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My Plan to Make a Million Dollars Writing Online

by BenoitMaligeJune 16th, 2024

Too Long; Didn't Read

You might not see it yet, but your brain is a treasure filled with incredible ideas. Writing is the net that catches and organizes them. The more you write, the clearer and more exciting your thoughts become.

featured image - My Plan to Make a Million Dollars Writing Online

Everyone wants to make a million bucks online, but few actually do. Why? Because they’re too busy chasing shortcuts and gimmicks instead of building something real. Here’s my no-bullshit plan to actually make it happen, and yes, you can steal it.

First, some background:

I first heard the term ‘Creator Economy’ when a friend sent me a link to a podcast episode featuring Seth Godin. His insights on building a meaningful life resonated with me. "You can create a community," he said, "and build a business around the value you provide, all by sharing your unique perspective with the world."

I was feeling trapped and stuck in my own business, so Seth's words were like a breath of fresh air. "The internet is a place where you can connect with others, create something valuable, and find fulfillment," he explained. “And if that fails, there's always alcohol.”. Don’t quote me on this, I may have made that up.

The truth is, not everyone succeeds as a creative entrepreneur. In fact, only 9% of independent creators reported making over $100,000 last year, and about 71% made less than $30,000 annually (MBO Partners).

On YouTube, 3% of creators barely manage to make the annual U.S. minimum wage (Tasty Edits).

Most of success stories belong to the top few, while the vast majority struggles to find their success.

The gap is growing between those who create as a commodity and those who build authority. I want to make sure you’re on the right side of that divide—so listen up.

Speaking of.. Why Listen to Me?

The same reason you listen to anyone on the internet: You don't. I'm not an expert.

But here’s the thing: I was making over $3 million per year in an industry I wasn’t passionate about: Real Estate. I left it all behind because I am convinced I will make even more now with writing. I’m going all in.

Just last year, I had very minimal knowledge of the potential of online writing and content creation.

Terms like 'SEO' and 'content marketing' were still foreign to me. In fact, I had hired a team for my business to do it for me and just trusted that they knew what they were doing, so I never bothered checking.. until I did.

I started researching how to optimize our articles, wrote some myself, and took over our company newsletter, moving it from MailChimp to Beehiiv.

Three things occurred to me:

People want to read from people, not teams
There was a whole new world for me to discover that had tremendous potential.
I still had so much to learn.

And so I did.

Engagement went up by 220%. Clients were being educated “passively”, and by the time the sales team got them on the phone, they “already knew us”. It was like magic, but without the creepy magician.

A fire was lit inside of me, but there was a problem. I started enjoying it more than the actual work I was supposed to do as a CEO.

I knew I was on to something, but the model was to be adjusted. So I did the most reasonable thing I could do, and quit the business to dedicate my waking hours to learn how to write. Oh, and I also decided to travel the world by doing it, just to make it easier for organizational purposes.

Fast forward to today, I'm proud to say that while I may not have a massive audience yet, over 120,000 people have read my articles in the 3 months I’ve started sharing my thoughts. I'm building a community around my writing, and I'm continuously growing and sharing my journey with you.

So, Why Writing?

The internet is overflowing with content, and yeah, it might seem like a mess, but that's where the magic happens. This chaos is a goldmine for writers. This is where you get to cut through all these AI generated vomit of articles.

Writing isn't just putting words on paper—it's a way to think clearly.

“Writing is the backbone of the internet. It’s the source of everything you read, hear and see.Write to learn, not to teach. There’s always something new to discover in the process.” – Naval Ravikant

Audio: Think podcast scripts and voiceovers.
Video: From video scripts to descriptions.
Email: Crafting newsletters and business emails.
Business: Writing marketing materials and plans.
Social media: Creating posts and engaging content.
Work communication: Clear internal messages.

Mastering writing will level up every part of your business. No matter the business. Even if you are starting a completely new business.

Where to Write?

If you want to make money writing online, go where people spend their money. And what’s the new currency? Attention.

Now, if you want to strike gold, you need to go where the rush is. That would be on social media.

Plan of action: You create content on social media to lure an audience, and once you've got them hooked, you reel them into your own platforms like your newsletter or blog—I call this the Ice Cream Truck strategy. Except we’re shooting for grown adults on the internet here; not the neighborhood kids on Maple Street.

Here are some platforms to consider:

Quora
TikTok
Reddit
Medium
LinkedIn
Twitter (𝕏)
Instagram/Threads
Hackernoon
Beehiiv (or any newsletter/blogging platform)

I don’t know if there’s a better platform. I’m still experimenting with each of them. I would say the best one should be the one you enjoy the most.

Plus, this stuff takes time. Every platform has different rules, character limits, approval processes. It’s pretty time consuming when you’re starting out. The best is just pick one and start publishing.

Don’t overcomplicate it. Save the thinking for the contents of your writing, not the platform it’s posted on.

What to Write About?

Choosing your topic is tough, right?

Wrong. It’s only as hard as how much you let your fears get in the way of ideas. Just write about whatever you are curious about. Seriously. You’ll end up finding your niche eventually, and it will be much more fun.

