This eBook is 15,000 words long, and it is absolutely free.
I had exclusive access to this eBook prior to today although I barely wrote a word. Somebody earned $79.99 by participating and she does not know it yet. Seth Godin wrote the opening entry. 79 others finished it.
Does this sound like an interesting eBook?
You have seen many eBooks before, but I doubt you have ever seen one like this.
No kidding.
What on earth is this about?
I know a lot about web design. I know how to make blogs look good. I have a skill that people want, badly.
The problem is that it costs money. Many writers are unready to spend chunks of money on their blogging hobby. I do not blame them – it is expensive.
To solve the problem I hosted a writing challenge. Participants shared their thoughts on a particular subject, and the writer I liked best won a free blog tweak that normally costs our clients $79.99.
Since each participant worked hard to make their entry as awesome as possible, I wanted to reward all of them in a special way. I compiled their answers into an eBook.
The subject for the writing challenge was this: Which is better – a newsletter or a blog? It was a sticky subject for a lot of people and I knew it would tick some clocks.
It did.
And the winner is…
I totally feel like Donald Trump announcing the winner. Brighten the spotlights, somebody?
Picking a winner was not easy. There were so many great entries to chose from. Everybody understood their winning chance hinged upon how effectively they could write. This eBook has some dandies.
The winner is Allison.
Okay, you did not win. How does this affect you?
Congratulations Allison, but what does this mean to you?
First of all, check out the eBook. You can do this in two ways.
- View the eBook directly in your browser. This is great if you want to look at it for a few minutes.
- Download the eBook directly to your hard drive. This is great if you want to pour over it in detail.
Second of all, write your own opinion. If you participated in the eBook, paste your entry to your blog and encourage readers to participate.
If you did not participate in the eBook, write your own answer to this challenge. Refute the opposing viewpoint. Publish it to your blog. Link to it in my comments section below. Engage with other writers. Start an discussion. Learn, and have fun.
No, seriously. I want to see your link in comments. Start writing.
Thanks to the scores of writers who made this challenge happen. Thanks especially to Seth Godin. He is stupendous.
Okay, I am off to contact Allison. She has not heard of her luck yet!
- Martyn Chamberlin
Wow! I can’t wait to get into it. Kudos to you for such a great idea. I’m impressed that you were able to round up so many bloggers for this.
A blog is better because I’ve never tried having a newsletter and I have an emotional attachment to my blog. What do you mean that’s not a valid answer?
But if you offer email subscriptions to your blog, isn’t that kind of like a newsletter?
Or picture it the other way. You have a newsletter but you put the newsletter content online…isn’t that kind of like a blog?
In other words, I’m afraid I gave everyone a silly question.
I see a newsletter as something separate from your blog content that you exclusively send out to members – that’s how I differentiate the two.
…and I’m right.
Haha I have to agree…
except that a lot of people publish each newsletter to their blog. In fact, if you listen to the imfsp radio, you’ve already heard about one of them: http://www.copyblogger.com/undeletable-email/
A newsletter is just another aspect of your blog and another way to get your message out. No different than say a youtube channel or twitter account. How you use it is up to you!
Bravo on the free ebook, you did a really good thing with this Martyn! I hope you double your subscribers in the week
Haha thanks man.
And I agree. It’s just another way to get the message out. That’s essentially Seth Godin’s answer too. He hit it on the head.
Many of my blog readers still don’t know the difference between a blog and a website. Many didn’t realize they could visit the blog anytime for the latest stories. Others are happy to simply receive my Monday email which contains a linked titles of the previous week’s stories.
That Monday email has, over time, morphed into what most would call a weekly newsletter. It has several sections to it. I used to publish that on the blog, but now it’s a service to subscribers (free or paid).
So I describe my blog as an “e-newsletter/blog”. That seems to be quickly understood by people of various levels of e-literacy.
You said it all guys… all I did is to enjoy you discussion and I sure did learn a lot from the comments. Whichever is better between Newsletter and Blog I am sure they inform readers and that is good thing.
I downloaded the E-book still reading the opinions of 80 bloggers. I didn’t tried a news letter yet.I don’t know whether it will suit me or not. I hope the answer is on the eBook.
Thanks
Chris
I’m new in here-you got great stuff.
Lol I hadn’t thought about that Chris – good point. If bloggers are answering the question “Which is better, a newsletter or a blog” then of course they’re going to be in favor of the blog.
rofl
OhEmGeeeee! Shut.the.door! How awesome is this?!?!!!! You are so freaking cool. You made my day! And today is my BIRTHDAY!!
Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!
Lol THIS is why you won Allison. Your writing style is unique and it jumped off the page.
I’m looking forward to working on your site.
Awww, shucks. Well, thankyoumydear.
I can’t wait to get started. I’ll email you back tonight.
Yippie!
Congratulations, Allison! And thanks, Martyn, for the opportunity to be in the same eBook as Seth Godin and so many other fine bloggers. Leave it to you and Seth to sum up the answer so succinctly.
With Seth at the opening and my own humble entry at the end chronologically, I feel like I contributed the afterward!
(Somehow I wasn’t sharp enough to include a link in my submission, but it’s embedded in this comment, of course. Thanks!)
I was wondering why you didn’t include a link.
Out of the great goodness of my heart, I updated the pdf with your link in it.
Martyn, bless you! Thanks again!
I’m new to the blog world, and really enjoyed participating in the project.
Allison – congratulations to you. Your enthusiasm makes losing a little easier.
Martyn – thank you for organizing such a cool project, and for motivating me to move beyond my comfort zone.
I like to think of the other 79 contributors as not “losing” but getting a secondary prize.
Thanks for participating Amy. It’s truly been an adventure.
Ahh congrats Allison, but I really liked your idea how you just made a challenge and attracted readers to write an Ebook for you, win win situation for both of us, you get content and we get a little link? Hehe, thanks for providing this opportunity, I’m off to reading the book now!
It was pretty cool Harrison. I got *well* over a thousand visitors from that Copyblogger article and probably 150 new subscribers. People should do this sort of thing more often.
Glad to have discovered your blog today (from your guest post on ProBlogger).