The Creator Business Blueprint: How to Build a 6-Figure Writing-Backed Business on the Internet

A step-by-step roadmap for online writers who want to earn more, work less, and build a business that lasts.

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At Write • Build • Scale, we help you do three simple things: write, build, and scale.

More specifically, we help you become a better writer, build your audience, and scale your income.

Even though our promise is clear, we occasionally receive messages saying, "This doesn't work for me."

And sometimes, that’s true because our work isn’t meant to support every type of writer.

Everything we teach helps you build a profitable digital business that enables you to make money by sharing your knowledge, expertise, or experience with others.

But this isn’t about a few messages we receive. It's an underlying confusion about what a “creator business” (or online business, content business, etc.) is.

There are so many terms that blend together that it can be hard to understand what exactly you are building and what kind of resources you need in order to achieve your goals.

You might come across terms like funnels, offers, customer lifetime value, and much more.

But which of those do you really need to pay attention to?

What do you really need to do to get paid for sharing your knowledge, expertise, or ideas with the world?

And how exactly do you build freedom while doing what you love?

Well, that’s the purpose of this piece.

Over the next few minutes, I’ll share with you our philosophy and approach to building thriving creator businesses.

We’ll break down the essential pieces of building a 6-figure creator business and highlight the tools, strategies, and systems we use at Write • Build • Scale to help our students grow their audience and income—step by step.

At the end, I’ll also share five specific AI prompts to help you take action and create tangible results.

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The Elephant in the Room: What’s the Role of Writing?

Our brand is called Write • Build • Scale for a reason. Writing is at the foundation of our business, and it's a foundational element of our clients' businesses.

When you build your creator business with us, a significant portion of your efforts goes into writing.

This includes writing content, writing stories, writing descriptions, writing sales copy, maybe even writing video scripts, and much more.

Despite all of that, writing is only a medium.

And if you want to build a sustainable business on the internet, your message is as important as the medium.

Once you have nailed down your message and how you want to show up for your audience, you can communicate the same information through other media as well.

For example, through voice (podcasts), videos, or on a stage speaking to hundreds of people in a room.

So, if you're currently thinking about whether building this type of creator business is the right choice for you or not, you have to embrace the difference between being a writer who creates without a plan and being a digital entrepreneur who primarily leverages writing to share their message, serve their audience, and make money.

In this scenario, writing will be a key element in your business and a key task for you to tackle. But you'll be able to build a sustainable digital business much faster if you can think of yourself as a business owner rather than just a writer.

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The 7 Elements of Your Creator Business

Let’s state the obvious: There’s not just one correct way to build a successful creator business.

There are a lot of different paths that can lead to success, and there are lots of outliers.

The real joy of building an online business in the digital age is that you get to decide what to do and what to avoid.

That being said, there are certain patterns, frameworks, and systems that are proven to work, which will make your life a whole lot easier.

At Write • Build • Scale, we have worked with thousands of creators, and based on our experience, these are the key elements your creator business needs:

1. A Clear Audience & Message

I know, I know: Finding your niche is hard.

You’re multi-passionate.

You want to write about different topics.

You’re afraid you’ll get bored if you only stick to “one thing.”

I've heard all these excuses a million times, and I'm calling them excuses on purpose because all they do is hold you back from actually moving forward.

I'm multi-passionate too.

I love Taylor Swift.

I'm a runner.

I travel a lot.

I'm a vegetarian and wish that people would stop eating animals.

I'm in a multicultural relationship.

I've been battling multiple cancer diagnoses in my family over the past few years, which has been the biggest challenge I’ve faced so far.

I could write about all those things because I have a lot to say about each of them.

But I don't do that because my writing has a clear purpose: Helping my audience and growing my business.

Writing is part of my job. And even though I love my job, it’s only a tiny percentage of my life and personality.

Every item on the list above is at least as important to me as my work as a writer and educator.

You can be multi-passionate and multi-talented without trying to monetize all your skills or passions.

Just because you like many things doesn’t mean you have to monetize them all.

Even though I love what I do for a living, I have a very clear goal: I want to work as little as possible and create the biggest possible results.

If I can choose between spending time in front of my computer and going on a hike, dancing, running, or just spending time with my favorite people, I won't voluntarily sit in front of a screen.

If you feel the same way, you have to accept the fact that clarity is power.

The more specific your messaging is, and the better you know who you want to reach and serve through your work, the more strategic you can be in your content. And the more likely you'll be to reach the right people.

If you don’t know who you’re serving, your message won’t land, and your offers won’t sell.

You need a clear positioning that answers questions like:

• Who is this for?

• What do I help them achieve or avoid?

• Why me?

When your audience knows what to expect from you, they’re more likely to trust you, follow you, and buy from you.

And if you want to make money through your work, you need people to buy from you - no matter if you’re selling a book, a course, a coaching offer, a partnership package to a large corporation, or anything in between.

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2. A Publishing System (Not Just Posts)

Random content = random results.

