I know how tempting it can be, if you want to earn cash from your work, to try to follow in their footsteps. But will those models work after all that expense, and is there a simpler, more basic way to make money blogging?

There’s a school of thought out there that says giving away a lot of in-depth free content, focusing on social bookmarking to get your name out there everywhere, spend a ton of time twittering, digg-ing, buzz-ing, whatever, and with all the people that come to your site, you’re bound to build your email list, and make a ton of money – eventually.

There’s another school of thought that says, why not use that same content but build a blog or site targeting only traffic looking to buy NOW, not social visitors, and have a site that appeals to the side of human nature that wants immediate action when they arrive?  Like clicking on ads? This would be the approach if you want to make money writing or blogging, in a shorter period of time.

There are some very big SEO people out there right now, who have said they now realize that when it comes to making money, every day, they are wasting their time on Twitter et al.  It’s fun, for sure, but leave it for cable news shows.

Instead, there is a way that’s much easier than doing product launches, building huge lists of possibly-interested vistors from social sites (of people who don’t buy anything) and spending months or even years slogging away, thinking that’s how long it takes before you start to see any online income.

If you’re a freelance writer, you may or may not have a blog which is a money-making vehicle versus a personal journal. First, you want to start a blog that has making extra money as its sole purpose. It can be on any topic you love to write on.

But you should slant your topic to those looking to for something they need right away, who want to take action fast. And you don’t need to try to “sell” them either, with sales letters, long-form copy, and so on. Because the strategy is, they usually they don’t read past the first screen, before clicking around a bit.

You’re going to design your site not so much to be read, but to give information, and offer relevant ads. The ads can be AdSense, or other affiliate ads, and you’ll want to learn how to increase website traffic to get the right people to see your site/blog. But your page will focus mainly on the keyword terms the visitor is using to find your site. And those keywords will target things they need and want right now. Not amorphous terms like “blogging” or “kids” but “kids halloween costumes” or “printable games for kids”.

As a writer, you may find freelance writing jobs where you write articles for others who are publishing websites or otherwise building commercial sites. The approach I’m talking about is to do some of that for yourself; choose a topic, write a ton of content, and publish it on a site or sites, or blog or blogs, to make the same money yourself.  Don’t just sell your writing once, when it can build a whole network you can profit from yourself.

If you have your own consulting gig or other freelance writing business going, then you may already be on your way to six figures freelance writing. But if not, you can also find plenty of resources online to learn to make money online with your writing. Blogging for money isn’t as hard as you  might think, with the right system in place. Or, selling your work has never been easier as the Internet connects writers, editors and publishers.

How?  By doing what we do as freelancers: Get creative.

My projects right now include some writing for other folks – blogs, articles – but also writing a lot of web content for my own web sites and publications.  In other words, I don’t just think of myself as a writer, but as the owner of publishing business.  Blogs, websites, ebooks, and also providing writing “services” for clients; these and many other products are my company’s business. (If you haven’t seen the interviews and resoruces on my Freebies page, check out the Tiffany Dow interview to see how someone can take action to build a business as a writer.)

Writers who think of themselves only as “writers”, who look for freelance “jobs” and “clients” all day, and work primarily on stuff other people will own, could be missing out big opportunities.  As a publisher, I write all I want, on anything I want, whenever I want – but I also hire other writers and designers, to build my own assets including Web “real estate” and other intellectual property.  Writers who work as publishers controlling their own content stand to weather the storm over the next few years, by opening up their options to sell not just to clients, but also directly to readers and consumers.

To light your creative fire, here are posts with ideas you can use to leverage your biggest asset – your creativity – in a financially-tightening marketplace.  One of my favorites is Pamela Slim’s post in June about what to do if the economy’s got your down.

Here’s another post from Seth Godin’s blog, about how to maintain your competitive advantage.  If you don’t read his blog on a regular basis, start now, if you want to not only keep your head above water, but thrive, no matter the economy.

What are you doing now to grow and build your business?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Where Have All the Freelance Writing Jobs Gone?

There are plenty of warnings too – some for freelance writers even. I keep asking the same questions here: Why oh why do writers not take advantage of what the Internet means for communication?? – after all, isn’t communicating our business? – and then complain and moan about how they have to choose between money and writing, between what they love and a living. Hogwash. They are just lazy about breaking out of their comfort zone, and want to stick to the dreams they dreamt years ago (seeing their name on the cover of XYZ magazine? In the window of Barnes and Noble? On Hoprah?) – while the world is changing around them. Yes, the game has changed. Publishers mostly haven’t. Neither have so many writers, I read about dozens and dozens of them on the forums. Here’s a quote (apologies to Mr. Godin for the lengthy selection), he’s talking about Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew who published a book on the Beatles – and made $300K doing it:

“What’s noteworthy about Recording The Beatles Is what the authors didn’t do. They didn’t give the rights to a traditional publisher. They didn’t fight hard for retail shelf space. They didn’t buy co-op ads with big book chains, and they didn’t try to get on Oprah..Instead, [they] managed to sell every single copy of their book (three thousand were printed) at the very profitable price of one hundred dollars per copy. And they did it by embracing the tactics of the New Marketing…

“By self-publishing, the authors were able to accomplish several things. First, they removed a substantial ‘tax’ (85 percent of the cover price) that a publisher charges to handle thing like retail distribution, advertising, printing risk and staffing…More important, self-publishing took them out of a meatball factory mindset. Instead of publishing yet another book, a book for an anonymous, unseen group of consumers who would somehow find the book they didn’t know they wanted, the authors found a book for the readers they already knew about…Recording the Beatles has generated more revenue than 97 percent of all books ever published. And unlike other books, most of this revenue goes to the authors.”

This book is an awesome read if you’re at all concerned about making a splash or even a ripple with your writing. Isn’t that WHY you are writing? To be read? To be heard? Well, now you can, where in the old-school ways of gatekeepers, it was pretty damn tough. I’m guilty of meatball thinking too, but it’s going to be a real fun ride making all the changes.

Let me know what you’re doing – or not doing – still waiting for that publisher/agent/magazine to call? Or are you growing beyond that?

]]> http://www.sixfigurewriting.com/blog/are-freelance-writers-out-of-sync/feed/ 0