Building a portfolio of writing businesses to $10M, and sharing my frameworks along the way.

My name is Nicolas Cole, and I am one of the most-read writers on the Internet.

Over the past decade, I have written over 5,000 articles online, and ghostwritten for 300+ Founders, C-level executives, NYT best-selling authors, Grammy-winning musicians, and more. I have also broken records on various digital writing platforms, like becoming the fastest-growing user on Quora in 2014, and becoming the most-read writer on the entire platform (out of 200 million users) in 2015. I have amassed hundreds of millions of views on my writing, and the topics I cover include hard life advice, category design, and digital writing principles.

I have also written over a dozen books, including the best-selling The Art & Business of Online Writing.

I am passionate about paying it forward and sharing what I have learned writing online for more than decade with other writers, creators, and industry leaders.

Here's a quick breakdown of my portfolio of companies, and how to get in touch.

WANT TO GET STARTED WRITING ONLINE?

→ GO HERE: www.ship30for30.com

Ship 30 for 30 is a cohort-based community specifically for people who want to start writing online. In this 4-week program, we help you build your daily writing habit, launch your Social Blog, clarify your niche, and master the fundamentals of digital writing. To date, we have helped more than 3,000 people get started writing online.

WANT TO BECOME A PREMIUM GHOSTWRITER?

→ GO HERE: https://premiumghostwritingacademy.com

Freelance writers charge per word or per hour. As a result, they're underpaid and burned out. Premium Ghostwriters charge per project, work directly with founders, CEOs, and business owners, and are more like "business consultants who happen to know how to write." As a result, they can charge a premium. In PGA, our Premium Ghostwriting Academy, we train writers on how to become Premium Ghostwriters, and learn how to package & price their services in lucrative ways.

WANT TO STAY AT THE FOREFRONT OF WRITING WITH AI?

→ GO HERE: https://writewithai.substack.com

Write With AI is a bi-weekly paid newsletters for writers, giving you strategies and prompts to help you turn ChatGPT into your own personal Digital Writing Assistant. 

WANT TO GET IN TOUCH?

→ GO HERE: www.nicolascole.com

In addition to writing and building my own businesses, I am also an investor & advisor to a handful of media & digital publishing companies. If you'd like to get in touch, please feel free to shoot me an email.

Email: cole@nicolascole.com
Twitter: @Nicolascole77

Nicolas Cole 🚢👻

Last week, I spent 7+ hours building a set of Claude Skills to help you write viral LinkedIn posts faster.

The result?

A Claude Cowork plugin anyone can install to write publish-ready LinkedIn posts in minutes.

It's called the PGA LinkedIn Writing Coach.

And I'm giving it away for free.

Most LinkedIn creators and ghostwriters waste hours:

• Staring at a blank page
• Rewriting hooks 17 times
• Trying to come up with the "perfect" topic

Not because they're bad writers.

But because they don't have the right system.

This fixes that.

This Claude Cowork plugin is built with proven frameworks that have generated millions of views on my content.

Here's what you get inside:

• A Hook Generator that writes 11 hooks in 11 proven formats (so you have the best chances of going viral)

• A Post Writer that generates 15 post ideas and writes the strongest one for you

• A Voice Remixer that rewrites any text in 5 distinct Voice Archetypes (perfect for matching your client's voice)

• A full end-to-end workflow to take you from raw topic to published post in one guided session

Now, I originally built this to share with my team.

But I wanted to get it into the hands of more writers.

So for the next 48 hours, I'm sharing it for free.

Want access?

Comment "coach"

If we're not connected, then send me an invite with the word "coach", and I'll send it across ASAP.

I talk about digital writing, ghostwriting, and self-publishing | Co-Founder Ship 30, Typeshare, Write With AI, Premium Ghostwriting Academy | Author of 10 books | DM "👻" if you want to land high-paying writing clients

I'm a pro writer.

Over the last 10+ years, I have:

• Written 1 fiction book
• 10 Non-fiction books
• 2,000+ thought-leadership articles

And more.

Writing is how I've generated over $20M in the last 5 years.

And I've learned a simple truth:

Great writing doesn't come from "natural-born talent."

It comes from simple, repeatable techniques.

Use these 19 small (but powerful) tips to upgrade your writing in the next 5 minutes:

1. Volume wins

2. Prep the Page

3. Delete adverbs

4. Redraft from zero

5. Ignore word count

6. Don't use semicolons

7. Use "The Tequila Test"

8. Delete the word "that"

9. Use the 1/3/1 sequence

10. Cut all tiny word chunks

11. Delete opening "i" phrases

12. Match language to the audience

13. Write to change the reader's mind

14. Write (and edit) in different interfaces

15. Compress what you're saying into bullets

16. Make the last word the most important word

17. Before you start, do some unintentional writing

18. Increase engagement with the Rate of Revelation

19. Make your first sentence short, strong, & declarative

Get the full breakdown in the Carousel below:

—
📌 My self-published books have generated over $1,000,000.

But ghostwriting is how I got paid to write (while I worked on my first book).

So I created a free, 5-day email course to help you:

• Reposition yourself as a ghostwriter
• Charge premium prices for your services
• Land high-paying writing clients on LinkedIn

Get started here: https://lnkd.in/gzNHs2cH

19 Tips To Upgrade Your Writing (In 5 Minutes)

Over the last 5 years, my little business has generated $20,000,000.

