I remember when I tried to watch website visits, followers, email opens, and Pinterest saves… It was just too much. Yes, I tried to grow them all, looking at all of them. But it’s not the right way. The people at Morning Brew (yes, the daily email newsletter that delivers business and tech news has grown to over 4 million subscribers) did the right thing at that time. They picked one number to focus on. That’s how they grew. Trying to watch every metric only leaves you tired and confused. If...

Ever notice how the people you trust most online don’t start by selling you something? They start by teaching. It’s one of the things I learned from reading tons of blog posts and watching YouTube videos. They always showed why it matters before trying to sell anything. Here’s the truth: If you’re always trying to sell, people stop paying attention. For example, if every post sounds like this: “Buy my $16 template pack!” Try it this way instead: “I remember feeling stuck every week, signing...

I had a friend who started selling wall art and he strongly believed that if he built something great, people would just show up. He launched, waited, and waited some more. Then, after a few months, I asked him how the business was going. He said he just gave up on it. He really started it, and that’s a good thing. But after all that work, it was just…quiet. Too quiet. But what he missed was telling people why they should choose him. In other words, weak positioning. He could have chosen who...