Hello beautiful people!
Our March 2023 meeting will take place on Wednesday, March 22nd at 11:30am PDT* at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85965793555 and its replay will live on this page within a day of the live mastermind session. * = WE ARE BACK IN DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME STARTING WITH THIS MEETING; PLEASE DOUBLE-CHECK THE TIMING WHERE YOU LIVE!
Reminder: We’re using the same Zoom link for all of our JFDI hotseat sessions. Keep it handy! And keep an eye on my events calendar for any changes to our dates (time will always be 11:30am Pacific). So excited for where we’ll GROW from here!
If you’d like a refresh on any of the JFDI with Bon curriculum goodness without having to comb through alllllllll the content we’ve covered since March 2020, check out this lovely orientation page over here. Yay!
AND, if you’d like more support or just some hang time each month, you’re welcome to join in for Connect with Bon (check for all the details here). No RSVP, no replay, no pressure.
As always, I love seeing you do the workout, out there. Continue the convo in the comments below and be sure you tag me and use #JFDIwithBon out on social media so we can *all* celebrate you as you build your best life!
All my love,
1. After following up in the Etsy messaging service a few days after delivery, my recent Etsy buyer left a review! It was just a rating of 5 stars, but it’s better than nothing. My first review!
2. Bonnie, in last month’s comments you mentioned how to game the lack of Google indexing (having sales language on a separate website). Question. I already have that on my mailchimp-created landing page (redirected from the official website), is that good enough for Google to find it/help with indexing? Because it’s been there for many, many, many months. I updated and tweaked some wording last night but wasn’t sure if it’d be more effective to actually create a legit website to help get indexed or not. This isn’t high priority at the moment, but thinking ahead for the future. I also assume the answer is probably a simple yes or no.
3. Hope to be ready for book-related discussion for this month’s call.
WOOO! HIGH FIVE FOR YOUR FIRST REVIEW!!!
Congrats on that review!!!!!!! FIVE STARS indeed!!!!!!!!! 🙂
I’m not sure how well Google indexes MailChimp pages. I’m going to guess NOT WELL mainly because there’s a free tier of MailChimp. And any service that offers a free tier has the chance of being used/abused by scammers/spammers. Since that means there can be many MC accounts with crap vomited all over them just to try and get indexed and then dominate searches to sell their crap, it’s likely that Google deprioritizes those page if it indexes them at all, y’know?
That’s one of the reasons people pay for things like LeadPages or Ontrapages or put stuff on their own sites in WordPress or SquareSpace. Yes, there’s a free version of WP, but that’s why they use .org for one and .com for the other. That’s specifically to help direct Google to paying vs. non-paying users. It’s why Wix under-performs in Google searches. They offer free pages with ads on them. Hence, easily abused/used by folks Google doesn’t want to send traffic to.
Ha ha. So, yes, there’s a simple yes/no response but you know I’m always gonna share the WHY behind the WHAT. 😉 Definitely get your own webpage (or AT LEAST a Google page or YouTube channel or something we know Google prioritizes) with language on it you want Google grabbing. It’s never gonna suck to have that out there working for you.
Yay! Looking forward to book-related discussion anytime! Don’t stress yourself out trying to get ready for it. Whatever we end up chatting about, our meetings are always fun!
I don’t have any hard data to support, but as far as I can remember, I’ve never landed on a MailChimp page from a Google search. I’ve never seen my own come up when checking search. And I’ve never seen a signup on my own that hasn’t first come from being on my own webpage. Every single sign-up I have correlates to a registered visit on 30SecondBallets.
I believe .org and .com also differentiate the underlying structure of each WordPress version. Org is the one you need to know code to use, .com works more like a site builder. My site is built on a paid .com plan, but that also means the URL doesn’t include anything WordPress-y. I just wanted to share that additional piece of info. 🙂
Yup. That’s pretty much what I expected in regards to the indexing question.
Follow up, and treat me like I know nothing. By “Google page” you mean……? Any site/domain that is owned by Google (like a Youtube)? A personal “website” that I set up and create through Google (the super simple ones you can create when you buy a domain through them)? Something else? Contemplating where best to put my energy for this indexing situation in the short term.
You know more than nothing, and that’s not be being kind. You got it. Exactly that. A YouTube page, a Google one-pager via domain set-up, even doing the “claim knowledge panel” thing in Google search results… these are all things that will help Google index what you’ve created (because you’re not making people go to a Google competitor basically).
YES, Google will still search out (pretty much) everything, but we want to make it SUPER easy for you to be right up top, fast… and feeding Google its own properties is how.
