Summary

The author has shifted from a strict morning routine to focusing on writing daily, which has led to personal growth, increased income, and a stronger sense of purpose.

Abstract

The author begins by discussing the abandonment of a strict morning routine due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This shift led to a renewed focus on writing, which the author has pursued daily for nearly a year. The dedication to writing has resulted in improved writing skills, higher income, and the establishment of a supportive community of fellow writers. The author reflects on the importance of adapting goals and action steps, as suggested by Confucius, and has embraced writing about a broader range of topics, including local stories, politics, education, and sports, particularly Philadelphia sports teams. Despite some articles performing poorly, the author's overall readership and followers have increased significantly. The author emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, continuous improvement, and evolving as a writer to maintain reader interest and achieve personal growth.

Opinions

The author values the importance of finding one's purpose beyond the structure of a morning routine.
Writing every day has been instrumental in the author's personal and professional development.
The author believes in the significance of adapting to change and embracing new challenges to grow as a writer.
There is an emphasis on the role of research and longer articles in increasing viewership and income.
The author suggests that sharing articles on social media is crucial for gaining visibility and readership.
The author advocates for reading other writers' work and stepping out of one's comfort zone to improve writing skills.
The author holds the view that persistence and evolution in writing can lead to being recognized as a great writer.

I Don’t Believe in Morning Routines But I Believe in Finding your Purpose

A year of writing will teach you many lessons.

As you enter the month of March, you may need to find your purpose instead of following your boring morning routine. I won’t lie. I used to be a fan of morning routines.

At this time last year, my alarm clock would wake me up at 4 am. I would wake up and hit the gym.

Not even a few weeks later, all of that changed and the morning routine went out the window. I’m sure you know why — the coronavirus happened and changed everyone’s schedule.

My morning routine went out the window. Fortunately, I found my purpose which made the morning routine seem like going to elementary school again.

Sometimes, you need a wake-up call to find your true purpose. Instead of complaining and sulking about the changes, I dove head-first into writing. As the months went by, I kicked it up a notch. As of today, this is my 274 day of writing every single day since June 1 of last year.

My writing has gotten stronger. Income is going higher. The best part is I have found new writing friends who only have challenged me to get better. You have my sincerest thanks and appreciation to the publishers and fellow writers.

March is a new month and that brings more changes

“When it is obvious that goals cannot be reached, do not adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” Confucious

In one of my previous articles, I wrote about News Break. News Break prefers local stories from their writers. I haven’t figured what exactly I’ll write about, but more of my stories will be more locally focused.

I will continue to write about money and investing. That will never change. I love writing in this area so much. If I could write about this every day then I would. Unfortunately, not everyone shares the same love that I do.

Recently I have dabbled into politics, education, minimum wage, and sports. Some of the articles have been flops but the readers are there. Where my writing goes this year, is a good guess that is yet to be determined.

As a Philadelphia sports fan, there will probably be more Philly sports such as the Eagles, 76ers, and possibly the Phillies.

While some writers are complaining about horrible numbers, my numbers have actually gone up

Last month was a good month for me in terms of income. I reached my second highest month for income as a writer. My views have steadily increased and averaged just shy of 12,000 views and 4,000 reads.

I am curious why there is a large gap between the reads and views. Why does someone click on an article and run away? To me, that is horrible. I read every article I click on. I may not read everything word for word depending on the topic, but I give the writer some of my attention and time. As a reader, you owe that to the writer.

By the numbers

“Don’t regret your mistakes. You’ll always make mistakes. The better you are, the less mistakes you make. The only way to get better is to thoroughly analyze your mistakes.” James Altucher

February was a good month as I wrote 30 articles and one is expected to be published tomorrow. In previous months, I wrote more shorter articles. I feel when I did that, it hurt me income-wise.

Last month, I didn’t write one short article and most articles were 400 words or more. In addition, I put more time into my writing. This meant I did a little more research than I normally did.

When I did that, it actually helped get more views on the article. Several articles touched on new areas which also drew in more followers. I crossed 2,000 followers just shy of a year as a paid writer.

1.Income. I made $157.46 in February. I’m not a thousand-dollar writer and haven’t reached that level. If it happens one day, that’ll be great. If not, that’s okay. I enjoy writing.

Every since I was a little kid, I was a writer. I never realized that until later in life.

In college, I decided to get an English minor and focused the classes on writing. If you had me take a grammar test, I’d probably fail. English as well as science classes were my weak areas in high school.

Taking the English classes and focus exclusively on writing, help make me a better writer.

2. Marketing. While reading messages in several Facebook groups, some writers complained about the lower views. This baffled me as I was seeing my highest views ever.

I share my articles on Facebook, Twitter, and occasionally on LinkedIn. I think that my older articles still generate views and reads. As I mentioned earlier, I have written every day since June of last year. I have built up a decent-sized portfolio that is shared across thousands of readers on social media.

If you expect someone to find your article, then good luck. I think you have to share your article for your reader to find you.

Personally, I rarely share my article on my personal page since most of my connections are not article readers. Sometimes you have to analyze your audience and pay attention. If a social media page is not getting you views, then you need to strategize where you share your articles.

If you don’t share your article on your personal Facebook page, don’t worry if no one has read your work there before. You may actually do them a favor. Maybe you need to change your marketing strategy. As a writer, you are also a marketer.

Try sharing only your best articles once in a while instead of sharing all of your articles every single day. Give this a try and watch the results.

Writers evolve over time

As a writer, you will evolve over time. If you are not evolving as a writer, then you are doing something wrong. When you look at your early writings compared to today, you should see some growth in your writing.

If you haven’t seen any growth, that means you are not learning how to improve your writing.

You need to read what top writers are doing.
You need to read what other writers are writing about.
You need to get out of your comfort zone and try something different.

When you do this, you will grow as a writer. You need to grow if you want to continue to get readers. If you don’t grow, your writing becomes stale just like old news.

Figure out your vision and once you do, you’ll find your purpose as a writer. Anyone can write but only a few will be seen as great writers. Self-reflection plays a key role in your growth as a writer.