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Want to Write for Others? Why?
There are multiple ways to make money from your writing talent, skill and passion.
Writing for others as a service is just one way to do it – and in my opinion, probably not the best alternative you could choose.
I see a lot of writers coming online looking for writing gigs, copywriting jobs, ghostwriting opportunities, even blog commenting jobs that don’t pay very well.
Let me suggest that for most of you, these may not be the best use of your talents or the most lucrative options you have.
Unless you have a royalty contract or a long-term working arrangement, all these options require you to trade your time (writing) for some one-time income. You put in the time to produce the deliverable and you get paid for that one-time product.
Unless you are an elite level copywriter getting paid a great amount for your proven income-producing talent, you are probably short-changing your ability to profit from your writing.
Trading your time for today’s “going rate” for writing services is generally not going to provide you a full time income. Pressure at the low end on the income scale from freelancers (some of whom are out-of-country English speakers) tends to keep writing service wages limited.
Hiring out your writing skills for minimal dollars per hour or per product may be the worst approach for a writer in terms of –
How much money you can earn
How much hard work it will require
How many others you’re competing against
How much control you have over what and how you write
How much leverage you get in terms of being able to move to higher levels of income in your career
Writing for yourself as a product creator is another way to apply your writing skill – and IMO, a much better approach to getting paid what you are worth.
There is some uncertainty about this approach, of course, as it will probably take you a little longer to get paid, it is not as “structured” in the beginning as working for someone else, and the outcome of your effort is not as predictable as providing a service.
The benefits to creating your own product, on the other hand, are many (the term “product” is used very loosely here to include authoring a book, writing a blog, creating a digital product or a series of products, creating templates, creating PLR materials, creating reports, and online courses and on and on . . .)
There is no ceiling to how much you can earn when you work for yourself. Unless you are one of the very top tier noted copywriters in the industry, you will typically struggle to make a living wage as a writer competing with all the other writing hopefuls, many of whom will work for a fraction of what you would like to be making in your writing jobs.
Hard work is still required when you work for yourself, but it seems less “hard” when you can write something once and get paid for that same thing over and over again because you own it.
Competition can be controlled when you decide what you’re going to write about and exactly who you want to include in your pool of prospects. You have a real advantage if you choose to write about things where you already have knowledge, education, training, experience and passion for the subject.
You have total control over the subject and manner of your writing. You can choose to write books, e-courses, short reports, articles, instructions, blog posts, or even targeted content to be placed in a membership site.
One more point here: there is unlimited potential in applying leverage to your writing career. When you put out quality material, unique and fresh content, doors will open for you to monetize your talent in other ways. High quality writing is a valuable skill to own and one that will never become obsolete.
So the choice is yours. Learn to write for others or learn to write for yourself. Do whatever floats your boat but understand that each approach carries with it a very different set of potential outcomes.
To your online business success,
Steve Browne
www.SteveBrowneDirect.com