Michael Wilding

Tag: email marketing

  • Get a Christmas bonus

    Get a Christmas bonus

    Oh yes… it’s that time when you think to yourself…

    F**k, Christmas is next week and I’ve not bought a single present!

    At least, that’s what I’m currently thinking to myself, and I like to pretend I’m not the only person 😀

    So I’m now rushing around trying to buy things last minute.

    And when I say “rush around”, I mean frantically searching Amazon, hoping that they’ll have what I need.

    The thing that I always forget is cards, and due to the Royal Mail having last postal dates, it’s something I usually just scrape by.

    I try to remember what I did before the days of Amazon, Moonpig and next day delivery. I guess I was just more organised because I knew I had to be.

    Anyhoo… between Christmas present hunting, Christmas card writing (although I’m trying to persuade Holly she really wants to write all the Christmas cards), we’ve also got a bunch of driving to do in order to see friends before Christmas.

    So it seems that the next ten days is going to be ultra-busy.

    And I’m sure it will be the same for you!

    Which is why I thought I’d give you some Christmas cheer today and show you how to get a nice big bonus on Christmas day.

    It’s very simple.

    Nobody does it.

    And you’re mailing list will love you.

    Are you ready…

    Sell them something at a discount.

    That’s it.

    I told you it was simple 😉

    Everyone thinks that you shouldn’t email your mailing list on Christmas day because it’s one day of the year that they deserve a rest.

    Whoopsee.

    That’s the biggest mistake I’ve ever heard.

    Here’s the thang…

    Christmas day, for most people, is boring. And when people are bored they browse the internet on their phones, tablets and computers. They’re stuck browsing the internet because… nobody emails them on Christmas day. 

    There’s no work emails. No emails from friends, and there’s no promotional emails.

    Which means if you send them an email, you’ve got their entire inbox to yourself.

    And if you’re giving them something that will occupy them, take up some time, and they can get it for an incredible Christmas day offer. They’ll buy it, and thank you for providing them with something to do.

    So… think about what times on Christmas day you’re normally not doing anything, and that’s the time to send your email 😉

    I’ll probably send one saying Happy Christmas because I don’t have anything to sell.

    But if you want to click on the links on the sponsored stories at the top and bottom of this email I would be very appreciative.

    Ciao,

    Michael

    P.S. I’m currently in the process of helping an explorer and speaker fix a massive issue with his emailing. Amazon SES keeps shutting him down.

    How am I doing it?

    Using MailWizz and a custom mail server.

    Want to know how to set up your own mail server for fifty bucks a month? Zap me a reply to this email and let me know, if there’s enough interest I’ll write a guide.

  • The 10 Stages Of A Quitter (inside)

    The 10 Stages Of A Quitter (inside)

    Are you fed up and pissed off?

    Have you had enough of people telling you that they make a shitload of money online and it’s really easy?

    Did your latest attempt at making money online result in you spending money, to get someone to tell you what to do, and then not make a cent back?

    So here’s the thang…

    This has happened to every single person who ever tried to start a business online.

    You’re not alone!

    The lifecycle of getting started online is:

    #1 You get super-excited about your the new business you’re gonna make, and the lifestyle you’ll have when it’s up and running.

    #2 You realise that you’re not really sure how to do things so you go out and Google it, join a bunch of mailing lists, start getting a shite load of emails and buy some courses.

    #3 You’ve been trying to do everything on all the courses, and hold down a full time job. It’s a huge amount of work, you’re not making any money and it’s starting to stress you out.

    #4 You’re tired, broke from having bought really expensive courses, and starting to feel down about the whole thing. You’re family are starting to question whether this is a real business or a con.

    #5 It’s all too much and you decide that you’re going to quit!

    At this point, it’s the folk who push through that make it. And here’s why…

    #6 You accept that all the sales pages telling you how easy it is to make money online are talking shite, this is going to be hard work if you want to make it a success.

    #7 Your expectations change, you’re no longer expecting to be rich quickly, now you’re just tryinbg to find any way to make a single sale. Starting small and getting bigger when you’ve figured it out.

    #8 The first few sales come in and it feels like the best thing ever. Yup, they cost you a small fortune in time and money to get, but you’ve done it. Now it’s a question of trying to repeat it!

    #9 You’re beginning to get some traction and your mailing list is beginning to grow. With the few sales coming in you can re-invest in some traffic and testing software to optimise your landing and sales pages, whilst all the time continuing to create awesome content.

    #10 You suddenly realise you’re making enough to pay yourself each month, heck you may be making more money than your full time job. Now you’re in the enviable position of deciding whether you want to quit your job and go full time online!

    I’ve not met anybody who has a successful online business who hasn’t progressed through these ten stages of success.

    I guarantee that the lack of results will make you want to quit.

    But, it’s the folk who keep pushing that are the ones who make it to stage 10. All you’ve got to ask yourself is…

    …are you going to make it there?

    Ciao,

    Michael

    P.S. This journey is why I always say you should love whatever market you’re going into.

    CLUE: Most people go into the “make money online market” because someone tells them to. They know nothing about how to do it, they’re not interested in it except for their own self-benefit.

    TIP: If you want to be successful you not only have to know what you’re talking about, you have to love writing (making videos, photographing etc..) about it as well. It’s going to be a while before it pays you and if you don’t enjoy it then you’ll be one of the quitters at stage 5!

  • Amazon SES (how it’s done)

    Amazon SES (how it’s done)

    I tried twice this morning to record a video showing you how to setup Amazon SES (Simple Email Service) with the MailWizz software for really cheap and effective emailing, and both times it was foiled.

    What with builders, gardeners and mothers here, there’s either someone someone blowing leaves, building scaffolding or calling dogs.

    None of which is condusive to video recording.

    So… I decided I would just write it instead!

    Amazon SES looks complicated to setup, but in reality it’s pretty easy. If you haven’t got one already, create yourself an account http://console.aws.amazon.com

    Then search for Simple Email Service:

    Once you’re on the Simple Email Service (SES) page it will look like this:


    You have to first approve your identity in order to be able to send through the SES service.

    There are two ways to do this, domain or email address. Personally I always do it through domain because this means you can send from any email address associated with that domain, rather than having to approve each email address separately.

    Hit the Verify New Domain button:


    And then enter your domain details. It’s important to make sure that you check the box called Generate DKIM Settings.

    This will create a page with a load of settings on it, all you need to worry about is downloading them as a CSV file.

    You can download that CSV file on this link:

    Once you’ve downloaded this file, send it over to your hosting company and ask them to add the DKIM records in the file to the domain you’re verifying.

    After they’ve done this for you, it can take 48 hours for everything to propogate and Amazon will mark the domain as verified.

    You don’t need to wait for them to mark the domain as verified to begin sending though.

    To begin sending we need to create a User and add to that user the required rights to send emails through Amazon.

    It’s a simple process, and this is how it’s done…

    To create the user you need to go to IAM, it’s an annoying name and probably one you’ll forget, but try not to!

    Once you’re in there, select Users and then Add User, like this:

    Once you’ve done that you need to create a username and decide on the type of access the user will have:

    Put in whatever username you like, but make sure you choose “Programmatic Access”, and then click the Next Permissions button.

    The next permissions page is all important, it’s where your user will be allowed to send emails from your account. It looks like this:

    You want to choose “Attach Existing Policies Directly” and then in the search bar look for:

    AmazonSESFullAccess

    Click the checkbox next to it:

    Then search for:

    AmazonSNSFullAccess

    Click the checkbox next to it and press the Next Review button in the bottom right.

    You should end up on a page that looks like the following picture.


    If your page looks the same, hit the Create User button, and you’ve finished with the hardest part of the process.

    You will now get an Access Key and a Secret Access Key, like the following…

    Press the Show link to show the Secret Access Key and keep a record of both, somewhere safe, you’re gonna need them shortly.

    There’s one last stage (for the moment) in Amazon, and that’s getting your SMTP credentials which you do by going here:


    You need the Server Name, make a note of it and…

    …have a tea break 😉

    Come back with a fresh head for the final stages of the process 🙂

    The final stage is to add your Amazon SES into MailWizz so you can begin sending emails.

    To do this you need to go to the Servers > Delivery Servers page, which is here:

    Once on this page you to create a New Server and choose Amazon SES Web API.

    It’s right here:

    This will bring you to a page with the following details:

    Enter the Name that you want to call the server, you can put anything you like. The Hostname is the Amazon Server Name, and the Access Key and Secret Access Key are the ones you got from Amazon earlier.

    In the From Email and From Name put what you want to go in by default, you can override this later on a list-by-list basis.

    Everything else can remain the same.

    Hit the Save button at the bottom of the page and you will be asked to send a test email.

    Now here’s the thing…

    When you first send an email, including the test one above, you will only be able to send to an email address that is from the domain you verified with Amazon earlier.

    Send a few test emails to yourself and when all is working request full access from the Sending Statistics page (top right if I remember correctly). When this is given you will be able to send emails to any email address.

