How to Find Out How Much You’ll Earn Before You Write a Word
Try this simple trick to keep yourself motivated
Like a fisherman seeking that elusive big catch, it can be a tough process to sit down day after day and write article after article, forever thinking;
‘Today, this will be the one. This is the one that’ll go viral.’
If you want to work like that then go right ahead, and all power to you, but wouldn’t it be refreshing to know exactly what you’re going to make before you even sit down?
Regardless of what you write, regardless of length, topic or curation?
Of course it would.
Making cold-calling more appealing
In Tom Hopkins’ book ‘How to Master the Art of Selling’ he tells the story of a salesman, who, like many others had to go through the hardship of cold calling and those of you who’ve done it can relate to that. It’s a numbers game. Pure and simple. And it’s hard. It’s hard to keep motivated with ‘no’ after ‘no’ after ‘no’.
Tom Hopkins’ salesman was no different. He knew that it would take him maybe 10 calls to get an appointment and, of those appointments, he would convert the same ratio, say 1 in 10. But, he also knew that whenever he converted an appointment into a sale he stood to earn £500.
He could, like all of us, get down and disheartened about slogging away and getting knocked back 90% of the time. But here’s the difference. Rather than complain about the people who said no, or the deals he didn’t close, he flipped his thinking and looked at the work he put in to get to that elusive sale. He was making 100 phone calls to make a potential £500 sale and so, working on those numbers, he worked out that every phone call he made earned him £5 regardless of the outcome.
What a refreshing way of looking at it isn’t it? Knowing that whenever you sit down and pick up the phone you’re making £5.
And so from dreading another few hours of rejection and negativity. He approached his cold-calling in a positive way, with a smile, knowing he was making £5 every time he made a call.
Of course, when the closing ratio improves over time as you become more skilled, then the amount you make for each call increases as well and maybe you’ll be making yourself £10-£15 per call.
How it works on Medium
Let’s apply this to our writing.
At the moment, I know exactly how much I’m going to make sitting here and writing this article for Medium. £0.
And that genuinely isn’t me moaning about how tough it is to get started. I’ve been writing on Medium since July and so far I’ve written 27 articles. I’m gradually increasing my claps, my followers and my views, but as yet I haven’t made a single penny from my work.
And that’s fine, I know only too well that unless you are super-talented or super-lucky, if you’re going to make money from this platform you need to be consistent, consistent , consistent. You need to learn from your mistakes and play the game.
I have other things I do, so I’m nowhere near as consistent as I should be. But let’s take a little flight of fancy here and let’s imagine that I actually make £100 from this very article because it just strikes a chord with all you budding writers out there slogging away to make a few pounds.
The key here is not to look at the £100 as a single amount but as a reward for the accumulation of effort made over the past 27 articles.
In which case, I haven’t made £100, I’ve actually made £100 divided by 27, so every article I’ve written has been getting me ever closer to the money and every time I’ve opened my laptop I’ve made £3.70.
Doesn’t that put a whole new complexion on things ?
So when I next go to sit at my laptop and churn out another piece of work, I won’t sit, hoping that this will be the big one. Instead, I’ll be sitting and thinking;
‘I’m going to make myself another £3.70'
Simply by turning the thinking on its’ head gives your view of success or failure a whole new outlook.
Imagine if you did strike gold and had an article go viral and make £1500. Then all of a sudden the rate for simply opening the laptop goes from £3.70 to around £57 and that is suddenly quite an incentive to get you typing.
You’re an apprentice
At the moment, if you are making some money, then first of all congratulations and second of all how much is it? If all you’re making at the moment is £2-£3 every time you switch on the laptop then that’s fine.
Why?
Because you’re an apprentice. You are learning your trade and 100's of years ago, apprentices spent maybe 7 or 8 years perfecting their trade and that is exactly what’s happening to you.
You may not be making a lot of money at the moment, but you’re learning.
The key is consistency.
When you do start making money know your numbers, work out your rate. How much do you make every time you decide to sit down and work?
I think it’ll make the pill a little easier to swallow.
