It\u2019s 2015. I\u2019m a writer. I earn a comfortable living. And I get to write nearly anything I want. How is this possible? For one simple reason, which I\u2019ll explain shortly.<\/p>\n
But first, some context.<\/p>\n
The world is changing incredibly fast for writers. Twenty years ago, the world of freelance writing was completely different. \u201cContent mills\u201d did not exist. Newspapers were still thriving. Magazines and books were mostly printed on paper. There were a lot of opportunities to make money as a freelance writer.<\/p>\n
That world is gone. There are more opportunities for writers than ever before — but they\u2019re probably pretty unrecognizable to writers from twenty years ago.<\/p>\n
My goal with this article is to get you thinking about the future of writing, and hopefully help you find a path to long term success. A path that will take into account the dramatically changing face of writing.<\/p>\n
I graduated college in 2004. Facebook was barely a blip on my radar. The iPhone didn\u2019t even exist. The internet seemed familiar and well established. I\u2019d just received my degree in creative writing.<\/p>\n
I never spent any time looking for a job after graduating from college. Eleven years later, I still haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n
And I\u2019ve been profitably employed the whole time. I have more work flexibility than the vast majority of my friends. I can write poetry whenever I want. Or sit down and write an article. Or walk my dog. I live the life of a writer. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a wonderful life.<\/p>\n
But how is this possible?<\/p>\n
For one simple reason. Instead of becoming a writer, I started a business.<\/p>\n
If I had graduated college and started looking for a job at a newspaper or a magazine, I might have had good luck and landed a job — but how stable would that job have been? How many newspapers and magazines have closed in the past ten years? The numbers are depressing.<\/p>\n
But, because I decided to create a business instead of getting a job, I gave myself the flexibility to weather the coming storms.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t kid you — it wasn\u2019t always easy, and it\u2019s not right for everyone.<\/p>\n
But the major point I want to get across in this article, whether or not you want to start a business, is that you should be a student of business. <\/p>\n
There are so many dreams that writers have. Some writers just want to get their poetry into the world. Other writers dream of publishing a novel. Some writers just want to pay the bills without working too hard. All of these are admirable goals. All of these writers should be thinking strategically and run their writing as though it were a business.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a freelance writer, don\u2019t look for new clients. Create a strategy that will build you a solid base of clients. (Our free newsletter is all about sending you companies that hire writers.)<\/p>\n
If you want to make a living writing ebooks, don\u2019t just publish them and tell your friends. Create a marketing strategy that will build your base of readers.<\/p>\n
Think about what assets you can build. For example, if you run a blog, a loyal reader is a valuable asset. How can you create more loyal readers? How much is a loyal reader worth? If you don\u2019t know, create a way to measure the value of a loyal reader. This will tell you how much you can spend on advertising, in order to gain more loyal readers. If a loyal reader isn\u2019t worth much, you\u2019ll know you need to increase their value somehow.<\/p>\n
And just as important as everything else: Start using math. I\u2019m not talking about scary math. Use simple math. For example, one client that pays $150 for a 500 word article sounds great. But, are they as good as a client that pays $75 an article, each and every month? $75 times 12 is $900. That\u2019s a lot more than $150. <\/p>\n
Really basic math can be super exciting. I love multiplication. It\u2019s always a lot of fun to see how numbers can add up and begin to mean something really big.<\/p>\n
I could keep giving you more business pointers. And I will. But not in this article.<\/p>\n
In the mean time, I want to ask you a question. What are your goals as a writer for 2015? Do you want to earn a living as a writer? Do you want your poetry to reach a wide audience? Do you simply want to finish your novel? <\/p>\n
Let me know in the comments!<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Jacob Jans
\nFreedom With Writing <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s 2015. I\u2019m a writer. I earn a comfortable living. And I get to write nearly anything I want. How is this possible? For one simple reason, which I\u2019ll explain shortly. But first, some context. The world is changing incredibly fast for writers. Twenty years ago, the world of freelance writing was completely different. \u201cContent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1725,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724\/revisions\/1725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freedomwithwriting.com\/freedom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}