Hello,
welcome to issue #13 of TRUST-able.

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

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 edition you are reading now and the Italian version.

I just can’t stop. I am on an endless search for improving how I create value for you in this newsletter, in a way that makes it also sustainable.

After 12 issues of experimentation I am introducing some further improvements and changes both to the format and the business model of this newsletter:

1) I don’t feel good about restricting access to many of the actionable insights that I give out only in the Premium Edition and I have not had good results from doing so.

Thus TRUST-able goes back to be 100% free on both editions: the shorter one I publish via Substack (which you are reading now) and the long, in-depth edition inside a Google Doc. (Existing Premium subscribers will enjoy new benefits or can get a no-questions-asked refund).

2) The format of this newsletter further evolves.

The Substack version you’re reading, is now much slimmer and easier to digest. In this edition you get only the essence of all my insights, so that you can skim through them in less than 4 minutes. All the seven content sections (previously available only in the Premium version) are now included in this edition (except for the Recommended Tools).

The Google Document edition, is from now on an in-depth version of the Substack one. Both include the same 21 insights, but in the GDoc you have more perspective and my advice.

3) Introducing two new high-value specialized newsletters:

a) GOOD TOOLS
In each issue, I highlight little-known, hard-to-find free tools for independent entrepreneurs. These are all tools to communicate, market and monetize online which have the unique characteristic of being able to save you hundreds of dollars of subscription costs every month. I personally test and verify each one of these.
Subscribe now

b) CURATION MONETIZED
Real-world examples of projects, apps and services that generate revenue by gathering and organizing existing information.
Subscribe now.

Follow a path with a heart.

The time is NOW.

Robin Good

This issue is sponsored by:

WonderTools the newsletter by Jeremy Caplan that guides you in discovering great tools and apps to communicate, organize and improve the quality of your work online.
Subscribe now.

Newsletter Content

1) How To Create Real Value

a) Find the Goal

“In business, stop trying to find a “problem” to solve. Instead, understand the “goal” that people are trying to achieve. Then, become an expert at solving the problems that prevent people from achieving that goal.

Source: Dan Koe - Twitter

b) Summarize Books

A great way to start creating value is to summarize books - while adding your own perspective and advice. Summarizing books allows you not only to create value by saving your readers time, but also to learn in-depth whatever is explained in each.

Source: Tiago Forte - “The Ultimate Guide to Summarizing Books: How to Distill Ideas to Accelerate Your Learning”

c) Create Helpful Content

“Google recently launched its Helpful Content Update. The goal is to make it easier to find content that feels authentic and useful rather than SEO optimized.

Source: Longshot - Helpful Content Checklist to Create People-First Content

2) How To Cultivate Relationships

a) Cultivate Your Network

The more you go out - online or physically - to meet and cultivate new relationships you increase the business potential of whatever you do and the number of opportunities that present themselves to you. It’s as simple as that.

Source: Justin Welsh - How the top accounts on Twitter build real relationships

b) Build a MVC First

MVC stands for Minimum Viable Community. You have one when you are able to identify the smallest action you can take to bring a well-defined group of people together.

Guide to building a Minimum Viable Community (MVC)

c) Find Relevant Communities

To cultivate relevant relationships in your niche market it’s a good idea to hang out where those who are your potential clients, already hang out. If you are wondering where these places are, online, here are a few good starting points.

Source: David Teten - “How to Find the Right Online Communities”

3) How To Communicate Effectively

a) Write Like You Talk

“No sales megaphone. No business speak.” To learn how to make your copy more friendly, conversational and direct give a good look at these 14 tips.

Source: Harry from Marketing Examples - “Guide to Conversational Marketing”

b) Use Bucket Brigades

There is a writing approach called “bucket brigades”that helps you keep your reader’s interest high by using unique paragraph openings, questions and statements and if you are not using, you may actually be leaving a lot on the table.

Source: Christopher Jan Benitez - “What’s a Bucket Brigade in Copywriting”

c) Put the Meat First

Whatever you write about, no matter whether it is a post for Facebook, an article or a newsletter story, put the meat of your content right at the beginning. In my experience with entrepreneurs, this is what they normally write at the end of their articles and posts.

Robin Good - Read more

Go In-Depth - Read My Full Insights

4) How To Market Yourself

a) Be Recognizable

Three simple things you can do, at the beginning, to stand out from your competitors.

Source: Alex Lull - “Three Ideas To Brand Yourself”

b) Look Legitimate

To appear as a respectable authority in whatever field you operate you need to pay attention to four critical elements. These four elements are the ones that impact the most how new potential clients who discover you are going to perceive you in terms of trustworthiness.

Source: Jay Clouse - “How To Look More Legitimate”

c) Write a Great Bio

A good bio is like a storefront — it can help inspire trust in potential customers unfamiliar with your brand. Here are 28 tried and tested templates for any and all social media bio / profiles.

