August 1, 2017.
That's the day I bought The Millionaire Fastlane out of the Kindle store as an Amazon recommendation. Funny enough, I generally take a look at summaries and all kind of reviews before reading a book. This time I didn't. So I really didn't know what to expect.
At the time I was on a vacation from my $250/month, part-time job here in the Dominican Republic. I was also pursuing a couple of "passive income" opportunities—Kindle publishing, Amazon niche sites, etc.
Needless to say, that same month I quit my job and stopped pursuing those ventures.
A lot happened from August to December. There are actually two sides of the story since I've been (kinda) violating monogamy and working on two things. But to keep things simple let's just talk about one for now.
FREELANCING FOR CASH, EXPERIENCE, AND INDUSTRY-KNOWLEDGE
Long story short, I was unable to reach $100/month for the rest of the year until I found an opportunity to work as a virtual assistant in a digital marketing agency for $400/month—part-time.
Nothing fancy. "But hey, it's more than you had. And you'll work from home," I reasoned.
So I took the job. I worked on prospecting and lead generation (cold emailing businesses owners) for the next 6 months.
After sending ~1000 cold emails (not for me, but for the agency) two important things happened:
1 - I had learned a skill (lead generation): I got insights as to what works and what doesn't when it comes to cold email.
2 - I detected an opportunity: the agency was serving SaaS businesses, and I was visiting their websites and jumping on their free trials. Already knowing a thing or two about copywriting most of them sucked... and I knew I could help.
So I said to myself, "Wait a second, this cold email thing is working. Why not use it to get freelance copywriting clients for myself?" And that's exactly what I did.
Just to test the waters I started charging $US440 then $US600 then $US1250 for a 10-15-email sequence.
Now, confident in my ability to deliver results, I'm comfortable charging anywhere between $US1500-$US3000 for a 15-20-email onboarding sequence.
This month I closed a $US2380 contract for a 20-email sequence.
Another reason I decided to serve SaaS is so that I can get familiar with the industry. I'd love to build a SaaS product later on. (More on that later.)
A year ago my English was, let's just say, "Intermediate." I read a ton of books to perfect it. And practiced a lot.
It's still far from perfect. But if I, as a non-native English speaker, was able to do it. You can, too.
Key takeaways for those freelancing:
1 - Position yourself to solve a particular problem: I'm positioned specifically as an onboarding copywriter for SaaS. That and only that.
2 - Direct contact over freelance platforms: I know our millennial generation don't want to hear this, but talking to people on the phone is what will allow to forge a business relationship and build rapport faster. Reach out to business owners/managers.
Things I did wrong:
1 - I waited too long: I "studied" copywriting for over 6 months before attempting to get my first client. I should have done that from day 1—or at least from day 31.
THE "OTHER" VENTURE
Okay. So all of that has been part-time (20-40hr/week). But I have been consistently working around 60-65hr/week.
I feel it's a sustainable amount of work. And I can keep up with it for the next 5 years—or more.
Although I know I could earn $3-5k per month freelancing full-time, for Fastlane reasons, it's something I'm hesitant to do.
So in the hours left, I've been building a blog in the Spanish market all about freelancing, my progress and all the successes and failures in the process.
I analyzed the market. And the average advice is "bid on jobs." So I know I can definitely deliver something better.
Following this free training (FIMP) I was able to go from 0 to 15,000 visitors/month in the last 7 months.
The Spanish market is sooooooo much less competitive than the English market search engine-wise. That's one of the reasons I decided to go that route. Also, I have the ability to add a ton of value by language arbitrage—reading and taking courses from English, established freelancers, testing strategies with my own freelance businesses, and then talking about it on the blog.
I'm shy of 500 email subscribers at this point—growing at a ~100-subscribers-per-month ratio. And I'm building an online training all about building a freelance website, positioning yourself to a particular type of client, and sending cold emails to get your first clients as a newbie.
