Marketing

Not everyone seemed to enjoy Star Wars when it was first released back in 1977.

Even though it was an immediate success and raked in insane amounts of money, the likes of which had almost never been seen before.

More specifically.

Some critics called the movie “as simple as black and white—and not in a good way,” even going as far as writing “The blockbuster, bestselling movie Star Wars is one of the most racist movies ever produced.”

Another criticism read, “The force of evil in Star Wars is dressed in all black and has the voice of a black man… That character reinforces the old stereotype that black is evil.”

Here’s another example (taken word for word from the book George Lucas by Brian Jay Jones):

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Another critic even ‘pointed out’ that the two droids acted, and were treated, like slaves, all the way down to being sold to a young white man they called “Master”.

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Seriously, I wish I was making this stuff up.

This proves to me one thing and one thing only.

People will hate you no matter what. The more successful you are, the more the hatred will become.

There’s just no pleasing everyone.

One of my favorite quotes (and guiding principles) I’ve learned in the past year is from the great Dan Kennedy himself: “If you haven’t offended anyone by noon each day, you’re not marketing hard enough.”

The more I grow and learn, the more I realize how true this is.

Don’t believe me?

Try it out yourself. The next email you write, the next post you share, or the next podcast you’re on, try sharing your opinion about something controversial without holding back. Truly express your opinion. Don’t sugarcoat it one bit.

Yes, you’ll get backlash, yes people will take offense.

But those people weren’t your audience anyway.

What’s more important is how much more trustworthy you’ll be to the people that matter.

And if you’d like more email tips like this, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

The quality of a story depends almost entirely upon the quality of the characters and their development.

Even more so if your story is told from the perspective of one main character the audience follows throughout the story. No matter how deep you explore real-life relatable topics, how detailed your worldbuilding is, how new and exciting your magic system is, or how epic your large-scale battles are, none of it will help you if the characters are lifeless, unrelatable, and devoid of true meaning, emotion, or ambition.

Writing good characters, however, is a whole art in itself.

But, luckily you can get almost 80% of the way there by simply asking yourself the following three questions, which I’ve first heard mentioned by Brandon Sanderson, best-selling author known for his works such as the Mistborn series or the Stormlight Archive (as well as many, many more):

1. What does your character desperately want?

2. What does your character need?

3. Why can’t they have both?

Answering this will not only set you up with a good, lifelike character, but if done correctly, it could potentially help you create your entire story from start to finish with just these three questions in mind.

More.

You could ask the same question about your readers/customers/clients/whoever and come up with interesting and valuable information about how to 1) treat them as best you can and 2) dramatically improve your business because of it.

Hell, I’d even argue this could be the base of your entire marketing strategy.

1. What does your average customer want?

2. What does he actually need?

3. What stopping you from giving them both of these?

Figure out the answers to these questions, entice your customers with what they think they want, then include the thing they actually want, and you’ll have yourself your golden ticket to success.

Let’s take you as an example.

I’m guessing, since you’re on my email list, you’d want to earn more money selling your own products, books, courses, art, services, whatever. But what you actually need is a simple and reliable way to get your stuff in front of your target audience so you can make sales while focusing on the stuff you do best—creating.

Well, the thing that’s been stopping me so far from giving you both is the fact that my paid ad course (which would give you both of these things) isn’t out yet… but it’s almost here!

All that’s left to do is for you to wait a little while longer and for me to finish the last bits and pieces of the course.

So definitely keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, check out my flagship course, Email Valhalla, which makes for an extremely powerful—and profitable—addition on top of said paid ads course I’ll be releasing shortly.

Click here to learn more about Email Valhalla: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

Last night I read a post by a new first-time self-published author who struggled to sell his debut novel.

He just couldn’t figure out how to advertise, market, and sell his book—far from a new and original tale obviously.

But this situation was different.

As I continued on reading I noticed that this person wasn’t ‘struggling’ with his marketing in the usual sense (i.e., pouring his heart and soul into it without seeing any results). No, this time he was getting results.

Quite decent results, in fact.

The problem was he wanted more. He wanted—as he called them—die-hard fans and lifelong readers, or in other words… repeat buyers.

I hope you already noticed the problem here…

But in case you don’t, the guy only just released his first novel. How can you expect to get lifelong fans, let alone “repeat buyers” if you only have one thing to sell??

This reminded me of the following fun, useful, and maybe somewhat obvious (but not obvious enough that everyone thinks about it) lesson: the more stuff you have to sell, the more money you’ll make.

It’s as simple as that.

Straightforward, simple, and effective.

I’ve realized this early on in my career as well.

