In order to beat writer’s block, you’re going to need to figure out where you’re at in the writing process.
In order to know where you’re at in the writing process, you are going to need to know what the writing process is.
What is the writing process?
The writing process goes as follows:
You get an idea.
You start to write that idea out
You finish writing that idea out
This sounds really simple and it is. The hard part is figuring out why you specifically are suffering with writer’s block.
Do I have writer’s block because I don’t have an idea?
In order to start writing you MUST have an idea.
An idea is not complicated in itself.
An idea is like, I want to write about a bank robber, but the bank robber isn’t nasty or mean she’s actually extremely polite and kind. She just gets a job at banks and figures out a nonconfrontational way to rob it and then disappears.
How do I start writing about my idea if I have writer’s block?
Writer’s block happens for different reasons at different times.
If you don’t have any idea of what to write about than it is time to do some reading and researching and thinking and sitting down and just making a giant list of ideas until you find one that you just love the idea of writing about.
If you already have an idea but you are having a hard time actually sitting down and writing that is a completely different beast altogether.
IF I have an idea what about writer’s block is stopping me from writing?
This is where you have to dig deep down and be really honest with yourself.
Are you having a hard time getting the idea in the right words or are you having a hard time actually sitting down and physically doing the work of writing.
Some of us fantasize about the idea of being a writer and being famous for a story and making lots of money and being called an author, but if we are honest with ourselves we don’t actually love the work of writing.
Let me make something very clear: The real work of being a writer is finding a place where we can sit or stand and write manually or type words on a page that cause others to want to read those words.
If you don’t like the idea of getting alone in your mind and creating words that lead to interesting words and paragraphs then you don’t actually like the work of a writer or author.
This very fact is to be considered when you have an idea, but you find it much easier to turn on Netflix, play a video game, go on social, go out with friends, and the thought of actually sitting down and writing seems bleh.
What do I do if my writer’s block is actually me not liking the physical work of writing?
This may sound blunt and it is. If you want to get past this type of writer’s block, you will have to stop what you’re doing and just go sit somewhere and start typing words.
It doesn’t have to be a million words the first time and every time you sit down to write, but I would recommend treating it like physical exercise.
Start small. Start by writing 10 words at a time and in time if you find that you can sit down to write 10 words then most likely you will feel like writing more.
The biggest problem for this type of writer’s block is not knowing what to write. Its the daunting feeling of feeling like writing takes a lot of work.
And writing can be a lot of work, but if you don’t just sit down and start writing something as small as ten words in a session you will never write anything you want to. You’ll just keep putting it off and procrastinating.
What if I have an idea and I’m trying to sit down and write, but I just stare at a blank page with a blinking line?
This is the real writer’s block and I’m going to give you the BIG but not so crazy secret to crush writer’s block and never have it be a problem for you again.
RESEARCH.
AND
READING.
Instead of staring at a blank page, start to read and think about and research the idea that you want to write about.
Let me give you some practical ways to research say BYE BYE to writer’s block.
EXAMPLE: Let’s say I just got a story idea and I want to write about an orphan girl in Vietnam during the Vietnamese war and her journey to find life family and love amidst war and being orphaned by that place and war.
Even though I have this idea that I like if I go immediately to the blank word document I still have ABSOLUTELY no idea how to write about an orphaned Vietnamese girl during the Vietnamese war.
So what should I do instead?
I should start reading about the Vietnamese war. I should read about orphans. I should read about young girls during that time and in that place and what their life and culture were like to deal with.
If you start to think this way and you start to read anything about what you want to write you will instantly start to have the knowledge to work with for the next time you pull up the blank page.
And I recommend that you write as you are reading and researching.
If you think of something while you are reading DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE WATI TO WRITE IT DOWN.
I can’t stress that enough. You will almost always forget your ideas if you do not write them down right away.
I recommend keeping a writer’s notebook near you while you are researching.
What if my idea is about fictional stuff and I can’t research it historically?
If you want to write about dragons, vampires, werewolves, unicorns, and leprechauns read about dragons, vampires, werewolves, unicorns, and leprechauns.
Exact same principle, different reading subject matter.
I hope this helps! Now gt out there and write something!
IF you have a specific idea and you are having a hard time figuring out how to research it, PLEASE feel free to reach out and I’d love to help you think of ideas for how to research any specific subject.
Leave a comment and I’ll try to get back to you soon!
As a Blogger, Why Making Viral Content is a Bad Blogging Strategy
If you are a blogger don’t get caught up in the wrong thing.
If you are a blogger and are wasting LOTS of time on trying to make EVERY post written a viral post you may be putting your energy into the wrong place.
This is a terrible goal and a waste of time for most any blogger and I’m going to tell you why:
1. The amount of time you put into the blog post is unlikely to amount to its “viralness.”
There is absolutely no guarantee that if you spend a bunch of time trying to write a post that you think we’ll go viral that it will.
It can be surprising what audiences like and don’t care for.
I use Pinterest to drive traffic and I am often surprised as to what pins people love and ones they don’t. I’ve created many thinking oh they’ll love this one. And crickets…
At the same time, I’ve had some that I threw together in a minute and they went viral, which really shocked me and made me realize:
As a Blogger, the goal shouldn’t be to spend most of our time and energy figuring out what goes viral and trying to make that.
Our goal should be to create more content as a blogger and adapt as our audience reacts.
Which brings us to our next point:
2. Our goal as a blogger should be to make lots of quality content.
This idea as all ideas should be taken with a grain of salt of course.
As a Blogger, you should definitely spend some of your time researching what people in your niche like and want to read.
The point is, when we first started we probably spent too much time on research and not enough time on building a habit of just creating and letting things flow naturally.
So as a blogger spend some time researching, but most of the time and energy creating.
3. Are you using your research time efficiently?
As a blogger, you should create while you research your topics.
Don’t make the mistake of researching a topic for a week without jotting down post ideas or even writing a post as you go along in your research.
As you’re reading, (if you are a blogger) great ideas will come to your mind. You should write them down.
Either write them in notes, or feel free to start putting them in your next blogger post and revise later when you’re done researching.
4. By creating more blog content that is well done your odds of it going viral go up exponentially.
It’s almost like a time bomb waiting to go off.
The more you create as a blogger the more likely you will create something that people will latch onto.
The less you create the less likely you will create a blog post that goes viral.
I personally found that the time I put into making something go viral didn’t work as well as making lots of content and then when one of mine did hit a nerve with my unique audience trying to create more blog content like that and better than that.
Convert your energy as a blogger into creating lots and lots of good content. Learn your unique audience and give them what they want.
Try this for yourself and let us know how it goes!
Update: See My Updated Page views, close-ups, and saves at the bottom of the Page! It’s WAY more than 34K!And as Always Thanks for your awesome support!
I just had a Pinterest Pin go Viral with 34K views and 396 saves in 24 hours: Here’s What I Learned
You’re already too late
Promote, promote, promote and promote some more
Some pins are for specific articles and some are not?
What goes viral and why?
The other day I woke up to check my Pinterest and found this:
12.6K views overnight might not sound like much to you, but before this, I had only had pins with 4K or less (and these pins only got that far from ads mind you). So to wake up to this was exciting for me.
And what made it even better for me, this pin was completely organic.
I DID NOT use Pinterest ads to get this pin noticed.
In fact, I had published this pin a week or weeks earlier and forgot about it. I didn’t think this pin was very good, to be honest.
It was very exciting and as the day went on it just kept growing and growing. I couldn’t stop checking my Pinterest and my site to see what was going on and trying to make the best of it.
Before 24 hours was over I had 34K organic views and 396 organic saves of my pin, and it didn’t stop there.
So here are some things I picked up from this event and where it ended up leading.
I hope you can use these insights to make a good Pinterest Marketing Strategy and avoid some mistakes I made!
That’s right. By the time your pin goes viral, you are already too late.
If you haven’t planned for the virality than you missed opportunities to capture emails and send people to the URL you desire.
Things you should consider doing before your pin goes viral to get ready for the traffic:
Make an email capture funnel.
Create an email capture form pop up for the URL attached to the Pin
Create a lead magnet for gathering emails. Capturing emails happens MUCH more effectively if you give visitors something for their email. Create a free piece of content they’ll want and offer it to them for their email.
Make sure you have a good landing page created for capturing emails.
Use a Viral Pin ahead Strategy when creating pins:
Understand that certain pins that carry the same URL as the Pin that went viral will also do well with the virality. These can be referred to as “sibling pins.”
Sibling pins carry the same URL and sometimes boost each other on Pinterest based on how the other “siblings” are doing.
Plan ahead when making pins and linking back to your site which pins and links you want to have more attention when a viral pin occurs.
