In our recent survey to readers of my ezine, The Joy Letter, I was asked to provide a timeline of
ups and downs in building my motivational website, (www.howmuchjoy.com). Ah … where to begin? There have been definite highs and lows in my small business’s 5-year history. Here are some of them, plus lessons learned along way.August, 1999. Launched site based on my newly published creativity book with trepidation, despite ‘gut feeling’ that it would succeed. Had no idea what I was doing. Hired fancy author’s web site creator/promoter at vast expense. But people came.
October-December, 1999. Went on 15-city book tour that I booked and paid for; met lots of people and signed ‘em up for ezine, one at a time. Joy Letter list at about 1000.
June, 2000. Republished creativity book with major publisher, and book becomes dual main selection of One Spirit Book Club. Lots of publicity, more speaking gigs. Joy Letter list up to about 2000-2500.
November, 2000. List disappears! Guy who broadcasts it goes on vacation in Bangkok where he gets sick and is stuck for three months. Never bothers to tell me. I get police involved. High drama. Guy and Joy Letter list eventually turn up again. List up to about 3750.
February, 2001. I sign on with major ezine broadcast service and shopping cart. Launch my first e-products, which do OK, not great. I learn that people don’t really want e-courses as much as they want live contact of teleclasses.
May, 2001. I discover joint ventures with other websites, and begin swapping blurbs, offering teleclasses and more with partners. Jennifer Louden and I team up on what is now an annual event, The Writer’s Spa. It’s clear that two are more powerful together than apart. I continue to develop products and free items for site.
January, 2002. I sign on with an Opt In list building service, which provides Opt-in names by promoting your ezine. Joy Letter quickly becomes most popular ezine and I regularly add 3500 double opt in names per month. This is great!
May, 2002. I notice that lots of those new names are suddenly strange numerical addresses and IP’s. I start getting flame emails from unhappy people saying things like ‘What is this #@%$*# Joy Letter and where did it come from??!!” Even though I now have close to 15,000 new subscribers, I pull plug on formerly great, now highly suspicious Opt In service.
June, 2002. Joy Letter list hits 25,000 and I have to pay a much higher fee to broadcast/shopping cart company. I get requests for a shippable binder version of How Much Joy Facilitator’s work, which I launch. It’s an immediate hit.
February, 2003. One year after I begin selling e-commerce products, I find I can almost make a modest living from my profits. I’ve racked up some debt running this company, but it all still feels ‘right in my gut’. Joy Letter list has naturally grown, but broadcast company institutes their new ‘List Hygiene’ program and gets rid of all addresses that are no good. Suddenly Joy Letter list gets whittled to around 15,000.
