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New York Times best-selling authors Chris Brogan and Julien Smith recently launched their latest book, The Impact Equation, and kindly mentioned me as someone who has built up a large following of passionate (and attractive) readers. They also compared me to Seth Godin, showing how people who write totally different types of content can still grow a respectable audience in the same niche.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Seth. Though his posts are usually very short, more often than not they contain ideas you can apply to your business immediately. In this post I’m going one step further by taking Seth’s short, motivating style and opening up my Evernote account for you all to see.
In other words, you’re about to hit with a wave of ideas, images and random pieces of knowledge which I’ve collected up over the last few years.
Though not all of these items will be relevant to your business (like the Celebrity Gossip picture), I have no doubt you’ll see something here which inspires you to take action. And that’s what ViperChill stands for…
The Most Profitable Email Subject Line for President Barack Obama Was…
“Hey”.
That’s it. In terms of donations from emails with that subject line, he was able to raise millions of dollars over the course of his campaign. In fact, out of the $690m that he raised altogether, the majority of funds were raised online.
“It quickly became clear that a casual tone was usually most effective. “The subject lines that worked best were things you might see in your in-box from other people,” Fallsgraff says. “ ‘Hey’ was probably the best one we had over the duration.” Another blockbuster in June simply read, “I will be outspent.” According to testing data shared with Bloomberg Businessweek, that outperformed 17 other variants and raised more than $2.6 million.”
How to Get The Founder of Wikipedia (or Anyone) to Reply to Your Emails
It may seem like common sense, but simple things are often the easiest to overlook.
“It’s actually surprising how many people don’t follow this simple guideline of courtesy. I often get long tedious emails from people explaining to me in great detail how I can help them, how great it would be for them if I would work on their project with it, or endorse it, etc. But they fail to consider my context – why should I care, and even if I do care, why should I act on this rather than any of a thousand other things.” – Jimmy Wales
A Simple Idea That Helped Quicken Software Reach 70% Marketshare
“Consider how Intuit’s wildly popular Quicken program got its start. It all spread from a single campaign that contained a basic message: order the product and pay nothing. If you aren’t productive within eight minutes of opening the box, tear up the invoice.
Of course, most users were not only balancing their checkbooks within eight minutes but also discovering that they couldn’t live without this software. The result: 70% global market share in personal-financial-management software with minimal expenses for traditional marketing or selling. Plus an installed base to drive pricier sales of ancillary products such as checks and upgrades.”
There’s No Meaning Behind Häagen-Dazs
“Mattus invented the Danish sounding ‘Häagen-Dazs’ as a tribute to Denmark’s exemplary treatment of its Jews during the Second World War, and included an outline map of Denmark on early labels. The name is not Danish, which has neither an umlaut nor a digraph zs, and it has no meaning. Mattus thought that Denmark was known for its dairy products and had a positive image in the U.S.
His daughter Doris Hurley reported in the PBS documentary An Ice Cream Show that her father sat at the kitchen table for hours saying nonsensical words until he came up with a combination he liked. The reason he chose this method was so that the name would be unique and original.”
Pinterests’ Growth Wasn’t as Viral As You Think
Though we like to think of some rising internet properties as overnight successes, it’s rarely the case.
“In 2010, three months after Pinterest launched, the site had only 3,000 users. But some of them were active users, and those people loved the site — and both of those categories included Silbermann himself.
“Instead of changing the product, I thought maybe I could just find people like me,” he said.
So Pinterest started to have meet-ups at local boutiques, and to take fun pictures of people who attended them, and to engage with bloggers to do invitation campaigns like “Pin It Forward,” where bloggers got more invites to the site by spreading the world.”
How SEO Influences Gamer Buying Habits
“About 40 percent of game-related searches occur in the six months leading up to a launch as individuals evaluate what to buy. Video game related searches increased by 20 percent on desktops and laptops, and they increased 168 percent on tablets and smartphones over the last year during this period. About 28 percent of searches occurred in the 30 days after launch, and 32 percent of searches occurred after that.
During the pre-launch period, players are most interested in official content from publishers. They search for release dates, trailers, artwork, and demo versions of the game. For marketers, this means that the pre-launch window is a key time when they can influence gamers’ purchase decisions.”
The Ridiculousness of the Celebrity Gossip World
She’s engaged, married and single. Impressive…
22 Infomercials Before P90X Turned a Profit
If you don’t believe in split-testing, or products that do it for you *cough* then maybe this will change your mind.
“The first infomercial was an absolute dud. One of our primary measures of success is media cost, and when it started, we paid the equivalent of $250 per order. That’s a tough way to make a business when you’re selling a $120 product.
2005 was our roughest year. The hot gadgets that year were weight-loss belts–you put them on and jiggle your way to fitness. They were difficult to sell against, because we always have been selling hard work. Our revenue sank to $83 million from over $100 million the year before.
We kept testing and changing the P90X infomercial. We’d do a focus group and find out people didn’t understand what equipment they’d need, so we’d add that. Or we’d add a new, better testimonial from a customer. We started adding people’s homemade YouTube videos. We got the cost from $250 to $225. Then $190.
Still, I literally was in shouting matches with marketing people here: “Can we please stop trying to make this work?” they’d say. But it wasn’t blind faith. It was just that we kept seeing progress in every test we’d do.
In 2007, our 22nd version of the infomercial clicked. It just took off. Eventually we would get the media cost, net-net, down to under $50 per new customer.”
A Teacher Making $1M a Year Selling Lesson Plans Online
“Deanna Jump is a 43-year-old kindergarten teacher who earns less than $30,000 a year. But this year, she says she has made $1 million. Yes, really.
How? TeachersPayTeachers.com (TPT), the online marketplace that allows teachers to sell lesson plans to other teachers. Jump became the first teacher on the site to earn more than $1 million on the site by using selling her lesson plans focused on teaching kindergarteners.
“Teaching is a hobby for me now,” Jump says. “I’ve made way more on TeacherPayTeachers, obviously. I don’t need to teach anymore, but teaching is my passion. I cannot imagine not teaching.”
Kellogg’s Swapping Tweets for Treats
I think the most valuable lesson here is not the idea they had, but how quickly they were able to execute.
“But the Special K campaign may be the first example of real-life human interaction using the pay-with-a-tweet concept. Dan Glover, creative director of Mischief PR, said, “We believe that physical and social are one and the same. When we had the idea it felt very simple, and we did a lot of checking to be sure it was a world first. We jumped on that and made it happen — it was eight weeks from idea to execution.”
Sarah Case, brand manager for Special K, said in a statement, “The value of positive endorsements on social-media sites is beyond compare, so we’re excited to be the first company to literally use social currency instead of financial currency to launch this new product in our bespoke Special K shop.”
How Mark Zuckerberg Rewards His Staff
I can’t tell if the spelling mistake was intentional. That and the person who received this was later fired.
Gawker Closing $2M Worth of Advertising in a Single Day
This was an internal email which leaked (possibly intentionally) from the Gawker CEO Nick Denton to his staff.
“But… this week has been too exceptional to go without mention. And it’s not like this year’s been free of challenges; we should be able to recognize the good times too.
On Tuesday, on a single day, we booked $2m in revenue. I remember when that figure — even for a full year of sales — seemed unattainable.
Kate Middleton, iPhone and our excellent coverage of those and other stories drew 39.1m readers in the last month. 22.6m of them from our main market, the US. That’s a record.”
Customer Focused Content Marketing Works for MindLeaders
“I believe heavily in a content based integrated marketing strategy. Content based for me means content in the form of thought leadership, whether it’s white papers or assessments. It’s based on really strong content that’s thought provoking.
When I say integrated, it means they’re not only integrated across channels like social media, print, or banners, but also with the sales process. Creating content for the sake of content doesn’t make sense if it’s not supportive of the sales process.” – CMO, Alan See
Dr.Seuss Isn’t Really Dr.Seuss
“While at Dartmouth, Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room. As a result, Dean Craven Laycock insisted that he resign from all extracurricular activities, including the college humor magazine. To continue work on the Jack-O-Lantern without the administration’s knowledge, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name “Seuss”. His first work signed as “Dr. Seuss” appeared after he graduated, six months into his work for The Judge, where his weekly feature Birdsies and Beasties appeared.”
The Amount of People Behind the Worlds Biggest Blog
I still find it hard to call the Huffington Post a blog, but I thought it was interesting to see just how many people are involved in their global content publishing.
“HuffPo employs 486 people, including a social team of seven, a community team of six plus 30 moderators and more than 300 in editorial, and manages 30,000 unpaid bloggers (10,000 of which have posted in the last 90 days).”
The Truth About Tech Blogging
“The vast majority of blogging is about pageviews. Being first is important, but just as important is the mere illusion of being first. You do that by rewriting stories without proper attribution (meaning, again, little or no links back — or burying the links back). It’s a dipshit move — and sadly, a tech blogosphere staple.” – MG Seigler of TechCrunch and CrunchFund
Inside the Success of the Business Insider Blog
“Our readers have five minutes,” Blodget said. “They want to get the full impression. Rather than get 3,000 words, you can now see all these beautiful pictures and understand what’s going on in five minutes. It turns out that that’s a perfect application for this medium.”
On aggregation, Blodget noted, “The other thing that’s important, on the aggregation side, is we now are in a world where millions of sources of information are a click away. Lots of traditional publications still have the view that that information should not be used, even though everyone knows it and is being talked about on Twitter. Our view is, of course we’re going to take advantage of that. It’s a link away. People are talking about it already; let’s add value to it.”
Warren Buffet Says Free News is Unsustainable
“The billionaire investor said that editors should focus on making the papers “indispensable” to local communities. “Our future depends on remaining the primary source of information in certain subjects of great importance to our readers,” Mr Buffett wrote.
“Technological change has caused us to lose primacy in various key areas, including national news, national sports, stock quotations and employment opportunities. So be it. Our job is to reign supreme in matters of local importance.”
You Can Compete With Free, And Win
“If companies were not able to compete with free, Microsoft would have been crushed by Linux, Oracle by MySQL, and the dot-com boom would have wiped out half of the world’s brick and mortar economy. Cable TV or satellite radio wouldn’t exist. And, yes, while services like Napster offered consumers the ability to download free music, Apple came along years later with iTunes and charged a fee per download. Today, Apple is the most valuable technology company in the world.
In the end, the best product wins. Focus on building a truly great product and offer it to your customers with great service to back it up. People have proven time and time again that they’ll choose (and pay for) a better product over a free one, whether a yo-yo upgrade or a digital Jefferson Airplane album.”
The CD Baby Order Confirmation Email Which Won Repeat Customers
I’ve implemented something similar into my own products and services, and often get overly-positive feedback.
“Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.
Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved “Bon Voyage!” to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Friday, June 6th.
I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as “Customer of the Year”. We’re all exhausted but can’t wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!”
Can You Be More Like the Parking Angels?
Source: Unknown
Maybe It’s Time to Start Shouting In Your Emails
I received an ALL-CAPS-LOCK email about a year ago from a reader. I asked them why they were shouting at me, and received this interesting reply:
“Thank you very much! I apologize for the “shouting.” Our office protocol is to have all personal communication in all caps so that we can see at a glance what it is, to distinguish it from business and legal documents, and know that it can be deleted, and thereby reduce the possibility of deleting a document.”
How the Best-Selling Author on the Planet Stays Productive
I’ll confess that I’ve never read a Danielle Steel novel, but there are plenty of her books lying around my house back in England (my Mom’s a huge fan!). I loved this interview on how she stays productive and manages to write so much.
“Late at night, I review what I got done and what I didn’t. I don’t like leaving work unfinished, and try to get it all done each day. I’m willing to stay up very late and sacrifice sleep to do it, I feel better when I finish what I needed to do. But I’ve also gotten better about letting go at some point. Some days you just cant do it all!!! But I try!!
I don’t always feel ‘confident’, in fact a lot of times I don’t. I’m a worrier by nature. But I try to keep centered.”
CTR of Search Results
I did say that my Evernote account has been collecting data for a few years, and this is definitely something I saved a long time ago. You can even tell from the look of Google. That being said, it’s still interesting to look at how valuable the top few results are compared to the rest, even if you’re on the first page.
Source: Unknown
Groupon CEO on the Power of Email Marketing
This was well before the Groupon Stock started to fall, and it’s an interesting look at what their founder thought at the time of their entry on the stock exchange.
“Our marketing — at least the customer acquisition marketing that we remove from ACSOI — is designed to add people to our own long-term marketing channel — our daily email list. Once we have a customer’s email, we can continually market to them at no additional cost. Compare this to Johnson and Johnson, McDonald’s, or most other companies. If I’m a Johnson, and I’m trying to sell you a box of Band Aids, I have to keep spending money on commercials and magazine ads and stuff to remind you about how sweet Band Aids are, even after you’ve bought your first box.
With Groupon, we just spend money one time to get you on our email list, and then every day we email you a reminder of the sweetness of our metaphorical Band Aid. There is no cost of reacquisition — that’s unusual (and we created ACSOI to point that out). If Johnson wanted to follow the Groupon strategy, he would have to start a free daily newspaper about bandages and then run Band Aid ads in it every day.”
A Commenter I Agree with in Response to the Groupon CEO
“Perhaps the most ludicrous of the many ludicrous claims here is the notion that once they have e-mail addresses, they can just market to you forever and ever. Deal quality is declining so rapidly that many people are ignoring their e-mails. Eventually, they get auto-sorted into the spam folder or unsubscribed.”