By planning ahead you can control which pins will carry more traffic to your site and which pages you send people to.
Pins go viral fast and without much notice, so prep for it beforehand so you can make the most of it when it happens.
Promote, promote, promote and promote some more.
When a pin goes viral on Pinterest you will want to make sure to push it out to all your social channels to keep the flow of traffic from it going.
The more fuel you put under the fire the longer it will last and the more the attention will spread further.
You can make ads. You can make ads on Pinterest, Google, and FaceBook.
You can tweet it.
Send it to your FaceBook page.
Mention it in your Facebook groups. (I got some extra following from doing this.) Invite your friends to like it and pin it. Whatever you can think of, make sure to keep the fire going.
Even though the initial burst will make you very excited the reality is that it will boom for about 2 days and then turn into a passive trickle to your site.
Use the momentum to make it reach as far as you can.
Some pins are for specific articles and some are not?
I did what is apparently considered to be a Pinterest no-no.
I started putting my home page as the link to many of my pins.
There was a method to this madness (I’m still not sure yet if it was the right one.)
When I had sent people to my specific pages they would read for 1-3 minutes and then leave. I didn’t like this, but I did notice if I sent visitors to my home page they would check out more of my pages, but this did make my bounce rate go up, so still working out the kinks.
Pinterest traditional wisdom would say you should link your pins to specific articles and optimize from there. I’m not sure what I’ll do specifically yet, but I have changed my pin strategy a little and I’ll try to keep you updated on what’s working for me.
Another interesting insight from this event.
Since some of my pins are not for specific pages, they are quotes and tips and things like that. Pins that are like that share extremely well, BUT they don’t generate as many clicks as pins that lead to articles that make people curious.
Since the pin that went viral was more of a quote pin, even though I got TONS of shares, it didn’t lead to many clicks.
So it should be considered, if you want good clicks from your pins, consider this fact.
I’m not going to change this part of my strategy, I like creating these types of pins, but if you want to get more clicks from your pins, make sure they are pins that make people curious and teach something people want to learn, that way when your pin goes viral it will lead to clicks instead of just shares.
It looks good. The typewriter gives it a good look to go along with my “writing” niche.
It has a touch of humor to it, but nothing very funny. (In other words, it didn’t go viral because it was funny.)
I think the biggest thing is that it lists an older movie that writers can watch and enjoy and also learn some writing lessons from. (It’s an easy way to learn more about writing and doing it in an easy and entertaining way.)
My guess is that most 18-24 year olds haven’t heard of the movie “Finding Forrester.” (Which is the majority of my audience.) Make sure you set up a Pinterest Business account to figure out your audience stats if you have not yet.
I don’t think people saved it because it looks cool or what it says, I think they saved it because they thought “hmmm, I’d like to watch that movie later, but I’ll forget it later. I’ll pin it and then I can just look it up here.”
That’s just my thought with this one.
So what’s the takeaway?Try to make pins that people will want to try later, they are more likely to repin it. When a bunch of people repin it so they can try it later it’ll go viral.
And another key lesson to take away from this is you never know what is going to catch on. I’ve created a lot of pins that I thought were sure to catch on quickly that ended up going nowhere.
This pin I didn’t think would go anywhere and it reached the farthest out of all my pins so far.
So if you love to create, don’t be shy, just put it out there. You never know who’s looking for what you love creating.
IF you want your pins to be more Viral you need to try Tailwind.
Tailwind posts your pins for you and it posts them at optimal viral times for your subject matter.
How to make money blogging: 11 simple steps to start blogging for money
How to make money blogging:
Through affiliate links
Sponsorships
How to make money blogging through ads
Make money blogging through digital products
Through a membership subscription site
Use your blog to make money through clients
How to make money blogging through reviews
Drive traffic to your site
Choose a blog host
Choose a blog domain name
Choose your blogging platform
1. Make money blogging with affiliate links
Many bloggers make a decent living by using affiliate links on their blog sites.
An affiliate link is a website link in their post that when clicked on and used pays out money.
Affiliate links can pay out for several reasons:
Payout for a purchase through the link (most common)
Payout for signing up for something
Payout for clicks (uncommon)
Payout for taking certain action through the link
A good example of a company that pays out for a purchase would be Bluehost. They have an affiliate program that pays out a decent commission when someone uses your link to buy their web hosting service.
A sponsorship is basically when a company hires you to do a specific post or campaign for them on your blog. They pay you an agreed amount to make the post and promote it. It is another way for companies to use your blog to advertise to their ideal customers.
Expect to get sponsorships after creating heavy traffic to your blog consistently.
Getting sponsorships is closely related to getting freelance work, but you’re not gonna get a sponsorship without a blog or a large social following.
If you want to look for sponsorships to monetize your blog you are going to need to create more traffic to your blog through social media and SEO.
3. Make money blogging with ads
Ads is an easy simple no brainer way of making money with your blog.
If you generate traffic daily, there is no reason for you not to have a few ads making you extra money.
Ads work when you get views and clicks. The amount of money you make per view or per click is completely up to the program you sign up with.
There are program stipulations you need to be aware of for each program. Some are more lenient than others, but some won’t accept your application if you don’t have enough site views.
It might not be a good money maker starting out, but if you have a decent flow of traffic it can be a very passive income as you just set the ads on your page and that’s all you really have to do. After that, the amount you make really depends on your traffic.
Be aware that having ads on your page can slow your page down and some readers will not stay as long based on the ads getting in the way of your good content.
Also, be sure to communicate with your ad program and know how many ads they are going to add to your pages and how that will affect your traffic.
4. Sell digital products on your blog
At some point along your blogging journey you may decide it’s time to make your own informational products and promote them on your site.
You can make:
Ebooks
Online Courses
Books
Guides
PDFs
Subscription memberships
Online Courses are doing very well right now and if you want to make more as a blogger than this might be a great route to head next.
With an Online Course your skills in blogging, writing, and communication can transfer very well.
I’ve taken online courses that are mostly videos, some that are mostly writing, and some that are a great mixture of the two.
It doesn’t really matter what medium you choose to focus on as long as you deliver AMAZING content that changes people’s lives when they purchase it and learn from it. That’s at least how I feel as someone that purchases online courses.
5. How to make money blogging through a membership subscription site
Membership sites are like FB groups on steroids. Some are FB groups that are made private until you subscribe. Or you can include private FB groups in your online courses as well.
Either way you want to have continual posts in your membership community that daily move the group forward and creates TONS of worthwhile information for your memberships to want to be a part of.
The key to making great consistent money through a membership subscription is that once someone tries it they have the feeling that there is valuable information they’ll be missing out on if they lose access to it.
At that point, you can grow a consistent monthly income from the members only site alone.
Any membership site can have churn out, but the more you are able to have a consistent valuable discussion going on and add value to the group weekly and monthly the less churn out should be.
6. Use your blog to get paying clients
If you like working with people more than just writing than you will absolutely love finding clients to work for.
Client work is challenging. You have to know how to get what is in their minds onto your page.
Some great tips for landing clients on the first try:
Decide beforehand to ask good quality questions
Know which questions you are going to ask before the interview
Treat the client like a friend you are having coffee with
Listen intently
Repeat Important information back to the client and they will feel understood and that you care
Listen more than you talk
When you hear them state their problem, be sure to address how you are going to solve it
Doing well with clients means being a good communicator and serving the client.
If you don’t like that idea then client work might not be for you.
Freelance writing is 50% working on communication with clients and 50% writing.
That ebbs and flows given the client and the freelance writing you are doing for them, but just know that writing for clients is not purely writing like blogging for yourself, it takes a lot of communication skills.
Reviews are a great way to share with your readers what you think about a product or service.
What’s better than getting to try amazing new products and then getting to tell people about them?!
It’s nice because you can be honest in a review and just say what you like and what you don’t and you don’t really feel like you’re selling anything to anyone.
After you share your honest thoughts on it, you leave it up to your readers to make a good choice and get the product or not.
Reviews are an easy way to make money as a blogger.
8. Drive traffic to your site
Blogging isn’t ALL writing.
A good amount of the work you will put into any successful blog will be promotion and figuring out ways to get eyeballs looking at your site.
You have to drive traffic and keep traffic. Both can be difficult and have different but key strategies.
Driving traffic is a mixture of using social media to spread the word about valuable information and products on your site and using SEO best practices.
Keeping traffic is about setting up promotions to your blog that turn into LONG LASTING sources of traffic.
Long lasting traffic comes from strategic guest posts and automated or manual social media systems you set up.
9. Choose a blog host
If you want to make money blogging you will have to get blog hosting and own your own domain.
Ad networks and affiliate programs won’t work with you unless you own your website and clients most likely won’t take you seriously if you send them to a free blog page.
Kinsta is more expensive, but you pay for what you get. Their hosting creates faster site speeds which leads to better SEO and is better for sites that have high amounts of traffic.
Choose your blogging platform. You should take a few moments to understand the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org.
Understand that they are not the same and they are vastly different in user friendliness depending on how you want to make your site and the versatility of what you might be looking to monetize with it.
Just a couple things, wordpress.com doesn’t allow you to use free plugins but wordpress.org has a massive amount of free plugins to help you make your blog everything you want it to be.
I personally use WordPress.org. So far I like it and I REALLY enjoy the resources and the free plugins I can use.
Overall, there are many strategies to making money with your blog and I would definitely recommend doing a little bit of everything.
You should definitely do your best to diversify your blogging income then if one doesn’t work out you have more to rely on.
I would also suggest working on one or two at a time. Focus in on one form of income and make it work really well. After you nail down one or two forms of blogging income you will feel ready to get another one working for you.
Did I miss any blogging forms of income?
What income do you like best?
What income works the best for you?
What is the easiest way you have made money blogging?
What should I ask myself when I’m wondering, “what should I write about?”
It is that fateful moment again.
You have gotten out of bed. Brushed your teeth and showered.
The aroma of coffee (or tea, I’m drinking more tea these days personally) fills your kitchen. You pour that beautiful hot steamy comforting liquid into your #1 Boss Mug that you unashamedly bought for yourself since you work from home.
You make your way to your favorite nook to write and you get into your brain stimulating position.
You stare at your computer screen and here it comes…”What should I write about?”
You sit for a moment staring at the screen. Then out the window. And think again, “What should I write about today?”
You wait and wait for inspiration to WOOSH through your door and slap your brain and the words to start flowing masterfully and…nothing.
The dreaded question we ask ourselves every morning doesn’t seem to help much when we are stuck in the vaccuum of our own head. But not you.
If you are reading this you are one of the smart ones that knows in order to get the words flowing ideas must come from elsewhere and you are here to find them.
I hope that this post helps you find that spark to get started today and many days from here on out 🙂
22 Things to help you think through the question, “What should I write about?”
What you can look forward to in this post:
Start with simple writing prompts: What are you passionate about?
What do you already know a lot about?
What relevant events are going on?
What do you have strong opinions about?
Is there a controversial topic that’s ‘hot’ right now?
What do you want readers to take away from your writing?
What do you want readers to do with your writing?
Do you want to write fiction?
Look at your other posts to see if you can go into details about something you previously covered broadly
If you already have a following, have you asked them what they want to hear about?
Have you used Quora?
Have you checked Twitter?
Have you written about a time you failed?
Take one of your popular posts and write about it from a different angle.
Check the comment sections of other bloggers and influencers in your niche.
Can you write about a mentor and how they helped your business succeed?
Have you written an income report to let your readers in on what’s really working and what’s not for your business?
Have you written about your readers’ problems and how to solve them?
Have you shared with your readers your writing routine and detailed the different aspects of how you work through a blog post from start to finish?
Have you written about a problem you are in the middle of discovering for yourself?
Have you shared about a negative comment you received and how you turned it into a good thing?
Have you shared with your readers a recent time you were personally refreshed by a blog post you recently read?
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What Should I Write About: 22 Writing Prompts to Give You BIG IDEAS
1. Start Simple. What are you passionate about?
When you are asking yourself the question, “What should I write about?” the easiest writing prompts to write about is to share about things that you are most passionate about.
Something that you are either very knowledgeable because of experience is easier to write about than something you have to spend hours and hours researching.
On the flip side, you can choose a topic or subject that you know little about but may find interesting to write about and do the research knowing that you are going to enjoy it compared to looking into a subject you care little about.
Another convenience of writing about what you are passionate about is that it’s easier to write about things you care a lot about and have enjoyed thinking about.
Try this little writing exercise:
Focus on: describing your passion.
Try to write this: I love [your passion]. I love doing this because [talk about what excites you and what you find rewarding about it]. Or I love thinking about [your passion] because [talk about why you like it.]
Example: I love writing because the English language and the art of storytelling is fascinating.
Now go deeper.
Google: [your passion]
Read an article or 3 that pop out to you.
As you are reading pause and write down facts, opinions, quotes, etc, that stick out to you as things that will be important to others as you read them.
If you do just this one exercise you will have enough information and inspiration to write a blog, journal, essay, project, etc.
Just this one writing exercise can take you far if you use it well when you are wondering, “What should I write about?”
2. What should I write about: What do you already know a lot about?
Going back to the first point, it’s easiest to start with something you already know a lot about. Choosing a topic that you already have a great knowledge base on is simpler to share than something you have to go out of your way to find out about. So, when you are having trouble knowing what to write about start with topics you already have a large base knowledge with.
It will take less time, to begin with. You won’t have to take long research breaks and you’ll enjoy writing about something you know very well and have put a good amount of personal time into.
When you’re thinking, “what should I write about?” try this simple exercise:
What do I know about already that I have spent hours learning how to do?
Make a list:
Exercise
Health
Fitness
Music
Art
Your profession
Supplements
Finance
Tech
Gluten free
writing
Research
At home recipes
How to get your kids to sleep
How to get your kids to eat strange foods
How to get more readers to your blog
How to potty train your pet
How to get stains out of shirts
Etc
You can see in this list that nothing is off limits when it comes to knowing a lot about something.
No matter who you are, you may know something more than someone else about a given subject
How to get my little brother to stop sneaking in my room
How to get my kids to get along on a car ride
What movies are family friendly
What are star constelation names
What are some ways I can save money grocery shopping
How can I save time grocery shopping
How do I relieve back pain
If you have done something and figured out how to do it its worth writing about because someone else is going to be looking to do that same thing eventually.
How do I level up faster in this game
How do I get my boss to treat me with respect
How do I make friends
How can I get my brother in law to think I’m cool
How do I learn to type faster
How do I sleep better
I hope the point 🙂
Any topic is up for grabs and you might just be surprised to find out what you know how to do very well that others are looking to read about 🙂
So the next time you are thinking, “what should I write about?” think about anything in your life that you know how to do or know a lot about. And write as if you were telling someone else how to do that thing.
3. What relevant events are going on?
Another great thing that can be very interesting to write about depending on the day would be an event that is relevant.
This could be carried out in three ways.
You can write about a worldwide event that everyone is thinking about and talking about.
2. The other path to carrying this out is to find a relevant event in your specific niche.
Maybe you want to write about fashion and it’s fashion week.
Maybe you want to write about marine life and it’s shark week.
Whatever your niche may be there are almost always big events going on that have to do with your main ideas or relevant ideas.
3. You could write about a specific event in your life that is relevant to your subject.
If you write about fashion you can write about what got you started in your love of fashion.
Or you could write about a controversial situation that happened to you and your fashion. Maybe your friend said your outfit was ugly behind your back and you found out about it?
If you are going to write about an event try to include these tips:
Make the title short and powerful
2 title examples:
Bad- This week is fashion week and we are so excited to see all the different colorful items that the designers will be showing us.
Good- 7 Outfits From Fashion Week That You Will 100% Regret Not Seeing
Or
9 Outfits From Fashion Week that Will Shock Your Socks Off
A little over the top, but it tends to work and I think you can see the difference.
Give tasty info at the start but don’t give away everything
If you are going to write about the event give a few exciting details away at the start but don’t give away the entire cake in the first 3 paragraphs.
Give them something enjoyable to latch onto but save something delicious for the end.
Stick to the facts Jack
Make sure to give your reader really good information and facts not JUST opinions.
We can most certainly include our opinions about the event but make it in small fun doses that give extra personality to your writing.
Name drop
If you can drop important famous heavy hitting names into the writing, don’t be afraid to do so and if it happens to have fun information about the person feel free to add that as well. Personally I would say stick to the facts and don’t let it turn into gossip or slander.
You most certainly don’t have to use all these tips, but use the ones that you think are relevant to the type of event you are writing about.
If you are trying to figure out, “what should I write about?” a great angle to go from would be to consider what relevant events are occurring.
4. What do you have strong opinions about?
If you are still wondering, “what should I write about?” it is easy to find many words when you think of ideas you have strong opinions about.
Sometimes it is easy to punch out a quick article when you have a strong opinion compared to trying to write about things you have no opinion about or haven’t thought about at all.
The stronger your opinion the better and if it is about controversial topics, that’s okay!
It’s okay to have a strong opinion about something and share that opinion knowing that in the comment section you might have people agreeing and disagreeing with you.
