Writing For Fun And Profit
By Deanna Mascle
Every writer dreams of the day when they can profit from their writing. While income opportunities abound for writers each method has drawbacks.
Newspaper and magazine reporters can make a good living but their subject matter is often closely regulated and directed. Corporate writing can be even more lucrative but even more tightly controlled. Freelance writing offers more freedom but is also more uncertain. Publishing books is even more uncertain. So what is a writer to do?
Forget all those old-school writing methods and focus on the internet. Don't write for anyone but yourself. You really can profit from writing only about what interests you. Don't worry about the market or the editors. Write for yourself. Not only will it be more fun and rewarding for your soul but for your checking account as well.
I am going to share an easy (and cheap) 10-step formula that can help you start your own writing business today, but first I want to share one important fact.
This is not a get-rich quick scheme. It will take some time to earn, perhaps as long as three months to begin turning a profit, but if you keep working at it you should see your income grow exponentially each month and you should be able to count on that income and know what you have to do to increase it. You will have total control over your income and that is very powerful.
1. Create a blog account at one of the free blogging sites available online (we used to use Blogger.com but there are many other good options). This will serve as your internet base. It really is the cheapest and easiest way to get online today. Yes, you could create a free web site at one of the many available but blogs are more attractive to the search engines. Plus they offer you the ability to personalize it but most of your energy will be spent on content which is the king of the internet and the real reason you want an internet presence.
2. Now sign up for a free ClickBank affiliate acccount which will give you immediate access to something to sell.
3. Sign up for a contextual or pay-per-click advertiser such as Google, Yahoo, Revenue Pilot, or SearchFeed and you'll start earning from visitors as well as customers.
4. Develop your blog. Make 10 your immediate goal then work your way up to 25, 50 and 100 and so on. Your entries can be your opinions, thoughts, or ramblings; poems or short stories; or articles.
5. Promote your blog through article marketing, link development and submitting your blog feed. I would suggest your primarily focus on article marketing as if offers the ability to not only develop links but also delivers traffic plus as a writer it is easy for you to create articles or use a selection of the material you've already created for your blog.
Yes, it really is that simple and while you can later grow by buying your own domain name (or names) and publishing your blog on your own site you do not need (and likely should avoid) investing money in expensive tools
Getting started on the web can be free (as you see above) or inexpensive if you concentrate on what you really need. The simple truth is that you don't need a lot of fancy, expensive tools and programs. In the long run a domain name is a good investment. A domain name will cost you between $5 and $10 a year depending on whether you go .com or .info (or one of the many other options available). You don't need to find a web host or create a site. Simply point the domain at your blog for now and continue with the development and promotion of your blog. The advantage of owning your own domain name is simply that later when you have the money, time, and knowledge to develop your web site that domain name will already exist and have filtered through the search engines. It also offers some marketing advantages that a free blog cannot.
At some point you may decide you want more flexibility and control than a free blog can offer and that is when you will want to run your own site. You can find a good web host for as little as $5 a month and shouldn't pay more than $20 a month for a reputable host that offers all the tools and utilities you might need for your current site--including blog software. Maybe down the line you'll need to upgrade but by then you'll know your income and your needs.
Really the only other regular expense that you might consider to make your internet business complete would be a mailing list tool. You can do this for just $20 a month and it will be worth every penny for sales, customer service, and promotion. But this is not necessary to start out and you may decide that it isn't important to your efforts so you can skip it entirely.
Once you have your blog set up and monetized (by offering ClickBank products, advertising, and/or selling text links) then you are in a position to begin profiting from your writing. The way to profit it to increase your traffic so you need to get serious about your article marketing efforts because each article you distribute will generate immediate traffic and create back links for search engine optimization. Also you need to continue to grow your blog by adding fresh content regularly. This will create repeat visitors as well as bring the search engines back again and again. Simply publishing new articles and new blog entries each week will increase your traffic. The more articles and entries you create -- the more traffic you will generate.
Once you have found your rhythm with your existing blog you may well decide to branch out and create a second blog on a different or related topic. Now you should be able to work even faster because you are more experienced but likely more motivated as well because you can see just how rewarding it can be to write for fun and profit.
Deanna Mascle has been teaching and writing professionally for more than 20 years. Find more articles about writing at Route 60 at http://Route60.us
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Publishing Myths: True or False? Five to Start
By Vivian Gilbert Zabel
Some of the publishing myths circulating scare authors enough that they are unwilling to try to have their work published. Some of the “myths” have a little truth mixed with the fallacy; others have a large amount of truth; and the rest are completely false. Let’s examine five of those myths and see what is true and what isn’t.
