3 Things You Absolutely Need to Monetize Quickly as a Writer

Avoid the listicles. This is all you need.

I know the feeling of wanting to get your voice out there for the world to read. You have so much to say and share. But you don’t have an audience. You don’t have your own blog or YouTube channel. So how are you supposed to make money off of it? If you’re a newbie writer and want to kick start your writing monetization, I have 3 essential tips for you.

While you can go out and get your own blog, is it really worth it? I had my own blog a couple of years ago. I had to spend money on domains, web hosting, and a web builder.

Let me just tell you up front that building traffic and a following on a blog is very difficult to do, especially if you don’t have a huge following on your social media. But I’m going to touch on that a little bit later.

About 2 years after I started my blog, I decided to end it. It just wasn’t going anywhere. I didn’t have nearly enough subscribers to be able to pique the interest of any affiliates.

If you have the patience to wait years for your audience to grow so you’re eligible to start making a buck, bless your heart. But if you’re impatient like me, there are quicker ways of accomplishing this.

Hone Your Craft

Before trying to get eyes on your work, you need to ensure your work reaches a certain standard. No, I don’t mean you need to be Earnest Hemmingway to do well. But many new writers sometimes overlook the basics. If you want to be able to monetize on your work, specifically blog-style writing, you have to incorporate the blog writing ABCs into it.

My fingers are always itching to write about everything and anything that comes to mind. It’s good practice to write every day, however, not everything I write, is meant for an audience. Some of the writing I do serves only to allow me to vent my thoughts aimlessly without worrying about structure or a conclusion. It’s basically my journal.

But journal entries are not appropriate for blog-style writing because your readers will get nothing out of them.

Write for the Reader, Not Yourself

Readers who are searching for blog style articles are looking to get morsels of valuable information that will help them in some way.

Whether it’s self-improvement, inspiration, comedy/entertainment, or informative pieces, the reader has to get something out of your work.

That’s why you should avoid publishing personal journals with no conclusion or take-aways.

Always write conversationally, as if you’re speaking to the reader directly, with a structured beginning, middle, and endpoint. Be clear and use simple words. Blogging is not the place to try to impress people. Being fancy or cryptic will distance you from your readers. Your readers want to connect with you, so making your point clearly will be more engaging to them.

Be specific. If you’re writing informative pieces, try to include a few links to scientifically back up what you’re sharing.

Keep your paragraphs and sentences short. They’re easier to read and understand since our brains take in information better when ideas are broken into small chunks. In blog writing, the style is less formal so it’s the norm to have only a couple sentences per paragraph.

It’s important to take the time to write quality articles that you’ve proofread out loud a few times to check for grammar and flow. Using writing tools like ‘Grammarly’ to spell check your work is also very helpful.

Don’t Write Boring Pieces

We all have our own unique personalities. As such, it should be reflected in one’s writing. By adding your personal flair, your work will stand out more.

If you’re funny, by all means, incorporate your humor into your writing. If you’re sassy, add sass to your words.

It’s also a good idea to use your personal experiences in getting your point across. There’s nothing more engaging to a reader than a story that has been humanized so he/she can relate to it and be impacted by it.

Break up your paragraphs with headings, subheadings, pull quotes, and photos so the reader doesn’t zone out. Just be careful not to overuse or misuse them.

Diversify

As freelance writers, we need to draw income from different sources.

Contena, Upwork, and Problogger are good freelancer communities to find work.

Contena has the most job opportunities for writers, but they require you to become a paying member. In their $40/month membership, they include a freelance writing training program and access to their resources.

Upwork, on the other hand, charges a percentage to both the recruiter and the freelancer. For the first $500 earned per client, they take 20% of the freelancer’s earnings. For earnings greater than that for the same client, the rate lowers to 10%, and once he/she makes $10,000 or more they’ll only take 5%.

ProBlogger is a free job board similar to Craigs List. There is no fee. You just sign up to receive alerts when new job opportunities are posted. The opportunities are limited in that there’s only about 5 new posts per day.

Medium is a blogging platform that allows you to earn money the more its paid subscribers read your work. This is the place to showcase all the blog style work you’ve passionately written about.

Your best shot at earning money on this blogger host is by getting accepted into Medium publications since they already have a following. Writing quality pieces will increase the likelihood of them getting curated which means they will receive even more exposure because they’ll be recommended across Medium’s homepage, emails, and recommended topics.

Pitching to online magazines is also a great way to seek monetization. They pay you per word or per article, and there’s a large variety you can choose from.

Market

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn can all be very powerful tools to promote your work. If you already have followers, you’re off to a great start! Post your work to your social media, especially on LinkedIn. LinkedIn also has a built-in job board where you can get job search alerts for writing work.

There are many streams of income available to writers. It all comes down to how much effort you’re willing to put in to pursue those opportunities.

Another important piece of advice I want to leave you with is to be flexible. If you want to make an income from writing, at least at first, you have to be willing to write about subjects that don’t interest you.

And if you know nothing about those subjects, you have to be willing to proactively research them and make yourself an expert. Those of us who are willing to write about things nobody else wants to are the ones making an income out of it.

Best of luck in your writing!

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