Adam Baker is filming a documentary.

In his post I’m Filming a Documentary… And Need Your Help!…, he said:

I’m partnering with my good friend and amazing storyteller Grant Peelle to film, create, and distribute a full-length documentary.

The working title is I’m Fine, Thanks and we’re exploring the plague of complacency in everyday life.

They’ll be launching the kickstarter campaign in early April, but there are a number of ways you can help now. Definitely something to get behind! Adam is one of the few bloggers that are really innovating and creating something bigger. Totally worth watching.

Glen Allsopp is releasing a plugin

Glen Allsopp announced that he is launching his first premium WordPress plugin. We wont learn what it is for a few days, but he wrote a BRILLIANT post called 7 Steps to Creating Million-Dollar Web Apps (And a Big Announcement). Definitely worth checking out.

More goss:

• Alexis grant tweeted: ‘Hanging in the hostel today and working on my next #socialmedia ebook.’ She’s talked about how her travel book wasn’t as successful as her social media one, so I’m intrigued as to what angle she is taking with this one.
• David Risley has launched his new podcast, The Blog Program. The first podcast is about creating a blog launch plan.
• John Falchetto launched new website and workshop series. The workshops are located in Dubai but it’ll be interesting to see where he takes it.
• Farnoosh Brock has opened registration to her Smart Exit Blueprint Course. It’s only open until the 27th, so check it out soon! She’s not sure when she’ll be offering this after it closes.
• Kelly Diels has launched an awesome offered called Write Me, I’m Yours. This workshop will help you get your whole website written and finished in one day.
• I just discovered the Roadmap to Action. It’s beautifully designed, has a bunch of testimonials from people I respect. It’s available as a ‘pay what it’s worth’ offer. Note: I love how she set the minimum value at $8. It’s a way to avoid people that just ‘collect’ info-products
• Just discovered this cool webinar that’s running soon: Frustrated to Fearless: 7 Simple Strategies To Pull Off a Pro Launch This Year 
• Henri Juntilla is starting his Lifestyle Business Start-Up Online Workshop on March 1st

Cool articles:

• Interesting guest post at QuickSprout:  Design is Marketing
• Be Everywhere: How I Got 2000+ NEW Visitors To My Site…With A Front Page PowerPoint Presentation on Slideshare I recommend David Crandall for awesome slideshare designs.
• Do you have interviews as part of your prodcuts? This article on a 6 step process is pretty useful
• Tom Ewer did a list post with a twist:  The 100 Blogs You Need In Your Life. It certainly looks like it got some attention.
• Why e-books will be much bigger than you can imagine
• Stacy wrote How to have a successful, less stressful launch without spamming your list: I like how she included a PDF worksheet
• Blog Smarter: Turn Your Blogging Skills into Successful Affiliate Promotions Filed Under: Affiliate Programs 
• Amanda from Violet Minded posted her interview with Danielle Laporte. She also released a really cool pay what you can resource called ‘Hacked, damn it’.

Johanna Penn wrote an interesting article Marketing Direct To Kindle Readers. On Advertising And KDP Select. I haven’t marketed my books – I put them on the kindle as an experiment. I’ve found that offering the book free for 5 days increased the sales from 1 to 5 sales a week.

Giveaway!

I have two copies of The Freelancers’ Guide to Managing Projects to give away.

The Freelancers’ Guide to Managing Projects will take you through each step of breaking down your work into manageable tasks, organizing a schedule, planning your way out of trouble, thinking through risks and coming up with contingencies, and communicating effectively with your project team and clients. Each step has handy worksheets to help you get going, and the book also contains links to free or low-cost project management software, and links to template spreadsheets to help you organize your work.

I’ll be reviewing this guide shortly.

Want to win a copy? Just leave a comment telling me what problems you have with managing projects. I’ll be choosing two names at random to win. Entries close this Friday (Australian Time, so you have two days.) I’ll announce the winner in next weeks issue.

Over to you:

Do you know of any launches that I missed out on? Either comment or email jade@jadecraven.com

His career took off after the launch of Think Traffic, where he has built a vibrant community. I think that he will soon become an A-Lister, if he isn’t already considered one. His work is innovative and focuses on teaching rather then lecturing. His latest course, titled ‘How to Start a Blog That Matters‘, was that impressive that I’ll be reviewing it shortly on Problogger.

I hope this post encourages you to delve into the archives of his sites.

1. Make Your First Post a Viral One

via How To Launch With A Bang (Inside the Launch of Think Traffic)

This is a crucial element of my launch strategy. Instead of launching with a boring “welcome” post, I wanted to give the blog a kick-start. To do that, I carefully planned a viral-ready post that included input from some of the world’s most popular bloggers.

The strategy worked, and the post became popular on both Twitter and StumbleUpon. It also attracted a lot of initial comments. The post also caught the attention of another blogger I admire and respect who asked me to contribute to a big upcoming project.

