5 Lessons About Making Money As An Online Writer I Wish I Learned 5 Years Ago

"The problem isn’t a lack of writing skills, but a lack of business skills."

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

I started writing online in 2018.

Since then, I’ve grown an audience of tens of thousands of people, generated multiple six figures in income, and turned my writing into two online businesses.

But it wasn’t always like this.

During my first two years as a writer, I was dead broke. I’d be beyond excited when I made $500 from my writing in a single month.

It was only after learning a few key lessons that I started making good money from my writing.

Let’s dive into those lessons right now.

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#1: Treat Writing Like A Business (Not A Hobby)

There’s nothing noble about being a starving artist.

I see incredible writers who struggle to make a living, while average writers earn thousands of dollars a month because they’re more business-focused.

If you want to make a full-time income as an online writer, you have to treat writing as a business, not a hobby.

No wonder the most profitable writers I know spend more time improving their business skills than they do on improving their writing skills.

They’re always trying to get better at:

• Digital marketing

• Creating offers

• Serving customers

• Building sales funnels

• Personal branding

Of course, your writing skills need to be good enough. You can’t expect to build an audience if your writing sucks.

But for most writers, the problem isn’t a lack of writing skills, but a lack of business skills. That’s why they struggle to make money.

So, if you want to earn more as a writer, spend more time learning business and marketing skills.

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#2: Help Your Audience Solve Their Problems

A lot of writers make their writing too much about themselves and not enough about their readers.

But if you want to make more impact and income as a writer, you need to focus on the problems and challenges of your audience.

Ultimately, people consume educational content (whether it’s podcasts, Medium articles, or YouTube videos) because they want to solve a painful problem in their life.

So, the more you focus your writing on solving the problems and pain points of your audience, the more people will read your work and want to buy one of your products or services.

It’s as simple as that.

For example, when I was still writing about productivity, the number one pain point of my audience was procrastination.

I tried to focus my writing as much as possible on helping people conquer procrastination, increase motivation, and improve their self-discipline.

In total, I made over $300k (through Medium, my newsletter, and digital products) because I identified the core problem of my audience and helped them solve it.

So, the single most important question you can ask yourself as an online writer is:

What are the biggest struggles and pain points of my audience? And how can I help them solve it?

Put this as the background of your computer. Print it out and hang it on your fridge. Do whatever you can to stay focused on this question.

The more you help your audience solve their problems and pain points, the more impact and income you will make.

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#3: Make Mistakes & Stay Patient

I know zero writers who went viral with their first post, made $100k with their first product, or grew a large email list overnight.

Every success you see is built on top of a stack of failures.

It took me more than two years before I consistently earned a full-time income from my writing.

I made a ton of mistakes along the way, but every single setback taught me a valuable lesson that helped me get better.

So, don’t expect quick progress. You’re going to be disappointed and quit too early to see any results.

It takes patience and consistency to succeed as an online writer.

Don’t get discouraged by failures and setbacks, but see them as essential stepping stones that get you closer to your writing goals.

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#4: Monetize Attention (Not Your Words)

A lot of writers focus on getting paid directly for writing words. And yes, this can definitely make you money.

You can write on Medium and get paid through the Partner Program. Some of my Medium articles generated $4,000, while others made a whopping $5. You can make good money on Medium, but there are too many ups and downs to rely on it as your main income source.

You can search for freelance writing jobs on Fiverr or Upwork. But most of these jobs are very time-consuming and don’t pay much.

You can post on X and get paid through their Ads Revenue Sharing program. But this creator who got 55 million views only got paid $1,543, which is far from life-changing money.

You can write on Substack and offer paid subscriptions. This can be a good income source, but you need hundreds of monthly paying subscribers to earn just $2,000 - $3,000 a month. Even for some of the most popular writers on this platform, this can be a struggle.

That’s why the most profitable writers do things differently.

Instead of focusing on getting paid for their words, they focus on monetizing the attention their words generate.

That’s where the long-term money is.

Here’s how they do it:

• They write to attract new readers

• They add a call-to-action to join their email list at the end of a post, so new readers can subscribe if they want more

• They turn these new email subscribers into fans by sending them value-packed emails

• They regularly promote paid products (books, courses, etc.) or services (coaching, consulting, etc.) to their email list

It’s not rocket science, but it requires a different way of thinking about how to make money as a writer.

Instead of seeing your writing as the end product, see it as the starting point. Write to get attention, then monetize the attention.

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#5: Own Your Audience (Build An Email List)

An email list is a writer’s most valuable online asset.

It helps you be bulletproof to:

• Sudden algorithm changes that limit your reach overnight

• Users leaving the social media platform you’ve built your audience on

• The content creation ‘rat race’ of always having to post on social media

All in all, an email list is the difference between renting your audience and owning your audience.

If you want to turn writing into a thriving online business, you need to own the audience you worked so hard for.

No matter what happens on social media, you need to be able to stay in touch with your audience.

That’s essential.

Next to having ownership of your audience, email is the best marketing channel to turn writing into a reliable online income source.

My email list of 17,000+ subscribers has been responsible for over $300k in revenue, which I’ve generated through a combination of:

• E-books

• Online courses

• 1-on-1 Coaching

• Affiliate marketing

• Newsletter sponsorships

Building an email list is like building a money printer that, as it grows in size, also grows in profitability.

So, if you haven’t already, start that email list as soon as possible.

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