The secret?

Email.

For all our digital product launches, we use a specific 20-email sequence.

And now I want to share it with you.

Why?

For 2 reasons:

1. So you can sell your own digital products with email

2. And (more importantly) so you can ghostwrite these launch emails for your clients (and get paid $$$ to do it!) 

Because high-ticket clients don't hire you to "write emails."

They hire you to sell their product.

And if you can show up with a proven launch sequence... you become irreplaceable.

That's exactly what this free playbook gives you.

Inside the Product Launch Playbook, you'll get:

• A 20-email launch sequence (pre-launch + launch, fully mapped out)
• Real examples + fill-in-the-blank templates for every single email
• A deep dive explaining exactly why each email works
• [BONUS] 3 AI prompts to write or ghostwrite the entire sequence 10x faster
• [BONUS] Sequence automations for Kit

Now, I originally built this for our internal team and writers inside our Premium Ghostwriting Academy.

But I'm giving it away free for the next 48 hours.

Want access?

Just comment "launch" on this post.

And I'll DM it to you ASAP.

(If we're not connected, send me a connection request with the word "launch" and I'll send it across!)

Most LinkedIn creators use AI to write their content.

How do I know?

Because I see the same "AI Fingerprints" ruining what they're trying to say.

Here are the 10 biggest AI Red Flags to look out for:

1. Contrast Framing Overload
2. The Rule Of Three
3. Cringe Transition Questions
4. Present-ing Verbs
5. Vague Glazing Opinions
6. Formality First Language
7. Emoji Explosion
8. Extra Em Dashes
9. Everything Is "Symbolic"
10. The Mysterious "Sarah Chen"

Check out the rest of the carousel to learn how to edit these out of your LinkedIn content.

—
📌 Writers everywhere can use AI to make more money online.

And the fastest way is to become an AI-powered LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

So I created the LinkedIn Ghostwriter OS to help you get started.

Inside you'll find:

• Viral LinkedIn content templates (that anyone can use)
• 20+ AI prompts to help you make money writing on LinkedIn
• My "Leaks & Faucets" strategy for finding leads
• My $3M Sales Call script that closes high-ticket deals
• Voice matching prompt to write in anyone's style
• A step-by-step, 30-day implementation roadmap

Want access?

Click here to grab your FREE copy: https://lnkd.in/e4KkbZsH

10 AI Fingerprints That Make You Sound Like A Robot

I'm a 90s kid.

It's hard to overstate how much better life was with:

Pokémon on Gameboy Color + Dominos Pizza.

And most importantly?

NO cell phones or algorithms vying for your attention.

All this technology.

All these advancements.

And I think many of us miss the analog & lightly digital days more than we value the digital-first, AI-in-your-bloodstream reality we now live in.

Wild generation to have been born into.

Millennials are the last generation to know life with technology before it took over. 

But I'll never be that age again.

You blink, and it's over.

So yes, plow resources into mastering the newest technology and AI tools.

But you don't need them to make $20,000/month.

I didn't, and only spent ~20 hours per week working.

Plenty of money for "fun" and the time to enjoy it.

Which is why I recommend becoming a LinkedIn ghostwriter.

This platform has over 1 billion users who:

• Never post
• Know they should be
• Need help building their personal brand

Want a blueprint to help you start ghostwriting & land high-paying clients?

Get it here (for free): https://lnkd.in/giTAbyJT

Ghostwriting is how I went from being a broke freelancer to making $20k/month (in less than 60 days).

But it isn't all about the money.

Here are 7 reasons why I believe every writer should be a ghostwriter:

1. You Get Paid To Learn

2. You Get Paid To Practice

3. You Get Paid To Build Your Network

4. You Get Paid To Know About Trends Early

5. You Get Paid To Experience Different Lives

6. You Get Paid To Learn How To Write In Different Voices

7. You Get Paid To Write About Subjects You're Passionate About

Now, if you're interested in becoming a ghostwriter...

I recommend starting a ghostwriting side hustle.

Just 1 high-paying client can pay you anywhere from $1,500 to $5,000+ per month. 

That way, you can give this a try without worrying about “building a business” or replacing your 9-5 (while only writing a handful of hours per week).

If you want to scale your income from there, great.

You only need:

• 3 high-paying clients
• Paying you $2,700/month
• To make $100,000+ per year

And I have a FREE, 5-step blueprint that’s already helped over 10,000 writers start ghostwriting.

It has everything you need to start landing high-paying writing clients.

Click "Visit my website" at the top of this post to grab a FREE copy of my Premium Ghostwriting Blueprint.

Most people will never make money writing online.

But one skill makes it embarrassingly simple:

Copywriting.

It's how I've generated over $20,000,000 as a writer.

But the secret to writing great copy?

It has nothing to do with sales.

It's all about education.

Because when you successfully educate the customer, they sell themselves.

Here are 7 sales copy sentences my digital business uses to generate millions every single year (steal them for yourself):

1. "This small action will lead to a giant outcome."
2. "This massive problem can be fixed with this simple solution."
3. "The outcome you want isn't far away."
4. "It's not your fault."
5. "You've already done the hardest part."
6. "I couldn't do this either."
7. "I'm going to let you in on a little secret..."

Here's how to use them:

—
📌 The fastest way to make money on LinkedIn?

