So today I learned an interesting technical lesson. That "secret message" didn't go out in the email, at least not to me. I hit send to everyone, and waited. And waited. Usually the emails arrive very quickly, but not always. After a few minutes I said fuck it and deleted the secret message and updated the post. Then mere moments later my email comes in and ... no fucking secret message!
The fuck? Anyway, it seemed to wait until the last moment when I saved the updated version then sent. Whatever. Next time I want to do that I guess I need to wait until I actually get the stupid email.
If you missed it, here it is:
Hi. It’s Mr. Italics again. If you were around last time, you’ll recall that this part only goes out in the email, then gets immediately deleted for the permanent post. It’s basically a heads up that there are folks with Substack pages who follow me and can benefit from this bit of hard-learned marketing knowledge I have to impart. Anyfuckingway, if you have zero interesting in learning some marketing shit, specifically of the variety that involves using Facebook ads to grow an email list, then skip this fucker. I’ll send ya some cool history shit that you actually signed up for soon. Promise.
Someone just posted this on my Facebook. I’m honored.
“ James Fell as an independently published author, I have taken lots of courses on ads and marketing. I have followed all kinds of people who claim to know what they're doing. The information I just got from you in this post is a thousand times better than anything I've paid for. And so to thank you, I'm going to go buy your book.”
"Wisdom that comes late is better than coming never."
Old Pennsylvania Dutch saying: "We get too soon old and too late smart."
How They Pronounce it: "Vee gits too soon oldt und too late shmardt."
Did you know that the word Zuck is an all purpose Eastern European cuss word. Go ahead, shout it out. It'll scare most small animals and nosey neighbors.
The way you know your writing is addictive is, I care much less than I probably should about things like this - and I read the whole darn thing because I enjoyed it.
Regarding advice to younger selves. I started learning guitar a few years ago, approaching my middle 60s. Occasionally, I would I should’ve done in my teens. But then, I always think I’d have gotten rich and famous and died of drugs or alcohol long ago. Certainly tried hard enough without being rich or famous. Will include the Ferrari from now on.
Thanks for the tip. I'm going to give this a try, even though I swore that I would never give the Eye of Sauron another cent of my money. I love your idea of telling all my Facebook followers that I've gathered over a decade to come sign up for my email newsletter on my website. You're right. I post something, and I have a little over 7,000 followers, which isn't great. But I get a view rate of like 50, which is absolutely horrendous. So, I'm going to try your tip and give Zuckerfuck a few bucks to try to get people to follow me away from the awfulness that is Crackbook.
The good news is that it shouldn't cost much more than $80 to reach them all (I'd spread it out over three days). And at that price you can hit them again and again and I bet you'll convert a couple thousand of them over time.
So today I learned an interesting technical lesson. That "secret message" didn't go out in the email, at least not to me. I hit send to everyone, and waited. And waited. Usually the emails arrive very quickly, but not always. After a few minutes I said fuck it and deleted the secret message and updated the post. Then mere moments later my email comes in and ... no fucking secret message!
The fuck? Anyway, it seemed to wait until the last moment when I saved the updated version then sent. Whatever. Next time I want to do that I guess I need to wait until I actually get the stupid email.
If you missed it, here it is:
Hi. It’s Mr. Italics again. If you were around last time, you’ll recall that this part only goes out in the email, then gets immediately deleted for the permanent post. It’s basically a heads up that there are folks with Substack pages who follow me and can benefit from this bit of hard-learned marketing knowledge I have to impart. Anyfuckingway, if you have zero interesting in learning some marketing shit, specifically of the variety that involves using Facebook ads to grow an email list, then skip this fucker. I’ll send ya some cool history shit that you actually signed up for soon. Promise.
Someone just posted this on my Facebook. I’m honored.
“ James Fell as an independently published author, I have taken lots of courses on ads and marketing. I have followed all kinds of people who claim to know what they're doing. The information I just got from you in this post is a thousand times better than anything I've paid for. And so to thank you, I'm going to go buy your book.”
"Wisdom that comes late is better than coming never."
Old Pennsylvania Dutch saying: "We get too soon old and too late smart."
How They Pronounce it: "Vee gits too soon oldt und too late shmardt."
Did you know that the word Zuck is an all purpose Eastern European cuss word. Go ahead, shout it out. It'll scare most small animals and nosey neighbors.
The way you know your writing is addictive is, I care much less than I probably should about things like this - and I read the whole darn thing because I enjoyed it.
Regarding advice to younger selves. I started learning guitar a few years ago, approaching my middle 60s. Occasionally, I would I should’ve done in my teens. But then, I always think I’d have gotten rich and famous and died of drugs or alcohol long ago. Certainly tried hard enough without being rich or famous. Will include the Ferrari from now on.
Fuck Zuck and FB!
Thanks for the tip. I'm going to give this a try, even though I swore that I would never give the Eye of Sauron another cent of my money. I love your idea of telling all my Facebook followers that I've gathered over a decade to come sign up for my email newsletter on my website. You're right. I post something, and I have a little over 7,000 followers, which isn't great. But I get a view rate of like 50, which is absolutely horrendous. So, I'm going to try your tip and give Zuckerfuck a few bucks to try to get people to follow me away from the awfulness that is Crackbook.
The good news is that it shouldn't cost much more than $80 to reach them all (I'd spread it out over three days). And at that price you can hit them again and again and I bet you'll convert a couple thousand of them over time.
Sweet. Thanks again! Love your work BTW.
Thanks! Good info, and especially appreciate the link to your marketing gurus. I also hate marketing. 😜
James, we've loved working with you and looking forward to sticking it to Zuck even more on your behalf :)
OMG I just reread the title. Yep 😂😭🤣
This is pretty useful for an aspiring writer like me. Thank you for sharing.
I just now got the title of this post.
Bravo, sir. As a bona-fide Meta ads specialist person-a-ma-bob, bra-VO.
Thank you for these golden nuggets of wisdom!
Glad this worked for you James and appreciate you sharing it with all of us
I have ADHD too and darn that "oh look a squirrel" brain sometimes.
My current hyper focus is pin collecting but I need to remember to do the work that pays the bills first.
I'm just stunned at your subscriber count(s). I stand in awe, and I am glad to be here, supporting your great work!
I was kind of interested in why FB seems to be throttling back on your views. Seeing as that was a big reason you moved to
Substack.
Not just mine. Everyones. Details in this piece: https://jamesfell.substack.com/p/important-announcement-d0b
Very useful advice. Thank you.