Six Reasons You Won’t Make It as a Paid Writer
Real talk about making money online.
If you don’t want to make money from writing, this post isn’t for you. Some writers want to write and publish for the enjoyment of writing and publishing. And that is cool. I get that. If you are a writer who needs/wants to make money from home — this post is for you.
If you want to make money from writing here and/or on other platforms that pay writers, you have to come at it with a different mindset from, say, writing for fun or in a journal.
Here are some mistakes I see new writers make, and I made when I was a newbie writer.
One — Your writing reads like a journal entry.
Don’t shoot the messanger. When many untrained writers first start, they tend to write like they’re writing a journal entry. It is boring to readers. Harsh, but true. Too much ego, not enough humility. Writers who make money from writing write with the reader in mind.
That doesn’t mean take out everything that’s personal or gives the reader a taste of who you are. You want to share a bit of who you are, that makes your writing resonate. Some will like you, some won’t. Concentrate on the readers who do. Readers read writers they like. You get a sense of a writer’s personality through their words and stories. Who you are should come through your writing by giving experiences from your life through story.
Your main goal is to entertain, educate and inspire.
Talking about yourself by unloading, in first person, or flowery prose is for your journal. It won’t keep readers reading. You may find every minute of your day interesting, but most readers will not.
Teach the reader something. You have to come at it asking yourself, what am I giving? Is this valuable? Did I waste the readers time? What did I want to learn when I first started writing? Do readers come away with what was promised in the title?
Share a success story of how you got to where you are or what action you took to get there. Share a personal story and focus on what you learned from that journey. Chances are people are going to relate when you open up and share your most valuable lessons through your unique perspective.
Two — You don’t have a regular content schedule.
Your content flow is uneven and unpredictable. Writers who build audiences and an income have a regular posting schedule, and they stick to it. They stick to it on holidays and when sick.
When I started blogging, I posted seven days a week. One post each day. Regular content creation had a tremendous impact on my success. It didn’t just grow an audience quickly, but most importantly, the regular practice built my writing muscle. It took a considerable amount of emotional bandwidth and time in the beginning to write a daily post. But after three months, it was so natural that the energy required to write each day lessened, leaving me more energy to give to other income generators in the afternoon.
The act of writing is like the act of exercising. When you start to exercise after a long period of no exercise, it’s tough. You get out of breath quickly, your muscles are tight, you can’t walk the next morning. But after a few months, your muscles gain strength, your body feels both fluid and taut, your clothes fit comfortably, you start taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
Writing is the same.
Eventually, it becomes easier to sit in the chair for an hour without the temptation of getting up. Repetition is what builds habits.
Once the practice takes hold and the muscle is strong, you’ll be less likely to look in the fridge every five minutes. You won’t have the compulsion to check your phone or Facebook. You’ll experience the state of flow more easily. After a short time, each writing session, as well as output, will increase with less effort. You won’t be as drained energetically after each post, and you’ll feel like you could write a couple more posts that day.
That is building the muscle.
Try it. It works. Write every day for three months. You will experience this transformation, and you’ll build the strength to write for hours and won’t want to stop writing on some days.
Repetition is what builds habits.
In an interview with George Plimpton, Hemingway discussed his daily routine, saying he wrote every morning,
“When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible.”
Writer write.
If you want your writing to be a hobby, write only when you feel like it.
Three — You start to see a little success and attention, and then you give up.
You’ve been writing for a while, and you don’t see the trajectory you want. You have a little success, but not enough to keep you going. You start comparing yourself to other, more successful writers with green envy and allow jealousy to turn you bitter and jaded.
You can’t be inspired to write if you are constantly comparing yourself to others.
Comparison to other writers will not propel you forward in your writing career. Comparing your beginning to someone else’s middle is not a way to success; it paralyzes you.
If you want to make any comparison, compare your success now to where you were a year ago.
Now, think about where you want to be as a writer one year from now. Write down the steps and actions you need to take to get to where you’d like your writing career to be one year from now.
Change can take years — before it happens all at once.
I wanted to give up after three months. I’m glad I didn’t. Right after I wanted to give up, one of my stories went bananas, and I’m still making money from that one story. The second viral story came much quicker, as did the third and fourth because I’m building name recognition, which takes time. I’m also building two publications, which also takes time.
Four — You are scared of being judged.
Please don’t let this be one of the reasons. I was scared to share publically for years — my biggest regret — I didn’t start sooner.
Yes, you might suck in the beginning, I did. I can’t read my earlier writing. I’ve improved. But had I not started with terrible writing over a year ago, I wouldn’t be better now. If I stop now, I won’t have the growth I’ll experience this coming year from writing every day.
Starting can be scary, but you must start somewhere to get where you want to be eventually. If you don’t start, you won’t get anywhere for sure.
You will be judged. It is part of daring to be creative and doing something you love to do. Don’t let anyone’s negative comments rob you of that.
Five — You don’t read.
After writing each day, the single best thing you can do to become a better writer is to read. Great writers read different types of material of different kinds of authors.
I read a book a week. I highlight, take notes and read a wide variety of subjects: fiction and non-fiction.
If you want to be a paid writer, you have to read. Anything. Anything that piques your interest, but especially writers you admire.
Read like a writer — notice tone, voice, how the author uses punctuation, timing, sentence structure to set pace. Observe the author’s writing as you are reading.
Another way to do this is to write or type out passages from your favorite books. You’ll get into the writer’s head. It will be more evident how they write for style and structure sentences and paragraphs to set the pace.
Writers inspire.
If you don’t fill your mental tank because you are too busy writing — if you stop noticing, stop listening to the people around you, stop having real-world experiences, stop reading about other people’s worlds and experiences through literature, you won’t be inspired. You won’t have much to draw from for your writing.
Don’t forget to look up and live, and then write again.
When I first started writing on Medium, I didn’t look up from my computer for an entire month — head down — must keep writing. I got better at blasting out a post, and my writing got stronger with consistency, but I also had less to say at the end of the month.
Don’t forget to live fully.
Six — You don’t market your work.
Marketing isn’t always fun. You could just put your writing out there and see if it takes off. But most writers who treat writing like a job market their work via social media channels and groups.
Pick one channel to start. And share your work consistently on that network.
If you spend time writing something, you want it to be read. You can’t make people read your writing, but you can share it so more people come across it and decide for themselves if they want to read it. Reminder: this is why headlines are the most crucial part of writing online until you build a name for yourself. It is the first thing the reader sees and will determine if they click.
Build your email list today. Owning a list makes marketing your work and products more manageable and gives you freedom from relying on social media platforms that run on algorithms. Add a call to action at the bottom of each article.
Summary
These are just six suggestions for writers who want to earn money from their work that you can start doing today. There are many more. But these six are crucial to start with for new writers who want to earn money from their thoughts and words.
Write on.
Jessica is a writer, an online entrepreneur, and a recovering type-A personality. She lives in Los Angeles with her extrovert daughter, two dogs, and two cats.
