How to Make $10,000/Month Writing Online

this is a visualization of each country

in the world's most desired careers do

you see a theme and if you look at the

Google search data how to be a writer is

the second most popular career search in

the world after only how to be a pilot

but we're always told that writers can't

make money this article shows they only

make a couple of hundred a year but if

you think that that's all there is to

being a writer then this book might just

change your mind it's called the art and

business of online writing and it's by

multi-millionaire online writer Nicholas

Cole now Cole is one of the most read

writers on the entirety of the internet

he's wrapped up hundreds of millions of

views he's been the number one writer on

quora he's been paid tens of thousands

of dollars as a speech writer and ghost

writer and now he's built his online

writing business Shi 30 for 30 to

millions of dollars in Revenue anyone

can become a writer all of these skills

are easy to learn so in this episode of

book club the ongoing series will we

distill and discuss highlights and

summaries from some of my favorite books

we're going to use Nicholas Cole's

journey and model to talk about three

things firstly we're going to talk about

what online writing is and what online

writing isn't secondly we're going to

talk about the tools that you need to do

to do it effectively and thirdly we're

going to talk about how you can start to

make money from online writing and thank

you to Shopify for sponsoring this video

but more on them later so firstly what

is digital online writing and why have

most people never heard of it well the

easiest way to explain it is to explain

what online writing is not I don't know

what to write online writing isn't

grinding for years on your new book idea

and waiting for traditional Publishers

to come along and give you the approval

to be a professional writer online

writing is not slaving away for years on

your blog or website in the hope that a

few people might stumble across it on

Google why is life so hard online

writing is about publishing where the

readers already are I.E social media

platforms and that's why most people

haven't heard of it because we've all

grown up on the idea of Legacy writing

for example you probably know the story

of how JK Rowling got rejected by 12

different Publishers before one finally

took on Harry Potter now the Legacy

writing business relies on these

Gatekeepers these Publishers and these

editors that tell people when they are

allowed to be a professional writer

because back in the day you couldn't

make money unless you had a traditional

publishing deal I think Legacy writing

has this elitism to it where it's like

not everyone can do it and you have to

suffer and you have to stack rejection

letters and you know you're you only are

rewarded if you're brilliant and like

it's there's all this red tape and the

world of digital writing now is anyone

can become a writer all of these skills

are easy to learn now obviously Legacy

writing does have its place and in fact

my book Feelgood productivity is being

published by penguin in the UK and

worldwide and McMillan in the US which

are very traditional Publishers but for

most people if you're actually trying to

make money as a writer the answer is not

to try and land a traditional Legacy

publishing deal the answer is online

writing so unlike traditional forms of

writing you have the ability to generate

a hell of a lot more money by using the

leverage of the internet which I'll

break down in a minute and not only can

you get paid better than most other

writers out there but you can also build

a personal brand and an audience while

you're doing it along the journey which

also opens up your freedom to monetize

in different ways further down the line

if you really want to for example pachy

mccormik began online writing with his

newsletter not boring in 2019 and just 2

years later his thousands of subscribers

were helping him pull in a million

dollars of Revenue a year as a

ridiculously successful writer just

working from his home office and there's

a reason that only online writing is

able to do this so quickly and that's in

a word word feedback feedback is the key

to starting and sustaining and

monetizing your online writing Journey

so with Legacy writing you have

absolutely no idea how your work is

going to resonate with the audience

until the final product is released

which is pretty mental so Legacy world

of writing Hemingway sits down he spends

four years writing a novel sells it to a

publisher he has to wait another 18

months for it to get published then he

has to wait another 12 months for the

magazine reviews to come out and then he

has to go to a pub down the street and

then he overhears some person being like

anyways novel was terrible right that's

the feedback loop whereas with online

writing you can work smarter and faster

and you can constantly iterate on what

you put out there into these social

Gardens platforms like Twitter and

Linkedin and quora and places like that

by sharing smaller bite-sized pieces of

work that are judged by the masses you

