How to Make $100,000 in 6 to 12 months (writing online) A 6 step guide to your first 6 figures Let’s start with a secret. I used to think all online money was a SCAM! I kept seeing all these young 20 year olds making $10K per month ghostwriting, copywriting, and drop shipping. To me, this seemed about as real as having a hot cup of tea with Mr. Tumnis. That is, until Dakota Robertson helped me land my first ghostwriting client. I watched $3,000 USD hit my Canadian bank account. At that moment, my perspective completely changed. I realized not only is online money actually real. BUT IT WAS REAL FOR ME! That eureka moment is what we’re going to move you towards today. Follow this playbook if you want to make your first $100,000 writing online: 1 - Pick a High Ticket “Vehicle” My first $100,000 set me free. It allowed me to: → Move to Latin America → Swim with turtles in the Bahamas → See my favorite artist - Illenium - with a few creators I met on Twitter This was only possible because of the first principle of online business. Provide value to people with deep pockets. I sold a $3,500 ghostwriting service to 4 people on a monthly basis. Yes, 4 customers was all it took to make my first 6 figures and buy my freedom. It’s all you need to do the same. Find a service people will pay you $3,000 to $5,000 per month for. If you’re not sure what this service is, I’ll let you in on a secret… High ticket services exist in 2 forms: Form 1 = Marketing Audience building ✧ Ghostwriting ✧ Copywriting ✧ Email marketing Lead Generation ✧ SEO ✧ Cold email ✧ Appointment setting Form 2 = Sales ⇢ High ticket closing Why will people pay high ticket prices for these services? It’s simple. Ω They make them more money than they pay you Ω Pick your vehicle before moving onto step 2… 2 - Use Obsession to Stack Skills I knew NOTHING about ♢ Marketing ♢ Ghostwriting ♢ Online business ♢ Audience building ♢ Personal branding When I started 18 months ago. But with all the resources in today’s digital economy, you can learn these skills in less than 6 months. How to learn high value skills (fast): ✧ Books - Read every relevant book within your niche ✧ Courses - take every affordable online course you can find ✧ Social feeds - Consume every actionable tweets from creators in your niche I’d recommend Dan Koe’s Digital Economics or Kieran Drew’s High Impact Writing to get started. (I have no affiliates for either btw). Focus deeply. Consume intentionally. Execute and iterate quickly. You’ll be an “expert” in less than 6 months. *Note - You must apply knowledge in order to learn. Ω Amateurs neglect action. Experts earn experience. Ω 3 - Why 99.9% of People Never Make Money Online It’s no secret that most people never land their first client. They spin their tires for months. Sending hundreds of cold DMs. Jumping from course to course buying into empty promises. Never getting any closer to that $10,000 per month in the process. But here’s the thing that most people don’t understand. Social proof = sales ✧ It combats online skepticism ✧ It positions you as an expert ✧ It sets you apart from the crowd of “wantapreneurs” Before I started my ghostwriting agency, I wrote for free for 6 MONTHS! But this wasn’t just any work for free gig. It was a f*cking nightmare. I was living near Vancouver, Canada - PST timezone. The ghostwriter I was working for lived in the UK - 8 hour time difference. He would wake me up at 3am to write for him. It was exhausting. My friends, family, and other creators called me crazy. But here’s the thing… Every night before bed, I would find the content I ghost wrote and take a screenshot of the metrics. By the time I launched my agency, I had so much social proof it was impossible not to be seen as an expert. No one wants to do this. They want to get paid NOW. But think about it… Would you rather make $0 for the next 12 months OR Make $0 for the next 6 months, then jump to $10,000 per month? The choice is yours. Either way, just don’t forget the main point. Ω Social proof leads to sales Ω 4 - Overcome the “Great Bottleneck” The hardest part of making your first 6 figures isn’t: ✧ Picking your niche ✧ Overcoming limiting beliefs ✧ Not being seen as an expert The hardest obstacle to overcome is: ⇢ Lead generation If you’re reading this, you likely know what I’m talking about. No matter what you do, you can’t seem to get leads. It’s hard because: ✧ No one knows you exist ✧ No one sees you as an expert ✧ No one trusts you due to online skepticism - too many fake gurus out there I call this problem “the great bottleneck.” Here’s 3 ways to overcome it and land your first high paying client: Use Consistent Cold Outreach Common online advice - send 100’s of cold DMs per day. Personally, I’d rather choke on rusty nails than spend my day doing this. But I can’t deny it works at scale. A few cold outreach tips: ✧ Share social proof ✧ Keep your message short - 2 to 3 sentences ✧ Only message qualified prospects - people who have money ⎳ Pro tip Create content that solves your ideal customers' burning problems. Dm anyone who: ✧ Likes ✧ Comments ✧ Followers you That are within your customer avatar. Warm is always better than cold. Build a Referral Network Find 5 people who are already successful in your niche. Build a connection with them: ✧ Leave meaningful comments on their content ✧ Create content they’ll respect ✧ Cold DM them to connect Once you build a relationship with them, AND they see you’re legit. Offer to give them a 20% monthly kick back on any referrals they send your way. I did this with Dakota Robertson to hit $40,000 / month. Network = networth. The Large Leads Mechanism Inbound leads will always be better than cold. ✧ You have more negotiation power ✧ You have a higher conversion rate ✧ You have less need for cold outreach The problem is, most people don’t know how to create content that converts. After testing this for over a year, here’s the format I’ve found to work best: ⏃ Stories with authority ⏃ ☑︎ Open with a story. ☑︎ Share realistic obstacles to raise the stakes. ☑︎ Share how you overcame said obstacles - with pictures if you have them. ☑︎ Share the lesson you learned. ☑︎ End with actionable tips they can use to do the same. ☑︎ Add a call to action, and voila. Here’s an examples of one that brought in $21,000 of qualified leads to my agency: https://twitter.com/TaylinSimmonds/status/1687432558441553920 Now onto step 5… 5 - Over Deliver on fulfillment Landing your first client is hard but you know what’s even harder? Keeping them. Do everything you can to overdeliver for your clients. At my ghostwriting agency, I’ve done this by: ✧ Going the extra mile to create personalized content ✧ Spending 100% of my profits on marketing - month 1 only ✧ Doing 2x the content volume of my competitors for the same cost I won’t lie, this takes work. It is hard. And you will fail. But if you nail it, you’ll likely get: ✧ Referrals ✧ The opportunity to upsell ✧ Case studies / testimonials Making it easier to sign future clients. Ω Always overdeliver Ω Time to Celebrate Congrats, if you follow this guide for 6-12 months, you’ll be free. ✧ You’ll make well over $10,000 per month ✧ Have the freedom to travel the world It will be hard work. You will second guess yourself along the way - I sure did. And you’ll likely fail a few times - which I also did. But that’s all a part of the game. People new to online business always tell me this takes too long. But would you rather work hard for 1 year to set yourself free or struggle your entire life? I’ll pick option 1 every day of the week. If you’re read this far, you likely feel the same. Got questions for me? This guide is a good start point, but I’ll admit, it’s lacking some details. But those details would make this newsletter too long. So reply to this email IF: ☑︎ You have any burning questions ☑︎ You need help with execution I respond to every email that hits my inbox. See you next time, Taylin John Simmonds PS. This was first featured on my weekly video newsletter - The Digital Drip. You can smash the subscribe button at The Digital Drip so you don’t miss future guides, breakdowns, and tips like this.
