Turning up without getting thrown out
Open the notes app on your phone. Start a new note. Call it What do I say.
You'll write in that note the whole way through. If you only read this, it won't help you.
You can do this over a weekend. Do one part, then stop. Come back later.
You made something to sell. You found a place where people talk about the problem it fixes. Now you're in that place and you don't know what to type.
Here is the plan. It has 3 steps.
You won't post every day. You won't make videos. You won't show your face. You won't send messages to strangers.
You bought this so you wouldn't have to do any of that.
That's fair. A lot of people sell things that teach you nothing.
Read Part 2 first. That part has the real words in it, written out, ready to copy. If it's not worth the money, ask for a refund.
Part 045 min
If you bought Where Do I Sell It?, this is all of it again. You can skip to Part 1. Nothing has been missed. If you didn't buy it, you don't need to. It's all here.
What this part does: it takes you from the thing you made, to a place full of the people who need it.
Write your answer to each question before you go on to the next one.
Not what it is. What problem it takes away.
An example. Say you made wedding planning templates in Canva.
Nobody wants 32 pages. They want that worry to stop.
Write this down
Finish this sentence 3 times:
"Because of my thing, they don't have to any more."
Then keep the one that sounds like a real problem.
Stuck?
Think about the hour before someone would use your thing. What are they doing? What has gone wrong? Write that down.
2 things have to be true.
Someone planning their own wedding has it once. Someone who plans events for their job has it every month.
Both of them can buy from you. The second one is easier to find, because they're in a place about it all year.
A 14 year old can't. Neither can someone who has to talk about every dollar with the family first. That's not a bad thing about them. It just means the money can't move.
"Anyone" isn't an answer. "People aged 25 to 45" isn't an answer either.
An example. Women planning their own wedding, in the last 6 months before the day, who are already paying deposits most weeks.
That last part matters. They're already spending money on the wedding. You're not asking them to start.
Write this down
One sentence. Who they're, and what they're already paying for.
Stuck?
Think of one real person you've met who would have this problem. Describe them, like you're describing them to a friend. Then ask yourself if there are thousands of people like them.
Their words. Not yours. Most people skip this question. It's the one that works.
You say "wedding budget template".
They type "how do i keep track of what we've paid". They say "i'm scared i've forgotten something".
If you search using your words, you'll find other sellers. If you search using their words, you'll find them.
Comments under videos about the problem. Replies inside places. And reviews with 3 stars on other people's products, because a 3 star review tells you what someone expected and didn't get.
Write this down
10 phrases in their words. Copy them exactly. Keep the spelling mistakes. The messy version is the one they'll type into a search box.
Stuck? Copy this into ChatGPT or Claude
I sell [say exactly what it is, in plain words]. It's for [describe the person, and what they're doing when they need it]. The problem it takes away is [one sentence]. Give me 15 short phrases this person might type or say when they've this problem and have never heard of my thing. Use their words, not seller words. Include the messy ones, the half sentences, the ones with a spelling mistake in them. Then give me 10 things I could type into a search box to find places online where people say things like that. Rules: - Don't name any group, forum, subreddit, page or community. Give me words to search with instead. - Don't invent numbers, member counts, prices, or people. - If what I wrote above is too vague for you to do this properly, don't guess. Stop, and tell me which of my 3 lines is too vague, and what you need from me.
Read this bit, so next time you can write your own prompt.
Take your 10 phrases and search for them. In a search box. In the search bar inside a place.
You want a place where the person with the problem talks. Not a place where sellers talk to other sellers. Those are 2 different places.
Write this down
5 to 10 possible places. Don't decide about them yet.
Stuck?
Search your phrase plus the word "place". Then plus "forum". Then plus "help". Or find one person asking your question in public, and go and look at where else they post.
4 checks for each place. About 5 minutes each.
Write this down
Your places, best first. Then pick the one you'll start in. One place. Not 5.
Stuck?
If no place passes check 3, go back to question 2. Usually it means the person you picked only has the problem once, or they can't spend money on their own.
Answer 3 questions. Post nothing about yourself. Wait to be asked.