2. Email your latest blog post to people who might be interested.

via 16 Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website or Blog Today

Ask them for feedback on the post or to help you spread the word. Make sure you explain why it’s a relevant and/or special post.

3. Treat this launch more like the launch of a product.

via The Blogger’s Guide to Unleashing a Manifesto (or, How to Attract 7,986 More Visitors to Your Blog in 5 Days)

Since you’re putting so much effort into developing your manifesto, don’t skimp on the launch planning. Just releasing your manifesto like a regular blog post would be a shame. You need to leverage this great resource.

It’s important.

4. Ask for an Outside Point of View

via 21 Quick Actions You Can Do Today to Set Your Blog Up for Massive Success

Try asking a friend, colleague or consultant for a quick critique on a blog post, your about page, your design, your branding or anything else you suspect might need to be refreshed or revised. The ultimate goal is to make a habit of doing this whenever you feel stuck or stale.

The bonus to this action is that it gives you an excuse to reach out to a fellow blogger and form a stronger bond. Offer to help by returning the critique service whenever your colleague needs it.

5. You need to focus.

via This “Engaging” Secret Makes Online Self Promotion Virtually Unnecessary

 To build a thriving audience for your website or blog, you have to ruthlessly focus your efforts on those things that work, and stop spending precious time on things that don’t.

Trying to pursue every possible traffic-building strategy at once is a recipe for failure. You don’t have enough time. Spreading your efforts thin only ensures you’ll be equally ineffective in a lot of different places.

6. You Can’t Make a Sale Without an Offer

via 7 Essential Lessons I Had to Learn to Earn Consistent Income Online

This is another one that seems obvious, but still took me a while to figure out. You can’t make a sale unless you have something for sale. The corollary to this one is that you’ll learn more from your first product launch than you will from six months of planning and learning about product launches.

Don’t wait too long to develop and offer your first product or service. The only way you can get good at making sales is through practice. Start small and learn from the experience. You don’t need thousands of visitors to make a decent income online, as long as you paid attention to point #1 above.

7. Experiment with content types, formats, lengths and more.

via 11 Tips You Can Use Today to Develop Outstanding Content for Your Blog

The point is, if your blog isn’t a huge success yet, don’t just stick with the same old boring content groove you started with. Play around until you get a reaction from your audience. When you find something that resonates, run with that theme and try other similar posts.

The more quickly and methodically you experiment, the sooner you’ll figure out what really works. Don’t waste time writing the same post over and over again expecting that one day you’ll be “discovered.” More than likely, you’ll just get bored yourself unless you try new things.

8. Take time off

via Take a Break From Being a Workaholic. Here Are 7 Ways

Severe workaholics generally have a habit of working on the weekend (or whatever their days off are). It can range from going into the office every “day off” just to check in, to putting in full 8-12 hour days. Whatever the characteristics, it’s mentally and physically unhealthy to work all the time. Most everyone takes regular days off. You should too.

9. A Comprehensive Traffic Strategy is Best

via How StumbleUpon Sent Me Over 127,000 Visitors to a Single Post (And Why It Isn’t as Great as It Sounds)

A rush of visitors from any social media is always a welcome experience. Getting broad exposure is usually a good thing, even if those visitors don’t convert.

When planning your traffic strategy though, you’d be better off with a comprehensive strategy that relies on a mix of traffic sources instead of focusing on one source or hoping to hit the social media jackpot.

10. Stop thinking in terms of “visitors” and “traffic.”

via How to Attract Enough Visitors to Your Website to Earn a Living From It

You need to be thinking in terms of “people” and “relationships” and your “audience.”

Your visitors won’t buy anything from you unless you help them out, provide value and think of them as individual people. To really maximize the revenue you earn per visitor, you first have to maximize the value you provide to them through your content, products and services.

11. Package the interview well.

How to Get Expert Consulting AND Killer Content for Your Site for Free

Don’t just slap up an audio file on your blog. Audio takes a ton of time to listen to and doesn’t lead the listener well. Take notes of your interview and create a list of highlights and times at which they occur. Have a transcript made as well for people who don’t want to listen.

12. Make your text scan-able.

via The Simple Technique That Will Make Everything You Write Online More Popular

Readers on the web don’t read word-for-word, starting at the top, like you would a novel or news article. Readers on the web start by scanning new pages, looking for key points and headings.

By making your text scannable, you make it more likely someone who visits your page or receives your email will digest what you’ve written.

13. Go beyond your customers’ expectations.

via Give More to Get More: Three Simple Ways To Turn Casual Visitors into Raving Customers

There’s nothing more valuable than a raving customer. Do everything in your power to cultivate, serve, and communicate honestly with these customers, and you’ll have them for life. Oh, and make room, because they’ll be telling everyone they know about you.

14. You shouldn’t try to attract just anyone online.

via Size Doesn’t Matter

You need to find your target audience wherever they already hang out online and bring them back to your site.

Serve your target audience better than anyone else and you’ll have a thriving business on your hands. Forget about that target audience on your quest to build big absolute traffic numbers and you’ll probably end up with one of those big websites with tiny revenue I mentioned earlier.

