From 60 Cents to $1000+: How Twitter Networking Changed My Life as a Writer
I wrote my first piece when I was 15.
I felt like I was swimming in a calm river.
And I decided, I want to be a writer.
When high school ended, my parents asked me to enroll in a literature college.
But I wanted to do engineering.
I thought — writing won’t pay my bills and worrying about bills would snatch away the calmness I associated with it.
So off I went to do my engineering.
In my four years of university, I did a couple of writing jobs.
I applied for content writing internships, started quora, made my own blog (which now has 100K+ words and 100 articles), and did some freelancing.
I got rejected 45 times, and the ones I got… paid me peanuts.
In 2017, I connected with a site owner on quora, she asked me to write BuzzFeed kinda articles for her website.
Silly 19-year-old me did not talk money first.
I started doing the work — writing 1000 worded SEO fulfilled articles every day.
One of them got featured in Buzzfeed.
I was on article fifth when I asked for money.
She told me (quite shamelessly) that the first 5 articles were just trials if I would write well — mind you, she never asked me to edit a piece so I’d say I was pretty good.
I would get paid ₹50/- for the sixth one.
₹50 is less than a dollar.
So, I got paid about 60 cents for 6 articles.
Anyhow, as time passed I realized, I was never going to earn much by writing for someone and only get burned out if I keep looking for jobs.
I started getting busier in my engineering and left this for a while.
Then pandemic happened.
Finally, some free time!
One of my friends saw I was struggling to build an audience on Instagram and he suggested that I try Twitter.
I asked - isn’t it all politics and shit.
He said — Nope, there’s life advice and self-improvement stuff also out there and I could share my thoughts.
So, I kick-started my Twitter account.
I unfollowed all the media outlets, celebrities, and politicians. And followed self-improvement and life shit.
The first few months were out of the freaking world.
I had no idea all this existed!!
People had agencies, online businesses, they were talking about how to fix their life, everyone just committed to learning, earning, getting fit, and sharing how they made $100,000 a year
Wow.
Why had I never known this?
I started tweeting and spending 4–5 hours on Twitter.
I wasn’t growing too fast because I still hadn’t niched down but well..I was enjoying it.
I started reaching out to people.
I liked a couple of good creators, and got a good vibe from them. I would text them, we would hit a chord and video meet.
Then came Christmas.
I wanted to get in touch with big creators who I admired, so thought it would be a good reason to get into their DMs.
One such message was to a guy named Yannick.
He was a co-founder at a startup called Hypefury. I liked their product, it was helping me grow on Twitter but I had exhausted my free trial and couldn’t afford to pay.
He was one of the few that replied and wished me too.
Good guy.
We got in touch a couple of times later as well.
A few days later -
Yannick posted a tweet saying he’s looking for someone who knows Twitter and wants to grow too.
I messaged him, I was up for it.
He asked me a question.
And I don’t know what got into me, I wrote a 1000-word answer.
I didn’t even have 1000 followers on Twitter!!
I didn’t know I know this.
Probably collected all this from the scrolling saga of the last few months.
His next message — Hop on a call.
I did.
He didn’t ask me for my resume. I don’t remember what he asked, honestly.
But we talked about Twitter, writing etcetera.
He asked me what I would like to be paid.
I said “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve always been underpaid and no one has asked me this question before. So, anything you like, you can give me a range”
He gave me a work assignment to write a newsletter issue for them.
I hadn’t written any newsletter issue in my life.
Wrote one in 2 hours.
Sent it to him.
He later told me that’s when he decided he has to hire me for sure.
He asked me what I wanted. I quoted a number.
He increased that number and asked me if I was okay.
To be honest, it felt like my years worth of struggle was to come to this exact moment — where I was compensated more than I thought I deserved.
One of my 2021 goals was to buy a subscription to Hypefury Premium. Little did I know, I’d be a part of the team.
In the next couple of weeks, I started ideating on other things.
I knew no marketing and hadn’t even watched a youtube video on it.
But somehow, I gave input, he liked it, and together we executed it.
I managed a couple of cohorts, wrote and edited 50+ newsletters, gave ideas and executed 20+ marketing campaigns — only by learning from Twitter and him.
All of this was possible because — I was on Twitter and I put myself out there.
Twitter made me believe I can make money online, live a life of freedom, sell digital products, and have opportunities I never imagined.
We are some lucky assholes to be in this era of the internet.
You can connect with any-freaking-one in the whole world, you can get jobs that don’t need a resume, and can earn dollars sitting in a developing nation.
All — if you show up consistently.
Where your clients are.
And from where you learn.
Networking works, but don’t network for the sake of it.
Network because you’re genuinely interested, because you admire and respect someone and because you’re curious.
And networking, showing up online and learning skills will work only if you have perseverance.
Sometimes success is only doing boring stuff multiple times for years.
That’s what I did.
That’s what I’m still doing on Twitter
To increase my luck surface chances.
So if you want some unexpected and expected opportunities in life,
I have only 2 things to say
Start building a skill and start building an audience.
I’ve written an article on How to grow on Twitter as a beginner and how to create and sell your first digital product — if you want to read it.
Do it now, you’ll thank yourself in 2 years.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Hi, I’m Arunima. I’m a writer and crazy about creating digital products and building an audience.
You can follow me here for more stories on writing, building audiences, and digital products!
I also have a newsletter that helps you build your online business and audience while doing your 9–5. You can sign up here -> Get from $0 to $10K here, FOR FREE
Thank you for reading :)
