Wanting to Make Money Does Not Make You Greedy: An Open Letter to Bitches Who Wanna Sell Stuff Online

Step one: buy a kayak.

This is not for kayaking, but for paddling through the lagoon of mule shit that’s going to flood your brain the minute you decide to actually take someone’s money.

Haha, money!

Why is asking for it so uncomfortable?

I’ll tell you why: because our entire lives, we’ve been taught that money is:

• Dirty
• Impolite
• Amoral
• Greedy
• Something you don’t talk about
• Something that’s wrong to have too much of
• Something that corrupts you
• Something that only “rich” people have
• Something that can’t buy happiness (RIGHT)
• The root of all evil
• And, of course, the reason why none of us are running around popping champagne bottles, hiding our tummies with our towels, trying like hell not to let anyone see that we totally forgot to shave as we sail around the Mediterranean upon our GRAND AND LUXURIOUS 900-FOOT YACHT WITH PEOPLE WE DON’T EVEN LIKE.

We get it, we get it! Asking for money really can be uncomfortable.

But, you know what else is uncomfortable?

Getting caught siphoning propane from your neighbor’s tank in the middle of the night so you can heat your noodles.

AWWWKKKWARRRRDDDDDDDDDDD.

Alas, ye fellow noodle lover, in this 3-part series (see Part I and Part II), we’ve been talking about creative ways to bring in fat stacks of year-end cashflow so you can be anxiety free for the holidays and skip off with a candy cane in your mouth.

But, you know what “bringing in cashflow” requires?

Actually asking for it.

Ding, ding, ding.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today: how to ask other people for money with your creative biz (and how to gorgeously get it).

So, you know what to do if you sell services.

You know about the importance of having a digital product.

Now let’s talk about the golden rules for actually selling your stuff—without the whole thing being a big, ugly flop.

(Flopping is only cool when you’re a twelve-year old boy at a pool party.)

Rule #1: Wanting money does not make you greedy. It does not make you amoral. It does not make you some scammy Daddy Warbucks with a questionably-shaped head.

Rather, you & your business are two entirely separate entities. You are the fiduciary OF this business. You have a fiduciary duty TO this business. You are the quarterback, the captain, the custodian. Therefore, it’s your job to make decisions that are in the best interest OF this business—not necessarily in the best interest of your fears (which would lead to all of us watching 1700 Yellowstone re-runs in our sweats on the couch, wishing we had Beth’s balls). Your decision-making should not be a reflection of own personal shortcomings, your own anxieties, and your own money phobias. Your decision-making should be based on what will keep the business healthy & happy & humming. These are two very different things. Therefore, when you think about running a sale & asking people to spend money with you, I want you to think about it as if you were completely detached. This is not about making you personally wealthy; this is about you being a responsible steward. And, responsible stewards understand that a business can’t operate—and do all the good it is capable of doing in the world—without fuel. Money is fuel. Because while you may not need an extra $25,000 in your pocket before the end of the year, your business might: costs like taxes, contractor payments, and monthly operating expenses are all a part of building something beautiful.

Rule #2: That teeny, tiny little mention you put at the end of your newsletter is going to result in zero (0) sales.

I know. I KNOW. In a perfect world, you’d just quickly mention it at the end of one of your newsletters—or maybe in an Instagram caption—and you could exhale and all the sales would come rushing in because you, dear noodle, worked up the nerve to say something. (”At least it’s better than nothing,” you tell yourself, patting yourself on the back.) But, I have very, very bad news: this doesn’t work. Like, flat-out, can say with all certainty and the benefit of 15 years of running a successful creative business online: you’re wasting your time. A quick little mention about something isn’t going to sell. And then you will be very sad. And then you will think that something is wrong with you, when in reality, nothing is wrong with you: it’s just not how you sell online. To which I say: PLEASE HOLD.

Rule #3: You really do need an email list.

If you don’t have an email list, we need to have a little talk, because it’s the backbone of selling online—and not having one is like trying to chop down a tree with a butter knife. You’re not going to sell anything via social media (that’s for marketing, not sales). You’re not going to sell anything at a local craft fair. (That’s just for getting fresh air.) You’re not going to sell anything if you put up a website and hope it gets found. (This is impossible.) Email moves product, period. Ask anyone who’s had any sort of success online and they’ll tell you the same thing. My favorite is ConvertKit for words-based emails (you’re a good writer and your work is idea-focused), Flodesk for image-based emails (you have lots of pics and your work is image-focused), and Beehiiv for advertiser-based emails (you want to create a product out of your newsletter and sell ads). The idea is this: instead of sitting around hoping someone will find your stuff and buy from you, you proactively start showing up in people’s inboxes and building a relationship every week. It is highly, highly effective. But, you have to actually do it. And, you have to commit to writing at least once a week. Otherwise, there’s no relationship—just some sorry sack sending a random “buy my shit” email every few months, which obviously will make people hate you.

Rule #4: You get people’s emails by running a campaign.

What’s a campaign? It’s something you do for a few weeks, that’s fun as hell, that draws attention to your biz, and requires people to give you their email address to participate. There are TONS of ways to do this. Here are a few:

• Giveaways (you can do this with Sparkloop)
• Free workshops (this is super popular—here’s an example of one of mine)
• Week or month-long challenges
• Limited-time training series
• Online conferences / round tables happening on a certain date/time
• And time-sensitive missions (see Rule #5!)