I spent wayyy too much time thinking about this and delayed getting started. And it still resulted in me exploring different topics than the ones I spent months analyzing.

Just look at this list of topics and tell me if it seems planned out:

Just trust the process, and get to work.

How to Write?

I’ve got bad news for you. Finding your writing voice is probably more difficult that being yourself in person (not that this was easy to begin with). The problem with writing is that you have time to come up with sentences. You have time to get inspired by other writer, and opportunities to sound just like them, which won’t be who you are.

And that’s ok. It’s part of the process. I’m myself getting closer to who I am as a writer. My very first newsletter was dry. Although I shared a very personal story, I borrowed the voice from a wannabe Dan Koe. This one, on the other hand, has the potential to get me canceled by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, because I’m finally embracing my natural tendency to incorporate sarcasm and a pinch of dark humor.

Just be you. Everyone else is taken.

I think the key here is to be consistent above all. Because the more you practice, the quicker you’ll find your voice. The shorter the gap between your pieces of content, the quicker the feedback you’re getting. This feedback loop is important for making progress.

Here’s a completely arbitrary rule of thumb I just came up with:

“If you don’t cringe when looking back at what you wrote one month ago, you’re not writing enough.”

Ben

Don’t be an expert (unless you are). Just be curious about things and write about them. Let other people call you an expert if they find your information valuable. It should not be a self proclaimed title, and your writing should certainly not be an attempt to sound like one hoping to boost your credibility.

Curiosity beats credibility

You can be an expert at something you don't enjoy and write about it, but within a couple of months, you'll get fed up and lose interest (living proof here).

Writing about something you’re curious about can keep you engaged for a lifetime. Plus, following your curiosity will get you excited. If you’re excited, you’ll write about exciting things, and your readers will feel that.

“But what if my curiosity evolves?” — So will your writing.

Monetization

Here’s the juicy part. Well, it’s actually just fruits for now.. But I have the ingredients to make the juice from. Here are the 7 most popular paths to monetizing your writing.

1. Done For You (DFY) Services

DFY services offer great earning potential but are hard to scale because they depend heavily on your personal labor.

Pros

Low initial costs
High potential earnings

Cons

Limited scalability
Reliant on personal effort

2. One-to-One Coaching

Coaching can be rewarding but shares the scalability issues of DFY services, requiring significant personal time and effort.

Pros

High potential earnings
Personalized interaction

Cons

Limited scalability
Time-intensive

3. Group Coaching

Group coaching leverages your time better but involves managing multiple clients simultaneously.

Pros

More scalable
Higher earning potential

Cons

Greater responsibility
Requires group management skills

4. Digital Products

Digital products can be sold repeatedly but require a strong base and frequent updates to stay relevant.

Pros

High leverage
One-time creation, multiple sales

Cons

Needs frequent updates
Low completion rates

5. Community

Building a community can be highly profitable but demands significant upfront time and energy, plus ongoing engagement to prevent member loss.

Pros

Long-term profitability
Strong engagement

Cons

High initial investment
Managing churn

6. Cohort-Based Courses

Cohort-based courses offer structured, interactive learning experiences but need consistent improvements and repeat runs to become truly profitable.

Pros

Combines course and community benefits
Built-in urgency

Cons

High initial time and energy investment
Requires multiple iterations for profitability

Newsletters can be lucrative through advertising and affiliates but require substantial readership to be profitable.

Pros

Monetization through ads and affiliates
Good for writing enthusiasts

Cons

Requires scale, volume, or specificity
High competition

Which one will I choose? None of them. At least not right now.

For me, this is a life-time commitment, and I have the luxury to not be in a hurry.

My plan: I’m currently building a highly comprehensive a course that I will offer completely for free. And I’m not talking about a 2 page Chat-GPT created PDF or a 5 minute Loom video on information that is freely available with a quick google search.

Imagine a course with strategies so effective, even your grandma could use them to start a Fortune 500 company.

Now you’re probably asking yourself “isn’t this guy stupid to be wasting this time and energy and potentially giving all this value away for free”? Well, maybe. But that’s besides the point. You see, in exchange for this, I will only ask for one thing and one thing only: A testimonial.

By the time I do come up with something that I believe is worth paying for, I’ll immediately start hearing knocks on my door, and it won’t be the dominos’ delivery driver.

The internet rewards those who provide the most value. Your income reflects your impact. To succeed, focus on serving your audience. There will always be more problems to solve and exciting projects to build.

Measure your success by how much you help others, not by your personal achievements.

And this is my plan. To help people find passion through writing, and purpose in thinking.

I want to help as many people I can to engineer their existence and master the Art of Living.

Sure, making a million bucks is cool, but the joy of reading these comments is priceless. I've chased money before and it made me miserable. So if you were looking for a "how to get rich in 30 days," I'm sorry to disappoint but this is not the post for you.

However, if you are willing to be patient, and learn alongside me, I can assure you that we'll get there, eventually. And when we do, it will be the icing on the cake, not the cake itself.

I’ll leave you with this quote that now I live by and has drastically changed the way I view and do things: