Uncategorised

The Biggest Influence on Anti-Sell (is Not What You’d Expect)…

Published on

Photo of computer screen run through the Prisma appAnti-Sell now has its own dedicated website & blog! Check it out at Anti-Sell.com.

Well hello there! It’s been a while. The last post I published on here was *checks notes* five months ago?! 😨 Wow. And to think, I once committed to doing at least one new post per month on here! How the hell I ever even managed the time to do that, I’ll never know – haha…

Aaanyway.

Recently I realised that Anti-Sell came out this time last year (March 2019), which is absolutely unreal – the last year has flown by.

Since then I’ve blogged about the book’s release (see link above), as well as my Freelance Heroes Day 2019 talk and how I’ve been promoting it.

I also blogged about the books that inspired it – but later realised that its biggest inspiration (or perhaps “influence” would be the right word to use) isn’t actually even in that list.

So… what is it?

It’s got to be something SEO-focused, right? Like the Moz Blog?

Uhh nope! While I am a bit of a long-time Moz fanboy (I still often think back to my time at MozCon 2018), and I do briefly mention Rand in the book, it’s not the biggest influence.

So then it’s a business book, right? It’s gotta be! Like one of the ones in my Books that Inspired Anti-Sell post?

Well yeah, obviously they inspired Anti-Sell (it’s… literally in the post’s name, LOL) – but none of them were the biggest influence. (Although I’ll give a special shout-out to The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz, which was one of the first business books I read and subsequently fell in love with – the author is really funny and engaging, making it a very entertaining read.)

So if it’s not any of those, then what is it? What’s the biggest influence on Anti-Sell?!

Well… It’s Cracked.com.

Yep. Cracked.com. Genuinely.

Yep, the authors and purveyors of such fine articles including 5 Dumb Ways Celebrity Scandals Were Uncovered, The Sticky Scandals Of Brooklyn’s Maraschino Cherry Factory, and Skittish About Fan Theories? Well, These Rock – to name just a recent few.

Cracked homepage screenshot
Why yes, I have indeed blacked-out Fanmade Shrek’s chest, just in case anyone took offence…

So how is an American comedy website the biggest influence on a business self-help book?

Click to read more!

How I’ve Been Promoting Anti-Sell (a Book About Not Hard-selling…)

Published on

Anti-Sell now has its own dedicated website & blog! Check it out at Anti-Sell.com.

In March 2019 I self-published Anti-Sell, the sales book for freelancers and small business owners who hate sales. You can learn more about its initial origins in this ‘launch’ post and on its dedicated landing page.

Anti-Sell paperbacks (Prisma)
I’ve faced a few challenges when promoting the book post-launch. Firstly, despite being an online marketer in my day job, I’ve never promoted a book before, so it’s a brand new territory for me. I also self-published it, so I don’t have a fancy-pants publishing company to back me up and do the marketing for me.

The biggest challenge however? Well, it’s… a book about not selling. Or at least not hard-selling. So I’ve tried to be really careful about how I go about promoting it. After all, it’s going to go against the ethos and core message of the book if I ‘over’-sell it and end up ramming it down people’s throats (so to speak).

A few months on, here’s what I’ve done to try and promote it.

First: the numbers

Anti-Sell sales chart in KDP
Ok, so first of all: am I even qualified to give this advice? Like I say, I’ve never promoted a book before, so why should you even listen to me and read what I say? Well, I’ll be open with you with its performance to date…

So far I’ve sold a few hundred copies – bearing in mind that’s across all formats: paperback (which can be bought via Amazon or bought from me in person), Kindle eBook, PDF eBook and self-narrated audiobook. But it doesn’t include the free copies I’ve given away, especially in PDF format (more on that below).

A few hundred copies feels like a lot and barely any – all at the same time. I’m amazed that a few hundred people actually want to read something I’ve written (and have paid actual money to do so!), and yet it might be a laughably pitiful amount compared to other more well-known authors. I’m happy with it though – I told myself going into this that I didn’t know if I’d sell 50 or 50,000 copies, and while I’m light years away from the latter, I’ve jumped way past the former. So there’s that at least. I haven’t yet broken-even on my initial costs, but I’m getting there…

It’s also starting to feel like everyone I know who said they’d buy a copy has now bought a copy. While sales haven’t exactly slowed down just yet (August 2019 – five months after the book’s release – has been the 2nd best month to date), it does feel like it’s more (and harder) work to try and shift copies now.

How I’ve been promoting the book so far

So here’s what I’ve done so far to try and promote Anti-Sell – some of which might be quite obvious and traditional, while some tactics might be a bit alternative and out-of-the-ordinary.

