Update #2

Friday, August 14th, 2020

As part of the “build in public” model, I’ve committed to sending a weekly update to everyone who signs up for the Magnificent Irrelevance email list. This is the second update.

Pre-Launch Email List Sign-up Update

I was hesitant about doing this because … well, a little over a week has passed since this initial “let’s gauge the level of interest” website went live, and over the next few weeks and months there’s a strong chance there will at some point be a lack of progress. And no-one likes showing lack of progress in public.

But screw it, building in public has to be in public, so each week will include a screenshot showing the number of people who have opted in (double-opted-in…) to the email update list as the preparations for the Magnificent Irrelevance publication continues.

As of this time last week, the only people signed up to the list were me, and my wife Lorraine. Now, we’re up to 15. We’ve got to be happy with 650% growth in Week 1. ????

Thanks to everyone who has signed up so far.

Over the past week there have been just ~87 visits to the website (I know, I know…) resulting in 11 tracked conversions, for an overall conversion rate of ~14%.

This Week’s Developments

The need to get more — lots more — visitors to the pre-launch site is obvious.

The most important thing right now is to get the idea in front of more people, get them to the homepage of the website, and over time gauge how many of those who get there complete the sign-up process.

The numbers are too small now to read any significance into

I have several options to get this in front of more people. They include:

1. Ads (pay to get in front of people on Twitter, Facebook, Google and other platforms)
2. SEO (to encourage Google to start indexing)
3. Sign-up loop (encouraging new sign-ups to refer the site to friends, family, colleagues or anyone else who might be interested)
4. Outreach for guest spots on various podcasts
5. Create a Magnificent Irrelevance podcast
6. Write a post or posts about Magnificent Irrelevance for other sites
7. Re-post this content (or create other content) Medium.com
8. Set up social media profiles for Magnificent Irrelevance in all the usual places

All of these take a little time and a little budget, and all will play a part at various stages of pre- and post-launch.

Budget is tight, so for now I have to lean towards the things that take a bit more time but a bit less money.

Of course, a way to fast-track it is to seek an investor who might believe in the vision, and put up some money for some equity to fasten a jet-pack and send us into near-earth orbit, or at least get us off the ground a bit quicker…

That’s also an option at some point, but for now, I’ve decided to go for #5 above, and create a Magnificent Irrelevance podcast that might appeal to our various audiences of readers, writers, editors and student journalists around the world.

So, work has started on The Sportswriter’s Life

Prep work has started on The Sportswriter’s Life podcast, and the hope is to get a few episodes live before the end of August.

The idea is this: interviews with some great sportswriters from around the world, inviting them to talk about their own entry points into sportswriting, their current day-to-day gigs / jobs / projects, and their ideas or expectations for where the business might go in the future.

The reception has been really good so far, and interviews have been recorded with writers from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Irish Times, The Sunday Times and Bleacher Report.

Just today, I had a really enjoyable conversation with Glenn Stout, who has been the Series Editor for the Best American Sports Writing books for the past 30 years.

The aim here is to put together a series of 12 episodes, and get them out there in quick success over the next 6-8 weeks.

The podcast artwork is ready, courtesy of original work from illustrator and creative designer Dmitri Klimakov (whose work can be viewed on Instagram here).

We don’t have a drum-roll, but here’s the podcast artwork unveil…

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That’s all for this Magnificent Irrelevance build in public weekly update.

If you’d like to receive these updates each Friday by email, make sure to sign up here.