The rest of this book shows you how.
Part 120 min
What this part does: it shows you how to understand, in 10 minutes, what a place likes and what it hates. Do this before you type anything.
2 words first, in case you don't use them.
Every place has 2 sets of rules. The ones in the pinned post, and the real ones. You find the real ones by reading the comments.
Scroll through the last 30 posts. You're not reading them properly. You're looking for 6 things. Write down what you find.
Say it's people posting a photo and asking "does this look okay". And the replies people like best are the long ones, where somebody explains why the flowers look small in the photo.
So in this place, long and kind and clear answers do well. Now you know what to write.
You find a post where somebody announced their new store. It has 2 comments, both from their friends.
Then you find a comment that says "i sell these, message me". Underneath it, 3 members told them to read the rules.
So selling isn't just against the rules here. The members don't like it either. That's the part that matters.
If most replies just say "following", that's good news for you. A real answer will be easy to spot.
Then the place is small, even if the number next to it's big.
Today or yesterday is good. 2 weeks ago is bad.
Write down which day. But remember that on selling day, mostly sellers are reading. Use it if it's there. Don't expect much from it.
The rules are written to stop the worst behaviour, so they sound harsh. In practice they mean less than they look.
Now here is the rule that's not written down anywhere. It decides everything.
The admin's job is to stop members being sold to. If you're useful to the members, they'll leave you alone. If you're taking something out of the place, they'll remove you.
You're not going to do any of those.
Write this down
Your 6 answers, for the one place you picked.
Then one more line: "The thing that would get me thrown out of this place is ."
Once you've written that down, you won't do it by accident.
Stuck?
If you scroll 30 posts and nothing seems to do well, it's usually because nothing does. If every post gets 2 comments and no replies, that's not really a place. Try the next place on your list.
If you can't find the rules anywhere, be more careful, not less. In a place with no rules, whoever is annoyed that day decides them.
Part 21 hr
What this part does: it shows you the exact words to type. Write the answer you would give if you had nothing to sell.
That's the whole method. The rest of this part shows you what it looks like when it's typed out, because it's harder than it sounds.
It's harder because your hand will want to add one small line at the end. Something like "hope that helps, I make these if you ever want one."
That one line is the difference between somebody trusting you and somebody scrolling past you. You'll want to write it every time.
Don't write it. Your profile does that job instead. We will get to your profile.
A place where women are planning their own weddings.
She asked this
has anyone got like a spreadsheet or something for keeping track of what we've paid? i'm losing track and i think we've double paid the florist. feeling so stupid
A weak answer
I make wedding planning templates that do exactly this, happy to send you the link.
Another weak answer
Yes definitely track everything! A spreadsheet is a lifesaver. Also don't forget to budget for extras. Good luck with the planning.
A strong answer
Please don't feel stupid, this happens to nearly everyone. It's because the deposit and the final payment get mixed up in your head.
Most trackers only have one column for money. You want two. One for the deposit you paid and the date you paid it, and one for what's still owing. If there's only one number you look at it and panic, and forget you already paid a third of it.
The other column I would add is who is chasing it. You, your partner, your mum. So much of the stress is just not knowing whose job it's to ring the florist.
Then there's the costs nobody warns you about. Dress alterations, that's usually 2 or 3 fittings and it costs more than you think. Cake cutting fee if your venue charges one. Corkage (what they charge you to open your own wine). Postage for the invitations. A gift for whoever helps on the day. And getting yourself and anyone you're paying for to the venue and home again.
Last thing. Put a line at the bottom called stuff we haven't thought of, and put 10% of your total in it. There always is some. If it's already got a line you won't panic when it turns up.
If you set it up tonight with the deposit column you'll save yourself the worst week of it later.
You're thinking: if I tell her all of it, she will just make it herself and I've lost a sale.
It works the other way round.
Nobody is going to build that tracker from a comment. She is going to read it, feel better, think "this person knows what they're talking about", and tap your name.
The comment isn't the sale. The comment is the reason she taps your name.
