Can you believe that the year is already halfway done? Time flies when you’re having fun and I’ve had a blast this year writing and sharing with you. Thanks for reading and I look forward to an even better second half of the year.
June was another amazing, record-setting month and below I share with you the highlights, lowlights, lessons and a recap of the month that was.
Highlights
The clear highlight of June was the launch of our WORLD CHANGER (JUST LIKE YOU)™ t-shirts. We had a Buy One, Get One Free Pre-Order Sale and placed our order with the t-shirt company last week. They’ll ship out right after the July 4th holiday and we could not be more excited to get them in your hands.
Thank you for making it an awesome sale. I can’t wait to see you in the shirts.
We shared our process for designing, promoting, and selling the t-shirts here.
The other highlight is that once again we had a record month in terms of traffic, subscribers, comments, and more. Thank you!
Lessons Learned
Lesson #1: If you are building a platform of your own, you need to know about post-specific opt-ins. I stumbled across this method of building a list by accident when I offered a free download on a post. The download was specific to the post and supplemented the material in the post. You can see my original example in this post.
My normal opt-in rate is approximately 0.8%, meaning that it takes about 120 visitors to get one opt-in. Granted, a lot of visitors are already on my list, but that rate has held pretty steady over the past two years.
With post-specific opt-ins, the opt-in rate ranges from 3% to as high as 14%, averaging out at about 6.5%. In other words, it only takes about 15 visitors to get an opt-in.
It turns out that numerous other bloggers have found the same thing to be true and today, the majority of my posts have a supplemental opt-in specific to the post.
Lesson #2: My biggest strength, as an entrepreneur and leader, is also my biggest weakness. I am never short on ideas and my favorite question is “what’s next?” But I often fail to digest the lessons I’ve learned from executing previous ideas (i.e. the t-shirt launch). I also fail to think things through from start to finish.
Thankfully, I have best business partner and spouse one could hope for, especially if that someone is like me. I am a hard-charging, High D, who shoots firsts and aims later. Tara is the perfect counterbalance.
Thanks to her, we are holding off on new products, a podcast, and more for now and will spend the summer planning some great launches for the fall.
The lesson in short is: Find yourself someone who balances you out. If you are quick to act and slow to think, find someone that drives you crazy the other way. You need that other person.
Top Posts
My top posts in June were as follows:
- Who Else Wants to Leave a Legacy Like This?
- The 6 Questions I Ask Every Day (and that You Should, Too)
- The Magic Number That Will Make You a Better Leader
- Would You Fire a Person for This?
- Are You Predicting Your Own Downfall?
Top Community Members
A huge thank you to the top members of the community in June. You are awesome!
Jon Stolpe- Jana Botkin
- Zechariah Newman
- Gertrude Nonterah
- Camilla
- Dan Black
- Steve Pate
- David Mike
- Heidi Bender
- TCAvey
Jon Stolpe
Jana Botkin
Zechariah Newman
Gertrude Nonterah
Camilla
Dan Black
Steve Pate
David Mike
Heidi Bender
TCAveyWhat was the highlight of your June?
I love that you don’t have commenters, you have community members.
I literally just changed the terminology this month. Glad it sounds better (and it’s truer) 🙂
My highlights for June: My kids finished school, my daughter earned her driver’s license, I went camping with my wife, I visited my hometown in NJ, and I had the opportunity to interact with great people like you.
Thanks for the mention in your top community members section.
Are the roads safe up there Jon? 🙂
That’s a good question. She hasn’t driven since she got the license as we are still navigating the auto insurance and parenting world. I suspect she’ll be driving more once we return from Guatemala.
I love that you take the time to write these. Taking the time to reflect is crucial glad you do it:) My highlight for June was getting away alone for a week with my wife celebrate our ten year wedding anniversary. No kids a week, That was awesome!
This monthly recap is great. I am inspired to work towards something similar for my blog. The post specific opt in is a great idea. I have an opt in below my posts but never thought about adding a post specific giveaway. Thank you for the great content.
That’s awesome Chris!
The post specific optins are game changers. If you consistently write about a narrow range of topics, you don’t need to create hundreds either. Even five to ten is more than enough to get you started.
I found it http://www.serveandlead.com/
You can find them in their Disqus profile 🙂
Thank you Matt!
Thanks, Matt. When I click on someone’s name, it just takes me right back to this blog post. Obviously I have much more to learn.
Chris, what is your blog?
Hi Jana, my blog is http://www.serveandlead.com. Thank you so much for your interest!
Thanks, Chris! I’m on my way over now.
I am glad to be on that list. This recap is a great idea. It also creates a record of your progress. Keep up the awsome work that you do. My hilight was about 450 visitors to my blog in one day because of my last post. Also the most blog post views in the same day, 913. It has been a good month. More so, it’s not about the numbers, but I am excited that the message is getting out there!
David Mike, how about giving us a link to your blog?
The posts are in order here. #30 was the one I was talking about but it’s a continuing story. http://dilemmamike.com/the-fort-leavenworth-story/
Thanks for the link, David! I am really looking forward to reading your story.
Thank you Jana!
Your story is interesting!
Thank you. Unfortunately, It’s entirely true.
Your message is amazing! And you often leave us with “cliff hangers” – what is going to happen next? Love that you are helping and inspiring others by sharing your story instead of “hiding” it.
I appreciate your support Camilla!
Nice recap, Matt! YOU are awesome – that’s why you have this community of people hanging onto your every post!
My highlight was FINALLY getting my book ready to go to the printer after 3 v e r y l o n g years. Tomorrow I will begin pre-selling it, and selling the original drawings too. Yikes, I’m nervous. . .
What’s your book about Jana?
It is about a community in Sequoia National Park of 200+ cabins. There are about 260 pencil drawings, quotes by cabin folks, a preface, introduction and conclusion. 176 pages, 9×12″, $70 is the pre-order price. My husband just returned from a trip to the PO and I got my first order for 4 books!!
http://www.thecabinsofwilsonia.com
I love that you and @dilemmamike:disqus are sharing like that. That is too cool.
Congrats my friend. Thank you for the content, the transparency and all you teach us! You deserve all the success you have and more!
That’s awesome! Congrats on all the things you have accomplished and THANK YOU for sharing us with your readers. I always find value in reading your posts and so excited to see what the next 6 months hold for you. Highlight of my June besides skiing on June 18th? I would say taking the time to connect with more people like you Matt, create relationships and then help connect them to the next person.
That is awesome Camilla!
What’s happening in the comments here is one of the coolest things to see…people sharing and interacting. Makes it all worth it!
I just learned about the post specific opt-in this week in the Internet business program that I am in. It is very inspiring to read of your success with this method.
My personal blog had about 90 more unique visitors than last month making June the highest month ever. My thank you note writing site is still getting off the ground, but it did get a spam comment today, so that is progress!
That’s awesome Heidi!
Thanks for sharing your successes Matt. Especially #1. That sounds like a killer technique to learn.
Yeah it will rock your world.
Go Matt!! Keep changing the world!
Thanks Lily!
Glad to be in your community. Keep writing great content Matt!