Email Marketing | Story

Have You Ever Felt Like a Bad Person?

Bad to the bone

That was my motto.

Until a dwarf in World of Warcraft forced me to change my mind.

Sitting in the Snow with a Camp Fire

Back in 2009, I had a good in-game friend called Palsass. Or rather, that was the name of his character, a dwarf.

We got close, and one day where I felt sad, we sat down in the snowy areas in Icecrown around a camp fire and talked.

“I’m such a bad person,” I said. “I can never do anything right. It’s my fault, all the bad things that have happened to me.”

“You’re not bad,” he replied and lit the fire again. Keeping a fire burning in the snow is not an easy job.

“Yes, I am.”

“Let’s see about that. You make money online by writing blog posts, books, and emails, right?”

I couldn’t deny that.

“And you like to help people do the same, right?”

Since I’d helped him writing his first articles ever, I couldn’t deny that either.

“So you’re not bad.”

“How figure?”

“You love to help people. No bad person does that.”

Until that moment, I’d always felt like a bad person. He changed my perspective. Because even though I rarely accepted compliments…

I simply didn’t believe they were true…

Then Palsass shifted my mind about being bad.

Yes, I Love to Help

Back in 1994, I woke up one Monday morning and thought, “I wish it was Friday.”

I decided on the spot that I didn’t want to spend my life waiting for time to pass faster. I quit my job a few months later, and had my last day at work June 30th, 1995.

I’ve NEVER regretted that decision and ever since, I’ve wanted to help others obtain the same happiness and freedom that I did.

Ha, yeah, there have been lots of hard times, but they were all worth it. Never once did I even consider going back to a job.

I wish for all who want to quit their job that they can do it. Because it’s the best thing ever — except from having wonderful kids and pets, of course.

Teaching, Writing Blog Posts, Creating Products… What Works?

After I quit, I started as an accountant. Then I taught adults in real classrooms how to use computers.

It was fun.

But after I moved to France, I had to change my way of doing business.

That’s how I discovered making money online.

And especially the method that is still my favorite, my passion:

Email marketing.

People make money online in all kinds of ways. I help others with the ways I know and that have worked for me.

And those ways are email marketing, info product creation, and writing books (nonfiction and fiction).

I promote my own products and good affiliate products.

I’ve dabbled with site flipping, but that’s so little that I wouldn’t be able to help anyone with that. Not now.

But when it comes to email marketing, I go deeper than just the getting people to click the link.

Storytelling

Ever since I was a kid, I told stories. It was only during a period after high school that I didn’t, because high school did a good job at killing our imagination.

I had created a Danish email list back in March, 2003, and it had a close to 100% opening rate.

When I switched to having an English list, things changed.

Less than 10% opened my emails.

Here I was, pouring my heart and soul and all my knowledge into the emails… that nobody wanted to read.

I rage-quit the list.

My friend Lee was on the list. She wrote to me and asked, “What about those of us who needs this information?”

I installed the backup of my list. (It’s good to have a Plan B if you have the temper of a Sicilian-redhead, haha.)

Then I changed my approach. I wrote stories in my emails. At first from time to time.

Then more frequently.

They weren’t “real” stories. More everyday events that I retold in my emails.

Lately, it’s in almost every email, I tell a story.

That has helped to push my open rates up over 46%.

Now It’s Confession Time

Did you ever feel like a bad person?

Did you overcome it?

If not… I have a confession to make myself.

Whispering…

I’ve sometimes feared that I was mad. But then I thought, “No, I can’t be. Because a mad person thinks she’s normal.”

I bet it’s the same with a bad person. A bad person thinks she’s a good person. So if you fear you’re bad, you’re good.

And I’m sure you are.