15. Write Epic Shit

via Write epic shit

Write things that make people think. Inspire people. Change lives. Create value. Blow people away with your usefulness.

Only after you create epic shit should you worry about sharing your content with other people. All the promotion in the world won’t make your site popular if your content sucks.

16. Ask your readers questions and tell them you want a response.

via A Dead Simple Way to Engage Your Readers Today in 15 Minutes or Less

You can do this in your email auto-responder, in a blog post, in your forums, your Twitter stream, Facebook page or anywhere you can post a question and field the replies.

Then, get in the habit of asking questions every day. Experiment and try different types of questions, different topics and different ways of asking. It’s a skill worth refining and will pay off with deeper connections which will lead to more conversions and even more traffic.

17. We are our own biggest obstacles.

via Your Own Biggest Obstacle

We talk ourselves out of doing incredible things because we’re afraid to find out if we have what it takes.

Anything we want to do is possible, but only if we’re willing to work for it. Believing too much in talent keeps us from doing what really matters: putting in the time and challenging ourselves to improve every day.

18. There’s no big secret to making friends.

via 3 Ways to Make Business 1000% More Fun (Part 2)

 You have to put yourself in situations where you can meet people. Get a little uncomfortable and introduce yourself. Don’t network, just be a real person and say hello. Get to know people for who they are, not for what they can do to help your business.

19. There are no perfect decisions

via Decide Already

Every time you choose something, by default you rule something else out. That’s something you have to get comfortable with in order to make progress.

So decide already. You can always change your mind later.

20. Actually “Ship” Something

via The 3 Things You Must Do to Succeed in Online Business

You can’t expect to succeed in online business unless you have something for sale. You have to provide some value people can pay you money for.

That may sound simple or obvious, but so many of us get caught up in blogging and networking and talking about “revenue models” or technologies that we forget the most important part of business.

You have to “ship” a product (or a service or sell someone else’s product). Your business has to have a reason and mechanism for your customers to pay for something, either directly or indirectly.

21. Call in the experts to help out

via How to Sell Something When You’re Not an Expert

Another way to avoid competing with experts is to deny that you’re trying to be one in the first place. Instead, position yourself as a facilitator.

Don’t preach expertise yourself, get the real experts to share their secrets with your audience. Your audience will appreciate what you’ve delivered, and look to you as a “leader among us.”

22. Let your audience write your headline for you.

via Two Simple Ways to Know Exactly What Your Audience Wants

What could be better than having your audience write the headline of your next post for you?

In a way you can have them do just that.

If you listen carefully to people who read your blog, you’ll notice certain patterns in the language they use and the topics they bring up.

You can create powerful content by starting with the exact language you’ve heard your audience use.

23. Record your best ideas

via Corbett Barr Interview

I like to keep just a running list of ideas and they’re pretty simple, I don’t flush them out too much more than a headline or an idea for a headline. But just keep a backlog of ideas, and then when you go to write something you just sit down and go through that list and something comes up right away. What I’ve found is that if I don’t have that backlog, then one of the most time consuming parts of writing is just sitting down and thinking of an idea. And when you pressure yourself to come up with an idea like that, you end up writing things that are less than stellar and maybe not up to the quality that you’d like to produce every week

What got your attention this week?

Launch Gossip:

•  Frank, from Our Hiking Blog, just launched Pick Your Gear: A Guide to Outdoor Photography. He’s a client of mine (I gave suggestions to make the product more useful) and I believe that this is an affordable product that may interest the adventure travel writers.
• Tara Gentile announced the virtual ticket for The Art of Earning Live
• There is a couple of days left to register for Tri Peak Performance. I’ve noticed a lot of products targeted towards people wanting to do triathlons – am looking forward to Joel Runyon releasing his, which is targeted at newbies like myself.
• Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life will be relaunching 2/19 with a new cover. It’s HOT! Check it out

Kindle goss:

• I’ve released my guide to blog commenting for just 99 cents.
• I also had my guide on twitter free for 5 days last week. At the end of that promotion, I’ve noticed a slight increase in sales
• Farnoosh Brock has been doing a lot of experiments with free and discounted pricing lately. I recommend following her work if you want to see someone that is innovating on that platform
• Joel Runyon has released Impossible: The Manifesto on the kindle for just 99 cents. Will be interesting to see whether people will pay for something they can get for free but I think it’s a great step
• Goddess Leonie launched her ebook 73 Lessons Every Goddess Must Know. Get the background deets here

Interesting Articles:

• Alexis Grant wrote a really interesting post for Problogger about what she’d learnt from releasing two ebooks. Fascinating read. Check out A Tale of Two Ebooks
• Thom Chambers wrote about Why I stopped selling to strangers. I agree with his comments – but I also believe guest/list posts do have their place in the marketing mix. I love Thom’s approach though; he is so classy.
• Giving away the secrets of 99.3% email delivery via 37 Signals
• Really liked this post about creating the ‘Minimal Delightful Product‘ – think it’s more useful to focus on this if you’re goal is to get as many users as possible
• Darren Rowse did a cool post on Google + about getting readers to respond to your call to action
• Really comprehensive and useful post: Ramit Sethi Exposed: How He Earns Millions Blogging
• Making a Million Bucks vs. Reaching a Million People – must read!

