Yesterday I laid out the framework I use to build ultra-simple mid six figure digital businesses.
This framework generally works best with digital courses and coaching (my business models of choice).
And my requirements for the framework are very simple:
Requires just one person to run (me)
Makes at least mid six figures, even in "down" years
Has as little complexity to operate as possible (aka follows very simple, predictable systems)
Able to scale up easily over time
Follows processes I can repeat in other businesses
Are there other ways to build digital businesses?
Of course.
Do some perform better than mine?
Absolutely.
But are they as simple as mine?
Probably not.
I know a lot of people in the digital business space, and I know very few with any decent level of success that don’t have big teams behind them (with the payroll to go with it)…
Even though they make it seem like they work alone.
My framework probably has the best ratio of simplicity to profitability of any I’ve seen.
So what’s different about how I do things?
Well, it’s easier if I show you step by step.
Starting with the first pillar I mentioned yesterday…
Traffic.
I want to start with this because it’s actually the shortest and easiest pillar to describe.
And it’s easiest to start with a controversial statement:
I don’t use paid ads in my businesses.
In fact I’ve only ever spent around ~$3000 on paid ads in my personal businesses… total. Like, ever.
And I’ve been in this game for over 15 years.
Now that doesn’t mean I don’t believe in paid ads or haven’t used paid ads in other’s businesses.
In fact, I genuinely believe that the fastest way to grow and scale a business is by using paid ads.
But paid ads have a number of problems that don’t quite fit the "requirements" I have for running a business:
1. They require a lot of skill & upkeep. Many people I know successfully running paid ads have a full-time ads person on their team. In other words, being good at paid ads is a nuanced skill the same way writing copy or designing web pages is. It’s not something you just hurr-durr and make a killing at. It’s full-time.
2. One misstep and you’re screwed. When you get paid ads locked in – it’s awesome. But when you lose a lot of money on paid ads, it’s tough if your brain is risk-averse (like mine). And you will lose a lot of money in the beginning, especially if you haven’t practiced running paid ads a lot already.
3. They very, very rarely are better than break-even on the frontend. What this means is most businesses don’t expect to make money on their ads – in fact, many lose money. They make up for it by having very sophisticated backends with tons of offers. This adds a LOT of complexity to their businesses.
Tl;dr: running paid ads is expensive and complicated to do right.
Now when you’ve got it all dialed in…
I believe paid ads are the easiest way to build a multi seven figure business.
But like I said, I want things as simple as possible.
Not just for any arbitrary reason though.
It’s because that’s what my brain and temperament require.
If I have to manage teams of people, and worry about spending thousands of dollars with the possibility of getting none of it back, and constantly be tweaking ad funnels…
I literally would not sleep at night.
I’d be a frazzled shell of a human.
I’ve just accepted that about myself.
So what do I lean on for traffic instead?
My preferred traffic sources
Source #1: Affiliates
Plain and simple, I’ve found that hitting the mid six figure range is fairly straight forward in just about any course-driven or email-based business in about any niche when you lean heavily on affiliate traffic.
All this means is I find people with lists in my industry and send them a short email like this:
"Hey [Name], I’ve got a product that’s converting really well with [specific audience]. My last three affiliates averaged [$X] per email sent. Would you be interested in promoting it to your list? I pay [X%] commissions."
They promote my product to their list, I get some of their best customers in return, and I pay out 50% commissions no matter the product I’m selling.
What this means is there’s:
- Zero upfront cost (I’m making money on every frontend sale… often very, very good money)
- Pre-qualified traffic (buyers come from someone they already trust and who are more primed to buy)
- Built-in social proof (someone else is vouching for you)
- Predictable ROI (if I know roughly how your past affiliate promos have performed, I know how well my products will do with your list)
- Your customers generally are already pre-vetted "buyers" in your niche (so you make more when you sell more stuff on the backend to your list over time)
- No complicated ad platforms, no constant testing, no algorithms to figure out (just straightforward deals with real people who have audiences that match your products)
- No need for 10,000 word crazy complex sales pages (in fact I’ve found the simpler your sales pages and the faster they get to the point, the better – because your affiliates will do most of the selling for you, and you just need to push people over the edge)
- Forces you to focus (instead of spreading yourself thin across multiple platforms)
That last point is crucial.