And if you hold something back so she has to ask you, 3 things happen. She doesn't ask, because most people don't. The other members can feel you doing it. And the admin can definitely feel you doing it.
A place where people who make and sell handmade things ask each other questions. Say you sell photo filters.
They asked this
why do my photos always come out yellow?? i've tried everything
A weak answer
Sounds like your white balance! You need to fix your white balance.
That's true. It's also no help at all. They still don't know how.
A strong answer
It's your ceiling light. It nearly always is. The bulb is warm, and your camera is trying to guess what white looks like in that room, and it gets it wrong.
Try this. Turn the ceiling light off, properly off, not dimmed. Then take the photo in the daytime next to a window, with the window at the side of your item, not behind it.
But the one that really fixes it. Put a plain piece of white paper next to your item in the shot. Then in whatever you edit with, look for the words white balance. There's usually a little dropper next to it. Tap the dropper on the white paper and everything else corrects itself. You crop the paper out after. Takes 2 seconds.
And if you can't turn the ceiling light off, at least don't mix them. Window or lamp, not both. Your camera can only get one of them right.
What is different. It tells them what the tool is called, so they can go and find it. It puts the steps in order. It tells them which step matters most, so if they only do one thing they do the right one. And it tells them they can crop the paper out, which is the exact thing that would have stopped them trying.
A place where people who work for themselves talk about the boring parts. Say you sell a template for keeping track of invoices.
They asked this
i've completely lost track of which invoices i've sent and which have been paid. it's a mess and i'm embarrassed
A weak answer
You need a proper system for this. There are loads of free templates out there, just search invoice tracker.
A strong answer
One table. Don't build a system, it'll take you a week and then you won't use it.
Columns: client, what it was for, amount, date sent, status.
Statuses, only 3. Sent, paid, overdue. Not 8. Every extra one is another decision you have to make at the exact moment you least feel like making one.
Here's the rule that makes it actually work. Date sent is the only thing you fill in straight away. Everything else can wait. If you make yourself fill in 5 boxes the second you send an invoice, you'll skip it, and then it's a mess again.
Then Friday, 15 minutes. Look at anything still marked sent that's older than 2 weeks, and send one line. "Hi, just checking this one is in your system. Invoice 104, sent on the 3rd." That's the whole message. You don't have to say sorry in it.
The reason people lose track isn't the tool by the way. It's that chasing feels rude, so the sent ones quietly get left. Doing it on a Friday means you're not deciding whether to chase. You're just doing Friday.
What is different. The last paragraph. It tells them the real reason it got messy, and that's not even what they asked about. That's the bit people remember. That's the bit that makes somebody tap your name.
You can only write a paragraph like that if you've had the problem yourself. You probably have. It's usually why you made the thing.
This is why rule 4 costs you nothing.
Your profile is the one place your thing is allowed to be. Write it once. Then you never have to mention it again.
Use plain words. What you make, and who it's for.
The second one tells nobody anything.
The first one means that when they tap your name, after reading your answer about corkage, there's something there that makes sense.
That's the whole thing. You help people in the place. Your name is on the answer. Your profile says what you make. Nobody had to be sold to.
Write this down
Go to your place. Find one question you could answer today. Copy it into your note, word for word.
Underneath it, write your whole answer, the way you would type it.
Then read the 7 rules and cross out anything that breaks one.
Don't post it yet. Part 3 tells you when.
Stuck?
Write it as if you were texting a friend who asked you. That version will be too casual, and it'll have bits in it only your friend would understand. That's fine. Take those bits out afterwards. Starting from a text message is much easier than starting from an empty box.
If you don't know the answer well enough to give details, that's not a writing problem. Find a different question, one you do know. There will be one.
If typing is the slow part
Some of the answers in this book are long. Typing all that on a phone takes a while, and that's the reason a lot of people stop before they ever post anything.
You don't have to type it.
Your phone keyboard already has a little microphone button on it. Press it and talk, and it writes down what you say. That's free and it's already on your phone.
