Inside Pauls Brain

Today I got a email from someone who is doing his friend a favor, now online is no different to offline we have friends and if they are in trouble we try and help them.

This email was basically saying that the person needed to make $40 so he could pay his hosting!
$40..

Now someone else I know recently had a huge medical bill come in and asked for some help as he had already sunk everything he had into a project. It is different asking for help with a $3k medical bill than for a $40 hosting bill.

I am pretty sure I could send a email to my list today doing a 24 hour special on one or another of my products and make $40 without to much trouble. But would I tell them I was in such dire financial crap that I needed to basically beg them to buy something so I could pay my hosting bill (which is a lot more than $40 a month by the way)..no I wouldn’t.

I am sure it is the amount that is bothering me rather than the fact that he asked for help, $40 just seems such a small amount to not be able to find, if you are working online and have a list and your own products there is no reason you should ever be in that level of need.

Maybe it is some marketing ploy that I am not aware of, it sure does seem to be happening more and more, a bit like the “i sent you the wrong link” or “my server melted” emails that are everywhere these days.

Ok rant over, if you know why these emails are appearing more often let me know, maybe I will have to start using it..lol

Every once in a while something happens that makes me laugh, sometimes in a “that’s funny” way and sometimes in a “that’s weird” way.
I am the first to admit that I love software, I love coming up with ideas and I love proving the idea works. I am not so hot on the actual marketing side of things.
If I am selling it then it must be good and people should just buy because I ask them to..
Which apparently isn’t the way it works!

Luckily enough Stewart Alexander who is my partner in the Comment Hut project has been dragging me kicking and screaming into the marketing side of things. This means I am dealing more and more with people who don’t know me and who I don’t know.
We sent out a email to our list of people who have signed up for and downloaded Comment Hut Lite over the last year, we haven’t emailed them for a while as Stewart has been on a nice long holiday to Jamaica and I seem to be spending every waking minute looking after Elizabeth.

The responses to the email have made me feel warm and fuzzy , offended and then just caused me to laugh out loud at peoples responses.
Some people emailed me asking how the family are, what am I working on next and other normal questions.
Some people emailed me saying they were getting out of IM as they have never managed to make any money.
One person emailed me a long email telling me how stupid I was as no one would ever email me back (this is the one that made me laugh in a “thats weird” kind of way).

It has served to reassure me that the people on my lists are just that, People. They are not faceless numbers to be sold to, they are real people and as such every one if different.
It is hard not to get upset when someone sends me something offensive, but I am trying to stop taking that so personally.

I wonder if people would speak to me face to face the way they seem quite to via email?

All in all I think email marketing is a real art, but life would be easier if everyone realized that everything I release is A1 and they should just buy it without being asked!