Let’s be honest, content writing won’t make you a 6-figure income. At least not in the near term.
There has been so much fluff on social media and Youtube space that share a lot about side hustle being THE ONE that could let you quit your job. If it were easy, everyone would already be doing it.
I will be the honest one!
Maybe try to aim a little lower. Instead of trying to make a 6-figure a month, take the time to build up the revenue from a few hundred bucks, to a 4-figure income, then to a 5-figure income. The process isn’t going to make a few months, it may take a year or maybe even more than that.
Do you want to take the blue or red pill?
Are you willing to take the truth that not many are willing to listen to? If you are, then here’s what you need to know first.
Learn to Write
Yeah everybody can write but can you write a story that people are going to want to read? There are probably trillions of articles online right now. Ask yourself what makes your article stand out.
Create a Style
I’m different!
Create your USP(Unique selling point)! Having a niched-down specialty is crucial for writers to get viewers and clients. To do that, you can look into what you are interested in or have a great amount of experience in.
Share your experience or story related to the content you are creating. Most importantly, have your twist in the article to spice it up a little bit!
Build an Audience
If you're just starting out your content writing business, no one is going to read what you write.
Oh, wait! Maybe only your mom and dad will.
Nothing shy, I’m that person as well and that’s okay. If you are looking to build an audience writing, you need to follow the rules of content writing. They are:
- Create a story that relates to the reader
- Find a common problem that needs to be addressed
- Recommend solutions and add personal experiences
- Call to action
This step-by-step method is the foul proof for content writing which every content writer has to follow in order. There may be Q&A needed to add to the article as well to address issues and help readers to learn more about what they don’t already know.
When readers are able to gain valuable insights and takeaways, you may have earned yourself a follower!
You don’t need to be the Best
When I first started as a writer, I faced much criticism which I believe many writers will go through in the journey.
No one is perfect!
A great way to get better at writing is to have a goal to write 1,000 articles. A 1,000 article is a great learning curve for every writer to learn and reflect upon their writing. You won’t be able to see improvement every 10 articles but you will most definitely see it every 100 articles. Therefore, the 1,000 articles are a baseline to improve your content writing.
By then, you may have taken years to write that much but your skill in writing would have definitely improved dramatically.
Innovate and Improve
JK Rowling; the author of Harry Potter, had to go through 12 different publishers and get rejected by all of them and only then finally landed the one publisher who was willing to help.
I see many writers quit in the early stages of content writing because they weren’t able to handle such criticism. What a waste!
Learn from your mistakes and move on quickly. Most importantly, enjoy the process of learning rather than the destination itself.
Learn to Sell
Listen up! Our new economy will be one driven by ATTENTION. We are already seeing its growing popularity with social media influencers, YouTubers, and even OnlyFans sharing their daily life to make money.
You are the product itself whether you like it or not! I know it’s scary to put yourself out in the public, I’m an introvert myself. But readers are always looking to find out more about the person behind the story. That way, they can form a relationship if they feel related or have a sense of understanding of what they are trying to accomplish.
Writing Platforms — Medium, Substack, Quora
Writing platforms are a great way to get started instead of setting up your own website on WordPress or Wix.
With platforms like Medium, Newsbreak, Quora, and Substack. You can fully leverage these platforms with already over 100 million monthly active users. Building an audience from content writing on these platforms is pretty easy. To make your content writing business a success you need to be able to diversify and grow all of them at the same time.
The process of making money through a writing platform may be a little bit longer, especially for beginner writers since there is a lot they need to learn and improve themselves on. For writers looking to make a 4-figure income writing on these platforms, they would roughly take a year or two in order to get there.
Freelancing Services — Fiverr, Upwork, LinkedIn
Probably the best way for many beginner writers to make money on.
Many content writers these days are freelancers. They realize that they never actually need to be in an office to write content and that they feel more productive writing it at their own pace.
For most writers starting out, they would probably be making around $5 to $20 per 500~1,000 word article. Not a lot but definitely a good side hustle when first starting out.
During this writing process, you have to deal with criticism and keep writing while maintaining low prices. This is to make sure that you are getting consistent 5* reviews from your clients. After you have grown and built multiple clientele, you should increase prices to earn more and reduce workload.
After about 6 months, you should be about to make a 4-figure income after you have built enough trust in the community. I can share more step-by-step but this process would be really long so here’s my full breakdown on making content writing into a 6-figure business.
Selling Content — MarkerContent, Gumroad, Amazon
Selling your content is similar to doing freelancing work but the only difference is that you can keep selling the same content over and over again. Each platform has a different target audience so be sure to use the right one. Gumroad is famous only in the UK, Amazon is only good in the US and MarkerContent is pretty universal. I use these platforms to help me earn passive income through E-books, courses, and consultations that I provide.
Learn to Stay Passionate
Starting a content writing business is tough work. Your job is not only to write but to keep learning and be passionate about making it a story.
The reason many writers quit after their first year or two is that they aren’t able to commit to the timeline. The HARD TRUTH of content writing is that it takes a lot of time to build an audience and well-paying clients.
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