Steal my 1 valuable mindset hack to make REAL money writing online
Succeeding as an online writer and making real money on the internet requires passion, grit, and consistency.
But it also requires the right mindset.
Most people don’t understand what that mindset is, and it’s why most people fail at this game in the long run.
There are so many people who binge on “How to get rich TODAY with ZERO effort” content, put in a few days’ work, and then wonder why they aren’t swimming in cash.
Well folks, I’m sorry to say it just doesn’t work like that.
If it did, everyone would be driving around in Ferraris.
No, making real money online is a months and years-long process, not a get-rich-quick scheme.
Now this might sound a bit daunting if you’re just starting out, but if you adopt the right mindset from Day 1, you will DRASTICALLY increase your odds of success.
Let me tell you about that mindset hack right now.
The right mindset to make money online
I coach competitive hockey, and recently a player of mine was feeling a bit down about where his game was.
I thought he was being hard on himself given he’s an exceptional player and everyone goes through ups-and-downs over the course of a season, but I appreciated that he thought he could be better and wanted to improve.
So I asked him to reframe his thinking.
Instead of thinking in terms of not being good enough and how he compared to other players who were currently ahead of him in the stats, I asked him to look at it his game like putting together a puzzle.
If he felt he could be better and he wanted to get better, he needed to start asking better questions:
What am I doing that’s working really well?
How can I duplicate that in other areas?
What am I doing that isn’t working?
If it isn’t working, what are some reasons it might not be?
How can I get more information about that?
Now that I have that information, what is it telling me?
How can I experiment with that information?
Was my hypothesis correct?
What elements of my experiment worked that I can build on?
What failed in my experiment, meaning I can stop wasting time on it?
This may seem like a lot, but these are the kinds of questions that are rattling around in my brain all the time.
Applying the right mindset to writing
I’m thinking about this now because a writer here recently posted a piece about … well, me actually … and some advice I gave her to increase her odds of success as an online writer.
I mentioned to
that I’d started ranking my story ideas based on which ones I thought would produce the most profit and starting with those.
I get way more ideas than I can ever hope to develop (you can do this too by following my 1 simple tip), and sometimes I get sidetracked and work on suboptimal stuff because it’s just faster or easier to do.
As such, I wind up wasting valuable time and effort.
Lea did a post on my response, and here’s what she wrote in a subsection called ‘Learning from data’:
“James also mentions basing content choices on ‘previous evidence.’
“Since the beginning of my journey here, I’ve been very obsessed about my stats. But I think James’ point isn’t to become a slave to data. But rather using it as a guide.
“So take a look at your articles. What topics did well? Why?
“And more importantly, what stories did you enjoy writing? Even if the numbers weren’t great?
“Search for that sweet spot where the data and your passions come together.”
This is all exactly right, but I wanted to add one more thing that I’d wished I’d emphasized more.
Here’s what I wrote back:
“Nice piece Lea, and I appreciate the mention. One thing that I would add is that mindset really matters.
“A lot of people get discouraged if they publish something and it doesn’t do as well as they thought it would, but I look at it with interest like a scientist.
“I’m genuinely interested in why it didn’t work and how I can get better.
“You have to enjoy that process for long-term success.”
Now I don’t want to go too far off the optimization deep end here.
Sometimes I do write or make videos about things just because I’m interested in them — writing should be fun after all! — but I also love the process of figuring out how to win at something.
And I’ll let you in on something else … if you can figure out how to get your mind right, it becomes impossible to fail.
Allow me to explain.
The Goggins mindset
My favorite motivational guru is the former Navy SEAL and ultramarathon runner David Goggins.
Whenever I start feeling negative or acting like a baby — which happens to the best of us — I know I need a kick in the a** from Goggins.
Normally I’ll listen to the audiobook versions of his 2 books, Can’t Hurt Me and Never Finished (those are affiliate links — you can listen to these for free if you’re new to Audible by using my link here to sign up) or fire up one of his podcast appearances.
I recently wrote a story about one thing Goggins said on the Joe Rogan podcast that can be applied to anything in your life.
And whether you’re trying to make it as an entrepreneur, get back in shape, or whatever, I suggest you heed his words on the concept of “failure”.
Here’s what Goggins said:
“People say, ‘how do you handle failure?’
“I fail a lot, dude. I fail all the f**cking time.
“I don’t look at failure as failure.
“I look at failure as your first, second, third, fourth, fifth attempt.
“I look at them as ‘attempts’. I don’t look at anything as ‘failure’.
“Not trying is failure.
“That’s not some after-school special sh*t, but when you’re able to go out there, there is no failure.”
I especially love that last line.
“Not trying is failure.”
Every attempt, every “loss”, doesn’t have to be a loss if you learn something from it.
How not to fail at content creation
So what does this look like in the context of content creation?
I’m kind of annoyed right now about a YouTube video I made.
Here it is if you’re interested:
This video took me a little less than 3 hours to film, edit and post, and what do I have to show for it?
Thirty-one views and 44 cents.
Put another way, of my 10 most recently published videos, this one came in 10th.
I’m a little annoyed the video didn’t work, but I’m not annoyed that I made the attempt at publishing something different in the first place.
Normally I post about writing or publishing videos, but for a long time now, I’ve wanted to move into finance content.
Why? Because I’m actually interested in it and it’s a super-high-paying niche.
My early attempts have been less than stellar (to put it kindly), but I’m not giving up.
Why?
Because if there are people who make big bucks posting finance content, that means it actually is possible.
And that also means that, theoretically, I could be one of those people making big bucks with finance content.
And so, despite what sometimes feels like a waste of time and effort, I’ll keep firing arrows until one of them hits the bullseye.
And when one whizzes past the target, I’ll consider my form, the wind, the equipment, and my state of mind when I loosed the arrow to figure out why.
Staying motivated
Does this all sound tedious to you?
It will to some I’m sure.
Some people just aren’t cut out for entrepreneurship.
Other people are just lazy and would much rather spend that time watching Netflix or scrolling social media all day and night.
But if you think you have the drive for entrepreneurship, your problem may not be that serious.
It may just be that you’re either:
Focused on the wrong activity
Not at the right place in your life to pursue it
I failed so many times at creating an online content business because it just wasn’t the right time.
I didn’t have the right maturity level, motivation or health habits to pull it off.
But with each rep, I was building skills that I didn’t even realize would serve me later.
And all the so-called failures along the way were actually lessons learned.
So when it all came together for me at age 41, it was off to the races and a multiple five-figure business in my first full year.
Start your science project
Thinking like a scientist — i.e. developing a hypothesis and then enjoying the process of testing and learning from it — is one of the true secrets to long-term success.
And if you learn to love the process, you’ll waste a lot less time thinking about the results.
Actually, you won’t really need to think about results at all, unless you feel like celebrating a big one.
When you mix passion with process, those financial results tend to take care of themselves.
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