business
Algorithm vs. Audience
From Rene Ritchie [https://twitter.com/reneritchie/status/1387781270344699905] (who recently went from employee to independent publisher): > “Replace ‘algorithm’ with ‘audience’ and it’s 900x better for your mental health. From powerless to empowered. You’re the one at bat, picking the swings. You won’t connect every time.
Put relationships first.
This has been the conclusion I’ve reached at middle age as well — about marketing, publishing, business, parenting, everything. We’re hardwired for this. That’s why it’s so prominent in my personal publishing principles [https://www.cjchilvers.com/personal-publishing-principles/]. From Cal Newport via Lex Fridman [https://youtu.be/
How does it make you feel?
Carlo from The DO Lecture series [https://thedolectures.com]: > “It’s not how it looks, it’s how it makes you feel.” Even though he’s talking about work spaces here, I think this is a sentence we could use to describe anything we create and market — or just
You Need 2 Things
Whenever I write copy for a marketing campaign or new product, I ask for two things: 1. Who is the audience? 2. What is the goal of this piece? It’s rare to get a straight answer for both — even from billion-dollar companies (especially from billion-dollar companies). Both are required
Audience First Vs. Product First
Every year (maybe six months lately), creators post about why you should create a products, then build an audience for the product; or build an audience first and create products based on their needs. It’s a false choice. Reject this premise. You need both. Both need constant attention. Both
Get Your Ass Kicked
From Brené Brown [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9855106-if-you-are-not-in-the-arena-getting-your-ass] via Weekly Thing [https://weekly.thingelstad.com/]: > “If you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, I am not interested in or open to your feedback. There are a million cheap seats in the world today
Experiment 1: Sivers Style
The reason I moved my personal site was to start some experiments — to see what I liked to publish and what my readers liked too. The first experiment was to implement the same idea Derek Sivers had last year with his books. I think it’s genius. The idea he
My Door Is Always Open
Nat Geo put up a great photo essay on rural post offices [https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/history/2020/10/rural-post-office] . See those old P.O. boxes? When my post office modernized in (back in the 90s), they offered to sell us the old “doors” to our boxes.
9 Lessons on Landing Pages
I just spent 3 months in meetings and writing sessions helping to create a landing page and content strategy for a new product that I can’t tell you about — you’re not in the product’s audience anyway, so it doesn’t matter. What I can tell you, now