The best advice of 2023
What's good folks?
Here's the best advice I can give you to round out 2023.
It will be the best advice you'll get. Unless you fancy wild unchecked advice from silly people who are knee deep in the silly season?
Anyway. Listen up:
It's time for you to invest heavily in your email list. And of course, your own website.
I tell you this as we venture into uncertain times in 2024.
I'm not a doomsday prepper. And I'm not a pessimist. I'm a realist. And I dish out practical, pragmatic advice like it's biryani at a wedding.
Your Website
You own your website and it's the #1 source of truth for your customers. So it deserves all of your love.
This means you should work on:
making it load fast (it's a lifelong thing)
keeping it simple so people can actually use the site without cursing (do not make them think!)
writing content for your site first and foremost (you are #1, not anyone else)
This last bit is most important because too often I see people giving their time, money and content to other websites, instead of their own.
I blame dodgy SEO agencies who use this to justify their monthly retainer.
Bunch of bloody grifters.
There's a time and place to give other people your content in exchange for a link. But that link needs to give you traffic and of course, 'link juice'. Otherwise, FORGET IT.
So why do you need laser focus on your website over and above everything else?
Because, no matter what happens with the SERPs and Google and AI and everything else, you will still have your website. And people will still need to use it. And you will will still need to promote it. Ever heard of word of mouth? Direct marketing? Sending a link on WhatsApp?!
The SERP isn't everything. Diversify yo bonds.
If you need help figuring this stuff out, reply to this email. I will help you.
Your Email List
Like me, you should have an email list.
It sounds ridiculous to some of you but it shouldn't.
Your email list is yours and yours alone. You own it.
If you run into issues with one email provider, you do what I do: take your list and migrate.
I did this with Mailchimp. Bunch of clowns. I got hit with some kind of policy violation. But they wouldn't tell me what it was. And they wanted me to jump through a bunch of hoops to make it right. Screw that.
I have better things to do with my life.
So that's how I got onto Buttondown. It's a great platform and so easy to use.
But I digress.
Look - if you're spending big on paid media (Google Ads, Insta, FB, etc) and knee deep in content for social, you're asking for trouble.
Rented Land. etc etc. You know this already.
Financially, it's not sustainable in the long run. You are not Maccas or Starbies or Nike.
Also, you could get deplatformed for some vague reason and then what?
What about your ads? What about your likes and followers?
MEANINGLESS.
But you can always start again, right? Sure. But it's such a pain.
When you migrate between email providers, most people are none the wiser. It's business as usual.
If you have to start fresh with a new social media account, it sticks out like a sore thumb. And it's an uphill climb on rollerblades backwards to get things going.
Who needs or wants that? NOT ME. and not you, that's for sure.
So don't be a chump.
Genuinely invest in your website. Like actually give a damn about it.
And make 2024 the year you start your email list and start sending emails.
Learn from me: don't stress about the small stuff. Just start. The subscribers will come, you'll figure out a publishing cadence you can manage... and it will all work out nicely.
I. AM. LIVING. PROOF.
Reply to this email and tell me I'm trippin'.
✌️ Peace out.
Here's to an unhinged 2024 in the best possible way.
Love Love Love,
Jaaved
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