Author: Derek Johanson

If you want to build a course – your first course or your next – I recommend you create an Email Delivered Course. Especially if you’re a relatively busy person who doesn’t want to spend months making a course you’re not sure people even want… Email Delivered Courses are a game changer. I’ve been selling…

All this week I’ve been talking about how and why you should create an "emailed delivered course", especially if you’re a solopreneur looking to climb into 6 figures with your first course (or if you want to add courses to your roster and climb towards 7 figures). Why are email delivered courses especially for the…

Most solopreneurs trying to launch a course and/or start their business approach things the hard way. It’s understandable because no one teaches this stuff. But I’m here to tell you that there’s a far better, easier and more profitable way to build a course – and that’s by launching an "email delivered course". Beyond the…

Yesterday I introduced you to "Email Delivered Courses" and talked about why they’re the easiest, fastest and best way to start building a course that you can sell starting immediately. If you’ve been wanting to build a new course or start your own solopreneur business – Email Delivered Courses are exactly how I’d do it…

It’s 2012 and it’s 2 o’clock in the morning. I’m lying on sweat-drenched sheets in bed staring at the ceiling. I can’t sleep because I’m worried about bills, again. A few months earlier my friend and business partner siphoned off cash from our business bank account to pay down a DUI. I somehow survived that…

I screwed up yesterday. In my email about “selling dollars at a discount” I wrote a line illustrating that concept that could definitely be considered an unsubstantiated income claim. One of my subscribers immediately replied to warn me about the issue. Obviously, it’s not my intention to teach you how to write non-compliant copy. What…

This week, we’re going over some of my favorite and most profitable online sales and marketing strategies. These are techniques I’ve learned and implemented from well-known marketing personalities (or “gurus” if you prefer) over the past 16 years. At a high level, these are the strategies that have made me the most money with the…

This week, we’re going over some of my favorite and most profitable online sales and marketing strategies. These are techniques I’ve learned and implemented from well-known marketing personalities (or “gurus” if you prefer) over the past 16 years. At a high level, these are the strategies that have made me the most money with the…

I made my first sale of a digital product (as an affiliate) in 2008… which for those keeping track is 16 years ago! And in those 16 years, I’ve sold just about everything from cheap physical beauty products priced at $7, up to high-ticket digital info products and services costing tens of thousands of dollars.…

These past 2 weeks I’ve been talking about the high-level strategies I’ve used to double my productivity and crush my procrastination. 2024 has been an incredible year for me as a result. As I’ve said before, I’ve probably read just about every single major book there is to read on the topic of productivity. And…

All this week I’ve been talking about some small tweaks I’ve made that have 10x-ed my productivity and killed a lot of procrastination that I previously experienced. It’s no surprise that 2024 has seen all-time highs in revenue because of these changes. Yesterday I talked about how important it was for me to first figure…

I used to struggle mightily with procrastination and productivity (and I still do at times of course). I am no expert on this topic, but if there’s a productivity hack you’ve read out there, I’ve probably tried it. I’ve read countless books and reports and taken several courses. The problem has always been that productivity…

For the past week I’ve been talking about how solving my issues with procrastination and productivity has led to all-time highs in revenue in 2024. These are major issues for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs at all levels of the game – and many of you have expressed that procrastination and productivity are your two biggest problems…

One late night long ago, I got up out of a warm bed, sat down at my little Ikea desk, and typed out an entire sales letter from start to finish. That sales letter was the original CopyHour sales letter – and it went on to make me millions of dollars over its run. Until…

This week I shared a few productivity tricks I’ve implemented this past year that have helped me reach all-time highs in revenue. Productivity means moving fast while you’re working and outputting more “stuff” (whatever that might be for you), that makes you more money. Today I wanted to share one last thing I do that…

This week we’re going over a few productivity tricks I’ve implemented this past year that have helped me reach all-time highs in revenue. Productivity, in my book, means moving fast while you’re working (and outputting more “stuff”, whatever that might be, that makes you more money). Next week we’ll talk about how to kill procrastination…

This week we’re going over a few productivity tricks I’ve implemented this past year that have helped me reach all-time highs in revenue. Despite having lots of free time to work, I’ve struggled for most of my adult life to be efficient with my work hours. I still don’t produce as much as I want,…

If you want to make more money in your business you need… more. Either more output and volume (more emails, sales letters, products, ads) or more quality in whatever you output. There’s no way around it. "More" requires that you’re "productive" when you’re working – that you produce a lot. So the faster you can…

**When I sent out a 30-second survey to my email list a month ago I got some surprising results. A huge percentage of people claimed that their biggest business-related issue was procrastination, productivity and focus. A lot of folks have very limited time to work on their online business – and an equal percentage felt…

I used to be terrible at writing the first couple lines of a story… Like, literally, the very first sentence of a story would always frustrate the hell out of me. That is, until I stumbled upon the Primal Opening Framework. This framework is behind the most famous opening story for a sales message –…

During last April’s launch of CopyHour, I was searching for a story about a solopreneur who had used CopyHour to help build a 6- or 7-figure business. I’m not trying to brag when I say that I have plenty of examples, but I wanted a really good story, and preferably one from a female entrepreneur.…

During last April’s launch of CopyHour, I was searching for a story about a solopreneur who had used CopyHour to help build a 6- or 7-figure business. I’m not trying to brag when I say that I have plenty of examples, but I wanted a really good story, and preferably one from a female entrepreneur.…

