What It Took for This Man to Earn More Than $10,000 in 30 Days From Writing

Copy his exact formula

Kristi writes about everything she finds interesting and helpful to share with people. She writes what you need, not what she just wants. She supports new talent. Using this link for Medium membership will support her directly, plus it will give you access to all of Medium’s great content. Use this link to receive an email ensuring Kristi’s latest stories come directly to your inbox.

If someone were to ask him whether he would ever make money from writing, he would have said no. He believed he had no special skill, gift, or even a writer to mentor him.

However, in the last 30 days, he had managed to make more than $11,000 from writing. It was only after conducting an audit of his expenses for the month that he realized the extent of his earnings, exclaiming, “Holy shit, there’s $11,000 of income just from writing!”

This revelation prompted him to share his story and offer encouragement to others. He believed that if he could make money from writing, anyone else could as well. He wrote this article in response to the most common questions he received:

1. How do I get started? 2. How does typing words make money?

Without any unnecessary details or false promises, he intended to provide answers to these two questions based on his successful experience of over a year.

Ready? Let’s delve into it.

From 2014 to 2017, he didn’t earn a single dollar from blogging. It’s important to clarify that the journey started slowly. He admitted that he wasn’t just an inexperienced writer at the beginning; he was quite terrible, which resulted in a significant waste of time. However, he assured his readers that they could certainly do better by avoiding a few common pitfalls.

These pitfalls included:

1. Not starting your blog, as it would be a waste of time and people wouldn’t find it. 2. Writing everywhere in the beginning (Medium, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram). 3. Avoid seeking help from other writers until you have a substantial library of work, as few would assist if you only had three published articles to your name. 4. Pitching major publications once you have found your niche, rather than in the first week of starting. 5. Not taking too long to pitch major publications, though. 6. Avoid spending any money on logos, paying to boost articles, or getting professional portrait photos.

By sidestepping these pitfalls, he believed that momentum could be built more quickly than he had experienced himself.

Getting Started

This person wants to make this so easy that you can’t screw it up.

He should pick two topics. The two topics this person chose were entrepreneurship and personal development. He should write about these two topics and nothing else.

He should make sure that they are topics he knows something about or at least has enough passion to research without getting bored.

He should schedule the writing weekly. This person chose Saturday at the start because it was the one day he wasn’t working. He should pick the day that he knows he’ll have time and set it in his calendar as a recurring event.

Bonus tip: For added accountability, he should tell a mate what he has committed to and agree that he will pay them $100 if he misses a Saturday of writing. (This idea came from when he had a personal trainer and often couldn’t be bothered going to the gym, but the fear of the trainer being upset, and the loss of $35 due to cancellation, was enough to get his skinny little ass to the gym and pump those weights.)

He should not think about money. He can’t make any substantial amount of money from writing until he has put some time into his art.

Technically, he could make a few bucks somewhere like Fiver, but the work will be so uninspiring that it will likely be the cause of his giving up. Sure he could make $20 for writing an article, but that is a poor change compared to the thousands he can make by getting good.

An excellent mindset for him to have is to write off at least the first year. He should start by doing it for free because that will test him and reveal whether he enjoys doing it. Without the pleasure he gets from writing, he’ll likely give up.

This person advises against overdoing it when it comes to writing. Currently, he could write every single day, but he intentionally refrains from doing so. Starting can lead to excessive enthusiasm, resulting in overdoing it. He cautions that overdoing it can eventually leave one feeling devoid of ideas.

After five years of personal experience, this person has come to understand the following:

The best ideas for writing stem from living life and engaging with the outside world. Taking breaks from writing is essential as it provides the inspiration to write. Daily work routines offer different perspectives that can be translated into writing material. Merely confining oneself to a home office and writing every day can obscure the compelling content that readers crave, originating from one’s unique experiences and worldview.

Using someone else’s platform

This person had previously emphasized not starting with one’s website, providing a compelling reason for this advice. Having a personal website would entail the need to spend time selecting website templates, interacting with web developers, paying for hosting services, and continuously adjusting column widths, among other burdensome tasks. None of these activities, however, would contribute to earning $11,000 per month in the future.

Instead, it is advisable to commence on a platform owned by someone else. In this person’s case, he began his journey on his friend’s WordPress blog from Western Australia. His friend took charge of the search engine optimization (SEO) intricacies, marketing efforts, and monitoring website traffic, allowing this person to solely focus on his writing.

Another viable starting point is utilizing a social media platform. While Medium is the obvious choice, other less apparent options often slip people’s minds:

- Writing LinkedIn articles - Composing long-form captions on Instagram, alongside an accompanying image - Sharing brief posts on Twitter

In an unconventional approach, one could even write a comprehensive article as a comment on a prominent individual’s post, especially someone with a substantial following, like Gary Vaynerchuk. Although this method may seem unconventional, this person has witnessed individuals successfully employ it. By exploring various avenues, you can get creative and discover numerous ways to hone your writing skills.

The ultimate objective is to identify a space where one can write without distractions and consistently deliver content that is informative, inspiring, or entertaining. This process allows individuals to discern what approaches yield positive outcomes and what do not. With a stroke of luck, they may even attract a small audience.

Spending a Stupid Amount of Time Writing in the Beginning

So much of this person’s time at the start was wasted doing podcasts and promoting his work to an audience he hadn’t earned.

Wherever you are starting from, you need to find his niche, his voice, and his unique way of putting sentences together.

There is no substitute for doing the writing itself. If he could go back in time the way Marty McFly did in Back To The Future and do one thing differently, it would be to stop being distracted by bullshit and just do the writing.

