“I don’t have the money to pay for an editor, cover designer, and promotion. I can’t just make money online.”
This is a common theme among self-publishing authors who haven’t written their book yet, or they have but it isn’t selling. When they reach out, they are looking for the magic pill to help sell books. Well, you can do this, but you have to learn where to make money online.
I share with them the five downfalls of most self-published books. And then they tell me they don’t have any money to spend to improve their book. At that point, we are faced with three options:
- Give up
- Continue doing what you are doing without any changes
- Or make money to make money
Most people pick option number one and option number two. But that doesn’t have to be you. Option number three required a little bit of work, a little more sacrifice, but it can easily be the best thing to help you succeed at self-publishing.
3 Ways to Make Money in Order to Self-Publish Better Books
I have a few different income streams that I use to make the funds needed to create my self-published books. Now, before you get grand ideas of dollar signs, I don’t make a lot of money from these, but several offer a decent chunk from time to time. Today, I want to share them with you.
№1 — NewsBreak
While they stopped with base pay on their articles a while back, I have still made a sizeable chunk of money with this website. And, plenty of other writers are making good money there too. As long as you are writing about current world problems.
If you haven’t written there in the past, in order to monetize, you need at least ten articles written and 100 followers. From my experience, getting followers comes with writing a lot of articles.
The minimum word count is 250 words, so as long as you stick to current news you can write a ton of articles and get monetized fast. I highly suggest writing here and you can sign up today to get started!
№2 — Medium
Medium is my second highest earner month to month and a great way to make money online. It isn’t a lot but occasionally I break into the $100 club. However, it is a great place to start writing and get monetized.
Again, there are requirements to get monetized with Medium. You need 100 followers. To my knowledge, that is it. Once you do that, you can sign up for the Medium Partner Program and you are off and running.
Getting 100 followers here on Medium is pretty easy, you just have to get stories in the feed, join some Medium Writers Groups and you will get there in no time at all. Join the Medium Partner Program today!
№3 — Amazon KDP
This is my third biggest earner. However, it has taken about a year and four books to make a consistent monthly income on Amazon. So, I don’t want you to think this is a get-rich-quick scheme at all.
However, I do make about the same amount on Amazon selling books a month as I do on Medium. So, that money is great for re-investing into my self-publishing efforts.
The more books I create, the more money I will make, and the more books I can publish. It is a cycle that works well. Check out Amazon KDP today!
№4 — Dividend Investing
The fourth monthly contributor to my income efforts that I have used to pull money out of is dividend investing on platforms like Robinhood, Webull, and Stash. This isn’t a huge amount, but I do sometimes pull my dividends when I am in a pinch to pay a bill.
What I do is invest in monthly dividend stocks and ETFs. I have built up my positions over the last year and a half so I can get a healthy monthly income from the dividends that I typically reinvest. However, I pull a month’s dividend total from time to time if I need it.
You can start investing and get free stocks or cash at each of these accounts: Robinhood, Webull, and Stash. If you use the dividend great, if you don’t reinvest them and watch your holdings grow.
№5 — Amazon Affiliate Marketing
This is another one that goes up and down quite a bit. I could probably make more regular income if I was promoting more things regularly. However, I only want to promote things I use or think would be helpful, so I don’t make a lot here.
That to say, going with the Amazon Affiliate program does make some people a lot of money. In fact, you can make money online consistently by setting up a niche blog and promoting different products and services on a regular basis. I actually make the most on things like signing people up for Audible or special Amazon programs like Kindle Unlimited.
All that to say, it is a regular monthly income that I use to make money in order to continue my self-publishing efforts. And it can be an easy way to incorporate it into your other efforts as a writer.
Other Writing Options
There are other options of course, but I have found they are not consistent or detract from my writing efforts and goals. But, I wanted to share them with you nevertheless.
- Writing on places like Fiverr or Upwork. These can provide consistent income, but you have to spend your writing time doing the work there. You also have to deal with people being really cheap.
- Selling products on Gumroad. I have just started putting things up on Gumroad, mostly free items to date, but I think this can be another place where you could start earning a regular monthly income as well.
- Selling mini-courses. I have done this with random income month-to-month, but I know some folks make sizeable amounts doing this. Basically, you find a course provider, create a short course that answers one problem, and sell it for a nominal amount.
Final Thoughts on How to Make Money Online
What I have learned in the last couple of years as a self-published author is that you need to spend money to make money. Not only that, you need to be willing to write about other things to make that money.
Now, it’s not just about making money. I make this money to author more books and help more people. Sure, I do want to make more to escape my day job, but that isn’t going to happen without putting in the work of writing.
So, if you want to be a self-published author and don’t have a lot of time or money to do it. You need to take the small steps, make money where you can, work on your books, and publish.
Over time, you will start to see increases, growth, and abundance flow while you make money online.
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J.R. Heimbigner is a #1 Bestselling Author on Amazon who loves helping people grow in their faith and help writers become authors. You can connect with him on Medium, his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Ko-fi!
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