I'm following Ramit's ZTL system to launch the product. And I plan on launching by Aug 15 at a $27 early-bird discount. Then $47. And probably $97 or more as I stack on more value—a community, more content, etc.
WHAT LIES AHEAD - GOING FASTLANE
Building an audience allows me to have a ton of options. So here are some of the things I have in mind (in order of preference):
Option 1 - Expand online training
Expand topic-wise and start teaching not only "freelancing" and "get clients." But also copywriting to freelancers—and potentially businesses—in the Spanish market.
Now that I'm seeing fast traction, I know I could monetize offering both training, copywriting services or even coaching.
Option 2 - SaaS as an "Expert"
As the audience grows, I could potentially build a SaaS targeted to my audience.
Becoming well-known for something and then building a SaaS product is a great strategy—think Russell Brunson and Clickfunnels, Brennan Dunn and Planscope, Joanna Wiebe and AirStory.
I could build some of the tools freelancers usually need—online proposals, project management, or a full suite like Bonsai.
Now that I'm equipped with overall marketing knowledge—copywriting, market research, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, etc.—I'd feel confident to partner up with a technical guy and try to build something more scalable and "sellable" than an online training blog.
I've been networking with some technical guys. But still haven't found "the one." Time will tell.
Option 3 - Scale the service-based business
I'm not sure if I want to scale the freelance business to an agency. Too much overhead.
I'd rather scale a high-margin business—say, options above.
But I could productized the whole onboarding sequence writing process, outsource it and scale it. Maybe even offer other writing services over time. Services I know SaaS businesses need—blog posts, landing pages, etc.
I've outsourced my own proofreading every now and then. And have been thinking about outsourcing lead gen. But I'd like to explore the above options first. Purely based on preference.
Obviously, I'm willing to let myself be lead by the market. Not by personal preferences.
But, yeah, that's my story one year after reading Fastlane.
Just wanted to make a quick update.
I'd be happy to provide more value on what I've learned so far. So thoughts or questions—both on my progress and my future options—are welcomed.
On my way,
Isaac
That's the day I bought The Millionaire Fastlane out of the Kindle store as an Amazon recommendation. Funny enough, I generally take a look at summaries and all kind of reviews before reading a book. This time I didn't. So I really didn't know what to expect.
At the time I was on a vacation from my $250/month, part-time job here in the Dominican Republic. I was also pursuing a couple of "passive income" opportunities—Kindle publishing, Amazon niche sites, etc.
Needless to say, that same month I quit my job and stopped pursuing those ventures.
A lot happened from August to December. There are actually two sides of the story since I've been (kinda) violating monogamy and working on two things. But to keep things simple let's just talk about one for now.
FREELANCING FOR CASH, EXPERIENCE, AND INDUSTRY-KNOWLEDGE
Long story short, I was unable to reach $100/month for the rest of the year until I found an opportunity to work as a virtual assistant in a digital marketing agency for $400/month—part-time.
Nothing fancy. "But hey, it's more than you had. And you'll work from home," I reasoned.
So I took the job. I worked on prospecting and lead generation (cold emailing businesses owners) for the next 6 months.
After sending ~1000 cold emails (not for me, but for the agency) two important things happened:
1 - I had learned a skill (lead generation): I got insights as to what works and what doesn't when it comes to cold email.
2 - I detected an opportunity: the agency was serving SaaS businesses, and I was visiting their websites and jumping on their free trials. Already knowing a thing or two about copywriting most of them sucked... and I knew I could help.
So I said to myself, "Wait a second, this cold email thing is working. Why not use it to get freelance copywriting clients for myself?" And that's exactly what I did.
Just to test the waters I started charging $US440 then $US600 then $US1250 for a 10-15-email sequence.
Now, confident in my ability to deliver results, I'm comfortable charging anywhere between $US1500-$US3000 for a 15-20-email onboarding sequence.
This month I closed a $US2380 contract for a 20-email sequence.
Another reason I decided to serve SaaS is so that I can get familiar with the industry. I'd love to build a SaaS product later on. (More on that later.)
