How I’m Making More Money While Working Fewer Hours in My Online Business

The last year has seen a lot of changes for me, including a big increase in my non-work responsibilities, so making more money while working fewer hours has become a necessity. Here’s how I’m doing it.

Simplify Everything

I’ve streamlined everything in my online business so there are fewer moving parts. I went from running three blogs (and three associated newsletters) to running a single Substack that essentially functions as both a blog and a newsletter.

I use my LinkedIn profile and Medium portfolio to effectively stand in for a writer’s website when pitching for new work, and so far it’s working fine.

I’ve also heavily reduced the amount of time I spend on social media. We all tend to fall into the trap that we need to be active on socials to build an audience and find clients, but my analytics show that it’s rarely how people find me — and almost never how paying clients find me.

Social media actually has a very low ROI these days for most of us unless we’re spending a significant amount on well-targeted, paid ads. That’s how it’s looking in my field of work anyway.

Fewer Clients

As Tim Ferris puts it in his book The Four-Hour Work Week:

“Maximum income from minimum effort, including minimum number of customers, is the primary goal.”

You would think more clients equals more money, but that’s not always the case. A few high-paying clients can bring in more revenue than a lot of low-paying ones.

Even if you can make more money from more customers it’s worth remembering that more customers also equals more meetings, more onboarding, more paperwork, and more headaches. More money from your current stable of customers just equals more money.

What’s more, higher-paying clients are invariably less work. Codie Sanchez summed this up in her Contrarian Thinking newsletter with this image:

Those are the two extremes but there’s a sliding scale in between too.

Automate and Systemize

I’m a writer who never uses generative AI in my published writing. But I am using AI and other technology for everything from market research to accounting to project management.

I’m also a fan of systems. And templates, and checklists and cheat sheets. If I have an admin or personal task that can be automated or systemised (or a little of both) it is. That frees me up to focus on research and writing, which are the core skills at the heart of my online business, and where I put all my deep work time.

Improve Focus and Energy

One of the books that has influenced me most in terms of productivity was one I read early in my career: The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr.

Many of us try trick after trick to fit more into our days to better manage our time, but often time is not our problem, per se. Energy is, and while we literally can’t create more time than the standard 24 hours a day we’re dealt, increasing energy levels can sometimes be surprisingly simple.

In trying to rebalance my working day, I’m now practicing basic energy management principles like eating well, hydrating, and the really crazy one: taking regular breaks. A rested brain is a focused and energized brain. Sometimes you really do have to do less to achieve more.

Gamify and Reward

The human brain generally responds well to gamification. Mine responds particularly well to timed work segments. I realised that when a writing group I belonged to started doing ‘writing sprints’. We’d simply check in online and then do a writing sprint of a set number of minutes, then check in again with our word count. There was a certain amount of competition, but also lots of grace and humor shared on the days it didn’t go so well.

Writing sprints can work well even if it’s just yourself you’re in competition with. Setting a timer and seeing how many words I can knock out in 25 minutes, or 50 minutes, or 90 minutes, still works well for me (though of course they need a lot of editing afterwards). So do other, similar exercises like coming up with ten ideas in 20 minutes, or free writing around a specific topic, idea or quote for five minutes.

Rewards are part of the gamification process for me too. A reward can be anything from a walk on the beach if I achieve a thousand-word writing sprint, to a trip to Rome if I finish the book I’m working on this year. If you’re going to play a game, give yourself a prize.

Earning more doesn’t always mean working more. I’m tracking everything I do this year with that one big aim. I want to work less and earn more. Follow along to see how I get on.

Frequently Asked Questions