If You Have a Time Machine, Don’t Say No to Larry Page
I saved this from a Reddit comment a very long time ago. Since it’s Reddit, it may or may not be true, but they have the business card to back it up. That, and Reddit Karma can’t be converted into cash, so there are few reasons to lie.
“I met both Carl Page and Larry Page at a party hosted by a Stanford friend of mine in 1998. Carl gave me his card for eGroups and said “we’re hiring”. Larry gave me his card for Google—a flimsy bit of paper obviously printed by bubble jet—and said “we’re hiring”.
I said, “Nah, who needs another search engine?” and went to graduate school. I still have the card.”
Source: Reddit
Louis C.K. Making $1M+ from His Online Stand-Up
Since he’s a hit over on Reddit, their community helped his comedy show to reach all corners of the web. During his AMA (Ask Me Anything) on the site after his film went viral, he interestingly had this to say.
“From the moment it went online and I saw the result of every decision I made. The last question the web guys asked me before we posted was if I wanted the mail list button defaulted to “opt in” or “opt out” and I said start it at opt out. It’s such a tiny thing but I keep hearing about it from people. So so interesting to watch this grow.”
I Couldn’t Write a Post With Seth in the Title Without Including Him
In his words, the best way to be missed when you’re gone is..
“to stand for something when you’re here. Works for people, works for brands.”
As for what ViperChill stands for. Well, I already answered that before the green picture in the introduction. If you like this deviation from the typical ViperChill post then please let me know. I could happily do more of them, but that depends on you…
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Dang – that’s a lot of info! I especially like the P90X story – as I’m slaving away to it right now. (Well… not right now… you get the idea). Anyways, cool idea for a post. I’m going to do the same and Evernote some of your thoughts! Peace!
Thanks Brandon,
Glad you liked the idea! Feel free to share a link here once your post is up
Yup true. He has posted a lot of info here.
I like the part of Mark and SEO experts one. SEO is important to rank for any keywords.
Thanks
This is awesome Glen! Some funny ones in here, but there’s also a lot of lessons to keep in mind too, like the one about emailing important people. That’s something I’ve been trying to focus on lately is making sure when I’m emailing people and asking them to help me that I’ve (a) ideally built a relationship with them first, and (b) am expressing the benefits for THEM of helping me.
Hey Thomas,
Appreciate the comment and happy you took something from the post
Hi Thomas! I liked your comment about emailing important people. It only takes one influential person to make a big difference for your business! Maybe you could gain permission to interview them, and create a video or a podcast from the interview.
Maybe you could volunteer to write an article for them or do some important research. I think you have a great idea and I wish you luck in it.
Glen–
Great post! Loved it.
It was tough reading about the teacherspayteachers.com one. Such a cool idea that I’ve turned over in my mind time and time and time again (day job = teaching). I had the idea when I was in college :/
Oh well. This is a lesson in the power of TAKING ACTION.
Cheers!
Thanks Sean,
I had one of the most moments recently myself. So true about just trying something and seeing what happens. You never know…
Appreciate the comment!
Read the post in full – thanks for the inspiration Glen!
You’re welcome.
Thanks for commenting!
Glen I enjoyed this.
A rare exception to re reading the same old rehashed marketing info (never from you of course) repeatedly churned out by Marketing bloggers who have great headlines, but dissapointing content in their posts.
Good to have such an interesting diversion, now I’m off to use the tips from the Obama campaign / CD Baby to grow my own business.
Cheers!
Hey Adam,
Awesome. I really liked the CD Baby one when I first heard it
Nice to see this different style is getting a good response!
“now I’m off to use the tips from the Obama campaign”
How you gonna do that?
The word ‘Obama’ occurs once on this entire web page. It’s in your comment. But not in the post.
Maybe read the post? First heading under the green image.
Can’t miss it
Still wrapping my head around all the info. Great for motivation.
Good luck
Thanks for visiting!
Curation at its best
So much knowledge at the beginning of December already. The month is going to be good 
awesome stuff Glen
Thanks for the comment, Salman!
Interesting post. I particularly liked the tidbit about the testing required for the P90X product.
Thanks Chandra!
Great post Glen,
I have been using Evernote for about a year now and can’t live without it.
I think I will have some great nights reading ahead of me to get through all you have offered up here today.
Thanks John!
Excellent post, some great ideas in there, got the old juices flowing. I love the Häagen-Dazs story, I often tell people to think up a business name or website name that is completely unique and nothing like anything ever heard of before.
Parking Angels, what a great story, I wonder how many people actually said thank you by using the possible fine on something good?
Great post and I look forward to others in the future.
Andi
Hey Andi,
You work with Tim?
Appreciate you stopping by!
I do yes, what gives it away?
Any chance I can convince you to do the quick 10 question written interview yet? Ramsay has done it….. 
Well it was worth a try.
Speak soon
A
Most of my ideas occur by just scaling up from a single thought. So by all means thanks for this post
I’m usually the same.
Thanks for stopping by – as always – Slavko.
Hey Glen!
My first time leaving a comment here. Though I have been following your blog since last year.
I liked that way you developed the story instead of putting out another “10 things you can do … ” list. (CD Baby example in action?) And not to mention the way each point made an impact.
Thanks for the great article. I have all your “Viral Content” articles on Evernote for whenever I need the push to make myself stand out.
Appreciate your craftsmanship! Keep it up!
- Rita
Hey Rita,
Thank you for your first comment!
Look forward to seeing you back here
I cannot believe that HuffPost has so many staff, and I didn’t realise that they had so many unpaid contributors. That is so crazy, again it goes to show that anything is possible, along with the story of the teacher who went from 30k a year in a day job to over 1 million from selling plans on a website. Great positive prompts, just what I need on a cold December morning in England.
Thank you.
I’m more amazed they have 30,000 people writing for free.
Then again, most people like having an audience and it makes sense if they don’t know how or don’t want to build their own.
Thanks SI.
I know! it’s crazy! to own a blog where just 30 people were happy to write for free would be pretty good.
I might challenge myself to create a blog and see if I can get people to write for it regularly and for free.
Great article. Thanks Glenn…
Thank you, Haroun
Awesome Post Glen, as always
Lots of inspiration!
But I am confused about that Lary Page and Reddit thing :
According to sources (http://www.cse.msu.edu/?Pg=64&Col=2), Carl Page died in 1996, then how that redditer claimed that he met Carl and Lary in 1998 ? Maybe his ghost…. lol
That’s not Larry’s brother…
oh, Just realized that Larry’s father’s name and brother’s name, both was ‘Carl Page’ (Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Page)… Quite Strange!
The link I quoted earlier was about Larry’s Father who died in 1996 (and had the name ‘Carl Page’)
Anyways, to hell with Pages, Your post was quite interesting
Ahh, that makes more sense.
Thank you for your comments, Garish!
I actually liked this post style Glen. It’s fresh and it’s great to peek behind the viperchill curtain and see what makes you tick…..
Looking forward to the next one!
Thanks Patrick!
Always good to try something different…
I did notice that this post is getting a lot fewer comments, but the time on site is much more. I guess everyone is exploring the source links
Always a source of cool stuff Glen, keep it coming
Thanks Tom!
Re: Parking Angels. It has happened that I live in the area in which this parking ticket has been issued – Dun Laoghaire near Dublin, Ireland. Unfortunately I got a parking ticket not so long ago – guess the Parking Angels weren’t swift enough to get to everyone – but I appreciate the idea and the initiative. It just shows how a little can go a long way and a little kindness open the door to great things.
Hah, that’s funny and of course, not so funny.
Thank you for sharing. Small world indeed!
This is was so awesome! I adore Godin and you and as Brogan says…you guys are worlds apart in style, but neighbors in power. Thank you again for such a breath-taking and eye-opening lesson in taking notes. Oh. MY. Gosh. I guess I better knock the dust off my Evernote. I just hope I can get Siri to do it for me.
Thank you!
Haha!
They’re only useful if you use them and it’s much easier if it’s a topic you’re passionate about .
Maybe I read too much
Thank you for your comment & tweet, Tania!
Hey Ya!
Loved the post! Gave me the “shot in the arm” I needed, thank you!
(Have missed your posts, glad you’re back!)
Thanks Ryder!
I got one of those emails from CDBaby when I bought from them some time ago. It’s possibly the most memorable communication I’ve recieved as a customer. I marvelled at how it was such a simple concept but so under-utilised by most, plus the fact that you only have to write it once in order to keep sending it out on autopilot to each new customer. I imagine it’s pretty hard to feel buyer’s remorse when you get that email, even if the CD was awful!
I hadn’t seen the parking angels thing before. I like that a lot because not only does it do it’s job well, but it also highlights just how extortionate the fine would be if they hadn’t saved you from it with the comparitively small 50c. In other words, it’s putting the business community on your side – the punter – you and them against the ‘big, bad wolf’. Clever.
Thanks for the inspiration you provided with this post Glen.
I think I’ve learned more reading this in the last 10 minutes than I have all week! Thanks Glen – Ryan
I love reading comments like this
Thank you Ryan!
Great Read !