If you want something better, the one I recommend is Wispr Flow. You hold one button down, you talk, and it writes it out properly, with the full stops in the right places and the ums taken out. It works on a phone and on a computer. There's a free version that gives you 2,000 words a week, which is plenty for this.
That's my link. If you use it you get a free month of the paid version, and I get a free month too once you've used it a bit. The free version is enough for everything in this book, so please don't feel you have to pay for anything.
One thing to watch. It tidies your words up for you. So read it back before you post it. If it has made you sound smooth and polished, put the messy bits back in. Sounding like a person is the whole point.
Copy this in to check your answer before you post it
Here is a question somebody asked in a place: [copy the question in, exactly as they wrote it] Here is the answer I've written: [copy your answer in, exactly] I'm not allowed to mention anything I sell. My answer has to be useful on its own, even if this person never buys anything from me. Do 4 things: 1. Show me any line that sounds like selling, or hints at something for sale, or holds something back so they have to ask me. 2. Show me any line that gives advice without saying how to do it, and tell me what is missing. 3. Tell me if I've answered a different question from the one they asked. 4. Tell me anything obvious that somebody who really knows this subject would have said, that I missed. Don't rewrite my answer. I want to rewrite it myself. Don't invent facts, numbers, prices or examples. Don't name any group, forum or community. If my answer is too short or too vague for you to check it properly, say so and tell me what is missing, instead of guessing.
Part 320 min a day, 7 days
What this part does: it gives you one small job a day for 7 days. Nothing costs money. Nothing can get you thrown out.
Every day takes under 20 minutes. Some take 10.
Rules for the whole week
One place, not 5. No links at all, all week. Never mention what you make, not once.
If you miss a day, just do that day next. Don't try to do 2 days at once.
20 minutes
You're not going to mention what you sell all week. So your profile has to do it for you.
Write one line: what you make, and who it's for. Add a photo of your face, or a clear photo of what you make. Not a logo you made in 5 minutes. If there's a space for a link, put your store or your page there.
An example. "I make printable planners for people who organise events. Sydney."
That's 12 words. Somebody who just read your answer now knows who you're.
Write this down
Your line. In your note first, then put it on your profile.
Stuck?
Write what you make. Then write who it's for. Then join them with the word "for". Don't try to be clever. Clever makes people scroll past.
20 minutes
Do what Part 1 says. Scroll 30 posts, answer the 6 questions, and write down the thing that would get you thrown out.
Write this down
Your 6 answers. In your note, not in your head.
Stuck?
Read the end of Part 1 again.
20 minutes
People want to skip this day. Don't skip it.
Find 3 questions you could have answered. Write your answer to each one in your note, properly, the way you would type it.
Then go back to the real posts and read what other people said.
You'll see one of 2 things. Either nobody answered properly, which means your answer would have stood out. Or somebody did answer properly, and now you can see the difference between theirs and yours.
Write this down
3 answers. Post nothing.
Stuck?
If you can't find 3 questions you could answer in a whole place, that tells you something about the place, not about you. Make a note of it. Part 4 uses it.
15 minutes
Pick the oldest question you can still be helpful on. 2 or 3 days old is good.
Old post means fewer people watching. That's on purpose. Today you're just getting used to it. You're not looking for a result.
Check your answer against the 7 rules. Post it. Then close the app.
Write this down
What you posted, and where.
Stuck?
If you can't make yourself press post, post the shortest of yesterday's 3 answers. Short and clear beats long and nervous.
20 minutes
Set a timer for 20 minutes. Answer 2 questions. Stop when the timer goes off.
The timer is there to stop you rewriting one answer for an hour. That's what nearly everybody does on day 5.
Write this down
2 answers, posted.
Stuck?
Put the first one through the checking prompt from Part 2. Then just type the second one and post it.
20 minutes
Today, pick questions where the thing you sell is the obvious answer. Then answer them anyway, fully, as if your thing didn't exist.
This is the day it works or it doesn't. If you can answer the question your product answers, for free, without hiding anything, you can do this for good.
Write this down
2 answers, posted. Then one line about how it felt to give it away.
Stuck?
Remember what is really happening. They're not going to build your thing from a comment. They're going to remember who told them.
10 minutes
No answering today. Just write down 3 numbers, with today's date.
Write this down
The 3 numbers. Then one line: what will I change next week.
Stuck?
If all 3 numbers are zero, don't guess why. Part 4 is next and it tells you exactly how to find out.
It's not for a sale. Don't judge the week that way. And don't let a quiet week mean anything about you.
It's for 2 things. Is this place alive? And do my answers work in it?
Those are 2 different questions. Part 4 tells you which one you've.
Part 420 min
What this part does: if nobody replied, there are only 2 reasons. The place is asleep, or your answers weren't good enough. This tells you which one, in 7 days.
There's one thing it never means. It never means post again.
Most people read and don't reply. That's normal. It happens to everybody, everywhere. A good answer with nothing under it's completely normal.
So replies aren't the main thing to look at.
The main thing is whether anybody came and looked at you. One person reading your answer and tapping your name is worth more than 5 people typing "thanks".
If your app doesn't show profile views, then use what you can see. Replies. New follows. Messages from people who messaged you first.
Do these at the end of your week. It takes 10 minutes. Answer yes or no.
4 reasons. Most likely one first.
Say your week was 5 answers, no replies, no profile views.
You do the 4 checks. Newest member post with comments: yesterday. Yes. New questions: yes, all the time. Anyone replying to anyone: yes. Money moving: yes, 3 posts this week asking which label printer to buy.
That's 4 out of 4. So the place is fine, and it's your answers.
You read your 5 answers again. 4 of them were on questions that were 2 to 4 days old. That's reason 1, and it's the easiest thing in the world to change.
Write this down
The 4 checks, yes or no. Your score out of 4.
Then one line: am I staying in this place or leaving it.
If you're staying: the one thing you'll change. One thing.
Stuck?
If 2 places in a row score 0 or 1, stop trying new places. Go back to question 3 and get new words. You're searching using your own words, so you keep landing where sellers talk to sellers.
If 3 places are all fine, and your answers still get nothing after 2 weeks in each, go back to question 1. It may be that the problem your thing fixes isn't a problem people worry about.
That's hard to read. It's also the cheapest possible time to learn it, and you found it out without spending any money.
Part 540 min
What this part does: it gives you the exact reply for the moment somebody asks what you sell. One short reply, in public, with the price in it.
This is the moment most people either panic or oversell. Both feel horrible afterwards.
The question comes in 3 ways.
All 3 get the same reply.
She asked this
this is so helpful, do you've one already made? i don't trust myself to build it
A weak reply
Oh my goodness yes!! So I actually have a whole store, I've been working on this for months and there's a bundle with the tracker plus the guest list one plus a seating planner and it's normally more but I've got a sale on so if you use the code...
Too much. It sounds like you had been waiting all week for somebody to ask. You had been, and she can feel it.
Another weak reply
I might have something like that, message me and I'll see what I can find.
Now she has to do the work, and most people won't. And "message me" is the phrase that gets you reported in half the places you'll ever be in.
A strong reply
Yes I've got one. It's the tracker I described, with the deposit column already set up. It's $12, link is in my profile. Happy to answer questions about it either way.
Write this down
Write your reply now, before anybody asks. 3 lines in your note, ready to copy.
1. Yes I've got one, and one sentence saying what it is.
2. The price.
3. Where to get it.
Do it today. If you wait until somebody asks, you'll write the first weak version, because you'll be excited.
Stuck?
If you can't say the price out loud without feeling sick, the problem isn't the sentence. It's that you don't believe it's worth the money yet. Go and write a list of what somebody actually gets. Then write the price again.
They tap the link. What they land on has to answer every question they've, before they ask it. There are 9 things it needs.
Don't put these on it: a countdown clock, a higher price crossed out, reviews you wrote yourself, badges, or the word "limited". If you've no reviews yet, leave that part off the page completely. An empty reviews box looks worse than no reviews box.
Write this down
Check the 9 things and tick off the ones your page already has. Write down the ones it's missing.
Stuck?
