May 14, 2020
How to Make Millions by Writing Online | Sam Parr on Indie Hackers with Courtland Allen
Check out the Indie Hacker Podcast Page & Episode Notes
Key Takeaways
- Lessons from the subscription business:
- You can probably charge more than you think. Currently, Sam Parr charges $300 annually but plans to increase it in the near future.
- He only allows an annual billing plan which helps improve cash flow dramatically
- Create a long-form sales page, it may seem outdated but it works. Look at any Amazon product, and they have a long sales page with plenty of images and reviews.
- “Typically, the more expensive the product the longer the sales page needs to be” – Sam Parr
- “Just being an okay copywriter is the number one skill that you can ever have if you want to make money” – Sam Parr
- Why? Copywriting means understanding human behavior, people’s wants and needs, and manipulating that to lead to a purchase
- However, you can also use copywriting to convince an employee to join your company, to get people on social media to get behind your movement, or to get investors
- “If you understand what motivates people and then you understand how to communicate it using words, it’s like I’m going to a gunfight with like a magic sword that shoots laser beams, it’s an unfair advantage.”
- However, you can also use copywriting to convince an employee to join your company, to get people on social media to get behind your movement, or to get investors
- Why? Copywriting means understanding human behavior, people’s wants and needs, and manipulating that to lead to a purchase
- Sam says it’s possible to make $50 million a year with only 4 writers and an email list
- How would Sam start a newsletter business today?
- Pick a small but fast-growing niche
- Identify target customers
- Avoid using Substack
- Charge around $500-1,000 a year
- Make sure the information he provided is useful
- “It has to be like a vegetable smothered in peanut butter, in that it can be entertaining and interesting, but at its core, it has to be utility”
- The information you’re selling should help people make money
- “It has to be like a vegetable smothered in peanut butter, in that it can be entertaining and interesting, but at its core, it has to be utility”
- Spend money on advertising to grow
- Write viral blog posts for content marketing
Intro
- Sam Parr (@theSamParr) is the founder of The Hustle, one of the fastest-growing media companies in America
- Host: Courtland Allen (@csallen), founder of IndieHackers.com.
Books Mentioned
- To learn about copywriting, Sam recommends reading Advertising Secrets of the Written Word: The Ultimate Resource on How to Write Powerful Advertising Copy from One of America’s Top Copywriters and Mail Order Entrepreneurs by Joseph Sugarman
Hustle’s Business Models
- The Hustle makes money in 3 ways:
- Advertising
- Events
- Paid subscriptions
- Advertising has been flat since the pandemic and events are out of the picture so Sam has been focusing on subscriptions
- Sam predicts Trends will be an 8-figure subscription business by the year-end
- Before launching the subscription arm, Sam talked to other successful content subscription businesses
- Here’s what he learned:
- Charge more than you think. Currently, Sam charges $300 a year but plans to increase it in the near future.
- Only allows an annual billing plan which helps improve cash flow dramatically
- Create a long-form sales page, it may seem outdated but it works. Look at any Amazon product, and they have a long sales page with plenty of images and reviews.
- “Typically, the more expensive the product the longer the sales page needs to be” – Sam Parr
- Here’s what he learned:
- One good thing about having a subscription business is that you don’t have to rely on ads or write content that pleases advertisers
- Since COVID, internet traffic has gone up overall, but fewer companies are buying ads
- It’s also harder to monetize new media services with ads since it takes time to build up a large audience
- Since COVID, internet traffic has gone up overall, but fewer companies are buying ads
Why You Should Learn Copywriting
- Why has Sam been so successful?
- He credits it to a few things: He’s able to create good content, he has a tech-product focus, and he’s an expert on internet marketing and sales
- In the first month of business, Sam was able to create content that brought a million people to his site
- Sam has been blogging since 2010 and before that, he was selling products online so he learned how to write sales copy
- “Just being an okay copywriter is the number one skill that you can ever have if you want to make money” – Sam Parr
- Why? Copywriting means understanding human behavior, people’s wants and needs, and manipulating that to lead to a purchase
- However, you can also use copywriting to convince an employee to join your company, to get people on social media to get behind your movement, or to get investors
- “If you understand what motivates people and then you understand how to communicate it using words, it’s like I’m going to a gunfight with like a magic sword that shoots laser beams, it’s an unfair advantage.”
- However, you can also use copywriting to convince an employee to join your company, to get people on social media to get behind your movement, or to get investors
- Why? Copywriting means understanding human behavior, people’s wants and needs, and manipulating that to lead to a purchase
- “Just being an okay copywriter is the number one skill that you can ever have if you want to make money” – Sam Parr
- Sam has been blogging since 2010 and before that, he was selling products online so he learned how to write sales copy
- To learn about copywriting, Sam recommends reading Advertising Secrets of the Written Word: The Ultimate Resource on How to Write Powerful Advertising Copy from One of America’s Top Copywriters and Mail Order Entrepreneurs by Joseph Sugarman
- Also, remember AIDA:
- Attention: get the customer’s attention
- Interest: tell people facts to get them interested
- Desire: share benefits and stories to make them desire your product
- Action: layout what action you want them to take
- “That’s the formula for persuasion” – Sam Parr
The Secret to a Profitable Newsletter Business
- Sam says it’s possible to make $50 million a year with only 4 writers and an email list
- “I’m not exaggerating, $50 million a year” – Sam Parr
- Stratechery is one example
- Sam shares that Kevin van Trump, who runs Vantrumpreport.com, makes about $30 million a year from his newsletter
- “I’m not exaggerating, $50 million a year” – Sam Parr
- How would Sam start a newsletter business today?
- Pick a small but fast-growing niche
- Identify target customers
- Avoid using Substack
- Charge around $500-1,000 a year
- Make sure the information provided is useful
- “It has to be like a vegetable smothered in peanut butter, in that it can be entertaining and interesting, but at its core, it has to be utility”
- The information you’re selling should help people make money
- “It has to be like a vegetable smothered in peanut butter, in that it can be entertaining and interesting, but at its core, it has to be utility”
- Spend money on advertising to grow
- Write viral blog posts for content marketing
- With your newsletter, you shouldn’t try to attract everyone and cover everything
- The Hustle’s newsletter isn’t for college students because they can’t usually afford it
- The company also doesn’t cover at a lot of non-US businesses because they don’t have expertise in that domain
- The Hustle’s newsletter isn’t for college students because they can’t usually afford it
- Sam advises people with a media company not to ask for $1 or donations
- If you want to make a money-making enterprise and provide lots of value, you should be comfortable with charging your customers
- How do you hire good writers?
- They need to enjoy writing about that topic
- They need to tell stories compellingly and love learning
- They need to become an expert about a specific topic quickly
Thoughts on Podcasting
- Indie Hackers (including the podcast) is owned by Stripe
- They get about 35,000 downloads per episode
- The Hustle recently launched their own podcast
- The podcast gets between 15,000-20,000 downloads per episode
- Growing a podcast is tough, as it’s driven mainly by word-of-mouth
- It’s also hard to monetize