Not only will you create fans who love your stuff so much they buy everything you put out, no matter what it is, but you’ll also be able to convert people, complete newcomers in your world, so much easier and with a higher average order value (the average amount of money a new customer pays you on their very first purchase) because of all the upsells, downsells, cross-sells, bonuses, bundles & packages, and future email sequences selling the next thing you already have in place.

There’s this saying I first heard from Ben Settle, who probably heard it from someone else, “To make more money than you do now, simply create more content than you do now, faster than you do now.”

That’s easily proven true by seeing how much more profitable it is to sell a trilogy series compared to three standalone novels.

That’s just how it goes around here.

Anyway.

If this got you thinking, “damn I’d like to create some more things to sell, but I don’t know how, let alone if I even have the time for it”, then worry not my cheeky little pumpkin pie.

Because I’ve got just the thing for you.

Let me introduce you to one of my best-selling, highly effective, and currently most expensive item on the menu, “Product Creation Made Easy”. It’ll teach you the ins and outs of product creation, including how to ideate, create, and launch profitable digital products in 21 days or less.

All of which can make for great additions to treat your customers and readers even better.

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

I used to be active on Twitter (I’m never calling it X) for over a year until I got banned and then player around on LinkedIn for a while.

But I’m no longer active on either.

Or any other social media for that matter.

I realized that I don’t actually enjoy the whole social media content creator thing as much anymore. A lot of stuff I read feels (and often is) fake.

It’s all the same dumbed-down information (if it isn’t outright BS advice that’s actively hurting every single person who’s reading it).

Don’t get me wrong.

Social media can be a good thing. It’s a tool like any other, after all.

It’s probably one of the best practice fields for newcomers.

But it shouldn’t be the only thing people depend on. In fact, you shouldn’t depend on it at all.

I’ve seen so many people fall into the social media echo chamber only never to get out again. They skip (or simply forget to learn) so many business fundamentals necessary for their career.

But that’s not even the worst part.

What’s by far the biggest danger is how it feels like you’re doing stuff and achieving something, while in reality, you probably aren’t.

Likes, shares, and follows feels nice. Sure. And so do, one-off clients here and there.

But recurring and predictable revenue, something most social media content creators don’t have, is a whole lot nicer.

So how do you get recurring and predictable revenue?

Well, some ways include but are not limited to, running paid ads, getting on podcasts, driving traffic to your website, writing articles, working on SEO, getting referrals, and so on.

The key here is, however, to make your email list the center of everything.

As the saying goes, “All roads lead to email”.

And if you want to learn how to build and monetize that email list effectively, then check out Email Valhalla here: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

As a general rule of thumb, I believe that everything "for the masses" is dumbed down, lacks refinement, and is devoid of intrinsic meaning, value, or thought.

That goes for everything from movies, music, and yes, even (especially) the stuff you learn from your favorite big-name guru or whatever’s written inside that New York Times bestseller everyone’s been yapping about for years.

Let me clarify.

Everyone’s different in some way or another.

Everyone has different likes, beliefs, interests, tastes, opinions, and many other things that shape a person into who they are. Whether this is because of their surroundings, their genes, or something else entirely doesn’t matter in this case.

People are different, and there’s no getting around it.

We, as a species, simply can’t collectively agree with anything (even with this statement—proving the point in the process, as paradoxical as that sounds).

So, to circle back to why this matters, if people are all different, and they can’t agree with anything, then everything that’s trying to appeal to as many people as possible (aka, anything that gets a lot of attention and praise by tons of people—which is always by designs, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise) has to be made as general, as widely accepted, and as simple as possible.

Or in other words.

It has to be dumbed down to the point where it’s (almost—nothing is absolute) devoid of value for any single individual—no matter the lie they tell themself or the lies other people/society are instilling into them (cognitive dissonance is one hell of a force, I’m telling you).

There’s a lot going on here.

Many forces are at play.

Each of these could arm me with many, many emails to talk about each of them in detail.

This email is one of the least precise, and most vague ones I’ve written in a while, by design, because of the nature of the topic.

As with anything, if any of this tickled your fancy, got you interested in something, both positive or negative, whether you agree with what I wrote or not, I advise you to go do some research on your own.

Educate yourself on the words and principles talked about in this email (as well as those I haven’t mentioned), come up with a hypothesis of what’s going on on your own, try to test & design some theories. Then finally see how they stack up with the examples you come across.

Or don’t and just reply with an angry email telling me I’m wrong because you said so—that seems to be what the cool kids do nowadays.

But enough about that.

I don’t have anything to offer to you that’s “for the masses”. Instead I have useful, valuable, and insightful training information that’ll help you write better converting emails to grow your list and sell more products (or services, whatever floats your goats).