Digital Publishing Articles:

• Book Covers: Are They Important in the Digital Age? 
• 10 Questions to Ask Before Committing to Any E-Publishing Service

Kickstarter:

• There is a cool project on Kickstarted called Love Ever After, which will share the love stories of couples who have been married for at least 50 years. I think it’s something that needs supporting.
• Elevation Dock became the first million dollar Kickstarter project!
• Mere hours later, another project hits the million dollar mark. Read about the crazy 24 hours at Kickstarter here.

I’d love to know what type of Kickstarter articles you’d like to see, so feel free to either comment or email me.

 Cool stuff:

• Clay Collins mentioned The 8-Part Formula (For A Killer Product Offering) [PDF download]
• If you sign up to the newsletter at Lea Woodward, you can get a free Naming eKit

• Joel Runyon has a revamped homebase courtesy of Spyr Media. He wrote about the changes a bit more at his personal blog but two things stood out to me: The Impossible Island, and the Impossible Agency. It’s less then 6 weeks into the new year and he’s reminding us all about why he is a blogger to watch. I’ll share more deets with you as I come across them.
• Danielle Laporte has rebranded White Hot Truth and moved it to daniellelaporte.com. What do you think about the changes?

Books:

• Mitch Joel announced the title of his next book, CTRL ALT DEL. Wasn’t a fan of his first one but his work is amazing, so am looking forward to the release.
• Twitter tells me that the launch extravaganza for How to Be a Finance Rockstar by Nicole Fende has just started. Learn more here

Launches:

• Here’s a cool Kickstarter project that takes you through how to become a Kickstarter rockstar. Yeah, it’s kinda meta, but it’s also a project that could help a lot of people.
• Jonathan Fields has launched the Good Life Project. No idea what it is, but it looks amazing.
• Lea Woodward has released two new courses that fit her new tagline. Check out Path Finding for Online Pioneers. It has 3 different price options – perhaps you can emulate them in your launch?
• Over at Stratejoy, Molly has opened the registration for Put Yourself Out There AND is accepting blogger applications for Season 6 of Quarter Life Crisis. Some good stuff going on there
• Just got an update from Molly – The Fierce Love Course is starting TOMORROW! Click here for the deets

Cool Webinars:

• Joanna Penn is doing a cheap webinar on How to Promote Your Novel: 21 Ways to Sell More Books Online! It may have already run by the time some of you read this, but looks awesome.
• Pamela Wilson and Kelly Kingman have unveiled their virtual Ultimate Ebook Kickstart class. Looks pretty nifty!

Top articles:

• Ricardo Bueno wrote a brilliant post about the 10 Things I’m Learning From Running a Paid Subscription. Highly recommended.
• Darren Rowse wrote this compelling post: How I Beat my Best Month Ever by Doing Something Good, Better [Case Study]. It has me thinking about what kind of experiments we could run for our audiences – each blog and niche is different and could have different offers. The only issue is potential overwhelm.
• Why Every Entrepreneur Should Self-Publish a Book via TechCrunch
• Why Is Happiness So Hard? An Interview with Gretchen Rubin via Everyday Bright (I think Jen will be doing amazing things this year. My hunch is that she has found her mojo.)
• Srini has posted a really cool interview at BlogcastFM about the rapid rise of the Buffer App
• How David Garland built a community of 100,000 followers in 24 months (oldie but goodie)
• The story behind Wunderkit, the impressive new social productivity platform [Video]

Personal:

• I recently got a regular blogging gig at Problogger. I’ll be doing two posts a month. One will be a feature on just the one blogger, and the other will be a curated post of cool bloggers that I’ve discovered. If you know of anyone that deserves some attention, just get in touch
• I was interviewed over at The Travelling Writer, about using social media to make my own luck. There are a lot of tips you can use. Check it out

I’ve discovered so many interesting people since then and decided to bring the series back!

In this first post, I’m featuring Alexis grant. I listed her as one of the 20 bloggers to watch in 2012 at Problogger because she’s brilliant. She is a classic example of a slasher – she is a journalist, blogger, digital product creator and traveller. She is one of the hardest working bloggers I’ve seen and is really dedicated to her community.

I had visitors this weekend, so this post is limited to just 14 things. You can check out more of her work via her products:

• How to build a part-time social media business
• How to take a career break to travel

1. Find a cover designer

Potential buyers get strong first impressions from a book’s cover. Your book’s cover will significantly influence whether a consumer pulls out her credit card. I went the DIY route on this for my first eguide, then replaced the cover with a professional-looking one as soon as I realized my mistake. Here’s to you not making the same newbie error.

via How to Write, Launch and Sell Your Informational Ebook

2. Interact on twitter instead of leaving a comment

when you leave a comment, you’re in a sea of commenters. You might be one of five commenters, but you might also be one of 20 or 150. That blogger might click over to your blog from your comment, but she could just as easily miss your comment in that sea.