The fact that it’s controversial might make your writing have more reaction.
Here’s an exercise to try:
Make a list of topics you would rant about with a close friend or at the dinner table
Religion
Politics
Healthcare
Equality and inequality
Things at work
Things at home
Dating habits and practices
Movies
TV Shows
I’m sure that even in this list you may have seen a topic that you feel like it would be easy to rant and rave about.
Go ahead and write about it in your journal. On your blog. Maybe you have a story you could share with your readers about any of these topics.
If you are looking for something to write about today consider writing about a topic that you have strong opinions about.
5. Is there a controversial topic that’s ‘hot’ right now?
If you are wondering, “what should I write about?” controversy is great for storytelling and marketing.
If you have an opinion about a topic that is a hot button for a lot of people, write about it.
If you have a blog, make a post. It’ll be a great way to get some good comments and conversations rolling.
If you have an essay due and you think that something controversial going on in the world today could be an interesting topic for you to dive into then write about it.
Don’t wait for inspiration to come smack you upside the head if you are thinking, “what should I write about?” go find that inspiration and write about it.
6. What do you want readers to take away from your writing?
When you’re thinking, “what should I write about?” a great and effective tool is to put yourself in your potential reader’s shoes for a moment.
How often do you ask yourself questions like these before writing:,
What do I want my readers to learn from this?
What do I want my audience to run away with?
Did I do a good job of delivering great information that helps them?
What will they say to others about what I wrote for them?
Writing is a great way to give back to people. If you have figured something out or had some great success with a particular field, a good place to share with people how they can better their lives is in your writing.
Did you write a personal note to someone to say thank you?
Will your professor appreciate what you put into your writing?
Will your blog readers really enjoy the way you put together your post?
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” think about the end person who will be reading it?
7. What do you want readers to do with your writing?
When you are pondering, “what should I write about?” thinking about what you want your reader to do (if anything) will really help start you writing on the right track.
Figuring out what you want to say in your writing is paramount, but figuring out what you want your readers ‘to do’ is a key piece of the puzzle.
If on another hand you want your friend to mention your wedding card you sent them, be sure to include a meaningful quote and some personal thoughtful sentiments in it.
Depending on what your medium is will determine how you go about getting the person reading to action.
When the question pops up, “what should I write about?” decide on what you want your reader to do when they are done reading.
8. Do you want to write fiction?
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” it’s important to note what style of writing you are doing.
It is good to know if you want fiction or nonfiction. Do you want your writing to be about inspiring poems? Or do you want it to be factual information?
Do you like teaching? Or do you like creating?
If you enjoy teaching than it might be a good idea to write blog postsabout stuff you’re learning and enjoying yourself, whereas if you like creating characters and a story you might enjoy creating a blog that is a bunch of riveting short stories or poems or whatever writing style you’re passionate about.
If you are thinking, “what should I write about?” know what your writing style is that you are getting into.
9. Look at your other writing to see if you can go into specific detail about something you previously covered broadly.
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” you can sometimes look no further than your own writing.
You can find a good amount of writing prompts directly in posts you have already written.
If you have a blog or social presence you can even look in your comments to see if commentators have left you details you can write about. Whether it is in the comment section where you have answered some questions that could be turned into blogs or you can scan your major points of a broader post topic to see if there is a major point that you can write another 600 to 1,000 words on.
If you are thinking, “what should I write about?” look at your past writing and see if inspiration has been staring you right in the face.
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If you enjoy What Should I Write About: 22 Writing Prompts to Give You BIG IDEAS, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
10. If you already have a following, have you asked them what they want to hear about?
When you’re thinking, “what should I write about?” have you ever considered straight asking your followers, “Hey! What should I write about?”
Have you made your readers feel comfortable enough that they know they can ask questions and receive answers from you?
Have you asked them directly in the posts or in the comments what your followers are interested in hearing about next?
When you are thinking, “what should I write about?” look no further than your peeps.
11. Have you used Quora?
Thinking, “what should I write about?” consider looking at the questions people are asking on Quora and how many answers they’ve received.
Quora is a great site to be a part of the conversation.
What makes Quora great about getting superb writing prompts is that people are literally just asking questions there.
They go to this site to find answers. So make sure you are there and ready to help out and answer their questions.
All you have to do is just browse through the most popular questions related to your niche and presto! You’ve got great material that you know people all over the world are interested in.
When you are thinking, “what should I write about?” download the Quora app and start scrolling not trolling.
12. Have you checked Twitter?
“What should I write about?”
“Have you checked twitter?”
Check out the most popular tweets going on in your subject matter and run with it.
For any social site these things ebb and flow in popularity, so be sure to stay up to date and take advantage of when certain topics are going viral.
If you are trying to promote your blog, do your best to get into the conversation and be helpful and relevant so that when the right time comes you can drop your post into the conversation naturally to get more viewers on your page.
Thinking, “what should I write about?” a little birdie told me to check Twitter.
13. Have you written about a time you failed?
People love a great story.
And if you’re still thinking, “what should I write about?” they love a great comeback story.
We as humans eat that stuff up because we all fail and we all want to know that it is possible to succeed even though we fail. We resonate with each other and learn through others’ failures and successes.
Don’t be shy to write about a time you biffed it majorly and then how that turned into a reason for you to get back up, try again, and crush it the next time around.
When you are wondering, “what should I write about?” try writing about a failure in your life.
14. Take one of your writings and write about it from a different angle.
Wondering, “what should I write about?” try writing about something you already wrote about but from a different angle.
If you have a blog and one of your posts went viral or maybe just one that is very popular on your blog, take a moment to think about if you can write this post or story from another angle.
Seeing it from a fresh perspective might resonate with more of your followers and it might help you see things from a new light as well.
“What should I write about?” try thinking outside your own box.
15. Check the comment sections of other bloggers and influencers in your niche.
When you are concerned, “what should I write about?” check other bloggers comment sections.
You can tell if its going to be a good topic if you see it repeated by many commentators or if it’s a topic that is highly debated.
Have you perused comments to see if there may be a great comment to expound upon?
Did someone ask a great question that you can answer in a post? Or did they add some advice that makes you think about another topic you can go into even further?
An easy way to see this is to look for comments that got lots of conversation going. Find a comment that went on a little bit of a buzz or maybe started a good discussion and use that to create another amazing post.
“What should I write about?” look at the comments and reviews.
16. Can you write about a mentor?
“What should I write about?” what mentors have you had?
Maybe you took an online course that shared some information with you that really helped you succeed whereas before you were failing.
Perhaps your mentor has an affiliate program and you can add some good reviews about the product because you have used it and learned from the person and have good insight to give.
See if you can help your readers by posting a clear and concise review of the product.
Maybe you had a teacher or professor that inspired you?
Fitness instructor?
Parent?
Pastor?
Older sibling?
It could even be a book they wrote.
When you are concerned, “what should I write about?” think about people in your life that have inspired you and what that lead you to.
17. If you have a blog have you written an income report to let your readers in on what’s really working and what’s not for your business?
If you have a blog and are wondering, “what should I write about?” consider starting a monthly blogging income report.
Many bloggers feel comfortable sharing the income they are making through their blogs.
They share what they are making through sponsored links, through freelancing, and through affiliate links.
I have seen this work very well for them and their blogging business as it can be used as social proof for them for affiliate products they write about.
Can you share a report and how can you make that information benefit your readers?
“What should I write about?” consider starting a monthly blogging income report.
18. Have you written about your readers’ problems and how to solve them?
A lot of internet searching comes down to some simple user facts.
I have a problem and I am searching for an answer.
Think about how many times you’ve done that this week.
“Hey Siri, where’s a good place to eat near me?”
“Alexa, what time is it in London?”
“Hey Google, do I strain the noodles before I add the salt in?”
You may not have asked any of these exact questions, but think about the ones you did ask and think about your exact wording.
It is very common that as consumers we ask very similar questions.
Use Google’s keyword planner to see how many people are looking up what you’re wanting to write about.
So since we know people are looking up answers to their problems it should be an easy writing prompt for you to think of a common problem many consumers need help with that you have already solved for yourself.
That makes for a great writing opportunity and now you have plenty to write about since you’ve already gone through the problem yourself and came out the other side with a solution.
“What should I write about?” Solve your reader’s problems.
19. Have you shared about a negative comment you received and how you turned it into a good thing?
If you have a social presence or blog and you’re thinking “What should I write about?” consider writing about a negative thing someone commented about your post.
As humans, we love reading about a good controversy. I mentioned this before.
This is why it could be easy to take a negative comment you receive and turn it into a good thing for your writing career.
One of my email mentors does this frequently on his email list.