The reason we avoid doing the writing is because it’s the hardest bit he said. Doing the writing, though, is what made him the $11,000 in 30 days — not anything else.

Formatting work like a pro involves creating ample white space between sentences. This person suggests incorporating high-quality images and investing time in selecting the right photo to complement the article. It is important to remember that the images chosen to make a statement are just as significant as the words themselves.

Reflecting on past experiences, this person believes that using larger, brighter, and attention-grabbing images would have been beneficial. Additionally, this person regrets not being bolder by integrating images within the text and utilizing tools to break up the content.

However, it is crucial to maintain a sense of balance when employing these formatting techniques. Overusing them can be just as detrimental as not using them at all.

When it comes to formatting, if one feels inclined to take a more relaxed approach, observing the work of professionals can be beneficial. This person recommends studying their techniques for guidance.

Making MONEY Once this person has earned the right to make money from writing, the ways to do it are fairly straightforward. But they’re often hidden in the dark by people who would prefer to charge money to tell him how they monetize their words.

Here is how he can make money from writing:

A paid column If he writes for long enough, his work will get noticed. Large publications pay good writers to publish exclusive articles on their websites.

Some pay per month and others pay per article. So far, he has only been paid per article, but he knows a few writers who are paid a monthly fee (retainer) to write.

Money from Medium Medium has a partner program where they will pay anybody, despite their experience, based on the engagement on their article.

It might only be a few dollars in the beginning, but what is most important is this: Even only getting $10 a month from Medium makes him a paid writer, and the mental shift that does to him is incredibly powerful.

Ghostwriting Boy, this one is hidden and not something that he can Google. It’s the secret dark art of the writers’ world that many big names do not want him to know about.

All those CEOs, entrepreneurs, leaders, and influencers often have someone that does ghostwriting for them. If he is okay to write and not be credited for it in return for stupid amounts of money, then this is one way a proven writer with experience can make some easy, ongoing cash.

These opportunities will come to him directly, and he can also seek them out by sending direct messages on platforms such as LinkedIn and Instagram to people who post a lot. He shouldn’t spam them with sales pitches and should just focus on sending them a link to his writing with a direct “I can do this for you.”

Consulting Writing is one of the biggest pain-in-the-asses for businesses. They all have to do it, and a lot of them don’t have the time or talent to do so.

Without too much effort, if he writes where the eyeballs are, then businesses will come to him asking for help. He can consult with them by helping them find writers, mapping out content, and inspiring them to keep going.

When he gets these offers directly, he tries his best to use manners. Saying something like “he has a few key articles (provide links) about how he does it and he also does part-time consulting for those who need something more. What option makes sense for you?”

It’s soft, polite, non-egotistical, and most of all, helpful. You can copy and paste the text above if you are lost and don't know how to turn inquiries into consulting.

One-to-one coaching

It helps give individuals a voice and can also enable them to become teachers. Some individuals find satisfaction in being taught through the written words offered for free, and this is perfectly acceptable.

However, others desire a deeper level of engagement. They not only seek advice but also want someone to hold them accountable, essentially acting as their coach.

Anyone has the potential to become a coach, and writing is one avenue to pursue this role and receive payment for it. Initially, this person provided coaching to a few clients without charging a fee. This allowed them to gain experience and develop a suitable structure.

The coaching structure adopted by this person looked as follows:

- An initial free consultation to ensure compatibility between the coach and the client - Ten-week coaching sessions, with payment made upfront via PayPal - Weekly focus on specific areas - Assignment of one to two homework tasks for the client each week - A final assessment at the end of the ten weeks - A gentle offer to continue beyond the initial ten weeks if it seemed appropriate (although there were instances when it did not)

Speaking at events for a fee When this person develops a voice, people again want him to go that extra step and help their teams — sports teams, leadership teams, business teams, and not-for-profit teams — with his knowledge and experience.

The price range for this varies greatly, and a lot of it comes down to how good he is at negotiating. He’s been offered anywhere from $5000 to $10,000 for up to sixty minutes of speaking.

Someone he knows gets $20,000 to $40,000 for one hour, plus business class flights and five-star accommodation. There is another person he knows who is just starting and gets $500 a talk.

The price range is endless, but it’s another way to make money from writing.

An online course He launched one last month, and it flopped — and he wrote about it, as it was 100% his fault. With that aside, he can still make good money helping beginners in his field of expertise.

He created a course a few years back that did pretty well, and often it comes down to how good the topic is that he is teaching.

Like with most of the advice in this article, he shouldn’t overdo it, okay?

YouTube ads Many writers also become vloggers as another way to express themselves. If he wants to get creative, he can also embed his videos in his writing as another tool to connect with the audience.

YouTube is a long game, and having a very deep and narrow niche tends to work best. If he can pump out lots of videos that are 5 to 10 minutes long every week, after a year or so, he can generate money from it via ads.

The promise at the start of this article was not to sell you the dream too much, so it’s important to add one thing: YouTube is one of the hardest games to play given how long the platform has been around. Getting views is not easy, so he needs to be dedicated to it. Otherwise, he should just stick with the writing.

Well-paid writers have lots of the following. One final bit of advice for them is not to forget their soft skills.

Honesty, humility, and kindness are the skills that take a writer from earning $1000 per month, which is decent, to earning $11,000. No one wants to read the work of a writer who is in love with themselves and thinks their work doesn’t stink.

The writer should be true to themselves in all their glory.

That’s how to make $11,000 in 30 days. Now all that is left is for the writer to ask themselves whether they would like to do the same — because they totally can.

It’s important to remember for the writer to be helpful and enjoy the process more than the money.