The Life of a Writer – Part 2 (Money)

Everybody wants to get rich by writing, but can it really happen?

Writing for profit is much like winning the lottery or becoming a professional athlete. It can be done, but not everyone will be so lucky. If you say you got into writing or blogging simply for the love of writing, you are definitely doing things right. If you say you got into writing because you wanted to make money, you may be in for a wake up call.

Many writers feel if they start a blog money will magically come raining down upon them. Not to say it can’t happen, but many factors come into play that most writers either won’t do, or can’t do. When you write something it very well may be the best work ever, but if no one ever reads it, you will probably never see any money. Writing might make you feel good, but more than likely you’re writing because you want someone to see your efforts. This means you need an audience, but how do you get readers? How do you draw people in to what you have to offer?

Check out these blogging facts for 2022:

There are now 600 million blogs on the internet.

There are 2 million blog posts published daily.

Most blogs get little or no traffic.

You need to promote yourself.

Promotion is one of the hardest things you’ll encounter in blogging. There are literally millions of others around the world, just like you, who are competing for the same thing. You have to do something to stand out above the others. You have to make your voice louder than everyone else. To promote yourself, the most obvious thing to do is advertise, but advertising is not cheap, and there is no guarantee it will produce a return.

If you don’t want to pay to advertise, you have no other choice but to rely on luck, or lots of hustle. The “hustle” is usually engaging in shameless self promotion, spreading the word about what you do to anyone who will listen. You need a website, social media, e-mail marketing, and anything else you can do to get attention. If you don’t want to pay money to promote yourself, you will surely pay with your time.

It’s not easy.

The truth about making money online is the majority of revenue paid to wealthy bloggers comes from affiliate marketing (showing ads on your page). The short answer for how to make money online is you need followers, and you need views. If you have 10,000 followers, there is a chance you might make a few dollars in embedded advertising on your page. If you have 100,000 followers, your chance of making money increases, but those who make a living in the blog world often have far more than that. You really need millions of views and followers in order to get rich. Unfortunately, most of us will never get there.

Some bloggers may have ended up where they are naturally (meaning readers just stumbled into the page), but more likely, the writer used their blog as part of something else. I suppose it is possible to have a million followers just fall into my page, but it’s probably not going to happen in a timely manner. A writing lesson I learned a long time ago is you need to brand yourself. Just like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are known worldwide for what they are as a product, you need to define what you are. As a writer, YOU are the product. Successful writers have found a way to package what they are into something people want, but that “something” is usually more than just writing.

Many writers use their blog as an extension of what they do. It may be marketing a business, a service, or maybe a product they’re promoting. Sometimes it might be information they are offering because they are a subject matter expert. Other times, the writer may be a celebrity because of something other than writing. Regardless, they use the blog as a platform to support the other things they do. Their blog promotes the “other” things, and the other things draw people in to the blog. It’s the circle of life in writing. Talent helps, but to be successful, you have to do this.

If money comes as a result of my writing, all the better. Writing may be a business for some, but money should never be your primary motivation for writing, especially if you’re just starting out. Have fun with it and do what you enjoy.

As I always say, write because you want to write. If you’re good at what you do, other things will come.

~ Marty ~

Watch for more “Life of a Writer posts coming soon…

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