Dear Direct Response Letter Subscriber:

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JK writes:

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"Bob, you are the only internet marketer I've stayed with for over 20 years. Your books and products have been outstanding and have greatly benefited my career before retirement."

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Then he reveals my formula for getting my email readers to stick and stay reading and engaged:

"Unlike many, your emails are not just sales pitches. I have unsubscribed from every internet huckster who has pedaled internet get-rich-quick schemes to me. You provide value and thought-provoking content, with an occasional affiliate sales pitch, and I look forward to your emails."

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My simple formula is the 50/50 rule for content-to-sales ratio.

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It says that at least half of the emails you send to your list should be content--information that is interesting, engaging, fun, entertaining, or useful.

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And as for the rest, no more than half of those—and preferably fewer--should be sales messages promoting a product—either yours or an affiliate's.

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Years ago, I was doing 50/50 and decided to switch it up to 90/10—90% sales and 10% content—to see if I could make more money that way.

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A disaster.

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Open rates plummeted. Unsubscribes soared. Sales went down, not up. People complained. And I damaged my online reputation.

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I concluded that people on my list didn't want and resented being constantly pitched.

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But if at least half of my emails focused on interesting, engaging, entertaining, or useful content, then they would willingly open, read, respond to, and buy from the other emails that were purely sales.

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Your experience may be the same. Or different. Only you know. I don't.

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But for me, if I don't deliver more content than pitch in emails sent to my subscribers, my tribe rebels.

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My star falls.

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People stop reading.

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And I make less money.

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My advice?

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If you are 50/50 or better with content vs. selling, stay that way--or even up the content level.

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If you are way below 50/50, and send out a lot of purely sales messages, and that works for you, well, okay...

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But experiment with—cautiously--loading up on more content, so the content to sales ratio gets closer to 50/50.

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And then let me know what happens.

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However, you are free to follow or ignore this suggestion, but either way, you – not me – are responsible for the results.

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If you do not agree, then don't do it, okay?

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Thanks,

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