Most marketers and copywriters will tell you that you HAVE to use stories in your copy. Yet, no one has probably explained to you that there are 2 very different types of stories: Stories that help make a sale. Stories that entertain (and can sometimes grow an audience). If you’ve struggled to come up with…

Most marketers and copywriters will tell you that you HAVE to use stories in your copy. Yet, no one has probably explained to you that there are 2 very different types of stories: Stories that help make a sale. Stories that entertain (and can sometimes grow an audience). If you’ve struggled to come up with…

If you’ve been struggling to come up with stories that pop off the page and ultimately generate sales, then chances are you’re simply not using the "correct" types of stories. What I mean is: stories that help generate sales and revenue are constructed differently than any regular story you might tell in your marketing. It…

If you’ve been struggling to come up with stories that pop off the page and ultimately generate sales, then chances are you’re simply not using the "correct" types of stories. What I mean is: stories that help generate sales and revenue are constructed differently than any regular story you might tell in your marketing. It…

In 2023 I started experimenting with storytelling in my CopyHour emails and made a giant rookie mistake in the process: I told stories that were fun or entertaining but didn’t sell. Quick backstory: I’d sold CopyHour Inc (the business) in late 2022 to someone who is a close friend, business partner, and former CopyHour student.…

In 2023 I started experimenting with storytelling in my CopyHour emails and made a giant rookie mistake in the process: I told stories that were fun or entertaining but didn’t sell. Quick backstory: I’d sold CopyHour Inc (the business) in late 2022 to someone who is a close friend, business partner, and former CopyHour student.…

Here’s your reminder that Email CopyHour closes tonight at 11:59PM PT. That’s about 3 hours from now so time is quickly running out. I want this to be an easy "yes" decision for you. The purpose of this course is simple: Give you the 50 most common (and most profitable) email formulas used by the…

When it comes to email marketing, there are so many different approaches you can take… Purposes of each email… Times and days to send the emails… The options are overwhelming. When things are overwhelming we need to take a giant step back and use a simple heuristic like, "I send 5 emails a week." It…

The other morning I screwed up really bad and slept in until… 6:30am… when my youngest son woke up. I’ve been trying to wake up at 5am but obviously failed and deep shame was felt. But luckily, at approximately 6:32am, I made a coffee and all was forgiven. At 7:00am my oldest son woke up…

There are a lot of email copywriting courses on the market right now (in fact, several former CopyHour members have their own courses on the topic). So I wanted to take a moment to answer this common question: "How is Email CopyHour different than XYZ Email Course?"— A lot of people have actually asked me…

I’m in a unique position where I help train new copywriters, I’m friends with a lot of established copywriters, and I own a business. So I want to break down for you what the economics of writing email copy look like in 2024 (for both freelancers and established business owners writing their own copy). A…

**This is Derek. Today is the last day to purchase Ning Li’s flagship course "Zero to $5K" for 50% off as part of his retirement sale. Let me just say a couple things about Ning and this promotion: Ning is the copy chief at Paleohacks (which is a huge direct response company that sells paleo…

**Thanks for expressing your interest in freelance copywriting and Ning Li’s special "Retirement Sale". Tonight, Friday, October 18th at 9pm PST is your final chance to get Ning’s flagship course, "Zero to $5K" for 50% off. Click here to read the sales page (the discount has been automatically applied). Here’s an email written by Ning…

The most common question I get about Email CopyHour is… "Is it right for me?" So let me quickly share exactly who I designed the course for. Group #1: Freelance Copywriters If you’re a freelancer or you want to start freelancing, then Email CopyHour will teach you one of the most valuable types of copywriting…

Thanks for expressing your interest in freelance copywriting and Ning Li’s special "Retirement Sale". From now until Friday, October 18th you can get Ning’s flagship course, "Zero to $5K" for 50% off. Click here to read the sales page (the discount has been automatically applied). Here’s an email written by Ning about the program… +++++…

Yesterday I shared 3 easy-to-write formulas for sending daily emails capable of growing a 7- or 8-figure business. Those formulas make up just 3 of 50 that you’ll find in my email copywriting course Email CopyHour. Email CopyHour If you want to master email copywriting then I’m confident saying that Email CopyHour will be an…

In this email I’ll show you the 3 easiest and fastest daily email formulas you can use and then just repeat, repeat, repeat. Before we start here’s a common question: “Don’t people get sick of emails if they follow the same formula?” If you copy and paste the same exact wording into every email, then…

Thanks for expressing your interest in freelance copywriting and Ning Li’s special “Retirement Sale”. From now until Friday, October 18th you can get Ning’s flagship course, “Zero to $5K” for 50% off. Click here to read the sales page (the discount has been automatically applied). Here’s an email written by Ning about the program… +++++…

Yesterday I talked about the first $1mm+ per year solopreneur business owner I ever met. The solopreneur I’m talking about had 2 online courses teaching executives at Fortune 500 companies how to send cold email. He was driving traffic with joint venture partnerships (aka affiliates). He had a landing page to collect email addresses. His…

Thanks for expressing your interest in freelance copywriting and Ning Li’s special "Retirement Sale". From now until Friday, October 18th you can get Ning’s flagship course, "Zero to $5K" for 50% off. Click here to read the sales page (the discount has been automatically applied). Here’s an email written by Ning about the program… +++++…

I spent the early 2010’s building simple businesses. I wanted a setup that was just me, my laptop, and a six figure income. Looking back, it was a struggle. I overcomplicated everything. You know the meme, this has been my trajectory: I started out simple and achieved my goal… but then I wanted more. I…

Thanks for expressing your interest in freelance copywriting and Ning Li’s special "Retirement Sale". From now until Friday, October 18th you can get Ning’s flagship course, "Zero to $5K" for 50% off. Click here to read the sales page (the discount has been automatically applied). Here’s an email written by Ning about the program… +++++…

This week we’re going over why and how I’m "buying" Ning Li’s copywriting coaching & courses business. Ning is/was one of the biggest and best copywriting coaches in the business. So when he announced his retirement and said that he was going to simply delete all of his copywriting courses and email list I reached…

Thanks for expressing your interest in freelance copywriting and Ning Li’s special “Retirement Sale”. From now until Friday, October 18th you can get Ning’s flagship course, “Zero to $5K” for 50% off. Click here to read the sales page (the discount has been automatically applied). Here’s an email written by Ning about the program… +++++…

Thanks for expressing your interest in freelance copywriting and Ning Li’s special "Retirement Sale". Let me be very direct about what’s happening and what you can expect between now and next Friday, October 18th (when the sale ends): Since you "raised your hand" and said so, I’m going to assume you want to become a…

This week we’re going over why and how I’m "buying" Ning Li’s copywriting coaching & courses business. Ning is/was one of the biggest and best copywriting coaches in the business. So when he announced his retirement and said that he was going to simply delete all of this copywriting courses and email list I reached…

This week we’re going over why and how I’m "buying" Ning Li’s copywriting coaching & course business. Ning has decided to retire from the copywriting world and instead of closing his business down and deleting all his products and email list, we decided that I’d take over instead. My hope is that you get some…

A few weeks ago my good friend Ning Li announced that he was retiring from coaching copywriting & creating courses to focus solely on growing another business he’s involved with, PaleoHacks. This news sent a bit of a shockwave through the tight-knit copywriting community because Ning is a very well-known and highly-respected coach. Originally, Ning…

For the past week and a half I’ve been talking about my unique form of surveys, called "30-Second Surveys". If you’re struggling in any way to get a business off the ground (or get more money out of an existing business)… These 30-Second Surveys will turn everything around for you. I can just about guarantee…

I’ll be honest with you – I don’t have a perfect "step-by-step process" for taking survey feedback and writing sales copy with it. I’d like to say that I do, but it’s partially an art-form and every product and sales page is different. The structure of my sales letters are similar these days (which I’ll…

It might sound like hyperbole, but it’s true—a well-run survey will give you all the ammunition you need to build products your list desperately wants to buy, and to write the copy that sells them. In this email I’m going to show you how I use 30-Second Survey responses to come up with course ideas…

In today’s email I want to talk some more about how I use information from my 30 Second Surveys to figure out what products to build or promote to my email list. Again, 30 Second Surveys are game-changers for most businesses because they’re good at helping you identify what problems the BUYERS on your list…

I ended last week’s series of emails talking about how I decide what products to sell to my list. As you learned, the first step in the process is sending out one of my best secret weapons – the "30 Second Survey". I’ve used these unique surveys in my business for years. Whenever I’m tasked…

NOTE: If you’re a brand new customer of mine – I send out a new tutorial every week about running a solopreneur business and copywriting. There’s nothing for sale this week. — Today I’m going to pull back the curtains on my business to a slightly uncomfortable (for me) degree. This week I’ve been showing…

NOTE: If you’re a brand new customer of mine – I send out a new tutorial every week about running a solopreneur business and copywriting. There’s nothing for sale this week. — This week I’m showing you one of my best secret weapons: The 30 Second Survey. Like I mentioned yesterday, the entire purpose of…

NOTE: If you’re a brand new customer of mine – I send out a new tutorial every week about running a solopreneur business and copywriting. There’s nothing for sale this week. — Yesterday I told you that the first thing I do with any business struggling to get off the ground… or to get more…

NOTE: If you’re a new customer of mine – I send out a new tutorial every week about running a solopreneur business and copywriting. There’s nothing for sale this week. — About a month ago I launched Email Delivered Courses and did $80k+ in sales. Which isn’t too shabby considering I pre-sold the course before…

Here’s my final email about Ian Stanley’s List Snowball method before we’ll go back to our regularly scheduled email programming tomorrow. The reason I’ve been pushing this course is because I believe it’s exactly what you need if you want to learn how to build and grow a 6- or 7-figure email list (and especially…

Earlier this year, I ran a small X ads experiment, but I made a mistake. I directed ads straight to a sales page instead of driving traffic to an opt-in page to build my email list in the process. What ended up happening was this: I spent $400 to make $1032 (2.5x ROAS). Sounds great,…

This week we’ve been talking about building and growing 6- and 7-figure email-list-driven businesses. Today’s email will be a short quickstart guide on how to build a new email list, or how to scale up and add more email list subscribers consistently if you’re already established. Here’s the ideal funnel for building email lists. Now…

