Q&A is now done.
We take full responsibility for this one 1) too early and 2) need to get the timing organized. As you’ll see below somewhere around 70% of the comments were answered in the book and we still let some of them go through.
Post will be deleted in 48 hours.
That said at least it was a good dry run, will be back in the future.
What is the WSP philosophy on spirituality in terms of what it means & how to cultivate it?
None really, just take some time to meditate. This is probably the worse place on the internet to ask about spirituality!
Quickest advertising method to get your first ecommerce sales? (IG,FB,etc.)
Using your real name if you’re serious about being an expert in something. Can’t build trust without a face
I just got a deal done with a decent-sized company to handle their email marketing in exchange for being able to use their buyer’s list (approx 50k customers) in almost any way I please.
What are some un-conventional ways to maximize the value of a list of customers like this?
That is far too specific, if there is a product that goes into the same demographic that’s what you should do.
Use the list to sell them something they are already interested in. Don’t go in blind and be 100% certain of the demographic you have.
Is there a way to monetize landing pages without going through affiliate marketing agencies (Amazon, Peerfly, etc.)?
Not sure what you mean you’re either 1) selling someone else’s product – affiliate, or 2) you’re selling your own.
There is no other option really.
If you were mid-30’s and not in a recommended career path, where would you start/what would you do?
This is also in the book. Go into sales
How to prevent/relieve burnouts?
Thanks.
This is in the book. Search the Q&A section.
How much money does one need to start with affiliate marketing? Paid traffic, etc. Let’s say I’m an absolute beginner. How much do I need to budget just for a start. Thanks
Maybe $400? All you need is hosting and links.
If you go paid traffic that question doesn’t make much sense to be honest. That’s like asking “how much money do i need to make money”. If you’re smart you’ll make money fast if your copy isn’t good you’ll lose it all.
If you never learn to sell you’ll lose every cent you spend on paid traffic. If you’re good you’ll turn a profit quickly.
WSP,
Thanks for starting this Q&A earlier than stated, I was planning on having a late one to post this question!
As for my question, when it comes to creating a website for a business (not consulting, but lead-gen, product based etc.), can you get by using WordPress, or should you be looking to learn more about web design e.g. Ruby on Rails, JavaScript etc?
Thanks!
If you’re starting out you’ll be fine with basic wordpress. You’ll eventually hire people for design. Anything serious needs a design person
Cheers lads
If you were 26 with €40k in savings would you go on a 6-12 month trip around the world spending 15-20k, or get started on business immediately. I know the answer is probably the latter, but I am also taking into consideration that I may get inspiration for business ideas/concepts while travelling.
Also that while I may get rich and travel in 10 or so years, it will not be the same experience as being in my 20s and some places may become too touristy/westernised by then.
Great book and blog.
The latter. Complete waste of time to kill your 20s.
Should one still online demand test a product if the necessary capital is not available for product development assuming a positive demand response?
Yes. You can always raise the money from other people
When sending cold emails trying to get a job in Investment Banking. Who is the best person to send it To?
Typically the VP. If possible find the “staffer” in the group (they have political pull and are usually in charge of hiring).
Question: What percentages of your 1RM do you make the 4×6 sets?
There is no answer to this. Just go up by 5-10% each time if you can. If it’s too easy increase the percentage. If it’s too hard decrease it.
Also get a spotter on the last sets as always.
Started following you guys in Dec 2015, after seeing a tweet about embracing being different. Was 23, college dropout from top 20 school, unemployed, etc.
Now 25, I’m a self-taught data scientist working for an AI startup at the exponential growth phase with stock options (I feel this is just bait to try to get employees to stick around for years) and a relatively sizeable savings account (250k, all stored as bitcoin) from flipping streetwear and cryptocurrency online. Thank you.
Ready to try my first real estate deal with cosign on mortgage / line of credit from parents. Read through Real estate posts on this site. Multi Family property in my city is absurdly expensive (4-5% cap rate, 1.5M average price) so will barely be breaking even after all expenses… and this is WITHOUT a property manager. Condos are easy to manage but cash flow is terrible. College towns nearby have rooming houses for about the same price with 8-10% cap rate. The thing is, dealing with 18-21 year olds remotely will be a pain in the ass and I’m expecting a new vacancy every semester.
