I recently rewatched an old movie called Seconds. Uncomfortable, but also very interesting. I won't give away the plot here, in case you ever want to go see it yourself. I'll just share a quote I wrote down, because it was relevant to what we all do: "You know son, when I began this business, I was a young man with an idea. I wasn't aiming to make a lot of money. Helping others, help them to find a little happiness. Oh heck, not just the rich. You see, I got tremendous comfort in the thought that in my small way I was waging a battle against human misery. And I was, too! Except we do have a high percentage of failures. I guess that's to be expected, but it hurts me." If you are in the information selling business... I reckon you got into it at least in part to wage a battle against human misery, in your own small way. I also reckon that you have a high percentage of failures. Regardless of how good your information is. Regardless of how accessible you try to make it. Regardless of how hard you try to motivate people. People just don't get the results that you know are possible, or any results at all. Does this hurt you? Do you just shrug it off and say, "That's to be expected"? I'm curious about your experiences, what you think about this, and what if anything you do about it. Let me know. And if you like I can share what my experiences are and what I think and do.

A reader forwarded me another marketer's email that said, "Are email agencies fucked?" And she (the reader who forwarded me the message) asked: "I wanted to know what you thought of this - is the writing on the wall for email copywriting?" That was two days ago. Yesterday I saw a promo (in my email inbox) with the subject line, "R.I.P. Email Marketing." And last week, I polled my readers on a different question, and got a response from a reader (and member of Daily Email House), who runs a 6-figure info publishing and coaching business. He wrote: "The sales from emails are really down, I sell maybe 10 % of my revenue through email, the rest is from ads and I am sending good emails, if I say so myself and almost daily." Is something in the water that I failed to notice? Or is email marketing dying? Any thoughts or better yet direct experiences?

Hidden deep in a comment on another thread, @Maliha M reports on a potential partner who stopped responding. (Full details of the interaction below.) How would you follow up to get the guy talking again? Think a bit and write your best take in the comments below. Maybe we can help Maliha come up with a strategy she can test out and report on. But even sooner than that... A moment spent thinking now will pay you back if you ever want to find a list swap partner... an affiliate partner... somebody to sponsor your newsletter... somebody whose newsletter you can sponsor... a reader who can pay you $1k for an offer you're making etc. People drop off. At all points. For all kinds of reasons. Following up with them is a fundamental habit and skill. Here are the details of the interaction Maliha has had so far: ----- I left this message in a group recently: "Would anyone like to "sponsor" my newsletter, but instead of paying me with money, you hop on a Zoom call with me, and teach one thing to my audience in a quick 15-20 minute presentation? I will share this video in my tiny community... but I'll share your link (newsletter, lead magnet, or whatever you want) as a classified ad in my newsletter. What you teach must be relevant to my readers, of course. (Marketers, bloggers, newsletter writers, copywriters, and creators in general.) Let me know if anyone is curious!" ----- To which, and to my astonishing surprise, my favorite humor writer chimed in (didn't even know he was in that group!!!), and said: "I'm interested! I've been working on some ideas around “How to be funny” for exactly this kind of thing." ----- I took it to DM and gave him some details of what I expect, to which he wrote... a week+ later: "Hey Maliha, sorry for the delay on this. Sounds fun! I'd be happy to talk about easy ways/strategies to incorporate humor. Let me know what you're thinking as far as schedule etc." ----- To which I wrote back: "Don't worry about it. As for schedule, I'm pretty flexible. Just give me a couple of days and times when you're free and I'll make it work."

Time for the Episode 2 of the reality TV show known as Daily Email House! As you might know, last month I ran an auction here in Daily Email House. It went purty good. The winning bid was $31k. The winning bidder was @Nick Bandy, who I endorse for President and also to guide you to bigger, better clients and more stability. All that was Episode 1 of Bejako Reality TV. In the aftermath of Episode 1, I had a number of people reach out and say... "Yeah auctions are good and all, BUT what if you're not auctioning off custom, unique, done-with-you stuff? What if you've got, say, a course, which has infinite copies? How do you auction that off, huh? I could tell ya. But I'd rather show ya. And that's why I'm gonna hold: Episode 2: An EVERYONE CAN WIN auction! Along with people asking me how to auction off courses and such, lots of people asked me to create a course on how to run an auction. To everyone who wrote me that, I said that will not be happening, because that course already exists, and it's the course I myself followed in running my auction. And combining those two ideas — a course on how to run auctions, and an auction for a course — we get the main plot line of Episode 2. Here's what's on offer: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1. The "24 HOUR FUN AUCTION" training ===> This training was originally ONLY available inside Travis Sago's $2k/year Royalty Ronin community ===> I followed Travis's training STEP BY STEP in running my own auction, and Travis's auction secrets are absolutely responsible for this auction going up to $31k the way it did. ====> Everybody else who you might have seen running an auction lately is following this same blueprint — because it works! 2. My own notes on Travis's "24 HOUR FUN AUCTION" training ====> I went through this training twice: once before my auction, and once after the auction, with new understanding. I'll share with you everything I think is key in this training 3. Everything I learned from my own auction (51 points)

@Ann V comes up with a great suggestion: "What if we had a dedicated weekly thread just for sharing what we’re currently working on? Not the finished product, not the big win, but the messy middle. It could be, 'I’m struggling to write the hook for this email,' or 'I’m trying to figure out this new landing page layout.' This lowers the bar for sharing, makes success feel more achievable, and directly creates those "if they can do it, I can do it" moments." I think this is a great idea, and so I am officially kicking off this thread right now. I'll even share my "messy middle" situation in the first comment below.