Writing To Sell Get Visible, Make Money

Are you writing to sell? You need to get visible. Unfortunately, many writers freak out at the very idea of self-promotion. However, if you’re willing to spend just ten minutes a day on it, you can increase your income.
We writers want to be discovered, but we don’t want to work at it. Ideally, we’d sit in our offices, and the world would put our name in lights. This is a dream. In the late 1970s, Judge Ziglar (brother of Zig Ziglar) wrote a book called “Timid Salesmen Have Skinny Kids”. The same applies to timid writers.
Cheer up. Marketing sounds hard. It’s not. Let’s look at four ways you can become visible, and make money from your writing skills without breaking a sweat.
These strategies are simple. If you devote just ten minutes a day to one of them, over a couple of months you’ll see a corresponding rise in your income.
1. Social Media: Share Yourself in 140 Characters
Twitter, Facebook and Google+ make promotion easy. You can create a tweet while you’re standing in the supermarket checkout line.
Forget whatever rules you’ve heard about these social networking sites. Just remember that the operative world is “social.” Choose one site on which to focus. Fill in your profile page, and have fun on your chosen site, for ten minutes a day. That’s all it takes. Consistency is the key.
2. Blogging: Day by Day, Your Blog Grows, and So Does Your Business
Some writers throw themselves into blogging with abandon. I’m an enthusiastic blogger; I’ve been blogging for over a decade. I started blogging simply because the idea of writing something, and getting readers instantly, got me addicted.
If you’re nervous about blogging, look at it this way. Every word you write is a writing sample, and you can blog about anything you choose.
Consider that if you use your daily ten minutes for blogging, you’ve got 50 minutes a week to write a respectable blog post.
3. Press Releases: Promote Your Clients, and Yourself
This strategy is perfect for you if you’re already writing press releases for clients. Ask your clients to link to your website from the release, with a text link like: “writing help provided by Jane Smith”, for example. Alternatively, they can link to your site from their site.
Most clients will happily do this for you. All you have to do is ask.
4. Guest Posts: Blogs Love Content
Does maintaining a blog sound like too much effort? Write for others, linking to your website from your guest articles.
Big tip: be sure to read the blogs to which you want to contribute. Each blog is targeting a specific audience. Over the years, I’ve received many offers of guest posts for my blogs. Sadly, 95% of those articles were unsuitable for my audience.
Becoming visible as a writer does good things for you. Spend ten minutes a day on it, and watch your income rise.