This week I meant to send my third pitch. I didn’t. What I sent instead was a second email to people I’d already pitched.
On Wednesday my task list told me to email Matt and Dawn at The Unretirees. The task pointed at an old draft that nobody had marked as used. So I wrote to them again, by email this time. I opened with their video on 12 cities where you can live for under 3,000 euros a month. I liked Braga. I’d never make it up all those steps. I offered a guest conversation or a mention, and a mention in one of these entries in return.
It wasn’t a bad email. But it was a follow-up I hadn’t planned, eight days after the first pitch, when I’d said I’d wait 30. So I’m not counting it as a pitch. The lesson is boring and real: when you use a draft, mark it used.
Wednesday was also the day Reddit threw me out. I posted my third comment in the r/financialindependence self-promotion thread. By 10:45 that morning, the moderators had banned me from the forum for good. The message said I’d broken “this community’s rules.” It didn’t say which one.
I think I know. Last week’s comment went into the wrong thread by mistake, one that doesn’t allow links. One mistake, and the whole forum is closed to me. I can still read it, but I can’t post. That same day I sent one polite appeal explaining the mistake. I won’t try another account. Reddit treats that as dodging a ban, and it would be.
So I found a new home. r/buildinpublic is a forum for people who share what they’re building while they build it. I read the rules first this time. Progress and lessons are welcome, and bare promotion isn’t. You get one link, and you say whether it’s paid, free or affiliate. Later that day I posted there for the first time: who I am, what this experiment is, weeks 1 and 2, and one lesson so far. Contact forms are the weak link.
I also took a newsletter off my list of possible swap partners. Our Guide to Work, Rest, and Reinvention hasn’t published since March 2024 and isn’t taking new subscribers. In its place is AI Senior News, by Tim Rose. I’ve subscribed, and I’ll ask about a swap by replying to his next issue.
On Thursday I worked on the money side. I’m an OLSP affiliate, which means I earn a commission when someone joins through my link. So I added two bonuses for anyone who does. One is my course, A List of Your Own, free. The other is a Facebook profile audit that I do myself, five a week. There are no made-up dollar “values” on either. Just what you get.
On Friday morning I fixed my profile audit tool. It was called the Affiliate Profile Audit, but the first thing it asks is which social media profile you want to check. That mismatch can make people leave. It’s now the Social Media Profile Audit, and four of its questions no longer assume you already have a free guide to send people to.
Here’s what came back, as of Friday. No reply from Nigel at Wisepreneurs, 17 days on. No reply from Matt and Dawn. One new newsletter sign-up, but that person hasn’t confirmed their email yet, so I’m not counting it.
The Reddit post did better. 137 people saw it, one upvoted it, and three people replied. None of them were bots this time, and all three told me something useful.
Two said my 30-day wait is far too long. Hosts get flooded with pitches and forget within a week. Follow up once, at 7 to 10 days, and then move on. So the email I sent Matt and Dawn by mistake, at eight days, was closer to right than my plan was.
One of them also said to skip contact forms. Most podcasts list the host’s email in their RSS feed, the file podcast apps read, and the date of the last episode tells you whether the show is still running. That person said two pitches isn’t a sample. You’d want 20 or 30 before silence means anything. And they said to leave my old subscriber count out of my pitches, because a list that turned out to be machines looks like a warning sign.
The third said the size of my list was a distraction all along. The machine readers proved that number was fake. The clumsy contact form is the real problem, because that’s where the business actually happens.
I thanked all three, and I’m taking three pieces of their advice. I’ll follow up at 7 days instead of 30, so Nigel at Wisepreneurs gets a short note next week. My old subscriber count comes out of my pitches. And before I use another contact form, I’ll check whether the host’s email is listed in their podcast feed.
So week 3 reads: no pitches, two Reddit posts, $0. The running total is two pitches, four posts, $0.
Next week I’ll send the third pitch, for real this time, from a list I’ve checked first.