news

Thanks to everyone who sent feedback after Random Newsletter #1. It was all very positive, which is great, but I think it was more ‘good to see you back Joe’ rather than ‘this is an amazing newsletter Joe.’ Either way, I’ll take it and I’ll keep improving.

It’s funny…just a few days after I released the first newsletter, I saw this article about there being too many newsletters. There are, of course, too many newsletters. Last year I unsubscribed to about 100 newsletters and today can only name a few that I actually read.

Why so many you ask? Ownership, for one. I’ve mentioned this in about every speech I’ve ever done. While we don’t own or control any of the social media we are on, we can control our newsletters. The second reason is trust. I don’t necessarily trust anything on social media, but I do trust a newsletter that I subscribe to. This is big! This is also a reason why there is still opportunity in print media (see last issue on Raspberry Pi).

I bumped into Joe Watson at a coffee shop last week (Hi Joe!) and he told me my newsletter was great but needed more Joe. I’m not sure anything needs more Joe but I understood his point…more personal…maybe more about my struggles.

So before I get to all the articles I think you should read, here’s more about me:

As most of you know, I finished my novel, The Will to Die, last month. After three reviews and a bunch of editing, I started submitting it to agents. I’ve had six agents politely say “this book sounds terrible.” It’s all good though. I’m working with an editor to clean it up. The story is there, but it does need some reworking in my opinion. Also, my query letter was hideous, so I’m redoing it. I take solace in the fact that just about every publishing house in England rejected JK Rowling’s Harry Potter.

I’m working on a new marketing book. Instead of a formal “how-to” book like I normally write, this one will be a story…sort of in the vein of Who Moved My Cheese or The Go-Giver. Because honestly, who needs another how-to marketing book?

And I’m still cracking up at people’s reaction when I tell them I’m writing.

“What are you going to do now Joe?” they ask.

“I’m writing, both fiction and non-fiction books,” I say.

“No really. Are you going to start another business?”

Writers must get this all the time. I feel sorry for all of them.

Lastly, I’m getting rid of just about all my sports collectibles. That was the plan way before Marie Kondo was a thing. If you are into Cleveland Indians cards please hit me up. I don’t know why, but I’m totally into the minimalism thing. Even deleting an app on my phone makes me feel good.

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The following was an excerpt from Joe’s newsletter. Only subscribers receive the full version.

Well, my one-year sabbatical finally came to an end. It was one of those life altering experiences. The LinkedIn post I wrote about it received some good traction. Some people suggested I write a book about it, but I’m not sure there is enough there. A local Cleveland news station just interviewed my family about the experience, which I’ll include in the next issue.

BTW, the picture above comes from a Food Network recipe. It’s a No-Bake Oreo Truffle Snowman (recipe here). My wife Pam made them. I added the eyes and nose, took the picture and sampled them.

Thank you for subscribing to this enewsletter. It’s a pretty big leap of faith since you had no idea what I’d be sending you. When you finish it, please email me your thoughts. What would you like to see more of? Less of? How often would you like to receive it? This is the first content initiative I’ve developed without a plan, so who knows where this will go.

Random News

I Would Like Some Raspberry Pi

We bought my oldest son Joshua a Raspberry Pi last year. It looks like someone just removed a spare part from inside a computer. Basically, it gives you enough power to set up a computer workstation wherever you are. I think Joshua used it at some point to hack into his school servers (that’s a joke…sort of).

This article about Raspberry Pi’s content marketing just fascinated me. Apparently, Raspberry Pi purchased two computer hobby magazines from Dennis Publishing. If you’re not familiar with Dennis, they are a UK media company with over 30 brands including Money and Auto Express (Dennis is a media company that’s made the transition to selling products…they now sell a ton of cars).

It turns out that Raspberry Pi has a division called Raspberry Pi Press where they create and distribute a number of magazines and media sites. We will continue to see more of this…media brands getting purchased by product companies…and product company marketing looking a lot like what a media company does.

LinkedIn Launches Live Video

LinkedIn just announced the launch of their live video service. Good move by them. I’ve seen a ton of people talk about experimenting with this. My guess is that you’ll see a flood of people using video on the platform, and the ones that have something interesting to say, which do so on a consistent basis, will be the real winners.

I’ve also been seeing more companies and people launch a LinkedIn Series, which is like a magazine or newsletter inside of LinkedIn. I like this idea, but be sure you realize you don’t control the audience there (LinkedIn could take away this feature at any time). I think launching a LinkedIn series in concert with your own enewsletter (where you can control the database) is a fantastic idea.

EA Launches Fortnite Killer?

Fortnite is a free multiplayer survival game with over 200 million players. My kids don’t play it, but I know dozens that do and spend lots of money so they look cool on screen.

The big gaming companies, like EA, Take-Two and Activision Blizzard have been taking a beating in the stock market because of Fortnite’s success. Well, EA launched a game last week called Apex Legends, a free multiplayer survival game (go figure). They just launched it…no marketing or anything. In three days over 10 million people signed up to play. As of today, they have over 25 million. It’s been an incredible success.

Why should you care? Yes, the video game industry is booming (and will continue to). But the real winner in all this? Amazon. Amazon owns Twitch, which is basically the YouTube for gamers. They stream their game play live and create episodes like someone would on YouTube.

Twitch has 140 million monthly unique viewers. Every time a new game like Apex Legends comes out Twitch gets a boost (more players streaming their game play). And guess what? Amazon has barely even monetized this site yet. If you have kids who want to be YouTubers have them check out Twitch.

Texting Prank

If you haven’t seen James Veitch’s wrong number texting bit you’re missing out. It’s a five minute video. My wife sent this to me, so if you don’t like it blame her.

Economist’s Research on Content Marketing

When I found out The Economist launched some research on content marketing, I was naturally intrigued. Unfortunately, I wasn’t impressed. The research is more about promoting content through trusted media channels (like The Economist) and less about building an audience through valuable distribution of content (content marketing).

If you’re in the industry, it’s worth a download. There are a few good stats you can use…probably most helpful for a media company who sells content marketing. I wish they didn’t talk about content marketing like it was an advertising program (short term). Try some paid social. Try a little interactive video. For most companies, these things won’t work. Try one channel with one main content type and deliver something of value consistently over a long period of time.

Carter Wins Another Grammy

Jimmy Carter won a 2019 Grammy Award for best spoken word album. It turns out this is his third Grammy award. Who knew?

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The following was an excerpt from Joe’s newsletter. Only subscribers receive the full version.