Okay, so envy isn't an emotion to be particularly proud about. But, to be totally honest, that's how I felt when I first read Yanik Silver's ebook, MILLION DOLLAR EMAILS.
If you haven't read it yourself yet, it's a fabulous collection of emails that brought in more than a million dollars worth of revenue for the various people and companies that sent the emails out.
An excellent idea, and an extremely valuable collection of examples for anyone who wants to achieve success with their email marketing.
But what really brought out that rather unpleasant green shade in me wasn't the contents - but rather, the fact that Yanik had put together a fabulous book without having to write much of it himself!
"I could do that!" I said to myself.
And a little voice inside of me whispered, "So why haven't you?"
"Because I need an angle."
"So think of one. You're the ideas whiz!"
So, eventually, I did. I tracked down email addresses for some 300 of the world's top marketers - and how I decided who to choose is a story for another day - and invited them to contribute their "most effective article ever" - whichever article of theirs had created the most response. And I invited them to add a paragraph or two, commenting on the effectiveness of their article.
Oh - and I also offered each contributor a free Full Page ad in the ebook, so that they received a direct benefit from being included.
On the first day, when I had tracked down only about 42 addresses, I sent out the first batch of emails.
The first two to respond and say "yes' were Joe Vitale and ... Yanik Silver!
(And no, I've never told anyone until now that it was Yanik whose book moved me to action! Belated thanks, Yanik!)
Within 7 days, I had about 20 top marketers respond and agree to take part.
So I sent a follow-up mailing to the rest of the marketers, naming names and inviting the others to come on board as well. More signed up.
I'd set myself a target of 40, so I sent out a third mailing to the group.
In the end, 86 marketers agreed to take part (more than double my target). However, deadlines being what they are, the final ebook contains material from 71 contributors - and still tops out at 574 pages!
It took me just over a month to put the book together, including a fortnight of layout work, designing and preparing many of the ads, writing my own section, processing in Adobe Acrobat and (the part I hated most) putting in the URLs for all the links.
I didn't do much writing for the ebook, but I certainly did a lot of everything else!
Still, it was very much worth it.
I've had nothing but favorable comments, both about the content and the layout, and from its sales to date I know it's a winner.
So thanks again, Yanik, for the inspiration - and also for your excellent (and very effective) contribution to my ebook.
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See for yourself the ebook that resulted from Yanik's inspiration, compiled and edited by Michael Carney - and get a free copy of "Million Dollar Emails" with every ebook sold - at http://www.WorldsTopMarketers.com