How I built a mid-six figure business by sending one email a day
I never imagined I'd build a half-a-million-dollar-a-year business by sending one email a day...
But that's exactly what happened.
And it started the day I met a guy doing the EXACT opposite of everything I'd been taught.
In late 2016, a solopreneur reached out about a sales page. He had two online courses teaching Fortune 500 executives how to communicate better. That was his entire income. Two dinky courses.
When I did the math, he was doing about $1 million a year.
Meanwhile, I was doing everything to complicate my business. I'd started CopyHour simple in 2012, then caught "business model fever" — a beauty subscription box with my wife, a publishing company, client work, an agency I almost started weekly. I tried everything and did nothing well.
This guy did the opposite. And the one thing that stood out wasn't the courses, or the audience he'd built.
Everything centered on an email list. And he emailed it every single day.
So I simplified, built a list, and emailed it consistently. I doubled my income in 2017. Then, like an idiot, I complicated it all over again — group calls, high-ticket coaching, agency models — until late 2023, when I was on the edge of a breakdown.
I simplified one last time. I stripped away everything I'd bolted on, got back to the fundamentals in this book, and 3x'd a business that was already working.
Here's the lesson I keep relearning the hard way: try to do it all, and you'll do nothing. If you're lost in the weeds — or you just want a real business that's simple — keep reading.
Why this matters more now than ever
If you're building your audience on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, you're building on rented land. The platform owns the relationship. It changes the rules, throttles your reach, and can shut it all off tomorrow.
Your email list is the one thing you actually own.
Think of it as digital real estate. Social media is just how you get people onto the land you own — your list. Everything else is a rental. And most people are flat-out exhausted by the content treadmill that keeps them renting forever.
The model in this book is how you step off it for good.
The entire business is two things.
After years of overcomplicating it, here's what the whole model actually comes down to. Do one of each, every day, and you've done everything you need to.
Build the list
Each day, do one thing to get a new buyer or subscriber onto your list. Not thousands of followers. 100 to 500 buyers who love your stuff is enough to reach mid six-figures.
Email the list
Each day, do one thing to email that list. Teach something, or sell something while teaching. That's the whole job. Build the list, email the list, repeat.
The book
Inside, I lay out the entire model, start to finish, in about an hour of reading. No fluff, no filler, no business-bro nonsense. Just the exact blueprint I use to run minimalist businesses that pay my mortgage, feed my kids, and give me a lifestyle I love. This isn't about building a complicated empire with dozens of employees. It's explicitly designed to avoid that.
What's inside
The Two-Course Millionaire
The $1mm/year business that changed how I think about everything.
The Shortcut Illusion
Why the "faster" complicated path is the reason most people never finish.
The Four Pillars
The whole machine in one view, and how the pieces feed each other.
Buyers, Not Freebie-Seekers
The distinction that tripled my income once it finally clicked.
Problems = Money
Where products actually come from, and the 5-word question that finds them.
The Product Ladder
The 5 product types, what to build first, and how I started with $20.
The One-Email-Per-Day Engine
The single change in 2017 that doubled my income, and how to write the emails fast.
The Rolling Launch Model
Scarcity without stress, and how one product can sell all year.
Traffic Without Ads
How I built the whole thing without spending on ads or chasing algorithms.
The Honest Math
How 100 to 500 Buyers adds up to mid-six figures, and what it actually takes.
The Resource Pack & Prompt Vault
The book gives you the model. This hands you the pieces, so you never start from a blank page, and the prompts let AI do the heavy lifting without making your emails sound like a robot wrote them.
- The Daily Email Formula — the fill-in-the-blank skeleton I use to write a teach-or-sell email in under 20 minutes.
- The Big Idea Worksheet — how I land on offers a list will actually pay for.
- The One-Page Sales Page — the simple template behind the page you're reading right now.
- The Rolling Launch Calendar — so a single product can sell all year without big stressful launches.
