This Is Exactly How I Made an Extra $5,000 Writing in the Last 30 Days

You don’t need 1 million people. You can make plenty of money with only 100 people

I surveyed my email list of 50,000 people recently. It seems the business side of writing is still an enormous problem for most.

It frustrates me because so much time is spent agonizing over tiny grammar mistakes, whether a headline is clickbait, and the attributes of viral writing. All of it misses the point: who cares?

Write what you want to write. You do you.

Being yourself is the most profitable business idea I can think of when it comes to any form of online content creation.

In the last 30 days, I made an extra $5,000 writing. I know I know… what a hero, right? This isn’t about trying to look good. I don’t care about what you believe about money or whether you like how I earn a living. I want you to take some of what I’ve done and do it yourself.

I want you to go from the comments section of this story to silent creation in the early hours of the morning or the late hours of the night. Because when you do, everything changes for you. Earning money in a new way causes you to change. The possibilities you have for your life shift. Your beliefs about business and your future change too.

Let’s do this (and be prepared for a few twists — this story isn’t going to play out as you expected).

Beat Amazon at Their Own Game

You can sell a book on Amazon and giveaway profit to them. This is how I always thought it had to go. It’s why I bought loads of Amazon stocks. Then my friend made $400K selling a ridiculously simple eBook about starting a blog the old fashion way.

I was inspired by him. I wrote a second eBook last year and sold it for $20. Sales had died down a bit.

I did one thing in the last 30 days. I started writing more on Twitter.

Every few days I would retweet the tweet which had a link to my eBook. People would see the tweet and buy the eBook. I made the post a pinned tweet, so it would sit at the top of my Twitter profile. I made the eBook a pinned post on my personal Facebook Page, my Facebook Fan Page, and I posted the cover of my eBook on Instagram.

Here’s the process you can follow to release an eBook.

Choose a topic

Choose a topic to write an eBook about. Write about something you know better than anybody else. Hint: What do you get lots of emails about, asking for your help?

Spend exactly one day writing

Spend one day writing a short eBook about your chosen topic. If you’re writing the eBook for more than a day then you’re probably overthinking it or creating something that isn’t meant to be a low-cost eBook.

Edit the eBook

Edit it yourself using a tool like Grammarly. Read it again a day later. Send a rough draft of the eBook to three friends who can proof-read it and find spelling/grammar errors. Take each of the three friends out for lunch to say thank you.

Have a proper illustrator create your cover

Go to a design marketplace like 99 Designs and get a front cover done. You want to spend a decent amount of money on the cover. Here’s my biggest lesson on eBooks: if the front cover sucks then not much else matters. People buy the front cover, so get a proper illustrator (not a $5 one from Fiverr) to create a masterpiece. Send the final three designs to your social media friends/connections. Get their feedback.

Format the eBook

I copied the formatting of my friend’s eBook because I had no idea. Insert a table of contents, space out the paragraphs, and don’t clog up the eBook with attention grabs. Plain words speak better than loud images, diagrams, emojis, and far too many links to endless resources. You’re the best resource, not the internet.

Set up a single page to sell your eBook

I used WordPress. I put the cover on the page to the left. I put a short description on the right. Then I inserted a PayPal button and linked it to my personal PayPal account. I chose PayPal because it gives you access to a large number of people who use it. The key to this page is not to get fancy. Fancy is a distraction.

Promote the eBook

This is the hardest step. You need to place links to your eBook all over the internet. You start with putting links to your eBook on all your social media pages. You place the link in any bio you have online. An advanced step is to start publishing content and leave a link to your eBook at the end. Ideally, the content you publish is directly related to the topic of your eBook. The eBook is a way for the audience to support your work, or go to the next level in whatever it is you’re showing them. You can go even further by adding the link to your eBook in the body of your article too. The promotion process doesn’t stop. Each week you repeat these same activities.

Publishing an eBook and promoting it contributed towards the extra $5,000 I made in the last 30 days. It’s not rocket science.

People pay for help with a problem. The bigger the problem the more they pay. The better job you do at solving the problem the more they will tell other people about your eBook, creating even more money.

