Welcome to issue #16 of TRUST-able “full-edition”. 

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.

To unsubscribe click here.

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

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

Each edition has a short version, which you are reading right now, and a long, deep-dive, 30-page Google Document, with more info, detail, images and personal stuff, which you can read here.

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

Robin Good

1) How To Create Real Value 

Map Your Market Niche

The best way to gain visibility and authority while creating huge value for your readers is to map your territory. If your niche is making healthy ice creams, your top priority should be to research and list all relevant: suppliers of ingredients, blogs, websites, podcasts on the topic, books, experts, gurus, tools and equipment, events, communities, forums.

Robin Good

Deliver What They Want

​Determining what consumers value can be complex, but there are universal elements that “create value”. These “value” elements, when combined correctly, lead to: stronger customer loyalty, greater consumer willingness to try the brand, sustained revenue growth. In this analysis you can find more than 30 of such “value” elements, and use them to analyze, check and improve on your product/service offering. 

Source: E. Almquist, J. Senior, and N. Bloch - “The 30 Elements of Value”

Provide Analysis, Insight

It’s by offering more insights and analysis that quality and value can be generated. Not by publishing more stuff. “…more isn’t necessarily more, and audiences often say they would rather pay for products that require them to consume less content where possible. …features oriented around analysis, insight, context and efficiency …are almost always deemed more valuable than those tied to volume of consumption.”

Source: Jack Marshall - “Subscription Publishers Reorient To Quality and Value”

2) How To Cultivate Relationships   

Be Responsive

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is not being responsive and engaged with their audiences. Specifically: not responding to comments, questions, or feedback, not actively seeking out opportunities to connect and not showing real interest for their audience's needs. A good solution is to reserve a 30-minute slot just for this task on a periodic basis.

Robin Good

Be Friend

I often forget to realize how important it is - for my future - who I spend my time with, now. “When you are seeking to bring big plans to fruition it is important with whom you regularly associate. Hang out with friends who are like-minded and who are also designing purpose-filled lives. Investing time with people who are designing their future and who are, in some aspects, a great deal ahead of me, is always an inspirational force.

Source: Darshak Rana - “3 Toxic Relationship Habits People Think Are Acceptable”

De-Routinize

What kills any relationship is falling into a routine: an ongoing repeated action unsupported by a real, tangible interest for the scope and benefits that this will bring. Like: Greeting people without interest, giving presents because everyone does, being together and giving it for granted. We dive into the doing, but we gradually lose sight of why we have decided to do so and what it means within the larger context of our life.

Robin Good

3) How To Communicate Effectively

Learn To StoryTell

Seven actionable tips for powerful storytelling:
1) Build a Storybank
2) Tie in lessons
3) Open in the action
4) Specific details
5) Conflict and enemy
6) Remove fluff
7) Practice makes perfect

Get more details in the full edition of this newsletter.

Source: Kieran Drew - Twitter thread

Front-Load The Meat

Put your key content, idea or solution right at the very beginning of your article, post or ad. Do not dwell on intro-ing stuff. Go to the meat first. There’s a ton of research that supports this confirming that people just scan your page before deciding whether to read some parts of it. Check the supporting research in the full edition of this issue.

Source: Jakob Nielsen - “Website Reading: It (Sometimes) Does Happen”

Test Your Subject

I recently tested out of curiosity this free mini-app that checks titles for email subject lines. Contrary to what I expected I found it quite helpful as it reports objectively on a few key elements that do make a difference in the open rates you can get for your email newsletter. Try it out, I think you may find it useful.
https://www.omnisend.com/subject-line-tester 

4) How To Market  Yourself  

Publish Content

In the end all that counts in the pursuit of value is what you share and are able to communicate to others. That’s why creating valuable content is of such importance in the marketing of oneself. High-value, informative and useful content is recognizable because it’s generally created exclusively for the benefit of others, not yours. "If you don't have content creation in your blood, you have to buy a content business, or you're gonna die."

Source: Neville Medhora - Twitter post

Be Humble

Creating a positive image and reputation for yourself is not easy. I know people who are eager to boost it but do all the wrong things to achieve it. Here a few simple tips. Be humble. Don't try to be more than you are. Don’t give yourself titles you don’t deserve, don’t boast having know-how you don’t have yet. Show your expertise. Showcase what you’ve done in a way that leaves no doubts about your skills and competence. 

Get more tips in the full edition of this issue. 

Robin Good

Share Your Personal Experience

To build strong personal authority online, change that language and inject in its place communication that has as a focus the desire to share and help others, everything changes. Here’s how to do it. Don’t say: “Here’s how this works”. Say: “Here’s what worked for me”. Don’t say: “Here’s how to do it”. Say: “Here’s how I did it”. Don’t say: “The best way”. Say: “My way”. “Nobody can argue against your personal experience.”

Source: Jay Yang - Twitter post

5) How To Get More Visibility  

Use Apple Business Connect

100% free alternative to Google My Business Profile. To increase your chances to be found by those who are looking for someone who offers your type of products/services, make sure you get listed on Apple Business Connect. It’s 100% free.

Apple Business Connect 

Source:  Product Hunt - Apple Business Connect

Develop Mini-Apps

Developing tiny tools and apps that do something specific becomes every day easier and less expensive to do. Still most authors find it difficult to wear true creator shoes and to think beyond their typical boundaries in imagining what useful tools they could build for their audience. Find out the key advantages of building little apps for your audience in the full edition of this newsletter.

Robin Good

Become a Pearl Diver

Every TV news station beats pretty the same breaking stories. Every commercial radio plays the most popular tracks. Most newsletters and blogs do the same. Only very few content outlets focus on niche, hard-to-find, rare, little-known sources and stories. Why? It’s super-hard and it takes a lot more time and competence and expertise. That’s also why the few who do it receive such a high level of authority and appreciation. Check the full edition of this newsletter to get the simple recipe for becoming a pearl diver.

Robin Good

6) How To Monetize  

Offer a High End Product

Though it may appear obvious, most entrepreneurs I know have not done so. Make sure that in your product line you also have a high-end high-cost item even though there may be very, very few clients for it. It can make a lot of extra money for you.

Source: Josh Spector - “10 Suggestions I Gave A Client To Better Monetize His Newsletter”

Read To Sell

Buy "how to" books on Kindle and use the content to create paid courses. This model allows Jeff to absorb a large amount of information, make it his own, and then teach it to others. Read the details of how he does it in the full edition of this newsletter.

Source: Paul Macko - "A Way to Make Money by Creating Courses”

Chase Revenue

Publishers are better off by chasing right-away ways of selling products and services rather than doing the “volume” game (going after higher subscribers numbers to entice ads and sponsorship monetization strategies).  Emphasis on revenue, lifetime value, subscriber engagement and value perception – instead of short-term vanity metrics (subscriber numbers and conversion rates) – will increasingly become a prerequisite.”

Source: Jack Marshall - “Publishers Rethink the Subscriber Volume Chase”

7) How To Stay Ahead

Reverse Engineer 

Good writers have distinct, recognizable voices. But how do you develop that uniqueness? “Study and imitate your favorite writers. Admiration (and its twin named envy) is an internal compass that tells you who you want to become. We’re inspired by writers when we see a piece of ourselves in their work. Reverse engineering your favorite writers [does not start with] highlighting their best ideas.” 

Source: David Perell - “The Ultimate Writing Guide”

Take Visual Notes

There’s a new generation of technologies that make them very appealing to creators who are looking for better ways to cultivate their thoughts. By displaying notes and collected data on a whiteboard-like canvas, visual note-taking tools open up a realm of innovative possibilities. Discover in this PDF guide which are these new visual note-taking tools and what benefits they can bring to you.

Source: Chuck Frey - “The Ultimate Guide To Visual Note-Taking Tools” (PDF)

Explain It

Learning does not take place by reading books, attending seminars, courses and live events or by reading tons of new articles and reports. True learning happens when you deeply interact with the matter to be learned and you apply to something real. The fastest and most effective way to learn something is to explain it, illustrate it or teach it to someone else. “The idea is simple: Teach what you learn — as soon as you learn it.”

Source: Michael Simmons - “Memory & Learning Breakthrough: It Turns Out That The Ancients Were Right”

Recommended Newsletters

1) Business Brainstorms
Ideas, insights and trends into the world of online business. Written beautifully by Jakob Greenfeld. One of my favorites.
Subscribe now

2) Toolkits Subscription Publishing
Newly discovered, high-value, high-signal newsletter focusing on business models, monetization and subscriptions. Written by Jack Marshall.
Subscribe now

3) Growth.Design
Psychological analysis of how brands communicate and engage online in a highly engaging and formidably effective content format. Highly recommended. 
Subscribe now

4) Dense Discovery
Weekly email with fresh discoveries at the intersection of design, technology, sustainability and culture. Thought-provoking things to read, listen, watch.
Written by Kay Brach.
Subscribe now

​5) Curation Monetized
Real-world examples of online projects that monetize by organizing existing information. Insights, resources, tools for  information organizers and content curators.
Subscribe now.

Recommended Tools      

Discover little-known, hard-to-find, 100% free tools to communicate, market and monetize.

Save hundreds of dollars of app subscriptions.

The free tools newsletter for indie entrepreneurs

Subscribe now.

From the Heart      

No Fear

“What would I do if I wasn’t afraid?”

The best things in life are often on the other side of fear. 

That’s where true freedom lies: in our challenges, our vulnerabilities, our struggles, and our fears. 

If you want to get the most out of life, you need to ask yourself what you’d do if you weren’t afraid. 

That’s when you find true happiness, by pushing through your fears.

Source: Brian Pennie - “If You Want To Be Fearless, Ask Yourself This Question Every Day”

Thanks for reading.

If this newsletter did help or inspire you, please do let me know.
(robingood@substack.com)

Please support this newsletter, by becoming a paid subscriber.

Robin Good

- To share and to subscribe
- TRUST-able Gdoc newsletter archive