Is it better to just put some crypto money into an REIT and keep saving (guessing anywhere from 2-5 years) until I can afford commercial units?
As we’ve stated we don’t do reits (our RE exposure is in the approved products section). We also don’t flip properties so we can’t help here. Maybe RE guy or Ownmyhood can provide advice. Not a space we know so we can’t help.
We only do building purchases (we don’t manage) and RE shares.
Heard bad things about realty shares from others online but I trust you guys more than them. Will give it a shot. Thank you.
Don’t invest blindly as we’re guessing most people just buy and don’t do any of their own research. Foolish
A 1.5M 4-5% cap multi is commercial, technically (from a loan perspective). There are more than 4 units there, right?
I know what you meant, commercial in that business is conducted, but what I see from your post is you basically don’t even know where to start, and you’re looking at stuff that everyone else is probably looking at.
Why not just try to get your first single family? College students are great; you get co-signers with strong income, they care about not screwing their credit and will pay what they owe, they will pay a premium for the area and “beds” i.e. as many in a single home as you can fit.
So what if you have to turn it once a year (my guess is 1-2 years)? (and, you didn’t mean “a semester”, college has multiple semesters per year) It’s good experience for later. Or you can outsource it with the premium rent. Or, just have them find you new ones for $100 (imagine if they are in a sorority/fraternity! how easy is that!). Also, you can try for continuity, maybe one is a rising junior, they stay and replace the graduating seniors with new rising juniors etc.
They will wreck the place, absolutely. So don’t make anything too “nice” and minimize the break-ability/stain-ability. Inspect when they are ready to move out, have the max security in your account, and if worse comes to worst, make their parents pay for it. Done deal.
And you’re 25. Dealing with 18-21 year olds (girls) is going to be part of your daily life anyway. Why not get better at it?
I’m only giving all this away because in your comment you said you took action and it seems did very well for yourself. Good luck.
How to *know* if a girl would be a good wife (is chaste/has low notch count and isn’t lying down ect.)? Question is for my most serious commitment yet -> Kids (won’t get married… hah!)
Easy answer you won’t. Just make your own gut instinct judgement based on her actions.
Do you see any significant differences on what kind of products do best with different advertising platforms?
I have one product that sells when I can find a decent email list to rent. Facebook, Instagram, and other easy to scale platforms don’t convert for me yet. I get traffic, but no buys.
I sell a $300 prosumer product. Seems like social media is better for impulse consumer goods.
Facebook is hands down the best. If you can master that you’re good to go on every platform.
For a guy who wants size > strength would the 5/5 be better at 8-12 reps? To get hypertrophy benefits..
Lower reps = more size. That’s typically how it works. If you’re doing something with high reps = you’re working more and more towards endurance.
As we’ve said if you want to get in shape + look good, the workout provided is all you need. Rest of the fitness industry is just gimmicks and nonsense like cross fit and other such craziness.
Thank you.
Hi WSPs, How would you approach switching from a stable full time corporate job into full time poker which is relatively more risky and higher variance if I am beating the competition at low and midstakes?
We have no clue how that industry works.
If you want to make that move then we’d say you should have a large amount of savings then pull the trigger if you’re really talented.
Again we don’t know anything about it so quite a strange question ha!
I had the same idea and gave it a shot 5 years ago. You have to remember that poker is not scalable. Yes you are beating low to midstakes (I am assuming 1/2 – 5/10 NL) but after that tougher competition + less competition means people get to know you/your game + hourly win rate suffers – there is a max and it is a grind unless you land a big tourney win. At the end of the day you are still trading time for money (unless you train and stake your own horses). It got to the point where I was like “Do I really want to sit at the poker table/computer screen for 12 hrs a day even though I was making money? Avoiding burnout is tough……
Thanks Brian, fully agree with you on the grinding and trading time for money part. Yes, tournaments can be the main formats for huge one off wins, but I never had the patience for playing that long. Therefore I am sticking with cash games only, using strict table selection and multi-tabling to maximize EV.
