5 year remote employee merging into entrepreneurship

[Bcubed]

I have been a remote employee for about 5 years and made the decision to venture out on my own.

Originally an office worker, I began working from home on a several days of the week basis then moved remotely on a full-time basis.

I would travel back and forth from the US, spending about 5 months in my home country then leaving.

Only recently did I discover the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion available to US persons. After running the numbers, it became a no-brainer; that I should be staying out of my own country for the tax saving incentives. Capitalizing on the low cost of living abroad whilst paying less in taxes. Why didn't I discover this sooner I thought.

In addition, I took an online business/tax class and decided to set-up a foreign corporation through which to work and bill clients. All 100% legal of course.

With my former employer my first (and only current) client, I decided that the next skillset that needed developing was copywriting.

After many weeks of forum lurking I came across The Gary Halbert Letter website and his 30-Day Hands on Experience.

I began about 2 weeks ago and am currently reading The Robert Collier Letter Book.

My number one priority at this moment is to create another income stream apart from my work with my current client (former employer) and decided that this 30-day experience is the best way to begin.

 

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[Choate]

Welcome to the forum, highly recommend reading Cashvertising as well as it seems to be the gold standard for copywriting. One thing is do is to make sure you are taking as much action towards your goals as you are reading, as it is easy to become bogged down in courses, books, information, etc. Learning as you go while taking action can sometimes be more effective/fun/rewarding than trying to obtain a 100% perfect understanding of everything there is to know first. Good luck friend!

 

[David_Wu]

Hi Bcubed,

I also suggest you read the copyblogger website/blog. It is more about content marketing though, but it could help as supplemental info/knowledge when it comes to writing or copywriting online in general.

 

[Bcubed]

Just finished The Robert Collier Letter book. Long read.

The next on the list is Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples but it wasn't available on Amazon. I'll get a hard copy when I get back to the US.

Now on to How to Write a Good Advertisment by Vic Schwab.

I'm only reading books that are on the list as I don't want to lose focus.

 

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[Bcubed]

Welcome to the forum, highly recommend reading Cashvertising as well as it seems to be the gold standard for copywriting. One thing is do is to make sure you are taking as much action towards your goals as you are reading, as it is easy to become bogged down in courses, books, information, etc. Learning as you go while taking action can sometimes be more effective/fun/rewarding than trying to obtain a 100% perfect understanding of everything there is to know first. Good luck friend!

I have already begun rewriting the copy on my business landing page using the fundamentals in Scientific Advertising. I narrowed the targeted client base from about 3 (lawyers, physicians, insurance claims managers) to just 1 demographic (physicians). I have also decided to serve that 1 demographic with just 1 specific service. This makes the marketing and advertising much easier and focused. I told myself that if I eventually want to target the other niches with other services, just create a new company and website. Simple enough.

While maintaining focus on the 30 day challenge (will definitely be longer than 30 days) I have been learning the basics of Google Search Console, Adwords, and Analytics.

The main thing that I have noticed in these books is that, although written in the 20s and 30s, they had very precise methods for tracking the success or failure of each advertisement and sales letter and they make it very clear that you must ALWAYS TRACK otherwise you're just shooting in the dark.

Like you said, it is VERY easy to get bogged down on the courses and just become a perpetual student with no action. It can become masturbatory. Definitely more productive to do it in tandem with an actual project.