How I Get Paid $100/Hour To Coach Writers (Despite Writing for 1 Year)
3 steps to build your reputation and get offers of work
It’s insane how much can change in 12 months.
January 2023 I started on Medium. And averaged 0.8 reads per article. (Yes less than 1 person was writing my stuff). But fast forward to January 2024. And people are paying me $100/hour for writing advice.
How is it possible to go from hopeless writer to writing coach?
I’ll show you the 3 steps I took.
But first, you need to know 3 things about me:
- I hate sales — The idea of sending cold DM’s. Or ‘jumping on a call’ to sell my services. Fills me with dread.
2. I never meant to make money. I started writing for fun.
3. I have no writing background
So if any of that sounds like you. You’re in the right place.
Here’s what I did:
1. Get good at writing
You can’t take a shortcut.
Forget earning money, building an audience, going viral. Start with a relentless focus. Become a brilliant writer. This is the foundation for everything. Ignore tips on how to hack a social platform. Or even the Medium boost.
Set yourself a single goal. Build your writing skills. Trust me. Once you can do this. You’ll zoom past everyone else. Don’t worry about the lack of growth. It’s classic tortoise and hare stuff.
It took me 9 months to gain my first 1000 followers on Medium. And then 3 weeks to get my next 1000. The fruit of 9 months spent improving. And it’s dead simple to get good at writing. Most don’t because it takes work.
What doesn’t work:
- buying lots of courses
- chasing every new secret
- reading endless advice online
- intending to start writing more
- jumping from platform to platform
I’ve seen tons of writers waste their time on these things. All you need to do is follow this process:
- write a lot
- get high-quality writing advice
- spend 1 month applying 1 writing tip
- repeat this 6 times
Then you’ll be ready for takeoff
2. Promote yourself (without promoting yourself)
As your writing skills develop you’ll need to start selling yourself.
Don’t worry this doesn’t involve sending 100 cold DM’s/hour. It just means making people aware of what you can do. This is so easy to do. Anyone can do it. Here’s the golden secret:
Use yourself as the context for your writing.
Whatever you are teaching or explaining. Make yourself the illustration. This is my basic writing strategy:
When I explain how to craft a compelling title. I’ll show my best title. Why it works and the results it achieved.
If I’m writing about how to start your newsletter. I share how I started mine.
When I share which writing tools to use. I mention the course I designed with them.
Did you notice? I used this tactic in those italic sentences. You now know:
- I have a newsletter
- I’ve designed a course
- I know about writing tools
- I have a ‘best title’ which achieved results
But you won’t feel sold to. Because I used my stuff to help you.
The other way to build your reputation is use your transformation story. People want to learn from someone who has been where they are. But didn’t stay there. So drop in how bad it was when you started. Include your mistakes and failures. All these connect you with your readers and make you relatable.
This can be done in a few lines. Notice how I did this 1st paragraph of this article:
January 2023 I started on Medium. And averaged 0.8 reads per article. (Yes less than 1 person was writing my stuff). But fast forward to January 2024. And people are paying me $100/hour for writing advice.
Don’t be self-indulgent and tell your life story. This isn’t therapy.
Focus on what would inspire your reader.
3. Help people for free
Generosity is a shrewd business strategy.
When you give stuff away. You gain:
- vital market knowledge — what works/what doesn’t
- reciprocity capital — people will want to help you
- deeper relationships with potential customers
- a huge portfolio of valuable content
- better skills by doing the work
- testimonials for social proof
Free stuff leads to money-making opportunities. (Read here for proof.) The two most important giveaways are:
Free advice
Get into conversations with people.
Send them a message with suggestions on how to improve. In the welcome email for my newsletter. I ask people to send me their biggest writing challenge. Then I reply with some personal advice. This makes them more likely to read my newsletter. It deepens trust. It helps me understand my readers. And shapes what I write.
I offered free feedback on Twitter. When I had 300 followers. Even beginners can do this. Help someone 2 steps behind.
A quality lead magnet
To gain newsletter subscribers most people offer a freebie.
Give me your email address and I’ll give you this free download. I’ve seen a lot of these. And I’ll be honest, most are low quality. And a waste of time. You gain an email address. Well done. But you’ve just damaged your reputation with a poor product.
Your lead magnet isn’t to get an email address. It’s to showcase your skills and build your reputation. Make it so good you get feedback like this:
And then someone might offer to pay you for more, like Alexandra did:
- Get good at writing
- Promote yourself (without promoting yourself)
- Help people for free
Follow these 3 steps and you’ll build skills, grow your reputation and develop trust with others. Then it’s a small step to offer more in return for money.
I’ve gained 4700 followers in 10 months and earn $800 on Medium. Join 611 writers and get my 5-step writing system here: