[npras1]

As to what to write as a "starting point" in a cold email:

It's nice to write nice things about the things that person has done. nice tweet, nice post etc.

But it's nicer to write about things they've created and you paid money for. a book, a course, a software etc.

('nice' in this context means the chance of getting a reply.)

My own cold email story:

I was in a paid telegram group of a fitness guru I followed on Twitter. He once complained about how he's having a hard time managing his many info products, emails, having to write promotional content etc.

I then spent the night collecting all the things he's could do better: dusting off his unused wordpress site to keep as source of content rather than just tweeting bangers and let them be forgotten due to the algorthm after some time, writing better sales copy for his copy instead of just trying to list its merits in every tweet and email, new ebook ideas based on stuff that people in his telegram group are already complaining about (how do I recover better?!) etc.

I didn't expect much out of this. It just felt nice to come up with ideas honestly. but he replied with with 2 sentences: "How can I pay you" and "When can you start?".

That started a 2 year sidegig as a copywriter, a profession I didn't know I was interested in at all before this, lol.

Hmm.. thinking back.. have I learned this lesson myself? I can't think of any other instances where I replied to people's stuff that I purchased. But maybe I forgot. I'm going to think about it though, and write hot cold emails!

And thanks Zach for this. The one thing I remember about you from your early blogging days. That "glue technologies" blog post - where you said about how things like bash, sql, server management etc.. are all not main character skills, but are glue skills that are still important. That term stuck with me, and I do see their importance.

[ButlerianJihad]

So you were a customer, and this business owner created a job opening, announced the responsibilities to a list of his paying customers, and then he offered one of his existing customers a job while making it seem like it was your idea.

Networking. It's called "Networking".

[npras1]

> created a job opening, announced the responsibilities to a list of his paying customers,

No. he didn't know he needed those tasks done. Once I started, it was mostly me defining my own role and doing the work needed for that role.

And he didn't have to make it seem like it's my idea. He's the type to ask things directly. Has done so many times in his tweets, group and emails.

You'll see such examples of cold emailing in this own hn thread, where the job/role "didn't even exist" until that email.

And yes this is networking. But so is all communication in the context of cold emailing.