I’ve been posting daily for over three years, and I appreciate the craft of writing. I’ve started paying more attention to up-and-coming writers who share their thoughts via newsletters and platforms like Substack and Medium. Some of these writers are entrepreneurs who’ve turned their love of writing into a full-time business. They generate revenue in a variety of ways, including paid user subscriptions, sponsorships, and paid ads.

I chatted recently with one of these writers. He’s built a subscriber base of tens of thousands of people that generates material revenue. And while he loves writing, he does other things besides monetize his writing. His writing helped him build a brand and a following that attracts founders who are building companies in the space he’s writing about. He wants to help these founders, and he does: he invests capital in companies he’s intrigued by, makes connections to people in his subscriber network whom the founders normally couldn’t reach, and highlights start-ups his audience will want to hear about. It’s an interesting entrepreneurial approach anchored by writing.  

Writing is a great way to build a loyal audience. Once you have an audience that trusts you, you can pursue all kinds of entrepreneurial things with their support. I believe we’ll see the emergence of more entrepreneur–writers who use all kinds of interesting business models to turn writing into a viable solopreneur path. I can’t wait to see how this space evolves over the next few years.