Do number 7 first. If the buy button doesn't work on a phone, nothing else on the page matters.
Some of you can't take card payments where you live. Some of you can't open a store on the site everyone recommends. Some of you already paid a fee to find that out.
So here it's plainly. If you can't get paid, don't spend another month making products. Fix getting paid first.
Do it in this order.
One warning. Never use somebody else's bank account, or somebody else's name, to receive money. People will suggest it. It goes wrong often, and when it goes wrong you lose the money and the account at the same time.
Write this down
One line. Can I get paid, yes or no?
If the answer is no, that's your only job this week. It matters more than anything else in this book.
Stuck?
The answer is different in every country, and it changes every year. That's why there's no list here. A list would be wrong within months. The search words above will keep working.
Part 630 min
What this part does: it shows you somebody else doing the thinking, on 10 different products, before you have to trust yourself to do it alone.
The 10 are: Canva templates, printables, an app, an ebook, a course, colouring books, planners, photo filters, print on demand, and a Notion template.
2 of them didn't work.
Those 2 are still in here, with the reason they failed. That's on purpose, and they're the ones to read most carefully.
Most books only show you the ones that worked. That's no help. It teaches you what winning looks like and never what the moment before failing looks like. That's the moment you need to be able to spot, because you'll be standing in it one day, and it feels exactly the same as the moment before winning.
Don't look at the product. Look at which question broke.
It's almost never question 1, and it's almost never the product itself. It nearly always breaks in one of 2 places.
The person only has the problem once, not again and again. Or they can't spend money without asking somebody first.
A product can be lovely, and the person who needs it can still have no way to pay for it. Better words won't fix that. It's the wrong person.
The places are busy, and friendly, and nobody in them ever spends money on anything.
These are the most dangerous places you'll find, because they feel wonderful. People are kind. They thank each other. And every single one of them is looking for the free version.
If your answer to question 2 is somebody who has the problem once, stop there. Don't go on to question 3 hoping it'll get better. Go back to question 1 and ask who has this problem over and over. There's usually a version of that person, and they usually do it for their job.
If your answer to question 5 is a place where nobody spends, you've 2 choices and only 2. Find a place where money moves. Or make something those people would pay for, which is usually the thing that saves them time, not the thing that teaches them something.
Write this down
Before you read the 10, write your own 5 answers on one page, so you can hold them next to somebody else's.
After you've read all 10, go back and change any of your 5 that now look like wishful thinking.
Stuck?
If reading these makes you want to change your product, don't. Not yet. Change your answer to question 2 first, and see if the product still works. 9 times out of 10 the product was fine and the person was wrong.
The 10 examples go here
Each one uses all 5 questions in full. 2 of them failed, and both stay in with the reason why.
Part 71 hr
What this part does: everything so far has happened inside somebody else's place. This part gives you something that belongs to you.
Helping people in other people's places works. It's the fastest way to start with no money and nobody following you.
But the place isn't yours.
The admin can change the rules on a Tuesday. The place can close. The app can change what people get shown, and it does that often, without telling anyone.
Every person who read your answer and thought "this person knows what they're talking about" is gone the second any of that happens. You've no way to reach them.
An email list is the one thing in this whole book that stays yours.
And be clear about what it is. It's a list of addresses. It's not a newsletter. You're not going to write to people 3 times a week. You just want a way to tell them when you make something.
Because the addresses you don't collect this week are gone. Not delayed. Gone.
They read your answer today, think that was useful, and move on. If there was a box to put their email address in, you can reach them in 6 months when you make the thing they need. If there wasn't, you can't, and you'll never even know they were there.
You don't need a big list for this to be worth doing. 20 addresses from people who liked your answers is worth more than 1,000 followers who scrolled past you.
You need something to give people in exchange for their email address. One thing. Small.
An example. Say you've spent 2 weeks answering questions about wedding costs. By now you've written some version of that deposit answer 4 separate times.
That answer is your free thing. It's already written. People already told you it was useful.
So it becomes one page, called something like "the wedding costs nobody warns you about". On it: the forgotten costs, the 2 columns, the 10% line. One page. They can read it in 5 minutes. It's useful on its own, even if they never buy anything.