You can find out more about that by clicking this link: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

A popular piece of content-creation/email writing advice is to “Write to your past self”.

What people mean when they say it is to think about where you were 2 months ago, 2 years ago, or even 10 years ago. Then think about all the problems you faced, obstacles you had to overcome, and wrong beliefs you held. And address those. This way you write as if you were writing a note that was about to be put in a time capsule and sent to your past self.

It sounds great in theory. It really does.

I used to follow the same advice myself.

But I stopped.

The first reason for this is simple:

I can’t remember what my past self used to struggle with. And even if I could, I don’t understand the feelings that accompanied them. My whole perspective is different now than it was even 5 months ago.

It’d be foolish of me if I tried talking to that specific person.

And that’s exactly why the creator economy is so great. You learn from the people 1–2 steps ahead of you, not someone 5 whole years ahead of you—another popular piece of advice.

So if you learn from someone right in front of you, why would I write to someone way behind me? It doesn’t make sense.

Another reason is that I simply can’t be bothered anymore.

The advice my past self from 5 years previous would need doesn’t interest me anymore. I’m at a different level right now. I’m interested in other topics.

If I were to talk about topics that didn’t inspire me, then my content would be bland and uninspiring, which directly hurts you, the reader. The energy wouldn’t be the same anymore.

So I simply don’t speak to my past self.

I write about what I currently find interesting. What I’m discovering in real-time.

This makes my content interesting and engaging. And I can take you with me on an adventure. A real-time adventure you can see unfold right in front of you.

Neither you nor I know the ending. Nobody knows where we’ll end up. That’s what makes it all so exciting.

So let this be a reminder not to blindly follow every single piece of advice you get. Think for yourself, carefully judge everything you hear, see, and experience.

Then decide what’s best for you and your goals.

And if you decide building an audience that loves to listen to you, longs to follow you on your adventure, and wants to buy your products is what’s best for you and your goals. Then you might want to check out Email Valhalla: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

As with everything, the answer to “Should I run ads?” is “It depends”.

It all comes down to your current situation and what you’re trying to achieve.

For one, if you don’t have anything to sell yet, it wouldn’t make sense to run any ads. Sure, some people argue running ads can be beneficial to grow your list—which it is. But simply having a list filled with people without having anything to sell to them is a recipe for disaster—let alone the fact that you can’t possibly target your ad towards qualified buyers if you don’t even have anything to sell.

See, business has to be done in the right order.

First, you look at the market you want to sell to. Next, you discover the problems that plague that market. After you made a list of problems, it’s time to pick one or more (preferably one) and build a solution for that problem.

Then, and only then, can it be beneficial to run ads.

A specialized ad speaking to people in your market who struggle with your chosen problem AND want to solve said problem.

Notice how I explicitly mentioned people who want to solve that problem. There’s no point selling people something they don’t want. You won’t convince people that they have a problem. You can only make them aware of just how big a problem is if they’ve already experienced minor issues relating to that problem.

In this short amount of time I’ve already covered multiple mistakes many people make when it comes to running ads—major problems as well, the kind that could cost you thousands every single month if you’re not careful.

And this is sadly just the beginning.

I’ll dive deeper into the many, many mistakes people tend to make over and over again in my upcoming paid ads course for independent creatives.

More information about the course and its release coming soon.

In the meantime, reply back to me with any and all advertising-related questions you’d like me to cover in the course and I’ll make sure to include them as best as I can.

Henry David Thoreau, the American essayist, poet, and philosopher once wrote:

“How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.”

“For books are not to teach us how to live,” writes Frederic Gros in his book A Philosophy of Walking, “but to make us want to live, to live differently: to find in ourselves the possibility of life, its principle.”

Both Thoreau and Gros argue that true, valuable, and insightful books can only be written when combined with lots and lots of walking.

True walking.

Not the kind you do when you’re out shopping, rushing to get to the train station, or going to the hairdresser around the corner.

True walking is when you’re out in nature without a destination or goal to achieve, with no purpose whatsoever. It’s just you, Mother Nature, and your thoughts. Often for hours on end—even though it’ll only feel like a few minutes at most after you’re done. That’s how time functions when out in the open, connected to the world around you, and without a care in your mind; the flow gets all tangled up and you have no idea how many seconds, minutes, or even hours have passed.

“What’s the point of telling me all this?” you might ask.

Well, it’s simple really.

First, it might be a worthwhile idea to go on more walks, experience life more clearly, and inspire you to write your next masterpiece.

Second, and this is where today’s marketing lesson comes in, the first Thoreau quote I shared helps you answer the question of “What problem does an author solve?”.