The best ones will be time-sensitive, meaning they’re happening NOW, which gives you a reason to talk about it now. That’s part of being what’s called “newsworthy.” It’s timely, it’s relevant, it’s new, it’s interesting.

Which brings us to Rule #5.

Rule #5: You get people to see your campaign by making it newsworthy—and then telling them about it.

Here’s how life works: if you just have a business, that is not newsworthy. Unless your business is something totally & wildly unique, like haircuts for aliens, most of the time the fact that you run a photography business isn’t enough to make anyone care. On the other hand, however—if you can come up with an interesting time-sensitive campaign, that ties in with the season, or something happening in the news, or something that feels relevant right now, then you’re giving yourself a reason to contact people and tell them about it. There is a difference between “Hey I run a photography business just like 50,000 other people, can you write about it?” and “Hi, I’m working on a project this holiday season where I’m documenting local family Christmas traditions. I’m seeking volunteers to have their homes photographed in exchange for a free photo session for the whole family. Might this be of interest to your readers?”

The latter feels like something the local paper would want to publish. You know what that means? You give them a link, and the link is to enter their email address if they’re interested in being selected. And do you know who is going to be entering their email address? Families who are into holiday decor, who probably fit into the right demographic and have a high enough income to be able to afford to have their family photographed. Which means that you just got a few hundred emails of prospective clients, for free. You can build a relationship with the folks you select from the giveaway (most families in this demographic get family photos taken every year, which equals recurring business), and the folks who aren’t selected? Now you can send a holiday campaign pitching your digital product, “How to DIY Your Family Photos for the Holidays Like a Pro—Even if You Don’t Have a Pro Camera.” Or, you can let them know they weren’t selected, but here’s a holiday code if they’d like to purchase a holiday photo session at a discount for their participation. See how campaigns like this can offer a holistic benefit all around? It’s getting the word out. It’s getting clients in the door. And it’s creating digital product sales. Sometimes, the biggest key to marketing is just making a big stink about something—and having some fun with it! But, it all starts with coming up with a concept that the media will totally eat up…and want to talk about. You don’t need a huge email list if the media has access to one. All you’ve got to do is create a campaign that’s interesting enough to be talked about—and voila.

Rule #6: You sell by creating buzz in their inbox.

All of this was about getting the email addresses of your prospective clients, and once you do that? You take what you’re offering, and you are going to create a buzzzzz. What does THAT mean? That means you aren’t going to just put a little mention at the bottom of an email (we’ve been over that). And that means you aren’t just going to send out one email about it (and then worry you’re bothering people). Rather, what you ARE going to do is something that’s going to feel uncomfortable at first (but we also remember that getting caught siphoning propane from your neighbor’s tank in the middle of the night so you can heat your noodles is equally as uncomfortable). What you are going to do?

Is email about the thing you are selling no less than 17 times. Otherwise known as: The 17 Rule.

This is my own personal rule, but it’s totally true. Why seventeen?

Because you want one email to go out every day for two weeks—which is 14 days (and 14 emails)—and then an extra 3 on the final, fourteenth day, for a grand total of four emails on the last day. (More on this in a second.)

If you aren’t emailing this much during a promo, you aren’t selling.

This is the bare minimum, really, and it’s a gorgeous way to sell your stuff. Email is AMAZING. It lets the right people hear the message, and the wrong people opt-out. It also gives them enough time to actually see your message, since most people are busy, busy, busy and you know what? They aren’t opening your email the minute you send it. We all like to imagine that we’re so super important, haha, that people are opening our emails the moment they go out, but most people won’t even see your email for a few days. Unless, of course, you start drawing attention to the fact you are emailing, which is why you’re going to email daily. You are creating a buzz. You aren’t staying back in the shadows, you are doing something designed to get you noticed. Bravo! That’s what we want. Eventually those folks are going to say to themselves, “Wait, who is this person that keeps emailing me?” Because that’s how we are, we sign up for things and then promptly forget what we signed up for and who the name was of the person running it. You have to keep showing up in order to get seen. This is a non-negotiable. But, it’s especially important when you’re running a fun sales promo for Black Friday / Cyber Monday (or any other time of year). You can’t just send one email and cross your fingers. You need to make an event out of it. I would start promoting as soon as possible leading up to the holiday, and begin with an early sale that leads into the sale itself. I would start early, and I would aim to have as much fun with it as possible. Which leads me to my final point…

Rule #7: Deadlines are your mother

I mean, that’s kinda weird. But it’s also kinda (definitely) true. You need to have an end to your promo, because this is part of what makes something newsworthy and worth buying now: the fact that it’s happening now. There is no better mechanism for asking people to pay attention in order to make a decision. That’s all you’re asking of them: make a decision. And, this is why you’re emailing four times on the last day—because, hello, it’s the last day. And let’s go out with a bang! Remember: the more fun you have with this, the more fun it will be. TRY to write emails that are fun. Try to MAKE it fun. Come up with fun ideas, and just run with them. Nothing is that serious. Try to create a little levity, and turn your marketing into something that’s a good experience for people to engage with. You won’t be a bother if the experience is an enjoyable one, even if they don’t buy. But, of course, by the end of it all? They should feel like they want to buy, because they enjoyed the interaction that much. FOLLOW THE JOY, BABES. And, your customers will follow the joy, too. And frankly? There’s no better sales plan on earth.

Hopefully this helped spark some ideas!

Because while money can’t buy happiness, it can give you peace of mind—and a hell of a bigger ham for your table.