It's not copywriting.

It's becoming a LinkedIn Ghostwriter (using these 7 copy sentences in your clients' content).

Because right now, ghostwriting demand on this platform is exploding.

Want help landing high-paying clients as a ghostwriter?

I put together a free, 5-day email course to help you.

Click "Visit my website" at the top of this post to get instant access.

7 Sales Copy Sentences Worth $20,000,000

The most misunderstood, misused, yet highest-leverage writing skill:

Copywriting.

It's how I've generated over $20,000,000 as a writer.

And these 7 exercises will turn you into a top 1% copywriter:

——
📌 These are the writing techniques you need to start making money online.

But if you want to:

• Eliminate boring work
• Reclaim hours of your life
• Build your first AI employee

Then join me on February 23rd for my 2-week Claude Cowork Bootcamp.

Here's what we'll build across 6 LIVE sessions:

🤖 Week 1: Foundation & Voice Training

→ Build your Computer Organizer .skill that manages files automatically (so you never waste time hunting for receipts again)

→ Connect Claude Cowork to Notion and train it to write in YOUR voice (not generic AI slop)

→ Create a Meeting Prep .skill that scans your calendar, Slack, and Gmail to brief you before every call

⚙️ Week 2: Advanced Automation & Skill Chaining

→ Chain multiple .skills together for complex workflows (like building client proposals while you work on something else)

→ Deploy a working landing page to Vercel using your Digital Product .skill (and teach your AI to navigate websites on your behalf)

→ Learn to build custom .skills from scratch (so you can scale AI to your entire team)

🚀 The Result: Reclaim 10+ Hours Every Week

→ Stop re-explaining context to AI every single time

→ Build permanent leverage that compounds forever

→ Turn AI from "helpful chatbot" into "digital clone of you"

Click here to secure your spot (before enrollment closes on Sunday, February 22nd at midnight): https://lnkd.in/ghj8DHXr

7 Exercises To Become A Top 1% Copywriter

At 26, I quit my minimum-wage copywriting job.

18 months later?

I was generating $180k/month as a ghostwriter.

Writing for industry leaders like:

• Olympic athletes
• Silicon Valley founders
• New York Times best-selling authors

And more.

But if I was starting over in 2026, I'd become a LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

Why?

Because this platform has 1.15 billion users. And less than 1% are posting content consistently.

(Despite knowing they should be!)

Which means there is an *enormous* amount of opportunity for LinkedIn Ghostwriters right now.

Use these 5 steps to land your first LinkedIn ghostwriting client:

1. Say exactly what you do in your bio
2. Be your own case study
3. Make a list of "Leaks" & "Faucets"
4. Pitch In Public
5. Follow up (till they call the cops!)

Get the exacts steps in the infographic below:

—
📌 PS—I put together a roadmap to help anyone become a LinkedIn Ghostwriter:

• 20+ AI prompts to help you build a business
• My "Leaks & Faucets" strategy for finding leads
• Viral content LI templates (that anyone can use)
• My $3M Sales Call script that closes high-ticket deals
• Voice matching prompt to write in any client's style
• A step-by-step, 30-day implementation roadmap

Click here to get free, instant access: https://lnkd.in/e4KkbZsH

Terrible advice for writers:

(I wish I'd never done this)

Write "anything" for "anyone."

This is the FASTEST way to become an overworked and underpaid content writer.

Instead, to dramatically increase your income:

Niche Down.

This is how I went from charging $200 per article to ghostwriting thought-leadership articles for founders and executives for $2,000.

So, in this video, I explain:

• The 3 core benefits of specialization
• How to niche down (Service vs. Industry)
• Why niching down doesn’t limit opportunity
• Services I recommend writers should specialize in
• How to find your Information Advantage & niche down

And tons more!

Dive in here:

(Want to watch the video over on YouTube? Search "How To Find Your Niche In Content Writing" to find it.)

—
📌 Once you niche down, you need a proven technique to land new, high-paying clients every month.

Which is just 1 small part inside my FREE Premium Ghostwriting Blueprint.

Inside, you'll also learn how to:

• Charge a premium
• Land dream ghostwriting clients
• Find your own lucrative niche (like Sophia did!)

Want a copy of my free blueprint?

Click here to get instant access: https://lnkd.in/gU5WB3st

Last November, my little writing business crossed $20,000,000 in lifetime sales.

It took us over 5 years to reach this milestone.

But we could have gotten here a whole lot faster with everything we know now.

Here are 12 of the biggest lessons I wish I knew when we first started our 8-figure digital product business:

1. Operational complexity is the moat

2. Subjectivity doesn't scale

3. Customers want outcomes, not more content

4. Wanting something new is avoiding improving what works

5. Entrepreneurs live in max risk—so de-risk personal finances

6. Only pay commissions while reps are on the team

7. Paid ads is a way to pay down "ignorance debt"

8. What gets measured grows. What's "maintained" dies

9. Every new channel means a 1-year learning curve

10. "Fast and easy" = slow, hard, expensive

11. When high-performers hit a ceiling, create roles or incubate entrepreneurs

12. After ~$3M/year, video is one of your best investments

Check out the full breakdown here: 

—
📌 Do you want to quit your day job in 2026?

Then don't sell digital products.

Instead, become a LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

Ghostwriting is how I hit $20,000/month in less than 60 days.