To clarify what I mean, take a look at the following quote by famous comic book writer, publisher, and producer, Stan Lee, who single-handedly grew one of the biggest multimedia enterprises to date:

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“Entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain people, you're doing a good thing.”

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Or in other words, you’re helping people want to live (and live differently).

You can prove this to yourself by looking at people’s expenditures during difficult economic times, filled with doubt, uncertainty, and anxiety. You’d expect people to start saving more and only spending their hard-earned money on basic needs for survival such as food, shelter, hygiene, and transportation.

Instead what you’ll find is, yes people will spend more of their budget on those things (relatively speaking), yet they’ll also start spending a lot more money on entertainment as well.

After all, what good is mere survival without the will to live?

Now, you might nod your head while reading this and think “okay that’s cool”, but not so fast. Because this is truly important news for you to keep in mind as long as you work in the entertainment industry—which, at this point, almost everyone does to a certain extent.

Why?

Because that’s the key to all your marketing!

The big question people always have is “what can you do for me?”, no matter if they’re buying new clothes, booking a vacation, taking a language course, or shopping for new books in their local Barnes & Noble.

You simply cannot succeed in your marketing endeavor if you’re not aware of ‘what you can do for them’, or in other words, ‘what problem you’re solving’—a question that is a lot easier to answer in non-entertainment-related markets.

Speaking of marketing…

I’ve been busy working on a paid ad course, specifically for independent creatives active in the entertainment industry, which will help you create profitable ads, built upon age-old direct marketing knowledge, in such a simple and streamlined way that you don’t have to waste years of your life getting a PhD in advertising, so you have more to do what you love most.

It’s not quite here yet, but it will be soon…

So keep an eye out for that.

Humans say “People dumb. Write simple.”

Me not agree.

Yes, difficult bad. But people dumb no.

Still write simple? They notice. People insulted. Not good relationship. People go. You zero sales. Business bad.

Better:

Write entertaining. Respect people. Do special. Yes write short. But use occasional difficult word.

Diversify.

That how humans like you.

Good relationship. Good business. Good sales. They happy. You happy. Everyone happy.

Yes.

For learn more good tips.

Go: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla

It only takes you one Google Search to be bombarded with dozens of articles, blogs, videos, courses, podcasts, interviews, or social media posts telling you how to monetize an email list.

More.

90% of those (if not more) will tell you to get as many people as you can onto your list (or newsletter as they’re most likely referring to), disregarding the quality of the readers you’re inviting to be on your list and then to continuously run ads or accept sponsorships.

And while this isn’t a bad business model per se—especially not for people who just like to write long articles and not have to worry about anything else—it’s far from the most effective, reliable, or even the simplest method there is.

Again, I’m not saying that type of model is bad.

It’s just not for me.

I would much rather build a small but extremely focused and high-quality (quality over quantity here) email list filled with readers eager to read what I write and buy what I offer them.

The only downside to this type of business model?

You need something of your own to sell your readers. But seeing as you’re on my list, chances are you’ve got that covered already (or will have soon enough).

In this case, many of the so-called “list-building hacks” other people can’t shut up about don’t actually work for us. Running paid ads to your (free) email opt-in won’t do you any good. Neither will social media giveaways where you ask for people’s email addresses in exchange for some random freebie they’ll receive—most, if not all, of the social media game will actively work against you since that’s very much a quantity over quality type of medium.

You might have noticed that all the above methods I mentioned share one common theme.

They all focus on getting people on your list by promising them FREE (!) stuff.

Unfortunately, the people you’ll attract this way are the same type of people who’ll get angry at you for trying to sell them something—even if it’s a $5 product that might literally change their lives forever.

These types of people won’t help you run a business—which is what you’re trying to do after all.

A better way is to pre-qualify and pre-sell people as soon as they enter your world through one of the many portals you’ve scattered around the internet (I’ll dive deeper into this specific topic of “building your world and opening portals” in other emails—as well as in an upcoming course all about business worldbuilding).

That means, to immediately let them know you plan on selling them something.

Don’t hide this fact. It’s not only stupid, crooked, and absolutely visible to everyone with half an eye sticking out their ass. It’s also the smartest thing you could do. Doing so sets the stage for the future and it repels any and all cheapskates who won’t ever buy anything from you anyway.

This doesn’t mean you HAVE to sell them something straight away… but a simple tripwire (before or after joining your list) or one-time offer when they subscribe to your list (even if they choose not to buy) goes a long way.

I’ll go deeper into how to grow an email list in my flagship course, Email Valhalla, which teaches you everything you need to know to run your own email-centered business as a creative, including how to write simple and effective daily emails that get you paid and keep your readers reading day after day.

Click here for more information about Email Valhalla: https://alexvandromme.com/valhalla