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Daeus posted an update 6 years, 7 months ago
Alright, here’s how my crazy idea will work if you’re willing to join on. Basically, I want to hire you as a short term ambassador for me.
Here’s the details. It requires that you think other people would like to read my stories. The work you’d do is contact people you know and briefly share this link with them where they can get an anthology I’m working on: http://www.thescratchingquill.com/the-golden-ziggurat/
How I want to compensate people if I do this large scale is to give them par 1 and/or part 2 of my Show Don’t Tell Course if they can get so many people to sign up for my email list.
The reason I’m looking for betas like you is because I want to know 1, if this idea will even work 2, how to do it better and 3, what’s a reasonable amount of friends one person can get to join on.
As a beta, I’ll give you access to part 1 of my course simply for trying (though I think you already have it) and if you can get thirty people to sign up I’ll give you part 2 ($99 value). If you already have part two, you’ll get part 3 free when it comes out.
You see my philosophy. A lot of people feel like they can’t afford part 2 of my course, but they also can’t afford not to study show don’t tell. Letting them work for me is the ultimate win win situation. At least I hope so. 😛
If you’re interested, let me know. I can also answer any questions you have or help you brainstorm how to do this effectively. (I will be out Monday-Thursday though.) Basically, I’d recommend reaching out to people via email, Facebook messaging, or an in-person sign up form.
The tricky part will be tracking how many people sign up if you share it via email or online. You can ask them to tell you if they sign up, use a bitly link, and at the end of the day you might just have to make an estimate of how many people signed up. If you come up with any better ideas, that’d be great.
Hopefully I covered all the basics. Like I said, message me if you have any questions.
@daeus Okay! That makes sense! (Is this where I ask the questions, or do I email you?)
So I’m looking on your link. Basically when people push it does it automatically sign them up for your newsletter?
One problem is I don’t use social media… Could I print out some advertisements and give them out at church or school? Would texting also work?
Ohhhh, yeah, tracking links would be hard… I suppose if I do the printed advertisements I could also say: “email me at so-and-so to let me know you clicked the link so Daeus can keep track etc.” But I don’t know how cyber-safe that actually is…
I have seen some pages that can actually track how many people follow a link. Like Josiah’s Story Ember sweepstakes page knows when I have took a peek at their Facebook account, or certain blogs show the number of visits so the blogger knows how popular the blog is, and which posts are most popular. I’m not much of a techie, but do you think you could do something like that for your page?
I would be interested in trying your idea! And no, I do not have your Show Don’t Tell course. 😉 Good deal!
More questions to come… hopefully all today since I’m going on that hiatus.
You can contact me here if you prefer it to email, yes.
You’re correct that when someone signs up for the book, they are subscribed. (Fyi, the newsletter goes out about once a month.)
You know what, thanks for the suggestion about tracking visitors. I realized I’m able to do something of the sort. This is your personal link for getting signups. (http://www.thescratchingquill.com/the-golden-ziggurat-dekreel/) Any signups from this link will count in your favor, even if you get friends to help you find people to sign up.
If want to collect subscribers manually, I’d suggest you use a signup sheet which you can scan and send to me.
@daeus Oh, wow, thanks! I’ve already sent out the link to a couple friends and family… 😉 Or is it too early for that? o.o
When you say “collect subscribers manually,” do you mean keep track of who signs up for the newsletter and making a log out of it? I think that makes sense…
Mannn, I wish my server would let me download your book!!
BTW I will probably be gone from KP by the time you reply to this message. Maybe we could switch to email…
Yeah, you can get started now and you have the right idea with the signup sheet. Just two columns with the name and email.
If you want to email me, I can manually send you the book as soon as I get a chance.
@daeus Oh! I forgot to mention one thing that’s sort of off topic.
Awhile ago (not today, several weeks ago), I tried downloading your book, but it didn’t work! I don’t remember the details at all, but I just couldn’t access it. I just thought I’d let you know. For all I know, it could have just been my computer… 😛
Hmm. Maybe a browser issue? I just tried it and it worked for me.
Hi @dekreel,
I wanted to check in and see how things are going.
I saw one person signed up through your link so far. Great job!!!
One of the reasons I asked if you’d like to volunteer for this is because I could use some practice mentoring people through how to do this. So if it’s fine by you, I would really appreciate it if I could have a peek into how you’re doing things.
Would you be able to copy and paste 1-3 of the messages you’ve sent to people + let me know what methods you’re using of reaching out to others?
Thanks so much! 😀
Hiya, @daeus! It’s going pretty well. Thanks for checking in. 🙂 Good! That’s something. XD
So far I have only reached out to about four or five people. Mostly family and a couple friends. I did most of it over text messages, saying something like, “A friend of mine recently published his book, and I was wondering if you’d like to read it for free. I’m his official promoter person. And if you read the book and like it, I would suggest you share it with others, too.” (I know. VERY informal and a little nondescript.) I also got to talk to one friend in person, to whom I gave the link on a piece of paper.
And I finally managed to read it! Turns out it was a Pi-Hole issue (if you know what that is…). But I liked it! And now I know what sort of people groups might like it, so that’s great.
Please do let me know if I need to contact more people, or make my methods more formal! I’m enjoying being your… is “ambassador” a good term? o.o Maybe just “promoter person.” XD
Oh, wait, you already said I was an “ambassador.” Never mind… XD
Ah, glad you were able to read it! @dekreel
You can call yourself an ambassador or promoter person. Whichever you like. 🙂
That text looks good, though if you don’t mind, I think it would be great if we could experiment with some slightly different texts to see if we can get better results. So, right now, a quarter of the people you’ve contacted are signing up. Let’s try to move that up to half or more. That way you won’t have to contact as many people. 😛 lol
For experimentation, you might try texting something like this to 4-5 friends and we’ll see if the results are different.
{the link I gave you here}
Hi, {person’s name}. This link is to a set of free stories. I especially like {whichever of the two stories you liked better}. {Optional: insert a short description of why you like it.}
Btw, if you sign up, it could help me earn a free course too. So that would be great!
Another idea is that instead of asking people to share when you first contact them, keep track of whoever signed up, wait a week, and then contact them again asking them if they liked the story. If they respond that they did, contact them again asking them to share your specific link with 3-5 friends to help you get the free course. I can’t guarantee it, but I think you’re more likely to get people to help you that way.
Oh, yeah. And you don’t need to be too formal. Friendly is good.