This is How to Succeed in the cutthroat business of writing

It’s disheartening to see good writers — the ones who think carefully about every word, who can make you laugh or cry or sing with their writing — not succeed in what they are really good at.

Their work takes you on an emotive rollercoaster, stirring an avalanche of unbeknown emotions, opening up crevices of your imaginations, and new channels of love. They are so good at their craft, so gifted, yet they can’t swing their monthly rent, let alone pay for their health insurance.

Most beginner writers think they need a degree in English or a major in Journalism to succeed as freelance writers, but statics rebuff this mindset.

For starters, online writing is very different from print — magazine, and publication writing.

Thousands of people who can string together coherent words flood writing websites. They write convoluted English sentences that wet readers’ appetites, building a massive following that gobble up their words, butter their bread, and pays handsome subscription fees.

It’s not your writing’s fluency or your impeccable sentence structures that draw readers. Readers like bees to honey are attracted by information, answers that solve a problem, revelations that boost their progress, insights that grow their businesses, and ideas that galvanize their personal growth.

All readers are inherently selfish, you and me included, we are constantly seeking stuff that will gratify our selfish needs, massage our egocentric whims, and flutter our opinionated minds.

And we are willing to pay for this informational hoarding too, as long as it’s written by somebody who’s done their research, or they are sharing professional expertise, sharing their life experiences, or plain old educating us.

That said, we shouldn’t trash formal training, because book knowledge, writing courses, and professional training sharpen your writing skills.

Look at writing as cooking. Anyone can cook, an omelet. But not everyone can blend spices and whip up a mouthwatering omelet. Formal training teaches you how to blend spices, marinate and create a dazzling dish your readers will salivate over.

But if you can whip together an omelet without having salivating mouths that are willing to pay, you will still be broke. Successful writers know how to position themselves in front of prospective clients who can pay.

And that’s why you don’t need to be a Pulitzer-prized writer to pull in heavy-paying clients.

So what’s the magic? Believe it or not, it comes down to your mindset, your knowledge level of who you are writing for because your clients want results, not qualifications — and that’s because Approximately 50% of your web visitors read at a 4th-grade level. So, if you’re writing at a college level you‘ve just lost 50% of your audience.

Here are some things you should know if you want to be hirable — things clients care about when looking for a writer.

1. Can You Write for the Web?

Online clients don’t always give a damn about how good a writer you are.

They are mostly interested in writers who can write in a conversational tone.

This means you should be able to;

Write valuable content that isn’t filled with difficult words or fluff,

Use short paragraphs and short sentences,

Structure your writing with subheadings,

and use bullet or numbered lists to further break up your post.

2. Are You Confident of Your Abilities?

Confidence is hard to come by when you’re new to something. When I first landed my writing gig almost a decade ago, I remember having sweaty palms when working on my laptop.

I was fearful that I wouldn’t do a good, and that fear almost paralyzed my productivity.

But, the one thing that pushed me was knowing that I had to keep putting myself out there no matter what. Whether it was pitching or guest posting, I knew that if I kept going, I would eventually cut my teeth at writing.

Success is about starting, even if you are a newbie and lack confidence, all you need is a made-up mind, the determination and drive to push on, and never to quit.

You can pitch a guest post idea, create your writer website, or ask your friends and family if they need a content writer.

Clients want a confident writer that understands their services and can produce stellar content.

And you shouldn’t worry if you don’t have any samples to show in the prospect’s niche, your confidence can easily convince a client to hire you.

3. Do You Have a Social Presence and Connections?

Successful and in-demand writers are on social media and have a writer’s website.

Social media is the perfect place to grow your blog, showcase your work, and connect with prospects and businesses. Many writers have professed to land jobs on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Nevertheless, you don’t have to be on all the top social media profiles. I suggest you start with LinkedIn and Twitter, then set up a Facebook fan page to expand your connections.

4. You are running a writing Business

Freelance writing is a business, not a hobby. Therefore, even when you aren’t the best writer in town, you need to know how to run a business, your writing is the business.

You’re not going to always write according to your preferences, or have plenty of time to perfect your piece. Neither will you have the choice of how you will write your pieces.

Freelance writing means beating deadlines, editing, citing sources, keywords, copywriting, and much more. Basically, clients will hire you to either help them free up more time or help in improving their conversion rate.

