I’ve Made over $250,000 as a Professional Writer

Seriously, I’ve made over a quarter of a million dollars as a writer. There’s a simple formula — and here it is.

I’m not kidding. I’ve made over a quarter-million dollars by writing content online. Impressive? Crazy? Total crap?

Nah — it’s the truth.

I should probably mention that I’ve been a professional writer for over a decade. To be honest, I could have made wayyyy more. Also, I took a few years off to start a web design and marketing company.

How I Made over $250K

When you break down the math, it is actually quite easy to make a quarter of a million dollars as a writer…over time.

For most of that decade, I was living in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. I lived by the beach, wrote 2–3 articles a day — and had a chill lifestyle by the pool (sometimes you just get sick of the beach after eternally having sand in your hair, nooks, crannies, and arse), going out with friends, and having fun in the sun. Sometimes I would be traveling in different countries, working as I went.

Are you ready to reach through the screen and punch me in my showboating face yet? Fair enough, I sound like a braggy douche.

Here’s how I did it. I earned roughly $2K a month from writing (some months a little more). It worked out to be about $25K per year. And I did it for over a decade. So $250,000+.

Keep in mind however, it was the lifestyle choices that I made that afforded me that life. It certainly wasn’t a $25K/year income (which, let’s face it — isn’t much). I backpacked when I traveled, my apartments were nice — but never fancy, and I never had a car — albeit I didn’t want or need one). You’d be amazed how many countries you can travel comfortably in for under $2K/month.

How you Too Can Be a Professional Writer with a Sweet Lifestyle

So here’s the thing — based on the above, you too could be a braggy douche with an enviable lifestyle and professional writing career.

It sounds fancy to say you can make hundreds of thousands of dollars as a writer. Even as I write that I’m envisioning a New York Times Best Selling author, posing for their new book cover from their Manhattan penthouse. But the reality is most writers do it just like any other job…except in their underpants. Unless you write at a cafe — then they generally insist you put pants on.

All you have to do to become a full-time professional writer is some simple math and elbow grease.

• Decide how much money you need to live on. Do you need $2,000 per month, $5,000 per month? Let’s say you can live on $3,000 per month for this example.
• Now, take how much you get paid per article on average. If you aren’t being paid to write yet, I’ll say this — don’t write for less than $20/350 words. As with everything, more is better. I generally charge $40+ per 350 words (and I write fast so that’s usually $40-$50/hour).
• Do the math. If you want to make $3K/month and charge say $25/article. You need to write 120 articles a month — so roughly 4 per day. Or 6 per day if you want weekends off.
• Now, gussy up your resume, cover letter, and portfolio and start applying for writing gigs. Do it part-time until you have a full roster of clients (which in my experience generally takes at least a couple of months).

Now go back and do the math again keeping taxes and other expenses in mind (for example, savings, rainy-day fund, etc.).

As time goes on, keep applying to jobs (even when you have clients already) and keep upping your per/word or per-article rate. When you land higher-paying clients you can either work fewer hours per day, or make more money

After my rate steadily increased — I chose to work fewer hours — which is why I said above that I could have made wayyy more money. By the way, higher-paying clients are for some reason always better to work with. So keep raising your rate, even if only for the better clientele.

It’s Not That Hard

This is the basic model of being a transactional writer. It doesn’t involve self-promotion, sales, branding, social media marketing — and all that time-consuming jazz, and chutzpah (selling yourself successfully takes serious confidence…or an Only Fans account). It is simply commodifying your time by becoming a professional content writer.

This method — compared to the first one above, of branding and promotion — is super easy. It just takes a plan, and some elbow grease. This is why I wrote this article…so many ‘gurus’ on here make it so convoluted to become a professional writer. But they are talking about a branded writer. The fancy-pants (literally, you may have to wear pants) version of becoming a professional writer is daunting. And most people give up before they are successful.

The ‘transactional approach’ to becoming a professional writer is not only easy, but can be accomplished in just a few months (as opposed to years…if you even make it). It isn’t as glamorous, but it isn’t as hard to accomplish either.

So if you’re looking to become a professional full-time writer but building a brand seems impossible. Seriously consider the transactional approach to a writing career.

And here is a step-by-step formula to get your started!