Let’s start with one straight from the latter category…

Click to read more!

The Books that Inspired Anti-Sell

Published on

Anti-Sell alt cover - bookshelfAnti-Sell now has its own dedicated website & blog! Check it out at Anti-Sell.com.

At the end of Anti-Sell, there’s a ‘Further Reading’ section, recommending a bunch of books that the reader can check out beyond mine. And even though it might seem like a really lazy rather ingenious copy/paste job from the book (😉), I thought it made a lot of sense to share it on here, too.

Throughout the book I’ve mentioned numerous books and resources that can help you on your Anti-Selling journey. Here’s a list, with a bit more info about each of them, plus a few more for good measure.

A quick note: None of these authors paid me a fee to be included, nor do I get a commission if you buy any of them. I recommend these books 100% wholeheartedly – because I actually really like them.*

ReWork by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

ReWork book coverReWork is probably my favourite business self-help book of all time, and a big influence on Anti-Sell. Why? Because ReWork is also quite rebellious in nature: it goes against the grain of traditional business advice but makes excellent recommendations in spite of that. It was recommended to me by a client (thank you Scott of TestLodge!) and on the first listen (I bought the audiobook), I fell in love with it. While listening to it in the car, I used to scream “YES!!!” after sentences I agreed with – which happened a lot. And probably sounded weird if I had my car window open. But there we go.

Some of its takeaways include:

  • Other people’s failures are other people’s failures, not yours. So when people talk about the survival rate of freelancers, small businesses and startups, just remember: if other people fail, that doesn’t mean you will too.
  • Plans should be called “guesses.” I remember freaking out when I had to put together a business ‘plan’ for some funding that I was seeking in the early days of freelancing (if I remember correctly, it was funding to cover my first year’s membership at my coworking space). How do I know how my business is going to do next year or the year after that? And that’s precisely the point. Call them guesses. To quote the book: “Start referring to your business plans as business guesses, your financial plans as financial guesses, and your strategic plans as strategic guesses. Now you can stop worrying about them as much.”
  • Everything you do is marketing. This ties in very closely to the message of the book you are currently reading. Marketing isn’t defined by adverts and promotional materials – it’s literally everything you do. Every. Single. Thing. You. Do. Every email you send is marketing. Every invoice you send is marketing. Just because you’ve won a client, it doesn’t mean that the marketing stops there for them. Every action you take can leave an impression on someone – good or bad.

I could go on and on, but I’ll stop there (not-in-the-book note: I actually wrote about my biggest takeaways from ReWork – including the above points plus more – on this very blog a few years ago: here’s the link). If Anti-Sell has resonated with you, and you haven’t yet read ReWork, pick up a copy. I’m sure it will resonate with you as well.

While writing this book, Fried and DHH released a new book: It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, which – as you can probably guess from its title – addresses the sensitive subject of work-life balance. It’s worth checking out as well.

The Pumpkin Plan by Mike Michalowicz

The Pumpkin Plan book coverThe Pumpkin Plan is a special book to me. Whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve been running a small business for a while and you’ve hit a rut, there are some great tips in it. As mentioned in earlier chapters of the book, it has advice on:

  • How to go niche when it comes to targeting clients.
  • Creating your own Assessment Chart, which can be used to score clients on certain criteria, in order to help you to detect which clients are the best-fit for you (not-in-the-book note: I’ve blogged about the Assessment Chart over on State of Digital).
  • Tactics for cutting bad-fit clients in a way that won’t cause any animosity, fallout or professional embarrassment.

Mike also has another good book called Profit First, where he recommends paying yourself first before paying bills, whereas typically we do the opposite (we pay our bills and then keep what’s left over as profit, however big or small that amount may be), so it’s worth checking out what he has to say on that as well.

Click to read more!

Roger MozBot & the Time Machine – My MozCon 2018 Competition Submission

Published on

Roger MozBotUpdate: I actually won!!!

For years and years, it’s been a dream of mine to attend MozCon, Moz‘s annual SEO conference.

Just over a week ago, Moz published a blog post announcing that they would offer a free ticket and accommodation to MozCon 2018 for the best example of a “unique, compelling piece of content telling [them] why you want to come to MozCon.” Examples they gave included blog posts, videos, drawings, slide decks and even songs. Straight away my brain went into overdrive and had a (ridiculous) idea: what if I were to write a story…?