If you missed the webinar training I did with Ian Stanley on "How To Grow Your Email List With The List Snowball Method" you can watch the replay right here: >>> Watch the replay now Ian is a damn good standup comedian so his webinars are always a blast to watch. The part where he…

If starting and growing a 6- or 7-figure email-list-driven business is something you know you’d like to do, then I think you should join Ian Stanley’s List Snowball Method course (by this Sunday evening). Why? First and foremost, it comes down to control. The List Snowball Method allows you to take full control of your…

Wild things start to happen to a business when you begin growing towards 100 leads per day. Everything "feels" easier and plateaus in revenue seem to melt away. I’ve noticed the shift dozens of times with my business, businesses I’ve worked with, my friends’ businesses and students’ businesses in all different kinds of industries like…

This week I’m sharing a series of emails I’m calling the “Beginner’s Guide to Growing an Email List”. I’ll walk you through how to start and grow an email list from scratch. If you’ve been wanting to build your own online business as a solopreneur, but haven’t been quite sure exactly what your first steps…

When you own an email list, you have the simplest high-margin business known to man. This week I’m walking you through a series of emails I’m calling the "Beginner’s Guide to Growing An Email List". If you’ve been wanting to get started building your own online business as a solopreneur, but haven’t been quite sure…

The first business I sold was a strange one. In fact, most people wouldn’t even consider it a "real" business. I know my parents didn’t at the time. And, the guy that bought the business was forced to close down the main product being sold just a couple months after he bought it from me.…

All this week we’ve been going over my 4-step plan for what I’d do if I had to start completely over from zero in business… and what I’ve really been showing you is how I’d build towards ~$8k/month (6 figures). So far we’ve covered… Step 0: Start with the end in mind (Timeline: Do this…

This week we’re going over my 4-step plan for what I’d do if I had to start completely over from scratch in business. I’m pretending that I have a full-time job with only 1-2 hours to work on business each day and that I have little-to-no startup money to invest. My business contacts have disappeared…

This week we’re going over my 4-part plan for what I’d do if I had to start completely over from scratch in business. I’m pretending that I have a full-time job with only 1-2 hours to work on business each day and that I have little-to-no startup money to invest. My business contacts have disappeared…

This week we’re going over my 4-part plan for what I’d do if I had to start completely over from scratch in business. I’m pretending that I have a full-time job with only 1-2 hours to work on business each day and that I have little-to-no startup money to invest. My business contacts have disappeared…

This week we’re going over my 4-step plan for what I’d do if I had to start completely over from scratch in business. I’m pretending that I have a full-time job with only 1-2 hours to work on business each day and that I have little-to-no startup money to invest. My business contacts have disappeared…

"What would you do if you were starting over today from scratch?" This is one of the most common questions I get from new soloprenuers and freelancers and it’s a good one. People want to know what I’d do if I was starting over in business and had: A full-time day job with minimal spare…

All this week I’ve been talking about how I write email subject lines that get opens, clicks and generate sales. If you’re an entrepreneur – if you’ve been reading my emails for any length of time, you already know you should be selling via email – that’s where your real money is going to come…

Yesterday I introduced you to the Salience Network and the 6 different types of stimuli that capture the attention of our brains and get people to open emails. I said I was going to share nothing but subject line examples and formulas so let’s get to it. Remember that our brains give attention to 6…

If you’re someone who has achieved "inbox zero", you should know that you represent like .001% of the population. You are an anomaly. Right now I have 24,846 unopened emails in my inbox. This morning alone (it’s 10am now), I’ve received 32 emails that I won’t ever open. Awhile back I got so frustrated with…

Many, many years ago (more than a decade at this point) I bought a simple course from a guy named Peter Spaepen. (Unfortunately he passed away unexpectedly a few years ago – RIP.) It was delivered entirely over email, one day at a time over about 50 days, and detailed "advanced" email/marketing strategies he used…

When you’re writing a sales letter, one of the most critical pieces (if not the most critical piece) is your headline. Bad headline = no intrigue = no one reads more = you sell very little. Some of the world’s best copywriters have claimed to spend 10x longer on their headlines alone than the rest…

I’ve been slapped in the face with countless unintuitive business lessons over the years. I’ve also coached a number of newer copywriters & digital business owners and seen them make the same mistakes I did. It’s almost universal. I feel like it’s safe to say that whatever a beginner thinks is intuitive, is likely the…

It was about 12 years ago that I made the connection that copy is the lifeblood behind the most successful businesses in the world… And that if I wanted to build successful businesses, I’d have to be pretty damn good at writing copy myself. I still believe that’s true. But my definition of "damn good"…

This week I’m sharing unintuitive business lessons young Derek would have rejected as bull@#%! – but that 2024 Derek swears by for building businesses and writing copy that sells products like crazy. And for the past 10+ years I’ve been selling what many consider to be the best course for learning how to write six…

When I first started writing copy long ago, I’d always get stuck when it came time to ask people to buy from me. Asking people to give me money was so. Freaking. Hard. Why? I was convinced no one actually wanted to buy anything ever – and the only way people ever did buy things…

"This is going to be SOOOO easy." That’s what I was thinking when I read The Four Hour Work Week 15+ years ago and committed myself to building online businesses. Everything seemed so easy and straightforward. You get an idea for a digital course You make that course You then retire to a mansion on…

