The 5 Key Decisions That Built My $1500/Month Writing Business

How I earn money writing while working 9–5

I’ve had a wild ride.

When I wrote my first post in January 2023 I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. Those first few months were embarrassingly bad. Readers were as rare as a unicorn in the desert.

But I kept at it. And now make $1500/month writing alongside my busy 9–5. I’ve made a ton of mistakes. But got a few things right.

Here’s my 5 best writing decisions:

1. Quit Substack

Most people struggle to let go of what’s not working.

We try to improve by starting new stuff. We add habits, activities, or smoothies. But we ignore the easier option. Remove something. Deleting gives easy results.

I had a Substack newsletter. It was full of random thoughts. Loosely based on the idea of living a better life (terribly vague I know!). After the initial interest from friends, it struggled to grow.

So I shut it down.

Removing the weekly discouragement of my failed newsletter set me free. And released a ton of fresh energy. I redirected this into fresh writing projects. And this quickly bore fruit. But I took too long to quit Substack. And…