It dawned on me this morning that 17 years ago this month, I started trying to make money online.
At the time I had no idea what I was doing.
I had no mentors.
Hell, there weren’t even Youtube videos or Facebook groups that I could learn from.
So I struggled early on.
But after a lot of ups and downs, things eeventually “clicked” for me.
And since then I’ve been able to build 4 multi-million dollar businesses.
I’ve become a multi-millionaire in the process.
And nowadays I’ve dedicated my life to helping other online marketers to do the same.
So with that said…
I want to share 10 lessons I’ve learned in the last 17 years of being an online marketer…
Let’s dig in…
1. Focus on one thing until you’re damn good at it
The first 4 years of my journey, I was trying anything and everything to make money.
SEO, blogging, building content sites etc…
I was all over the place.
And I jumped from one thing to another.
The problem?
I never got good at any of these things.
Sure, I made some decent money (I even had a 6-figure year in there)…
But I was never an expert at a skill that could make me money (like copywriting, SEO or media buying).
If I had focused on one thing instead of trying to do 4 different things, I would have been a lot more successful a lot faster.
Focusing on one thing is key.
2. The quickest way to get to where you want to be is to learn from someone who has already done it
Back in the mid 2000’s there were very few resources out there.
No Facebook groups about online marketing…
No Youtube channels teaching copywriting.
I basically searched Google for random blog posts and tried to figure things out like that.
And it’s why it took me SO long to get going.
Most years I was making like $25k-$35k a year.
I even had a $5k year in there (this was when I was a poker affiliate, and the whole US poker market fell apart).
So it was an up and down ride.
I didn’t really have a mentor.
Or anyone to learn from.
Now contrast that to someone like Tanner Henkel, Alec Rosa, Krista Edsall or Troy Ericson (all people I’ve mentored) and they all got to 6-figures way quicker than I ever did.
Why?
Because they had a mentor.
So they knew exactly what to do (and what not to do) based on advice I gave them.
This saved them a ton of time.
And gave them a huge ROI.
Most of them hit 6-figures within a year of starting.
Now having a mentor isn’t a guarantee that that will happen for you.
But you’ll certainly get there a lot faster if you’re willing to invest in a mentor.
It’s one of the best ROI’s you’ll ever get.
3. Build the business that YOU want
I’ve seen a lot of marketers make the mistake of ending up in a business they don’t like.
For example…
If you hate talking to people on the phone, then getting into some type of coaching or consulting business might not be for you.
If you’re an introvert and you hate being around people, then running live events might be a bad fit for you.
There’s a million ways to make money…
So make sure you find one that’s a fit for YOU.
If you see an opportunity to create products in the survival market, but you don’t actually enjoy talking about survival and prepping, then you probably shouldn’t go into it.
You won’t be very motivated.
And you’ll get bored of it very quickly.
You don’t want to be in business making a bunch of money that you’re miserable in.
That’s golden handcuffs.
And it’s not a fun spot to be in.
Make sure you do something that you ENJOY and that you want to do for years to come.
4. You have to build your business and your lifestyle together
Back in my early 30’s I was a “chase money at all costs” kind of guy.
I didn’t care if I had to work 7 days a week.
I just wanted to make money.
And it worked.
I sold my share of my $23 million dollar supplement company back to my partner Allen for a nice payday..
Which was great…
But I also nearly killed myself doing it.
I was working 12-14 hours a day, every day of the week.
I wasn’t going out with friends.
I wasn’t dating.
I stopped doing things that I enjoyed.
My whole life was work.
I was addicted to it.
I even had to take an entire year off after I sold my business just to recover.
I was that burnt out.
Now my case is pretty extreme…
But I see the same thing happen with a lot of the entrepreneurs I coach.
You can’t just chase money at all costs.
It will ruin your health…
It will ruin relationships with your spouse/kids…
You have to build your business and your lifestyle together.
There has to be balance.
5. 90% of your focus should be on customer aquisition
Back in 2015 or so, our greens supplement (Patriot Power Greens) took off on cold traffic.
So we went from doing no sales to a few hundred sales per day pretty quickly.
Which grew the business like crazy.
Our backend was bringing in boatloads of money.
Customers were re-ordering every month.
We started having $70k-$100k days regularly.
It was a good time.