To build a profitable and sustainable creator business, you need a repeatable publishing system that keeps you visible without burning you out.

This includes:

• A clear content rhythm (weekly, biweekly, etc.)

• A structure for idea collection and repurposing

• Posts that build on each other, not just one-off thoughts

This is how you create momentum and trust over time.

I see so many self-proclaimed experts claiming that consistency is the key to success. And while consistency certainly matters, it only works when it’s backed up by a solid content strategy.

If you're new to content creation or online writing and have a limited amount of time available each week, focus on creating fewer pieces of content that have a high chance of reaching the right readers instead of just trying to produce more.

Through the prompt I'll share at the end of this piece, you'll be able to determine what kind of content publishing system to follow in order to achieve your goals as efficiently as possible.

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3. A Feedback Loop

Here’s what nobody tells you about consistency: Most new creators consistently do the wrong things.

If you’re new to the digital business world and don't have any mentors or peers who can guide you, you might publish consistently yet waste your efforts because you're doing the wrong things or your message is not reaching the right people.

That's why one of our core pillars at Write • Build • Scale is a consistent feedback loop.

In our group coaching programs and membership, we consistently encourage our students to ask for feedback on their work because we want to ensure that they stay on track.

You need a system for regularly evaluating what’s working and what’s not, so you can make smarter decisions.

Feedback prevents you from building in the dark. It’s the fuel for focused, intentional growth.

You can build feedback loops with trusted peers, or you can pay to get access to mentors, coaches, and supporters who will accelerate your journey by helping you avoid time wasters. This is entirely up to you. Either way, you will either invest time or money to quickly learn what (not) to do.

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4. An Intentional Path to Monetization

Too many creators delay monetization or rely on one-off sales.

This is particularly dangerous on a platform like Substack, where creators often end up chasing $5 subscriptions and wonder why they feel burned out.

The biggest problem we see is that writers don't start to monetize at all; they're waiting to meet a certain threshold or follower count and keep themselves busy for months or years before thinking of how to actually get paid for their work.

But here’s a reminder: If you want to get paid for your work, you’re building a business.

And you can’t treat a business like a hobby.

When you follow our definition of a creator business and aim to get paid for sharing what you know and helping your readers overcome their own problems, you have a wide range of monetization opportunities that you can choose from.

You can sell (from low-tier products to high-ticket offers):

• PDFs

• Workbooks

• Ebooks

• Audiobooks

• Databases

• Templates

• Mini-courses

• Group coaching offers

• Individual coaching offers

• VIP packages

• In-person events

• Virtual events

• And much more

How exactly you choose to monetize your work doesn't really matter.

All these opportunities can lead to a thriving six or seven-figure business.

You can pick only one path and go all in on it, or you can mix and match different types of offers.

At Write • Build • Scale, for example, we use a variety of these options: We sell a low-cost database and an even cheaper subscription to our premium content on Substack.

We offer mini-courses (such as the SuperWriter Workshop) and in-depth programs like Mini-Course Accelerator or Substack System, as well as 1-on-1 coaching packages.

If you are just starting out and running a one-person show, you will obviously not build dozens of products and offers in your first year.

Instead, you have to decide how you want to make your first $10,000 in revenue.

One of the biggest mistakes I see creators make is that they are afraid of monetization, and since they don't feel comfortable charging for their work, they are inclined to first build low-tier products that cost less than $50.

They feel more comfortable selling a cheap offer, but the reality is that breaking even and making a significant amount of money with a $20 product is incredibly hard for a new creator who doesn't have tens of thousands of email subscribers yet.

If you're confident about your skills and your ability to help people, you'll have a much easier time charging a higher price to support someone more intimately or in a group setting.

Let’s bring this to life with a specific example:

Imagine you’re a holistic health coach who writes on Substack about stress reduction, hormonal balance, and natural energy.

You’ve grown your email list to 700 subscribers. 50 of them open every email, and 20 of them reply, comment, or engage regularly.

Instead of creating a $10 ebook and hoping for scale (which would only earn you $200 even if 20 people bought it), here’s what an intentional monetization path could look like:

Step 1: Launch a Paid Tier That Feels Like a Natural Upgrade

You introduce a paid tier for $10/month or $100/year that includes:

• 2 premium newsletter editions per month

• A private Substack Chat where subscribers can ask you health-related questions

• Occasional live Q&A calls or seasonal wellness planning sessions

Even if just 20 people sign up, that’s $2,000/year in recurring income—and you haven’t created much new, just gone deeper with your current audience.

Step 2: Add a Mid-Tier Digital Product

Next, you create a $79 "7-Day Natural Reset Kit" that includes:

• A digital PDF guide

• A grocery shopping list

• Meal plans and meditations

• Short daily videos (pre-recorded using Loom or Zoom)

You launch this once and then let it run evergreen through your welcome email or sidebar promotion. It works especially well as a soft upsell after someone joins the paid tier or downloads your freebie.

