In another thread, @Gc Tsalamagkakis asks about email stories, like the equivalent of social media updates: "Like, I have a cool new update about something coming up, but I don't wanna write a whole ass email to my list about it + I might already have a different email programmed for the day." About that, I already have my emails scheduled for this week. So let me try a Skool story. I have been almost completely away from this group for the past week because I have been on a boat in Greece. Mostly without reception. And in any case away from the computer. I gotta admit, it's been great! Photos attached for proof. ⛵🌊🇬🇷☀️🧿🐬🍉🍷⚓🏝️😎🐙🔥🛥️💸🌞🧜‍♂️🐟🍾🌬️📍😵‍💫💙 #BornToYachtForcedToWork #HellenicMainCharacterEnergy #SponsoredByTzatziki #MarinaMenace #DrunkOnOliveOil #AegeanSeaEmotionalSupportProgram #CertifiedIslandHopper #HydratedByOuzo #AncientGreekInfluencer #ZeusTakeTheWheel #FloatingTaxWriteoff #NoLandlordCanReachMeHere #MykonosMentallyDelusional #SailFirstAskQuestionsLater

Over the past few days, I've been teasing a Tour de Commandments event I will be running starting May 11, to mark one year since I published my 10 Commandments of Con Men etc. book. My plan for this event is to offer people a bunch of valuable, sexy, irresistible bonuses if they get multiple paperback copies of my book. I already have a few bonuses in mind. One of these will be an implementation call, which multiple people have told me they want. Basically, examples of how I have used these 10 commandments in real life, in my own newsletter and the surrounding business... along with an opportunity to workshop how you can use them in what you do. I also have other bonuses in mind. But before I reveal those, I want to know, what would you want me to offer? What kind of a bonus could I create or make available to entice you to get, say, 5 copies of my book? What would make it a no-brainer? Let me know below and odds are good it will become reality.

Yesterday I wrote a post about unwritten rules that strengthen groups. That post got... 10 likes and 5 people to comment, in a group of 483 members. Maybe it was a particularly bad or irrelevant post. In any case it seems like a good time to talk about written rules. I recently joined a Facebook group. The group is about the same size as Daily Email House, but it's much more engaged. People are enthusiastically introducing themselves in the group as soon as they join (as did I)... ... spontaneously writing up new posts and starting new discussions all the time... ... commenting on others' posts all the time. How? Simple. The group has written rules stating that you have to introduce yourself when you join, and participate once you're inside, or you will get kicked out. And the moderators follow through on these rules. What do you think about that? Please comment below. Or don't. But I've decided to start doing the same: Periodically and randomly and brutally removing people who don't participate inside Daily Email House. Your choice.

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?

I've been going through the feedback I got to the last pre-auction poll I ran in this community. Frankly wasn't enough interest to run that auction, which was for a course to teach you how to run auctions (I know, very meta). Still, I followed up with folks who said they would bid $1 on the auction. I wanted to find out why they offered to bid, and if they are genuinely interested in learning more about auctions. I got lotsa answers. One thread I found was that folks, even though they may be interested in auctions, seemed to doubt they themselves could pull off an auction, either with their own audience or with a partner. So I had an idea. What if we had a playground, a sandbox, where folks could run fun, low-stakes auctions, both to get experience and to prove to themselves they can actually do this? There would have to be guardrails in place to make sure the auctions stayed low-stakes and fun. I was thinking the bidding could start at $0.01, and only go up by a penny, or a nickel, or a dime. Maybe there would also be a tight time limit, like 5 minutes? For the bidders, the point here would be to have fun bidding, more than, "Let's buy really serious stuff." For the auctioneers, this would be an opportunity to practice running an auction without stress, and to get experience coming up with a tiny but still sexy offer. As for what those tiny but still sexy offers could, there are lots of possible ideas, and I'm open to all of them. The thing that came to my mind would simply be a single bit of information. For example, in response to my email yesterday (and pretty much in response to every email in which I mention a book I'm reading without naming it), I got a reader writing in: "Is it possible for you to share the name of the book you're reading, please?" Hell no. Not for free. But for a penny... maybe we could talk about it? So let me ask you: Is this "Penny Auction Playground" a dumb idea? Would you come spectate? Would you even participate? Would you bid? Would you run your own penny auction?