How I Doubled My Writing Income Overnight By Focusing on One Skill
Image created by author using Canva. Author’s Instagram linked here.
It’s not a technical skill or another income stream.
I make about six figures a year by typing words onto my computer and posting them online, which is unreal when I stop to think about it.
Sometimes it’s boring. Usually it’s a lot of fun. And most importantly, it leaves me with a lot of time to do what really matters: playing with my cats.
Although I recently detailed how I make $5,000 per month with boring income streams like SEO writing, content marketing, and copywriting, the truth is I haven’t always earned that much. It took me a long time to work my way up to that amount.
My first copywriting paychecks were a few bucks apiece. My first content marketing clients paid me $30-$75 per article — an amount I was beyond grateful for.
Image created by author in Canva of Copify payouts from 2017.
But let’s do the math on that real quick. In order to make $5,000 a month with a $75 article, I’d have to write at least 66 articles PER MONTH. Let’s say each one takes 90 minutes to write. We’re looking at a 100-hour workweek.
That is not my jam.
Today, I write around 20 articles a month, including the ones I write for myself. I spend about 10–15 hours a week working. And I earn between $8–10k a month. What’s the skill I used to double my income like that?
My secret sauce is confidence.
This is my biggest beef with Upwork and Fiverr: these websites condition you to believe that your work is worth just a few bucks. They leech your self-belief and confidence.
Writing is hard. Not everyone can do it, and a very small number of people can do it well. These sites, those clients, will trick you into believing your article is worth $5, or $10, or maybe even $100 if they’re super generous.
And you know what happens then? Selling yourself short will, over time, bring you to the same mindset as your clients — that the work you do, and you by extension, are only worth $5. Your work quality will decrease, and your satisfaction will plummet. It’s a self-fulfilling cycle.
You’re grateful for those pennies, never realizing what they’re costing you.
I was very lucky. One of my earliest clients told me I should be charging more than I was. On her advice, I doubled my prices. And instantly, with the same amount of work, I was earning twice as much. In case you don’t have that luck, let me be the one to tell you: you should be charging more.
Confidence lets you double your own income in two different ways.
1. Put on the Microsoft mindset.
When I started speaking to new clients, I tried to stay firm on my new, higher prices. But I ran into a lot of opposition. Clients tried to tell me I was worth it, but they just didn’t have the budget. Or they’d ghost me once I let them know what I was charging. Or they’d ask me to provide a discount since they were start-ups or because I was new.
Image created by author in Canva. It is a screenshot of an email received from a client I did work for at a heavily reduced price. I originally pitched $250, but they came back with $100 due to budget constraints.
This is all totally reasonable from their perspective. I’m not mad at them. I’m mad at myself for going along with it.
I used to believe I got turned down because I wasn’t worth more. The truth is that those clients don’t deserve us. If you don’t believe in your own value, they won’t either.
Let me illustrate this with an example. At my old company, we purchased licenses for Microsoft. This was a real expense. Outfitting 100-odd employees with the Microsoft suite isn’t cheap.
Did my boss pitch a fit? Did she complain? Did she email Microsoft and tell them that though the products were great, we should get a discount because we didn’t have the budget for it?
Of course not. We paid for the goods and received them. You should think of your business the same way. If a client thinks you’re too expensive, then they should look elsewhere for the service or do without.
2. Remember there are infinite clients.
Here’s a dirty writing secret: No matter what price you set your service at, some prospective clients will still tell you no, whether it’s $5 or $5,000 for an article.
For some clients, $100 for a well-written 1,200-word article is too much.
Your job is not to persuade the $100 clients to pay you $200. Your job is to find the ones that think $500 for an article is cheap and target them instead.
Gaining confidence helps you increase your prices, but it also helps you say no to clients who won’t pay that.
Remember, whether you’re ghostwriting, SEO writing, or content marketing, to the right client you are a godsend. To the right client, you came at just the right time to do the one thing they needed more than anything.
When I started writing professionally, I was so insecure that I had a permanent loss mindset. I was way more afraid to lose than I was eager to win. Every time a prospective client came into my inbox, I would capitulate to their demands, terrified I’d lose them. But when I started building my confidence, I tried an experiment. I pitched the same higher price to three prospective clients.
Client A ghosted me.
Client B asked for a lower price to accommodate his budget.
Client C emailed me back straight away, asking when she could sign the contract on the work and when we could get started.
As a writer, developing your confidence allows you to say no to the first two, because you know the third is out there, waiting for you.
This didn't work instantly. Sometimes, I felt like I was “tricking” my clients into paying me more than I was worth. To combat this, I invested in myself more. I learned more about SEO, I read copywriting textbooks, and I developed my content marketing skills to a greater degree. Remember, if you fake it, you might make it. But you’ll be doubting yourself the whole time.
You have to persuade clients, but you have to believe your own hype, too.
Never forget how hard writing is.
Most writers know how hard writing is. I might just have to remind you. Finding the right word, crafting the right sentence, coming up with the flow, editing, sharing, and doing it all over again for the next piece is tough.
Most clients know that, too. That’s why they don’t do it themselves or get one of those wacky AI bots to do it for them. But they like to pretend it’s easy because it helps them justify their lower prices.
With places like Fiverr and Upwork helping them sell their lie, it’s all too easy for writers to begin to believe it too. And because many writers do it for the passion and joy of the craft, many feel like they don’t deserve to ask more. That’s why confidence is the biggest tool in your arsenal to begin earning more and working less.
You are a skilled writer. You deserve to make a living by writing. Your clients are lucky to have you. Develop the confidence to ask for the price you’re worth and to turn down clients who don’t see that truth, and watch your income skyrocket.