Everyone has a dream to become financially free. We want to travel the world and do what we love without worrying about money.
The traditional advice to have financial freedom is to earn, save, spend less, and invest. Other ways are to start a business or find something that generates “passive income.”
But there is no such thing as passive income. It takes “active work” to become financially abundant.
I have always dreamed of becoming financially free—working for myself and earning money to help me live my dream life. But I was never sure how I would pursue it. The 9–5 jobs never showed me the path towards financial freedom. I only worked to get a paycheck.
I discovered online writing in 2020. It gave me hope that I could live my dream life. I’m on the path right now. And I will share how you can achieve financial freedom by writing online.
Making money writing online
If you have been writing online for a while, you must have found some ways to make money.
The few common ones are:
- Freelancing
- Writing for websites like Medium
- Ghostwriting
- Affiliate marketing
- Consulting
These are some great ways to monetize your writing. But can they really make you financially free?
Maybe.
But the best way to build your path towards becoming wealthy and living your dream life (with online writing) is by creating digital products.
Writers like Justin Welsh and Dan Koe make over a million dollars every year by writing online. Their strategy isn’t starting a blog and monetizing with ads and affiliate links.
Instead, they create and sell digital products that help their audience become better. Ads and affiliate marketing are only a minor part of their income. The majority of it comes from selling products.
When I say “digital products,” it could be e-books, courses, templates, checklists, guides, designs, etc.
You can follow these eight steps to build your way toward financial freedom writing online:
1. Pick a niche (or find one)
If you have a skill you are good at, you should start with that. Identify your strengths and work on them.
However, if you aren’t sure what topic to choose, don’t worry. You can begin by experimenting with different ideas. Most writers are unsure of which topics would be best for them. They want to follow the traditional advice of picking one niche.
But I don’t think that’s a sound advice. You should try different ideas, see what works, and identify what’s best for you.
I wrote about health, finance, books, blogging, and other topics in my early writing days. I didn’t stick to one niche. Instead, I experimented with multiple. Eventually, I found the ones that resonated most with my audience.
But most importantly, I had fun writing about those.
2. Write
Create content about the topics you want. Write down at least 20–50 article ideas. Build outlines and start writing your drafts.
Creating and sharing more content is the best way to get people to see your work. You must keep pushing content consistently.
Don’t focus on the results, especially when you are a newbie.
Write at least 50–100 articles first because that’s when you develop consistency and know what you truly want to write about.
3. Repurpose for multiple platforms
Don’t just stick to articles. Write on Twitter (X), LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and other social sites.
Make sure you repurpose your content according to the platform.
For example, write short posts on Twitter. Use LinkedIn and Facebook to write longer stories. And for Instagram, you can create text-based designs and write captions.
Publish on multiple platforms. Share your work. It doesn’t have to be perfect. But it has to exist.
4. Transform your popular content into a free product
After consistently following the above steps for a few months, you will know what’s working.
For example:
- The topics you enjoy writing about
- The articles your audience likes
- Their thoughts about your writing
- The best writing habits
Pick your most popular pieces of content. List them down.
Create a course or e-book on the same topic. Use your old content as a reference. Add new insights to your product. Make it better and give your readers the best value through it.
Keep it free. That’s right.
Don’t charge anything. Your goal is not to make money off it. Instead, it is to build an audience.
The money comes later.
5. Build a landing page with a sign-up form
Set up a page where people can download your product from.
You can do it on your website (if you have one) or use a third-party site to create a landing page.
It should include a form where people can provide their emails (and other details if necessary) and download your product.
Don’t overdo it. Keep it simple.
6. Promote your product
Talk about your product everywhere. Share it on social media. Send it to your friends. Cold email your connections on LinkedIn.
You can also write guest posts about it on other sites and blogs. It’s the best way to promote your product and reach more people.
Use paid ads if you want to. But I wouldn’t recommend it.
7. Send weekly emails with more value and offers
The more downloads you get, the more emails you collect.
You build an audience through your free product.
Now, this is where you capitalize your email list to make money. Start sending weekly emails to your subscribers.
Offer them more value. They will be happy to receive insights from your content.
8. Create a paid product
Use the same idea to create a paid product. Keep making content. You must follow the entire steps repeatedly.
Find what your audience wants. Use old stats to find what is working. Keep experimenting with your content.
Build a product that solves people’s problems.
Price it to a reasonable amount. And promote it through emails and social media channels.
Conclusion
Every high-income generating writer uses the same steps to make money and become financially free.
The product might be different. But the process is the same.
Some writers also write physical books and earn royalties through them.
Create multiple products. Write more quality articles. Share your work. Promote on various platforms.
Repeat.
The process might seem complicated and a lot of work. But it isn’t. All you need is consistency and quality.
Learn from the big players. Follow writers like Dan Koe and Justin Welsh. Observe what they are doing that makes them so successful. Copy their process.
Justin makes over $1.7 million a year from his one-person business. He follows a similar model to write and promote his work.
If they can do it, why can’t you and me? The resources are the same. We all have internet access to learn and network, as they do.
All it takes is determination and willingness to start.
Thanks for reading. Grab a copy of my free e-book, ‘The Online Writing Guide.’
