My Path…

is being laid out in front of me. I have felt like I has headed toward someplace for the last several years, and being that I’m a rather Zen person, I allowed myself to just go with the flow (for the most part). But I think my path as led me to the door I am supposed to open and walk through. It might mean the closing other other doors, but I really think I am where I am supposed to be, doing the things I’m supposed to do.

I’ve picked up skills that I really had no reason to learn, considering my career path, but they were of interest to me, and the opportunity was there, so I took it. Those skills led me to other interesting avenues and now I find I spend a lot of time using those skills, which I didn’t even think I needed at first. More to the point, no only do I use them, I enjoy using them. And since I made a point of stating here that my goal is to work smarter and be an expert, I believe it is time for me to practice what I preach.

I know this all sounds cryptic, but for those of you who have been around awhile, you know how I am. When everything is ready to be revealed, I’ll reveal it. I’m really only writing this because…well…because. LOL

As soon as I am ready to make the big reveal, you all will be the first people I tell.

Just To Reiterate…

For the last couple of hours, I have been reading posts in a clients’ forum. Many of you will know of whom I am referring. Those that don’t, keep reading anyway, because, well, just keep reading. 🙂

Anyhoo…today I’m reading such nuggets of wisdom like:

“The Internet is dead for writers. There is no longer money to be made writing on the Internet.”

“Blogs are dead. You can’t make money writing on or for a blog.”

“Content mills are dead. You won’t be able to make money writing for content mills.”

And from a previous day, “Generalists are dead. You can’t make money as a generalist writer.”

Hum…

So, what, I’m supposed to pick a topic and go door-to-door and ask to write about it for the business? Are you saying I HAVE to return to print media?

Oh, wait — “Print media is dying. Soon you won’t be able to make money writing for print publications.

Uh huh…

Do you all know how utterly idiotic you sound? You are basically saying that soon SOON…a writer will not be able to make a living…ANYWHERE, ANYHOW.

Really?

C’mon folks, enough with the doom and gloom. As long as there are people who need to say things, but don’t know how to say them, writers will have work.

As long as things need to be sold, writers will have work.

As long as people continue to read, writers will have work.

(OK — so that last one if kinda iffy, but I still stand by the statement, for now.)

But my point is, just because the genre is changing and just because the format is evolving, this does not mean writers are going to go the way of the dinosaur. Sure, there will be businesses who decide they can “do it better, since, really, how hard can writing be? I did get a B- in English in high school after all,”…

But the savvy business owner quickly comes to his senses and hires a professional to fix what he created.

Now, yes, this does mean that as writers, you might have to develop a new skill set, but hey, researching and learning new things and writing about them is a large part of what you do as a writer anyway, so this truly should not be a daunting task.

Especially if you’re…*gasp* a generalist. (Or a generalist with a specialist bent.)

So, folks, don’t put down your pens or close your word processing software just yet. We aren’t going anywhere!

A Writer’s Worth

Getting paid to write had been a dream of mine for YEARS.

Well, lemme rephrase that — getting paid to write WHAT I WANTED was a dream of mine for years. I’ve been a professional writer since 199(mumble mumble), but most of my writing career was writing stuff I had NO INTEREST in what-so-ever. It was truly writing for the paycheck.

So when I jumped back into the freelance arena in 2008, I decided that this time around, I was only going to write what I wanted to write, and I was not going to have a boss, past the editor or client who offered me the gig.

The first two years were a struggle. I kept true to one half of my promise — I didn’t have a boss per se. But I was still writing things I didn’t particularly want to write about. Not that the topics were distasteful, just kinda boring for me, mainly because I couldn’t put enough of my own spin on the topics. And the pay was two steps above abysmal. But I kept working — I kept writing the boring titles and tried to find others that were more interesting to try and break up the monotony. I found it pretty ironic that the more interesting titles paid less than the more boring ones, but I’m pretty sure that was because of the differences in the topics.

By 2010, I was making not great, but decent money writing full-time. But I had grown tired of writing for peanuts (which was an improvement over the “writing for pennies” I had been doing in ’08 and 09).  I knew it was time for me to branch out and go for the bigger clients. So, that’s what I did. I started applying and querying larger clients in August 2010.

By November, things started to take off. In December, things picked up even more.

Now, in 2011, I have No COMPLAINTS about my writing career. OK — so I do complain, but it’s more “Oh good God, where am I going to find the time to do all this?!?”

So, no — no complaints.

So, what’s the point of this blog post?

I have friends who are writers, some of whom started their careers WAY before I started (or actually restarted) mine.  Some make me look like a amateur. But others — well…

They’re afraid to go for the bigger clients. I’m not sure why, but they are. Which in and of itself, I could understand.

However…

These same writers are the ones who constantly whine and complain that they don’t make enough money to pay their bills, or they have to write a ridiculous amount of words just to make a decent income.

Uh, Hello!

It doesn’t take a PhD in Rocket Science or Mathematics to realize that if you want to make more money writing less, then you have to make more money per assignment. But apparently this concept is lost on many, so lemme break it down for ya:

You write for four different clients. Each client pays you $25 per 500 word article. You want to make $1000 a month writing.

$1000/$25 per article = 40 articles.

40 articles/4 different clients = 10 articles per client.

Not impossible. But imagine if you wanted to make $1500 a month, or $2000 a month?

You can see how it could get pretty hectic and a writer could burn out.

However, if the writer above took on bigger/better paying clients…

You write for four different clients. Each client pays you $100 per 500 word article. You want to make $1000 a month writing.

$1000/$100 per article = 10 articles.

10 articles/ 4 different clients = 2.5 articles per client.

(Ok…so no one is actually going to write half an article for a client and submit it for payment, so let’s say you write 3 articles per client, which is 12 articles total)

3 articles @ $100 per article = $300 per client.

$300 per client X 4 clients = $1200.

Hum…so to summarize: 40 articles for $1000 or 12 articles for $1200?

I don’t know about you, but personally, I think going after the bigger clients is worth the risk. And maybe now that I did the math, some of my writer friends will feel the same way too.