Turn Your Writing Into a Profitable Business With Just 2 Hours a Day: Here’s How

I never thought I’d make any money from writing.

It was a hobby when I started publishing my work online in 2014. A quick way to get validation from strangers on the internet.

Fast forward to 10 years, and writing is now my full-time job. In my best months, I make $10k+ by working just 2–3 hours a day.

It took me several years to understand writing on the internet is serious business. You can make real money from it.

Not on day one, of course, and definitely not without a plan.

If you wish to turn your online writing into a profitable business, here’s a blueprint you can follow.

Step 1: Build Your Audience

While starting the online writing journey, most creators are confused about:

• what they should write
• how to decide on relevant topics and find a voice
• how to catch the audience’s attention and create content they want to read.

Start by laying a strong foundation and getting your basics right. Don’t blindly shoot in the dark or “guess” the kind of content that will work.

Here’s how you can do it

Build your audience persona:

• know who you’re writing for
• what their pain points are, and
• what interests them.

This will help you understand their challenges, doubts, insecurities, and anything they want to solve or improve in their lives. Once you know this, you’re not doing guesswork anymore.

Pro tip: Always write for one person, as if you’re talking to them directly.

Focus on creating content that would help that person flourish and become the best version of themselves.

If you find it challenging to build a persona from scratch, write for the version of yourself from 2 years ago. Keep refining your writing as you publish more. You’ll ultimately find your audience as you create value-adding posts.

Step 2: Understand the Game by Developing the Right Mindset

You don’t expect a managerial salary when you join a company as an intern, do you?

You know corporate jobs don’t work like that. You’ve to climb up the ladder step-by-step until you reach where you want to be.

Writing online is the same. It’s a long-term game. If you want to get rich within a few months, this game isn’t for you.

Finding success as a writer is all about having the right mindset. There’s no shortcut to making it big in the online writing world.

It takes patience, persistence, resilience, and constant upskilling to transform your writing into a profitable business.

Focus on adding value and keep doing it for long enough (2 hours a day for 2 years), and your life will change beyond recognition.

Step 3: Focus on Creating Quality

When you write content, don’t just tell stories, aim to solve a problem.

• Provide actionable advice and tips
• Back your content with credible sources and data
• Keep your posts concise and focused
• Avoid clickbaity titles in your content.

When you do that, you add value to your readers. Your target audience will flock to you, and you’ll find it easier to upgrade to paid customers.

Remember the golden rule of making money by writing online: Keep 99% of your content free. Charge for the 1% of extra value that your audience won’t find anywhere else on the internet except from you.

Step 4: Let Data Show You the Way

Leverage the digital tools and data to take your writing to the next level.

Keep an eye on what comments you get on your posts. What’s the most frequently asked question? Try to build your content engine around that.

Check your monthly analytics and the feedback you get from your audience regularly. Find what type of content or writing style is working best for you. Double down on that.

These data points will help you discover the sweet spot where your writing interests meet your audience’s expectations.

Keep analyzing the best-performing creators on whichever platform you pick. Reverse engineer their strategies and add some unique flavour to make them your own.

This will also help you in multiple ways:

• You’ll never run out of ideas
• You’ll know what’s trending and what your audience expects from you
• You’ll be able to refine your content strategy and create more engaging content.
• You can create digital products (eBooks, a Notion checklist, paywalled videos, etc.) around the frequently-asked-questions you get on your posts, and start selling them for an extra income stream.

This is how you eliminate guesswork.

Step 5: Streamline Your Solutions

Once you’ve written enough, you can shape your business in whichever way you wish. Things get simple when you know what your audience wants, and how you’re the best person to give it to them.

You can reach here only by consistency and strategic planning. There’s no other way around it.

I’ve transformed my writing hobby into a profitable business only because I chose the “do first, think later” mindset:

• Practised in public
• Published my work without chasing perfection
• Provided value through my content
• Over-delivered to my audience
• Analyzed what’s working and what’s not
• Created digital products around my best-performing content
• Changed my strategies to refine my content as many times as necessary.

If you put in this much effort, you’ll reach a stage where you can confidently shape your business according to your vision.

You build stuff, see what works, and iterate from there.

Final Words

Now’s the best time to be your own boss. You can transform your love for writing into something you do for a living.

Still, many people find it confusing how to go about it.

If you’re one of them, I’ve shared everything you need to know to get started.

1. Lay a strong foundation by understanding your audience’s persona
2. Change your mindset if you want to make it big as an online writer. Don’t get into it thinking it’s a way to make quick money. It takes trial and error, consistent efforts, and resilience to show up. Make time to upskill constantly to stay relevant for the long term.
3. Create quality content that solves your audience’s problems. Don’t forget to back it up with credible sources.
4. Keep 99% of your content free, and charge for the 1% of extra value that sets you apart.
5. Leverage the analytics and feedback of your audience to find the writing style that works for you. Gather enough data about to understand how you can serve your audience the best and ultimately transform them into paid customers.

It might seem a lot, but if you can commit to being consistent for even 2 years, the results will change your life.

They’ve helped me build a thriving writing business for myself. If I can do it, so can you.

If you’d like to have a career as a successful freelance writer, but don’t know where to start, grab my 90-day guide on how to start from scratch and land your first freelance client.