    Before you start sending however, send an email to:

    https://www.mail-tester.com/

    If there are any issues here, send then link to the results to your hosting provider and ask them to fix the issues that are appearing.

    When they’ve done that check using Mail-Tester again until you get a 10/10 score.

    And… you’ve got yourself a complete emailing system setup for a fraction of the price of an autoresponder.

    Howzaboutthat!

    Michael

  • Wiped

    Wiped

    What a week!

    I’m feeling a bit better today, but need a good nights sleep again before I’ll feel completely on form.

    Holly has been away examining, which means I’ve been on Max duty.

    Well… grandma and nanny have been on Max duty. Luckily!

    We were down in London watching a Witness For The Prosecution at London’s County Hall on Sunday.

    It was awesome, a great show and one I’d strongly recommend.

    Max was in bed by the time I got home, so I took the opportunity to do a bit of work myself before heading to bed.

    Morning time was normal, except I knew the day was going to be hectic as I was heading back to London with my 92-year old grandfather.

    The morning began well, Max had a big breakfast and then proceeded to wipe jam over his hair.

    Dang.

    Quick rush upstairs to the bath before dropping him off at Grandma’s.

    An hour behind schedule, and just two hours before we needed to get the train, I rushed around like the Tasmanian Devil (for those who remember him!) and just managed to get everything done before picking up my grandad and driving to the station.

    We had a lovely few hours, some tea in the Ritz, and then headed to the event we were planning on going to.

    Two hours later, before dinner was served, my grandad wasn’t feeling well, so we got the train back.

    Half-way back I called the ambulance.

    Turned out Peterborough Hospital had a huge backlog, there were 15 ambulances waiting to discharge patients.

    After a bit of a wait we got the ambulance to the hospital where the wait time was in the hours.

    An hour later, I got sent home by my grandad who didn’t want me hanging around with him.

    Popping in on the way home (heck it’s only over the drive), I saw my mum briefly, who had put Max to bed there in case I was gone all night, to update her on everything, before heading home, collecting the dog and grabbing a cup of tea.

    Then… there was that beautiful moment when you wearily crawl into a bed you’re so desperate to be in.

    It felt like I’d only just got into bed when ring ring ring ring ring ring ring… we’re discharging your grandad, can you pick him up.

    Looking at the time I see it’s only been three hours since I crawled into bed.

    Dang.

    I wearily get up, don’t shower, and go pick my grandad up.

    Then… we have a day of technical issues, nursery drop-offs and bug fixes (which is why no email from me).

    The new heating system gets installed, but I don’t manage to get it fully working before…

    It’s 4pm and I realise I haven’t showered yet and I’m due to get the train back to London to see another show, Big Fish, with my mum and Holly.

    We just make the train.

    Get to the theatre, and it turns out that… Kelsey Grammer is playing the lead.

    And it was bloody good.

    Homeward bound, an hour spent fixing the heating system and I head to bed at 1:30am.

    Phew.

    Just writing it down makes me feel exhausted.

    I had a lie in today and got up at 9am. Thank you Holly for taking Max.

    Anyhooo…

    This is a very long-winded explanation of why I still haven’t finished writing my Amazon SES guide!

    I’ve scheduled in to finish it tomorrow 🙂

    But right now… it’s time for some crumpets.

    Over and out.

    Michael

  • A bit of an apology

    A bit of an apology

    I’m sorry.

    I’ve still not finished my guide to using Amazon SES for sending emails.

    I know, I know.

    I’m convinced that somebody has shortened the hours between waking up and going to sleep!

    TBH, I was considering blaming Christmas. But considering I’ve not bought a single Christmas card or present, I figure that wouldn’t really be fair.

    It’s just that everything has been crazily busy!

    Anyhoo… I wanted to send you a quick apology, and give you the heads-up that it will be finished next week (and it’s definitely worth waiting for).

    In other news… we spent nearly three hours awake in the middle of the night while Max screamed at us. It was a joyful experience, but one I’d be happy not to repeat.

    However, it meant he was pretty tired this morning (as were we!) and it gave me time to start using AdMailr in these emails.

    You’ll see their adverts above and below the stunning piece of writing you’re currently reading 😉

    I’ve never used them before, but heard some very good things, so I will keep you posted as to how I get on with them.

    Michael

    P.S. They’ve added MailWizz email software to their system for me, which means if you decide to follow my guide to cheap emailing with Amazon SES and use the same software as me, you can also use their advertising!