I put together a blueprint that's helped 10,000+ people become Premium Ghostwriters in 5 days.

Want a FREE copy of my proven blueprint?

Click here to get instant access: https://lnkd.in/gTmQ872p

12 Lessons From $20,000,000 in Writing Course Sales

I paid Alex Hormozi's team $35,000 to help me scale to $1,000,000. 

And I just got back from their workshop in Vegas.

For the better part of 2 years now, we've been stuck trying to hit this goal.

But I emerged with extreme clarity on what to tackle this year.

Here are the 5 "Big Rocks" they said I should work on right now:

1. Clean up your org structure before it cleans you out

Our team nearly tripled in size this past year.

And it wasn't until the Hormozi team walked me through what a healthy org at our revenue level actually looks like that I realized how blurry our lines of ownership had gotten.

• Who's responsible for what?
• Who owns which outcomes?

When everyone's responsible, no one's responsible.

2. Crystal-clear clarity at every level of the business.

Move your biggest cash to the front end of the sale.

Right now, what we've been doing is:

• Sell a 16-week program
• Then, upsell continued coaching on the back end

But the Hormozi team recommended we flip it.

Instead, lead with the full year upfront.

And THEN downsell the 16 weeks if needed.

More cash upfront = more ad spend = more students, faster.

3. Build a media team that can actually scale your content

I'm making a significant investment in YouTube and media in 2026.

And I had a lot of unanswered questions about what that actually looks like:

• How many editors do you need?
• Do you separate short-form and long-form?
• Does one person own each platform?
• Does one person own each channel?

The Hormozi team helped me find the clarity I was looking for.

Basically, we have about 70% of the team we need.

And the move is to break out individual platforms and give each one a dedicated owner.

4. Follow up with leads in 15 minutes or less, every time

The Hormozi team made it very clear how much revenue we're leaving on the table every time we don't.

The big rock for my co-founder @dickiebush will be building the outbound infrastructure to make near-instant follow-up the default.

5. Stop asking "what's next?"

Instead, start asking:

"What's working and why aren't we doing more of it?"

This one hit hardest.

At the end of 2025, we ran our first paid 3-day challenge and it turned into our biggest revenue month of the year.

So when the Hormozi team asked us:

"If one challenge did that, why are you only doing one a year?"

The answer was obvious.

Do more live webinars and challenges.

But all of this just makes one thing even clearer for me:

Our business is NOT the right type of business for 99% of people to go build.

If you're just getting started, the operational complexity is too high.

Instead, I'd recommend building a 1-person ghostwriting agency.

It's how I went from $0 to $20,000/month in less than 60 days.

Want a (FREE) copy of my proven blueprint?

Click here to get instant access: https://lnkd.in/gtF7dwNj

There are 2 ways to build a 6-figure digital business in 2026:

1. Digital Products
2. High-Ticket Service

So, which "path" should you choose?

Most people go the digital products route:

• Building a massive LinkedIn audience
• Understanding the problems of their followers
• Then creating a course to sell & solve these problems

And yes, this can get you to $100,000/year.

But this takes TIME.

No one wakes up one morning with:

• 30,000+ followers
• A finished digital product
• Or all the fulfillment systems humming

But there's a *faster* way to build a 6-figure digital business...

Sell a high-ticket service.

Specifically, become a Premium Ghostwriter.

Here are 5 reasons why everyone should try Premium Ghostwriting:

—
📌 If you take away nothing else from this post, remember this:

Don’t start building digital products if your goal is to quit your day job in 2026.

It takes 12+ months (at least) to get any traction.

Instead, become a Premium Ghostwriter.

It’s the fastest way for writers to make $10,000/month.

So I created a free, 5-step blueprint to help you:

• Reposition yourself as a ghostwriter
• Charge a premium for your work
• Land high-paying clients

Ready to start landing high-paying clients as a Premium Ghostwriter?

Click here to follow my proven ghostwriting blueprint (10,000+ writers have already used it to get started): https://lnkd.in/giFsec9H

Why Everyone Should Sell A Digital Service First

I can't believe how many people don't realize this:

Making money writing online is simple.

For context:

I have generated over $1M as a writer.

Not just once.

Not just twice.

But across 8 different writing business models:

1. SaaS
2. Services
3. Consulting
4. Self-Publishing
5. Paid newsletter
6. Group/High-Ticket
7. Low-Ticket products
8. Cohort-based courses

Here's the simplest path anyone can take to go from $0 to a 6-figure writer:

—
📌 The fastest way to hit $100,000/year as a writer?

Ghostwriting.

It's how I went from making $0 as a freelance writer to $10k/month in 60 days.

But if I was starting over in 2026, I'd become a LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

Why?

Because this platform has 1.15 billion users. And less than 1% are posting content consistently.

(Despite knowing they should be!)

Which means there is an *enormous* amount of opportunity for LinkedIn Ghostwriters right now.

So I wrote a free, crash course showing you how to land high-paying writing clients on LinkedIn.

Click here to get instant access (for FREE): https://lnkd.in/g6aJBDgP

Become A 6-Figure Writer In 5 Simple Steps

Over the last 10 days, Claude has been down 6 times:

• Feb 25 → 3 Hours 14 Minutes
• Feb 26 → 6 Hours 35 Minutes
• Feb 27 → 4 Hours 27 Minutes
• Feb 28 → 2 Hours 52 Minutes
• Mar 2 → 2 Hours 45 Minutes
• Mar 3 → 0 Hours 48 Minutes

20+ (!!!) hours in total.

