Thomas Frank Profile picture
Mar 16 11 tweets 5 min read
My last @NotionHQ template launch made $88,421 in its first 30 days.

This came entirely from two emails sent to a waiting list of 3,201 people.

Here are the exact subject lines, email copy, and all other details:
Subject Line:

"IT'S GO TIME - Ultimate Brain is live"

- 3,201 recipents
- 81% open rate
- 60% click rate (1,913 clicks)

(I use @ConvertKit for my email marketing)
@ConvertKit Credit where credit is due:

I stole this subject line whole-cloth from @fortelabs

The lesson I took from his experience and mine:

If you have an excited, captive audience, don't overthink the subject line.

Go short, punchy, and exciting.
Email body copy:

Some highlights:

- 3 sales page links
- Short list of features
- Launch discount

$99 launch price with a 50% discount code, so most people paid $49.

You can also read the email archive itself here: ckarchive.com/b/zlughnhgm77v
Here are the sales results from the first week.

I sent the email at 6:55pm (Mountain Time), so Day #2 ended up being the peak of the launch.

- Day 1: $9,910
- Day 2: $14,841
- Day 3: $6,558
Two days later, I used @ConvertKit's "Send to Unopens" feature to re-send the email to everyone who didn't open the first one.

Subject line: "Second Brain Notion Template"

This brought in an additional 184 clicks to the sales page.

(IMO: Use this feature sparingly)
Here are the sales results for the full 30 days after this initial launch:

- 1,432 sales
- $88,241 in revenue

On the 31st day, I sent a new launch email to my full list (35,000 at the time), so this period is the best look at the impact of the initial waitlist launch.
The sales page looked very similar to how it still does today.

Here's a breakdown of some of the features and decisions that went into it:
How did I build the waitlist?

I'll cover this more deeply in a future thread, but the gist is:

I linked the waitlist's landing page in a synced header block on all my free templates.

I also teased it in one video on Thomas Frank Explains (my Notion-focused YouTube channel)
My main marketing funnel is pretty simple:

1. Make great @NotionHQ tutorials
2. Use them to promote free templates
3. Ask people to sign up for newsletter when they're getting a free template
4. Gently promote paid templates at the top of free templates
If you'd like to study my sales page – or if you want the best productivity system for Notion – you'll find it here:

thomasjfrank.com/brain/

I recently bought a landing page roast for this page, so I'll share the updates I make to it soon.

Follow me if you want to see them!

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More from @TomFrankly

Mar 16
Fantastic improvement to this idea from @TheTaleFoundry:

The best thing you can offer your audience isn't just "more of you" – it's specifically more of WHAT PEOPLE LOVE about you.
This is a valuable distinction.

I can remember several times when I published content that was more "about me" – vlogs, a video about my personality test results, etc.

I thought these would do well because the same topics work for other creators (e.g. people like Markiplier).
But for me, these kinds of videos absolutely tanked.

No one cared.

Why?

People come to me for how-to content. They expect I'll provide them with something they can use themselves.

I made that bed.

It's what I chose to create, and it's what attracted my audience.
Read 7 tweets
Mar 16
Quick @NotionHQ tip:

Write and build pages much faster by mastering a handful of Markdown symbols.

Here's a full list:
Heading 1: # + space
Heading 2: ## + space
Heading 3: ### + space
Italic: *text*
Bold: **text**
Strikethrough: ~text~
Pre-formatted text: `text`
Code block: ```
Unordered List: * + space
Numbered list: 1. + space
To-Do: [] + space
Blockquote: ” + space
Horizontal Line: ---
You can create toggle blocks with Markdown as well:

Toggle: > + space
Toggle Heading 1: > + space, then # + space
Toggle Heading 2: > + space, then ## + space
Toggle Heading 3: > + space, then ### + space
Read 4 tweets
Mar 14
In mathematics, there's something known as the Hill-Climbing Problem.

You can write an algorithm that tries solutions to a problem and constantly moves in the direction of the best one it finds.

The problem is that you might not end up at the best possible solution. Image
You're guaranteed to end up at a "local maximum".

But because your algorithm can only move upwards, and because you don't already know the BEST possible solution, you might end up climbing the wrong hill.

It's very easy to get stuck and never find the global maximum. Image
This problem is reflected well in real life.

Life is like a mountain range covered in fog.

You can't see all the peaks; you can only tell which direction in your immediate area moves upward.

So you climb upward – and risk getting stuck at a small local maximum. Image
Read 10 tweets
Mar 13
My website is fast, ranks well in Google results, and is a crucial part of our sales funnel.

Here's my site's exact tech stack.

This is NOT a beginner stack. I've optimized for speed + great UI/UX, not ease of setup.

Just want to share what I'm using in case it's helpful. Image
At a glance:

- Platform: @WordPress (self-hosted)
- Hosting: @Vultr HF VPS, managed through @gridpane
- Theme: custom-built by @yomartholomew, some @elemntor
- CDN: @Cloudflare
- Backups: @gridpane managed, sent to S3
- Speed plugins: @FlyingPress_ and @_perfmatters
Other tools that are related to the site:

- Checkout pages: @lmsqueezy (great for beginners)
- SEO tracking: @ahrefs
- Cookie consent: @iubenda
- Speed testing: @gtmetrix
Read 16 tweets
Mar 11
5 Ways to Become More Disciplined

1) External systems
2) Accountability buddies
3) Coaches
4) Team-based goals
5) Leadership

Here's how to leverage each of these:
First, the core idea:

Discipline = ability to voluntarily accept discomfort and put long-term goals over short-term wants.

When other people (or systems) rely on you to take certain actions, discipline becomes DUTY.

When you're duty-bound, it's easier to accept discomfort.
Each of these methods add an element of duty to your actions.

1) External Systems

Journals, habit-trackers, and "threat-bet" tools like @bmndr all take your goals out of your head and make them concrete.

When you use tools like these, you become beholden to your past self.
Read 8 tweets
Mar 10
I've made 349 videos with 175 million+ collective views.

But I nearly quit before I even published my first one.

Here's the trick that got me to stick with it:

- A strict schedule – 1 video per week

- Trying to get just a little bit better each time

I call this the 1% Rule.
Perfectionism was my biggest enemy when I was starting out.

I kept tinkering with videos,

I naively believed I could make them as good as videos from other creators I looked up to.

But all I did was sink hours and hours into projects that never went live.
Once I committed to following the 1% rule, three things happened:

1) I started publishing a video every Friday

2) I learned 1-2 new tricks with each video

3) My channel started growing by leaps and bounds

In fact, my channel hit 100,000 subscribers in just 14 months.
Read 5 tweets

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