I’ve consulted with countless one-person businesses (from zero in revenue up to over 8-figures) and one consistent theme I’ve seen is the founder burning themself out – spreading themself thin across too many traffic sources, because EVERYONE tells them they should be focusing on something different.
It leads to mediocre results EVERYWHERE.
The businesses I’ve found to be most successful at the mid six figure and up scale (with minimal team) typically master ONE traffic source before adding others.
I have virtually no social media presence. No TikTok. No Instagram. No YouTube channel.
To me, being "unplugged" like that is the dream.
I also know businesses that get nearly all their traffic from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn – virtually the opposite of mine.
But we all have one thing in common:
We all have just one main source of traffic.
And we’ve all doubled down on that one main source.
To me, simply recruiting affiliates to sell my stuff is the simplest and most stress-free for reaching my goal of mid six figures with the fewest headaches possible.
And I literally laid out how I do it above with that simple email template I showed you.
It’s really not complicated.
What’s the con of relying on affiliates?
Con #1 is that you need to network.
Really if you want to be successful with any digital business, you need to pay for traffic one way or another.
You either need to pay money for ads – or go out of your way to get to know other people doing business in your space (and/or build a massive social media following).
To me networking isn’t a problem. In fact it was fun before I had kids that keep me close to home.
I travelled all over the world meeting people at conferences in places like Thailand and Mexico.
I love getting to know other business owners.
And it’s how I got my first customers (networking with other business owners, being "cool" to them (Note: I am not a cool guy), helping them out, and they wanted to return the favor by promoting my stuff).
But to others it’s a nightmare.
They think they can just be a hermit who never interacts with anyone else and never spends any money and find a way to make a killing.
In my experience, you are in the 0.0001% if you can pull that off. A unicorn.
So either pony up lots of cash for paid ads…
Or step out of your shell and talk to folks.
It’s easier (and more fun) than you think.
Con #2 is you need really good products.
This actually isn’t much of a "con" because it should be a prerequisite for any business to thrive, but man are there some bad low-effort products out there – with business owners wondering why those products aren’t converting.
Affiliates don’t want to promote junk because it turns their list off and makes future promos of theirs perform worse (since their list doesn’t trust them anymore).
But if you’ve got an AWESOME product?
Something that audiences in your niche desperately want?
Affiliates will trip over themselves to promote it for you.
You’re making them more money and strengthening the relationship with their list.
We’ll be talking about my systems for building super-profitable courses in the coming days.
Source #2: Word of mouth
This might sound crazy…
But I’ve made a lot of money in my businesses over the past 15 years from word of mouth.
And I’ve seen the same happen in other businesses too.
This is a combination of:
- People hearing about my courses and simply buying them when they’re ready.
- Affiliates hearing about my courses (or going through them themselves) and reaching out to me to sell them.
At one point in the last decade I went years with zero paid ads and zero affiliates and was making multi six figures off one of my businesses – 100% from word of mouth traffic.
Still today every time I open up a course for sale (I’ll share my strategy in the next few days) I’ll get a massive influx of new customers that came from who-knows-where.
Multiple six figures in my businesses every year come from this.
This isn’t a fluke. It can be engineered.
And you do it via what I’ll be talking about over the next few days, specifically how you write to your email list and how you design your courses.
I guarantee that you when you do it the way I tell you, you’ll find the same influx of new customers coming from seemingly nowhere.
To reiterate: this is not the ONLY way to get traffic in your business.
If your brain can handle the stress of paid ads, or if you LOVE becoming an influencer on social media – then by all means, do that!
Do it right and you’ll get more (and better) traffic than me.
But what I’ve just described is by far the simplest strategy I’ve found for getting high-quality buying customers your way…
Making money immediately on the frontend…
And building a "minimalist" business that gives you an amazing lifestyle with the least amount of stress.
If your brain is anything like mine, it’s ideal.
No complex tracking, analytics, or optimizations.
And like I mentioned yesterday, you don’t need thousands of customers for this kind of business when you do this right. I honestly aim to serve just a few hundred paying customers on my lists – and give them everything they need. And that’s not hard.
More than that in any business is just icing on the cake.
This is all so much simpler than you think.
But that’s enough about traffic.
I want to start getting into the really good stuff.
Tomorrow I’ll show you Pillar 2: The Email List – specifically the two types of emails I’ve found that do 90% of the selling in the businesses I’ve built and consulted in.
Talk tomorrow!
— Derek
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