This is another reminder:

You can't 100% rely on AI.

Instead, make sure you master the skills you need to do your work manually.

Using AI is then an added bonus and a way to increase your leverage.

This is why the top 1% ghostwriters don't need AI to deliver for their clients (although it makes them way more efficient).

Just like how they don't even need to write well to get paid 6-figures.

They've simply mastered these highly in-demand skills:

• Premium positioning
• Irresistible offer creation
• Consistent client acquisition

And more.

Which is how they're making $100,000+ per year with just a laptop.

The good news?

Right now, LinkedIn is the fastest-growing social media.

And many of the smartest people in the world have just realized they need to be on this platform.

So, I put together a 5-day blueprint to teach you how to:

• Charge premium prices
• Create your irresistible offer
• Find your lucrative ghostwriting niche
• Land new, high-paying clients every month

In other words...

Everything you need to start LinkedIn Ghostwriting in the next 5 days.

Click "Visit my website" at the top of this post to get instant access to my proven blueprint (for FREE).

The difference between you and a writer making:

• $10,000
• $20,000
• Or even $50,000...

Per month has NOTHING to do with writing talent.

They've just built other skills that allow them to:

• Earn a full-time income
• Work a part-time schedule
• Write for fascinating clients

All without needing to:

• Go back to school
• Get a fancy college degree
• Or have years of experience

And on Tuesday:

I will reveal my ENTIRE system that I've been using for over a decade to land high-paying writing clients during my 3-Day LIVE Challenge.

Here's what we'll cover in just 72 hours:

📍 Tuesday, February 17th: The "Category of One" Ghostwriter Playbook

→ Discover how to position yourself as a Premium Ghostwriter (even with zero ghostwriting experience)

→ Find a profitable niche based on your unique background and interests

→ Use AI to create crystal-clear positioning that attracts clients (so you don't have to chase them!)

📦 Wednesday, February 18th: The Irresistible Offer Formula

→ Turn your writing skills into high-value services clients actually want to buy

→ How to create a productized service (and why premium clients only hire writers who have one)

→ Learn how to charge $3,000-$10,000/month (without feeling like an impostor)

🎯 Thursday, February 19th: The Writing Client Attraction System

→ Master the "Free Consulting Method" that works even with zero experience or a portfolio

→ How to find & land premium clients using social platforms (outreach, messages, & more)

→ The exact sales script framework I used to close $3,700,000 in ghostwriting deals

But you can get a headstart TODAY.

How?

If you grab a ticket to my Get Writing Clients Challenge before midnight TONIGHT, I will give you a *free* digital copy of my brand new book:

Writer Career Paths: 9 Ways To Make $1,000,000 With Words

So, are you ready to become a top 1% writer in 2026?

Then join us February 17th-19th for the Get Writing Clients Challenge.

Click the link to secure your spot now: https://lnkd.in/gQ_cFKVs

In 2012, my parents told me I should study journalism.

I didn't.

Instead, I majored in fiction writing in college because it was more interesting to me.

Everyone said I was lighting money on fire.

But since then?

Journalism has basically died.

And fiction & creative writing have made me a millionaire.

So, when I have kids of my own, I'm going to tell them:

"Study whatever is most interesting to you."

Every single industry is going to get affected by new technology/AI... so the game isn't "picking the perfect/most lucrative industry."

The game is picking an industry you:

• Won't give up on
• Love enough to sink your teeth into
• And will stick to for the next 5+ years

Despite all the headwinds and uncertainty.

So, you can ride the AI wave while your industry evolves.

Or you can get PAID to learn the most highly in-demand skill right now (job listings asking for any AI-related skill are up 650%).

How?

By becoming a LinkedIn Ghostwriter.

Ghostwriting is how I hit $20,000/month (in less than 60 days).

And it's the perfect way to learn the AI skills you need to future-proof your career.

So I put together a free blueprint to help you become a LinkedIn Ghostwriter in just 5 days.

Even if you:

• Suck at sales
• Don't have an audience
• Have never ghostwritten before

Want access to my proven blueprint that's helped 10,000+ start ghostwriting?

Click here to grab your free copy: https://lnkd.in/g2TEQtDi

This writer made $25,000 by working just 1-2 hours before work and on weekends.

In just 3 months, Torunn Jegleim ACA:

• Made about $25,000
• Writing for Fractional CFOs
• As their Premium LinkedIn Ghostwriter

Her secret?

She followed a proven blueprint and spent her limited hours focused on what would actually build a lucrative writing side hustle.

(Alongside her full-time 9 to 5.)

Because making money writing from a laptop has nothing to do with how many hours you work.

It's ALL about what you *actually* do during those hours.

(Even if all you have is 1-2 hours per day.)

I put together a blueprint that's helped 10,000+ Premium LinkedIn Ghostwriters get started in JUST 5 days.

Want a (FREE) copy of my proven blueprint?

Click "Visit my website" at the top of this post to get instant access.

This writer landed a LinkedIn Ghostwriting client paying him $3,000/month.

But the problem?

It almost didn't happen.

Mark had one MASSIVE faulty belief:

Getting paid this much is "absurd."

And you know what?

He's absolutely right.

When I was just a freelance writer, I thought it was wild to make more than $200-$300 per article.

But then I repositioned myself as a Premium Ghostwriter.

And *suddenly,* clients had no problem paying me $1,000+.

For the EXACT same work.

This completely broke my brain.

Which is why I love seeing wins like these every day inside our Premium Ghostwriting Academy.

And they all start from changing your Positioning.

So, I put together the Writer Positioning Playbook mini-course with 30+ minutes of training from me to help you:

• Nail your positioning as a ghostwriter
• Attract more ghostwriting opportunities in your niche
• Use AI to find 5 specific target clients that need your help

This is everything you need to start making more money as a writer.

Click here to get (FREE) instant access to my Writer Positioning Playbook mini-course: https://lnkd.in/gyq9kPwu

My business generates $600,000 per month.

But it runs on just $8,215.

These are my top 7 no-code tools in my tech stack:

1. Kit ($1,179/mo)

This handles all our email marketing.

2. Stripe (2.9% + $.30 per transaction)

Tons of transactions processed with 0 issues.

3. Carrd ($19/yr)

We scaled Ship 30 to $1M with this simple landing page software.

4. Airtable ($1,134/mo)

Every product, lead, and customer lives here.

5. Zapier (~$749/mo)

This automates 200k+ tasks/month & replaces at least 5+ full-time assistants.

6. ChatGPT ($20/mo)

We use ChatGPT to research, brainstorm, and outline.

7. Substack (Free or 10% of paid subs)

A simple platform, perfect for beginners & where we host our paid newsletter, Write With AI (currently doing $427,000 in ARR).

—

📌 But if I had to build a new writing business from scratch, I'd only use 3 tools:

• Kit for email
• Stripe for payments
• Carrd for landing pages

This is all you need to make your first $1.

And you can easily scale to $100,000/year by ghostwriting for high-paying clients.

(It's how I went from $0 to $20k/month in less than 60 days.)

Want a free blueprint to help you start ghostwriting & land high-paying clients?

Get it here: https://lnkd.in/dk_-ryX3

7 No-Code Tools Running My 7-Figure Writing Business

I advice on Product Management | Growing your customer base | Career Growth

2X-Founder | Author | Growth | Ultra Runner | Writer

From failed startups to scaling Truepush to 100B+ notifications monthly and 4,500+ customers worldwide, I've learned what it takes to build products people need and grow them relentlessly.

I built Truepush from paper wireframes to becoming a top 10 global player in our category. At Alohaa.ai, I doubled sales within just 3 months and drove consistent month-over-month revenue growth.
Beyond business, I push limits personally. 

I recently completed an 82.4km ultra run during a 12-hour stadium event. Mountains, travel, and nature are where I find liberation through both excitement and boredom.

Learning obsessively fuels everything I do. I've devoured 336+ books, and continuously invest in courses (Mindvalley, MasterClass, Matt Gray, Justin Welsh, Reforge and more).

When knowledge compounds with consistent execution, results follow:

- Built a 25,000-person startup community across 3 cities
- Published 250+ LinkedIn posts in 2024 alone
- Recognized among the top 1% of mentors on Topmate.io
- Created Solopreneur OS to help others identify market gaps and build growth systems

All while maintaining 7 hours of sleep nightly, seeing friends regularly, and maintaining my unusual preference for vegetables over chocolate (though I love both).

Want to build something great? Let's connect.

Manoj Surya

OpenAI just raised $110 bn (Rs. 10 lakh crores only/-)

Only that much.
Only,
On...

Sorry, taking time to process.

2X Founder | Author - The Serotonin Addict | Head of Growth | Ultra Runner | I write on Growth for B2B and Personal Learnings

Arundhati Roy wrote 4 hours a day for 4 years to finish  The God of Small Things. It made her a millionaire quickly. After 20 years people still talk about it, buy it.

I saw an ad of a lady who wrote 773 books in a day (must obviously be AI). No one have any Idea of at least one of her books.

AI can make you a pseudo-author, but without you writing from your experience, or from deep research (for non-fiction), or putting your soul (for fiction), there is no art; readers will know. They will drop it, they won’t like you.

ChatGPT can create Ghibli art better than a human drawing, but sitting in front of a live artist hits differently. You make memories.

AI can make anything, but it won’t create memories that art with soul can make.

PS: I use AI to save you from my bad grammar and typos.

And yes, it’s okay to use AI to write blogs, QnAs, etc., as long as you know how the hell you want your output to be and why you want the output the way it is.

Your expertise is how you make it work, and the depth of knowledge in that field is still an art.

I was so impressed by how well YANC Club sessions are organised and the quality of cohort is super cool. 

I wish I had something like this when I started.
Happy to share things I know.

Thanks for the invite Swaminathan.

🎙️YANC Talks: Miles Before Milestones

Just 100 days of travel
Countless customer chats
Early morning runs
And learning to sell before building.

He didn’t start with scale 
He started with steps
Steps across cities
Steps on the track
Steps into customer conversations

From selling first to building later
From running miles to capturing markets 

Manoj Surya showed YANC Club members that growth starts with mindset and marathons train more than legs.

Thank you Manoj Surya for the wonderful session and showing us that grit compounds faster than talent.

