Matt Cole 5/12/25 Matt Cole 5/12/25

How To Double Your Email List Without Really Trying

A few weeks ago, I made a relatively innocuous post on my Facebook and LinkedIn pages. To the untrained eye, this post looked like an objectively bad attempt to market my newsletter. However, the untrained eye would be surprised to hear that this post actually caused my subscriber list to more than double. I did something “right,” or, at least, something that produced the “right” outcome. Anytime this happens, it’s worth stepping back and analyzing what exactly happened. I’ve spent the last week or so digging into the analytics of my social marketing efforts for the newsletter, and what I discovered was nothing short of fascinating.

So here’s an in-depth look at how exactly I doubled my list in one social post, an important lesson about social analytics, and some practical tips to help you replicate these results.

Matt Cole 2/3/25 Matt Cole 2/3/25

The Masks We Post

My name is Matt Cole and I am addicted to the internet. Or at least that's what I tell people when I don't feel like explaining that "the internet" is my job. I'm not actually addicted to the internet, but I do think I spend to much time here. That's why I spent some extra time this week offline. I recommend you do the same. As the kids say, "go touch grass."

If you follow me on TikTok, hearing that I was offline last week may be surprising. If you don't follow me on TikTok, (shame) you likely don't know that I posted every day last week. Outside looking in, these two facts may seem at odds. But allow me to rip the wool from your eyes and explain that "posting" and being "online" are different and not mutually exclusive.

Matt Cole 10/25/24 Matt Cole 10/25/24

Building a one-match fire

I was a camp counselor for years. Here’s the thing about being a camp counselor: you build a lot of fires. You build so many fires that you start to differentiate between their types.