can see what's working on the journey

and you don't run the risk of spending

years on your big projects only for them

to be released with no response you can

find out instantly if an idea is going

to hit or not the feedback loop is I

have an idea I write a tweet a thread an

AIC essay a LinkedIn post I publish it

and I get feedback 3 minutes later now

this very short feedback loop is

ultimately what helps build the online

personal brand and the online audience

as people watch you practice in public

are you're putting your writing out

there onto these social platforms the

ones that really Vibe with your stuff

will then join you on the journey and

then when you're ready to write the book

or do your magnum opus or ship that

fully-fledged work then what's amazing

is that you've already got this built-in

audience of people that already Vibe

with your stuff the little bits and Bobs

you've been releasing over time and

therefore those people are way more

likely to actually pay for your work and

then also read it whereas in the Legacy

publishing world if you're a first-time

author generally most people have no

idea who you are so how do you actually

go about online writing and then how do

you do it well well we can kind of break

this down into three parts and these are

represented by this little funnel so

imagine you're setting off on your

journey to become a successful online

writer and make your own pot of gold now

Cole explains that the first step is to

generate lots of ideas and publish

consistently personally I like to think

of this as the forest of ideas at this

point in the process we have absolutely

no idea what sort of content is going to

resonate with an audience we also have

no idea what sort of stuff we would

actually enjoy writing and so the point

of the forest of ideas is to generate

lots and lots of ideas and to write lots

and lots of things and put them out

there and see what happens now in terms

of where you're going to post this

writing there are a bunch of different

options but be careful you're not making

the big mistake that Cole says that

writers often make when starting out so

some examples of good places to write

are for example Twitter which is now

weirdly known as X where another Deep

dive guest CLE Bloom blew up his writing

career we've got LinkedIn for more busy

content we've got whatpad for fiction

this is where Anna Todd famously started

we've got quora we've got Reddit we've

got medium essentially any platform

where there is already an audience the

key thing is to make sure that you are

not starting your online writing Journey

on a blog or a website now there is

obviously a place for the kind of

writing that you would put on a blog or

a website but in the book Cole talks

about how this is often more suited to

businesses and Brands rather than to

individuals trying to build a personal

brand so if you want to be known as a

solar writer who's known for their

original creative insights or stories or

thoughts to ultimately build your own

personal brand then the key is to write

stuff on the social platforms where

there is already a built-in viewership

or readership so that was step one

creating the forest of ideas and then

step two is that wherever you decide to

post these step two is to get feedback

from the audience and I like like to

call this step the feedback cave now why

is there a troll that you have to get

past in this phase well Cole talks about

how facing feedback with online writing

is really hard and creates anxiety as

you might get comments from social media

trolls and also just normal people in

social media who might not Vibe with

your stuff and unlike with Legacy

writing methods you can't really just

camp out in your forest in the woods and

not have to face any feedback for your

writing until after your product is

released you're doomed now in the online

writing world this feedback is going to

be immediate and obviously this can be

daunting because now you have nowhere to

hide but it's also a very good thing

because this feedback loop this rapid

feedback loop is ultimately what makes

online writing way more effective than

Legacy writing in fact as Cole says in

the book there are two types of writers

today those who use data to inform and

improve their writing and those who fail

so now that you've posted your writing

and you started to get data in terms of

quantitative and qualitative performance

and comment metrics it's time to then

analyze the data and this is where we

get to the pool of analysis now this is

what people like Hemingway and people

like JK Rowling never had which is

genuine feedback on which ideas are

valuable and which ones are not and now

this point based on the fact that you've

been generating all these ideas and

writing about them consistently over

time in the forest of ideas you've gone

through the feedback cave to actually

look at the comments and the data that

you're getting and now you're analyzing

it it's now your job to try and spot

patterns within the data and this is

exactly what ridiculously rich and

bestselling author Mark Manson did when

it came to writing his first book Mark

Manson didn't sit down and go I'm going

to write this insanely amazing

best-selling book you know Sellar of not

giving right but what happened is the

publisher goes to him and goes well you

have a big blog you have a big audience

you should write a book he goes great

what should it be about they go we don't

know what's your biggest most viral blog

post he goes well it's a blog post

called the subtle art of not giving a

right and what did he do he just

expanded the blog post into a book this

example applies to Ryan holiday as well

so Ryan holiday initially began his

career as a marketing writer but after a

blog post he wrote about stoicism went

totally viral he decided to double down

on the topic which ultimately ended up

creating his Empire of books about

stoicism newsletters and even physical

products and now Ryan holiday makes

absolutely Millions every year selling

his writing he's one of the most

financially successful writers that

you're likely to come across now at some

point in your writing career you might

actually have a product that you want to

sell or start a business around your

writing and a great resource to use is

Shopify who are very kindly sponsoring

this video Shopify Powers businesses by

giving you all the tools that you need

to create your business wherever you are

in the world letting your sell online or

in person or across any social platform

it's a fantastic way of starting your

first business or your side hustle

without needing to learn how to code or

to make a website Shopify Powers more

entrepreneurs and businesses than anyone

else with millions of businesses using

Shopify in over 175 countries their

mission is to reduce the barriers to

business ownership to make Commerce

better for everyone which is a pretty

good goal if you ask me and we've

actually been using Shopify to sell our

own stationary brand and also our own

online courses and even if you're a

fairly small business like ours is or

you're an absolutely massive

multi-billion dollar Corporation Shopify

has you covered shopify's also got tools

for new business owners like the

business name generator and Shopify

learn which is their online learning

platform for all things related to

business and they also give new

entrepreneurs the really easy to use Stu

data plan where you can create an online

store in literally minutes if any of

this sounds up your street and you're

interested in trying out Shopify for

your business then head over to

shopify.com for/ Al abdal and that link

which is also in the video description

will let you sign up to a completely

free trial of Shopify so you can try it

out and see if it Vibes with you so

thank you so much Shopify for powering

our business and for sponsoring this

video now at this point you might be

wondering okay cool but how will all of

this ultimately make money and broadly

there are three specific ways of going

about making money from your online

writing so the first and least lucrative

of these is the advertising model also

known as the attention model now as we

all know on the internet attention is

the ultimate currency and it's exactly

the same for online writers as it is for

people like Mr Beast if you can generate

online writing that grabs attention you

can make money by earning from clicks

selling ad space within your own content

becoming an affiliate where you get a

commission each time you recommend a

product or Landing brand sponsorships

now the upside of the advertising model

is that it's very simple to understand

and apply so for example if you're

writing on medium the more people that

click and read your articles the more

money you're going to get paid as you

can see from this screenshot from James

Julian his article do these four

exercises and you'll you'll be in the

best shape of your life got 38,000 views

which has generated him

$1,741 from medium similarly jacked Rob

low revealed the one harsh truth about

staying fit at 60 got 25,000 views and

earned him

$1,114 that's not bad at all but to make

the advertising model work and to quote

Cole you need a ton of attention so

when Cole was writing articles for Inc

magazine for example those articles

might be getting hundreds of thousands

of views every single month but he would

only be making like $11,000 from it on

top of that people generally don't like

lots of ads being thrown at them and the

revenue can be volatile too sure you can

earn pretty well one month on medium but

the next month may be much less for a

bunch of reasons that are outside of

your control and that's why potentially

a better way to make money through

writing is the pay wall or the

exclusivity model now this is the

opposite of the ad model in the ad model

you put your content out there for free

and you monetize through advertising on

the platforms whereas in the pay wall

model instead of giving open access to

your content you charge for some of it

and this can come in many forms for

example you can write behind a pay wall

like newspapers like the New York Times

do or you can put writing behind a

premium newsletter mini pay wall for

example the popular business substack

