Hello,
welcome to issue #14 of TRUST-able. 

This newsletter is written for independent authors, creators and consultants who want to become trusted advisors in their market niche. Share it with your friends.

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To get in touch with me, Robin Good, just reply to this email or write me at:
RobinGood@substack.com  I am here to make friends. 

N.B.: This newsletter you are reading is the super-short, synthetic version of the full newsletter. If you want to get all my thoughts, comments, links and images, please check out the full Google Doc edition.

Read the Full GDoc Edition

There are also two language editions of this newsletter: The original English language edition and the Italian version. 

Hello, and welcome back.

If you are info creating new revenue for the content you create online, consider checking out the first issue of “Curation Monetized” that is out today. It is a *Premium* issue, but it is accessible for free by everyone.

Also about to break his egg shell is my other new specialized newsletter, now titled “Good Tools” (it was earlier promoted as “Zero Cost Tools”). In it I highlight for you little-known and hard-to-find *free* tools for indie entrepreneurs and communication professionals. The goal is to help you communicate, market and monetize better while saving you hundreds of dollars every month in subscription costs.

P.S.: *If you are already a TRUST-able Premium Subscriber you don’t need to sign-up. You will receive a special VIP invitation.

Follow a path with a heart.
The time is NOW.

Robin Good

Read the Full Edition

1) How To Create Real Value

Pick the Best

This is a trend that it’s not going to stop. If you are or can be good at something you’re passionate about, and you can monitor and pick what is most interesting for a specific audience/need you have a business in your hands. *Check out “Curation Monetized” (newsletter) to dig deeper into this.

Source: Gaby Goldberg - “Curators Are the New Creators”

Show The Value

The more ways you have to show the value of your product to your potential customers, the better. What 99,9% of entrepreneurs forgets to do is to highlight the specific benefits and value that each one of those features, products and services brings to their customers. Try asking yourself these questions… (see full Gdoc version)

Source: Wes Kao - How To Instantly Show Your Value 

Synthesize Books (in a niche)

You should have already noticed the trend. With less time and increasing demand for learning, people are looking for ways to capture and learn more info in less time. That’s why whoever can do a good job of synthesizing what’s written in a book, can easily find people interested in it (and willing to pay for it). 

Robin Good

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Real-world examples, insights, tools.

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Real-world examples of online services, apps, info-products that generate a profit by gathering, organizing and packaging existing information.

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2) How To Cultivate Relationships                

Find Your Buyer Persona

What I find most effective when coaching my clients on building a “buyer persona” profile is to let them identify 1-2 *real* customers they have, that best represent their ideal buyer persona. I have them note their names down and ask them to keep a picture of them always on their desk. But if you are looking for a tool to do it, here it is.

Source: Hubspot - Make My Persona

Craft Surveys Carefully

To make user surveys work pay attention to these: Prime - Let them know ahead of time that you will want to pick their brains - Show human sender - Send user survey from an email that has a name and last name. Anticipate - Tell them how much time it will take. Highlight the benefits - Be clear about the benefits to them of doing this.

Source: Growth.Design - Customer Survey Checklist

Keep Subs/Members Attention High

“Many entrepreneurs focus the bulk of their attention on acquiring new subscribers / members [instead of] focusing on retaining the subscribers / members you already have. It is less time intensive, less costly, and leads to deeper, more invested communities.” Here’s an excellent, in-depth guide, that teaches you how.

Source: The Membership Guide - Retaining Members

Read the Full Edition

3) How To Communicate Effectively      

Shorten It

To write well, one must learn to be concise. In his “Politics and the English Language“ book, Orwell proposes six rules we should learn. Here the first three: “1) Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. 2) Never use a long word where a short one will do. 3) If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. - Check the rest in the Gdoc full edition.

Source: Paul Macko  - “Write Like Jesse Pinkman Talks”

Tell a Story

To engage the reader, story-telling works much better than any persuasive approach. Here are three out of seven storytelling strategies that are ideal to support the marketing of a new product: 1) Recount life before your product existed 2) Show your suffering (before you solved the problem) 3) Explain the struggle to solve it. For more check here.

Source: Manasvi Soni - 7 Storytelling Frameworks

Use Real Everyday Words

Never use words that while being correct and professional, are only used in writing but never when talking to another person. Here three simple rules: a) Get real - use everyday language. b) Get personal - write in the first person. c) Get active - use the active voice, the one that makes you sound like things are happening now, in the present. 

Source: Swethead Strategy with Friends - “If The Best Copywriter Thinks Like A Strategist…”

4) How To Market  Yourself    

Become Your Niche Historian 

To stand out in your niche do things that are of high interest to your readers but that competitors have not yet thought about. A classic example of such an activity is to write the story of a certain sector, market, field. Analyze, deep-dive, study and report on what has happened before in your field. How did it start? Who were the key players and ideas?  “Aim to become an expert on the history of your field.” 

Source: David Perell - “Monday Musings - Finding Work You’re Passionate About”

Widen the Difference

To differentiate myself from my competitors I deepen the gap between me and them. So that I can be easily recognized. Here a few key areas where to widen the gap: 1) the transformation you offer. 2) what you stand for. 3) the experience you offer. 4) how much you charge. 5) how you do it. For more check out the full Gdoc edition.

Source: Category Pirates - “8 Category Levers: How To Build A Massive, Pacific Ocean-Sized Differentiation Moat”

Build Your Unique POV

Differentiation is all about perspective. Identify and cultivate your unique one. “Here are 3 [fantastic] questions to answer to help build your unique POV. 1) What problem exists today that you understand deeply nobody else sees? 2) What solutions are commonly accepted but you disagree with? 3) What experience do you have that conflicts with common consensus of how “things should be done”?

Source: Devin Reed - “How To Stand Out (without gimmicks)”

Read the Full Edition

5) How To Get More Visibility

Create Good Content

This is what everyone thinks they are already doing. But let me ask you: How many of the following content formats are in your content production queue? a) Toolkits - b) Templates - c) Checklists - d) Examples Collections - e) Free Apps - f) Expert Guides - g) Event Calendars - h) Roundups of Providers / Experts / Suppliers - For more detail of what these content formats are check out the full Gdoc edition.

Increase Serendipity

“How can you enable more people to FIND YOU more often? One simple but powerful way to invite more luck into your life is to increase your “surface area” for opportunities.” (*serendipity). Here is the formula: “The amount of serendipity in your life is directly proportional to the degree to which you do something you’re passionate about, combined with the total number of people to whom you communicate your ideas.” ”The more people with whom you share your passion, the more who will be pulled into your orbit.”

Source: Chuck Frey - “How Can You Increase Your Surface Area for Serendipity”

Use Share Triggers

“Share triggers are psychological principles that make people want to share something” (Prof. Jonah Berger in his book “Contagious”). Here a few you can use:

1. Make your content practical – Create something the reader can use right away.

2. Make your content opinionated – Have a strong, unique POV.

3. Evoke emotion – Appeal to emotions especially through personal stories.

4. Tell a story – People love listening to stories and when they hear a good one, they love to share it with their friends. 

Source: Si Quan Ong - “How To Promote Your Blog: 7 Proven Strategies”

 6) How To Monetize

Diversify

Paying subscribers, services and information-products are the best sources of income for indie entrepreneurs online. “Ads are the fastest decreasing source of income for creators. Membership is the fastest increasing source. Diversify (as much as possible) so that you don’t have to rely on algorithms.” 

Source: Patreon - “The Big Misconception About Algorithms” (video)

Price It Right

Pricing a newsletter sponsorship or ad request it’s not always easy, especially if you are new to this. Here are a couple of very good references to help you decide what’s the right price point for selling an ad space inside your newsletter. General advice: start from $49 and then move up the ladder.

Source: Swapstack - Newsletter Pricing 101

Find The Sponsors

If you have a newsletter, the easiest way to monetize it is to reserve a section inside your email publication in which to identify and promote other newsletters that are highly relevant to your readership. Here seven services that I have used to find such sponsors and advertisers: 1) Swapstack 2) Sparkloop 3) PostApex 4) Who Sponsors Stuff 5) SponsorGap 6) Hecto 7) Paved

Robin Good

7) How To Stay Ahead

Study Like You Never Did

Time to update your idea of what a good student really is.
These days, the modern student knows how to:
- learn any subject by himself
- create knowledge by curating existing resources
- communicate creatively in person
- write across mediums and platforms
- collaborate with others both when physically together or when at a distance.

Are you and your kids on the right path or are you still learning and studying like in the last century?

Source: ISTE - ISTE Standards: Students  

Be Lonely 

“Great things often come from a place of peacefulness and solitude. People who accomplish them have something different. They live in their own reality far away from anyone else. They don’t conform, they are sick of common sense. When you indulge in the comfort of the crowd and join the norm, you lose your internal ability to separate. Because despite how much you crave to change, the mass will suppress you.The moment that all the external lights are shut off and only the light of yourself holds bright, this is when true creations arise.”

“The crowd is the gathering place of the weakest; true creation is a solitary act.” 

Charles Bukowski

Source: Orestis Spanos - “3 Harsh Quotes That Will Shake Your Head About Your Place in Society” 

Drop Mainstream Media

Mainstream media is a rotten business. There’s no integrity. There’s no honesty. There’s no truth. The faces and names you have come to trust and listen to on mainstream media have long sold their souls to money and popularity but have no deep interest or concern for truth. Truth is passed on to them from higher up and they never question it.

Robin Good

 • Recommended Tools

Discover *free* tools that allow you to communicate better while saving you money and time:

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6) Bot Eat Brain
Discover what AI can do for you through examples, demos, new ideas and trends. Fascinating new stuff. Subscribe now. 

 • From the Heart

Accept TOTAL Responsibility

I am a big fan of this and have been trying to make it a pillar of my own lifestyle. 

Taking responsibility for everything happening in my life is a courageous but liberating decision. 

Doing it, instead of always blaming someone else, makes you a better person and gives the proper impulse to act and change things when needed.  

“The moment you accept total responsibility for EVERYTHING in your life is the day you claim the power to change ANYTHING in your life.” 

Source: Hal Elrod

Personal Notes

In the photo: Fishermen just back from an early morning fishing hunt. In the early morning, Holbox island is a fantastic paradise of calmness and life. 

Tourists are all still sleeping from another party night and on the beach you meet only those who are eager to breathe life to its fullest.

Everytime I choose to take an early walk on this island, I have some really wonderful, peaceful but recharging experience.

I am reminded of how beautiful life really is outside my digital screen and how important it is to not subordinate experiencing it to anything else, whatever the price might be.  

Follow a path with a heart.

The time is NOW.

From sunny Holbox,
Robin Good

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