So, what does it mean when you have a freelance writing business?

1) Wow Your Clients

Going the extra mile for clients can pay off big time.

You never know, they will refer and connect you with other potential clients looking for writing services just because you left a memorable imprint on their consciousness.

Impress them with your very first piece, and it may turn into a regular income for you.

Ensure all your ad hoc pieces are excellent and turn them into consistent gigs.

2) Focus on what clients want to buy

Quality writing doesn’t care for pros. Clients also don’t always understand what goes into a successful piece of writing.

They don’t realize that your ideal analogy is there to come up with an emotional context that will generate more sales.

They also don’t realize that when you choose a specific tone and set of phrases for your writing, it’s to continue an internal conversation that their customers are having and engage them.

You aim to always deliver good writing — writing that creates the desired effect for the result you’re looking for.

However, when talking to potential clients, talk about what they actually want, and their business results. Your care and skill with words are the features. Their improved sales, customer engagement, SEO, advertising ROI, and other results are the benefit.

Sell the benefit. And only mention the features to show them how you’re going to deliver that benefit.

3) Practice Professionalism

Since you’re running a service-based business, being professional is vital to your growth as a freelance writer.

This might mean beating deadlines, promptly responding to your client’s emails, or just formatting your blog post correctly, and probably uploading your pieces to their CMS.

This might be common sense, but many writers out there fail simply because they don’t think it’s important to be prompt or follow their client’s requests. Don’t be one of them!

4) Write a tellable story that has commercial potential.

Many times aspiring authors work “hard enough” and get nowhere simply because they write dead-in-the-water stories with no commercial potential.

A good and successful writer isn’t one with good writing skills, but one with the most commercial viability for writing a tellable story.

For instance, practically nobody has heard of Frank Woods, yet he’s an incredibly successful ‘writer.’

He wrote Frank Wood’s Business Accounting in 1967 with successive reprints year after year that ran into millions of copies. If you don’t what book that is, it’s an accounting book that has trained generations of accountants worldwide.

Frank Woods was successful because he produced:

• “a tellable story” — a way to explain accounting that made it easier to learn
• that is commercially viable— made it easier and quicker to teach for those who want to qualify quickly

5) Be Persistent in Your Writing

Ernest Hemingway made a famous statement that every upcoming writer should keep close to heart, he said,

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.”

–If you are an unpublished writer your job is to write.

Becoming a successful writer basically boils down to your willingness to keep writing until you’ve learned to write well enough for other people to want to read your work.

And to keep writing, aim for a million words. Then keep learning and improving so that each finished work is better than the last until people actually do read your work.

When you finish something and it’s as good as you can make it, take a deep breath and send it out into the world to see what happens.

And then, unless you’re Harper Lee, who wrote How to Kill a Mockingbird a book that won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and became an American classic, you have to write some more.

6) You Need to Market Your Services

Part of being a successful writer is marketing yourself; having a robust online presence is an essential part of self-marketing.

Ensure your website is up to date and filled with samples of your best work. Appear on podcasts to expand your reach and potential audience.

If you’re a blogger, post as often as possible — especially if you’re trying to get your first book off the ground. Your online presence can be the thing that will attract traditional publishers and publishing houses that are looking for new voices.

And since you are your own boss, it’s up to you to find freelance writing jobs.

So, that means you need to always be marketing. There are several ways you can market yourself:

• Guest postingis a great way to show prospects you are credible, able to write and know your niche.
• Comment on blogsthat you want to write for or that are in your niche. A prospect may notice and decide to contact you.
• Follow prospects on social media. Getting on the radar of top businesses you want to write for is a great way to show your prospects how much you are interested in them.
• Have an email signature. When you work on your pitching and sending off those emails, you can be assured that prospects can quickly find out about you from your signature.

Build your client portfolio. It’s better to have too many clients than not enough. You can lose all your clients or the client that gives you the most work decides to take a break for six months.

Final word,

Not everyone can be a billionaire or a movie star or an elite athlete. However, any working writer can focus on actionable steps that can help them find exciting projects, cool clients, and better still reliable income.

 

This Article was first published Here: Writing Flawlessly Will Not Make You a Successful Writer