What No One Ever Told Me About Writing Online

The worst thing that ever happened to my online writing career was starting out with a BANG!

Within a few weeks of registering my first domain I had 100s of comments and a heap of attention, but not a single online dime.

I was getting links, love, and fuel for my fire. I figured attention would turn to money like night follows day.

It doesn’t.

At least not usually, and never just because.

I knew that writing online would lead to the end of the rainbow, but I had no idea where to start. SEO, marketing, building a list, creating quality content, social media, and blah blah blogging.

Any illusions I had of simply writing and the rest would follow were shattered by reality.

If you build it, they won’t necessarily come.

I’m a patient guy willing to wait for success, but I was about to close a successful business in pursuit of my dreams while juggling a Southern California mortgage during the worst economy our country had seen in a while.

If something was going to happen, it had to happen FAST.

So I stuffed my eyeballs with everything I could: SEO, marketing, building a list, creating quality content, social media, and blogging.

I closed the business, worked my butt off, made a mountain of mistakes, and finally found the other side of the rainbow: a profitable writing business that’s given me financial security and my choice of partners and projects.

I’m not gonna lie. Things could easily have gone the other way if I’d not worked hard, made some sacrifices, worked with the right people, and had the right mentors.

With that in mind, I want to pass on some of the lessons so your struggle will be a bit less and your road to success a bit shorter.

So here we go, four things that I wish I knew before I started writing online:

1. People will pay for writing that makes them money.

Chances are good that your first work might include keyword articles, which pay slightly more than dirt. Ditch the keyword copy as quickly as possible and learn to write with persuasion instead.

Millions of writers can write to keywords. Copywriters, however, are a rarer breed. Learn to write sales letters, squeeze pages, and behavior-driving auto-responders, and you won’t have to work your fingers to the bone just to keep your lights on.

The better a copywriter you are, the more in demand you will be.

2. It’s okay to ask for help.

I always found the prospect of asking for help as fun as scheduling my next dentist appointment. I felt awkward, and figured that if someone wanted to help me, they would’ve offered to have done so already.

At least, that was the lie that I kept telling myself.

It took me an embarrassingly large chunk of time to figure out an obvious truth: I was always happy to help when others asked me to, flattered actually. However, it rarely occurred to me to offer without being asked.

Modern life comes with blinders. Most people are happy to help, but won’t necessarily see you unless you’re waving your arms.

Don’t be pushy, arrogant, or assuming, but never be too timid to introduce yourself, ask intelligent questions, or admit you could use a little help.

3. You’ll never do all it on your own.

Writing online is more than an activity and a place, it’s a skill set. But nothing happens at the push of a button, despite what the sales pages may say, and there’s simply too much to go it alone.

Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.

Fill your plate with the work you’re best at so you can build a network around people who are best at doing what you’re not.

Start outsourcing any task that’s costing you money as quickly as you can. That means any task you could hire out for less than your hourly rate. This is a good way to build your network, especially when you’re able to provide work people might not otherwise get. It’s a win-win and everyone’s happy.

Doing this will help you build your business faster, while dimming your odds of burnout.

4. You’ll never know it all.

There’s too much to learn and even the things you do know can change at the speed of broadband. Be open to fresh perspectives, new voices, and any opportunities where you can piggyback off the experience of others.

Be prepared to continue learning, but focus on fundamentals rather than shiny tricks. Don’t be an info junkie and fall into the trap of always learning and never doing. Continue to read content that stimulates growth, but step into the world beyond writing online and Internet marketing.

It took me a few years to make my writing dreams come true and there’s a lot of things I know now which I wish I knew then. That’s why I wrote Writing Online, “the book I wish I’d read three years ago,” to help other writers achieve their dreams without wasting their time.

Sean Platt is the author of Writing Online and How to Write a Sales Letter that Works (Without Wasting Your Time!). Get his free report, The 9 Mistakes Most Writers Make That Are Keeping Them Poor. Follow him on Twitter.

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