How I Made $30,000 From Writing in 1 Year

/ Start a Blog, Featured, My Career Stories / By

If you had asked me if I would ever make money from my blogging, I would have said no. I lack any special talent, gift, or even a writer to mentor me.

I’ve made more than $30,000 from writing in the last 365 days.

If I can make money from writing, you can too.

Many people believe this is an impossible task, but it is not. You might have to make some sacrifices to achieve your goals and remain committed even when things become difficult.

It’s useful for engineers to have a blog and write about what they’re doing, what they know, what they’re learning, and so on.

Think about it. After you’ve worked through a tricky bug or problem, don’t you want to remember what you did? And chances are someone else will have that same problem very soon, so why not document your steps and share them with the community? You’re doing a good deed for yourself and others.

Blogging is to writing what extreme sports are to athletics – more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, and more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.

– Andrew Sullivan

Stop reading if you’re looking for quick writing tips or tricks to make money quickly. But if you want to know my story, how I got started, how long it took, and what it took to get to this point with writing, continue reading.

Let’s deep dive into how I earned $30000 by writing, so you can learn more about my strategy and how you can use it yourself.

I Establish an Online Presence

I’ve worked hard at improving my coding and soft skills since started in tech in 2010. This was my only focus for a long time. But during the pandemic in 2020, I got a chance to do something different and started sharing my tech experience on Twitter.

I had to build a brand and establish my credentials before my career took off.

The opportunities that have come my way have increased as my internet profile and authority have increased.

Don’t get me wrong: you must have to be a good developer.

Genuine talent and skills are required to get hired in tech.

However, if you have a strong web presence and are well-known in your engineering field, more businesses will find you and want to work with you.

Twitter can be an invaluable tool for engineers to advance their careers.

Build a Twitter Following

I used Twitter for years with next to no followers. I mostly posted random photos or memes that I thought were funny. I didn’t know about Twitter as a networking tool, and as a result, I missed out on some really amazing opportunities.

I moved my focus to provide value in my tweets. I gained 10,000 followers in two months when I wrote my book. I stopped publishing what I thought was funny or what helped promote my blog posts or other material, and instead, I focused on sharing my own real tech experiences that I thought would add value to others.

From 2020 August –2021 January

Not a single $ was made from writing during this period, but why? Because what I did the most was “writing on the internet” and focusing on building a good professional network instead of going for small $$ sponsorship deals.

From 2021 January –2021 October (The eBook Idea)

It all started when I received this direct message on Twitter.

How I received a cold DM for sponsorship

After much deliberation, I decided to write solo and self-publish on Gumroad.

Building In Public

I launched my book The Prime Guide For Next-Gen Developer

I made 3,300+$ till now from the book, not much success, but it’s a good start which made me believe that anything is possible on the internet if this can happen.

Gumroad Sales Numbers

Fast forward, I moved to Sweden in June 2021 as a consultant and again, it all become possible by helping others and writing on the internet. I helped the a startup team establish an online presence. I promoted them, did Twitter spaces, and even wrote an article to help them without charging a single $ (which was a mistake, TBH), but because my good friend was a community manager, I never mind. It was all worth as I made many lifetime friends during that time.

But as they say, Good will come to you if you do good.

In October 2021, I sent a couple of cold DMs on Twitter & soon, I received my 1st quarter-time role opportunity at SuperTokens.

One random day in December 2021, I woke up with this tweet that brought me hundreds of followers, over 19,000 likes, and almost 2,000 retweets.

I earned 20,000$+ in a 5months contract working 10-15hours per week in developer relations at SuperTokens.

Again, it wasn’t easy money, but if you want to do something, you have to make a sacrifice.

Change is excellent – if it’s in the right direction.

You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things.

I was moving in the right direction. As “Speed will not get you there, but the proper path will.”

In case you are interested what I did there Working at SuperTokens as a Developer Advocate

deel pay

How I Increase My Luck While Working as a Software Consultant.

  • Quarter-time contracts
  • Write and Sell eBooks
  • YouTube (dropped as editing is the biggest pain 😉)
  • Paid newsletter
  • Sponsored content
  • Technical blogging
  • Mentorship

I didn’t overthink; I Just took a lot of action.

My Current Small Bets Portfolio

How Do I Get Technical Writing Partnerships?

I cold emailed, and DM’d a few startups CEOs/CTOs on Twitter, pitching about my skills and how I can solve their problems as I already write technical blogs for SuperTokens, and out of 10-20 emails, DMs, which I sent initially; I received 5-6 follow-up emails asking to share my past or current work and set up some initial meetings and this what I needed just to continue my writing business.

Now coming to the point of how I land these opportunities, Mostly via cold emails/DM.

I make an educated guess.

E.g

  • [first name] @ [company]. com
  • [first initial] [last name] @ [company]. com
  • [first name]. [last name] @ [company]. com
  • [last name] @ [company]. com
cold DM example

Getting someone to respond to an ice-cold email can be tough. Maybe you’ve heard, or thought.