Going forward, I either study my ass off and move up to the high stakes or start a side hustle in either staking, affiliate marketing or product sales, while still being a corporate employee for now…
If you are still playing than good luck at the tables!
Seems like a better business would be teaching guys how to play poker. There are video courses on how to get laid – I’m sure you could put out a course on how to play poker professionally.
I’m sure guys might buy it just so they can beat their friends out of $100!
Still not a recurring sale though…
Coming from someone who has played poker for a living for a few years and knows many others who have – poker is not as good as it used to be AT ALL.
Many ex-pros that I know (Europe and Asia, not US) have transitioned away, myself included. Affiliate marketing has similarities and it’s much more scalable. Go with that instead of poker. Knowing how it was with poker back then and knowing how affiliate marketing is right now, I think AM is the better choice.
Regarding teaching poker: You need some reputation, and many famous pros are your competition there, see Doug Polk’s YouTube channel and training website.
Hey WSP,
You guys have helped me immensely in the past few years. Started my own business.
I currently co-own and run a Talent Acquisition firm. I run the Tech Recruiting side.
Business is going well. The thing is:Tech Recruiting is a huge market, with thousands of different positions. I’ve noticed the bigger tech recruiting firms in the city tend to focus exclusively on 3-4 different tech niche developer positions (ex: Java Devs, iOS, Full Stack etc..).
We’re still a very young firm (under two years). I’ve been mulling over if it would make sense for me and my team to focus exclusively on 3 different tech niches, instead of being a “jack of all trades”. It would probably help with branding, creating a more custom and personalized experience.
However in the short term, we would probably make substantially less money as we wouldn’t be able to offer a wide range of service.
I know you guys are not in the recruitment space. Regardless, I would love to get your opinion on which direction *generally* would make the most sense at this stage: Niche now or niche later?
Thanks.
Hey Man, NCR. I am a software developer, I would love to chat with you about the trends and outlooks in the tech industry.
This is ridiculous… Not the question, but the place where you’re asking it.
Haha I understand what you’re getting at. Doesn’t matter though. Real winners will win regardless, and losers will keep on being mediocre.
That one is actually easy, you want to become the “monopoly” within a niche. So yes focusing on being the leader in a couple spots is better than the shotgun approach if you have the best product.
Perfect, thanks guys.
What investing strategies are you guys following now that you don’t use index funds?
We manage our own money. Still have some index funds to DCA into, but too much has changed and our managed portfolio now outperforms indexes. So we’ll keep some in the index to make sure we’re out performing, but we’ve reached a point where too many people are indexing causing mis-pricings. (opinion).
Advice for scaling FB ads without completely screwing up the results?
This is actually a great question (we deleted your details for safety)
Essentially from what we have seen 95% of the time it is due to targeting. It’s either the people you’re targeting or the product (is too niche)
We’d do more market research into how big your area is and if it can’t go broader you’ll have to stop and make a new product.
That said, if it’s still underpenetrated then focus first 90% of your time to make sure you’re getting everyone that matters and would be interested in your space.
As you know this is art vs. science… again typically… its targeting that’s messed up
Is it ever logical to sell using logic?
No.
Ad quesiton
Far too specific re read the paragraph in the book.
You’re largely right the answer is “do they even need to click”
We’ve spelled it out now for you
I’ve been experimenting with dropshipping products from Aliexpress and advertising on Facebook for sales and have been doing $100 a week in profit. A lot of these products seem like “one time low ticket” sales ($30 avg order). If this is a scalable method, how do you find the right product to sell or are you ultimately creating a brand play?
Costumers do not get mad with delivery time? How much does it take normally?
Put the product on a re-bill. If not possible take all the skills you learned and find a product that can be repurchased.
See the section on good and bad business models.
Great, thanks. I was curious because of the pants example that you used in the book. It’s a one time low purchase that’s branded well and is tied to a cause.
@S.A. As long as you’re up front about the shipping time and position it as a benefit to the customer (free shipping), then you’re fine.
Right the example was a “put food on the table example” and has multiple basic products that will sell every year.
How do you make the #s work in your favor if your site sells *one* product (e.g. Organic SuperGreens) vs a category of products (e.g. diet pills)?