I got about 10 ideas from each pitch on your post.
For instance, Parking Angels is very cool. I might have a takeover right away on this one.
Thank you very very much
You’re welcome Laurent,
That’s awesome. Thanks for leaving a comment!
Glenn,
For this post as well as all of your masterful content throughout the years…Thank you for providing us with a ton of great ideas to move the needle.
You are a brilliant mind!
Happy Holidays,
-Jon
Amazing, amazing gallery and curated content full of inspiration here, Glenn! Thanks for this!
Thanks Caleb!
you rock G!
You too Nir!
This is a post that not only do you read, you bookmark for reference. Rich with alot of info. I know that comment sounds like spam, lol, so I’ll say something about the article, I like the, “you can compete with free”.
“Marked as spam”.
Hah, thanks Milas!
Great info. The story about selling lesson plans has given me a few great ideas this morning. Thanks for sharing that one.
That’s the plan!
Awesome, and you’re very welcome.
Hey Glenn,
the new format works for me, thanks for asking
I cannot imagine you completely letting go of the former posting style though. Perhaps you’ll go back to it once the book is finished. Either way, you could write your updates on the back of a napkin once a year, and it would still be lovely to hear from you 
Have fun,
Sandra
PS: I loooove the CD baby story – reminds me of SEOMoz actually. When I recently downgraded from their pro monthly subscription I received a really nice, personal “Sad to see you go” message with a link to a 70ties video of “Baby come back” – hilarious!
ahhhrrrgh, so sorry it’s Glen of course!!!
You’re forgiven…
…this time
Outstanding read! Lots and lots and lots of actionable information.
Great job. More, please.
On its way. Thanks, Orvel!
Definitely loved this post Glenn. You had me at “Evernote”.
I love these small chunks of ideas and quotes. I think many times we forget that
it’s the small things, the minute details that can make a huge difference in our business.
Definitely different for you but look forward to seeing similar in the future.
Keep it rockin bro!
Thanks Brian,
I have a similar idea in mind. Good to know people like it!
Glen, just want to drop-by to say that this is a great article. Thank you for sharing these resources and knowledge bits you have collected throughout the years. I have used Evernote for a long time as well — it inspires me to write the same sort of article — in a self-help related fashion. Thanks, be well
!
-Marc
I really appreciate that you revealed piece of your Evernote’s collection. I like to find some ideas on the Web like these but it’s great that you aggregated it. Thanks.
PS. I’m a huge fan of Seth too
Hey Glen, I think loved this different kind of article today. It sums up loads of insights and keeps you alert about what’s happening in the media world. Who doesn’t like bits of wisdom?
I could really pay 5$ a month for a weekly collumn like this focused on marketing and inspiration!
Thank you for the post. The information you post is so informative. I really appreciate it.
No problem, J. Thanks for the comment!
Nice post, I also like the format with the quotes and content chunks.
I will definitely have to start following this format for my future blog posts.
Keep up the great work.
Thanks Patrick.
Look forward to seeing what you do based on this style…
I’ve been a longtime fan and subscriber and enjoy your very in-depth articles. However I also got such a kick and enjoyment out of this post!! I hope you do more like this. Thanks! Oh, and yes, because Seth’s name was in the subject line, I opened. He’s a genius. And great move on your part.
Appreciate your comment Jaime, and good to know that mixing up the style can be interesting too.
Thanks!
I had come across some of these already (the teacher selling her lesson plans was on CNN) , but I liked your personal snippets you saved the most! Just right for my Monday morning short attention span!
Oh really? That’s great for her (and I’m sure for the site!)
Glad you enjoyed the post, Marita
Thanks, Glen! I love the variety here, and there are certainly some great nuggets to take away!
One I enjoyed in particular was the blurb on P90x (partly b/c we’re focused on the fitness niche) … it’s easy to sit on the sideline and see a product that caught on like wildfire, and think of the hoards of money Beach Body must be raking in. It’s great to see the beginning stages to know that it took a LOT of hard work and lost revenue before they got anywhere near their success.
If you’re confident people need your product, keep refining your marketing approach or sales funnel online. Eventually it should click with potential customers if you’re viewing it from their perspective.
That’s a good takeaway Eric. It seems to apply to the Pinterest story as well.
Thanks for the comment!
I just wanted to ask…..
What tool did you use to curate this content. Did you just copy and paste or do you use a curation tool?
Well, Evernote to have it all in one place. But, just copy and paste after that yeah.
Great post – for some reason the teacher making a million a year and still teaching because it his her passion really stands out to me. Keep up the great work.
