Sam Parr: How To Make $2 Million A Month By Writing
Oct 11, 2023
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Sam Parr, a master copywriter and the brains behind The Hustle and My First Million podcast, shares his journey of turning writing into a lucrative business. He reveals how he leveraged viral content and innovative strategies to grow his newsletter from 150,000 to 1.7 million subscribers. Sam discusses the art of compelling copywriting, the importance of catchy headlines, and building trust with audiences. He also dives into the significance of storytelling techniques and nurturing a unique writing community for success.
Compelling headlines and opening lines are crucial for capturing readers' attention and increasing engagement.
Memorable phrases can leave a lasting impact on readers and enhance the overall engagement of the content.
Crafting attention-grabbing headlines and finding the right length of content are essential for improving click-through rates and engagement.
Deep dives
Crafting attention-grabbing headlines and opening lines
In the world of social media and short attention spans, it is essential to create compelling headlines and opening lines that immediately grab readers' attention. The goal is to increase click-through rates and engagement. By focusing on the headline and the first few sentences, there is an opportunity to change a 1% click-through rate to 10%. The order of importance is headline, description, and picture. This same strategy applies to other mediums like magazines and newsletters, where readers' attention needs to be captured right away to ensure they continue reading the entire piece.
The power of memorable phrases
Memorable phrases have a lasting impact on readers. Learning from books like 'Elements of Eloquence,' one can understand the different tools and techniques to make phrasing more memorable. Examples include polyptoton, using words with multiple meanings in the same sentence, antithesis, juxtaposing contrasting ideas, and merismus, using words for words' sake. Memorable phrases can create a lasting impression and captivate readers, making the overall content more engaging and impactful.
The importance of headline and content length
Crafting headlines that immediately capture readers' attention is crucial in today's world. By following the approach of either writing pieces that are less than 500 words or more than 2000 words, one can improve click-through rates and engagement. Headlines serve as hooks to capture interest, and longer content provides a deeper dive into the topic, while shorter content offers quick insights. It is about finding the right length and approach that align with the content and resonate with the target audience.
Building a successful writing team
Building a successful writing team involves finding talented individuals who can align their writing style with the brand's voice and tone. It is crucial to select team members who have a distinct personality and writing style but can adapt it to match the brand's requirements. The goal is to find writers who can bring their unique essence and creativity while adhering to the brand's guidelines. By identifying individuals who have potential, supporting their growth, and allowing their authenticity to shine, a successful and diverse writing team can be cultivated.
Emphasizing the Importance of Personal Stories and Interesting Opinions in Resumes
When reviewing resumes, the speaker looks for the bottom fourth of the resume, which includes information about what the candidate studied and their extracurricular activities. They believe that personal stories and interesting opinions shared about these experiences demonstrate that the candidate is an interesting person and potentially a good writer.
The Power of Copy Work in Developing Writing Skills
The podcast episode discusses the concept of copy work, which involves taking the best examples of writing and copying them by hand. By mimicking and analyzing the texture and patterns of great writing, individuals can develop their own unique voice and improve their writing skills. Copy work is compared to learning to play an instrument by starting with copying simple songs and eventually creating one's own compositions.
Sam is a master copywriter and business builder. If there was ever somebody who knows how to turn online writing into cash, Sam is it.
In this episode, Sam shows how you can sell at scale and where to find the opportunities in the business of writing. We’ll teach you how to think through headlines, find content for your own writing, and torch the internet with your ideas.
Sam started in the early days of email newsletters and he was a master of writing viral content. He tells the story about plagiarizing his way onto Amazon’s bestseller list by looking at the intersection of romantic comedies, werewolves, and the Twilight Series. He combined many stories, self published his own book, sued by a publisher for plagiarizing, and ended up exploding on the self-publishing Reddit forum — all of which led to 1000s of new subscribers for his newsletter.
Since then, his success continues to multiply. First, by selling “The Hustle” for eight-figures to HubSpot. Then, by growing “My First Million” into one of the top ten business podcasts in the world. And now, he recently launched a company called Hampton.
One thing that stands out with Sam is how good he is at colloquial copywriting. His writing sells because it sounds like how people actually talk. First he builds trust with people. Then they open up their wallets. He gets people to open up their wallets by building trust with them very fast through writing. In this episode, he shows exactly how to do that.