An eBook is a topic about a problem. Each chapter of your eBook is a blog post where you chip away at the problem and help the reader find solutions.

Take a Chunk of Money off Harvard (They’re Rich Enough)

An eBook helped me learn more about people’s problems and get feedback (data) to place into an online course.

An online course is an even deeper tutorial than your eBook. An online course is where you show people how to do something with video, audio, writing, diagrams, people who inspire you, and strategies you’ve used yourself. An eBook uses only words. An online course is a full experience, which is why you can charge more than $20 for it.

I’ve noticed a lot of people have a limiting belief about online courses.

They think they can’t teach something.

Then they go to their day job and show a new employee how to use a piece of software or deal with a customer. You’re teaching every day whether you realize it or not. Why should Harvard be one of the lucky few who get to charge for education? Let’s democratize education and earn a little money to pay bills along the way.

Here’s the process you can follow to launch an online course.

Create a mind map of your online course

I used Workflowy. It’s a simple tool. You write the name of your course along the top. Then you take the chapters of your book and make them dot points. Then you add more chapters than the book because you want to add even more value. At the same time, you edit out any chapters you don’t think you need. Once you’ve dumped your brain onto a mind map, then you refine it. Each day, for a week, you edit the mind map down.

Record the video of your course

The mind map is your rough guide. Each video becomes one chapter from your mind map. Use the standard webcam on your computer, the internal mic, and buy a $20 light from Amazon to illuminate your face so students can see how gorgeous you are. The biggest problem with this step is the temptation to get fancy. Avoid the temptation. Your first version of a paid product should always use the absolute minimal tools, and stuff you already have.

Upload the videos to an eLearning platform

Do not waste time on this step. The platform you choose won’t make much difference. I used Teachable. They are an absolute rip off, but it’s so simple a toddler could use it. Simple means you release your course. In the time it takes to make things complicated, you could have already published your second online course. Think about that.

Promote the course

The customers for your online course are going to be the people who bought your eBook. The online course is an expansion to your eBook. The key to any online course is to have a deadline. Evergreen courses don’t sell as well as courses that have a deadline. A university opens once a year for enrollment. Why should your course be any different? If people think they have all the time in the world then they’ll never take your course. A deadline is helping your students take action, not take advantage of them — remember that.

Don’t worry how much money you make from the eBook or online course. Both digital products are a blueprint for your future success. Once you understand the process of both you can keep leveling up, and eventually, make a decent income from them.

Six figures aren’t hard to make once you’ve perfected how to do it. The $20 eBook is your lead magnet. Your online course is where you make the bulk of your money.

Break the News

I can hear a mob of writers coming for me. Look out! News Break is a platform to publish content. I have no idea whether they will be around in five years. Right now they pay writers a decent minimum fee.

Now there will be haters who tell you it’s too late. They’ll say if you apply they won’t accept you. That’s bullshit. News Break (or any process requiring an application) will take you if you pitch them right.

I was told as a teenager that I couldn’t study sound engineering. You know the freaking magical thing I did?

I asked someone else. That person said yes. Hahaha.

Just because someone says no to your application, doesn’t make them right. I studied adult education and finished studying ahead of all my friends because I didn’t take the first no as the final answer. Why can’t you do the same when it comes to making money?

Email News Break. Knock their socks off with your pitch.

Here’s the process you can follow to do an awesome pitch. Copy and paste for Forbes, Business Insider, CNBC, INC, or any other publication that pays writers dollars.

The email subject line has to be clickbait

Add personality. Use bizarre words. Include your full name at the end of the subject line. “News Break this application is one you do not want to miss. It will forever change your thinking — Tim Denning.”

Get to the point

Most pitches I get are too long. News Break doesn’t have time to hear your life story and shed a few tears. They have a business to run. Talk to their human side. Talk to their business interests. What do they want? News Break wants views like any platform/publication. Views equal money for News Break and for you. The point is this: how can you get News Break views?

Show runs on the board

A pitch without stats is a waste of time. I get pitches to do podcast interviews. I haven’t had one yet that mentions stats. How many people are part of your audience? How engaged is your audience? What tiny success have you had? What potential has still not been harnessed?