Yeah I don’t think many people would stay in their job after making that much money. I guess it shows another benefit of doing something you love. She wouldn’t have created amazing lesson plans if this wasn’t her thing.
Hey Glen;
I was just wondering whether I had somehow fallen into your bad books since I hadn’t seen an email from you in what seemed to be forever….
Glad to see you are still offering up sage advice. Keep it coming. Really love the change up too!
Hah, it’s very hard to get into my bad books.
Thanks Greg. I know I was quiet for a while!
You definitely were quiet for a while! Which might be a factor as to why your emails are being opened with such ferocity!
I liked the post quite a bit, but nothing beats “long winded Glen.”
Keep them coming, I’ll be returning regardless.
Thanks Garrett. Appreciate the tweet also!
Thanks for sharing Glen. You defiantly do provide value to your community. This post sparked some new ideas in my head
Good to hear.
Thanks Shireen!
Hey Glen…
Great post, different twist to the usual style. You mentioned Ramsay will be posting more frequently in a previous post?
Hey Mark,
Yeah, that’s actually my fault. Ramsay has been pushing at me to get another post up, but I held off because I didn’t know what was happening RE the book deal.
He has a few lined up though
Ha don’t think anyone can blame you, have a full plate at the moment what with OptinSkin and the book deal
By the way (you’ve probably had lots of people say this) I think you did the right thing regarding the dummies book, you’ll no doubt have other opportunities that are more suited for you!
Just wondering, do you possibly plan to make more frequent posts with more writers of a same standard to your posts? I think your content is awesome and read some part of this blog every day!
It’s not Seth, but Viperchill on steroids ! Excellent is the only thing I can say.
Thanks for being such a versatile and remarkable blogger.
I try!
Thanks for your comment, Eklavya
Howdy Glen,
Thanks for sharing ‘the sources of your inspiration’
- was a long time we all had to wait for some good infromations
But with this you are totally wrong:
“but the time on site is much more. I guess everyone is exploring the source links”
In my case it is:
1.) I’m reading your posts together with my wife and have to explain / translate a lot
2.) We’re aged 54, and german – so it just takes a while to understand all
3.) This much ‘stuff’ isn’t read in 49 seconds by anybody
Happy having heard some news from you – keep up – thank you
Hah,
Andy, it’s very cool that you took the time out to tell me this. Always amazed by who is reading the articles here, and where they’re located.
Thanks for your feedback, and say hello to your wife for me!
The irony of your post title is that I clipped about 1/3 of this back into my own Evernote – the Google stats, the Larry Page biz card, and a few more.
Great article – if you ever do a note sort & big file dump, count me in as a downloader. I love Evernote!
Guess you had the password already
Solid wide range of inspiring snippet of entrepreneurial nuggets of success!
Thanks for sharing this Glen!
Lots of food for thought here!
“If you like this deviation from the typical ViperChill post then please let me know. I could happily do more of them, but that depends on you…”
Yea this deviation was totally worth it. I wonder if that really was Larry Page’s business card from way back in ’98 though?
I appreciate the research and work you put into this!
Deviation from the norm is always worth it in my opinion, because even if it is a failure, you learn something (and if it works, nice). This deviation was very entertaining and it worked because it retained the quality we’ve come to expect from you. BUT…
People typically clamor for more of the same (sequels make a lot of money) because they can’t trust something completely new to be of quality AND interest. The Twilight films aren’t of quality, but they are of interest! And that’s the conundrum of creators – we can create something of quality, but that doesn’t mean it will find interest. I think that’s what you were wondering here. It’s obviously a quality post, but it’s completely different from your others.
I liked this because it facilitated contrasting ideas together. Quicken and Groupon both employed forms of free marketing, but Quicken’s model works better because it is 100% convenient for the consumer. Groupon relies on constant badgering for sales via email. As a living social subscriber, I can say that this form of email blasting is completely ineffective on me (and annoying).
Cheers,
Stephen
Do this more often. I feel like I know you just a little bit better now. Cheers! How’s Asia? How about an update post on the expat-lifestyle out there? Curious to know being an expat out here in Budapest!
Really appreciate your generosity and time in sharing these snippets with us Glen. They really do get the creative juices flowing. I think the Venture Beat piece about the gaming market is one of the most inspiring. It shows that there’s a real opportunity to stand out from the competition not by being the first to set up sites when something launches, but being the one who leads the news every step of the way.
Cheers!
Some great ideas here, thanks for this great article.
This post is not only worth reading. It’s definitely worth sharing too!! Bookmarked and shared!! Thanks Glenn.. I hope my comment will inspire you at least a little! (seriously!)
Happy holiday!