That's the whole rule. The answer you keep giving is your free thing.
Not "5 tips". Not a 30 page guide. Not a video. One small, complete, useful thing that takes you an afternoon, because you've already written it.
2 places. Your profile, and your sales page. Nowhere else, unless somebody asks you for it.
Your profile line gets one thing added. "I make printable planners for people who organise events. Free list of forgotten wedding costs: [link]."
That's all the selling that ever happens.
Read this part properly. Most people teaching this skip it, and it's the part that can get your accounts closed.
This isn't only about being decent, although it's that too. Email companies close accounts for this quickly. And a lot of countries have laws about it with real fines. You can lose your list and your account on the same afternoon.
3 emails. That's the whole plan.
One rule for every email you ever send. It has to be useful even if they never buy anything. If an email is only there to sell, don't send it.
Most email tools are free until you've a few hundred people. But some won't accept a sign up from your country. And some want a card before they'll let you send anything.
So before you build anything, open the sign up page and find the list of countries. Same as you did with payments. 5 minutes now saves you a weekend.
Use any free form tool that collects answers into a spreadsheet. Then send the emails yourself, from your own email, and put the addresses in the BCC box.
BCC, not CC. BCC means nobody can see anybody else's address. If you use CC, every person sees every other person's email address, and that's very hard to apologise for. Check it twice, every single time.
This way is ugly. It's also free and it works. It stops working at about 50 or 60 people, because your email provider starts treating you like spam. That's fine. By the time you've 50 people you'll know much better what you need.
Look for a tool you can join with just an email address, that doesn't ask for a card until you're well past 100 people. There are several.
Which ones accept which countries keeps changing, which is why there's no list here. It would be wrong within months. The check is always the same. Open the sign up page, find the list of countries, look for yours.
Copy this in to make your free thing
Here is an answer I wrote in a place. It's one I keep giving, in different words, over and over: [copy your answer in here] I want to turn this into one small free thing I can give to people who put their email address in a box. It has to be: - one page, or one short checklist, or one small template - something they can finish in under 10 minutes - useful on its own, even if they never buy anything from me Give me 3 options for what that one thing could be. For each one, tell me what would be on the page, line by line. Then tell me which of the 3 is the smallest to make, and why. Rules: - Don't suggest a course, a video, a webinar, a challenge, or a series of anything. - Don't invent numbers, results, prices or people. - Don't name any group, forum or community. - If the answer I copied in isn't detailed enough for you to do this properly, stop and tell me what is missing instead of guessing.
Write this down
3 things, today.
1. One line saying what your free thing is. Take the answer you've written most often.
2. The sentence that goes next to the box. What they get, and roughly how often you'll email.
3. Email 1, written out. 3 sentences and a link.
Number 3 takes 4 minutes and it's the one everybody leaves undone.
Stuck?
Can't think of a free thing? Then you haven't answered enough questions yet. Do another week of Part 3. The free thing comes out of your answers. It doesn't come out of sitting and thinking.
Got 3 ideas and can't choose? Pick the smallest one. You can always make another one later. You can't get back 3 weeks spent on the big one.
Can't get any email tool to accept you? Use the form and BCC. 20 addresses in a spreadsheet is a real list. Nobody who signs up cares what you sent it with.
The whole book
You can do all of this again, from question 1, for the next thing you make. Same 5 questions. Same week. Same answers.
You never have to buy anything else to do it. And it works the same on your fourth product as it did on your first.
The only part that gets easier is the writing. That gets easier fast.
My promise to you
Work through the five questions. If they don't show you somewhere you hadn't thought of, email me and I'll help you find one. If I can't, you get your money back.
Just reply to the email that gave you access to this page.
One last thing, and it's the thing people forget.
This works, and it's not because it's clever. It works because almost nobody is willing to be properly useful in public, over and over, for weeks, without asking for anything back.
You're about to be one of the few people in that place who does it. That's the whole advantage, and nobody can take it off you.
Now go and answer 3 questions.