Someone will reply to his email negatively and say horrible things about his style, marketing tactics, and character at times.
He will almost always write about the negative feedback and spin it into a good thing he can teach his email list.
Now you could take this and retaliate and say all kinds of firey things back to this person, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
I would instead take the opportunity to thank the person and explain how they are missing out on great information or how a comment like that is completely justified and that they have valid points.
But you have to decide how you would deal with negative comments on your blog or social presence.
“What should I write about?” Write about a negative comment.
20. Have you shared with your readers your writing routine and detailed the different aspects of how you work through a writing project from start to finish?
If you’re wondering, “what should I write about?” it might be inspiring and helpful for your audience to see into how and why you write the way you do, especially if you are in the writing, freelance writing, and blogging niche.
For me, one of my key secrets is outlining.
Outlining sounds awful and boring and to be honest it is!
But once you get the hang of it and you are doing most of the foundation work in your head it becomes second nature and is extremely useful. (Thanks, Mrs. Louden! My English teacher.)
I used to think it was useless as a kid, and it was because my essay had all of 3 points, so pretty pointless as it would be hard to forget three points, but in a post like this with 22 points, it is EASY to forget where you are, where you came from, and where you’re headed next in the point.
“What should I write about?” Share your writing process with you readers.
21. Have you written about a problem you are in the middle of discovering for yourself?
We already discussed writing about a problem and solution you have already found, but are you brave enough to write about a problem you are in the middle of and the fact that you haven’t found a solution yet?
Could you create a post while you’re in the midst of the problem and write the post live and update it as you solve your own problem?
There are several ways you could take this, let me know if anyone does as it sounds like an interesting writing experiment!
22. Have you shared with your readers a recent time you were personally refreshed by a blog post you just read?
Considering the question, “what should I write about?” What have you been reading lately that inspired you?
Don’t back away from paying it forward and sharing about a recent post that you read on someone else’s blog that really inspired you or helped you get out of a rough spot.
Do you have a blogging mentor of sorts?
Reach out to them and see if they don’t mind you reviewing a post that you personally found helpful.
You can even let them know about it and see if they’d like to link to your review.
Especially if you give them social proof of high praise they might be likely to send some of their readers to it so they can see how the mentor’s writing helped someone in the real world on a completely different blog.
You never know how much helping someone else out will help you.
Don’t be afraid to invite others along with you on your path to success as a writer.
Did you enjoy this post?
Did you find a prompt that helped you?
What did you end up writing about from reading the post: What Should I Write About?
If you found your prompt here, feel free to share a link to your post in the comments.
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If you enjoy What Should I Write About: 22 Writing Prompts to Give You BIG IDEAS, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
You are definitely wondering how to use affiliate marketing to make more money online.
It may sound confusing, but it is actually very very simple.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is promoting a product, service, or company with a web link and getting paid for clicks, sign-ups, and purchases from the link they give you.
It really is as simple as that. I promise.
All you have to do is find a company that has an affiliate program, and apply to their program.
They provide the link (most of the time, Amazon actually has you pick a product and then makes the link for you) and usually have a place for you to sign in and check out how your link is working.
How Do I Actually Make Money with Affiliate Marketing?
That’s a good question.
There are many ways to go about it.
You can make your own Blog and use what you write to promote affiliate products.
You can promote on your social media such as Pinterest, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. (There are rules and restrictions to posting affiliate links on certain social channels so be sure to check with each one before posting anything they would deem against their rules.)
You can build an email list of happy subscribers and tell them about products you like to use with affiliate links.
You can write a blog post today and contact a well-known blogger and ask them to feature your blog post on their site.
Any way you can think of getting your link in front of the eyes of internet readers and users is a way to make money with affiliate links (you have to follow the affiliate program’s rules.)
Why Would a Company Want to Use me as an Affiliate Marketer?
A lot of companies love using affiliates for marketing their products these days.
Back in the day before blogging and social media they had to pay BIG ADVERTISING FEES and weren’t guaranteed any return on their investment.
Whereas with you promoting a product, they don’t have to pay out the commission fee to you unless the product actually sells or they get an actual lead from your promotion. So it’s a win-win situation for them and you 🙂
Side note: Something I personally love about affiliate marketing compared to making and selling your own products is you don’t have to deal with returns or customer service.
You get to make some extra cash while you’re sleeping and not worry about the customer complaints or returned items.
If you enjoy How to Make Money Blogging with Affiliate Marketing, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
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Is Affiliate Marketing All Fun and Games?
Of course not!
There are ups and downs to all kinds of work.
Example: I had a friend that got paid by his company to go to theme parks regularly. I’m talking weekly getting paid to go to Busch Gardens and Scuba Diving in Florida.
I thought, “Dude! That’s amazing! What a sweet gig!”
He said, “Well yeah it would be except that I’m always going as the liaison or glorified tour guide for the company so I’m always there with people I don’t know or am working for.”
I can think of many worse ways to get paid, but the point is there are ups and downs to every job.
So in the same way, affiliate marketing can be tough and it is hard to get started, but once you wake up to check your account, or you get done watching netflix and see that you made a few bucks while you were doing it, and realize how many ways you can scale this, it can be a great side hustle or even make a living from.
For me, it’s being around friends and family more and working from my couch while watching a movie with my wife. Or quitting work at 12 pm because my friend invited me to a movie and in the back of my mind knowing that I’m making a living for my family while spending time with my friends.
Of course there are days where you feel ZERO motivation.
That happens to everyone.
You can either push yourself on days like that or say, “Hey, I’m gonna go outside and get some exercise throwing a ball with my dog and if I feel like making some post later this evening, great, no worries.”
It’s days like that I can’t believe I get to do what I am doing and I feel so grateful.
What Companies Offer Affiliate Marketing?
There are LOTS.
You have but to only do a google search:
“(product/service) affiliate program” and you will see many of great choices.
Make sure that you check out the programs for legitimacy.
And be sure to understand the program’s terms and rules so that you don’t lose your account with them prematurely.
What is the Best Way to Make the Most of Affiliate Links?
Choose products that you are personally interested in. It’ll be easier to write about and it’ll be more natural. Trust me, your readers will be able to tell.
Find the right products for you and your readers. Do online research. Most companies that have affiliate programs are looking for more affiliates. The cost of advertising through affiliates is low for them.
Be relevant for your readership: this seems like a no-brainer, but it’s laughable the amount of weird stuff you can find blogs trying to products that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with what they are writing about.
Be up to date: take time every so often to edit and revise your older posts.
MOST IMPORTANT: I feel like this doesn’t need to be said, but bloggers everywhere prove me wrong all the time. Write about and promote what your readers want! For affiliate marketing, if you want to make money and get clicks, promote and write about things that your audience is interested in. Take time to figure this out and make it a regular priority for you.
Focus on quality over quantity. Products that usually end up working out badly for others will cause your readers a bad time too and they won’t trust you for other products. So pick products that are good quality and give whoever tries them a good experience and they’ll come back to you for more and be grateful for your input.
Focus on products that will be interesting to your audience, not products that just sell in general.
Don’t be afraid to find products that are similar and review, compare, and contrast.
Find affiliate networks and look at the resources they offer to affiliates to help them get more sales and clicks.
Use services like Hubspot and Google Analytics to see what’s going on in your market. Facts about what your audience is looking up and reading about are more beneficial than what you imagine they want to hear.
Research, research, research. Do your homework.
Compare commission rates and talk to your affiliate managers about upping your rates when you’re doing well.
Talk to your affiliate managers about doing sales exclusively for your readership.
Keep an eye out for discount codes to share with your followers.
Make the best use of the available affiliate networks. Through the networks, many programs and products are available to promote. Make sure you look through these and take advantage of what they have to offer. Searching through Affiliate Networks will help give you ideas you may never have thought of.
If you enjoy How to Make Money Blogging with Affiliate Marketing, Storytelling, and writing in general, you might love owning a domain of your own where you can write about it? Ever want to own your own domain name (Yourname.com)?
Bluehost hosts your blog so that you can own your domain and make money blogging. Check them out only if you’re interested in making money blogging; otherwise, go for a free blog instead 🙂
Update Bonus: 21 Shocking Writing Prompts to start writing your next book or short story optimized Quick Pinterest Pin at the bottom of the Page.
6+ Easy Practical Steps to Becoming a Better Writer in 30 Days or Less
Follow these strategies below and you will most assuredly be a better writer than when you started.
Whether you want to become a technical writer, a ghostwriter, a TV writer, a travel writer, or just learn how to write your essays better, these tips should prove helpful.
Becoming a better writer isn’t difficult, but it absolutely takes a solid discipline.
