You don't sell, but you promote your expertise and your personal brand for consulting, and offhandedly refer to how successful you are, with a indirect touch that is less off-putting and generates a bit of subtle mystique about "how does he do it? what is he talking about?"
A famous patio11-esque statement is a comment like "If you think that's a good sales technique, you don't understand the mindset of middle-aged schoolteachers" (while not repeating the fact that you market a product to that specific demographic.)
Can't fault that much. It would be extremely sacrificial to complete avoid saying "BCC" at all or ever mentioning that you generate X-figure returns for your consulting gigs, and spammily redundant to re-explain the whole Bingo Card business in every post.
You give away far more honest value (good, detailed advice) than you take away in "promotional references", contrasted against link-litter posts like this:
You are like a human Google, giving away good, in-depth information, with a side of context-relevant promotion for your consulting business, but the information is valuable even without "clicking to learn the secret" or "buying the book". If all advertising were like that, the Internet would be a much nicer place.
He's already written why that'll never happen, but I'm on his mailing list and I suspect him of building up the steam to leverage that financially. It'll likely be repeat-sales oriented and have a greater-than-$10 customer lifetime value. I can't wait to be fleeced, because at least we know he'll be focused on providing me with value.
Wow. I don't like this comment at all. I have been following Patrick's online participation when there was no Hacker News and all geeks (including Patrick) used to hang out at Business of Software forum (at JOS). I can definitely say that he genuinely likes to share his knowledge and help others out. I really don't think he is getting any BCC or AR customers through his participation in these forums.
A famous patio11-esque statement is a comment like "If you think that's a good sales technique, you don't understand the mindset of middle-aged schoolteachers" (while not repeating the fact that you market a product to that specific demographic.)
Can't fault that much. It would be extremely sacrificial to complete avoid saying "BCC" at all or ever mentioning that you generate X-figure returns for your consulting gigs, and spammily redundant to re-explain the whole Bingo Card business in every post.
You give away far more honest value (good, detailed advice) than you take away in "promotional references", contrasted against link-litter posts like this:
Headline: How X can help your business
Poster: Yeah, at http://mycompany.example.io, we use X.
You are like a human Google, giving away good, in-depth information, with a side of context-relevant promotion for your consulting business, but the information is valuable even without "clicking to learn the secret" or "buying the book". If all advertising were like that, the Internet would be a much nicer place.