Cold emails are dead; it’s SPAM.

I’ve heard these complaints a lot. But I disagree.

Everyone writes cold emails, but who’s good at it?

I have shared my views here on How to Write Powerful Cold Email As a Software Engineer.

This is what happens when you don’t assume and act.

Blogging is a conversation, not a code. – Mike Butcher

If you know what you’re capable of and find some solid sponsors via cold outreach, it can eventually generate very good money.

How Much Do They Pay

Please keep in mind that different topics pay differently on the internet.

Your earnings will depend on two factors.

  1. Your niche.
  2. How you choose to monetize.

However, depending on your niche, you can make money with little traffic.

Here’s a secret that many bloggers don’t want to share. you don’t have to focus on the most competitive keywords to get traffic.

The better approach would be to enter your keywords into Google and then look for questions that Google suggests you look up.

Treat blogging as a small bet, and you’ll begin to invest time and earn money from it.

That’s the KEY.

A snapshot of my recent writing earnings.

money from blogging
How much I earn from Blogging
blogging earning

In addition, I received some excellent leads from Paid Community Writer Programs.

You can read more about blogging in my other articles.

Start a blog- Ankur Tyagi

Key Mistakes a New Bloggers Make

  • Purchasing a new domain and starting their blog, which wastes time instead of focusing on producing quality articles and using existing platforms.
  • Not writing everywhere at first ( Hashnode, Dev. To, Medium, LinkedIn, Twitter). Focusing too much on SEO.
  • Not promoting their blog content.
  • Even a perfectly written, edited blog will fail if people aren’t made aware of them.

Successful writers use failures to sharpen their intuition by recognizing mistakes for what they are.

Money and learning from writing come to those who do not blame others for their failure.

Second-Order Effects of My Writing

Second Order Effects Of Writing

Everything takes longer than you think.

It’s not that you’re not writing quickly enough; that’s the issue. It’s because you never had any realistic expectations, to begin with.

What Else Did Writing Do for Me Besides Money?

  • My professional network has increased significantly since I started writing.
  • Opportunity to learn new skills.
  • I can manage my time better when I write online. When I lived in India, I loved to stay up late, but since moving to Sweden last year, I’ve had to get up early and write until everyone in the house was awake.

Additionally, I recently received a few interviews solely due to my writing.

And, in the near future, my main goal is to work full-time for my own business in the coming years, writing gives me more confidence, and I recently registered my AB company in Sweden.

Top Four Lessons I Learned While Writing

  • If you’re writing for the first time, give yourself more time to figure it out.
  • Discipline and perseverance are required; that’s the key, just keep showing up.
  • Allow yourself to write poorly. Don’t expect the first draft to be flawless. Instead, allow yourself to fail, learn, and progress. Stop preparing and start acting.
  • Some people will dislike your writing style & guess what who cares.

You can make a more realistic writing portfolio by changing your assumptions about how long it takes to complete a blog.

The Secret to Making Money in Writing

Stop being such a selfish prick, I say this with love but seriously. “I want to make $5k a month, I want to make $10k, I want this I want that” Listen to me, Nobody Cares.

Think of this, when you are buying anything what are you thinking about? You. When we’re being customers we’re selfish. Do you care what the toilet paper brands owner wants, his passions, or anything? Or do you want it because it hits a certain price point, quantity, and solves your need of wiping your ass?

You don’t have to create the next Apple to make a significant amount of money. You merely have to find a problem that has a demand for it to be solved, and learn skills along the way so you can provide a solution. Do you think if you had the cure to cancer, water in a desert of dehydrated people, etc that you would have trouble selling it? No, because you’d have a relevant solution

People want what they want, when they want it. Stop thinking about yourself and start thinking of who is funding you, the customer demographic you’re selling to! 

Nobody is paying you because you “want to be a writer” they’re paying you because you make their life easier in some way. Seriously, this can be frustrating enough as it is, don’t overcomplicate it. Writing is about being a problem solver, if you don’t like that then writing isn’t for you. Stop. Thinking. About. Yourself.

Don’t bring your wants and needs to the marketplace, because it doesn’t give a damn about them. The only thing the marketplace demands is value. If you bring enough value to the marketplace you will be rewarded.

 Jim Rohn

Conclusion

This is simply my journey; it is unique to me. Some of my successful tactics might not be effective for you.

If you’ve worked for years to get a promotion, expressed a desire for professional development, and wanted to write, it’s probably time to get start.

To earn Money, you shouldn’t create a blog; first, let’s get that out of the way.

  • The good news is that starting a blog is much easier than you might think.
  • Blogging will help you gain confidence in your life.
  • You’ll improve as a writer.
  • Concentrate on providing value rather than increasing traffic.

The irony is that all of these things are possible. Building a blog can provide you with a full-time income.

We won’t see an end to blogs anytime soon. 📝

That’s all for now. I hope you found this information useful.

Stay in Touch

That was it for this blog.

I hope you learned something new today.

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