Here’s the thing:

90% of Writers Don’t Make An Income Online

How you can be in the 10% that do

You aren’t going to be a successful writer with just good writing.

And I am not just talking about Medium here. There are a lot of different types of writers out there:

• Those who self-publish on Amazon
• The ones who only write short-form on X and LinkedIn
• Freelancer ghostwriters or copywriters

There are so many excuses out there:

“The market is saturated”

“The algorithm doesn’t like me.”

blah blah blah…

The only thing limiting your income is you.

What do I mean by that?

Self-Awareness of “the Game”

Not every person who writes online is a writer.

Some do it just as a hobby, others whenever they feel like it.

And just to be clear. A writer is someone who writes, on the Internet. A lot. The difference between a successful writer and a hobbyist is the successful writer does 3 crucial things:

• They are consistent with their mindset and goals
• They have a clear vision of where they want to end up
• They use data to analyze and improve their writing
• They make sure every piece of content they deliver is valuable
• They take other’s opinions as constructive criticism without letting their ego take over.

And a lot more. It’s hard to be successful, that's why you’ve heard about so few successful people. Am I right?

But you can still try:

Writing with Intent

Writing with intent means once you decide you want to take this path, you aren’t going to stray away from it. Not for 1 month, not for 3 months, but for 1 year minimum.

If you can’t make it work in 1 year, then you can change your goals.

Your intentions should be clear. You don’t just want to write online.

You want to make money, have an audience, build a community.

All of the things that would make you, in your mind…SUCCESFULL.

People who don’t write with intent are the ones who aren’t playing “the game” of online writing. They haven’t decided if they want to dedicate themselves to this craft. They aren’t sure if they can do it.

Those are the worst types of people.

The Personal Writer vs the Impersonal one

• The personal writer only writes what he wants.
• The impersonal writer knows his audience might not share the same beliefs as him.

In short, the personal writer doesn’t know how to use data in order to advance his career. He feels offended when he receives no engagement in the form of likes, comments, and views.

He eventually gives up and picks an excuse from the big bunch.

The impersonal writer starts out the same as the first one.

He picks a topic he is passionate about. He writes about it using his unique voice. But still…He sees no engagement.

What separates him from the first one is he:

• Does his research. Looking at comments sections, Asking people questions on: “What do YOU want to hear?”

His approach comes more naturally. He puts his focus outward instead of inward. And understands that to satisfy an audience (in more ways than one) he needs to know their pain points and problems.

• He comes back again with new forces, and an original writing style while not trying to reinvent the wheel.

If some type of article already performed well. He will use the idea, the headline template, and the hook and put his own twist on it.

The internet is already full of the same type of information. But his audience will appreciate him more if he brings a new:

• angle,
• belief,
• story

To the conversation.

And just because he saw the article, it doesn’t mean his audience also saw it, right?

You need an Audience. The audience doesn’t need you

If You disappeared the next day would your reader care? Be honest with yourself. I know mine wouldn’t.

If the answer is no. It’s clear you are doing something wrong. I am doing something wrong.

That’s why you should become memorable.

Engaging with your audience as much as possible by responding to every comment, and every DM.

This and consistency over a long period of time will make sure you become memorable. And when the river flows your brand will stand solid like a rock.

The 3 Stages of Becoming Successful for the 3 Types of Creators

The first thing you are going to do when starting out your career is make a lot of noise.

But the kind you make will differ based on your goals.

You first have to pick what kind of writer you’re going to be. And then stick with it.

1. Freelancers

Your job as a freelancer writer would be to either create content, or video scripts for others. As a copywriter, you aim to increase your client's earnings with the power of your words. Doing emails and so many other things.

• Pick the job you want to offer. And learn the skill.
• Build your brand on places where your clients hang out.

If you want to write scripts for YouTubers, make a YouTube channel, same for tiktok and Instagram. If you are targeting business executives and owners then LinkedIn and X are for you.

• Interact and actually seek out clients at the start through DMs.

If your content is good enough you’ll get a handful of inbound leads as well as a higher conversion on cold outreach.

It would be an understatement to say the market is undersaturated. But more on that later, in another story.

2. Self-Published Author (+Non-Fiction)

If you want to be a self-published author on Amazon you need your own traffic as well. You can’t rely on just ads and organic traffic, especially if your budget is low.

You’ll have to run your own marketing campaign when you release your book:

• Do your market research when it comes to what book you want to publish

What genre you’re in; Other similar books; What people want to get out of that kind of book.

• Build Anticipation
• Write or Create videos about your book on the right platform (The platform where your specific Demographic hangs out)

3. The Modern Teacher

The modern teacher is someone who wants:

• to share their knowledge online,
• attract an audience,
• Monetize it through products, courses, or affiliate marketing.

It’s the only way you can make money through any skill.

The skills you gather along will help you tremendously.

Unfortunately, it would take me so much more time to write about this topic.

So if you want to learn more about modern creators and monetization — Leave a comment!

Conclusion (TL;DR)

• Separate the art of writing online just as a hobby from the business of writing online with the INTENT of making money from your words
• Become memorable through consistent action towards the right goal and high engagement with your audience, your people, and your community.
• You need to get to know your audience, their problems, and pain points in order to know how to deliver the right “punches”, and the right things to say so people have a reason to listen to you.
• Understand the stages of writing and categories: you start on a path, you write, you make money. But it’s different from niche to niche.

Thank you for reading!

Make sure to check out this post as well if you want to learn more about the secrets of using short-form content in order to grow your brand:

If you want to learn more about:

• Becoming a better writer than you were yesterday,
• Ways to monetize your knowledge,
• The best tips and practices as well as trends in the writing online game

Then following Eduard Nicoara (Me) is for you. I post daily content on those topics as well as others. If you don’t want to miss any of this subscribe here to get an email whenever I post. ( I won’t spam you, I promise)