This week we’re going over a checklist of what not to do/say/think when starting a new business or creating a new product. I’m calling it The "I’m Doing Everything Wrong" Checklist. This checklist was inspired by a 10 minute conversation a close friend (and world class marketing consultant) had with a friend-of-a-friend – and could…

This week we’re going over a checklist of what not to do/say/think when starting a new business or creating a new product. I’m calling it The "I’m Doing Everything Wrong" Checklist. This checklist was inspired by a 10 minute conversation a close friend (and world class marketing consultant) had with a friend-of-a-friend – and could…

This week we’re going over a checklist of what not to do/say/think when starting a new business or creating a new product. I’m calling it The "I’m Doing Everything Wrong" Checklist. This checklist was inspired by a 10 minute conversation a close friend (and world class marketing consultant) had with a friend-of-a-friend – and could…

This week we’re going over a checklist of what not to do/say/think when starting a new business or creating a new product. I’m calling it The "I’m Doing Everything Wrong" Checklist. This checklist was inspired by a 10 minute conversation a close friend (and world class marketing consultant) had with a friend-of-a-friend – and could…

I got lunch recently with a good friend who’s a marketing consultant – he helps business owners come up with new profitable info product ideas, then creates full funnels (sales pages & email sequences) for them to sell those products. He’s very good at what he does – and charges a lot for his services.…

NOTE: If you’re a brand new customer of mine – I send out a new tutorial every week about running a solopreneur business and copywriting. There’s nothing for sale this week. This week we’re talking all about simple pricing hacks that, if you implement in your business, will lead you to make a LOT more…

NOTE: If you’re a brand new customer of mine – I send out a new tutorial every week about running a solopreneur business and copywriting. There’s nothing for sale this week. This week we’re talking all about simple pricing hacks that, if you implement in your business, will lead you to make a LOT more…

NOTE: If you’re a brand new customer of mine – I send out a new tutorial every week about running a solopreneur business and copywriting. There’s nothing for sale this week. This week we’re talking all about simple pricing hacks that, if you implement in your business, will lead you to make a LOT more…

NOTE: If you’re a brand new customer of mine – I send out a new tutorial every week about running a solopreneur business and copywriting. There will be nothing for sale this week. I just have some good-will content to share. This week I’m talking all about rapid-fire pricing hacks that will make you a…

NOTE: If you’re a brand new customer of mine – I send out a new tutorial every week about running a solopreneur business and copywriting. There will be nothing for sale this week. I just have some good-will content to share. This week I want to give you five rapid fire hacks for making more…

This is the last call and your final reminder that Email Delivered Courses closes in 1 hour at 11:59PM PDT. (The email barrage will end with this one.) Let me say this one final thing: Email Delivered Courses will be a course you actually use and implement. This is not a course you’ll put up…

I still remember my first time… Creating an Email Delivered Course. It was CopyHour over 12 years ago and there was a unique energy to that first group that is a little hard to describe. The energy partly comes from what I’ll show you how to do in Email Delivered Courses and that’s getting live…

I have a confession to make. I first started making/selling my own digital courses in 2009 – and to this day, it’s really, really, really hard for me to sit down and actually make new courses. I know some people who are able to just pump out course after course after course like it’s nothing.…

There are some decisions in life that require a Ready, Aim, Fire approach. You probably overestimate how many. MOST decisions in life should be done with a DO IT LIVE approach – *Ready, Fire, Aim. Here’s the simple way I decide which strategy is best for a given scenario: *Use Ready, Fire, Aim* (DO IT…

During this launch of Email Delivered Courses (that you’re witnessing right now, in real-time) I did something radical. Under 12 hours after launching, I updated the headline of my sales letter and took an entirely different angle. Why? Well, first, let me stress that you don’t need a sales page for your first launch of…

Today I want to share a story that’s a decade old – it’s about a young man named Ian Stanley and how he built his first Email Delivered Course and sold it to MY email list BEFORE we were great friends (and how he had his first $1000/day as an entrepreneur). If you’ve been on…

The solopreneur business owners I know who are really crushing it – $500k+ personal incomes – have an email list full of customers that love them and/or their products. LOVE them. Not just like them. (Note: You can make a lot of money as a shady person with terrible products, but that sucks and I…

You’ve known for a while now that you need to create a course of some kind. If you do, you’ll have an asset that makes money for you while you sleep – and you’ll be on the path to creating the kind of business (and life) you’ve always wanted. Even better if you make multiple…

Earlier this year I was emailing back and forth with a student who’s built his business to $500k+/year in revenue relatively quickly. And $500k revenue is nothing to scoff at in his case (or any case) because he’s a solopreneur with no team and over 90% margins. He creates digital courses (in a non-make-money niche)…

If you want to build a course – your first course or your next – I recommend you create an Email Delivered Course. Especially if you’re a relatively busy person who doesn’t want to spend months making a course you’re not sure people even want… Email Delivered Courses are a game changer. I’ve been selling…

All this week I’ve been talking about how and why you should create an "emailed delivered course", especially if you’re a solopreneur looking to climb into 6 figures with your first course (or if you want to add courses to your roster and climb towards 7 figures). Why are email delivered courses especially for the…

Most solopreneurs trying to launch a course and/or start their business approach things the hard way. It’s understandable because no one teaches this stuff. But I’m here to tell you that there’s a far better, easier and more profitable way to build a course – and that’s by launching an "email delivered course". Beyond the…

Yesterday I introduced you to "email delivered courses" and talked about why they’re the easiest, fastest and best way to start building a course that you can sell starting immediately. If you’ve been wanting to build a new course or start your own solopreneur business – "email delivered courses" are exactly how I’d do it…

It’s 2012 and it’s 3 o’clock in the morning. I’m lying on sweat-drenched sheets in bed staring at the ceiling. I can’t sleep because I’m worried about bills, again. A few months earlier my friend and business partner siphoned off cash from our business bank account to pay down a DUI. I somehow survived that…

All this week I’ve written about what to do if you’re feeling stuck at a certain income level (either as a freelancer or a solopreneur). Most people just kind of hope and pray that their income will raise over the years without being proactive and developing a plan to make it happen. Here’s the whole…

If you’ve been feeling stuck at a certain income level in your business (maybe even at zero) and you look around at others that don’t seem as talented, or smart or hard working as you… Yet they seem to be getting ahead while you flatline… Then know that there’s wrong or broken with you. The…

Most people think that "copywriting" is a career. It’s not. "Copywriting" should not be viewed as a great career choice. Instead, "copywriting" should be viewed as one of the highest income producing skills that’s available for anybody to learn. One of the main reasons that I decided to do this short series on using the…

You’ve probably heard an entrepreneur or business coach say something like, "To start a successful business, find a problem and solve it." Well, that’s true – and the same is true if you want to boost your personal income from a business you own, freelance for, or are employed by. "To boost your personal income,…

This week I’ll cover a topic that’s slightly different – I’m going to talk about how to raise your personal income. What makes this different is that I won’t be showing you how to boost a business’ revenue. I’ll write about how to make YOU more valuable to a business – whether that’s a client’s…

Listen, humans are weird. We can know that something is perfect for us… and exactly what we need… and exactly what will solve all our problems… but we’ll sit on it for months or even years, hemming and hawing, wondering if we should really spend our money on it. You’ve done it. I’ve done it.…

You know all those super-successful entrepreneurs that you see crushing it online? Their sales letters are getting about a 1%-4% conversion rate (almost always on the lower end). In other words, those sales letters that are making them bundles and giving them the dream life have a 96%-99.5% rejection rate. Most people who land on…

Imagine you have a friend trying to set you up on a blind date. (For this example let’s assume you’re a dude who’s into women.) And let’s say you’ve been set up on some bad blind dates before. You put work into yourself and you’re a total catch – but for some reason every blind…

Let’s say you’re in a super crowded space. There are hundreds of people. Tons of chatter and ambient noise. Everyone rushing around in their own little world. And you’re given a challenge: grab the attention of one specific person in that crowd. They don’t know you. You don’t know them. You’re just allowed one piece…

To recap from yesterday: this week I’m going to be using The 7 Figure Sales Writing Framework (the same framework I use to teach inside CopyHour) to write a sales letter in front of you step-by-step. But before I can get started on the first element of the framework… We need to actually understand our…

When I first started digging into the handwriting exercise behind CopyHour (handwriting "proven" seven, eight, and nine figure sales letters in order to hard-wire their language & cadence into my brain) more than a decade ago, I discovered something strange… Nearly every single one of those sales letters followed the exact same patterns. It didn’t…

That’s a subject line you won’t see very often. I’ll just straight up say it: I love the thrill of buying new courses! But only because I’m now buying them systematically instead of haphazardly (Shiny Object Syndrome) like before. Have you ever heard a marketer (probably a copywriter) say, "I took just one nugget from…

If you’ve been struggling to get your solopreneur business off the ground. Or to grow a business from 5 to 6 figures and then from 6 to 7 figures… then I can almost guarantee that a lack of narrow depth and focus (aka Shiny Object Syndrome) is at the heart of your problem. To cure…

This week I’ve been talking about curing Shiny Object Syndrome: How to stop endlessly jumping from idea to idea. Really, what we’re talking about is how to simplify and focus on the core things that grow a business from 5 to 6 figures and then 6 to 7 figures. Like I said yesterday, when you…

If you can kill Shiny Object Syndrome you can easily 2x a business (or 10x or even 100x a business if you’re just starting out). Why am I confident in saying this? Well, think about what it means to have Shiny Object Syndrome. It means you can’t help but bounce from course to course, idea…

I got scammed on the first online business course I ever purchased. It was an over-the-shoulder-style course on starting an affiliate marketing blog (I cringe looking back) and the course creator delivered half the content before bailing with the excuse that his mom was sick. He never came back and he never finished the product.…

Yesterday we talked about pricing… specifically premium pricing. I walked you through the mindset of someone who buys premium products – and why they buy at prices that up to 99% of people think is absurd. But there’s one major piece of pricing psychology that I didn’t have room to get into that is especially…

Today I want to talk to you about the psychology of pricing. Specifically the psychology of selling products for PREMIUM prices. I love this subject so much. And I want to open with a question for you: Do you struggle with selling things at more "premium" prices? Do you feel like you’re asking too high…

Yesterday I talked about how my friend inadvertently changed his hard-wired, limiting, self-sabotaging money beliefs – and suddenly unlocked copywriting superpowers. I mean $0 to $400k in six months superpowers – with that number growing exponentially every month. (If you didn’t read my email from yesterday, hunt through your inbox and find it. It’s powerful.…

Yesterday I described to you my friend who wrote copy for 6 years (and struggled pretty badly – never making more than $70k/yr while working 50+ hours/week)… burnt out and left the copy world altogether for another 6 years (and saw massive success pivoting into software development)… then recently left tech, went back to copy,…

This week I want to challenge you a bit. All week I’ll be writing to anyone who’s been in the copy game for a bit (for themselves or for other companies), and has developed decent writing chops, but still finds themselves struggling to be comfortable selling products to other people – and making the money…

**It’s Father’s Day today so I imagine many of you were out and about and away from a computer. Speaking of, Happy Father’s Day! Here’s your reminder that Email CopyHour closes tonight at 11:59PM PT.** That’s about 4 hours from now so time is quickly running out. I want this to be an easy "yes"…

There are a lot of email copywriting courses on the market right now (in fact, several former CopyHour members have their own courses on the topic). So I wanted to take a moment to answer this common question: "How is Email CopyHour different than XYZ Email Course?"— A lot of people have actually asked me…

I’m in a unique position where I help train new copywriters, I’m friends with a lot of established copywriters, and I own a business. So I want to break down for you what the economics of writing email copy look like in 2024 (for both freelancers and established business owners writing their own copy). A…

The most common question I get about Email CopyHour is… "Is it right for me?" So let me quickly share exactly who I designed the course for. Group #1: Freelance Copywriters If you’re a freelancer or you want to start freelancing, then Email CopyHour will teach you one of the most valuable types of copywriting…

Yesterday I shared 3 easy-to-write formulas for sending daily emails capable of growing a 7 or 8 figure business. Those formulas make up just 3 of 50 that you’ll find in my email copywriting course Email CopyHour. Email CopyHour If you want to master email copywriting then I’m confident saying that Email CopyHour will be…

There’s a famous interview of basketball legend Kobe Bryant where he says that at 11 years old he didn’t score a single basket. But the next year he was the best kid on his team and then, of course, he was drafted to the NBA right out of high school at 18 years old. What…

Yesterday I left you on a cliffhanger, wondering "What’s the ‘secret’ marketing method of a solopreneur business owner doing $1mm+ per year?" This marketing method isn’t anything mysterious or magical as you’ll see. But before I get to the specifics, let me show you the overall business model which was ultra simple. (The solopreneur I’m…

I spent the early 2010’s building simple businesses. I wanted a setup that was just me, my laptop, and a six figure income. Looking back, it was a struggle. I overcomplicated everything. You know the meme, this has been my trajectory: I started out simple and achieved my goal… but then I wanted more. I…

I want to wrap up this tutorial on Leads by doing a 60 second landing page "rewrite". As you’ll see, this is more like a refresh than a rewrite. My hope is that you’ll get excited by how easy it is to write a Lead (Headline, Subheadline, and Intro Body Text) and implement the concepts…

Want to hear a scary story? Imagine this: it’s time to write a sales page for a course. You’re staring at a blank screen. And… scene! That’s the end of scariest possible story you could tell a writer. Knowing exactly how to start a sales message of any kind is one of the hardest parts.…

Did you know that the first and most profitable test that 7, 8 and 9 figure businesses will run on their sales page is a new Lead? (Reminder: The Lead is the start of the sales message – the first few hundred words that you write, including the Headline, Subheadlines, and intro Body Text.) I…

It might sound strange at first, but we’ve all been gifted by our predecessors with a structure on which to hang our copy. Meaning, all content you’ll read online and offline mostly follows a similar flow. Look at this Medium article for example: We have a Headline, Subheadline, and then Body Text. This universal format…

When I started selling online courses back in 2009 I was invited by Brad Costanzo to join his private marketing group – and I noticed something fascinating about the most successful business owners. The 7-figure small business owners who had the exact type of business I dreamed of (simple newsletters selling digital courses and affiliate…

During the April launch of CopyHour, I was searching for a story about a solopreneur who had used CopyHour to help build a six or seven figure business. I’m not trying to brag when I say that I have plenty of examples, but I wanted a really good story, and preferably one from a female…

Most marketers and copywriters will tell you that you HAVE to use stories in your copy. Yet, no one has probably explained to you that there are 2 very different types of stories: Stories that help make a sale. Stories that only entertain. If you’ve struggled to come up with stories for your copy, it’s…

If you’ve been struggling to come up with stories that pop off the page and ultimately generate sales, then chances are you’re simply not using the "correct" types of stories. What I mean is: stories that help generate sales and revenue are constructed differently than any regular story you might tell in your marketing. It…

In 2023 I started experimenting with storytelling in my CopyHour emails and made a giant rookie mistake in the process: I told stories that were fun or entertaining but didn’t sell. Quick backstory: I’d sold CopyHour Inc (the business) in late 2022 to someone who is a close friend, business partner, and former CopyHour student.…

There’s just ~1 hour left to join Weekend Launch Party and I wanted to quickly revisit something I said earlier this week: business should be easy at the start. If you find yourself pushing a rock up a hill trying to launch a business and to find people who want your offer, it’s more likely…

Most people think they need more options from the courses they buy. But all options do is create stress and analysis paralysis. I’m taking an opposite approach with the Weekend Launch Party. I’m getting rid of nearly every option and you’re just going to follow along with the process. This includes the possible topics of…

Each time I open the Weekend Launch Party I get the same questions: "Is this for freelance copywriters? Should a freelancer try to start a newsletter?" My answer is: I don’t think you can afford NOT to start building a list and newsletter as a freelancer these days. Starting a newsletter will be the best…

If you want to start a newsletter from scratch, then pay attention to what this freelance copywriter from New Jersey did. He noticed that no one was talking about "X" ads (Twitter) and how to run them. So in a weekend, he slapped together a drop-dead simple landing page and called his newsletter "Xvertising". The…

All this week I’ve been showing you how to setup a solopreneur newsletter that can eventually generate 6 or 7-figures. The drive home point has been: "just get started" because look at how fast serious money can be made: Milk Road was started and sold for an undisclosed 7-figure sum in just 10 months. The…

Starting a solopreneur newsletter business is easy, fast and profitable and today I want to further prove it to you by focusing in on a question I got: I’m trying to start a newsletter for dads. General advice on fatherhood and marriage, funny stories, relatable dad-centric content. I’ve even got the name picked out. Do…

If you’re on this list, I can say without a doubt you’re interested in starting an online business. Preferably, a low-hassle solopreneur business that can generate 6 or 7 figures without killing yourself spending hours at the keyboard each day. (Yes, even if you want to start a freelancing business… that’s still a business.) The…

One of my unique advantages is my age! Well actually, it’s the "age" in which I came into the online business the world. I started online in 2008 right after the 4-Hour Work Week came out. Which means I’m what you’d call an "OG" of the location independent scene. I’ve been around countless entrepreneurs trying…

You’ve likely heard of author James Clear and his massive #1 New York Times best-selling book "Atomic Habits". But do you know how James’s website, JamesClear.com, got started? I first the heard story from James himself, when we met through mutual friends in NYC in the summer of 2011. We even famously shared a hotel…

All this week I’ve been talking about how Big Ideas are the single biggest driver of any promotion. It’s not the headlines, or subheads, it’s not even the product offer itself. Coming up with a singular, sexy benefit that resonates with a large percentage of your audience (the Big Idea) is almost always more important…

This week I’ve been talking to you about Big Ideas. I used to think that when I wasn’t making a lot of sales that my copy was to blame. Turns out, the problem wasn’t my copy, it was that I didn’t have clearly defined Big Idea. And whenever I look at my students’ copy that’s…

If your copy is failing to take off and sell like crazy, there’s a good chance you’re not coming up with good enough Big Ideas. Big Ideas are the “engine” behind the world’s best copy. And Big Ideas are often more important than your copy itself. When you get a great Big Idea, it becomes…

Yesterday I told you that we’d be discussing how to use Big Ideas in your copy this week. There are 4 critical things you should know about Big Ideas: Big Ideas help you sell more products. Big Ideas are almost always more important than the actual copy you write. Big Ideas focus on one attractive…

When Claude Hopkins (famous copywriter) started working with Schlitz beer in the early 1900s he had a problem. College Derek could tell you the problem…. Schlitz sucks. Well, actually I’m lying. At the time, Schlitz didn’t suck quite as bad. They were fifth in the beer market, if you can believe it, but they had…

All this week I’ve been talking about how I write email subject lines that get opens, clicks and generate sales. If you’re an entrepreneur – if you’ve been reading my emails for any length of time, you already know you should be selling via email – that’s where your real money is going to come…

Yesterday I introduced you to the Salience Network and the 6 different types of stimuli that capture the attention of our brains and get people to open emails. I said I was going to share nothing but subject line examples and formulas so let’s get to it. Remember that our brains give attention to 6…

If you’re someone who has achieved "inbox zero", you should know that you represent like .001% of the population. You are an anomaly. Right now I have 24,846 unopened emails in my inbox. This morning alone (it’s 10am now), I’ve received 32 emails that I won’t ever open. Awhile back I got so frustrated with…

Many, many years ago (more than a decade at this point) I bought a simple course from a guy named Peter Spaepen. (Unfortunately he passed away unexpectedly a few years ago – RIP.) It was delivered entirely over email, one day at a time over about 50 days, and detailed "advanced" email/marketing strategies he used…

When you’re writing a sales letter, one of the most critical pieces (if not the most critical piece) is your headline. Bad headline = no intrigue = no one reads more = you sell very little. Some of the world’s best copywriters have claimed to spend 10x longer on their headlines alone than the rest…

In the last email I talked about the benefits of writing a "negative" email — aka handling an Objection — about your product. And how one Objection-style email played a part in pushing the last launch of CopyHour past $140k in sales. If you can raise an issue on a lot of your prospect’s minds,…

During my last launch of CopyHour, I sent a “negative” email that most people would be too afraid to send (but I made a whole bunch of extra money in the process). The email was “The Case Against CopyHour”. What inspired me to write this email was something Daniel Throssell said about CopyHour to one…

I recently shut down a $100k+ per year revenue stream in my business and I’ve never felt better (and I’m now making more money without it too). I’ve been doing group coaching calls for the past year, and private coaching calls for about 6 months. Together these services were doing well over $100k a year.…

As you begin your journey into copywriting, you’ll stumble across this term: dimensionalize. It’s an important concept because it can take your copy from from bad to great instantly, with minimal extra effort or difficulty. And when you dimensionalize your copy it suddenly becomes filled with personality. (If you read my email on Friday, you…