Raw Truths About Online Business & Copywriting

Play the game to change the game

I’ve made all my money via online business so throughout my time here (decade plus) I’ve learned some truths about the game.

And how it “typically” goes.

Here are those raw truths off the top of my head that are most useful for those relatively new to the game:

1. Your income today is a direct reflection of the quality of your skills, total amount of deep work hours, and how many lever moving tasks you’ve knocked out during the last 6 months (aim for 1-3 a day). If you don’t like your output (income), then look at your inputs (above metrics).

2. First learn a skill, then put in your reps, then build a proven cash flow business. Don’t reinvent the wheel here. Pick a tried and true model and stick with it. Once you’re clearing good cash flow ($250,000 – $300,000+/year) then put your head down, find a big market to play in for the long haul (positioning is everything), and start building your FU money moat.

3. It’s harder than the marketers and MMO gurus make it out to be, but it’s easier than what your mind believes it to be.

4. Pick one skill to major in and 1-2 skills to minor in. Once you combine your master with your minor(s), you’ll unlock greater cash-flow. With just one skill, you pigeonhole yourself.

Copywriting = Overworked freelancer.

Copywriting + Sales = Agency success.

Copywriting + media buying = Affiliate/ecom success.

Copywriting + content = Info success

(Key, however, is to first go DEEP in your major and then stack complimentary skills afterwards.)

5. The info game is just like the rap game. Most get lost in the bling, but the true G’s focus on the substance.

6. Build a list. Build a list. Build a list.

7. The proof element is the most important element to build for any business. More proof you have, the less you need fancy copywriting tricks and tactics.

8. You’re not just one funnel away. You’re one funnel x hundreds or thousands of hours of iterations away.

9. In the beginning (pre $100k), the dumb guy performs better than the smart guy. Meaning, he’ll be able to clear $100k faster than the smart guy. After $100k, the smart guy performs better than the dumb guy. Meaning, he’ll be able to clear $1M faster than the dumb guy. If you’re smart, turn off your brain until your first $100k. And then turn it back on.

10. People are making BIG money right under your nose. Nothing is a secret. All the ads, landing pages, sales pages, check out pages, email sequences, and upsells/downsells for the offers that are crushing are available for those who have the eyes to see. Spend more time using spy tools. Less time reading DR books.

11. Money is a female. You attract her the same way you attract a female. No pedestals. Only value (tangible or perceived).

12. If you’re going up against the biggest and baddest competitor in your niche, then don’t copy them. This will always keep you at #2. Instead, do the complete opposite. This will allow you to start attracting certain members of the niche who aren’t being fully satisfied with the #1 player and give you more room to compete.

13. You never really know what’s going to hit until you test it, so test it, test it, test it.

14. The fastest way to grow is to shorten your feedback loop: Idea → Campaign → Test → Market Feedback. More market feedback you collect, the faster you can iterate.

15. The most valuable piece of feedback is market feedback. The second most valuable piece of feedback comes from a mentor who has done what you are aiming to do.

16. The greatest asset is distribution.

17. Nothing lasts forever, so when the money is coming in… resist the urge to pop bottles. Instead, throw your morning routine in the garbage, double down on the caffeine, and print while the printing is good. Once the well dries up, then pop bottles.

18. Nothing happens for a very long time, then everything happens at once. You must be able to stomach the nothing to unlock the everything. In other words… Before you can unlock $10k+ days, you have to stomach $0 days (for a while).

19. Learn the fundamentals, but follow no rules. Your biggest breakthroughs will come from a deep understanding of the fundamentals + market + keeping a beginners mind.

20. If you’re not generating the results you desire (output), it’s usually due to at least one of the following problems: process problem (you’re using the wrong process/system), time problem (you haven’t put in enough reps), skill problem (the skills you’ve leveraging to employ x process are not good enough). Find where the problem lies and fix it.

21. People love you when you’re making less money than them. People resent you when you’re making more money than them. It is what it is. Don’t get lost in ego-battles.

22. Favors are the true currency of the rich. An IOU from the right person is more powerful than $$$ (sometimes).

23. Don’t break trust for money. This is ironically how you end up with the most amount of money overtime.

24. Aim to complete the first draft of your sales letter as quickly as possible. Once the draft is done, then the real work begins.

25. BIG 3 markets → growing niche → specific avatar inside growing niche to service is how you find winning targets. USP, BIG IDEA, BIG PROBLEM, BIG PROMISE, PROBLEM MECHANISM, PROOF is how you cook up winning marketing. Swiping (not copying) a winning structure for a funnel that is already printing is how you come up with a winning funnel.

26. Know your numbers and stay on top of financials (i.e. profit/loss, cash flow, sales tax, etc.). Paying back taxes for sales taxes is a beeeeeeetch.

27. If you make a bunch of money while young, you’ll probably have an existential crisis that either leads you to darkness (drugs/alcohol) or the light (God/spirituality).

28. The tighter your hold on money, the less you make. The looser your hold on money, the less you keep. Meaning the skill it takes to make money is not the same skill needed to save/grow money. Know when to put your foot on the gas. Know when to put your foot on the brake.

29. Everyone will have an opinion on your ads. Nobody’s opinion really matters besides the markets.

30. The best products come from problems you solved in your own life and then turned around and created a mass-scale solution for.

31. Accountability + feedback > information.

32. The best use of $1000 is probably spy-tools, a couple DR books, and data/experience you buy from testing.

33. Mindset blocks –> Execution blocks –> Skill blocks –> Business blocks (address in this order)

34. How you do one thing is how you do everything. If you have a messy room, you probably have messy finances too.

35. More offers are NOT the answer. Resist the urge to get lost in the create/launch model. Perfect one offer, funnel, traffic source.

36. Your insecurities give you the juice to put in the work that takes you to the top of the world. But once you get there, work on clearing your insecurities or else they’ll eat you alive.

37. Become a student of the game. Study ads, study funnels, study offers, study landers, study emails, study it all. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly. Reverse engineer the “why” behind the success of the campaign. More you study, the more you start building your pattern recognition skills.

38. The best marketing isn’t perceived as marketing.

39. Always set aside money for taxes & refunds.

40. Know when you’ve outgrown your to-do list.

41. The market moves fast (new platforms, new strategies, new tactics), but human nature moves slow (what worked a hundred years ago is likely to work today in some fashion).

42. A copywriter is a copy-writer. 50% copier of the structure behind winning promos/funnels/offers and 50% writer (creator and communicator of elements: USP, BIG IDEA, BIG PROBLEM, BIG PROMISE, PROOF). Become good at both.

That’s all for now.

I got a bunch more flowing through my brain, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much.

So we’ll wrap it up here. I hope a point or two is helpful on your journey.

Thanks for reading!

Your friend,

/tej

P.S. A lot more “in-depth” biz content to come. Some beginner friendly. Some advanced friendly.