I have never really had a problem with my creativity and ideas, but I must admit that I am not very organized person. For 2013, I am preparing full arsenal of helpers, including paper reminders, CRM software and even people that will keep me doing what I have mentioned previously.
“Late at night, I review what I got done and what I didn’t. I don’t like leaving work unfinished, and try to get it all done each day. I’m willing to stay up very late and sacrifice sleep to do it, I feel better when I finish what I needed to do. But I’ve also gotten better about letting go at some point. Some days you just cant do it all!!! But I try!!
I don’t always feel ‘confident’, in fact a lot of times I don’t. I’m a worrier by nature. But I try to keep centered.”
This is sick, but also a motivation. Sometimes its more easy to make excuses than it is to work…
Max
Hey Glen!
This is great. You what would be even greater? One of your epic posts on how YOU use evernote. Based on your notes, I can see that I’m clearly not leveraging the power of the app as much as I could. Just a thought. Happy New Year!
Wow, that is a lot of notes. I loved the one about Special-K, because they actually never did that campaign around here and I think it’s outstanding. So many company’s fail to use social media to their advantage and embarrass themselves, so it’s refreshing if someone does it the right way. BTW: CD-Baby is full of great storys. They had a comment box where you could make a wish with your order. Someone wished a Kraken, joking and not thinking anyone would read his joke. Incidentally they had a dry edible Kraken from asia lying around, that another customer had sent them and they sent it along with the order. The guy was so stoked, he uploaded a video of this on youtube, it’s still up there and has gained CD-Baby that great reputation and probably a lot of customers. That’s what I always say: Keep it personal and fun, that way other people will enjoy dealing with you.
Interesting post! Many gems that are worth saving for future references. By the way, in terms of the Häagen-Dazs, what I heard was that it was meant be sounding like Dutch word. I’m Danish and that word has nothing do with the language. We don’t even use ä and z is almost never used as well. The pronunciation is also very Dutch, so IF it actually is meant to be Danish looking and sounding they got it all wrong, which is pretty funny
!
Yep, that’s actually mentioned on the Wikipedia page, that those characters aren’t even used
Thanks for the great article.I am just loving it.
Hey! Glen
This is a lot of resource that you have pilled up. I love the Obama part.
I really enjoyed this post, waiting for more of such posts.
Hey Glen,
How do you organize your stuff in Evernote? Do you use the tags and notebooks? Or just Copy&Paste Madness?
cheers
Max
I actually read over this article twice! It was quite interesting! I like the Pinterest one. Very motivating and cool. The P90x one is nice as well. Just gotta keep trying man!
Good stuff ad usual Glen! Recently got the opt-in-skin too, Loving IT : )
That search results graphic is going to change a bunch with Author Rank and +1s showing up in search results now. I don’t remember the last time I saw a results screen with just a page of links like that. Usually, there are some videos and pics to compete with.
Great, great post. It was so full of information, and interesting short reads. Just what my Wednesday morning required.
It never ceases to amaze at just what lengths people will go through to get it done. I am a big fan of Seth and won his Poke the Box from an Amazon contest. He is an inspiration to many (especially me).
I have never used evernote but you have created a fan. Every bit of this info was interesting and motivating. I find myself looking at ways to apply each one. Well, maybe not the Aniston thing except that celebrities sell!
Awesome Article Glen! Thanks for the inspiration! Please do more!
~ Claire
Nice post ! The story about selling lesson plans has given me a few great ideas.Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks a lot for sharing. Rocking as usual Glen!
Great post Glen. I especially love that Jimbo Wales quote. I agree that it’s always best to consider the position of the person you’re asking help from. Doing so is just like answering the inevitable question “What’s in it for me?” when doing a face-to-face solicitation.
Thanks for sharing. I really love that rather ironic Zuckerberg note.
About the subject lines: I guess some subject phrases work especially well if the “from” address is the right one.
Hi Glen,
Its greaaaaaaaaaaaat post. How you created such a great article. I got more information’s and idea’s from you man. Thanks for sharing.
GLEN!
You disappeared on us AGAIN. =) I hope everything is going okay and hope to see some indication that you’re alive soon! LOL
New post is now live
He’s ALIVE!!!
Thanks! This is the first time I’ve read your blog. I love the format of this post, but only because all the content was pretty relevant to me – and interesting if not relevant. It may be a bad thing, or maybe ADD, but I am much more comfortable consuming info in small chunks like this. Now, the next thing would be to write a full blog post on each one of these and link to it from here. There were a couple of them where I found myself wishing there was a ‘read more’ button.
Great work! (I love Evernote!)
Jon