Why Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit Didn’t Fly

I’m re-reading The 4-Hour Workweek.

Did you know Tim Ferriss almost called it something else?

His working title was Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit.

It was an inside joke. Ferriss gave guest lectures at Princeton about building his supplement company, and that’s what he called the talk.

His publisher wasn’t amused. Neither were potential retailers.

“Wal-Mart did not think it was so clever and funny,” Ferriss later said.

Ferriss didn’t want to settle the title in a conference room. He told his publisher, “Give me a week to do a few tests.”

He bought Google ads tied to keywords his future readers were searching. He ran a dozen ads. Each one carried a different possible title as the headline, with a possible subtitle as the ad text.

He didn’t care about sales. The ads didn’t even lead anywhere useful. He tracked one number — which headline got the most clicks.

One week of testing, less than $150 invested, gave him all he needed to know.

The winner, “by far,” was The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

Ferriss could have trusted his gut. Most authors do.

In my book, Story Power Marketing, I call that the first pillar of Promise Discovery: the voice in your head. It’s a fine place to start. But it’s only part of the story. Some of what’s in your head is true. Some of it is guesses.

The second pillar is the voices of your clients and prospects. What they tell you in emails, surveys, testimonials, and calls.

The third pillar is the voices of the market. People who have never talked with you, but who talk about their problems, fears, and dreams somewhere else.

Ferriss went to the third pillar. He didn’t poll his friends. He didn’t take his publisher’s word for it. He put his title ideas in front of strangers searching for the problems his book solved, and let their clicks tell him which promise grabbed them.

If you want the whole story — the one that connects with prospects and drives sales — you need all three pillars. Your head gets you started. Your clients sharpen it. The market tells you whether it pulls.

Ferriss’s gut liked Drug Dealing for Fun and Profit. The market liked The 4-Hour Workweek. The market won.

Speaking of books and sales…

If you’ve written a book, or you’re writing one, and it hasn’t brought you the clients you expected, join me Saturday morning.

I’m hosting a small-group Boardroom Session called How to Use Your Book to Get Booked and Hired

Saturday, October 17, 11:30 a.m. ET / 10:30 a.m. CT

45 minutes. No charge.

I’ll show you the system that turns readers into leads, then keeps the conversation going until they’re ready to hire you. The focus is not more book sales. It’s more clients.

Claim your seat here