Hello friends, as some of you may be aware, ThriveCart has had a couple major outages this year. Personally, I haven't been able to process a single transaction since March 5. Curious if anyone uses a different cart that works better than this thing that looks like a late 1990s website? Unfortunately I also use ThriveCart for course delivery so migration would mean moving all my courses too. Thank you for your time and hopefully your words of encouragement.

The last few days, I've sent emails to my list offering to help people run a 36-hour promo. A few specific requirements for that promo: 1. An offer you've promoted often, and your list knows about and wants, but hasn't pulled the trigger on 2. A price of $300+ It was surprising to me how many people who raised their hands only had offers in the $27-$57 range. If you want to make more money with your email list, an easy thing you can do today is to raise your prices, because: 1. If the top thing you sell is $27 instead of, say, $297, it takes 11 more buyers to make the same money 2. Selling a $297 product is NOT 11x more difficult than a $27 product, and in many cases it can actually be easier 3. Your overall positioning is way better if you offer something at $297+ rather than if you simply sell $27 offers On that last point: Imagine paying somebody $2k/month for coaching if they only sell a $27 offer. It's possible you might decide to do so, but to me at least, the price disparity immediately puts questions in my mind. On the other hand, imagine paying somebody $2k/month for coaching if they repeatedly sell a $500 course. $2k in this case immediately sounds affordable, and if anything, I'd be willing to pay more and I'd still feel like it's a good deal. So how do you raise your prices and reap the benefits? As with everything else, you start with what you've already got. In other words, simply raise the prices of an offer you already have. You don't have to go to $27 to $297. Any kind of a meaningful increase is likely to make you sales during the promo, and be good for business long term. So lemme ask you: Do you want to run a price increase promo this month? And not feel alone, not feel like you're going to screw things up, not wonder what to do? Vote away below. If we get enough people a-voting, we can make a challenge out of it and run it together.

I've been going through a presentation by Jeff Walker of Product Launch Formula fame. Here's a bit that particularly stuck with me. Says Jeff: === When I'm looking to run a launch I'm as much interested in what strategic benefit does it have to me in addition to any money I could make. I'm a big believer in thinking long term. That's one of my competitive advantages, that I always think very long term. === Sounds really good, except.. ... what does "strategic benefit" really mean? And how do you think long-term? I'm not just farming for engagement here. I'm genuinely asking, because my time horizon is like 3 days. To help me with that, I just sat down and made a list of "10 kinds of strategic benefits of a launch." I wanna hear yours as well, because I'm sure I'm missing some. If you're game, we can play the usual "Battleship" format. If you name a strategic benefit that's on my list, I'll confirm it. If you name one I don't have, I'll give you one I have that hasn't been named yet. The game goes on until I'm sunk. Your turn.

Two days ago, I got on the call with the winner of the Daily Email House Teaching Tournament, Nick "The Slick" Bandy. Nick's promise was a "low-stress ad funnel to a low-ticket product that runs at a VERY slight profit, indefinitely." Nick has created such a funnel for himself, which has been growing his list over the past year with 100+ buyers every month, while actually making Nick about $1.50 for every $1 he puts into ads, even before he makes any offers via his emails. The question that Nick and I didn't know the answer to was how to best package up and present this promise. Maybe you can tell us. Would you simply want to have Nick do this for you? Or would you want to work with Nick in tandem to get this low-stress and profitable funnel done with his help? Or do you just want to hear Nick lay out the secrets of how his funnel works, so you can go off and work on this yourself? Let us know, and your votes will determine what ends up happening:

What would you do differently? A dude who had signed up to my email list a few months ago, and who has never really interacted with me directly except for buying something from me once, replied to my broadcast email yesterday. (My email yesterday was a handraiser for an auction I'm considering running.) The dude's reply basically went like this: 1. He opened by saying he doesn't want to bother me but he feels I might be able to help 2. He then laid out his situation (not really unique, basically he has a website that gets no visitors or users) 3. He then asked politely if I can offer him some tips I looked over this email for a bit... clicked through to the site for a second... and then simply closed it all down, without responding. Any guesses as to why? And no, it's not (just) because I'm a dick. Instead, it is because I am petty. Specifically, there were two "rubs me the wrong way" things about this guy's message that made me predisposed to not helping him, even before I clicked through to his website. I realize it might be hard to gauge based on the bare bones outline of the guy's email I've shared up above, but I don't want to include the original message, because the guy was being nice and polite, and somehow it doesn't feel cool. Still, I think this is a opportunity to discover something new and important, if you're ever looking to start a relationship online with somebody you don't know, maybe by reaching out to them over email. What did this dude do wrong (2 things)... and what could he have done differently? If you like, guess away in the comments below. (I promise you, it's there in the outline of his message. But if you want to ask clarifying questions, I'm game.)