Ask a brilliant entrepreneur your questions, plus a few other things..

Pernille Aalund is one of the most inspiring entrepreneurs I know. I hope to have a chat with her next week, and I’d like to bring your questions along. Here in May 2010, I’ve also just put a free guide to email newsletters on Amino. So today, you get both an introduction to my upcoming guest and a tip if you want to get more out of your newsletters.

Pernille Aalund took matters into her own hands

It’s a remarkable story I’d like to hear her tell. As I tell it here, she’d been a stay-at-home mother for six or seven years. After splitting up with her husband, she took her children to the holiday cottage and began volunteering at a local radio station.

She hadn’t had a job for a long time and didn’t have much formal education to fall back on. But someone heard her voice and said it could be used for an advert. She went out to an industrial estate, recorded the advert and was paid well for it.

Then she realised she was good at it. She began making money, and later she entered the world of television. She got a presenting job almost by chance. It wasn’t even the position she thought she was applying for.

She offered to produce the whole programme for TV3

She became fascinated by the American talk show format and took the idea to TV3. Her offer was to produce a programme like that herself. She would find cameras, premises, extras, the whole bloody lot. TV3 would pay per programme.

That’s the kind of initiative I think is fantastic. She’s one of my very good friends, and I seriously think she’s one of the nicest, smartest and most effective people I’ve met.

She’s still an entrepreneur at this point, although not everyone knows it. She’s had the magazine Q and joined the Aller group with major responsibilities in the magazine business. At the same time, she runs a business, travels and gives talks.

And that’s far from all. She’s made art books, written several books and been in the circus. She’s done so many different things that I’m looking forward to hearing more about how she makes it all happen.

What would you like to ask her?

If you have questions for a woman and entrepreneur like her, write them here. I’ll try to bring the relevant questions into the conversation. I hope the interview can be out next week.

I actually think it could become one of the best podcasts I’ve made. Of course, that depends on her opening up, but I’ll do what I can to make that happen. So promise me you’ll listen too.

A free ten-point guide to better newsletters

The other thing is email marketing. If you haven’t bought E-pusher or downloaded my guide with ten newsletter tips, I’ve now put the guide on Amino so you can download it for free.

In the menu as it was then, find the section with blogs and more, go to downloads and look under miscellaneous. That’s where you’ll find the guide to effective newsletters.

I made it to help you get more readers, get more people to open your emails and stop your newsletters ending up in the spam filter. If you already send newsletters, I expect you can quickly turn some of the advice into more sales. If you’re just getting started, you get ten tips to make the start easier.

The newsletter system we use at Amino

I also end up mentioning Ubivox. My former employee Oscar helped create the company with David McNally and others. I think their newsletter software is great. It’s what we use at Amino and what I use myself for Thorborg’s newsletter.

I don’t get anything for referring you. It’s simply a system I’m happy with. Here in May 2010, there’s also a partner offer for Amino Plus members: Membership costs 995 kroner, and the offer gives you Ubivox at half price.

My point is that, if you work out the saving, it might pay for the membership. That’s the offer I’m talking about at the time of the video. I refer to Amino Plus and partner offers in the menu as it was then.

So it ended up including a bit of advertising after all. That wasn’t really planned; I just thought of it while talking about newsletters. Have a fantastic weekend. I really appreciate you following along.

Best wishes, Martin