✅ Entry is FREE
📅 Happens every Saturday
📌 Venue: RMZ Spire, Building #100, 7th Floor
🔗 Startup pitch participation: https://lnkd.in/dKyTQa7a
🔗 Register here: https://lnkd.in/gpkHsU7x
✅ Join WhatsApp group: https://lnkd.in/gXdJ9RBY

Come be part of a community built by young minds, for young minds - where ideas turn into action and futures take shape.

Nisidh Reddy D | Hasini Kanumuru | Mohana Srikar Karingula | UDAY POTHALARAJU | Mahima Kalyanam | Rahul Reddy Chukka | Riana Agrawal | Sai Sanviti Siddareddy | Gowtham Kumar Ambadi | Sai Sanjeev T | Anam Fatima | Lalith Adla | Trishal Varma | Aarti Khandekar | Ajay Thota | Ram Charan Mahasivabhattu | Swaminathan Gopal | Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge

#YANC #EmpoweringYoungMindsThroughLifeSkills #StartUp #StudentOpportunity #TechLeaders #Students #entrepreneur #startup #ITJobs #club #studentclub #pitch #mentors #Founder #LifeSkills #GenZ #MentorTalks #MemberSpotlight #YoungLeaders #YANCCommunity #NetworkingForYouth #FutureChangemakers #YoungEntrepreneurs #YouthLeadership #NetworkingOpportunities #StartupMindset #NetworkingClub #YoungLeaders #ThinkBigStartSmall #YANCers

There are 3 types of people who smile a lot in Starbucks or Thirdwave

1) Friends
2) People working on a new Idea, together
3) People who are still hiring people into Ponzi-like schemes

Just my observation (3rd type seems constant, and it's disappointing)

There is too much BS on Linkedin these days and I am staying back out of necessity to connect with relevant people.

With AI, everyone started to say

1) 30 hours saved
2) $500k in pipeline
3) I am working with 11 AI agents

Fine, good, but - 

1) 30 hours saved - But along with it, share the quality of work it did, screw ups, learnings too
2) $500k pipeline, but based on your industry standard, whats your TAT  from pipeline to paying customers, are you getting revenue?
3) 11 AI agents. Fine. So? I will hire an intern and ask them to create 100 agents. What does it prove?

If you are sharing something - either tell us the quality you bench mark or revenue. Only these two are signals. Rest all is noise. 

PS: The noise level of BS is feeling like bad AQI in one of the large cities we know.

At Alohaa we work with Voice bots and Voice Streams, and I keep getting curious, here is why - 

While the mass is adapting to AI on Text, Voice AI has its own challenges. 

In India, the accent starts changing in almost every district. This means that to train one language, you can't just train in one accent or dialect. 

There are multiple companies building good models that can understand multiple Indian languages, accents, and dialects. And it's amazing to see how good they are.

Pair it with Voice latency on Telecom lines (Which we are trying to solve with Voice Streams)
Pair it with the issue with getting numbers into spam(Which we are solving use few methods)
Pair the Telecom rules in India with different sectors. For examples in the Financial Sector, with TRAI rules with 1400(promotional) and 1600(Transactional) number series, which started to show lower pick up rates.

While the AI models are one big step for Indian languages, another challenge is the Infra + Regulations.

At Alohaa, we wrote a book on how to be compliant for the Fintech sector and gave those away for free at events we attended, consulted with a few NBFCs to migrate and avoid penalties, and see where we can help or collaborate.

At least in the Voice AI ecosystems, multiple companies have to work together and grow the Industry as collaborators, friends, and grow together rather than growing thought a Enterprise sales cycle.

We try our best to do this from Alohaa, and hopefully the circle grows

PS: If you know anyone working in the Voice AI Industry, do tag them. The more the merrier.

Manikanta Thrivikram

Need help (and I know it's a long shot asking on LinkedIn) - 

I self-published "The Serotonin Addict" book, and so far sold 225 books in less than two months (total 30 unique reviews on Amazon). 

I am looking for established publishers, 
so they can bring a better reach for the book than me.
I heard having references would help,
so checking here if anyone here can help me with a referral.

Please let me know.

PS: I started sending direct emails already, but the usual response time is 6 weeks to 6 months.

AI is helping people to save time or make money only for those who know what they want from AI tools.

I know a person who works hard. I asked him if I could be of any help.

He keeps saying - I am looking for the best people to work for.
He has high standards.
A lot of people admire his work and follow him
He have high social status in many places
He feels like he is doing everything

And all this can be true.

But, it took me a while to realise (after so many conversations with that person) that he feels he is the best and given that he can do others' work, he will do better than them.

I have a feeling that one reason he keeps failing is that he wants perfection and looks at most people as unworthy, subconsciously. With someone of that mindset, I don't know how much one can go ahead.

For me, I made peace and moved on.

It's easy to avoid people who hate you,
but people who subtly put you down,
It's hard to detect. 

PS: He is a nice person in general, super helpful. But we are different people in different scenarios. It's the work scenario of that person I mentioned. Thankfully, I did not need to work with this person at any time.

People are complex, and it's best to box their behaviour to the scenarios and not demean them as a whole, as much as possible, so we all can co-exist more peacefully.

For SaaS products, you have AWS credits,
What do you have for Voice bots to deploy on Telecom lines to make phone calls?

From Alohaa , we are planning to give 10,000 minutes of voice streaming (soon)
Which is more than you will need to deploy your bot, test it out, and launch in the market.

