The 21 Convention News Letter /w Dream & Dodger
Posted on 27. Jun, 2010 by Anthony 'Dream' Johnson in News
As most of you have noticed by this point, I prefer to communicate and keep in touch – both personally and for The 21 Convention – through social media, and this website.
Blog, forum, Facebook, Twitter, in that order.
It wasn’t always like this however. We used to be solely focused on e-mail, before I realized that attaching my name to this convention was not only “okay”, but highly beneficial, in the sense of the transparency and authenticity it adds to the whole che bang.
That is my real Facebook account with real activity on it, created over 4 years ago. Paradoxically the convention takes up most of my time now a days, but never the less there it is, and all corresponding activity.
Anyway, social media is all well and good, but I have been keeping a tally of requests I get for an official “news letter” or e-mail list from and for The 21 Convention ever since we abruptly stopped sending e-mails en mass – and it’s broken my personal threshold.
Actually, what really tipped the scales were the in person requests I got while I was on my speaking tour of Europe to promote T21C Europe. Stockholm, Gothenburg, Amsterdam, Munich, and Vienna.
In Munich and Vienna for example, I got close to half a dozen – in each city.
This to me, was an omen. Time to start the news letter back up, and do it right this time. How are we going to do that?
1. Make it voluntary
No forced “opt ins” for our content. When I say “free”, I actually mean it, and mark my word, our event and documentary footage will never demand your e-mail address or any other contact or personal information. Free means free, not “fair”.
2. Structure the $hit out of it
Rather than send out randomly organized blocks of text, thoughts, and links, the T21C news letter will stick to a structure – ever evolving as it is.
Dodger and I need to work on this a bit more, but I’m currently thinking of including the following in each news letter, in the listed order.
- A. Important announcements
- B. Favorite article or video of the week (on site, from all time)
- C. Favorite article or video of the week (from T21C speakers, their sites, current)
- D. My answer to a reader’s question
- E. Dodger’s answer to a separate reader question
- F. Repeat of important announcements
Want your question answered on the very first news letter? E-mail your question to info@the21convention.com
3. Bring on Dodger for the news letter
My responsibilities and duties with The 21 Convention are constantly growing, expanding, and changing – rapidly. As such, I am going to bring Dodger aka “Hshudo” on board for the news letter. Long term there’s no telling what will happen, but potentially Dodger could one day run the news letter completely and I would only be there to answer a reader question each e-mail.
Why Dodger you ask?
Because he’s awesome, brings a lot of value to the table, and is a guy I trust (aka he’s responsible) to do something as important as this news letter – and do it right no less.
He may not be the only one of course, but for now it’s Dodger and I that will be doing this.
4. Create one main news letter, and two smaller announcement only lists.
For now there will only be one main news letter for The 21 Convention, however after The 21 Convention 2010 of Orlando Florida we will create two more, dedicated to announcements only. One for all things T21C in North America, and one for all things T21C in Europe. People on those lists will be contacted less frequently.
So if the main newsletter is a twice per month mail out, the geographically focused lists will be once per month, or even bi-monthly depending on the time of the year, what’s going on, etc.
…
And that’s it. You now know what’s in store for our news letter, and I encourage everyone and their grandma to hop on board for the main one starting TODAY. Your information is safe and secure with Aweber, and I promise never to spam your inbox with useless products or services, or even too many e-mails for that matter pimping our own awesome, relentless stream of free content.
We’re doing it right, and that means quality, not quantity.
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