Several SYWON (Sell Your Writing Online Now) students are making $100 an hour blogging for businesses. They're overbooked. One writer's raising her rates in the new year — she can't keep up with the demand.
Why is this happening? One simple reason — return on investment. Advertising is expensive, and for many businesses, no longer effective. If their customers are online, developing content marketing strategies makes much more sense than tossing good money after bad with advertising.
"Content marketing" means blogging, Blogging means that someone needs to do it. That someone should be YOU, if you have any idea of Web writing at all. I hope you can see why I've been nagging you to WRITE FOR THE WEB. And yes, I'm shouting, because it's important. The responses to the poll show that many, many readers are still finding it challenging to get writing jobs. They're looking in the wrong places.
So, let's look at how you can take advantage of the professional blogging opportunities.
If you want to make $100 an hour and more, no one is going to hold your hand while you do it. You need to get up to speed on blogging yourself, so you can hold your clients' hands… they have no idea of how blogging works. You need to know. I hate stating the obvious, but SYWON is a good place to start. Do the exercises each week. You'll build a thriving Web writing business.
"Learning" means learning WordPress as well. WordPress is EASY. Yes, it seems complicated at first, but you'll soon be blogging like a pro.
Once you're comfortable blogging, and have created your own blog, it's time to become comfortable with social media. Look on it as a megaphone for your blogging, AND a chance to make connections — the connections are the people who will hire you, and give you something to blog about.
Did you know that the tech blog Mashable puts out 2,000 posts a month? Yes, TWO THOUSAND. A month.
Think about that when you have three posts on a blog, and wonder why you're not getting traffic and clients.
Blogging is now big business. It's becoming de rigueur for businesses, large and small, and of course, for publications and publishers.
When I started blogging in 2000, I could see that blogging — instant publishing — was where the Web was headed. It took until 2004 before businesses started paying attention. These days, businesses which want to stay in business are making the most of the Web.
If you want to make a great income from your writing, pay attention to blogging. Start today. Take the three points I gave you to heart, and get started on your professional blogging career.