Myth 1. A writer has to know someone in New York City to get published.
First of all, not all publishers are located in New York City any more. Every state has small or university publishers. California, Texas, and Utah have some rather influential publishers now. They may not be one of the giant four, but they are gaining in stature.
Secondly, the idea of only celebrities being sought by publishers isn’t exactly true. Of course a major publisher may better promote a celebrity’s book or even read a manuscript by one first, but the work still needs to be well-written – most of the time.
However, the idea that an author must have a personal connection to a publisher, if he isn’t found on Entertainment Tonight, isn’t so. Yes, having a next-door-neighbor who is the aunt of an editor with Doubleday may get a manuscript read sooner, but that doesn’t mean anything else. If the writing is poorly done, it will be just as rejected as something off the “slush” pile which wasn’t good. Nancy Kress, in Writer’s Digest June 2001, says, “Connections will not close the sale if the manuscript is no good.”
Myth 2. An author needs to be represented by a mega-superstar agent.
A good agent can help writers make their way through the legal mazes, presenting material to publishers, finding the solution for different aspects of the publishing field. That doesn’t mean that a writer should either get the best-named agent in the world or not try to get an agent.
The key to finding an agent is to find one who knows the business, who is interested in promoting his/her clients, and who wants what is best for the client. That doesn’t always mean the “top” agents in the field, who have many clients and obligations.
Now in the days of instant communication, excellent agents can be found everywhere, but California has become second in importance to New York. The main thing to look for is experience, other clients, successes in author clients. Finding whether the agent is a member of the ethical organization, AAR, is one step to discovering a competent, honest agent. Finding an agent who works well with the client helps for a successful partnership.
Remember, though, a bad agent is worse than no agent. And, an agent isn’t always necessary, but that’s an entirely different subject, maybe to be covered another time.
Myth 3. Writers must start small and write what they know.
Let’s break this down into two parts. First, writers must start small: No, they should start with the best they have to write. Sometimes, an author can take a short story and expand it into a book, but that doesn’t mean that all writers have to write flash fiction and short stories to start. If a book is what a writer has inside, then a book should be written.
Yes, at times a non-fiction writers does better submitting to local and regional magazines and newspapers, but not always. If a topic works for a major newspaper or magazine, a writer should submit a proposal to that paper or magazine. The only real limits on an author are the ones talent, lack of effort, or fear create.
The second part of this myth is writing what a person knows. Actually, according to Daniel Lazar, an agent from Writers House agency, says, “Writing what you know should actually be write what excites you.”
Of course research increases what people “know.” Also when anyone writes about anything, bits of knowledge are used. For example, I have never traveled in space. If I decided to write about traveling to another galaxy as a colonist, I would have no personal knowledge about the topic. However, I could take the experience of going under anesthetic to show how a person being put into suspended animation might feel as a drug takes effect. Writing such a story or book would excite me enough to allow me to use a little of what I know, what I research, and what I imagine. An author’s interest and excitement is more important than what is already known about a subject or topic.
Myth 4. Authors have to label the exact genre of work to get an agent.
According to agents Irene Goodman and Daniel Lazar, at the OWFI Writing Conference, an agent is impressed with a well-written, attention grabbing pitch letter and interesting, good material rather what genre the material may be or not be. Labeling something as horror/thriller/romance/sci-fi doesn’t garner any type of interest on the part of an agent. If it’s a novel, the agents say, then just say, “My novel ...”
Myth 5. Agents are members of a big club that’s secret and hard to get into.
What’s sad about this myth is that it is false. Anyone can call himself or herself an agent. There is no licence required or test to pass. Anyone can have business cards printed up or place advertisements in newspapers or magazines calling himself an agent.
Many real agents exist all over the country. They are people who have been involved in or with publishing and have connections with publishing companies. Some may have been published themselves; others may have been editors or otherwise involved with a publishing company.
Authors need to research to find the type of agent they need, but agents don’t belong to a secret club. The secret is for writers to ask questions.
That ends the first five myths of many. In time we’ll examine some more.
Sources:
1. Oklahoma Writers Foundation Inc. Conference, May 6, 2006, session with Daniel Lazar of Writers House
2. Nancy Kress, “ Urban Myth vs. the Truth,” Writer’s Digest , June 2001
Vivian Gilbert Zabel taught English, composition, and creative writing for twenty-five years, honing her skills as she studied and taught. An author on http://www.Writing.Com/, a site for Writers, with portfolio http://www.Writing.Com/authors/vzabel, her books, Hidden Lies and Other Storied and Walking the Earth, can be found through Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com.
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