The Connection Project Explained

What I want to do

I’m writing this on 11th December 2024.

This year I have been a guest on 10 podcasts, and participated in at least as many summits and bundles.

Throughout the year I felt like I was trying hard to build my email list.

And sometimes people asked how I was able to be everywhere all at once.

But now I can see that's nowhere near enough effort for the growth I want, and next year, I'm going to need to be more focussed about this.

The number of people subscribed to the Comfy Business Newsletter has remained fairly stable at around 3,500.

I want to be more intentional about getting myself in front of new people and encouraging them to join my email list.

I want to have 10,000 subscribers for my Comfy Business Newsletter.

It is a completely arbitrary number.

I don’t want to use paid ads (they stress me out), my SEO is a mess and will be looked at eventually, but that’s a longer-term solution, and bundles & summits are not going to get me there (subscriber churn is too high for this source).

So I want to focus on collaborating with other business owners in mutually beneficial ways.

And I’ll be documenting my adventures, challenges and experiments as I go.

The updates will be text-based (makes them much easier for me to do - and therefore much more likely they will get done), and at least monthly, sometimes more frequently.

Why I want to do it

#1 I love to write

‘I love to read your writing’ is the my favourite thing to hear. I want the quality of my writing to mean that new subscribers stick around, and I want more subscribers to read my writing, so I get more responses like that.

#2 I love supporting people who have a business that needs to squish around the rest of their life

When I help people feel more confident (and even excited about) marketing and selling, that opens up more freedom and control for them in their business, which gives them more freedom and control in their life - and that makes me very happy.

I want to help people be able to pick and choose their clients, what they offer, when they work.

Of course I want to get paid while I do that, but I’m also happy to give away my expertise through my newsletter, and the number of subscribers acts as a guide to the impact I’m making.

#3 My monthly income goes up when my subscriber number is bigger - so long as I hold open rates steady

If I want to rely on income from 1-1 services like copywriting and my Marketing On Purpose program, the email list I have now will do the job.

But I want to have more of my income be from ‘hands-free’ sources like the All Access Pass (which does require work, but very much at my own pace) and affiliate sales (not a big money-maker right now, but definitely room for improvement). This will make my income more stable, so I can take time off as and when I need to.

Why is it called the Connection Project?

It’s not about having a massive email list.

It’s about growing the number of subscribers that I have a meaningful connection with - they open and read my emails, they like having me in their inbox, they buy (and use) my products.

And I’m using my existing network of connections to help me get in front of new people.

What I’m measuring

Number of people with the newsletter recipient tag in Kit.

Number of people with Passholder tag in MV.

And I’ll keep an eye on my Open Rates.

Why I’m doing this publicly

I wanted to create a course about ‘how to grow your online audience’…. but

• What works for you will depend on so many factors like how much you want to be on social media (which is not my jam), whether you want to use paid ads, how much search traffic your website gets, what you sell, who buys it, and a whole bunch of other things. The course would need to be huge to cover all the bases, I wold want to charge billions for it because of the work it would take, and then it would be too broad and too expensive to be appealing.
  
  
• What works changes so fast.
  
  
• I’m way more likely to follow through with doing the list-building activities if I know people are watching.
  
  
• It’s probably gonna be more interesting for you to watch how this unfolds, and take whatever ideas and inspiration you can, than to sit through a whole bunch of list-building theory.

Are you in?

If you've already bought the course, or you're an All Access Passholder then you can crack on with the rest of the journal.

Everyone else you can 

- Buy access to the Connection Project here

- Or buy a Worditude All Access Pass here