How to Build an Online Empire by Yourself (Without Any Hacks)
Let's cut the cr*p
ADHD messed his head up.
He tried to do too many things, be everywhere, and network with anybody. As a result he was $51K in debt and at rock bottom.
One morning he went to the city to get a face tattoo. It seemed like a good idea. A good way to brand himself online…
Then he went to work the next day.
Getting a tattoo of a fist on his face was unacceptable. The guy worked in an investment bank for christ’s sake. His boss wasn’t happy. The team leader role he had his eyes on suddenly disappeared. Then he landed in my email inbox.
Here’s what I told him about building an online empire (so he could stop guessing).
Overthinking —> Write Online
We all start out overthinking.
The internet is a big place. There’s so much you can say and do. All the gurus argue about what is the right way. The right way is different for everyone.
The way to destroy overthinking is to start writing online daily.
Skeptics love to throw sludge at my beautiful freckled face only a mother could love. “I want to start a real business, mate!”
People love to skip this step. Why? They don’t want to put themselves out there. They don’t want to do the hard work of writing.
Writing seems pointless. They’re missing one big idea: without attention and eyeballs there’s no one to be your customers.
An online empire makes you money so you don’t need to work a puberty job in a cubicle until 65 then die. Writing/content is how you get the attention.
If you want to skip this step, your other option is to buy ads. Please gather your $200K in savings and get ready to transfer it to Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook empire.
Write or spend your life savings on ads. Choose wisely.
1. Publications —> Social Media
F*ck publications. Tell them to eat a d*ck.
They’re gatekeepers and they mostly expect our content for free. They win. We get nothing, or scraps. This is why Medium dot com is dead – it’s a publication, not a social media app.
The only place to write is on social media.
2. Social Media —> Email List
Take people from social media to an email list faster than Kanye West snorts a line of coke before a rap concert.
All the money online is made with the email list (definitely NOT a website).
Niche —> Nicheless
The niche is you. The niche is your worldview.
Social media isn’t organized into topics like a bookstore. Humans follow humans. Be an interesting human and you’ll become a magnet for kickass people online. Some of them will become your customers or tribe members later on.
I don’t have a niche. Neither do any of the big creators I hang around.
Writing about pink dogs in Chicago for the next 5 years seems boring to me. I’ll burn out from boredom. Or slit my wrist and give the blood to the blood bank.
Fixating on a niche keeps you poor.
At the start you don’t know the niche. Choosing topics isn’t a marriage proposal. We change over time. Today it might be career advice, tomorrow it might be alternative health. Chill.
Writer/Content Creator —> One-Person Business Owner
Calling myself a writer kept me broke for 5 years.
Why? I thought like a writer.
Write.
Write more ‘content’
Sell books.
Sell writing.
People come for the writing.
Would that sentence be better with an em dash?
You won’t build an online empire like this. Writers and content creators are desperate and needy. They’re obsessed with the art instead of the fundamentals of what humans want and how they can help them.
A business owner isn’t afraid to sell because selling is just helping. “But Tim, I don’t wanna be one of those make-money-online gurus.”
Newsflash: if you work a job you also make money online. Does your job have email, Zoom, and access to Google? Congrats, you already make money online.
Don’t let labels and broke critics destroy your thinking.
Think like a business. What one area of life are you 10 steps ahead of compared to most people? Not 10,000 steps ahead – 10 steps. That’s likely a good place to start your online empire.
Passionate/Interested —> Obsessed
Passion is weak.
It’s lukewarm and lacks effort and intensity. It’s on par with fantasizing about your celebrity crush in the nude or hoping to win the lottery one day.
It’s not specific enough to move you to action.
This is why so many people have failed in the corporate world. They’re following their so-called passion which is leading them off a cliff into a pool of pig’s blood.
Passion takes decades to become anything (if it ever does become anything).
Blame your regrets and failures on passion. I’ll give you permission. To build an online empire you have to become curious enough in a few topics to obsess over them. That’s how you get the energy and automated motivation to do something incredible.
Obsession looks like this:
Thinking about it 24/7
Joining cults
Pulling all-nighters
Spending weekends & holidays on it
Doing it while working a job (on the boss’s clock... screw ‘em)
Going all in and holding nothing back, despite your fears
Feeling fearful and doing it anyway
Obsession lights a fire in your eyes that people can see.
Fearful —> Psychological Warfare
We all have fear. You’re not special.
You can either let your psychology abuse you, or you can turn it into psychological warfare and use it to your advantage.
The mind is a strange place. It’s where our empires are built long before the 1M subscriber email list ever exists.
How you think determines how you act.Nothing makes sense until we take action. And when you write about the outcomes you get, you start to see the path forward differently. Why?
Writing is thinking. The more you write the clearer your thinking gets and the easier it is to work through any fears you have.
I healed decades of mental illness predominantly by writing online. It gave me power. The stories gave meaning to my struggles, and bizarrely, to other people’s.
Wage war on your psychology so you can think of solutions instead of endless problems.
Expenses —> Investments
“I can’t afford it.”
The same person who says this lives in a nice suburb, drives a good car, and sends their kids to private school.
The problem is rarely money. It’s how we think about money.
There are costs to building an online empire. Some see them as expenses and others see them as investments. I’ve always chosen to call them investments. I put money in and money comes out, assuming I’m open-minded and willing to change and iterate.
If setting up an online empire feels like an expense, it’s not for you.
It’s the investments we make in ourselves and our online empire that lead us to personal freedom, and a life of ownership instead of servitude.
Scarcity Mindset —> Millionaire Mindset
A scarcity mindset says there’s not enough.
A millionaire mindset says there are billions of people on the internet and trillions of dollars every month that flow through it. All I have to do is find a path to get some of it. It’s a matter of when, not if.
A pessimistic mindset says there’s never enough. They are the victim and rely on 3rd parties for their survival. They fling poo at others out of envy, instead of just figuring out the money game, then helping their friends & family to do the same.
Here’s how a millionaire mind thinks:
“Today not ‘one day’”
“‘Together’ is easier than alone
“The internet works if I work”
“I don’t know now but I can find out how”
“If low IQ people can figure it out then so can I”
“It’s not the idea but the execution that’ll get me there”
“Multiple income streams are better than one income stream”
“I can temporarily downgrade my lifestyle so I can invest in myself”
“AI makes me more powerful. It’s an opportunity”
“The challenges make it fun, not frustrating”
“I’m a problem solver, not a problem creator”
“Done is better than perfect”
“I’ll do it for my family”
“I’m not special”
Being a millionaire has nothing to do with money. It’s a way of looking at the world that takes problems and turns them into opportunities.
Fall in love with problems.
Final Thought
You probably expected this article to be a series of steps to build a website. But that’s not going to help you… and you can google that 101 stuff.
Your view of the online world matters more. It’ll either serve you, or turn you into a distracted slave who earns less than they’re worth and always has to think about money. The latter may even make you get a tattoo on your head to attract attention.
Being average and passionate just ain’t worth it. Dare to build an unconventional online empire and turn it into a movement.
Quick note before we finish up.
My online course - The Ultimate Guide to Online Income Streams - is available for special Christmas pricing.
Basic details of what’s inside:
64 curated case studies of online income streams that work
A simple method to validate your income stream idea before wasting time on it
A 1-hour bonus lesson that guides you through the tricky process of crafting a sales page from thin air
A trick to making Google your full-time revenue idea assistant
Website free strategies to earn more in less time
The "Content Avalanche" method to get more customers long-term
That ends in 36 hours.
Then Santa leaves town.
I like the sentences on how a millionaire mind thinks.
Tim I really appreciate this newsletter especially the piece about niching. We don't have to niche, we just have to turn up with our unique perspective. THAT'S how we get people to engage with us. Thank you!