One thing this taught me is that customer acquisition is the most important part of a business.
Why?
Cause everything runs better when you’re bringing in 100, 500 or 1000+ new buyers each day.
Your backend emails crush…
Your affiliate emails do better…
Everything just works better when you have new buyers added to your list each day.
This is why it’s SO important to focus on customer acquisition.
It’s the lifeblood of most businesses.
And if you ignore it, you’re gonna struggle.
6. The people who get truly wealthy are good at making money, keeping money and growing money
I could tell you a number of horror stories of marketers I knew from 2012 who were making millions a year, and now are nowhere to be found.
Why?
Because they had no idea how to handle all the money they were making.
They were spending as much as they made.
Buying dumb stuff like Lambos and Ferraris…
I was even guilty of this a bit myself back in the day.
I was making good money, but I just kept spending more and more.
So my bank account never changed.
The more money I made, the more I spent.
It took me a while to realize the people that get truly rich (i.e. who can retire at a young age) understand how to make money, but they also know how to keep that money and grow it.
This involves things like tax strategy…
Money management…
And learning how to invest…
Those are different skills from making money.
But they’re essential to master once you start making money.
You won’t be wealthy without it.
7. Stop focusing on short term wins and focus on playing the long game
I was guilty for many years of not playing the long game.
I wanted money now.
I now realize this was a mistake.
Especially if you want to be around for 10+ years.
A good example of this was back in 2010 or so, I used a bunch of FB ads that Mike Geary was running at the time.
Mike found out, and called me out on it.
Instead of apologizing like I should have…
I fought back.
I was like a wolf backed into a corner, so I just came out swinging.
I made up a bunch of lies.
And told Mike he was full of shit.
That obviously didn’t sit well with Mike.
So from then on him and a bunch of the other big peeps in the health niche wouldn’t work with me.
It took me 5+ years to repair those relationships.
And while I’m good friends with most of those guys now, I still wish I wouldn’t have done that.
I was an idiot back then.
I had short term thinking.
I didn’t see the long game.
But the long game is what works.
It’s what keeps people paying attention to you.
It’s what keeps customers around.
Play the long game.
8. You can make great money as a copywriter, but if you want to get truly wealthy you need your own business
If you look at the number of offer owners in our space who make over $1 million a year (take home pay) I could name you at least 100 of them.
However if you look at the number of copywriters who take home over $1 million a year, it’s probably less than 10.
Why?
Cause it’s a hell of a lot harder to make 7-figures when you’re not getting equity.
You can make GREAT money as a copywriter…
A lot of the copywriters in Copy Accelerator are making $100k, $200k, even $500k a year.
Which is awesome.
And in my experience most people are very happy with this.
But if you want more…
If you want to get to 7 figures, or 8 figures a year, then you need to have your own business.
That’s the only way to do really big numbers.
9. Email is still the king
My friends outside our industry are always shocked when I tell them that all the money is made from email lists.
They think email is old…
And outdated.
But that’s a crock of shit.
People check their email everyday.
They buy things from email…
And that’s not going to change anytime soon.
If you don’t have an email list, you are leaving a ton of money on the table.
And if you have an email list and you’re not mailing it daily, you’re also leaving money on the table.
A list of buyers is like having your own printing press.
You can create money anytime you want.
So treat your list like the gold that it is.
10. If you’re looking for money to fulfill you, or to make you feel whole, it never will
This was a hard one for me to swallow.
I always wanted to get rich.
I thought it would make me happy.
Or make me feel better.
When I sold my share of my supplement company in 2017, I looked at my bank account and was a multi-millionaire for the first time in my life.
It felt good.
But something was missing.
The wave of happiness that I was expecting to come, never came.
I still felt the same as I did the day before.
That was hard for me to grasp.
I had been chasing this dream for 13+ years of my life.
And it didn’t pan out how I thought it would.
But it was a good lesson to learn.
It made me realize what money actually is…
It’s not gonna make you happy…
Or fill some hole in your soul…
But it does make your life better.
It gives you freedom.
It allows you to live life on your own terms.
You can travel where you want…
You can work when you want…
That’s freedom.
And money provides that.
Anyways…
I always like sharing my wisdom…
So hopefully you got some insights from this.
Enjoy your Monday.
– Justin
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