On Twitter, however, you can target a potential reader directly. You can RT one of their tweets or include them as an @mention in a tweet about how much you like their blog or @reply to a link they offered. And when your handle pops up in their @mention stream, they will notice you.

via To Grow Your Blog, This Works Better Than Commenting

3. Jump at opportunities to meet people

Every person has the potential to be the contact you need to break into your industry or move up the ladder of your career. Don’t pass up the opportunity to meet with them.

via My Favorite Not-So-Secret Networking Tips

4. Learn to market yourself.

It’s not about the skills you have – it’s about applying those skills to the job you want. Taking six months to backpack through Africa could’ve been a detriment to my resume. But I turned it into something positive, pointing out how I freelanced for several publications during my trip, learned how to blog and brushed up on my French.

via 13 Tips for Job Hunters (because I’ve been there)

5.  It’s easier to make Leaps when people around you are making them, too.

So whether you find them in the next cubicle over, at an event that’s intended to inspire or in the blogosphere, seek out people who stuff their lives full of awesome. Before you know it, you’ll be brimming with awesome, too.

via To Meet Your Goals, Surround Yourself with Go-Getters

6. We make our own luck.

If you want to create a different life for yourself, you can make it happen. There are always opportunities to make your own luck if you dig hard enough to find them. You might not be able to make that luck immediately, but if you chip away at it over time, it will be there when you need it, even if you didn’t expect to need it.

via Creating the Life You Want to Live

7. Rather than focusing on the mode of publishing, we should focus on selling books.

Because whether you sell books is what will help or hurt your chances of future success, not how you publish.

via It’s Not How You Publish, It’s How Much You Sell

8.  Unsubscribe religiously.

Rather than delete emails I don’t want, I take an extra few seconds to unsubscribe from those lists. Deleting is a short-term solution, but unsubscribing works in the long term.

via Strategies for dealing with forever-overwhelming email

9. Using social media strategically is one of the best ways to make your own luck.

At your book launch, you’ll be “lucky enough” to land reviews with book bloggers and interviews with niche blogs and maybe even some plugs in stories by traditional media outlets. Or when it comes time to look for your next job, you’ll be “lucky enough” for opportunities to come to you, rather than having to look for openings. Or when you start your freelance business, you’ll be “lucky enough” to quickly build up a client base. Your luck will kick in because you set those wheels in motion months, even years before, by making smart connections over social media.

So start making those connections now, even if you don’t think you’ll need them. Down the road, you’ll feel lucky you did.

via Another benefit of online promotion

10. Want Freelancing work? Try your alumni publication.

Alumni magazines are often (but not always) high quality, and they tend to need freelancers — or at least dependable ones who can write. They usually pay decently. Because you’re an alum, they’ll choose you over a non-alum competitor (so long as you’re good). And it doubles as networking, because you’re usually writing about people who went to your college or university or graduate school. In other words, you’re connecting with smart, well-connected people, who might want to help you down the road because of that fabulous piece you wrote about their business or volunteer organization or invention.

via An idea to get your writer’s foot in the door

11. Ask interviewees  if there is something else you should know about

At the end of every phone interview, I ask the subject, “Is there anything else I haven’t asked you about that you think is important?” Sometimes they say no. But more often, they throw in an awesome nugget of information that I never even thought to inquire about. And sometimes the subject will simply summarize our entire conversation to make sure I got the point, giving me the best quote of the entire interview.

via Interview | Alexis Grant, The Traveling Writer

12. Have a good lead that hooks readers right off the bat.

 If you fail at this, you fail at the entire story. Make the reader want to continue past the first sentence or first paragraph. This applies to blog posts, articles, books, everything.

via Interview with Journalist & Memoirist, Alexis Grant

13. Use Your network when launching

Use your network! Keep track of the people you pitch and their responses in a Google Doc. If you do this properly, you’ll be able to remember everyone who’s helping spread the word about your book and thank them accordingly.

via On Launching an Ebook — Painlessly

14.  Make money to support your writing habit

We all know publishers aren’t handing out huge advances lately. Creating digital products can help you bridge the financial gap between books. Here’s why: When you self-publish digitally, you keep all the profits. And overhead is low because there’s no physical product.

via How EBooks Can Complement Your Traditional Writing

Over to you:

I highly recommend Alexis, both as a colleague and friend. She has inspired me to work a lot harder and I hope that she has inspired you. I think that many of you guys could create win/win situations by supporting her.

I also recommend checking out her new course on making your own luck and her paid newsletter, Solopreneur Secrets.

You can also read my interview with her from last year.

What do you guys think? And, who should I feature next week?

