Writing / Money — Can You Have Them Both?

How I Made $5,000 in 8 Hours, No Make That 25+ Years

True story, with a giant caveat

James Bellerjeau, JD, MBA
4 min readOct 16, 2022

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Photo © James Bellerjeau

When you see a headline like mine, your first thought should be “scam alert!” The offending author may be trying to clickbait you into ceasing scrolling and opening their article, which often does not deliver on the promise. Or, worse, they are trying to inveigle you in some scheme that will make them money. You, less so.

While I hope you found my title intriguing, it is neither clickbait nor a money-making scam, for you or me. Although the picture might be a tad misleading — I made no money selling pumpkins.

Today I hope to give you some additional perspective about the business of writing. Particularly, that when viewed objectively from a purely financial perspective, writing is not a very promising way to make good money. At least not compared to many more reliable alternatives. I elaborate on two such methods here:

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James Bellerjeau, JD, MBA

Mechanic of the human soul. I channel Seneca and Machiavelli at predictable intervals (now weekly)