scorecardThis self-proclaimed 'email marketing nerd' earns 7 figures by working 30 hours a week hosting virtual events, writing a paid newsletter, and creating digital courses. Here's how he does it.
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This self-proclaimed 'email marketing nerd' earns 7 figures by working 30 hours a week hosting virtual events, writing a paid newsletter, and creating digital courses. Here's how he does it.

Lakshmi Varanasi   

This self-proclaimed 'email marketing nerd' earns 7 figures by working 30 hours a week hosting virtual events, writing a paid newsletter, and creating digital courses. Here's how he does it.
E-commerce specialist Chase Dimond earned seven figures last year through several income streams.Chase Dimond
  • Chase Dimond is an e-commerce specialist with six different income streams.
  • He works approximately 30 hours per week and is on track to earn seven figures this year.

In high school, Chase Dimond was diagnosed with Crohn's disease which caused him to lose out on a whole year of school as he struggled to cope.

That experience motivated him to join a nonprofit aimed at finding cures for the disease through which he met many successful entrepreneurs. Dimond said they not only mentored him, but they inspired him to consider a similar future for himself. Before he graduated, Dimond even tried his hand at launching a t-shirt company.

In college, Dimond channeled his gumption into working five different jobs to help his parents pay tuition. After graduating, he landed a job at an education technology company where he earned a salary just shy of six figures. Determined to hit the $100,000-a-year benchmark, he began taking consulting gigs on the side to supplement his income.

In retrospect, Dimond said the adversity he faced in his earlier years helped him land where he is today— living as one of the millionaire class.

Dimond's total revenue last year was just over a million dollars. (He told Insider that it's the first time he's shared that figure publicly.)

But how he earned the money might be more interesting — or even instructive.

Dimond said he generates income across six different income streams: an e-commerce marketing agency, a series of digital courses, email newsletters, virtual events, social media channels, and consulting.

How he manages it all

Dimond said he manages all his income streams without burning out.

"I used to literally live on calls," Dimond said. In years past, Dimond said he would take six or eight calls a day which left him working nights and weekends just to manage his workload.

"Now that I have a family, that's just not something that I'm willing to do."

These days, as the father of a newborn, Dimond said he works approximately six hours a day, and doesn't take more than two calls in that period.

Dimond said he's able to work so efficiently because he relies on a host of productivity and AI tools.

He said whenever he has something to say to a client — or even show them— he uses an asynchronous workplace tool called Bubbles that allows him to send video messages. Both parties can respond whenever they have time, which helps create an asynchronous back and forth without having to hop on Zoom.

"When I'm on the treadmill at 10 o'clock at night after my kids have gone to bed I might respond to a Bubbles message then," Dimond said. "Calls that should be emails are emails, calls that need to happen, happen, and other than that I use Bubbles."

Dimond said he also relies on Fireflies.ai or Otter.ai to "attend" meetings for him and transcribe notes. Dimond said that Fireflies.ai is especially useful in sifting out the main points of a meeting and creating "Sparknotes version" that he can skim when he has time. He uses the paid version of ChatGPT to find inspiration for his social media posts.

Dimond's other tip: Don't overextend yourself by trying to be good at everything, focus on spreading your strengths across multiple arenas.

"In all the business I do I have the same role," Dimond said. "I'm really good at content. I'm really good at testing. I'm really good at marketing. I'm really good at copywriting." He's "really bad" at finance, accounting, contracts, and hiring, he said.

Here's a closer look at his income streams:

E-commerce Marketing Agency

Dimond's largest business is an e-commerce marketing agency called Structured. He launched the agency with a partner in 2018 under the name Boundless Labs, focusing largely on email marketing. 

In 2020, the agency merged with Structured Social, a company that does paid advertisement. Now, Structured has over 130 employees and works with over 150 brands including Health-Ade, a kombucha brand, and Poo-purri, a bathroom spray. 

Digital Courses

Almost half of Dimond's income comes from digital courses. He said he launched his first course, "The $100M Ecommerce Email Marketer" in October 2020 after fielding multiple requests on Twitter for an email marketing course. 

"I didn't want to be called a 'guru.' I thought there was a negative stigma to it," he said. "Looking back I'm so glad I did."

That course is priced at $749, and includes four to five hours of video content. Since it launched, Dimond said 1,500 people have taken the course.

Dimond said he also has four other email marketing courses available through online platforms like Gumroad and Podia. Some, like his first course, offer video content while others are just downloadable .pdfs. He also offers a copy-writing class through a course business he co-founded called Copy MBA

 

Virtual Events

Back in October 2021, Dimond hosted his first virtual event; a free event for Black Friday that he hosted through a virtual events company and drew 13,000 to 14,000 attendees. 

"If you can bring the audience and the eyeballs there are sponsors that are willing to pay to get in front of those people," Dimond said. 

That event generated money through sponsorships from e-commerce companies like Klaivyo and Triple Whale. Afterwards, the recordings and transcripts from the event were sold for additional income. 

Last year, Dimond hosted four similar events that followed the same model.

 

Paid Newsletter

On Fridays and Monday, Dimond sends out a free newsletter on email marketing to more than 75,000 subscribers that is sponsored by e-commerce and software companies. 

On Thursdays, he sends out a paid newsletter that offers more specific insights on how to structure email marketing campaigns. Dimond said it's targeted at freelancers, e-commerce brands, or agencies and currently has 400-500 subscribers paying between $25 to $75 a month.

"I've sent that for two year and I maybe lose one person a month," Dimond said. 

 

Social Media

Dimond said that he also operates his own social media brand that earns money through sponsorships from advertisers.

Under his own name, Dimond has 100,000 followers on Twitter, almost 180,000 followers on LinkedIn, and 10,000 on YouTube

He also operates accounts that aren't tied to his name or face. On LinkedIn, he runs an account called Daily Copywriting with more than 44,000 followers. He recently started an AI-focused LinkedIn account called "AI Evolution" that has gained almost 50,000 followers in the past 45 days.

Consulting

Dimond said he'll typically take on one or two consulting opportunities on a quarterly basis. 

"They range from one-off calls with a company to six-month contract," Dimond said, adding that gigs vary according to the company, but may include things like conducting internal training sessions for a company's marketing team.

"The money is good but it's the least scalable," Dimond said. 

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