Working out on the launch plan currently,
But if you want to take advantage of getting this early (or people you know)

If you are offering companies to deploy your voice bot to make phone calls, 
DM me, we are here to support.

Do share your 1) website, 2) stage of development for the voice bot with me on DM, 3) email id, and 4) phone number. (So it's easy for us to evaluate, reach out to you to coordinate, and avoid to and fro conversations of the obvious)

PS: Once we launch and reach out to ecosystem partners, the turnaround time to verify and give you credits may take time, so if you reach out now, we can get you those credits with less wait.

No lock-ins, no contracts.

cc: Manikanta Vinutha Sanjay Fatema Srinivas Praveen Subba Raju

Do things that AI can't do, like 

sleeping well
eating well
exercising
meeting friends
travelling
reading books
telling jokes
learning languages

What will you add to the list?

In India, most of the adoption feels like it's coming from coders, like everywhere else, but in marketing, it feels like it still needs a lot of adoption. 

The reason, my guess is, is purchase parity. For a product that is $100 in the US, we see the same perceived value at $40. 

Images and videos using AI are not cheap. Even other AI tools in marketing don't feel cheap. 

Another reason could be that Marketing needs a lot of experimenting. With code, you can see the output. With marketing, it's still a guesswork. So it may feel safer to go with what's already working than try new tools (the results are visible after a few days or weeks sometimes).

For experimenting, at least for the small to medium startups, it feels like a lot because you end up spending a lot. 

If we compare people versus AI tools, AI feels much better, but got to see how much it will be a common practice soon. 

PS: Or maybe the adaptation is good, and I may not be seeing it well in immediate circles. What's your observation?

Reviews are growing, get your copy here -

Physical copy - https://lnkd.in/grbibXRW edition - https://amzn.in/d/0iqFRk37
You don’t need to believe but you can read why 33 readers have wrote and decide for yourself?

It’s a good read in your break, travel, weekend or breaking your weekdays pattern (while helping you set hard long term goals and making them doable)

graphical user interface, text, application, chat or text message

AI is helping me do many things and it's scary, here is why -

Firstly, I see myself as a generalist in understanding, and having depth with marketing.

Secondly, with AI (using Claude code), I know I can build few things, but then, do not know if I can understand scale or depth.

I haven't focused enough on creating agents, but it will be inevitable not to create agents and get things done.

So anything with some understanding of agents(easy part) + strategy(hard part) can make agents do - Research, compose data, send emails to relevant people for research, build specific landing pages based on personas, make content for ads / seo  (or even run campaigns by themselves in the future)

While I can take this data, use whispr like tools, talk to my command line (or just input the data from research) and let the claude agents orchestrate things and build a product, while I read a book, make tea, or go out for a walk.

There is something called The Jonah Complex - It is the terrifying realisation that you are capable of far more than you are currently doing, which creates pressure to live up to that potential. 

It's that, now you know you can do so many things, and the pressure build up gets the best of you (while we try to catchup with AI, try to avoid burn out while making 20-30X decisions in short time, that we are used to).

If the potential to create anything is scary, I don't know what is.

We will only remain sane, only when we are clear of purpose and direction (at least on the SaaS side of things)

Or else, it's easy to be lost, pressured and even broken now living up to what we can do. And anything that makes us value less isn't worth it.

Things are changing top down (early adapters -> everyone else).

Time to embrace the change. Sooner the better.

PS: The above automation, even to make it, needs conviction, time and a mental framework how things needs to be done and what output you intended to get(hard part). Once we know, it's easy to get things done.

The hard part (direction and purpose) never changes.

Vibe coder, vibe marketer, vibe writer. Fine. Let’s also vibe some good life? Just saying.

A good piece of writing advice is that you have to write as you speak, 
and with tools like Wispr Flow (speech-to-text tool), I feel like you can just speak and it writes, 
So, more or less, it's in the speaking language. 

This week I wrote two posts with Wispr, and the engagement was pretty good. 

When I went back and read those posts, I did feel like they were more natural, conversational, and made a point across quickly(saved a ton of time).

PS: Even this post is written like that.

AI Anxiety - here is how I plan to deal with it and do better things with life.

A short read.

Hey Reader, I don’t know about you. But things changing in AI are not very exciting for me, yet. I am a marketer. Last year, I tried 50 tools and publ

Open article: AI Anxiety - A Personal Discourse by Manoj Surya • 5 min read

3 questions to meditate about AI

1) Are you giving deep inputs to get deep outputs?

2) You are saving time with AI, what are you using your free time for?

3) If you are automating things, has it increased your revenue / month? Or it’s just saving time only?

You need to be clear on all these, or else AI being useful is just an illusion

what other points would you add here?

Forming an identity and believing is the hardest 

I published a book if someone says I’m a writer, it will take me a moment to realise it is true

I ran for 12 hours covering 82.4km and yet on the day of the run, at the start like, I felt I did not belong there

With marketing sometimes it works in 3 days sometimes in 3 months, easy to have self doubt if I know things well

The voice of imposter syndrome for any creator or a good operator is usually high

Over the years I learnt to see it as a background noise. Nothing more, noting less

If you have imposter syndrome despite results, just know it’s normal

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The Battle

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Manoj Surya

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The Battle

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Manoj Surya

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