As with most things the more hardcore you go with these strategies, the more you’ll get out of it.
6+ Easy Practical Steps to Becoming a Better Writer in 30 Days or Less:
There are plenty of good sites to start blogging today for free, wordpress.org being one of them and they allow you to use free plugins as well compared to wordpress.com.
Disclaimer: You can always start a “free” blog, but the terms of use for free sites is that they can shut it down for any reason (at ANY TIME). So it’s possible to randomly lose all your hard work on a free blog. Be careful.
So just a fair warning, you can use free blogging, but I haven’t had much success with it personally. I started many free blogs and none of them stuck. This is the only one I’ve paid for and I’m glad I did. And it is the only one that I continue working with.
If you want to start a legitimate blog or if you think you might try to monetize it one day you are eventually going to need a hosting site.
I personally use Bluehost. They made getting my blog started EXTREMELY easy and their ‘one-click’ WordPress.org setup was ridiculously smooth.
Bluehost is one of the top web hosting companies in 2020. You can start your own blog with them for as low as $3.95 a month (on the page you’ll see that they say it is normally $7.99, but I’ve never seen them try to get anyone to start for that.) The $3.95 sale price only comes with their 36-month plan. I use them and that’s what I did and I’m happy about it. ( I did the 36-month plan and so far we are still happy with it 🙂 )
Sign up them and you can also get your domain free if you purchase a 12 month or longer hosting plan (that’s worth $15). As I said, we did the 36-month plan because it was the best deal but you can choose any plan. If you’re not planning on monetizing your blog it might be a good idea to start with a free blog.
I can tell you from personal experience that a free blog won’t motivate you to write as much as paying for a blog, but it’s up to you to decide what works best for your unique situation. If you really love blogging you never know when you might decide to monetize and at that moment you’ll be happy you decided to host with Bluehost and owning your domain.
Having your own site looks more professional to affiliate programs and readers. You will be able to have a better following, no one can shut you down for no reason (like on a free blog) and at any moment you will be able to monetize through ads and affiliate programs.
Some of my blogging mentors had their blogs going for years before they decided to monetize. You just never know.
At the same time, you can always start a free blog to test things out and buy a domain name and hosting later, but there is no guarantee the price will still be as good and no guarantee that the domain name you love will still be available.
Do what’s best for you and your specific situation 🙂
For me personally, I started with Bluehost and WordPress.org right from the start because I enjoy work from home and being my own boss. As far as online jobs and work, blogging is one way to pay yourself and work when you want.
If you want to reasons why it’s a good idea to start a blog, you can check out this post here:Why Start a Blog
If you are interested in more details on how to make a great blog from scratch you can see this post: How to Become a Blogger in 2019
2. Read about writing every day
Good writers all have certain traits in common. One of them is that they read A LOT.
Most of them read every day. Now I won’t say that I’m a good writer that’s up to others to decide, but I do read mostly every day.
You might be thinking “but you probably grew up reading as a kid and loved it.” Not true! I personally couldn’t stand reading and writing growing up. Hated reading with a passion actually.
It actually wasn’t until I got into college that I really started to read and then probably a couple of years into it that I started to enjoy it.
So you don’t have to be some kind of savant to get started in writing. You just have to have drive and discipline.
But this type of reading isn’t just reading at first. It is specifically looking to read about writing (I know, it sounds boring and it can be tedious but the foundational knowledge will help in the long run). During your becoming a better writer in just 30 days, you will want to be keen to read and learn about writing, especially if you want to do writing online or freelance writing.
Try to read things that help you get to where you want to go. If you want to become a blogger read about blogging tips and tricks. < (I googled it for you)
If you want to become a ghostwriter, read about how to become a ghostwriter. (Pssst! What’s a ghostwriter? A ghostwriter is a writer that gets paid to write something for someone but doesn’t own the project. For example, a person could hire you to write a novel for them, but they get to publish it as the author. They paid for it and own all the rights to it and you are just the ghostwriter.)
It’s just one way to get paid to write.
If you want to be a technical writer, read about the best practices of technical writers. As long as you are willing to read the right things you can learn to write anything 🙂 there really is nothing holding you back.
Look up blogs, articles, look at the library for books on writing. Depending on what type of writing you want to pursue will be very important to the writing that you read about.
As you get a good idea of a foundation for the type of writing you want to do, you can start to branch out studying other types of writing. You will see how understanding the why’s and what’s and styles behind them all can help you in your pursuit of becoming a better writer.
Look on Amazon for great reads on writing. I personally recommend these ones for when you need to think outside the traditional box or when you get bored of reading about writing:
These are non-traditional and will help open up your mind to more strategic possibilities for the potential of writing. Full disclosure: I didn’t read any of these yet. I took Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass, which was amazing and I highly recommend it.
In fact, I recommend Masterclass to anyone who loves learning and thinks it’s neat to learn from celebrities (such as Dan Brown, James Patterson, Samuel Jackson, Christina Agulera, and many more.
@ $15 a month, it is extremely worth it. I’ve been using it for a year and learn so much from professionals that I never would have. And the lessons always feel personal. Sometimes the teachers who are celebs even write back to your comments. Can you imagine Samuel L. Jackson responding to your comment?) about their crafts.
On Writing was recommended to me 2nd hand by a writing mentor of mine. He said that it was good if you need to get outside the traditional learning about writing books and it was interesting if you’re a fan of Stephen King novels too.
I love TED talks, I watch some when I can, so when I saw this book about public speaking from TED talks I knew it would be a winner with powerful knowledge.
If you’re wondering why I would suggest a public speaking book for learning how to be a better writer, it is simple.
When writing has been your profession for years you learn what crafts complement great writing. For instance, IF you want to be a great writer, your secret weapon is research. If you aren’t a personal professional researcher, it will be nigh impossible for you to become a great writer. Public Speaking skills go beyond just speaking and writing.
Those skills bleed into SO many professional avenues that it will not only make you a better writer. It’ll make you a better person in almost everything you do (unless you live in a hole and never interact with other humans in any way, shape, or form.)
Read some of the reviews on each one to see if they look like something you would enjoy. (And DON’T just read the 5-star reviews, read the bad reviews too. I almost always read the bad reviews, most of the time, I read the 1-star reviews first. This actually saves me time when shopping for a new product, especially tech products.)
There is a simple method over 30,000 people use to get paid for freelance writing online.
Opportunities can get started in just minutes a day, all from your home couch.
It’s easy to get started! No previous experience or degree required to start.
Exclusive job listings for writers, updated daily.
Check out Writing Paychecks to see if you can start getting paid to write today.
3. Write Every Day
Now this one is the kicker. If you do nothing else from this post, do this one thing and you’ll surely become a better writer. Write every day.
Now you can:
Write at a certain time every day
Or
Write a certain amount of words every day
Or
Write a certain amount of time every day
You can mix and match these however suits you best. You try them all out and see if one is easier and sticks better for you.
Me personally, I like writing a certain amount of time and writing at a certain time of the day. This keeps me going and I don’t feel bad if I don’t come up with a certain amount of words.
I tried writing a certain amount of words every day and I couldn’t keep up with it and instead of doing it I’d skip it because I knew it would take “too long.”
You see, you are more likely to develop a habit if you start small and take smaller bites that you can handle.
If you already write every day that’s great and you can choose to write more.
If you don’t write then start small.
Start with 1-10 minutes a day. If you find that easy, do more. If you find that hard, write less. At first, start with what seems easy to you and build on that.
The last thing you want to do is start with a habit that’s too hard to do every day. If you bite off too much you might not swallow it. If you find yourself dreading it, that’s a bad sign. If you find that you easily go a week without doing it, that’s a sign you tried to do more than you should start with.
If you want to do a certain amount of words every day I recommend starting with 100 a day. If that’s easy write more. If that’s too hard write less.
I tried 500 words a day and I couldn’t keep up with it. It just became tedious and therefore unenjoyable. I’m a professional writer, so that’s why I recommend starting with less. I mostly work in email writing, so if I’m on a job I might write more or less on those days, but if I’m not writing for a client, 500 just didn’t seem appetizing.
Blogging has definitely changed that for me, that’s why I recommend Starting a Blog.
I now try to write a certain amount of time every day and usually I find that if I get started, I end up writing longer than the first little amount that I force myself to do anyway. Thus, this strategy works very well for me. I’d start with the easy goal of 1 minute. 60 seconds, if you can’t do something for 60 seconds a day, maybe you don’t really want to do it at all.
You can also benefit from writing at a certain time every day. You will know what time works best for you.
It could be first thing in the morning. Some people find that this is their most creative and profitable time.
Me personally, I don’t do so well in the morning, I prefer to write at other times. Afternoon and evening, not late evening though. If I feel my eyes start to droop, I just know that I’m not gonna get much coherent information on the page. (It can be comical though. I’ll go back and read what I was writing the night before and it can be some of the worst writing! I’ll save myself time and energy if I just get some sleep or caffeine instead of trying to push through.)
You might like to write during your lunch at work, or first thing when you get home after eating something.
It’s always a good time to be able to put something on T.V. and write while relaxing.
So you can take time and figure out when is best for you to write.
If you write even just 10 minutes a day for 30 days you will be a better writer at the end of that short 30 days, and you might find that you have developed a habit you look forward to and fully enjoy 🙂 I know I do.
Update: Since Blogging and traveling more while blogging I find that a certain amount of time a day and a certain time of the day becomes tedious and makes blogging less enjoyable for me personally. Again this may work for you, so don’t hesitate to experiment.
Now, I enjoy writing at some point during the day. I find that it doesn’t have to be strict or a certain number of anything. I sit down to write and I find that I can easily be there for hours or an interruption might come up like a family member or friend wanting to hang and I am able to get up and go without any sort of remorse. I find this to be key to my success as a writer and blogger.
4. Research Storytelling
Storytelling will benefit you no matter what writing niche you go into, except maybe academic writing. Even then I’m sure it could be a little useful.
If you look around, you’ll start to see how stories are everywhere and people love stories. We eat them up. We can’t get enough of stories.
Stories are in the movies. Stories are on the news. On blogs, web pages, profiles, social media, history, we find stories fascinating and that is why they work so well and why we should find ways to incorporate the skill of storytelling into our writing, no matter what niche we are in.
Let me give you an example:
I once knew a guy.
He had a problem.
He was about 30 years old living in America, but he didn’t know how to read or write…
Did you notice something there?
I introduced a character and a problem he had, did you notice how you instantly went into “consuming story mode.” Did all your attention get drawn into the short story that started?
If not, that’s okay. It wasn’t super dynamic, but if you did, take time to think about why that happened. Stories are a powerful tool you need to add to your writing arsenal. Study stories and storytelling to engage your audience and grab their attention when you choose.
Stories are great at helping illustrate a point. Great as an ice breaker and a great way to regain your audience’s attention if you think you are losing them.
And stories work across all mediums. Art, writing, presentation, public speaking, with a group of friends or colleagues. Storytelling is a life skill that anyone would benefit from developing, but especially writers.
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5. Read about different types of writing
After you get a good handle for your specific niche of writing, you will really benefit from studying other styles of writing and using different tips and tricks to make your style even better by borrowing from the other types.
Different Types of Writing include but not limited to:
Copywriting
Fiction
Non-fiction
Blogging
Email Writing (cold emails, drip campaigns)
Article Writing
Academic Writing
Web Page Writing (About us, Home pages, etc)
Mailers
Landing Pages
Branding
Sales Pages
Video Scripts
Sales Funnels
There are probably more. And there used to be a time not long ago where most of these genres didn’t have precedence, but these days knowing how to do any one of these well can mean good freelancing money for you or better your own business. Either way $$$.
Even looking at this list might help you think more about what you want to do or discover for yourself. You may have not been aware that some of these opportunities existed before now, but now you know and can do something about it.
6. Read, Read, Read
It should make sense at this point. One easy way to get better at writing every day is to read every day.
Having a wide array of reading will make you well rounded and increase your understanding and vocabulary.
Writing a lot is necessary but if you don’t expose yourself to all sorts of different voices and writing styles you might find that you don’t have much to write about.
I recommend have light reading along with tough to read stuff simultaneously.
By having light reading you’ll be able to enjoy reading and move along. But having tough to read material will stretch your will power and ability as a reader and writer.
Exposing yourself to writing that is better than your own will help you improve. You will also more readily observe bad writing and notice when you yourself are writing poorly.
Humans have been writing for some time now and many tricks of the trade are out there for you to see, experience, enjoy, and make a part of your own writing repertoire. So don’t skip the reading.
Bonus: Be a Critical Consumer
Being a critical consumer doesn’t mean you make a bunch of critical comments on the stuff you read and watch like your the next reality TV show judge.
Being a critical consumer is the opposite of being a mindless consumer.
We all watch and read a lot of entertainment.
When you are reading or watching your favorite stories or documentaries take mental notes.
Think about how they use dialogue. What is the main theme of the story?
How did they seamlessly carry you through each step of the story while you consumed it?
Did something not sit right with you about the character development?
Were all the important plot questions answered satisfactorily?
Updated Bonus: 21 Shocking Writing Prompts to get you started writing your next book or short story.
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So you’re thinking about starting your own blog and you want to check out Bluehost? If that’s true read on.
If you are thinking about starting a blog I think a REALLY important question to ask yourself is why.
There are many reasons to want to start a blog, but why would you personally want to start a blog now?
Ever dream of starting a blog?
What type of person wakes up and thinks, “I want to start a blog?”
Maybe you want a place to write out all your thoughts.
Maybe you want a space where you can share and teach what you’re learning.
Maybe you just want to sip margaritas during lunchtime and play on Pinterest?
It’s a dream for some, but if you read through my posts on this site about making money blogging it could be a reality for you soon.
Read on and see if you think blogging might be your thing…
To start a blog that makes actual money and grows in time is actually quite inexpensive compared to other startups.
If you have ever thought that you may want to start a blog for fun or ESPECIALLY if you are considering making some passive money on the side blogging, I recommend Bluehost to host your site. Bluehost is still one of the top web hosting companies in 2019 and you can start a blog with them for as low as $3.95 a month ( They advertise that it’s normally $7.99 a month, but if you use the link above you will see that it is as little as $3.95 a month)!
You can choose a different site to host your blog but when you use bluehost to sign up, you can get your domain free for the first year if you purchase a 12 month or longer hosting plan (this will save you at least $15 on your initial purchase). I recommend doing at least the 12-month (I’m using the 36-month to save more $) hosting plan through Bluehost even if you’re not planning on monetizing your blog because if you really love blogging you never know when you might decide to monetize and at that moment you’ll be happy you decided to host and own your domain.
Having your own site looks more professional to affiliate programs and readers. You will be able to have a better following and at any moment you will be able to decide to monetize through ads and affiliate marketing.
Some of my blogging mentors had their blogs going for years before they decided to monetize. You just never know, so you might as well start off on a good foot.
Bluehost is affordable and you can save yourself a lot of money by signing up for at least 12 months. Plus, if you want an even better deal, your best value would be purchasing a 36-month plan (that’s what I did, I like the best deal.) With the 36 month plan, your monthly rate is WAY lower over the long run. So you have options. Do what’s best for you and your specific situation 🙂
For me personally, I started with Bluehost (36-month plan) and WordPress right from the start because I enjoy work from home and being my own boss. Online jobs are growing (and we just saw through the pandemic that having extra side hustles is especially helpful) and this is one way to pay yourself and work when you want. You’ll be glad you did. I’m glad I did.
1-Click WordPress Install (this saves a lot of complication)
24/7 Support
Get 36 months at $3.95 a month instead of $7.99 (That’s a saving of at least $145!)
Plus * Special intro offer and 30-day money-back guarantee (fyi, the 30-day guarantee does not include the domain name, so if you request a refund they will charge a fee. It wasn’t a problem for me, but I just wanted you to know and be aware)
This post on “Why start a blog” is really mean to help you decide and think about any reason why you personally would benefit from starting a blog business of your own.
Why Start a Blog?
Starting a blog can be fun
Start a blog and it can become passive income
As a freelance writer, I can tell you, blogging for yourself is WAY better than blogging for clients
Start a blog and you can serve people with your talents, research, and know-how
You can become a better writer (and content creator) by blogging daily or weekly
If you start a blog you can land jobs as a writer, content creator, and work from anywhere
There are many reasons to want to start a blog, but why WOULD YOU personally want to start a blog of your own?
“In the United States, there are over 31 million active bloggers posting at least once per month. And according to data from Ahrefs, people search Google for “How to start a blog” 121,000 times per month worldwide. That’s nearly 4,000 people who consider starting a blog every day.” – Growthbadger “How many Blogs are there?” – Jan 2, 2019
Sometimes when people think “blogging” they only think writing about a subject. This isn’t true anymore.
A blog is just a space on the internet you own where you can create anything and people can find you and you can share with the world what you have to offer.
If you don’t love writing like we do, that’s okay!
Top Secret: You don’t have to be a good writer to be a successful blogger.
It’s shocking to hear, I know. And it’s a well-kept secret amongst bloggers that they might not want to let you in on.