Demonstrate how you’ll take things to the next level

News Break wants a self-starter. They don’t want to do all the work while you sit on the couch like Homer Simpson and drink Duff beer. Tell them you’re going to promote the shit out of your stories. Tell them how you will retweet the stories, email people the stories, get influential people to share your stories, etc.

Put your money on the line

I wrote a pitch yesterday to a publication. Do you know what outlandish thing I said? I will put my own money behind certain stories to promote them on social media. That shows freaking skin in the game rather than an attitude of charity, followed by tragic results.

Get an intro

See if you can find a writer who is already writing for News Break or knows someone at News Break. Get them to do an introduction. Or, simply mention their name in your pitch.

Add one link

A pitch needs a link to your work. The temptation is to link to everything, thus achieving nothing, and making your email look like a pitch from a fake Nigerian prince.

Offer one clear next step

The end of your pitch needs to have a clear ask. Your ask here is “will you accept my application to publish on your platform?”

Follow up

Most pitches are rejected the first time around. The art of making money lies in a good pitch followed by breathtakingly rare follow-up. Space out your follow-ups too. One follow up after five days. Another seven days later. And one more seven days after that. Be energetic and empathetic — not desperate and pleading for attention.

OK, I might be sounding like News Break will save your life and make you rich. This advice for News Break can be applied to any gatekeepers you might encounter in the writing world — there are plenty of them!

Invest the Writing Profits

When people hear about making money as a writer they assume it’s all about the invoices you send, or the royalties you get, or the digital products you sell.

Wrong. What you do with the profit is crucial. Part of the $5,000 I made came from investing the profits. I researched a few investments and put a little money behind a few. Those investments grew and contributed to the $5,000.

It’s not how much money you make. It’s how much money you are willing to invest back in yourself and your business that counts.

How I Intend to Go Further

You now have the four ways I made an extra $5,000 in the last 30 days. Like anything, you can go further if you want to.

I intend on launching a second online course on an entirely different topic. I plan on launching enough courses to create an online academy. That way I can help the same group of students with different problems rather than always having to go out and find new people all the time. I can also give discounts for loyalty and create online course bundles to save people money and enhance their experience.

You don’t need 1 million customers. You can make plenty of money with only 100 customers.

Another strategy I have is to write for a few more major publications. This means I will have to go on an email pitch rodeo to let them know I’m here and I can write.

Then I have one more dream: a paid newsletter.

From Substack to ConvertKit, to Forbes — the newsletter space is getting crowded. I’m in the process of working out the following:

1. How much free content versus how much paid content should I offer?
2. What is the best way to retain subscribers?
3. How do you promote a paid newsletter effectively?
4. How do you leave a newsletter provider and build your own when it gets big enough? (This is what the “Everything Bundle” did when they left Substack.)

There are always more steps you can take when it comes to upping your earnings as a writer. There’s no need to go overboard. Diversify your risk, choose a few income streams, and focus on being helpful in one area.

One Way I Can’t Make Money (Yet)

We were getting ready to hold hands, sing hallelujah, and say goodbye. Not yet. There’s one way I can’t make money yet. I’m willing to bet you’re not aware of this one.

I want to make money from writing on a decentralized social media app that includes monetization as a feature.

Jack Dorsey is considering doing this with Twitter using Blockchain. I am dying to see a social media app that is decentralized and allows creative people to earn a living. It’s a dream. It doesn’t exist right now. Maybe one day it will.

Decentralized writing would mean no more relying on Google to show your articles in their search engine while they prioritize people who pay them money. No more getting paid in a currency that can be printed out of thin air as a form of hidden tax. Writers can dream. One day, perhaps.

Now It’s Your Turn

I’m not that bright. Everything you just read can be achieved by you. You don’t need a fancy label like “entrepreneur” or a book deal or amazing writing skills. If you’re writing decent emails and texting your friends already on Signal or Telegram, then you’re already a good enough writer.

All it takes is $20 to see the potential for you to earn money from writing.