Random Stuff Post #1

Campaign’s are rarely profitable from day one.

It’s an ugly truth all the world’s best marketers know about, and have the war stories to prove it.

Dan Kennedy is one such marketer. Because even his now revered newsletter wasn’t a roaring success from day one.

For a long time he struggled with a high unsubscribe rate. So like any seasoned marketing pro, he started to test.

He tried all sorts of combinations of content.  

Until finally, he identified his ‘Foundational 3 Content Split’ – the perfect ratio of content that keeps people subscribed:

33% direct helpful advice

33% commentary on industry topics, case studies, testimonials, and surveys

33% random off topic entertainment, jokes and stories about life

I’m guilty of falling short on the third category. So here’s a random stuff post on what I did last weekend…

Spending too much time staring at pixels is bad for your eyes. It’s even worse for your soul.

So every couple of months I leave my laptop at home to climb a mountain somewhere.

Last weekend I exploded one of the less travelled hiking paths of Laos.

The morning started with a 3 hour cycle ride on bumpy roads… then a 2 hour hike up a horrifyingly steep hill… before spending the night with a hill tribe… and ALL while lugging enough food and water for 2 days.

Joining me on this trip (and providing urgent first aid after I spilt my head open on a pole sticking out of a hut’s roof) was local guide Nign.

Over the course of two days, topics of conversation included:

• Will the Chinese Silk Road benefit Laos or is it a smokescreen for financial domination
• Can the benefits of modern healthcare outweigh the soul sapping effects of consumerism
• When is it ok to kidnap someone if they turn down your marriage proposal
• The #metoo movement in China
• Impact on truck drivers of AI
• How smartphones are turning kids into zombies
• Why decision making happens in the crocodile brain and not the neocortex

In April I head to East Java to climb up two volcanoes.

I only narrowly avoided an eruption when climbing a mountain in Borneo. So fingers crossed my luck holds.