How To Get Paid For Writing Blogs

I am a digital marketing consultant and an entrepreneur. I have worked with several branding freelancers and created online businesses.

Want to live as a digital nomad and get paid to write? It's not as easy it sounds

Photo by Chester Wade on Unsplash

If you're having trouble establishing a writing habit, you may not think of yourself as a writer. To begin writing and making money from your writing, first, call yourself a writer. It sounds illogical and rather silly, but it works.

Once you write, you are a writer, whether you make a few dollars or a few cents. I published my first article online back in September 2019. For the next 60 days, I kept writing. I published an article every day despite the fact that I had no professional writing experience. I kept going.

After these 60 days, I knew what I wanted to write about as a creator, so I submitted one of my articles to a magazine, and they published it. It felt great. I started submitting more articles to different magazines. Some got accepted, and my writing earnings grew.

I am not trying to brag. Telling you I earn from my writing lets you know what is possible. This article is about showing you how to make money using your writing. So, here are four helpful tips that helped me elevate my writing skill. Read. Practice them. Take a chance on yourself.

1. Always Keep Writing

When the 60 days were over, I wanted to stop writing. I had started looking at the stats of my blog and felt depressed. The numbers of views averaged only 1k.

When I told my aunt I wanted to quit, her advice was, "keep writing." I took her recommendation and kept writing. I stopped looking at my stats. I stopped comparing myself to other successful writers. I only wrote.

Soon, my complaining stopped too. I also stopped beating myself up, started writing heartfelt pieces, and had one of my highest-earning months. Keep your purpose for writing at the front of your mind. Hold onto your passion. If you love writing, your work will reflect it, and people will take notice. Then the money will come.

Always remind yourself why you started writing.

2. Set Up a System

To become a writer, you need a system to handle your self-doubt. I know from experience that self-doubt will come. You need to find a way around it.

I write at a set time every day. I am grateful I don't have to balance a full-time job and my writing passion. I understand life causes interruption for some, but if you can, try to keep writing around the same time daily.

With a set schedule in place, it becomes easier to let everything else come second. During those 60 days, I put everything on the back burner. I made writing essential and did it first thing in the morning every day. I did nothing else before I got my writing done.

I made my routine the same every day. My phone was in another room, and I used the same desk, chair, and space. To make sure nothing distracted me, I would sit and write for between one and three hours. Sometimes, I would get up to stretch or use the bathroom, but I would go right back to the chair.

These habits helped me develop my identity as a writer. With each day, my belief in myself as a writer grew. Like James Clear said in his book, Atomic Habits, decide what type of person you want to be. Next, prove it to yourself with small wins. Every sentence, paragraph, and page is evidence you are a writer.

3. Treat Your Writing Like a Job

Writing, like any other career, takes discipline. You push through on days you don't feel like writing. If you only showed up for work on the days you felt great, you would only be present a few days a month. The same applies to writing. You need to flex your writing muscle and stay relevant to your audience.

However, unlike a corporate job where you can stay comfortable, writing demands that you get better. I am a big believer in education. Read books and research your articles so as to not run out of ideas. When I invest in my knowledge, my editor notices the difference in my pieces. Higher-quality articles make it easier to get published in new magazines.

4. Grow a Thick Skin

Once upon a time, rejections would hurt. I even cared what people thought about how I made money. Now, I don't. Negative comments, like positive ones, are engagement. It means people read your blog article and were emotional enough to leave a remark. It also helps if you are past the trauma you discuss in your published work. Write personal stories once the hurt and pain have healed. The happy ending is the money you make from publishing your story in a magazine publication.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author's knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.