A year ago my English was, let's just say, "Intermediate." I read a ton of books to perfect it. And practiced a lot.
It's still far from perfect. But if I, as a non-native English speaker, was able to do it. You can, too.
Key takeaways for those freelancing:
1 - Position yourself to solve a particular problem: I'm positioned specifically as an onboarding copywriter for SaaS. That and only that.
2 - Direct contact over freelance platforms: I know our millennial generation don't want to hear this, but talking to people on the phone is what will allow to forge a business relationship and build rapport faster. Reach out to business owners/managers.
Things I did wrong:
1 - I waited too long: I "studied" copywriting for over 6 months before attempting to get my first client. I should have done that from day 1—or at least from day 31.
THE "OTHER" VENTURE
Okay. So all of that has been part-time (20-40hr/week). But I have been consistently working around 60-65hr/week.
I feel it's a sustainable amount of work. And I can keep up with it for the next 5 years—or more.
Although I know I could earn $3-5k per month freelancing full-time, for Fastlane reasons, it's something I'm hesitant to do.
So in the hours left, I've been building a blog in the Spanish market all about freelancing, my progress and all the successes and failures in the process.
I analyzed the market. And the average advice is "bid on jobs." So I know I can definitely deliver something better.
Following this free training (FIMP) I was able to go from 0 to 15,000 visitors/month in the last 7 months.
The Spanish market is sooooooo much less competitive than the English market search engine-wise. That's one of the reasons I decided to go that route. Also, I have the ability to add a ton of value by language arbitrage—reading and taking courses from English, established freelancers, testing strategies with my own freelance businesses, and then talking about it on the blog.
I'm shy of 500 email subscribers at this point—growing at a ~100-subscribers-per-month ratio. And I'm building an online training all about building a freelance website, positioning yourself to a particular type of client, and sending cold emails to get your first clients as a newbie.
I'm following Ramit's ZTL system to launch the product. And I plan on launching by Aug 15 at a $27 early-bird discount. Then $47. And probably $97 or more as I stack on more value—a community, more content, etc.
WHAT LIES AHEAD - GOING FASTLANE
Building an audience allows me to have a ton of options. So here are some of the things I have in mind (in order of preference):
Option 1 - Expand online training
Expand topic-wise and start teaching not only "freelancing" and "get clients." But also copywriting to freelancers—and potentially businesses—in the Spanish market.
Now that I'm seeing fast traction, I know I could monetize offering both training, copywriting services or even coaching.
Option 2 - SaaS as an "Expert"
As the audience grows, I could potentially build a SaaS targeted to my audience.
Becoming well-known for something and then building a SaaS product is a great strategy—think Russell Brunson and Clickfunnels, Brennan Dunn and Planscope, Joanna Wiebe and AirStory.
I could build some of the tools freelancers usually need—online proposals, project management, or a full suite like Bonsai.
Now that I'm equipped with overall marketing knowledge—copywriting, market research, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, etc.—I'd feel confident to partner up with a technical guy and try to build something more scalable and "sellable" than an online training blog.
I've been networking with some technical guys. But still haven't found "the one." Time will tell.
Option 3 - Scale the service-based business
I'm not sure if I want to scale the freelance business to an agency. Too much overhead.
I'd rather scale a high-margin business—say, options above.
But I could productized the whole onboarding sequence writing process, outsource it and scale it. Maybe even offer other writing services over time. Services I know SaaS businesses need—blog posts, landing pages, etc.
I've outsourced my own proofreading every now and then. And have been thinking about outsourcing lead gen. But I'd like to explore the above options first. Purely based on preference.
Obviously, I'm willing to let myself be lead by the market. Not by personal preferences.
But, yeah, that's my story one year after reading Fastlane.
Just wanted to make a quick update.
I'd be happy to provide more value on what I've learned so far. So thoughts or questions—both on my progress and my future options—are welcomed.
On my way,
Isaac
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