Email Course Project: Introduction and Competition
I’ve developed a home study course on the usage of StumbleUpon to drive traffic to your website. This project is the account of my progress in developing and marketing that course. The course is now LIVE, is called Stumble Rush and you can enroll right now at http://www.stumblerush.com/.
Introducing the Email Course Project
This is a spur-of-the-moment project idea inspired by the review that I did yesterday of an ebook about generating traffic with StumbleUpon. I felt that I couldn’t recommend the book to my readers because there was not enough information contained in it that couldn’t easily be found elsewhere to justify the (admittedly small) price tag. As I read the book I kept thinking to myself, I could write this better…
So I am! But instead of an ebook, I wish to deliver it as a multi-part email course.
It’s Another Freebie
As I alluded to in my review of Matthew’s book, you can find an absolute ton of information about StumbleUpon completely free on the Internet. Really, there is no need to pay for it so I am not going to charge for this course. Also, I can’t think of any way in which I could directly monetize it with affiliate links so I am doing it for a different reason:
- to build a list
*Gasp* Yes, I am going to build a list and shamelessly demand email addresses in return for information! I have been thinking about list building for a while and I was going to use a newsletter on this blog as my first experiment with list building but I’ve decided to start this project first as I can focus on delivering good content and not worry about trying to sell stuff so that gets the sleazy angle out of the way.
How Will I Use The List?
To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure! Traditionally marketers build a list with the intention of pitching some product to the list members in the future. At this moment in time I do not have any products to sell. I think it will be nice to simply have a list and then just see what happens. Recently I discussed the value of building assets and skills and list building is a skill I would like to master so this project will achieve that. Not everything has to have an immediate financial motive.
Why a Course, Not an Ebook?
I can see several benefits of releasing this information as a course and not an ebook. Some of them are benefits for me, and some are benefits for the consumer:
Digestible Information
There is an information overload of StumbleUpon posts and articles on the Internet. Yesterday I linked to a roundup article that had 65 posts in it and I have another two roundup posts like that bookmarked as well as a ton of other StumbleUpon related material. Whilst this is all freely available to anybody with access to Google, it’s a lot of stuff to wade through and there’s so much repetition.
If I release this as an ebook I fear it would be a long one and I just don’t think people would read it so they wouldn’t really get much benefit from it. By releasing it in weekly chunks that are easy to digest the content is more likely to be put to use.
Actionable Content
The second problem that I have identified in StumbleUpon related posts is that there is rarely any call to action. You read the post, think “hmm yeah that’s interesting” and then move onto the next post. When you boil it down to the essentials, use of StumbleUpon involves nothing more than clicking a couple of buttons and its this simplicity which trips people up.
By putting this information into a course format which has action steps at the end of each installment people are far more likely to follow the steps, actually do something and see a tangible benefit from the course.
It Requires an Email Address
Seeing as I cannot monetize this content directly, my primary goal shifts to the collection of email addresses. If I release the content as an ebook that can easily become circulated in a viral fashion thus circumventing my opt-in list. By delivering the material as a course, it forces people to sign up to the list.
I Can Start Now!
Writing an ebook can take a while. My WordPress one didn’t take very long but there is a lot more to say about StumbleUpon than there was about setting up a niche site. If I had to write a book I would have to invest a lot of time up front. Instead I can easily map out a plan for the content and start releasing it once I’ve got the first couple of installments written.
Also, I can setup the website and opt-in list before I’ve even started to deliver the content and just begin collecting emails for those who are interested.
You Can’t Sign Up Yet :-)
I’ve added this section a few hours after publishing the original post. I had a whole bunch of people email asking me “where can I sign up?” so obviously I didn’t make myself very clear. The StumbleUpon course isn’t live yet - it is merely an idea in my head. The purpose of this project is to document how I actually set about creating the course, publicising it and so on.
Keep reading this blog and of course the moment the site is live and taking signups I will let you know!
Aweber Affiliate Competition
I intend to use AWeber to build my list as it is one of the industry standards and there are loads of resources out there to teach me about it. Currently AWeber offer affiliates a 20% (bit sucky really) commission on all signups and this is a recurring commission meaning that you get paid for every month that the person you refer continues to use them.
So my competition is quite simple - the prize is that you get to refer me to AWeber and I can guarantee that I’ll be a customer for a long time so hopefully it is a relatively lucrative prize.
To win all you need to do is write a blog post related to list building / Aweber in some way and link to this post. Also make sure you put your AWeber affiliate link in the post so that I can sign up under you if you win! I’ll judge it simply on the post I like best for whatever reason - surprise me!
The competition is open until Friday 14th March, 6pm UK time.
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Stumble it!
Nick - road2blogging
March 6, 2008
Caroline,
I’ve found it annoying on a couple of occasions that the author of an ebook should’ve written like 10 more pages on a certain area, yet, condensed an important area to be not worthy of reading - so frustrating, especially when it costs you money.
Grouping the information and using an email list is a good call and one that should be beneficial to the readers of your blog and to drive more readers to read your blog.
Aweber competition - great idea.
Nick - road2blogging’s last blog post..The Wonderer returns