Perfect. Thank you. Moving “creating a Google domain page” to the top of the list.
Swinging back over to #30 for a little guidance:
I have 5 or 6 retailers that currently follow @30SecondBallets on IG. I think they might be good targets for offering a wholesale deal for recital season. One specifically ‘liked’ a post I put up just for retailers, even. It’s my second major sales period for these babies, so now is my time to get them in stores. BUT I don’t want to look like an internet creeper when I contact them!
I’m sort of leaning toward email over DM, but a platform jump might be off-putting. And if I reversed this, I would maybe feel weird if someone wrote me and said “Hey! I saw you followed my IG, are you interested in some stuff?” So… I’m not sure if I’m overthinking it, or if these are legit things I need to orchestrate. Any suggestions? Or am I just twisting myself into knots? Lol. I have a draft email, if it’ll help.
(For the record, I specifically mean sending a single email from my own email account. I don’t mean adding them to any kind of newsletter without consent.)
My immediate thought while reading was that you would sound like a needy creepier immediately contacting them after only one “like”. And then you addressed that you’d feel weird being on the receiving end of something similar, which tells me that that’s not how you want to run your business. My thought would be to *conveniently* start engaging with them more on IG through their comments/posts/stories and when you feel less gross about it, then pull the trigger. And I say all that knowing that marketing and asking for the sale (or anything, really) is not my strong suit and I always feel like I’m an annoying inconvenience any time I’m barely pushy, so, maybe there’s an in between or faster approach than my “slow-and-steady eventually maybe gets there and feels less weird about it”?
Exactly what I’m getting at, yeah. You’re mirroring back accurately. The one thing that’s tripping me up is that my first retailer was originally from a cold email. Mind you, the second was only after a chat at the Expo.
I agree… I’ll go hunting more specifically for opportunities to engage with these retailers’ accounts. Might have to manufacture some reasons when their posts get mundane. 😉
Maybe you have the solution to their mundane posts?!
Okay, what’s happening is you’re thinking you must SHOW YOUR WORK. Don’t do that.
Platform jump. Email them. Do not even MENTION that you’re connected on IG (or anywhere).
The data you get from them connecting with you on social is that they do see you, maybe like what you’re doing, could feel a sense of “I know her” when intersecting your name/brand out there at some point. All good stuff.
The emailing them thing is far less creepy when you don’t mention any crossover or show any of your show bible notes. 😉 Just like targeting casting directors or agents! We let it be their brilliant idea to do the thing we’ve been dropping breadcrumbs down the path toward forEVER. 😉
They don’t know it’s a platform jump (no one is paying as close attention as you are, ever) AND if they do know that it is, we let THEM say so and then the next time they comment on a post over there, we say, “Oh, yay! There you are! Thank you!” or whatever.
Make sense?
Makes sense.
And I don’t even need to engage this play with the warmest retailer (the one who specifically ‘liked’ that post) because- wait for it- she literally just emailed me, asking to stock #30 at her two locations. (I both laughed and happy-danced at this one. Well-played, universe!)
After the convo with Sarah, I made a point of specifically going to these retailer IGs and dropping a comment and a couple likes on each retailer’s account. (Not creep-level, literally a couple.) I kinda had you on my shoulder, Bon, framing it as “doing rounds” or “watering plants” rather than “being social” (introvert-ick). And that seemed to be a good play!!
I’ve scheduled myself to do a round of retailer emails on the 24th so I can Uphold myself over the fear. Yes, I used some CH woo to decide on date. I’ve got about a week to do this gentle warming, and then I’ll send the platform jump sans homework.
Thank you!!
Stephanie! Congrats! Love this.
Thank you! And thanks for your help. I appreciate being able to bounce ideas with you. 🙂
Play complete. Money’s in the bank, books have been ordered to the retailer. Woo hoo!!!
Did the thing. Emailed 5 retailers today, even though I faced a good amount of resistance (unsurprisingly). One of them has already written back to ask for wholesale prices… I’m taking that as my win!!
Yayayayayayayayayay! SUCH a win! Well done, thing-doer!
Proud of you.
So here’s something bizarre… I’ve had the recorded version of my seminar hosted on Thinkific since we organized me into taping it right? I discovered on Thursday morning that the course is suddenly just… gone. I can’t get into the Thinkific server and I’m getting a 404 on my actual course link. It’s as if the entire account has been deleted (although, I can get into the “Thinkific Academy” side, which is for them to sell courses on how to use Thinkific to me). Isn’t that strange?!