Step 3: Introduce a High-Touch Offer

Finally, you create a $499 “3-Week Wellness Sprint”—a high-touch group coaching offer that includes:

• Weekly calls on Zoom

• A community for accountability

• Personalized feedback on daily routines

• A private kickoff call with each participant

Even just five clients = $2,495

So, with under 1,000 subscribers and no social media ads or massive launch, your business model might look like this:

• $2,000/year from 20 paid subscribers

• $1,580 from 20 sales of your Reset Kit

• $2,495 from 5 group coaching clients

Total: $6,075 in revenue from one well-aligned, intentional monetization system.

More importantly, none of this relies on going viral or weird growth hacks that feel scammy.

You’re simply making it easy for people who already love your work to go deeper and get more support.

That’s the power of monetizing with intention.

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5. Offers That Scale

It's worth mentioning separately that most successful creator businesses have at least one or two scalable income sources

If your income depends 100% on new content or 1:1 services, you’ll hit a natural ceiling over time.

That’s why every creator business needs to build offers that scale over time since they can be created once and sold infinitely. These could be:

• Courses

• Swipe files

• Workshops

• Mini-products

• Templates

These are products that allow you to get paid again and again without creating from scratch every time.

Once you have created these assets and sold them a few times, you want to place them strategically throughout your content and platforms so that your audience members can automatically discover and purchase them without much direct promotion happening.

For example, you could link to them throughout your existing content, in your welcome emails, and in your newsletters.

Scalable offers like these matter because they free up your time and headspace.

The content creation space is changing rapidly, and the speed of change is only getting faster through AI tools.

To stay on top of these changes, nurture your community, and invest enough time into your craft and message, you need to be able to get paid without chasing every dollar.

That’s the freedom scalable offers and evergreen funnels give you.

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6. A System for Sales (That Feels Aligned)

Many writers resist “selling” because it feels gross or unnatural. But in a successful creator business, sales is service.

If you don’t promote your work, the people who need it won’t find it.

You don’t need to be loud or aggressive—you need to be clear, consistent, and confident.

At Write • Build • Scale, we help creators develop authentic selling systems.

Similar to the wide range of products that you can create based on your own preferences, you can also build sales systems that match your personality, tone, and preferences.

When I started my creator business, I hated selling.

I would have loved to give away everything for free and live on donations. Sadly, that's not a viable business model, and getting paid for your hard work requires a solid sales strategy.

At Write • Build • Scale, we use a mix of different sales mechanisms.

We have evergreen funnels that run on our email service provider Kit, where our new subscribers get automatic promotions for our existing products.

A few times a year, we run a live launch, which sometimes happens through a live webinar.

We also sell through private messages if we have a conversation with someone and realize that they need our products or services.

What I've experienced over the last couple of years is that building evergreen funnels feels tempting to lots of new creators.

You want to build a sales page, a small product, and sell it on autopilot. And while that's perfectly doable, it's not the quickest way to earn money through your work.

Because a profitable evergreen funnel requires lots of traffic, which means you need to send lots of people to your sales page in order to make a substantial amount of money.

If you are just getting started, you'll be able to make money a lot faster if you have private conversations and find out how you can help individuals through your skills.

I know that having sales calls or pitching someone directly can sound incredibly uncomfortable, but once you know how you can actually help them and feel confident about your offer, showing up and promoting your offer will feel effortless.

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7. A Long-Term Vision That Keeps You Grounded

Without a long-term vision, you’ll get distracted by shiny objects or discouraged by short-term setbacks.

A sustainable creator business needs:

• A clear why behind your work

• A vision for your desired lifestyle

• Flexibility to adapt as your goals evolve

These three elements are your anchor. ⚓️

They keep you focused when growth feels slow, or algorithms change.

I started my creator business with a very clear vision back in 2018.

I wanted to ditch the corporate ladder and live life on my own terms.

I wanted to be my own boss, travel the world, and make my own rules.

I didn't know how exactly I would make money, what my day-to-day work life would look like, and how much money I would need to make in order to afford my dream lifestyle.

And to be fair, the how changed multiple times ever since. As my skills and goals changed, so did my approach to making money.

But the long-term vision always kept me going.

And that's what matters: I see so many creators who fail to be bold and step out of their comfort zone simply because they don't have a clear north star.

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Let’s take ACTION: AI Prompts to Get Started

A thriving creator business runs on structure. And with the right answers and system, everything is easier.

That's why we prepared five specific AI prompts (only accessible for our paid subscribers) that will help you gain clarity and direction for your creator business.

You can use each of these individually and use the insights step by step.

If you're not a paid subscriber with us yet, you can upgrade your subscription right now by clicking here.

Let's dive in:

🧠 Prompt #1: Your Creator Business Blueprint (Full Clarity)

Use this prompt if you’re starting from scratch or want to clarify your entire business model.

This prompt helps you define the core components of your creator business, including your audience, message, offer, and delivery method. It’s especially useful if you feel unclear or stuck in the planning phase.

Copy this prompt into ChatGPT and follow each question carefully to outline the high-level structure of your business: