It is great to connect with shows like this and with other writer resources. I will try to share them as I find them. Listen to internet radio with Red River Radio on Blog Talk Radio
1 Comment
Ok so yeah I know there are other writers who get millions of page views (PV) a day. My article about the Chamber of Commerce got 128 PVs in one day! Since I was previously psyched to see 20 PVs ever for a story this is a personal best. Hopefully I can build on it. This is part of the journey I was talking about as far as finding my niche market. They say baby-steps is how things get started. So a little celebration then back to work. How can I get more views, do better, be stronger at what I do? These are the questions I need to answer for myself.
For now though a friend has invited me to lunch and being a writer I need to defiantly get out more. Much more, so I will prepare for that and get back to more writing later. And I hope to get some of those useful links I promised up on the Home page. Those should be happening soon. Write, edit, repeat. Write,edit, repeat!! :) Ok hokey title yet still very important, it is something that I have been thinking about and discovering on this journey from hobby writer to professional writer.
What do you think of when I say writer? At first I am thinking New York Times Best Seller List, author. People who write are authors. I need to make big money and be one of those! Yet even as I looked into it, which list? There are so many now, non-fiction, fiction, thriller, romance, children's literature? On and on it all comes back to the question anyone who takes on the blank page faces... "What do I write about?" Time tells all. Time tells a lot about what a writer can do. With small kids, a family, volunteer work and other various things that need to be done I don't have the brain cells or energy left at the end of the day to create cohesive string of thoughts to create a novel of any sort. Maybe one day. I like the short bursts of information from blogging and article writing. The beauty of the blog is the ability to just let it go. Let the words flow and see what is there. Articles should have research behind them though I have read some articles where that clearly was not the case. However, to me integrity is so important and as such it is important to put best practices and best work out there. All you have as a writer is your reputation it should be protected with good work. Journalism is another way to go. To be a journalist you need to be able to be mobile, do research and meet deadlines. This tends to be rather consuming and is good for single young people, or others who are otherwise unattached and have a much shorter list of distractions. There isn't much creativity going on in journalism just observe and report. If you do it well the story is there already you just put it on paper in a way that people might want to read. As opposed to the creative writer whose challenge is to keep it believable. However, other than that a creative writer can construct a completely new reality. I think that is why I am so attracted to the idea of creative writing one day. The poet plays with words and pushes limits. Poetry done well is magical. However, it is not for the timid or impatient. I can create some poetry in the right mood, consistency is another thing. Patience is something I have little of and so I blog. That is my favorite method. Short and sweet, reality-based with some latitude of creativity. Not too much of a fact check extravaganza of course I do my best to be genuine and speak from the heart it's what I am most comfortable with. Know thyself. A timeless truth and no less true in writing. Know thyself. What I am doing now on my writer's journey is trying out many kinds of writing styles to answer the question " Where are my strengths?" Many topics, many styles trying them on like a child tries on her mother's clothes. Seeing what works and what doesn't as I take the journey to self discovery as a writer. I really like Julia Cameron's books from her program The Artist's Way to help with this process. I have found benefit from them. Yet I know enough to know ultimately it is a very personal and private experience (though I am sharing it with you). No one can do the work for you nor tell you what will work for you. Primarily what I find works for me are the topics that get my heart racing. Which unfortunately for me has little to do with celebrity news. Which brings us to the second part of the equation of writing for a living and that is finding something you want to write AND something others want to read. People want to read Cosmopolitan however I can't stop blushing enough to write even a sample article. As my skills improve I may be able to fit in more with the Oprah magazine crowd that plays more to my strengths. However, I feel I need much more practice before that happens. We'll see how it goes. I believe in miracles. :) Well that's it for today's installment. Children are now going crazy in the other room. Time to put the mom hat back on. So my action item for today was to set up a QuickBooks file for my writing business.
Having accounting in order is probably the most difficult task of owning/ operating a small business or being self-employed. They sure don't make it easy, yet it can be done. I was lucky to already have QuickBooks because my husband was using it for his business. There wasn't exactly one for freelance writer or at least not one that I have found yet. I'll continue to look. I just used the Marketing and Public Relations for now because it was the closest type of business to what I'd be doing. So we'll see how it goes. Accounting software...check. If you are just starting out there are spreadsheets and easy accounting programs that can get you started for less money. However if you can invest in a good small business accounting program and get it set up by an accountant it saves a lot of headache down the road. Checking account....check. A few weeks ago I opened a really simple bank account that I'll be using for now and then upgrade as time goes by. If you plan to take your writing seriously enough to make it a prosperous business it is a really good idea for tax purposes to have a separate checking account to run your business out of and not to use it for personal expenses. This way easier to say than to do. However in writing, blogging and web content creation it is difficult to prove until you are making the big bucks whether it is a hobby or a business. Whether it is a hobby or a business means a lot as far as taxes and exemptions are concerned. Which I can talk more about on another blog. Anyway long story short don't mix business with pleasure financially or the IRS gets mad at you. PayPal account...check. The other important thing I did was to start a business account with PayPal that is because that is the way I get paid by sites like Associated Content, Helium.com and others you can even receive payments from sites like this one on Weebly.com. Please see my donate key on the Home page. :) So things are moving a long. I am working on the foundation work and it feels pretty good. Well that is it for today. I have a few articles to write that need to be finished today. Create an amazing day! One way a writer can make some money on her website is to add Google Adsense. That is my task for today in addition to completing some writing assignments I have due in the next few days so I won't be able to spend too much time on it.
The way it works is that you post a banner somewhere on your page and you get paid when people click on the ads. I think you also get paid for page views but I am still learning about it. I'll let you know when I find out for sure. I also remember reading some really great blogs about creating revenue as a writer. I will try to post them here as a resource over the next week. Well I'd better get to it today, busy, busy, busy! The biggest challenge for any artist whether it be visual arts, writing or music is the same as it has been over the centuries. How do you make money at it? Where the very lucky have patrons or wealth from other avenues that they can use to support themselves while they hone their craft many of us do not. However there are many who do make a decent living writing and it is my goal to be one of those people.
I am writing now for Associated Content and Helium. com. They are both awesome venues to learn my craft in a hands-on manner and it brings in a few bucks now and then. The name of that game is volume and choosing content that is timely that the public is hungry for. I liken it to a game of Hungry Hippos where many writers are out there trying to grab those hot titles and write to them before the topic is too saturated or the fickle public has already moved on to its next distraction. At first it seemed a little frustrating however over time it became exciting and fun. It is easy to get your work accepted for what is called PPV- paid per view. You get paid based on the number of people who click on your page and view it, easy enough. This has driven the industry I feel to move toward the controversial, at time damaging, titles some which are more than a little misleading. By mentioning a hot button word that gets folks fired up examples like abortion, gun control (they are taking our guns), or things like Jersey Shore you can get clicks. If you mention Oprah Winfrey, Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck you can get some clicks. Gay rights, immigration and drug legalization generate some clicks as well depending on the way the title is worded. The thing people do is to make people irate so they click, comment and share. It is good for getting paid but in my opinion it is not very healthy for society. One of the challenges as I transition from hobby writing to professional is how to bring in the clicks without feeding the monster that media has become. That which the Rally to Restore Sanity spoke out about. I have a lot of moralistic ideals and not much money. That is one thing I wrestle with on my journey. Can I keep my ideals and my identity and still make money in this trade? We'll see. The goal is to crack the code that will allow me to obtain larger up front payments for stories. I have not as of this moment cracked that code. One thing I know about myself though is I am very analytical and tenacious. In addition my kid's futures depend on my success. And as a mother that is more than enough incentive for me to figure this out. I'll leave it at that for today. This blog is a field guide. A map of my journey from "just for fun" writer to a professional. I have been story telling since I could talk and writing came naturally to me as a small child. I loved the control I had over the page in a world that I had very little control over. My journal was my friend an a release as time went on.
As I grew up I learned the power of words, in a love letter, a letter to the editor, and in business. I grew addicted to that feeling when someone reads your work and a change is made, an impact is imprinted. I also love creating a literary or cyber escape world where devoid of fiscal challenges much beauty and peace can be created. That is why I do what I do. It is a calling. Now I find myself almost 40 years old and like many in America in a harsh financial reality the worst of it is it doesn't reflect who I am as a person. I don't want to be behind on bills and other financial responsibilities. It is not who I am and I feel that. I feel that my expression of myself in the world isn't genuine right now. I think taking my words to the marketplace and making a living with them will allow me to be more of myself. If that makes any sense to anyone. It makes sense to me :o) So I will continue to document my journey. It is a career journey and a next phase of life journey. I hope to find others who can relate and share with me on this journey. It's better to take a journey of this magnitude with friends. |
Archives
September 2022
AuthorSophia Tesch is a graduate of the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University. Sophia is a community advocate. She lives in San Tan Valley, Arizona with her husband and children. |