If you only have one product you’re ideally selling something consumer with a re-bill. You don’t need millions of products to succeed but if you only have one it needs to be re-billable
How or where do I meet relatable people?
Go to places you enjoy? Should be forced to meet relatable people in that case.
How would the time frame change in your guidelines on what to focus on each year in university if studies last only three instead of four years?
Thanks a lot!
No change really, if you’re graduating earlier you have to move all the time frames up one year. Be make sure to change expected graduation day on your resume and you’re done.
Are running belts a good product for an Amazon FBA side hustle that generates 1-2k of income per month?
Cheers guys, love the book!
We don’t know the market, but if you’re profitable should be a good market. Then simply outsource the customer service to someone else.
You guys keep mentioning sales and making a website. Not sure if you guys have any experience with the Mobile app market. Do you thinking it is better to do a website to make money or the mobile app route is better?
We do not have experience there. Some commenters are apparently in the software side maybe they can help!
Question:
In regards to buying an ecommence business/website on flippa, do you have any specific advice? For example, How do you prove metrics (specifically earnings) they claim are legitimate and how do you figure out a fair price to buy it for (1x, 2x earnings,etc).
Step 1) create one from scratch get profitable
Step 2) once you know what you’re doing you then *know* if the other website is run incorrectly. Then you look for incorrectly run websites and buy them.
If you buy random websites with zero knowledge chances you fail are high.
I’m a lawyer in London and work hard hours during the week and often weekends. I am struggling to prioritise how I should spend my free time – should I focus on going to the gym 4-5 times a week?
Yes this is also answered in the book. Health is first.
Do you have any advice on finding good nightlife venues+”open seating food/wine bars”?
This is in the book in terms of where to place yourself for the best ROI.
Beyond that the question is pretty simple, go where you like the people. The rest fixes itself
For engineers and more broadly quants I guess should more focus be on finding the immediately marketable and profitable skills or working on the tough stuff that pays off in time?
Unsure what your question is. If you’re in engineering we gave the tools on what companies to work for to start after that it’s up to you to start your own biz. We don’t have that background so we can’t really help in terms of creating a biz long-term in technology/quant
Fastest/most efficient way to get 30k page views for a niche site (i.e. NOT a content website, not paid traffic)? Reading around/talking to SEO ‘experts’ suggests you typically need to rank on page 1 for that kind of flow (obviously depends on the nice), which *typically* takes around a year. (Doesn’t seem like the most efficient way to get good at sales given you won’t be getting enough traffic to validate your sales copy in the short-term…)
Using your own name and proving you have niche knowledge will all but guarantee 30K. It’s nothing really, can get there in a few months if you’re actually an expert.
Do you have any advice on figuring out if someone is passive aggressive or just joking/teasing? I can’t seem to read if someone is a hater or just likes to pick on me to joke around.
We can’t teach that. Learn the body language as we’ve recommended several sources in the book
Most obvious sign is flashes of contempt on their face
Passive aggressive men in particular live very sad lives since they are “men” but can’t say what they think because they are too weak.
A joke is something that the target of the joke can laugh at easily enough, usually because it’s not a very serious flaw or something permanent or tragic.
I.e.
“Hey mshiddensecret, want a sandwich. Too bad, sucks how your mom DIED” – not a joke
“Hey mshiddensecret, nice shirt, going sailing later?” – a joke
In the former you might feel legitimate emotional pain over the loss of a loved one, and shouldn’t be “expected” to treat it as “in play” for kidding around. In the latter, you can change your shirt readily enough, and probably own dozens, so you can reasonably play around, maybe respond you are, and in fact you’re taking his girlfriend on a nice romantic cruise etc. Also, because he initiated the round of kidding, starting the “game”, for you to joke back about his girlfriend cheating on him is more acceptable, then for example if you started off with that.
Now, in more grey areas, say making fun of you for being short or bald or more permanent but not quite life and death, for that you should aim to be unaffected because anything that is more or less a permanent characteristic of yourself you should learn to accept; no one should be able to use any of your traits or “flaws” against you in a social sense.
In fact, I would suggest having ready made responses to these, perhaps in the style of “Agree and Amplify”.
