The online business advice no one profits from telling you
138: Your goal? To make your first $1 online.
My dad’s favorite saying was: nothing is impossible for a man who refuses to listen to reason. - Gary Halbert
What it takes… And what no one tells you.
1. What you have to realize is that making your first money online is without a doubt one of the top 5 feelings you can experience in life. It is hard to put into words the rush you will feel as the numbers on the screen go up. What will happen from that moment on is that you will be spending the rest of your time working harder than ever and chasing that feeling all over again.
2. Never allow yourself or your business to be dependent 100% on the algorithm. If you find yourself in a position where you have no other way to drive traffic to your product… You have a massive problem that will only become apparent down the road.
3. You can have the best product in the world. But without creating content around it and hacking people's attention. You will not get far. Those days of having a great product and waiting for the customer to come? Gone.
4. Stop selling features and what your product brings to the table. What you want to sell is the outcome. Your customers are buying the vision of who they will become and what their life will look like after using your product.
5. If you are not using AI to automate tasks and improve your workflows. You are doing something wrong. And at this point in technological advancement, you are putting your business in danger.
6. The entire online sales process comes down to removing the friction. Make it easy for your customers to discover and buy your product. Simple landing page. Built into a one-click checkout system, etc. Do the heavy stuff for them by removing the unnecessary. You want to be the master at identifying frictions and removing them.
7. You should be able to come up with the domain. Set it up. Have everything hosted, and make it look visitor-friendly in less than 24 hours. Suppose you are not there yet. You have some work to do.
8. There is no permanent business model on the internet. Forget about one method. One source of traffic or one business mechanism. Sooner or later, it will stop working. Or it will get saturated to a point where your method will no longer be efficient. It is the nature of the online business. Your ability to reinvent yourself and adapt what you do is what will keep you in the online money-making game.
9. Rebills, blackhat, shady practices, or selling something that YOU know doesn’t work in the first place… It all comes back to you. One form or another. It is one of those unwritten rules of life. Act accordingly.
10. The louder someone has to showcase their wealth or status symbols. The more you should be cautious around them. Are they selling the BizOps (money-making) course at the end? It all makes sense. You are being the prey.
11. Never allow yourself to fall for the idea that you are not ready. You will never be ready. What you want to do instead is rely on speed and execution. Failing multiple times. Iterating multiple times. Getting better with each attempt. 2 weeks in the arena beats 6 months of preparation in terms of the experience you gain. Meaning that the next iteration will be much easier and faster.
12. Everything that you find useful or interesting around your online business should be saved. Funnels. Websites. Promotional emails. Landing pages. Quizzes. Ads. Swipe all of those and make your life easier down the road. Having a swipe file is a must.
No idea where to start?
13. Never underestimate the power of being in the right market at the right time. Or being first at something that will yet blow up. If stars align and you manage to pull this off. No matter how mediocre your offer is or how far below your usual standard. You will outperform an amazing offer that has not been positioned correctly.
14. Marketing (driving traffic), distribution (knowing how and where to present it - in which form), and sales. They are mandatory for your online business. Without them in place, you will not get far. What you want is to master at least 2 out of 3.
15. When you are unsure whether something has a demand or how others would perceive it. The worst thing you could do? Spend months building something that you are unsure has the demand in the first place. The best thing you could do? Spend a week or two building something that looks as close to the final product, and try to drive traffic to it. What you want to do is test the demand. Doing this will tell you everything you need to know. Whether you have a solid product or offering or not. It again comes down to speed and how you position yourself.
How to validate (test demand) your idea:
Come up with the idea and check if competitors already exist (how they are doing it)
Build a landing page (before you have a product) and make it look as real as possible.
Start with paid traffic to test how things are working out. Make sure to take their email. Don’t want to pay for the traffic? Social media.
The positive sign you are looking for? People are either giving their email addresses or asking how they can buy it. The negative sign? Lots of visitors and no emails.
16. The internet is full of bots. Metrics matter, and KPIs do matter. But at the end of the day. The only things that truly matter are how many checkouts you have and what you put in your bank account. This will only get worse as time goes on and the dead internet theory becomes more apparent. Attention means nothing if you are not converting it.
17. Mindset and positive outlook play a huge role in running a successful online business. Because everyone who is doing or participating in this game goes through multiple ups and downs. Only those who manage to stay sane and not crack under the pressure win.
18. The more sophisticated your buyers are, the more exposed they are to the same methods and tactics. Making them harder to sell to. The less sophisticated your buyers are, the more likely they are to purchase from you. That is why you should not blindly bet on the big trends and business models.
19. The most effective products and business models (things you are selling) always tap into the core human desires:
Survival - older people, the desire to live longer and stay healthy.
Security - the desire to feel protected and have peace of mind.
Status - younger people, the desire to be seen and respected.
20. Never take word of mouth and social proof for granted. They are the most powerful and sustainable factors you can utilize to keep your business going. It is one of those things that are easy to underestimate, but will start to make sense.
21. Know your product economics. Every product has a frontend (the price your customers think they are paying) and a backend (which includes additional upsells, referral links to software your customers will use...). This might not make sense if you are starting. But it will click once you realize how much money you are leaving on the table by not having the two working together. Paid traffic and acquiring customers that way will confirm it.
Product economics 101:
Paid traffic acquisition cost (ads): -$50
Frontend offer (ebook): +$27
Backend offer (coaching, group): +$97
Scenario 1 (Frontend only): -$50 + $27 = -$23 (You are losing money on every customer)
Scenario 2 (Frontend + Backend): -$50 + $27 + $97 = +$74 (You are now profitable)
22. Living in the attention economy means that awareness creates a massive advantage. You cannot sell a solution to someone who doesn’t know they have a problem. Meaning that the absence of competition doesn't necessarily mean you have something unique to offer to the market. Quite the opposite. It might mean there is simply no demand for it. Results? No customers. What you need is to find a market with existing demand and a hunger for a fresh angle no one has covered yet. This is where the difference between someone who is just looking to make quick cash from an opportunity and an expert who knows what is happening in a specific domain becomes apparent.
The dumbest version of a product you ship today is worth more than the polished version you never ship because you are still researching. - Callicrates
23. Everything you repeatedly do in your online business should be based on a template. Protocol. Instead of spending 2 hours coming up with something and reinventing things every time... Use a template-based approach that takes 50% of that time. As time goes on, and you expand your offering (or change how you do things). The template should also be updated to reflect those changes.
24. Timeline language converts the best. Everything you offer must have a clear timeline. One that moves people from where they are to where they want to be. 2 weeks. 3 months. 6 months. When you have a clear, defined timeline, you give them hope and something that they want to believe in. Making it easier for them to decide that your product is worth their money.
25. Never tell anyone:
How much money you make.
What niche you are in.
What your offer looks like.
You are only painting a target on your back. Once the opportunity is gone, there is nothing left for you to make out of it. You can start talking about it.
26. Never allow yourself to fall for the idea that your online income will grow in predictable increments. That is not how it works. That only happens if you are working in the corporate world. It is normal (and expected) to stay stuck at a certain income for 6 months, then rapidly leap to the next tier as your skill set catches up.
27. When something is working exceptionally well, and you are achieving results you could never even imagine. The best you can do is go all in and double down on the opportunity. Ignore everything else. You want to put every dollar back to work for you and bring you more out of it. This is where material distractions will become apparent, and you will have to learn how to fight them off.
28. One of the reasons why great business people and smart people start to push mediocre products comes down to one simple fact… They lock themselves into a lifestyle of fixed expenses. High rent. Car payments. Unnecessary luxury goods. To keep up with all those financial obligations. You have to start thinking short-term. Solution? Make as much as possible, as fast as possible. Pushing products they themselves would not purchase, and in some cases scamming their customers. This is how many online business people destroy their reputations overnight and never manage to recover.
29. A common misconception among those who are starting is that more revenue = success. That is partly true. However, if you are only keeping 10% of the margins… There is a good chance that you are getting lapped by someone who is pulling 50% margins on a much smaller revenue.
Work hard at your job and you can make a living. Work hard on yourself and you can make a fortune. - Jim Rohn
30. Starting a business while you have a job is one of the best things you will ever do for yourself. Learning how to monetize the time you spend online is a close second.
31. The only social media you have should serve you as revenue generating mechanisms. Marketing your skills or products. If it is not generating revenue, you are doing something wrong and wasting your time.
32. Your job as someone selling to the masses is to give emotional buyers enough support to justify the purchases to themselves and their social groups. The more emotional a purchase, the more they need to post-rationalize it. Convincing themselves and others that it was the smart purchase all along.
33. Staying in the loop on what is happening in your market is non-negotiable. Subscribe to your competitor's newsletter. Buy their product. Go through their entire checkout flow. Dive deeper into their email sequences. Everyone who is winning in this game is paying attention to what others around them are doing. Your competitors are your most valuable marketing asset.
34. One of your goals should be to build a lean system that runs without you. When you find yourself in a position to take a few days off and come back to more money than you had before you left. That is the sign that you are doing something right.
35. Being antifragile is overlooked when it comes to running your online business.
36. Never allow yourself to make a big business decision when you are stressed. Or angry. Or running on three hours of sleep. The decision you make in that state is not the one you would make if you were not feeling that way. Things are much less urgent than they seem. And it is on you to recognize that and not do anything you will later regret.
37. Every decision your customer has to make burns mental energy. The less cognitive load your customer has to use to be convinced that your product is good, the easier it will be to get those checkouts. It is all about more choices with fewer decisions.
38. When it comes to paid traffic. The game is won by whoever can pay the most to acquire a customer. Meaning that you have to optimize maximum lifetime value on the back end. Reread point #21.
39. Track everything. Cost per lead. Your open rates. Payment fees. CPA. LTV. Churn. You need to know the numbers to support your business and make it sustainable. Sounds boring until it is not.
40. If your sales page cannot be understood by a 12 year old. You are doing something wrong. Always aim to dumb things down to no higher than an 8th grade level. Clarity + simplicity = sales.
Not sure how to approach this?
41. The hard pill to swallow about online business is that it is entirely meritocratic. Meaning if you are not winning. It is fully on you. There is no boss to blame. System holding you back or any other excuses… Everyone has access to the same platforms, the same tools, the same algorithm. The only difference between you and everyone else is how you use them.
42. The internet works very differently today than it did in its early days. Especially from the brand (and creator) perspective. Owning your audience used to be the key back in the day. Now you have to focus on re-earning their attention every single day to stay relevant. Platforms used to guarantee followers would see your posts. Now the algorithm decides who gets seen and who does not. This means followers don't really matter anymore. And the fresh content gets attention. The closest you will get to this old type of the internet is growing your email list and getting directly to someone's inbox.
43. The game resets every year. And there is a good chance that what worked last year won’t work next year. Sticking to one playbook works until it doesn’t. This applies to every single area, from marketing to your product. Reinvention is the name of the game.
44. If you have yet to start your online business and have no idea where to start. You want to pick a niche rooted in your existing career and knowledge. What does that mean? If you are in sales. Start a lead generation agency. Software engineer? Start a one-man shop. Working in finance? Start your accounting practice. The key is to use the knowledge you have (and network) and leverage it into something bigger. Once again, it all comes down to the least friction.
45. Run as clean a business as possible. Clean books. Clean tax strategy. Don't mix things up (personal and business) or do something you will regret down the road. More so if one of your goals is to sell your business and exit it in the future. The cleaner your business structure is, the easier everything else becomes.
46. Running an online business is not as sexy as everyone claims it is. Working next to the pool or spending 80% of your time traveling is a lie. Someone is funding their lifestyle off you. It is hard work. And you will not be able to pull it off without ridiculous amounts of dedication.
47. Every time you find yourself stuck or dealing with periods of uncertainty. Ask yourself a simple question. Which decision will you regret more in 10 years? Quitting or pushing through and trying something different. You will be surprised by the clarity this provides.
48. There is no best business model. There is only the best business model that works for YOU. What might work for someone who is 22 years old and full of energy? It might not be the best option for someone who is 40 years old with a family and kids. You want something that works for you, and it is sustainable in the long run.
49. Next time you find yourself dealing with inaction. Try to break it down further and identify the real blocker. Scratch past the surface level. Keep asking yourself why until you don’t have any logical answers anymore. Doing this will help you identify the root cause of why you are not doing what you should be. Once you find that root cause. Go through it step by step. Break it down into its consequences and how they would affect your current life structure.
50. In the online business, the real leverage and the money all come from renewals and repeat purchases (+ back-end offers). If you can build a system where customers always get more value than they pay for. Or better yet, a system that makes them perceive that. You have a winning formula.
51. Most of the courses on the online business are straight-up garbage. Built on the methods that used to work. And that is why they are being published and sold now to the masses. Once a strategy stops working, most gurus package their methods and sell them to beginners. The real alpha? Private group chats.
52. Anyone running a service business and working directly with customers should never be afraid to fire them. Vampire customers are not worth your time. When you consider all the costs associated with them time, energy, and stress. You realize it is not worth it and you are the one getting less out of that relationship. Refund them. Remove them. Your quality of life will improve. And you will have more power to get the customers who actually deserve your work.
53. Reddit threads, Amazon reviews and Trustpilot pages will tell you more about your customers real pain than any research tool on the market. The key is learning how to reverse-engineer feedback and turn it into something you could charge them for. Want to take it a step further? Look into one and two-star reviews or any other negative feedback. This is where you can create a competitive advantage.
54. Never bet against a great headline. You have a maximum of 10 seconds to capture someone's attention and pull them in. The headline is the only thing that determines whether they read anything else at all.
55. The customer who buys from you twice is worth 10x more than the one who buys once. Everything about your purchasing experience should be engineered to make that second purchase feel obvious and easy. Removing any limitations around it. This is what most businesses get wrong. Focusing entirely on acquiring customers and not keeping the ones they have already won over.
Repeat buyer scenario (3 purchases over 12 months):
Paid traffic acquisition cost (ads): -$50
Ebook - product #1: +$27
Templates - product #2: +$7
Private group - product #3: +$47
Scenario 1 (One-time buyer): -$50 + $27 = -$23
Scenario 2 (Repeat buyer): -$50 + $27 + $7 + $47 = +$31
56. Learn the art of storytelling. The same story that works in the email will work in an ad, on a landing page, in a podcast or in DMs. Understand the structure of a story that sells, and you will never run out of ways to present your offer or position it.
57. The best copywriting advice one could give you is that the subconscious does not read words. It works based on mental movies. Meaning? That is why vague and abstract copy dies immediately and doesn't hold someone’s attention. When readers can picture what you are saying and clearly see what you are describing. That is when your words start to impact them.
58. Cheap paid traffic is never a permanent solution. When you spot a platform, geo market, or format that is working and is cheap. You have to put in 110% effort to take that opportunity while the window is still open and before everyone else catches on. What happens when other players enter the same source? Costs go up. Your returns go down. Advantage? Gone. That is why everyone who did Facebook ads back in 2013 made a fortune with little to no effort. The same thing happened with TikTok in 2020.
59. The only time you should hire is when you identify a skill gap that is a direct bottleneck in your business. Most business owners hire to hire or think it will help scale more easily. The right way to hire is to find a skill that will unlock 2x revenue and go all in on finding the right person for that role.
60. If you are stuck on the same problem for more than a month. You are not doing enough to solve it. Leave that problem unsolved for 6 months… It will compound. And your business will experience a decline or a bigger problem that will take even longer to solve.
61. Whether you want to accept it or not. Every hobby, obsession, and niche now has an audience big enough to build an online business around. What does this mean for you? Stop worrying about market size and focus on reaching the right audience. Better said. Start asking yourself, do you have something worth distributing to others?
A focused fool can accomplish more than a distracted genius. - Alex Hormozi
62. Persistence is the only determinant of whether you will succeed or not in your online business. What nobody tells you is that if you are stubborn enough, you will never quit. You will win.
63. The more time you spend in the online business. The more you realize that the key is always to analyze what is working. At the same time remove everything that is not. And once again, focus on doing more of what is already working. But better...
64. One trick to always get more out of your business is to do the thing you resist and fear the most. This applies to everything in your life. Not just your business. Resistance always signals directly at what matters.
65. Your judgment is a skill worth developing and working on. When everyone can produce more than decent outputs. Only those who can judge and feel what will work and what won't get massive rewards. Taste, intuition, and pattern recognition. Focus on those.
66. Different seasons put people in different moods. January is a decision month. December is more of a reflective type of month. In the warm half of the year, people are more into big commitments, while the cold half is more about emotional tone and problem-aware messaging.
67. You only need one good idea in an online business to change your life.
Disclaimer: None of this is to be legal or financial advice of any kind.
I'm curious how you actually deal with #25? There's no way people are not pushing you on this. Work is usually the first thing people ask about, and vagueness only breeds more investigation.
This is gold.
Thanks legends.