More Writing Resolution Talk — But this Time with Action

January 06, 2010

Are you sick of the talk about New Year’s resolutions yet? I’ve written quite a few resolution-related posts for clients in the last week as well as for my December 31 post here on Get Paid to Write Online but I’m not sick of it yet. I am ready for action, though. In fact, I am acting. I’m planning to make some moves this year to ensure I meet my goals. I need to work fewer hours. I also need to earn more. I deserve both! I’m talking to potential clients that are going to help me meet some of my 2010 writing goals already and it’s only the first week of January. Go me. (Hey, I’m self-employed. If I don’t pat myself on the back, who will?) I’m already doing things outside of my comfort zone this year. I’m acting with the belief that these things will pay off and help me elevate my career to a higher level.

So, what do you want to do with your writing career this year?

  • Earn more?

  • Work less?

  • Be able to afford to get rid of your lowest paying pain-in-the-butt client?

  • Write more in a niche you love?

  • All of the above!

Have you figured out how you’re going to get there or are you like a lot of people who write down goals and never actually do anything to make them happen?

Here’s what I suggest:

  • Spend more time marketing

  • Talk to other writers

  • Enhance your skills

  • Step outside of your comfort zone

Marketing

How much time do you spend marketing? I’m not talking about applying for jobs alone; I’m talking about marketing yourself. As I’ve said here in the past, marketing can become passive so that efforts you take today can pay off repeatedly for you.

Do you use social media? Are you using it to your advantage? I’m not talking about telling people you make the best grilled cheese in the world (although it’s perfectly fine to give a shoutout to your culinary prowess sometimes on Twitter. Ok… yes, I admit it — -I sometimes tweet about my awesome grilled cheese sandwiches), I’m talking about using social media to network and to drive traffic to your website or blog.

Speaking of your website, when is the last time you updated yours? The act of updating your site alone will ping the search engines and could send fresh traffic your way. Maybe it’s time to take a look at your online profiles and fine-tune them a little. Want to be a well-known niche writer that commands top dollar? Start advertising that service and writing about it so that you can get the attention of people (and search engines) looking for that key phrase.

Bottom line: Allocate 1–2 hours to marketing next week (or, there’s no time like NOW…if you have the cycles today) and every week and watch what happens. I’d almost bet money you’ll see great results.

Talk to Other Writers

Other writers can help you with your career. I have a few close writing friends and we often help one another. We bounce ideas off each other, get sanity checks on contracts, sub work to each other when one is busy or the other is dead slow, and we even share writing leads and referrals at times, too. Some of us are even talking about potentially profitable joint ventures in 2010. Talking to and networking with other writers can help you tremendously with your writing career goals. (Plus having writing friends who understand your lifestyle and your work challenges really really helps when things are rough and tough.)

Bottom line: Join some writer networking groups. Make some writing friends.

Enhance Your Skills

How do you continue to develop your writing skills? Keep writing. Keep reading. Read about your craft, do writing prompts, take a writing class, read some writing e-books, follow an online writing course, follow some great writer mentoring blogs. Want do learn to do whitepapers? Want to learn to do press releases or e-books? Take time out of your schedule to work at developing these skills. Not only can they pay off, they help you move forward in your career. Too many freelance writers (myself included) find themselves losing the love with their work at times because of repetition. The “free” in freelance can mean you’re free to pursue any category of writing you’re interested in trying. You may not be a master at every topic or every writing style but why not dabble and see where it leads you? Avoid complacency in writing (there’s a 2+ year old post from me in that link that still applies today)! Is it time to step out of your comfort zone?

Bottom line: Only you can decide whether 2010 will rock for you or if you’ll just survive and float through it.