account no opinion pulls in about a

million dollar per year via subscribers

who want to pay for access to his two

pay World posts per week and a good idea

to keep in mind here is Kevin Kelly's

famous 1,000 true fans Mantra now if you

haven't come across this before

basically the idea is that if you want

to earn a living you don't need millions

of people to follow your stuff you just

need 1,000 true fans 1,000 people out

there in the world who'd be willing to

pay let's say $100 per year to get

access to your stuff your writing your

merch your band albums all this stuff

and it's way more doable getting a

thousand true fans than it is to try and

go for an audence of millions of people

alternatively another example of a

payall method would be creating a course

like I did with my parttime YouTuber

Academy or you can create a product like

online writer Daniel Vaso did with his

Amazon FBA ebook So Daniel had been

writing online for a while and building

an audience such that when he released

his ebook he was able to make $40,000 in

just 16 days and this is the crazy power

of online writing and product creation

the beauty of productizing your service

is that you like we were talking about

earlier you're removing the constraint

of uh being paid for time that's the

whole that's like the biggest challenge

is as long as you're being paid for your

time and not the

outcome it's really hard to have some

sort of exponential jump in income now

generally with the pay model the content

that you would charge people for might

be the same sort of topics as the stuff

that you're writing online for free but

you're may be going into them in way

more depth in detail and then finally

we've got the services model also known

as the I'll do it for you model now in

this method you're not directly making

money by writing for an audience but

you're offering writing as a service to

businesses or to individuals who are

willing to pay for that service and this

is things like content writers and ghost

writers and speech writers these are

people who are making a living using

their writing but offering it as a

service now these can be ridiculously

well-paying like some ghost writers for

example who write autobiographies for

celebrities and CEOs and Executives and

stuff can be charging up to a million

dollars for a single book potential

ghost writing quote unquote clients are

everywhere they exist everywhere anyone

with a big YouTube channel probably

needs a ghost writer anyone with a big

podcast probably needs a ghost writer

anyone with a company probably needs a

ghost writer but there's also way

smaller ways of doing this if you think

of ghost writing or content writing for

businesses now Nicholas Cole actually

has a new book about this called the art

and business of ghost writing I've not

read it yet it's on my Tob read list but

I'll put a link down below if you want

to check it out if you're interested in

potentially making money from Ghost

writing his writing is fantastic so I'm

sure the book is going to be amazing

even though I've not yet read it and the

cool thing about ghost writing is that

it also helps you build your own network

while you're doing the thing but when it

comes to offering writing as a service

the real money is often made in a field

called copywriting and copywriting is

writing that is designed to sell

something kind of product and the reason

why copywriting can often be more

lucrative than any other form of writing

is because you can potentially earn a

percentage of the upsite for example

there are famous copywriters like Gary

Halbert who apparently can make millions

of dollars from just a single piece of

copywriting how you break into upper six

figures seven figure plus territory is

you have to not be compensated for the

effort but for the outcome that you

drive the way that a lot of uh really

successful sales copywriters structure

their deals is they go okay let's take a

product or let's take an ex existing

funnel here's the average amount of

Revenue that you're doing right now if I

can write things that lift the revenue

25% 50% I get a piece of that so now

you're being compensated on the outcome

you drive not on the I spent 20 hours

rewriting the landing page right so

that's a bit of an introduction to the

world of online writing you should

definitely check out the book it's

really good I've read it I think three

times and each time I've taken lots of

tips away that I can apply to my own

business and my own YouTube channel even

outside outside of the world of writing

and if you enjoyed this video you're

going to absolutely love the long form

podcast episode that I did where I

interviewed Nicholas Cole where we

talked about the five specific methods

that you can earn up to a million

dollars as an online writer that'll be

linked right over there and it's also

available on Spotify Apple app podcast

iTunes everywhere you get podcasts but

you should watch it over there because

that's a YouTube video version so you

can see what's going on in real life as

well thank you so much for watching and

I'll see you hopefully in the next video

bye-bye