I’ve even done $30,000 from a single email. But obviously you don’t start that way. You have to build up to emails that make this amount of life-changing money. Here’s how you do that.
Don’t skip this critical step
Emails that make money solve real problems. Read that again.
I see too many people try, and fail, with sending emails to a list because they dance around this practical advice.
To find a problem to solve you need data. You can’t guess or you’ll 100% fail and fall flat on your face.
Here are a few ways to collect data on potential problems:
- Run a google survey to a group of people
- Ask questions in tweets. Example: In ONE sentence, what’s your biggest problem when making money online?
- Ask readers in your email welcome sequence — email software lets you welcome people. Instead of blindly selling them something or wasting the opportunity, ask them to share big problems.
Offer something you get asked for a lot
This is another overlooked strategy.
Every week I get asked for headline templates. If I wanted to make $10,000 from one email tomorrow, then I’d sell this as a product.
In my banking career, I used to get asked by US tech companies all the time how they could enter the Australian market and set up their business. In my last banking job, I was regularly asked how to transition an app from an on-premise server to Google Cloud.
Sell what you get asked for. We all get asked for something. Stop overlooking the opportunity and giving it away for free.
You don’t need a big email list
This is a lie the internet has told for decades.
Big email lists are nice but they’re not a must-have. I know plenty of people who have less than 1000 email subscribers that make 6 figures.
I know some old school cats too. They have old fashion rolodexes full of contact details they’ve acquired throughout their careers. When they change employers their iPhone contacts are their career gold.
When they need to make more money at a new job they’ll send out personalized emails to these contacts. The amount of business deals they close with this strategy should be illegal according to corporate law.
But it’s not.
Focus on an engaged email list rather than a big one. I’ve seen huge email lists built off platitude tweets that can’t even make $20 lol. Heck, I used to have a 30,000-person email list and tried to offer courses three times to this list. I made $0.
On the fourth attempt it worked.
Be unnecessarily honest
A knobhead creator I met on this platform used to send emails out asking people to join an evergreen webinar.
(I had no idea what this was either.) An evergreen webinar is one where it’s advertised as if it’s a live Zoom call but the call is actually pre-recorded.
Comments from the original recording are added on the side so the illusion that it’s live feels real. After sending this scam webinar to tens of thousands of people this creator would make roughly one sale per week.
It was a nice income but it prevented $10,000+ paydays. Why?
If you lie in emails or take advantage of people they’ll simply switch off. They won’t tell you though. They just secretly stop paying attention. Before you know it, you’ll be blaming strangers (like me) for your downfall.
Don’t do it.
I’ve found being brutally honest in emails has actually made me far more money. It’s counter-intuitive and that’s why it works.
People fall in love with email honesty because it’s so rare.
Give away a lot for free until you feel sick and vomit
My most successful emails all have one thing in common:
I gave away too much for free. I don’t hide the best insights behind a paywall. I don’t insist everyone pay me for my time or advice. No. And when I sell bundles of products I want it to be uncomfortable.
I want customers to feel like they’re getting a better deal than me.
This is called tier stacking. It’s where you have three pricing tiers for whatever you sell and you stack them full of benefits beyond the base-level products. For example, I may offer a LinkedIn course. But I’ll bundle it with two other courses that customers have told me are high-value.
Another underrated free strategy
I often take the best parts from my paid products and give them away for free.
When you give away your best stuff it shows off your value the most. And when people see value they’ll happily pay for your products and services.
Instead, what I often see is a bunch of creators with scarcity mindsets who hide everything and make it feel like a nude peepshow in a X-X-X shop.
Yuck. If you’re good enough then free stuff shouldn’t hold you back.
Play with price points like you play with ya dog
Some creators like Justin Welsh can make $2M a year selling a $150 product. Others like Nicolas Cole can make $5M selling a $1000 product.
There’s no magic price point. The best way is to test. The even better strategy is to have multiple price points.
I have a:
- $20 product
- $97 product
- $297 product
- $497 product
- $997 product
- $1497 product
- And soon … a $7000 product
I started at $20 and slowly worked my way up. The lower price points have less friction because it’s mostly an impulse buy. The higher price points require more social proof, testimonials, structure, and years in the game.
But we all start somewhere.
I never thought I’d be selling a $7000 product via email but here we are. This stuff is possible when you collect data, stick at it, and slowly build a reputation people will respect. How?
Be honest. Deliver. Do what you say you’ll do. Overdeliver.
This entire making-money-from-email system looks like a scam and impossible for normal people until you do it. I was skeptical AF but now I’m a Bieber Believer.
Learn from those already doing it
I’m a dumb-dumb with email.
That’s why I attend webinars, speak with other creators, and join other people’s email lists as a wartime spy. The strategies that work tend to be similar. No point learning the hard way when you can save time and money and learn the fast way.
The biggest mistake people make
They write their own emails.
Doh! Don’t do it unless you’re a copywriter. Your emails will make 10x more money if you pay a copywriter to write them for you. Trust me, it’s the best investment you’ll make.
In my case, I did copywriting courses to learn. That works too.
Simple ways to make money from emails
I’m a grandpa when it comes to sending emails.
I know some of you will 100% want to know, but what can I sell? No shame in that. I’m happy to repeat these tried and tested models as many times as people need to hear — because they never change.
- Books
- Courses
- Coaching
- Live events
- Paid webinars
- Private communities
- High-ticket masterminds
- Only-Man-Fans (joking not joking on this one)
Pick one strategy and try it.
You don’t need an email list
Wait, what?
That’s right, many people think they need an email list so it becomes a barrier to entry. Nope.
You can use other people’s email lists, dontcha know. Not kidding. Many creators have email lists and are dying to sell something. If you make a kickass product you can pitch it to them and do a revenue share.
That’s what you call resourcefulness. And that’ll make you wealthy.
Sales emails are dead
The emails that make me the most money are personal stories with a short call-to-action at the end for those who might be interested in my offer.
This works because if you read the story and don’t click the CTA, you still get value in the form of education, inspiration, or entertainment.
Write more stories to make more email money.
Final Thought
Email is still alive and will never go away.
Why? It’s bizarrely decentralized. And users have full control over who can email them and who can’t.
So be a high-value person and share stories and things you know. Then occasionally ask for money. That’s how people like me make $10,000+ from a single email. You can too.