But today you can start a blog of your own and make videos, pictures, internet tools that help people, infographics, graphic design, and art.
Pretty much anything you can dream up.
You can do it for fun and you can learn how to monetize it. Because who doesn’t love to do what they find enjoyable and make some money while sharing it with the world?
A blogger I follow, Michelle Schroder, makes over $100,000 a month offering her expertise on finance.
If you happen to be passionate about finance why couldn’t you start a blog today and take even a small portion of that pie?
People are out there looking for what you have to offer, the only question is are you going to make the time investment it takes to put your passion out there and see what happens?
1. Starting a blog can be fun
One reason to consider starting a blog is because blogging about your passion is fun and enjoyable.
For me and many other bloggers, we will sincerely tell you that blogging is fun!
You get paid to write (or create) what you’re learning and what you know well. You don’t have to be a 10-year veteran or an expert, you just have to know more than your readers and BE HELPFUL!
If you start a blog to be helpful. Other people will enjoy it more, share it more, and you will find it to be satisfying too.
If you’re looking to help others, there is a big chance you will gather a following and you will enjoy what you write about every day more than if you JUST try to make money online.
And just in case you do like writing, I would venture to say that blogging is fun for most writers.
I know plenty of bloggers that decided they were going to start a blog that now make a decent side income from blogging. Some people even make a full time living from the notion to start a blog.
As I have mentioned before I really enjoy the idea of passive income because it allows you the freedom to do what you think is important in life with the precious time you have.
They generally require very little maintenance once they are running full steam. They require extremely little money or energy investment to start compared to other projects, but once you have it built and going it can continue generating money for you without taking up much of your time.
For instance, if you enjoy writing and getting paid to write you might enjoy being a freelance writer.
Getting paid as a freelance writer you can be paid very well for your time and make your own schedule, but at the end of the day, you still are trading your time and performance for money.
If you stop working the money flow stops too.
If you start a blog, you really can choose when you want to work on it, and when you don’t.
There are many reasons to want to start a blog, but why would you personally want to start a blog now?
3. As a freelance writer, I can tell you, blogging for yourself is WAY better than blogging for clients
If you’re not interested in freelance writing, you may want to skip this section 🙂
I hope I don’t rant here, but I’m pretty passionate about the subject. Writing for clients can be awesome and terrible. At the end of the project, what they think about what you did can outweigh how it performs in their market.
This phenomenon can work for you or against you in your freelance writing business.
Much like a chef if you just focus on SERVING them a fresh dish of what they want you can easily build up a good amount of good rapport and reviews for yourself, but then you run the risk of it not performing well and then they are left with a bad taste for you and other freelancers. This can be bad for everyone.
On the other hand, if you focus more on the performance of your copy and ignore the client and their requests than it might perform well, but they won’t like you which can leave you bad rapport and bad reviews even if you’re the best copywriter.
That’s what makes it hard. You have to find the magical place between where the client feels like they are getting excellent service from you, but at the same time, your piece performs well. This can make for a lot of pressure on yourself, especially if you are a perfectionist.
This is what leads me to say that blogging FOR YOURSELF is much more enjoyable because you have an avenue to be a paid writer (or paid creative), work on your own time, and not feel the pressure of performing for others.
You can use your talents and what you enjoy to help other people without them being disappointed for various reasons outside of your control.
But don’t let that stop you from being a freelance writer. I have been doing copywriting for years working with clients and you can’t beat the money and lifestyle as a copywriter for the time it takes.
I have been able to step away from the 9-5 for the past couple of years, travel more, and spend more time with family and friends by becoming a freelance writer. That’s just one of the specific “headaches” I noticed personally, but some people thrive in that type of environment so I recommend trying it and seeing what works best for you.
Many freelance writing “gurus” will say, “if you buy my course and become freelancer you will become your own boss!!!” This only partly true.
When you write for yourself on your own blog that you own, you REALLY DO BECOME YOUR OWN BOSS.
You are a paid writer. You do work from home. It is an online job. It can become passive in time. It is online work. If you don’t want to create the content (or don’t know how) you can hire freelancers. You get to see first hand the results of your writing and what’s working and what’s not working.
In fact, if you are thinking of becoming a freelance writer I highly recommend starting your own blog through Bluehost (I mentioned the benefits at the beginning of this post) so you can become a better online writer and give your clients real-life experience to help them with their online business. By figuring out how to make your own blog work, others will be much more likely to hire you to help with their blogs and online businesses. You can also promote that you’re a freelance writer using your blog. You can also make more money using your own blog that you own and control.
Blog writing is a big niche for ghostwriters, online freelance writers, and copywriters. So this would be a spectacular way to gain experience that will prove to be invaluable for you and your potential clients.
4. Start a blog and you can serve people with your talents, research, and know-how
Some of the best authors in the world, such as Neil Gaimon, Dan Brown, and James Patterson will all tell you how important research is to great writing.
I don’t care what type of writing you’re doing. I don’t care if you are a blog writer, a copywriter, an author or even a fiction writer. The amount of research and real-life experience you bring into every single piece will carry that piece further than those that do very little to no research.
So do yourself and your readers a favor and do your homework, do good research.
Since you’ll hopefully be researching something you enjoy, it will make sense to want to write it down somewhere, or record it somewhere. Why not a blog?
Take what you’re passionate about and learning and turn around and give to the world via a blog.
When you do your research focus on finding the facts so that you will be able to serve other people with what you learn.
What you looked up someone else will most likely look up too, so don’t be afraid to post what you learn. As you learn, take good notes and write.
Just by writing it down, you will become better at formulating your thoughts in writing and you will retain the knowledge that you learned better.
Focus on serving people with the things you are passionate about.
Find creative ways to share what you are learning about through blogging, making videos, writing, creating images.
There are so many mediums in which you can create using a blog, you just have to figure it out or hire someone to do it for you. And that’s not difficult through places like Upwork.
If you think you aren’t a talented writer and want to be, find out why your copy is failing and get better by blogging and researching more. Don’t accept what other people tell you about your talents as a writer as how good you’ll always be.
And again blogging has become so much more than writing these days. There are:
Recipe blogs
Fashion blogs
Brand blogs
Forum blogs
Freelance blogs
Tutorials
Guides
Info-graphics
Make up
Video
Finance
Design
Architecture
Music
Art
Any medium or topic you can think of can be turned into a successful blog that can help people.
With some good research and practice, I’ll bet you can become very good. Much better than you or anyone else thinks.
When I started copywriting, I didn’t know even what it was. My friend told me he was working as a “copywriter” and I said, “a copywriter? What’s that?”
He explained it to me, I loved the idea and the rest is history. I dove into the world of copywriting, marketing, and writing, and I love it.
So focus on using what you know and what you don’t know (Don’t be afraid to blog as you learn when it’s fresh, someone might find it helpful) to help others out with your Blog. You will get much better feedback and who knows, you might just love it!
If you want to learn something well, teach it. And you can definitely do that by teaching people through what you create on your blog.
5. You can become a better writer (and content creator) by blogging daily or weekly
Blogging is not only fun and beneficial for others, but it can also be beneficial to you as well.
If you think you are bad at writing but want to try it out, ask any professional writer, the best thing to do to get better at writing is to ……. You guessed it! Write!
What’s the best way to decide if a day of writing was successful???
Did you write today?
Yes: Success
No: Failure
So how do you really get better? Research yes, but as far as putting it to practice here are some strategies.
Choose a certain amount of words to write every day.
Choose a certain amount of time to write each day.
Choose a certain time of the day to write every day.
If you really want to dive deep check out our post on How To Become a Better Writer In Just 30 Days in the “search” box.
Same thing with any type of content creation.
If it’s video make and edit videos.
Images? Start creating images.
Design? Sales? Pictures? Etc. And on and on the creation wheel goes and where it stops only time will tell. But you can be a creator and use your blog to share your creation and help the world.
It doesn’t matter what type of information you want to share with your audience. A blog can help.
6. If you start a blog you can land jobs as a writer, content creator, and work from anywhere
Tis true.
I have heard many times how having a blog has led to the blogger being asked to write for a company or other blogger, both as a staff or contracted writer.
You might get a “test job” at first but if you do well and they like it they might ask you for more.
If you dream of being a professional writer, it’s not a bad route to go.
And since they found you and they see your writing already, you can lose the “what if they don’t like my writing,” fear. They ask you to write for them after they’ve seen your writing, they must like something about you’re doing.
If they ask you to write for them, you’re doing something right. I have heard of this happening too many times to think that it won’t happen for any good writer.
As you write your own blog you’ll find your voice and as you find your voice others will notice. It’s a win-win.
Starting a blog helps you create and learn many freelancing skills:
