A while ago, I took part in a 3-day workshop for writers.
On the last day, the speaker Lise (and I’ve forgotten her last name) talked about how we as writers could reach six figures.
I once read how you could become a six-figure blogger… Get a job that pays you six figures per month and blog while working.
Hm… a job is not an option for me, but I think we can use the approach I learned in the workshop even when we do a different kind of writing.
For example, if we write emails. Or eBooks and courses.
First, you must find out which phase you’re in and from there, we’ll see where you should go.
What phase are you in?
Lise split us writers into five groups, five phases:
- Phase 1: $0 to $249 per month
- Phase 2: $250 to $999 per month
- Phase 3: $1,000 to $4,999 per month
- Phase 4: $5,000 to $9,999 per month
- Phase 5: More than $10,000 per month
$10,000 * 12 months = $120,000 – aka 6 figures.
The phase we’re in defines the action. Our goals.
Action steps if you make $0 to $249 per month
Focus on creating an email list and grow it to 1,000 subscribers.
Spread the word about your email list anywhere you can, which means in your normal email signature and on social media platforms.
Ha, you may even create a t-shirt with a QR code and a link written on it, which can lead curious people in your target niche to your list.
When should you start writing to your list? How many subscribers would you need to have before you start writing?
One. Plus yourself, of course.
As soon as you get your first subscriber, start sending emails.
But Britt… I don’t have an autoresponder
Really?
Well, neither did I when I started in 2003. That’s one of the reasons why I messed up a lot. I used a home-knitted version of an autoresponder by connecting my email client to a perl script to an online form… Yeah. Not ideal.
Today, I use a self-hosted autoresponder… again. I’ve switched between solutions many times.
The self-hosted one (which the creator can set up for you) is called NuevoMailer: https://clq.cx/nvm
I love it because it allows me to do segmentation, conditional content and much more that other autoresponders won’t let me do.
If I were forced back into a hosted solution, I would say that ConvertKit is the best. https://clq.cx/convertkit
It’s free up to 1,000 subscribers but with some limitations.
I had (still have) their Pro account, but it frustrated me that I couldn’t make filters that showed how many people opened and clicked links in my emails. I think their Premium account allowed that, but it was 3 times more expensive.
But for automatic segments and tagging, it’s easy to use.
Lately, I heard about BirdSend by Welly Mulia, but I haven’t used them… You can get access for 7 days here though: https://clq.cx/birdsend
So if you don’t have an autoresponder, go get one of the ones I recommend here. Trust me, I’ve tried almost all other services and I don’t recommend them.
But let’s continue with the action steps.
Action steps if you make $250 to $999 per month
You’re making money. Yay! Your list should be at around 1,000 subscribers at this point.
(In fact, it could be a much lower number when you write good emails, because you can make up to $10 per subscriber per month with good emails.)
So look at how much you’re making and not just how many subscribers you have.
What should you do to grow now, according to Lise?
I agree with her 100%. You should grow your list even further.
In phase 1, you focus on starting your list and getting it to around 1,000 subscribers.
In phase 2, you focus on growing your list to at least 2,000 subscribers.
Targeted subscribers, not just anyone who can click a link and type their name with relatively few typos.
Action steps when you make between $1k and $5k per month
Now things change.
Sure, you should still grow your list, but now you can start focusing on creating more products. During the workshop, Lise said have 20-30 books.
We’re talking $0.99 to $9.99 books so things are different in our world.
Here we can create eBooks and courses to sell between $9.99 and several hundred or even thousands of dollars.
So while you may need 20-30 Kindle books, you can get away with as low as 2-3 info products.
Look at your prices and your goals. For this phase, your top amount per month is $4,999.
If you sell $9.99 info products, you would have to sell 500 copies of that book to make your goal. With 2,000 subscribers… it’s possible, but not likely.
Now, your $9.99 product could be a tripwire product, or (better) a monthly membership. And for those purposes it will work with such a low price. For any other purposes, no.
If you run that race, you will need to keep creating low-priced products weekly or even more frequent.
Add more value and charge more for your products.
Action steps when you make from $5k to $10k
In the book publishing world, you should have 25-35 books now, according to Lise, with no need to write more.
That may be true for our world, but I disagree with her about being a writer and stop writing. I mean… what’s the point? You live to write, right? Not the other way around.
Right… * kicks the soap box away again *
Lise’s advice for this stage was to focus on partnerships and funnels. Not bad advice. In fact, I would never be where I am, job-free since 1995, if I hadn’t learned networking from day one.
Besides taking part in bundles, Lise mentioned email marketing funnels.
Yes, our main tool is still email marketing.
Your last action steps towards six figures
Maybe another product… And definitely more emailing.
I would keep growing my list. Because back when I didn’t, that became my worst mistake.
Keep growing your list. Learn more about email marketing. Keep striving to write better emails. Give better experiences and help more people.
And believe that you can do it!
Want to write better and get read?
Join here: https://clq.cx/ship30 with code CT100 to save $100.
Where I see people getting blocked
We all get blocked somewhere…
And we all have to get over that block. Break through it.
Sometimes it takes watching a YouTube video.
Sometimes it takes hiring help.
Sometimes it takes working on mindset.
Identify your struggle, your road block and find out how you can crush it.
And if there’s anything I can do to help you, let me know.