Mark, I read somewhere you said there's still not many active members. Maybe you should try to link directly your forum with your articles you publish on the front page with things like "post your point of view on the forum and discuss it". It's to increase the "visibility".

Sounds a bit lame but people never do the "first step". In fact I would not be surprised to know that some don't even know you have a forum now...

People are still joining. It's slowly getting more active. I don't think there's any rush...

@ Mark: Another suggestion for a blog-post:

A couple of days ago you mentioned that right now you´re pretty good at learning foreign languages. I would love to hear how you do it, especially if and how you started learning portuguese.

Greets.

May take a stab at that... I've been thinking that after this little sabbatical, I may start posting a wider variety of content... 1) because intellectualizing pick up stops becoming constructive past a certain point and 2) because the best way to support lifestyle (passive) attraction is to offer advice on it and 3) because I'm becoming more interested in psychology and general well-being than just getting laid these days.

That and there's really only so much you can say about pick up and women so many times...

When you talk about expanding the blog's scope I'll admit my first knee jerk fear is, "I hope he doesn't turn into another self-indulgent Tim Ferriss wannabe writer. I am here mainly to learn about women after all, not the 10 best ways to get cheap train tickets in Eurpoe or some shit"

But I also thought that post you made on what it's like being a white guy in Thailand was really interesting, so maybe I should just trust that if I like what you write on dating I'll like the perspective you bring to other stuff. And it's true, how much can someone really write about picking up women?

I really think after this book and the next batch of products, I'm going to be almost completely tapped... you can only say the same shit so many times and in so many different ways... At this point the challenge/work for me is finding a way to present it in a way that gets people to get off their ass, not actually figuring out what to present itself.

But I won't stray too far. Everything will be at least tangentially related... For what it's worth, I really see this blog as my personal pet project... or my passion rather... the majority of the real nuts-and-bolts-here's-how-you-do-it advice is and will continue to be in the products.

(05-06-2011 04:36 AM)Mark Wrote:  For what it's worth, I really see this blog as my personal pet project... or my passion rather...

I think that's actually what makes the blog so useful - it departs from the on-message tone that you see in a lot of pick-up and self help products. The presonal tone, the examples, and the actual expression of a variety of emotions makes it a lot more compelling, and gets the message to sink in a lot more. Out of curiosity, have you ever thought about doing a product with a similar "passion project" tone as the blog?

That's actually the direction I'm trying to go with everything and why I'm basically reorganizing all of my content/products over the next year into products that reflect my personality a bit more honestly and are targeted more directly. Also, I think some of my material is just plain out of date and/or I've evolved past it over the last 1-2 years.

The real trick is to get the marketing down... because I need to be able to create marketing that gets people who have no idea who I am to buy something, but at the same time doesn't turn my regular readers off.

The survey from last month helped big time. I also met with a internet marketing consultant last month as well (he manages the marketing for a big name in the finance market) and he gave me a lot of useful advice. All in all, I'm very excited and optimistic about things. I think 2011 is going to be a good year... for you guys and for me.

That all sounds great. In terms of people who never heard of you, are you more aiming to market towards a general audience, or towards community guys? I imagine that's a tricky decision to make, and might involve some trade offs.

Definitely general market. It's actually not a very hard decision to make anymore... for a variety of reasons.