Cofounder and CEO of Fizzle. Entrepreneur for a decade. Blogger, podcaster, lifestyle business builder.
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I’ve been building businesses on the Internet since 2004. Before that I worked in technology through the first Internet bubble. I’ve raised venture capital, worked in Fortune 500 companies, been a freelancer, and bootstrapped to multiple millions in revenue.
Email newsletters can be a great way to grow an audience and keep them engaged. If you’re working to grow an audience through email, offering an email newsletter instead of the traditional subscriber giveaway is an option worth considering.
Martin Seligman, the father of the field of positive psychology, famously said in a 1999 speech that “psychology was half-baked.” He was referring to the fact that psychology up to that point had really focused just on mental illness and on repairing damage. He then said, “...that's only half of it. The other side's unbaked, the side of strength, the side of what we're good at.”
Let's face it. Jobs suck. I spent 13 years of my life working in various jobs, and I never felt right about it. Not once did I feel like I was doing my life's work.
More and more, we keep hearing from readers and customers about ConvertKit, the email marketing and automation tool for professional bloggers, podcasters and more. People have been raving to us about ConvertKit so much that I had to see for myself what all the fuss is about.
Choosing a business idea is probably the thing we help our members with most. It's understandable. You don't want to put a bunch of time and effort into building a business, only to realize later on that there was a major flaw in the idea that will forever stunt your company's growth.
How’s that for a headline? Headlines are an arms race these days, with every article competing to toss in more excitement and bigger promises. One of my biggest annoyances is the way “science” is shamelessly used to back up weak claims in link-bait listicles. You may have noticed how common it is to include the phrase “backed by science” in a headline lately.
Promoting your blog can feel like this big, scary, intimidating thing. Does promoting a blog really even work? Do I have to use tactics I’m not comfortable with?
In his new book Born For This, author Chris Guillebeau highlights the story of Shenee Howard, a brand strategist who found herself “broke and clientless” back in 2011: Instead of talking to experts in hopes of obtaining wisdom and advice, Shenee decided to turn the tables and talk to 100 regular people, asking them about their problems, with the goal of using her unique skills to find solutions for them. Using social media and email, she offered unlimited 15-minute strategy sessions by phone to anyone who had questions about branding — for free.
Earlier this week I stumbled on an example of absolutely terrible advice from the U.S. Small Business Administration. This advice made me angry and sad at the same time. Angry at the SBA and sad for anyone who follows the advice.