I checked with the Moz team if it’d be ok to do and they gave me their blessing, so I’ve written Roger MozBot & the Time Machine, a short story involving Roger – Moz’s mascot – who discovers a time machine and visits various moments in Moz’s past and (potential) future: a total of 6 different time periods.* Parts of it act as a tribute to why I’ve admired Moz so much over the years and therefore why it’d mean so much for me to finally make it to MozCon. Expect appearances from Mozzers past and present (yes, don’t you worry, Rand is featured – a lot) and a bunch of name-drops of other SEO industry folk, too.

I wanted to do it Choose Your Own Adventure-style (inspired by a speaking gig I did years ago), but a) with only a week until the deadline, I thought it’d be too complicated to pull off effectively, and b) I think CYOA might be copyrighted anyway, so I didn’t want to imitate it too closely. Either way, the way I’ve done it means that you don’t have to do all it in chronological order – i.e. you can visit different times in different orders.

* There’s actually a 7th – but it’s hidden. Consider it the story’s Easter Egg! There’s a clue buried in one of the years, and there’s no straightforward way to get to it, so you’ll have to ‘hack’ your way to find it. The first person to find it – and to tweet me a message confirming their discovery – will win the prize of… a link. From this very blog, in all of its DA 30 glory. Because I’m an SEO through and through. (Terms & rules apply.)

If anyone wants to translate the story into another language, let me know. I’d happily update this post with links to any translations.

Oh and let’s be clear: other than blogging, I am not a writer, and I don’t think I’ve ever written fiction (outside of my school days) – except for Rorschach’s SEO Journal, which hardly counts. And we all know how messy time travel stories can get… So be kind, yeah? 😜

A big thank you to my Welsh ICE buddies Jane Oriel for editing and Josh Hicks for the illustrations.

So… Let’s get started, shall we?

> Begin the adventure! <

(For the Mozzers – my name is Steve Morgan and my email is [email redacted now that the competition is over], as per the competition’s submission rules. I’ll also leave them on the final page, just to be safe.)

[Image credit – Josh Hicks]

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The author’s views are entirely his own and may not reflect the views of Moz or the individuals mentioned.

Really F**king Simple Solutions to Spotify’s Explicit Tagging Problem

Published on

Spotify button imageThe solution(s) for this are so simple that it’s f@!#ing painful.

I blogged a few years ago about how Spotify’s tagging of explicit tracks is hit-and-miss – with some tracks that are explicit not tagged as such, and vice versa – and the situation hasn’t improved much since then. As a parent with young kids who wants to play music around the house but wants to avoid subjecting them to accidental swearing, my options are a) only playing music/playlists/albums that I know from memory are 100% swearing-free, or b) simply don’t use Spotify. I don’t think Spotify would like the latter option much, especially if a lot of people followed suit.

Spotify obviously cares about catering to families – they have a Premium option aimed at families specifically (h/t to Pritesh Patel for this discovery – who’s had similar frustrations to me). So it seems counter-intuitive to me that they consider families a target audience but won’t do all that they can to make it a family-friendly offering.

There’s definitely something already in place, as some tracks are tagged as explicit. A look at The National’s Trouble Will Find Me shows that all the explicit tracks are tagged correctly (3 out of 13), which is great. But look at The National’s more recent offering – Sleep Well Beast – and nothing’s tagged, however track 3 (“Walk It Back”) contains the word “f*ck” at least 4 times. You could argue that it’s not a popular song, but it’s had nearly 4 million plays on Spotify (as I type this), so that’s not really true.

Example on Spotify of The National screenshot
Example of how it looks on Spotify – notice how “I Need My Girl” is (correctly) tagged while “Walk It Back” isn’t tagged at all

The problem with a half-hearted approach is that you assume it’s right (especially when implemented by a company of Spotify’s size and scale) so you think if something’s marked as explicit then it is, and if it isn’t then it isn’t. If there was no explicit tagging in the first place then you know you’d have to be careful – but with incorrect tagging, you risk assuming everything is tagged correctly (and getting caught out when it isn’t).

Of course that’s just one example of one track from one album by one band… so I asked some Twitter friends for more. Here’s what I got back, plus a few more I’ve found of my own accord in the past:

I appreciate that it’s unfair of me to suggest that Spotify doesn’t care. On the one hand, it could be something that they’ve completely overlooked. On the other hand, it could be the one thing keeping Spotify’s developers up all night. Who knows.

So what can be done? Here’s a few suggestions that I can think of for starters…

Leverage Spotify’s partnership with Genius further…

Spotify is already partnered with Genius (and SoundHound, I’ve just found out while researching and typing this) to be able to show lyrics while listening to a song. Presumably there is an API in place that Spotify is using, which feeds Genius’ lyrics for a song into Spotify.

Click to read more!