Every course I’ve run since 2010.
Fully booked.
In-person courses sell out in days. Online workshops fully booked. I once had 1,300 members in a single membership site.
Want to know the secret?
It’s not complicated.
I used my email list. An asset I own and control.
Here’s what most people get wrong about email marketing. They think it’s simple. Stick a sign-up form on your website. Hit subscribers with course dates. Workshop offers. Book pitches.
That’s not email marketing.
That’s spam with your name on it.
“Robin’s 1-2-1 mentoring helped me launch my online storytelling course, generating more than £13,000 from a tiny email list of 1,180 subscribers. Amazing. I am so grateful… he knows his stuff.” – Chris Holland
Recently, I saw a discussion in a Facebook group about building mailing lists. Three people I know were talking. Let’s call the first one Scoot.
Scoot said: “I have thousands of newsletter subscribers, but business is so good I don’t have time to send it.”
A foraging friend chimed in: “People tell me they’ve signed up for my newsletter and it’s not working. It’s because I haven’t sent one for months.”
Another herbalist: “Yeah, I don’t send them often. Not because of success. More that I never have time.”
I shivered reading that.
These lovely people were making two catastrophic mistakes.
Resting on their laurels. Using “not enough time” as an excuse.
They don’t get it. Owning and growing a mailing list isn’t an afterthought. It’s one of the most important things you’ll ever do if you want to sell books and fill workshops.
It needs to be a key focus of your business strategy.
Strategy is an overarching vision that fulfils your predetermined goals. Most self-help authors focus on tactics, not strategies. When you chase tactics without strategy, you’re at the beck and call of someone else’s game plan.
You’re not master of your own ship.
But here’s what Scoot and the others didn’t understand. What hundreds of business owners I meet don’t grasp.
You have no idea when the tide of fame and fortune will turn.
A very knowledgeable marketing colleague told me something years ago that stuck:
“When things are going well, that’s the time to really pump things up. Most people hustle when they’re desperate. Then sit back when things improve. But success is when you want to reach a whole new level. Get so high that even if things slow down, you’re still doing well.”
Let me ask you something.
What happens to your business when the free platform you’ve been using to generate visitors and clients stops working?
Have you thought about that?
Making your business dependent on free platforms like Google, Facebook, X, YouTube, TikTok, Medium is extremely dangerous.
These platforms can help grow your business.
But they’re not where real business growth happens.
Real growth happens through relationships.
And all valuable relationships need nurturing.
If all you do with your mailing list is send book preorders, discount offers, and sales pitches, you’re killing your long-term potential.
Period.
Competition isn’t something many in the author industry like discussing. But it’s reality. Someone, somewhere could walk into your market space and take it from you.
What will you do then?
If you don’t think it’ll happen, pause a moment. Consider this.
Yahoo was once the go-to search engine. Now it’s disappeared from consciousness.
Remember Myspace? Everyone and their aunt were on it. Then within a short period, Facebook replaced it.
See my point?
If you’d been dependent on Yahoo or Myspace for getting clients—never building your business off these platforms—what would have happened?
What did happen to all those businesses that did exactly that?
Let’s take Google.
Maybe you’re currently top of the search engines for your chosen keywords. Then with one small algorithm change, you disappear forever. Or your rankings plummet. Your business gets halved or quartered.
Someone on the edges of your market suddenly dominates the rankings you once held.
Are you feeling into what I’m saying?
It’s uncomfortable, right?
This can happen at any time.
A while back, Facebook changed its algorithm. Again.
All those businesses that relied on likes, comments, building profiles with Facebook Pages and driving traffic to their websites suddenly, over the course of a few days, saw their reach fall off a cliff.
They had no way to reach their audience. Their customers. Potential customers.
They were, in a word, screwed.
All because they didn’t have time. Or were too successful to build a mailing list.
An asset they actually own and control.
Here’s something you need to understand:
“Email is a protocol (SMTP). Basically part of the internet’s plumbing. All other communication platforms are owned by corporations whose motivations don’t always align with yours. This makes your email community your #1 asset that’ll stay with you no matter what.” – Marc Eglon, Hackerpreneur
These authors fell for the lazy way to grow a business. They became dependent on free platforms to reach their market.
That’s like eating at somebody else’s table.
You don’t get to decide the menu.
And another thing. Those free platforms?
They aren’t free.
There’s a massive price tag. You need to wise up to it. Quickly.
I’ll tell you a fact. A real, knock-on-wood fact.
I’ve been there.
During my thirty years as a self-published author, I’ve had the carpet ripped from under me. Twice.
All because I didn’t understand one immutable truth of doing business.
Never ever build a business dependent on a free platform.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s traffic from Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or whatever next-generation platform emerges.
That’s like squatting a rented property.
At some point, the landlord will demand rent.
And if you don’t pay, you’ll get thrown out on the street.
There’s nothing touchy-feely when it comes to doing business with the big boys and girls. Not when you get into bed with corporations like Facebook or Google.
Getting your business shut down overnight isn’t a place you want to find yourself.