Laura Wong - How To Write Your Best Social Media Bio

5) How To Get More Visibility

a) Improve the Subject Line

When you are a newsletter publisher and you want more of your readers to open and read your emails, subject lines are the critical, strategic variable that can make a lot of difference.

Source: Jim Hamilton - 21 Subject-Line Frameworks

b) Improve Deliverability

No matter how good your newsletter subject lines are, if your emails do not end up inside your readers main inbox, a lot of people are going to miss what you have to share with them. Poor email deliverability is probably the cause. Here’s what you need to do.

Source: InboxReads newsletter

c) Eliminate Dead Subscribers

Unsubscribing newsletter readers that never open your emails, is something you should consider doing. Periodically “kill” all of your dead subscribers.

Robin Good - Read more

6) How To Monetize

a) Find Out The Why

[Once] “you know your “who,” you need to understand why your readers will return to your writing. Your “why” is the core purpose driving your content that keeps readers coming back.” Most of the times is one or more of these eight desires/themes that makes your newsletter readers become paid subscribers.

Source: Bailey Richardson - “What We Learned from Substack Writers About Community Building”

b) Shoot for One Hundred

“More than a decade ago, Wired editor Kevin Kelly wrote an essay called “1,000 True Fans,” predicting that the internet would allow large swaths of people to make a living off their creations. Today, and I am a living-proof of this, you don’t need to have 1,000 fans to make a decent living. 100 are more than enough.

Source: Li Jin - “1,000 True Fans? Try 100”

c) Go Deeper

Stretch the assumed limit of goodness for anything you create, write, publish, by going deeper into it than anyone else has done before.

Source: Dan Koe - “The One-Person Business Model” via IdeaEconomy Newsletter

7) How To Stay Ahead

a) Change LifeStyle

Corruption it’s not just in the government and among those in power. The deeper disease is the corruption of our personal values, habits and lifestyles. This is the kind of corruption that is having deeper and more devastating effects than any epidemic, stock crash or war. The solutions though are well within reach. If we could only see them.

Source: Andrew Huberman - via Sari Azout - Startupy Newsletter

b) Cultivate Your Mind Garden

“Mind gardening is a proactive way of cultivating knowledge, ideas and thinking. It's very different from passive consumption – it's like a proactive creation. Instead of passively absorbing random stuff while online, when you come across an idea or a thought, you treat it like a seed.”

Source: Anne Laure Le Cunff - “You and Your Mind Garden”

c) Put Life First

Give highest priority to “living and appreciating life”. Make it happen through a walk, by being inside nature, by doing some physical activity you deeply enjoy or by producing creative work. Make it be the first thing you do in your days.

Robin Good - Read more

Read the Full In-Depth Edition

• Recommended Newsletters

1) Ariyh
Evidence-based marketing. Learn marketing directly from research studies results. Written by Thomas McKinlay.
Subscribe now.

2) eBiz Weekly
Tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business.
Lots of interesting ideas and pointers to new apps and services that are making money now. Curated by a very interesting indie: Niall Doherty.
Subscribe now.

3) Swipe Weekly
Cutting edge, occasionally crazy marketing ideas to grow your SaaS.
Subscribe now.

4) Find Great Articles “on-Topic”
Refind brings to your inbox the top seven daily links on your specific topics of interest. Loved by 50k+ curious minds.
Subscribe now.

5) Playbook by Unemployable
For creators, freelancers, coaches, and consultants looking to attract profitable audiences and develop multiple revenue streams.
Subscribe now.

• From the Heart

Sometimes I wonder why the stuff that has taken me days to write does not get the interest that I think it would deserve.

That’s when I should remember that we are all involved in a great, endless conversation, and if I don’t add anything of value to it, I may as well be lecturing on top of the Himalayas.

“...when it comes time to get down to the business of writing, [we] somehow forget the whole point is to contribute to and advance an ongoing conversation.

And it’s not hard to see why.

[We’ve] been trained to think about writing as something that happens only in the context of the classroom, as a means to a good grade, rather than as a contribution to the sum of human knowledge."

"writing is ultimately about engaging with the ideas of others, and only when you develop your ideas in relation to what others have said on a particular topic can you really stake your own claim as a participant in that conversation.

Only then will people really want to read what you have to say.”

Source: Jace Gatzemeyer - “How To Write Essays People Want To Read”

Check out my full commentary and insights in the in-depth version of this newsletter: Google Document.

TRUST-able In-depth Full Version GDoc

In the photo: My youngest friends here on the island are also my home neighbors. I love when they scream my name to stop me as they see me go by from inside their tiny home. From left: Dai, Camila, Poch (brother and sisters).

Follow a path with a heart.

The time is NOW.

From sunny Holbox,
Robin Good

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