Tidbits:

• Ali Luke has announced that she is writing a book for Wiley’s For Dummies series, provisionally titled Publishing e-Books for Dummies. It’s scheduled to come out in September. Read More 
• Pat Flynn shared the details of a small web project he did over a weekend, called Create a Clickable Map. Really interesting post – you can create a business with a weekend of testing. Read more
• Joanna Penn has released an updated version of her Author 2.0 blueprint.
• Thom Chambers has launched his new paid magazine, The Micropublisher. You can get it at a $20 discount for the next two days.
• The magazine Dumbo Feather has started releasing interviews as kindle singles. Check out the first with Alain de Botton

Cool articles:

• How to Gain 2,281 Subscribers—and Increase Traffic by 69%—in 27 Days via Social Triggers. Talks about the strategies he used in his new podcast.
• Ramit Sethi Exposed: How He Earns Millions Blogging
• How David Garland built a community of 100,000 followers in 24 months
• Why The Loooooong Sales Letter Works And Other Surprising Sales Hacks – with Ramit Sethi

Sarah Lacy launches new site

Sarah Lacy (one of my favourite web writers) has just launched Pando Daily. The goal of the site is ‘to be the site-of-record for that startup root-system and everything that springs up from it, cycle-after-cycle.’

I think that this site is brilliant for the startup industry. It’s something I’d like to see replicated in my local digital community, and within my blogging community. I don’t think it is feasible without funding, though.

• Recommended reading: Confessions of a Publisher: “We’re in Amazon’s Sights and They’re Going to Kill Us”

Social Triggers Insider is AMAZING

Derek Halpern is really bringing it with his free masterclass. The content is amazing – it’s the type of stuff you’d pay good money for in a membership site. I’m also digging the transcripts. And, it’s working. He’s on track to get 100’000 page views this month.

On a related note, Glen Allsopp did a case study on how he reached #1 on iTunes with the first episode of his podcast.

Corbett Barr launches ‘How To Start A Blog That Matters‘

Corbett Barr has launched his new course and, trust me, the content is AMAZING. It’s the strategy he’s used to launch his successful blogs, and it’s the same strategies that made me put him on the Problogger list.

The content is mostly focused on launching, or relaunching. It’s awesome if you are focused on either of those things. I was also impressed with how he set up the course and think you guys can learn a lot from it.

There is a great bonus by Scott Dinsmore, if that’s your thing.

Check it out

Ruzuku – the new ‘IT’ platform

Stacy, at Ethical Launch, recently did a review of Ruzuku. It’s really interesting for those that are on the fence about it. I think it’s something to keep an eye on, especially as they incorporate new features

Ali Luke has launched Writers Huddle

Ali has launched a new online community specifically for writers. The price is very reasonable considering her experience. Excited to see where she takes this concept!

Cool articles:

• The Tim Ferriss Effect: Lessons From My Successful Book Launch
• The Art of Non-Conformity » Behind the Scenes of the “Unconventional Guide to Publishing” Launch

I used to have a weekly newsletter called Launch watch. I’d cover all the cool stuff, but growth was slow and the emails were becoming longer and longer.

I decided to offer it as a weekly blog column. That way I can get more feedback and ideas, and can give you some insider goss and trends that I’ve noticed.

If you have any feedback, or know of anything that’s launching over the next week, let me know.

Latest Launches:

You know how I wrote the ‘Blogger to Watch‘ post last week? A couple of people from it are up to some cool stuff.

Jenny Blake launching + relaunching

• is relaunching Make Sh*t happen on Jan 11th.
• has also launched a self paced course titled ‘Design Your life’.

She is using the Ruzuku platform for the latter course. Jen Louden is using it for her Teach now course and she said it feels “feels so delicious and easy.” I just discovered this, so would love any case studies or examples.

Joel Runyon launches manifesto

Another 2012 blogger to watch, Joel Runyon, has released a free slideshare titled ‘Do The Impossible.’ It’s brilliantly designed – if you want hot slides, you should definitely talk to David Crandall. Also,

• If you are going to have gorgeous slides, you should have images available somewhere so that people can pin them. This is the type of stuff that people would put on a motivational board.
• Joel has spoken about releasing his first ‘Impossible’ guide here. It’s about triathlons and seems pretty nifty.

New podcasts!

Glen Allsopp launched his Marketing Podcast, which was able to go up to #1 in just a day. You should definitely check out his podcast page, just to see how he encourages people to leave a review. I also really liked how he provided a transcript. I generally don’t listen to podcasts, but would definiately pay for transcripts.

• Adam Baker, from Man Vs debt, also released a podcast. Episode 1 is called Your Big Why and Defining Your Freedom
  
• Brian Clark is launching a multimedia email newsletter about the business of new media content. Sign up at Entreproducer
• Derek Halpern has launched his free audio masterclass series, Social Triggers Insider

* I don’t think Brian Clarks new project is actually a podcast, but it fit with the others.

New product for potential publishers!

Chris Guillebeau has teamed up with David Fugate called ‘The Unconventional Guide to Publishing‘. I’ve had a look at it and it’s really nifty, but it’s definitely for those who want to publish traditionally.

