song. So show them.

Be interesting, be entertaining, and most importantly, make sure they see and hear you everywhere all the time—not just when you have something new to promote.

People who only market when they’ve got something new don’t really care about their audience, their fans, their followers, they just care about themselves and their new thing.

Be someone who’s there all the time, regardless whether or not you’ve got something new to promote.

Then, when the time comes and you actually have something new to promote, you’ll have an audience already established, it’ll immediately be liked, and you have the right to absolutely bombard them with promotion about your new thing—your audience likes you after all, and nobody gets tired of of getting MORE of something they like.

Long story short: Don’t stay a nobody.

Talking about not staying a nobody and keeping in touch with your audience every single day, check out Email Valhalla to learn more about how to do exactly that.

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Here’s something I find hilarious:

So-called “writers”, “creators”, or worse, “experts” who rely on CrapGPT to tell them 1) who their target audience is 2) what those people like 3) which topics they should write about.

I’m serious.

Explain to me how you can, without bursting into tears laughing, have the nerve to call yourself a writer, a creator, an expert, a leader, or even a marketer for all I care, and aren’t able to, from your own mind, your own experience, your own creativity (which you don’t need as much of as you might think) come up with ANYTHING to say or write about.

No clue what to write about, what to talk about, what to sell, and who to sell it to.

At this point, I’m convinced these types of people require help to get them out of bed as well in the morning. If it weren’t for their mom waking them up every morning, chances are they might not even realize where they are or what they’re supposed to do.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.

And while this focuses on writing, it’s equally applicable to everything else you do from public speaking to music creation and more.

Here goes.

If you write about whatever you’re passionate about, and enjoy whatever it is you’re writing, then chances are whoever reads it will enjoy it as much as you do—if not more.

Vice versa, write stuff that bores you about topics that don’t interest you and whoever reads it will be bored out of their mind as well.

Call it the second law of writingdynamics to make it feel all sciency and shit so you’re more likely to remember it.

Anyway, this begs the question:

How do you “optimize” (I don’t enjoy using this word, but for the lack of a better one, let’s go with this one right now) the enjoyment you have while writing—which you’ll eventually transfer to the reader?

Well, that’s the exact topic of the book I’m currently still working on.

So if you’d like to learn more about that, stay tuned and keep your eyes open for more information about that (which will be sooner than you might expect).

In the meantime, check out Email Valhalla to increase your email writing skills so you can grow you list, sell more products, and build a better relationship with your audience.

Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Yesterday evening I did something I should’ve done a long time ago.

More precisely, for the first time in probably months, I once again opened up Unity (a game engine) and started working on a card game I’ve been working on for quite a while now—albeit relatively slowly.

And to my surprise…

I got way more done in one single evening than I did during the last couple of days when I was actively working on my card game.

What changed?

Well, for starters, I got excited again and have so many new ideas I want to test out and experiment with.

More practical…

I stopped working on it some months ago because I was trying to implement a multiplayer system (the most logical and efficient thing to do at the time) and got overwhelmed—and eventually, a bit discouraged—with how much there was to learn and how little progress I was making.

This time around?

I skipped all of that and focused my attention on finishing the game loop (the actual “playing” of the game) and worked on things I found enjoyable and did actually reward me with a feeling of meaningful progression.

That’s not to say I’ll never add the multiplayer part.

But it’s important to reflect on what you’re doing in the bigger picture.

And the bigger picture here was: forcing myself to work on the multiplayer part 24/7 will result in me not getting any work done at all. If I were instead to focus on building the actual game part—rather than the networking infrastructure—I’ll get some stuff done (while also, slowly but surely, piece by piece, getting the multiplayer stuff implemented as well).

All that’s to say: never forget why you’re doing something and always keep is as entertaining and enjoyable as possible.

Which brings me to a (not-so-profound) realization I made recently and an idea I’ve been playing with.

The realization:

I enjoy writing these types of emails while being quite skilled at it.

The idea I’ve been toying with:

Dabble my toes into doing some client work once again and offer email-writing services (to readers only) in case there’s any demand for it.

So here’s a question for you:

Would you like me to write your emails? Whether it’s a one-time job setting up an autoresponder/email sequence or writing your regular daily/weekly/whatever emails promoting and selling your offers to your list.

If so, reply to this email and let me know.

There’s no obligation to commit to anything by replying. I’m simply gauging the general interest here.

And I mean truly incredible.

But at the same time so simple, so easily overlooked, and not to mention how extremely underrated it is.

In fact, I’ll probably get some people laughing at me because of it.

But really, sometimes it’s just that simple.

Want to know what the tip is?

Well, it’s the simple “This email contains …” subject line.

It’s easy, straight-to-the-point, and effectively attention-grabbing—especially if you combine it with some of the other 11 attention-grabbing principles and subject line types I teach in my flagship course Email Valhalla.

Speaking of which.

If you’d like more information about Email Valhalla, check it out here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Here’s an interesting observation:

I wrote an extremely short email yesterday telling people I’ve got something for them if they have their own email list and are looking to grow it entirely for free.

That email got quite a few replies (I haven’t answered any of them yet because I’ve been out walking for almost the entire day—so if you replied to me, I’m not ignoring you, I’ll get back to you tomorrow).

It’s interesting because the email was less than 40 words long.

Which goes to show you, sometimes less IS more. You just need to know what to say to get people’s attention.

And with that said.

I also know not everyone checks my emails every day (their mistake), but since I’m feeling nice today I’ll give those people a second chance. So here’s a reminder if you missed yesterday’s email.

If you’ve got an email list with at least 500 to 1,000 subscribers and you’d like to quickly and efficiently add a few hundred more—entirely free of charge and with no cost to you whatsoever.

Then reply to this email, because I’ve got an amazing opportunity for you.