- The Prompt Vault — my exact AI prompts for drafting daily emails, sales pages, and product ideas in your own voice.
You'll see it as a one-click add-on on the checkout page. Tick the box to add it for $27, or skip it and just grab the book. Your call.
Who am I?
I'm Derek Johanson. I created CopyHour over a decade ago, and it's since helped 5,000+ students generate over $1 billion in sales. I've been running businesses built entirely around email since 2012, and for the last 15+ years I've done it as essentially a one-person operation.
I send emails five days a week. Most of the time they teach something for free. Sometimes they sell something while still teaching. There's no social media, no paid ads, and no complexity. I still have trouble accepting how simple it is at times.
— Derek
What students say
Planning email campaigns, finding ideas, and standing out from the crowd for my email marketing sucked. My income was inconsistent from one month to the next. Not only did Derek's system let me get consistent 20k months, but it allowed me to show my expertise with less work, helping me pull in high ticket clients with less work.
Before learning Derek's email system, I was sending random daily emails with no structure. Every morning, I'd waste an hour trying to figure out what to write (before I even wrote a single word). It was overwhelming AF. After applying his framework, everything clicked into a clear routine. I now know exactly what to send each day. Even better? My best customers started reaching out to thank me for all the value I am delivering.
Working with Derek, my last launch did over $31,000 in revenue to a list of 4,700 subscribers. I'm making more profit in less time. And I'm enjoying running my business a lot more.
Made $80,000 in her first year in business using this model.
A real freelance copywriter charges $100+ to write one email.
This book shows you how to write them yourself, and build an entire business around them, for the price of a sandwich.
One-time payment · instant access · read it today
Get the book · $7Optional at checkout: add the Resource Pack & Prompt Vault for $27.
It's $7 because I want to turn you into a long-term customer, and the best way to do that is to actually help you make money from email. If this book helps you send one email that makes a sale, you'll remember who handed you the blueprint.
Earn back 100x or your money back.
I design everything I sell to deliver an insane return. If reading this book doesn't give you at least one idea you can use to earn back 100x what you paid, shoot me one email within 30 days and I'll refund the full purchase price. No "proof" necessary. I trust you. So just buy it now and refund if it's not right.
Questions
Do I have to be a good writer for this to work?
Good writer? Not really. In fact the more human and imperfect you write, the better. You do need to be comfortable expressing your ideas in writing, and you've got to actually enjoy it. But grammatically perfect? No. It's better if it's not.
I'm already running a business. Will this work for me?
Yes. This is how I run my businesses, but it's also the exact model I walk struggling owners through when they feel stuck and like they've complicated everything. If you want to simplify what you've already got while likely leveling up your income a lot, this is what you need.
What if I don't have a list yet?
Read it now. Understanding this model from day one saves you months of doing the wrong things. The whole point is that you build a small list of Buyers by selling something simple first. The book shows you how that works, starting from zero.
What if I don't feel like an "expert" in anything?
You don't need to be the world's foremost authority. You need one problem you've solved that other people are still struggling with. The book has an entire chapter on finding exactly that, and the simplest possible first product is built around a problem you're solving for yourself.
My niche is different. Will it apply?
I've used this model and watched clients use it across fitness, skin care, real estate, self-help, yoga instruction, finance, and plenty more. It's built around connecting directly with Buyers over email, which works in any knowledge-based niche.
What exactly do I get?
The full book, instant access, readable in about an hour. At checkout you can optionally add the Resource Pack & Prompt Vault for $27.
Stop overthinking. Start simplifying.
You can read the whole thing today and start applying it tomorrow. The model is simple on purpose, because simple is the only thing I've ever actually stuck with. Trust me.
Get the book — $7P.S.
If your business has too many moving parts — too many platforms, too many launches, the endless content treadmill — this is the antidote. One list. One email a day. A few simple products. That's the whole thing. Read it tonight and you'll see exactly how the pieces fit. Grab it for $7 here.
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