Howdy Reader! One of my former colleagues is caring for his wife through an injury. She slipped and broke both the tibia and fibula on one ankle. A pretty nasty break, especially in the cold of winter. I sent a message to him wishing her a good recovery. He responded: "I always regarded you as one of the kindest people I know. Thanks for being you." How often do we get thanked for just being ourselves? That's really all we should be, right? It's what people connect with. Let's grow together!...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I find new uses for ChatGPT regularly. We got a few lots of items yesterday. I wanted to understand what they were and how much they typically cost. All it took was a couple of pictures and ChatGPT nailed it: Apple Watch 1, 2, and 3 screen protectors 1-to-3 fan splitters for desktop assembly Acrylic blanks for keychains or ornaments It's a big time-saver when researching product details. Listing faster means selling more. Bring it on! Let's grow together! ~ John P.S. Check out...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I sell a bit on eBay. For this year, all of my sales center around one thing: Currency with special serial numbers. My knowledge has led me to 1) buy dollar bills for under two dollars apiece, and 2) sell them for nearly $12 each. Eleven dollar bills have sold this year for a total of $130. Not bad! They just kind of sat there until buyers found them. Thing is, I didn't learn about these overnight. I've spent many hours over the past year looking at auctions, and curating my...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! There's passive income, like dividends and interest. Then there's residual income, like royalties, commissions, and product sales. This week I sold a couple more copies of my Obsidian Starter Kit for Content Creators. Three dollars and sixty-two cents, after fees. It's proof of concept income, but not "I can quit now" income. The main driver, all other things being equal, is traffic. More people visiting the sales page means more sales, other things being equal. By doing more of...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! Dick Van Dyke turns 100 today. He's in a class all his own, of course. But even just considering his age, he's still in an elite group: Only 1 in about 5,000 people in the US live to 100. A hundred years, as long as that is, is only 5,217 weeks. For us "mere mortals," we might get around 4,000. Every TGIF ticks one of those weeks off the calendar. Make sure they count! Let's grow together! ~ John P.S. Check out my writing on Medium Note: Some links in this email may be affiliate...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! Reddit is huge. Redditors are also very savvy and can smell BS a mile away. I've been commenting over there in a few subreddits. No selling, no plugging, just being helpful. This is the counterintuitive part: It's less going out to find people than it is people finding you. That's how I'm interacting with people to do deals. They see what I write, and reach out to me. Pay it forward! Let's grow together! ~ John P.S. Check out my writing on Medium Note: Some links in this email...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! How do you sell a $97 product? I actually don't know. I haven't sold one yet. But I am selling a $3 product. (Here it is.) Three sales have come in from articles I've written. That's the first step: Selling a low-priced product. I get some customer feedback, and build the product out. Then I'd sell that version for $9. Rinse, and repeat, and I'd sell it for $19. Then $47. Then $97. Sell something small as proof of concept, then build it up. Let's grow together! ~ John P.S. Check...
10 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! After last night's email, I got a message from my client. He asked how my week was going. He also mentioned that I was up late last night. Because he reads my newsletter. To be fair, he's a good friend and we've encouraged one another for a while. But it's a helpful reminder that emails, comments, likes, whatever aren't the whole story. Those are the indications you can see. Beyond that, though, there are more people that are reading or watching what you do. So the post that...
11 days ago • 1 min read
Howdy Reader! I'll make an admission to you. Right now it's 3:21 AM, and I'm writing this newsletter. It's been close to an hour, going back and forth from different websites frantically in search of some idea. Then I looked at the timer I don't use nearly enough. I finally set my Secura timer for 5 minutes to get it done. And I found something to talk about in that time. Deadlines work. Let's grow together, even if it's ugly. ~ John P.S. Check out my blog or my writing on Medium Note: Some...
12 days ago • 1 min read