I emailed support, and they told me I’m registered as a student on some other thingie. May be true (I don’t recall this particular course), but doesn’t change the fact I own(ed) the #30 course that was up. (I emailed back with more info just now.) Of course, I’ve got all the OG materials backed up, so no loss (other than the time and effort it took to set up the platform). But yeah… bizarre. It’s not even MRx yet.
I had liked Thinkific for the fact they don’t charge any fees for your first course. But now that my work has just magically poofed… Is Teachable the next preferred choice, JFDIers? I didn’t love their fee structure last I looked (and honest truth: I have no students enrolled). But this isn’t cool, things just disappearing and support being dodgy.
Update: they deleted my account on purpose. That’s nice… sigh. They cited inactivity, but I got no warnings. Apparently I have been “reinstated as a gesture of good will” (what?) and will receive a free trial of their paid program. Facepalm.
I’m still going back to our chat where we dove into Teachable and friends. But happy to hear of current preferences. 🙂
Gross.
Yeah, that’s one of the MAJOR downsides to any tech company that offers free space; they can take it away on a whim. I mean… “you get what you pay for”? Ugh.
We’re happy with Teachable and we actually paid for our pro membership there for more than a year before we earned a buck there. It was another year before we came anywhere close to breaking even. Sure, that was challenging and unpleasant and even crazymaking at times, but I’m glad we stuck it out. There’s SO much room to grow there and in an online world in which you’re ALWAYS gonna have complaints about EVERY company you deal with to run your business, Teachable is very low on the complaint scale when it comes to our full tech stack.
I’m glad you were able to get your course reinstated. I’m going to guess they’re trying not to have a graveyard of inactive spaces. Did you ask how often you should log in to tweak things so they don’t put you on the no-notice kill list again? Yeah, that “good will” comment is so icky. Like they’re doing you a favor. Bleh.
Outside of Teachable, I really like being on the user-end of Send Owl and I think it’s pretty affordable.
Depending on what your course includes, remember that even a basic link given out via email to a Dropbox folder or Google Drive folder is also enough!! Before you NEED a full-tilt curriculum space, there are other options!
Yeah, totally icky. And unfortunate timing… my newsletter went out and then had a 404. Oh well… onward. My click-through rate is still almost-zero, so it’s okay (though it could’ve been bad if it had been a launch). Open rate is kickin’ butt though! I’ve been hovering consistently around 50% since January (and I’m damn proud of it).
I did ask- every 180 days for free accounts, no requirement for paid plans. So, I just set a reminder up in my phone. And then set up a plan to look into these other options more deliberately! Thanks for your notes. 🙂
Please celebrate the heck out of that 50% open rate! THAT is huge and fabulous!
Happy Easter/Passover!
I was just coming by to drop one quick update and now I have multiple!
Will have to miss this week’s zoom but plan on watching the replay (along with re-watching March’s call and getting to the comments) on Thursday. Nothing I need to discuss for this week but I will say I WILL be going to the LitFest in Pasadena that Dana had mentioned and plan on really hunkering down on the book this coming Friday.
Originally wanted to say that I’ve finally combined all my endeavors under one brand umbrella on Saturday. Jiggy and Photog still have their own IG accounts (it just makes sense) but I made a point of saying, “Hey, I’m an actor/writer and when I’m not busy being on set, I also do this thing and this other thing. Check ’em out.” I NO SOONER DO THAT and wake up to another Etsy sale this morning (Easter Sunday). Huh. I will say, this item had been liked/favorited by multiple people so I wasn’t surprised it eventually sold… but the timing…. along with having just booked an acting gig in NYC last week (I think back a handful of month’s to Bonnie’s comment about once area takes off other effortlessly follow) and having JUST done some money work literally the night before. And again, this new sale has come with absolutely no effort towards Jiggy other than almost daily looking at my stats of views/likes – only one IG post, haven’t updated Etsy metatags, haven’t built that Google-indexable website site yet, still have a stack of MLB-themed coasters I have to list.
Hmmm… just imagine if I can actually carve out time to put energy towards it with all this alignment.
(Unrelated but shameless plug – catch me on L&O Organized Crime on April 20 opposite Christopher Meloni and Ellen Bursytn. Yes, you read that right. And yes, I am a cop.)
APPLAUDING!!! Way to go, Sarah!!!! I love.
And L&O is AWESOME. Can’t wait!
I have your show on my calendar/reminders! So excited!
Head over to the April page for my thoughts on your “just imagine…” line here. 😉
I’m excited to hear how things continue to go for you and what you’ll learn at the ‘dena book event. Hooray!
So much good news! Thank you.