Solopreneur wins and woes

I Asked My Subscribers For Feedback; Here’s What I Learned

Confession: I have a hard time asking for feedback.

My general mental state of being is to be blamed here, which involves this hypothesis: people are either disappointed in me or they’re pissed at me.

However, unlike many in the same boat, I hate doing things to please people who’re either disappointed in me or pissed at me.

You see the problem?

So that’s why I never ask for feedback. I mean, why bother if I’m not going to pay heed, y’know?

That said, I gathered up my courage and asked my subscribers for their feedback on my newsletter a few days ago.

Man… what a delightful shitshow that turned out to be!

Shitshow because:

• First of all, lesson learned: NEVER ask over 10,000 people what they think of your stuff AT THE SAME TIME. After the first couple of hours, I was ready to catapult my phone into the ditch near my place, and maybe do the same to my laptop too, but at least I don’t get notifications on that.
• Second, while 93.7% of the comments were an enthusiastic OMG YOU’RE MY HERO (someone actually said that I was their personal “Ann Handley” %*&*_&%$&%$*&^…………… yeah), a few were… well… not.

The feedback in question:

Just a few samples because why not

I enjoy your energy, enthusiasm and lively attitude enthused within each letter I receive. Your can do attitude is infectious and will pay off soon!

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My biggest complaint about this new fangled e-communication is how impersonal it is. It’s not even pen pal-ish. You write a post for your letter, hit the send button and it goes out to a list of people you’ve never met and probably never will meet., And the impersonality of the communication form affects how you structure your posts. Other than that you’re doing great, kid. Keep it up.

[Side note: Dear human, DO NOT CALL ME A KID WTF……$&*^*&_(]

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Recently started the journey of blogging and randomly found your channel (website I guess).

You don’t have anything fancy-shmancy but rather v simple stuff. That’s what I like.

Your newsletter gives me umpteen ideas of doing things differently!

Keep sharing and keep rocking!

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I enjoy reading your newsletter and find it helpful. Sorry I am not in the paid membership. Just can’t add any extra expenses right now.

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Your newsletter reminds me of what’s possible in the blog-writing space, so thank you!

When I subscribed I thought more writing would work out great and it’s not at this time- I’ve got a new weekly podcast and the moving parts are keeping me busy.

If there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s to limit starting too many new things at once.

I’ve got so much (evergreen) content and my hope it to get my present workflows completed (and be on flow!) then be able to add in blogging again.

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Your newsletter is useful. I am blogging for fun and not money.
But In the next year or so I am hoping to start making money.

But I need time to get my blogs straight and such.

I don’t have a lot of time to write but I want to make a nice little backlog of things so I have a consistent stream of blogs every 2–3 days a week.

You are helping me with my long-range goal of making money blogging.
Hopefully, by 2025 My blogs will be making some money for me.

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I get emails from many people I have subscribed to and I have removed myself from many more. I am still with you after a few years — need I say more?

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I LOVE your emails! Yes please keep doing exactly what you’re doing.

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Cool stuff, eh?

I mostly added the good ones that made me happy or curious. As for the few not-so-good ones, well, reading them once was enough, so not gonna share here. Except that one where, honestly, the feedback itself was fine, but that “kid” part tho…

A tip

Someone (can’t recall who) shared on twitter that a good way to automate newsletter feedback is to create a sequence where you ask a subscriber to share their thoughts some 60 days or 90 days after they’ve subscribed.

Wish I had thought of that before sending my feedback request to 10 thousand people all at once… ugh!

Anyhoo.

Here’s how it works:

For example, if you’re on ConvertKit and setting up an email sequence (if this is Greek to you, sorry), add an email to your sequence where you ask the subscriber for their feedback on your newsletter, but delay it by 60–90 days using ConvertKit’s delay feature.

Flow chart of what your sequence should look like — a rought example. The first email in a sequence may go out on day-0 (instantly when a subscriber signs up), the second email could go out on day-1 (the next day), and the third and final email could go out on day-60. Of course, you’re free to tweak this. You may have more than three emails in a sequence, or only one (delayed by 60 days from when someone subscribes. It’s all relative.

Cool, eh?

Anyhow, have a good day and if you like reading my stuff, the best way to support me is to subscribe to my email list (and yeah, you’ll get an email asking for feedback 60 days after your subscribe 😆)