What Made You $1000 Won’t Make You $10k As A Writer

Anangsha Alammyan

16 Jan 2023 • 5 min read

Photo by Bewakoof.com Official on Unsplash

Mindset shifts that will massively boost your online writing income in 2023.

You’ve hustled every day of the past few months.

You’re determined to make it big as an online writer, and your perseverance has paid off.

You’ve had consistent $1000-months and are crushing everything on your to-do list.

But you made an income goal of $10k per month a few years ago.

And despite your best efforts, you’re unable to breach the mark.

If you can relate to the above, then this post is for you.

I made an income goal to hit $10k per month by December 2021, but it took another year to finally reach it. Now, I’ve understood that the strategies that pushed you to your first $1k won’t work for the next goal of $10k.

Some radical shifts in your work ethic and strategy are needed to jump the queue and supercharge your growth as an online writer. Curious to know what they are? Let’s dive in and take a look.

1. Find ways to add value

If you’ve written for freelance clients, you’ll know it’s not difficult to find someone who pays you $200 for a 1000-word piece.

But no matter how much you hone your skills and perfect your craft, it’s hard to find clients willing to pay you $500 or $1000 for the same 1000-word piece.

Does it mean your client-hunting skills are faulty?

No.

There’s nothing wrong with the way you pitch clients. The issue lies with your mindset that you can charge more for the same deliverable.

Don’t raise your rates and look for higher-paying clients. Pitch additional skills to the same clients.

For example, when I wanted a bigger paycheck, I added more services for the 1000-word articles my client wanted from me, like -

SEO, or ensuring the article ranks on page 1 for the target keyword.
Custom graphics depicting the vibe of the brand.
Social media promotion. This can mean turning the article into a series of LinkedIn posts or Tweet threads. These don’t take too much time, help the client get a couple of thousands more page views, and bring you extra money.

When you add value, the client will happily pay you more. And you get extra dollars for the same amount of research and brainstorming.

Sure, these will require you to learn more skills. But with time, the initial time investment will drastically reduce, bringing you better results both in terms of finances, saved time, and peace of mind.

2. Build complimentary skills aka catalysts

You can write all you want, but to achieve what only a handful have, upskilling is non-negotiable.

When you build new skills, add the ones that can catalyze your growth. The biggest skill I can think of here is community building.

Networking and community building have helped me-

Land clients and references that directly made me money.
Get affiliate income that saw me through in lean periods.
Find direct customers for my digital products.
Word-of-mouth marketing that paved the way for more valuable leads.

When you’re looking to upskill, don’t forget to focus on community building. This can be your biggest asset and the one with the highest ROI.

3. Build a team before the work starts to overwhelm

I know writers who work for 16+ hours a day writing for multiple clients. They are tired and overworked and hardly have a few hours to themselves.

They want better opportunities but cannot figure out how to attract them.

When we talked and they asked me how I do it, I gave the advice I want every writerpreneur to know: Outsource the repeatable work so you can do what no one else can replicate and grow your business 100x.

Do you know what these writers told me?

I want to be a solopreneur, not an agency owner.

I want to write and be creative, not get tangled in managing people.

I’d rather sell courses.

Do you know what these sound like to me?

Excuses stemming from fear.

They are so afraid of becoming an “agency,” they do their best to hold on to their identity of being a “writer.” They take independence a step too far.

And no, I’m not saying it’s impossible to make $10k a month without a team. On the contrary, in fact. A team will be like a booster and help you reach your goal in half the time.

Outsourcing simple tasks like social media scheduling, content repurposing across platforms, and research and outline work for books and articles doesn’t make you an agency owner.

It makes you an intelligent worker who’s prioritizing their by dedicating most of it to the things they do best. It’s not a toll on your independence, instead, it’s like having extra room to spread your limbs and take up more space as you explore the limits of your creativity and climb up the wealth ladder.

What made you $1000 as a writer won’t make you $10k

You need to keep upskilling and switch your mindset to embrace growth and abundance. How? Here are three techniques:

Offer more value and keep increasing your prices.
Learn networking and community building. Job offers and business opportunities might fail you. The people you surround yourself with will see you through the tough times.
Outsource the tasks that don’t need your specific skills. Build a team before the workload starts to overwhelm you.

If you’ve made it to the end of this piece, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these mindset shifts. Please share your insights in the comments, and let’s start a conversation about owning a thriving writing business in 2023.

I’ve talked more about the necessary mindset shifts to achieve success as a solopreneur here-

Intrigued about how writing online can turbocharge your entrepreneurial ventures? Grab The Ultimate LinkedIn Guide and start building your business on LinkedIn today.