How I’ve Built a 4-Figure Writing Income in 4 Months

I’ve told a number of people recently that writing has become my main focus and the thing I’m putting most of my time and effort into. The majority of people have been happy for me and supportive. I have had a few though who seemed skeptical about this new writing career of mine.

I’ve had a real estate license since 2003 and have owned and operated a small carpet cleaning company since 2011. Writing brings me far more personal fulfillment and joy than my other two income streams. My goal is to have it become my primary income source. I’m now close to that after just four months.

I feel that with a little fine-tuning and more hard work, I can achieve my next income goal of a middle four-figure monthly income ($5000) in a shorter time frame. I’m happy to share with you what I’ve learned so far in four months. I feel that you too can hit that $1000 monthly income goal that most people would appreciate and could benefit from having. Here we go!

1. Write Daily

Write daily or as close to it as possible. Activity creates results. You don’t have to publish a polished, finished blog every day to be successful. But certainly, work on something each day.

Writing daily will help you establish patterns of activity and often lends itself to new ideas for writing pieces and blogs. The more frequently you produce quality content, the more people will take notice, read your new posts, and maybe even subscribe to your blog.

I know it’s not always easy. Sometimes I sit in front of my screen and stare blankly. But if I make myself pick a topic and start typing, it starts to flow. Often, I look up an hour later and have a finished writing piece. Even if I don’t, I have a hell of a start to work on later.

Having a number of writing pieces in progress at once is a nice feeling. I never feel like my tank is empty for ideas. I don’t get writer’s block. If one isn’t progressing or flowing, I move to another blog that’s in progress. It helps keep my momentum going and I feel more productive with my writing this way.

2. Read Daily

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned during my time on Medium is to read other writers’ work. My original plan was to post blogs daily and see what happened. I realized quickly that this was an error in my thinking.

If you pay the $4.99 monthly fee to be paid for your writing on Medium (And I highly recommend you do), you have access to reading all the blogs and posts you want. Many of them are very entertaining and interesting!

I’ve picked up many pointers and tips about how to successfully monetize your blog from reading blogs here on Medium. Some have discussed other platforms to use. Sometimes, I even get ideas for writing pieces from reading others’ writing.

Make a point to read a certain number of blogs each day. Perhaps a few over morning coffee or a couple during breaks at work. Give yourself a half-hour before bedtime to see what other writers are thinking of and writing about. It will make you a better writer yourself.

3. Balance Blog Writing and Content Writing

When I first started writing four months ago, I initially wrote blogs on Medium. This was to create a portfolio of my writing. I needed to showcase examples of my writing for the content writing websites I was trying to get hired by. This was the first fun part of my journey to becoming a professional writer.

Once I was hired to write for my first content writing company, that was all I wanted to do. I generally want to get the learning curve out of the way as quickly as possible when learning something new. This is so I’m able to achieve my goals faster. Patience is a virtue, but one I somewhat lack.

I surprisingly had a bit of burnout pretty quickly with content writing. I neglected my blog that first full month I did content writing for income. Boy, and my stats sure reflected that. I decided I needed to put more balance between my content writing assignments and my blogging duties. Suddenly, I was having fun again with my writing.

It paid off. I earned $3.04 in earnings for February, when I didn’t blog for almost the entire month. After attempting to blog every day of March, my blog income jumped to $34.08, an over ten-fold increase. That was encouraging. Continuing to stay consistent with my blogging and getting somewhat better at writing more-engaging pieces, I earned $420.81 in income for April. This has me excited about what’s coming next in May and beyond.

4. Content, Spelling, Grammar, and Formatting Are All Important

I’ve always been pretty good at spelling and grammar. However, you can always improve in those areas. After installing Grammarly on my laptop, I quickly learned how many small, minor details I was missing. I was glad Grammarly was catching the number of mistakes I had been missing.

Looking back at my earlier blogs as compared to my more recent ones, it’s evident that things are improving with time. Just like with most things, practice makes perfect, as it relates to writing. I feel that my best work is yet to come.

Be sure to have an app like Grammarly or something similar in your pocket. Headline Studio is another great resource to create engaging, creative titles for your blog. More people will be inclined to click on them and read further if the title and intro parts of your blog are engaging and fun to read.

Being read is the most important aspect of building a successful blog. Having more readers who read your entire blog will help you monetize your blog and keep you earning more from your writing.

It’s Not Difficult To Earn a Living as a Professional Writer

These four simple things I’ve learned during four months of writing have become so important to me. By following these steps and balancing my blogging and content writing efforts, I’ve reached my initial goal of making a four-figure income from writing.

I feel that I can now double that income and eventually hit a middle four-figure income each month. I’d love to achieve this goal within the first year of my writing career. Following these four easy steps, I feel that you can do it as well.