Is That a Roll of Quarters in My Pocket?

Change. Some people love it, some people hate it. I’ve got a bunch of sliding around in my truck and I’m annoyed by it. I used to use it for vending machines at work, but the place I’m at now is a company that makes micro-markets. They’re pretty cool, you should check them out if you don’t know what they are.

You guessed it though, this post has nothing to do with vending machines. Or pocket change. Or anything resembling a roll of quarters in my pocket. It has to do with necessary changes to move ahead in life and do the things that need doing. In my case, the change involved switching my mailing list for my newsletter. I went from a simple text based email I wrote up every month and sent out via a group of people that had told me they wanted to get emails from me to a fancy mailing list program called Mailchimp.

I’m not getting any kickbacks from any of the links to these companies, mind you – I’m just trying to help anyone interested in learning more. With Mailchimp I have to say I was impressed. The setup was easy, as was importing my existing base of people that had signed up for my newsletter. I’m finding that it offers analytics that are pretty cool too – it helps me learn if I’m wasting my time or not. The answer is not, so that means I push ahead.

You’re possibly thinking that I’m an IT guy and a programmer at that. Of course setting up something is easy. Well let me tell you that I may be able to whip up some pretty cool stuff from time to time, but having to design something for this was not on the plate. I wanted quick and easy. And I got it at a price that was more than reasonable (my level of usage is free – how much more reasonable can you get?). So when I say it was easy I mean it.

So newsletter #1 went out and 40% of the addresses opened it. 3.8% clicked on something in the newsletter. Seem dismal? Well the industry average is 15.6% opening the mail and 1.8% clicking on something contained therein. That’s a win to me, but I’m one of those patient grind it out and achieve success through hard work kinds of people. If you prefer instant success then you probably don’t need to read my books or anybody else’s – you’re living in a fantasy land already!

So there’s nothing exciting about this blog, it’s just a bit of a public service announcement to fellow writers about something I found that seems pretty slick, easy, and affordable. What do I get out of it? Not a darn thing – unless you’re interested in being put on the newsletter mailing list and want to click here to sign up for it.

 

To learn more about Jason Halstead visit his website to read about him, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.

 

New Marketing Tactics

There’s strategies and there’s tactics. My strategy is simple: become a full time writer. That’s my mission statement. To make it happen I need tactics. Tactics don’t win a war, they win battles. Win enough battles and the war is won. My latest tactic: free books.

Wait a minute! How the hell can I give books away if I want to make money at writing books? It sounds like a paradox – or maybe something even worse, like when your girlfriend or wife asks you if her pants still look good on her, then demands honesty. Yeah, for all you guys out there you know what I’m talking about. Now hide that smirk before your significant other sees it and wonders what you’re up to.

So how am I going to pull this rabbit out of my hat? Well it’s simple. I have confidence in my books. It’s not just that I think my books are good, but I’ve been convinced by others that my books are good too. So now my plan is to give away a few of them. These are full length novels, not samples, and I plan on changing them up every month or so.

It’s not just a random book I’m offering either. It’s books that are at the beginning of a series. I think there’s an official name for this sort of thing, but I’m not sure what it is. The important thing to me is that I’m giving away a free book and not trying to trick anybody or attach any hidden strings to the offer. All a person needs to do is go to my website and sign up for my newsletter. From that point on I’ll email them a link and instructions on how to obtain the book. No purchase required and no other information necessary. I don’t make a penny off of this, in fact it’s probably costing my money to do so.

But let’s back up a bit. I may not be making anything off of this but I have every confidence that people will like what they read. Maybe not everyone or maybe not even 90% of them. But if 10% like it enough to want more, well the books I’ll be offering will have sequels waiting for them. In some cases there are multiple sequels available. That’s where it comes back around because that’s where I start to make money on this. If 100 people download my book and 10 of them like it enough to buy the sequel, then odds are good I just made some money. Oh sure, $20 isn’t much but I’m hoping 10 people is only the beginning.

Will it work? I don’t know. It seems like a great idea, but most of mine do. Then, later, I often view it with hindsight and amend my statement to, “It seemed like a good idea at the time…” You can be sure I’ll share the success (or lack of) as it unfolds! Until then, feel free to hop on over to my website, sign up for my newsletter, then I’ll share it with you as soon as I get word of it. http://www.booksbyjason.com/newsletter.aspx

To learn more about Jason Halstead, visit his website to learn about him, his books, sign up for his newsletter, or check out some free samples of his books at http://www.booksbyjason.com.