How Writing Saved Me $50k+ and Made Me $300k+ In Sales

Without a social media following, high-ticket client list, or selling out to help a boss or company get rich.

You know those people who are drawn to the limelight like flies to honey? The natural-born influencer types whose charisma, confidence, and photogenicity seem to effortlessly pervade their every social post and real-life interaction? To call myself the opposite would be the understatement of the century; unfortunately, however, I am an entrepreneur. And according to the full-service digital marketing agency I’d retained (for thousands per month), that’s exactly what I had to be — if I wanted to sell, make money, and be successful as a self-employed business owner, that is.

They required lights, camera, content, and followers. And I absolutely dreaded it. I never wanted to be the on-screen talent; I simply wanted to escape the torturous life of investment banking (living in fear of a boss who determined your career’s fate and your bonus). So, I did what I thought I had to:

I retained the “full-service” digital marketing firm
Coughed up another $3k for their brand revamp
Scripted, shot, and edited countless hours of webinars, teasers, video sales letters, etc. at their direction
Paid thousands per month for ads
Allowed their copywriter to craft my brand’s “voice” (and break my website…)

Eventually, I had the whole shebang on my payroll — and while sales trickled in, profitability was nowhere on the horizon. Less than a decade later, and I built a 6+ figure multi-revenue-stream business with my writing — and avoided hiring another leech, relying on costly ads, or working for a single high-ticket client or boss. Here’s how you, too, can create your own lucrative entrepreneurial venture on the written word, alone.

And by the way, I did this largely off social media, with no following to speak of. To those who say entrepreneurs must be influencers first? I disagree.

Step 1: The most important thing

Most people will say the most important thing about successful entrepreneurship, business, or making money online is marketing. I’m going to contradict all those people (and probably my past self) with a novel perspective: The most important thing is what you want to monetize — and why.

Do you want to monetize a skill because it’s your talent or your passion?
Have you dreamt up a brilliant invention to solve a problem that you can’t resist bringing to life and to market?
Is there a story or piece of art you feel compelled to craft or create, no matter how much of an uphill battle its success may be?
Do you desire to leave a certain mark or impact on the world, an industry, an audience, or a client base?

After devoting years to businesses that have both failed and succeeded, I can assure you the potential revenue alone is not enough of a “why” to achieve, grow, or sustain that success.

Step 2: No topic is “off-topic”

The most underrepresented mistake countless aspiring self-employed creators and entrepreneurs make that leads to their unnecessary demise isn’t a lack of effort or focus; it’s actually too much (or too narrow) of it. So many of us latch onto an idea, a product, or a business idea, and pour 150% of our time and effort into that venture only. That’s one shot to hit it out of the ballpark — at the expense of every other interest, idea, or venture we’re forsaking.

However, as an early-stage or first-time entrepreneur or aspiring self-employed creator, that exploratory process of dipping your toes into varied waters is incredibly important. For me, it was the difference between failure or success; losing 6-figures or making it back multiple times over.

You’d never know that my entrepreneurial career started with a sweepstakes-style social platform that failed, pivoted into an influencer-partnered edtech business, followed by a handful of e-learning, consulting, and media-focused ventures. If I’d let that first failed venture define me — or dedicated the rest of my life and entrepreneurial career to it — I probably wouldn’t be writing this article right now, or generating 6+ figures without spending a dime on ads.

The sweepstakes platform failed for a lot of reasons, but the biggest one I rarely touch on is the simple fact that I didn’t know my “why” — other than the lottery odds of making it big. With each subsequent venture, I leaned further into the “why” that compelled me to bring it into the world and the impact it could have. Impact does not necessarily equal income — but the greater the impact, the greater the chance that income follows…

By the time I’d moved from failed venture 1 to successful ventures 2 or 3, I had shaved down my team to a few key players (cutting $50K+) — but the most crucial, revenue-generating elements fell on me and my writing:

Genuine, natural, audience-centric copy with our impact at the forefront
Extremely personal, specific, niched-down emails to each prospect group
Honest, direct marketing — just like honest, direct products and services

I cut the aspirational fluff the marketing teams forced down my throat. I stripped away the over-the-top emotional pandering that didn’t feel right. I started creating boatloads of educational, entertaining, engaging content without a sales pitch attached — simply to bolster our impact and visibility.

And soon enough, I realized something shocking: I was single-handedly writing the millions of emails that were generating 99% of our sales. And I’d created a turnkey process to refresh and renew them for each new launch, product, or season. Before I knew it, my writing alone was pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars for my company…

That still wasn’t enough for me — but it was a nudge in the right direction.

Step 3: The debrief and the rebrief

The unexpected truth about “making it” as an entrepreneur comes in dispelling the myth that “it” exists at all. I once thought earning $40k/year was making it, as long as I’d never have to put on another pair of dress pants or step foot in an intimidating high-rise office again, as a slave to a blinking Blackberry and a boss’s threatening emails.

Soon enough, it wasn’t about making $40k or $100k or $250k, etc.; it was about beating last year’s number. At that point, I realized I was just competing with myself — but just because I’d created a well-oiled largely automated machine that “worked” didn’t mean I loved or felt fulfilled by it. It was that realization, however, that gave me the confidence to explore the passions, skills, and atrophied goals I’d long since abandoned because I thought they weren’t “prestigious” or “lucrative” enough. And yes, they largely revolve around writing — but not the type you might expect.

Most people know me by my legal name and my company. They’d never guess that I create and monetize other projects that may never grace my LinkedIn. Projects that wouldn’t fit into the box I’ve built around my personal professional persona or my company. And that’s something you can do, too.

If you feel limited to one topic, industry, voice, genre, or revenue stream, I’d challenge you that it’s never too late — or too early — to branch out and explore another one. You might be shocked at the projects I’m crafting behind closed doors, under names you’ve never heard or seen. And for me, that’s the why: to create, not to be heard or seen.

The long and the short of it

If you simply came here to learn the most lucrative ways to monetize the skill of writing, I won’t keep you waiting: There’s ghostwriting for influencers and busy CEOs, high-converting marketing copy, or high ticket 1-on-1 client work if you’d like. There’s also creating your own product and single-handedly replacing all the key members of a marketing team (SEO, email copywriters, web designers, etc.) to retain maximum profits — as I’ve done. However, at some point, once you find any level of success — or start sustaining a decently livable salary — you may start to question: Is this really it?

Do I really want to be writing 30-second jingles for tampon companies (that I don’t own) with no royalties attached? Do I really want to crank out a 20,000-word e-book all about technical automation for some big-shot entrepreneur to slap their face on without so much as a collaborator’s credit?

Once you know what you can do (and earn), you may start to wonder what you actually want to do and the impact you want your writing to have. JK Rowling didn’t become JK Rowling by shirking her own dreams forever; she also didn't forsake a legacy in the shadow of a boss or demanding client. There are countless opportunities to monetize your words; choose wisely.