People Are Literally Telling You How to Become a Full-Time Creator For Free

You’re just not looking in the right places.

I’ve never bought a course on “how to become a writer,” or “how to make money as a creator”.

I’ve read one book on writing online (The Art and Business of Online Writing, by Nicolas Cole), but other than that, I’ve invested very little money in my “career”.

To some people, that’s weird.

To some people, that’s naive.

Honestly, in some ways, it probably is.

However, that doesn't change the fact that the best way to get good at this stuff is to invest an obnoxious amount of hours of your time.

Also, the best creators in the world are telling you exactly how to make it for free.

You’re just not looking in the right places.

Twitter is the poor man’s Medium

Some people don’t want to pay $5 for a Medium membership.

That’s okay though because I’m convinced that Twitter is actually the best social platform for aspiring content creators to learn how they can leverage their craft.

That’s why my personal goal for 2022 is to write 3 Twitter threads per week.

The best writers in the world are doing more. I’m going to start “modestly”. I’m nervous.

Top writers on Medium like Nicolas Cole and Tim Denning tweet daily about writing and content strategies. They don’t charge for their tweets. There is no such thing as premium tweets. They literally give away knowledge for free.

If you’re not using Twitter as a source of knowledge, you’re holding yourself back.

Some other great people I’ve followed on Twitter recently are Naval, Dickie Bush, and Aadit Sheth.

The resources are there. You just have to use them.

People say they don’t know how to make money as a writer.

If you’re new to writing, I get it. Making money in writing is confusing, especially at first.

People buy books and courses and “invest” in tons of different resources in the name of furthering their writing careers, but these investments don’t mean anything if you don’t actually put the work into the craft.

Learning how to make money as a writer is simple, not easy.

Write stuff. Publish it (everywhere). Sell it. Build an audience. Write more stuff. Publish more stuff (discover new places to publish). Sell more stuff. Build a bigger audience.

Repeat until you die or quit or make it.

This is a marathon, not a sprint.

Making money as a writer is simple, but it’s not obvious.

There are certain tips and tricks that you can learn from other writers, but the hard truth is that the trajectory of your career is probably going to look completely different than your idols’ or the writers that inspire you. Making a career off of teaching people to make a career is a Ponzi scheme.

The free resources are the best ones.

This is a long game. It’s also your long game. It’s not Stephen King’s long game. It’s not Tim Denning’s long game.

Relax. Stop comparing yourself. You’re wasting time comparing yourself when you could be working on creating something special.

To become a professional writer, you have to write consistently for years. That is a guaranteed requirement. Nothing is guaranteed in your writing career except that you will write for a really long time.

You have to write for a really long time to even know if this is something you have the chops to do.

You don’t need a course or another book on writing.

Writing courses can be really helpful for a lot of people. The reviews (if they’re honest) prove that.

A lot of the online writing courses I’ve read about have really impressive results.

If I had a couple extra hundred bucks and a bunch of extra hours a week to spend on just learning writing, (instead of just writing), I’d invest in one in a heartbeat. It would give me something else to write about.

However, you can also get most of the information that you’ll learn in these courses for free. Podcasts are free. There are free ebooks out the wazoo on the internet. There are free email courses.

Take it from a teacher himself: no one has the secret. The secret doesn’t exist. There are just tips, tricks, and personal stories.

You should still join other writers’ email lists and support them and take their free courses and read their books. If you really like someone, you should support their work by buying something. It’s courtesy.

In Jiu-Jitsu, whenever I visit a new gym, I always make a point to buy a shirt or sweater from that gym. In writing, I always invest in the work of writers I like by subscribing to their email lists, buying their (non-writing-related) books, and sharing their work with my friends.

Call me an idealist, but I think there’s a way that we can all be writers and eat steak, too.

The keys are consistency, authenticity, and collaboration.

Closing thoughts

Recently, I’ve been obsessed with using Twitter as an information source. If you’re not using Twitter as a writer, you are holding yourself back from valuable information that you will have to pay for in other places.

Twitter is not as bad as people make it seem. My friends seem to think that Twitter is the “Wild West” of social media, but my Twitter is pretty civilized. Social media is not bad if you don’t follow crazy people.

I’ve curated my Twitter to the point where my Twitter account is basically a feed full of information on how to become a better thinker, content creator, and entrepreneur.

This is free. Everyone can create a smart Twitter account. Everyone can learn how to become a content creator, and you don’t have to invest money you don’t have.

Then, when you’re on your way up and need to get to that next level, then maybe you should invest and buy some courses or books. If you’re a beginner, however, Twitter is the best place to start.