That’s something co-opted by writers on the internet, which you can take a look at, and it also appears in the book about lying by Paul Eckman, as one of the standard ways liars get over on others. In this case, you’re making the insult so absurd that the person who originally said it looks ridiculous, which redirects the attention away from you and whatever he was pointing at (and think about the parallels between lying and social misdirection here).
To go back around to what WSPs, contempt, again Paul Eckman is a great source, means they feel they are superior to you. I’d also watch for disgust or anger (in trace amounts). And. Do they seem to continue to come back to the same flaws/topics over and over, as a way to “prop themselves up” or are they trying to create fun for everyone. And do they become defensive or accusatory if you confront them on it (assuming you don’t artfully redirect as stated above), i.e. “You need to learn to take a joke”.
Well, now you’ve got a framework for what jokes you should and should not take, and how to. The rest is up to you.
For a first affiliate or ecommerce website do you suggest building from ground up or buying an established site from Flippa and starting from there?
Great book, thanks again!
We would start from scratch. The tools are in the book
I’m in 2nd of 6 years of medical school. I don’t like it and it’s likely a waste of my time, but I could do it for the money and it’s the best university we have. I’d like to know how would you guys apply the advice in the book. Going into a sales position and starting a business or perhaps get the degree while doing the side business. Thanks!
Everything about careers is already in the book and this blog (along with how to obtain the positions)
If you want to switch your answer is sales/starting a company since that’s the only one that works for everyone.
Run the numbers on how much you’ll make going down your current path (maybe you have to stay) we don’t know. Never did medical and wouldn’t recommend it for $$.
Broke the rule “do not create a product without seeing if you can sell it”
– manufactured 1,000 units of a new custom weight loss supplement. Product in hand.
– created a long-form sales page with feelings, story, CTA
– did not create an advertorial lander yet
– did not create a “see if you qualify” lander yet
Question:
Where is a good place to start buying the first $2,000 of traffic for the weight loss-related supplement straight to the long-form sales page?
Looking at the Facebook Ad policies, not sure they will approve clicks to a long-form sales page, considered the type of product (they already rejected the product link to sell on the Facebook page).
That is not a good set up unfortunately. Your best bet is Facebook still (targeted markets). Run legal traffic to it (we assume everything is compliant) and see if you convert.
Next time remember to do this *first* never makes sense to produce a product without demand/conversions that are profitable. Better to lose a few thousand instead of making the product (we’re guessing $50K cost) then losing the $2K as well on no conversions.
So we think you’re right facebook is the answer.
When running a successful online business (multi 7 figures revenue), is it possible to be truly ‘location independent’?
I get the impression that even with a business that generates revenue online, you still have a *major* advantage if you’re geographically located in the US.
Even an online business requires many in person meetings…and there’s more business opportunities in the US than anywhere else.
Yeah you’re location independent you have to travel a few times a year for sure but you’re not on planes every month. Not a big deal really.
Low 7 figures is 95% location independent for sure.
I’m familiar with the Amazon FBA process. Thoughts on whether importing products from China for private label sales is viable, or is that market too saturated?
Easy one it’s never saturated becuase you’re referring to essentially all products
Whats the most efficient *legal* way of obtaining/submitting new payment/credit card info for dealing with ad platform bans?
If no legal way, what would you suggest if you get tossed by a big dog (google, bing etc.)
Easy start a company. After that all you need is people to issue cards to. If you can’t get accounts you’re basically dead before you start and that’s all on you since there are 1,000,000 different ways to do it and none of them are “the best”
We stated 100x times in the book we don’t recommend the route that you seem to be going down.
I have an easy Wall Street tier 3 job that will max out around $200,000 in a couple years. I literally have 2-3 hours of downtime per DAY that I can devote to an online biz. It’s tempting to stay with the east and downtime, but I want to move to enterprise sales after I get an online biz running. I’m 29, so time is not on my side. I’m planning on affiliate marketing for 6-12 months to learn how to make ads that convert and then dropshipping/ ecommerce for side biz.
My main concern before starting this is FINRA’s OBA (outside business activities) rule. I know you say “break the rule not the law.” I’m under the impression that it NEVER makes sense to notify your compliance officer under any circumstance of your outside business activities, especially if you’ve worked on your biz during your main job. I know in the past you said just do it with a friend, but I was wondering the best process. In the book you say put your grandmother’s name in France. But to create a sole proprietorship or LLC, is there an easy way to do this without using your own name?
This is specifically answered in the book…
In the event of a market crash/recession, would you recommend lump sum investing into SPY? I know you guys have said that you’re concerned passive indexing is getting too popular and causing market inefficiencies, but would those concerns be alleviated after a crash? If not where would you recommend to put capital after a crash?
I’ve got a bunch of cash sitting around doing nothing, but I can’t bring myself to buy the S & P 500 now when adjusted for inflation we’re (much) higher than 2000 or 2008.
Btw, thanks for the book. Seriously amazing value.
We have answered this in our post on indexes please check it out.
We can only allow you one question. We would load up on small caps not the S&P as stated in prior post.
Gentlemen,
What are your thoughts on the market of Identity Theft Prevention? I.e. consulting in prevention methods (trading time for money, initially) combined with an online store that sells items such as RFID wallets, credit card protectors etc.
Identity theft can be a real “fear” for most people = *selling point*
Thank you WSP.
Sure if you can turn it into a recurring model it’s great. Only issue with technology products is they are constantly changing. We don’t know the space well so reach out to a technology sales rep
Thank you very much for the response, I will reach out to a rep and inquire!
Keep up the great advice
Which sector is the highest performing asset within your currently managed portfolio(s) YTD?
Actually don’t know the answer to that, we look at it in terms of growth vs. value. Growth is outperforming by a country mile.
We’ll leave at that as we don’t give out stock recommendations. We know where this is heading…
How do you deal with old friends that won’t leave you alone? Dropped some old friends from my life that weren’t getting me anywhere. Got cut from the social circle, but that’s fine. Been a few years, still won’t leave me alone. Spam calls, Caller ID Spoofing, Telemarketing calls: myself and immediate family. Also, been keeping tabs on me through acquaintances. Trying to make my life difficult. Can’t prove it’s them or else I’d just report it to the authorities. Can you recommend anything on this?
Just change your numbers, desperately hoping this was a troll since it sounds like highschool non-sense. If you ignore people they go away eventually
Not trolling, just been years, don’t get it. Been ignoring, muting, avoiding. Book is amazing btw, takes care of 99% of your problems. It’s just dealing with the old mistakes from time to time.
Are these the types of accounts you were speaking of?
You already know the answer. Re-read the section and you’ll know why we had to know all of that to operate today.
With the selling something else’s product via affiliate marketing route, what type of site format would you recommend? (Ex. The standard niche website with an article a day and affiliate links embedded?)
Yes we would build a legitimate site from scratch. Many will still go the “non-legit” route but as noted in the book that’s a dying business in our opinion.
I just finished reading Education and Decision Tress section.
I am not sure how to calculate the break-even of my investment.
(Annual income – 30000)/. Debt should be lower than 1. Should it be higher than 1? Coz income can cover debt?
And the 30000 is the opportunity cost of doing my own things?
Thanks!
No… as stated in the book it should be under 1. You want to be break even within a year to avoid being in debt for multiple years in a row.
Thoughts on promoting Clickbank products through a third-party traffic source such as DirectCPV?
Well as you can see from our overview in the book we never really went down that route. If it works, then sure you should run it.
This is a great question we just never got involved.
Hey – thanks for extending QnA.
Have spent a month in mobile popup space (tier 3 countries), learnt a lot about tracking+optimization but cloakers are tearing me to shreds…
Is $5k budget enough to start promoting whitehat products (low payout,in tier 1 countries: US/AUS/UK etc) on paid traffic Facebook… or is it simply too expensive for beginners with this budget?
Am a sales page copywriter by trade & have generated revenue for clients in the past
Without knowing your space probably need a bit more money than that, this is a bit too difficult to figure out.
We would go through the legit route and try to land one marquee person to help you promote. will do better than ads if you’re getting killed by cloakers.
That’s all we can really say since we don’t know what exactly you’re doing.