There’ll be three pricing tiers starting at $58. The higher pricing tier cost $97, and it’s worth noting that Danielle laportes product on creating a book plan is just $53 more. Worth comparing the two.

I also think this is the first time Chris is using his custom affiliate system. May be worth keeping an eye on!

Other launches:

• Benny Lewis has released his video course Speak from Day 1; which teaches you how to become fluent in a new language in 3 months
• Joanna Penn has teamed up with Roz Morris to create a course on marketing your novel. It’s just $99
• Danielle Laporte is having a pay what you can day. It’s only available for the Spark Kit (It’s being retired), and to those who purchase her book
• Tara Gentile has launched Email Marketing Kickstart: 30 Days to Passionate, Profitable Communication. (See the problogger testimonial in the sidebar? That’s from my post. Booyah!
• John Falchetto has stopped blogging as Expat Life Coach and has undergone a rebrand. Check it out.
• Scott Dinsmore released his Goal Setting and Action Workbook. It’s pretty cool.
• The team from An Inspiring Venture have launched Startup Training School. It has an impressive team, but it’s more about creating a typical digital business rather then a startup.

Launch Gossip:

• How He Did It: Lewis Howes Reveals Exactly How His Latest Product Generated $400,000 in Sales in One Month
•  10,000 Sales Later: Lessons Learned from Selling Evernote Essentials
• Codecademy’s CodeYear Attracts 100,000 Aspiring Programmers In 48 Hours
• You can learn how sasha Greif designed CodeYear in an hour
• What Louis C.K Can Teach Us About Selling Digital Content

Links on Entreprenership + startups

• How to Survive Your First Year As An Entrepreneur
• No, You Can’t Pick My Brain. It Costs Too Much
• Should Startups Focus on Profitability or Not?
• Stop whining and start hiring remote workers
• 10 Secrets of Building an Authority Website Interesting story about a site that sold site for 200k
• Would Anyone Pay to Read Your Blog? Interview With Andrew Warner
• How to Create a Million-Dollar Business This Weekend (Examples: AppSumo, Mint, Chihuahuas) 
• Hiring a journalist can help with content marketing

Self publishing gossip:

• The Five Hot Revenue Streams for Publishers in 2012
• The 99-Cent Debate: How Do We Value Our Writing?
• Self-Publishing And Ebook Predictions For 2012 With Steven Lewis From Taleist
• Selling An Ebook? Three Golden Rules To Follow
• Is Indie the New Black?
• Product Creation: Ebooks And Beyond In The Kindle Age
• FutureBook Conference Report: Takeaways for writers
• Six eBook Formatting Tools

 New Books:

• Sean Platt and David Wright have just released Episode 7 of Yesterday’s Gone. This is the second season of their serialized fiction project, and the first season was really addictive. I interview him about the last season here. It’s also interesting to note that Matt Gartland is editing
• Jonathan Fields recently linked to the new book Shake The World, which looks pretty interesting. The subtitled it “It’s Not About Finding a Job, It’s About Creating a Life.” I’m intrigued, so let me know if you’ve read it.
• I found a cool kickstarted project called Designer Founders: stories by designers of tech startups

I also finished reading Brilliant, Cocky, Crazy by Sarah Lacy. A must read if you’re interesting in startups in emerging or chaotic markets.

Over to you:

This is just the stuff that got on my radar – the stuff I found personally interesting. Let me know if there are any type of launches you’d like to see here. Also feel free to email me or comment if there’s anything you’d like featured.

In this interview, we chat about how her personal and professional usage of social media differs. We also talk about how you don’t have to follow all the rules.

You maintained an active social media presence before starting this business. Do you think that helped build awareness of metta scents?

You have kept your personal and business accounts separate on social media. Do you recommend others do this?

You’ve used videos in your sidebar. How has video helped website visitors?

You have very few references to your social media presence on the metta scents site. Why is this?

You have comments closed on your blog. Aren’t blogs meant to be about conversations?

Do you have any tips for businesses looking to get started with social media?

Kristin Glenn and Shannon Whitehead met while bartending in Australia in 2008. In July 2010, they reconnected with an idea to create a sustainable fashion line.

They entered the world of social media while the idea was still growing. They blogged about their journey, including their trials and mishaps, and built a strong community around their core idea. This meant they has established a following and creating some awesome connections before their launch.

The kickstarter appeal for their first product, the Versalette, has surpassed the originally $20’000 goal by nearly $17’000 – and they still have 17 days to go.

I think this will be a case study that will be referred to for years to come. In this interview, I talk to both Kristin and Shannon about how they built their presence and engaged their community.

Check them out

Most people wouldn’t start a blog unless they had decided on a business model or were near the end of product development. You blogged as the concepts and business were still developing. Do you think that allowing people to follow your journey helped with the launch?

K&S: Most definitely! Simply being in the blog-o-sphere and involved in social media for a year prior to launch made everything easier. We built relationships over that year that have proved to be incredibly valuable.

Thinking back, we didn’t always have something interesting to say as we were fleshing out our ideas. Some of our blog posts were boring, and at times we just weren’t sure what to write. But the fact that we stayed true to writing two blog posts per week, about what we were doing, for over one year, showed our community that we were really committed to this journey.

It also showed the emotional aspects of starting a business, that other new entrepreneurs could relate to. Most of our “blog friends” are other young entrepreneurs on similar paths, and the things we’ve learned from each other are simply invaluable.

You are encouraging people to send in pics for the lookbook before the range is available, which I think is a really smart move. Why did you decide to do this?

K&S: Something we strive for is community. We are nomads by nature, and we have pockets of friends all over the world. But we are always, always looking to make connections.

We think others are looking for that too — a sense of belonging in an overwhelmingly disconnected world. We hope that {r}evolution apparel doesn’t just become a clothing line, but remains a community of people who care about the same core values — adventure, passion, and purpose. We want {r} to be a place to share stories, and photos, and ultimately connect. Without that sense of camaraderie, we would be just another small clothing line.

Part of your appeal is taking people behind the scenes, such as the video about the photoshoot. How much extra work did this take?

K: Shannon has become a video-expert! She spends a lot of time on iMovie and churns out some really great videos.

Let’s be honest — the process of blogging, in general, is a lot of work. Lots of thought, creative energy, and brainstorming. And there is always another post to write. So, in a way, making videos is a welcome respite. It mixes things up on the blog, keeps things fresh, and is also a ton of fun to do. We’re usually excited to put in the extra effort to make cool things — if it seemed like a chore, we’d probably just skip it!

S: I’m certainly not a video expert — it’s a lot of trial-by-error! It’s not only the videos, though, we seem to put “extra work” into most things we do. We’re perfectionists, to a fault. Although it may seem tedious in the moment, the reactions we get after we publish something awesome make it all worth it.

You frequently asked for feedback in your posts about all topics, from fabric to website design. You also encourage people on facebook to contact you via email when they have a useful suggestion. How has this helped you? Has adding many opinions made things harder?

K&S: Interaction with readers has always been our goal. Sometimes we’ve asked for opinions, just to hear crickets! Other times, we get lots of advice. People were especially opinionated about fabrics, which is fantastic. It shows us what our community cares about, and what they don’t.

A lot of our readers wanted us to go with organic, domestic cotton. But, we kept researching and realized that for us, recycled fabric made more sense. We were ultimately more comfortable with its environmental impact, plus we love our supplier, and feel a real connection with them in regards to environmental goals. So, despite popular opinion, we went for it. But yes — it made things tough, because we really value reader opinions!

You’ve gained a lot of traction since you’ve launched the kickstarter appeal. Has there been any particular segment of the blog community that has stood out in terms of support?

K: Definitely. The people we talk with most on Twitter, and Facebook, have been incredibly supportive, both in terms of encouragement and spreading the word. Fellow bloggers stand out as the most vocal — perhaps because they also understand that social media only works when it’s shared. My friends, who love the product, sometimes don’t even “like” my links! I think it’s because they don’t “live on the internet” and understand how helpful it is to share and re-post things. But bloggers get it, and they are certainly the reason why we’ve gained so much traction on Kickstarter.

S: Its specific bloggers, in particular, who have really come out strong for us. The cool thing about this kind of support is how genuine it is. There are no ulterior motives because there’s nothing for anyone to gain personally. This lets us know that people support us because they truly believe in us, our mission, and our product. That means more to us than anything.

The purpose of your blog is to share relevant stories related to your core mission. Are you worried that talking about other people will mean less attention for your product?

K&S: Never! We want to do all we can to support the sustainable community (actually, we just returned from a trip to New York to attend a panel discusson on the Future of Fashion.

We want to talk about all aspects of sustainable living and entrepreneurship, not just our own. So it’s important to bring other opinions and stories to the table. The Versalette, and {r}evolution apparel, is not going to change the world on its own. But the community of activists and entrepreneurs we showcase, when connected, will create that kind of change.

And that’s what it’s all about. Sales are great, and so is money. But conversation is what will define the future of the environment. We are just one tiny part of that conversation!

Did in-person events help you grow your business faster?

K: We don’t attend many in-person events, since weekend travel isn’t often in the budget for us! But we do try to attend local sustainability and fashion events when we can. We also met a lot of movers and shakers at a recent “Be Social Change” event in New York.

In-person events have given us a chance to meet inspirational people, re-energize, and get ourselves focused once again. But, most of the people who we interact with on a daily basis are friends from the internet — many who we have never met in person before! So, while networking events have been motivating, they haven’t been a huge part of building our business.

S: I attended Chris Guillebeau’s World Domination Summit in June and that was like going to 10 events in one. I met a lot of amazing entrepreneurs, bloggers and change-makers that I’ve continued to build relationships with. Networking is an incredible tool and WDS proved that. We’ll both be attending next year.