7 Best Moves to Start Your Writing Career in 2021

Blogging, freelancing, and SEO, oh my! I feel a bit like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. But these are some of the important first steps to building a writing career this year.

Most writers dream of having the freedom to write what they want, when they want. In reality, the job outlook for writers is pretty dismal. However, by making just a few changes, you can be well on your way to building a career.

The list might seem ambitious at first glance but chipping away at each of these will help you reach a broader audience for your work!

Here’s the list:

Freelance Writing

I’ve flirted with freelancing before. It didn’t flirt back. I plan to be more intentional this time around.

Freelancing is a great start to transitioning into a career based around writing. Landing consistent clients means a more stable income that can provide consistent revenue.

Other writing incomes like contests and story submissions can’t be trusted for consistency. In freelancing, you can accumulate contracts while you rake in the dough (okay maybe spoon in the dough, especially at first, but you get it).

I know I’d sleep better at night knowing I had clients who liked my work and were willing to pay for it consistently.

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“Landing consistent clients means a more stable income that can provide consistent revenue”

Launch a blog

Okay, don’t freak out like I did. This was way easier than I thought it was going to be. There are more (and easier) options out there than ever before.

With all the options (WordPress.org, wordpress.com, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly) I struggled at first. If your heart rate began rising just thinking about comparing prices and functionality, then you’re in the same place I was. I nearly melted into the floorboards considering all the possibilities.

Guest Posts

Guest posts are most commonly written for blogs. If you’re hoping to write a guest post, there are two ways to land a blogging gig.

First, think about your expertise. Everyone has at least one thing they can discuss confidently (your career, parenting, your life experiences). If you think you don’t, consider this:

You have an expertise (parenting, college, athletics, reality television). Use it! Reach out to blogs and offer to write for them. Write for free, at least at first.

The second way to write guest posts is to start your own blog. Then ask bloggers in your niche to trade guest posts.

This will help you to build your exposure while also reaching new readers. Now, some bloggers will say no. But honestly, the silence of never asking is much worse than a no.

Plus, if you tell them you subscribe to their newsletter they have to be nice to you, right? Isn’t that how it works?

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“You have an expertise. Use it!”

Affiliate Marketing

Imagine promoting businesses you use every day (I’m looking at you, Amazon) by providing links to products you trust. Every time someone uses your link to buy that product, you make a percentage of the sale.

Joining affiliate programs is surprisingly easy. Some ask you to provide credibility (a blog, proven traffic, social media, or a certain number of sales in the first month, etc.), but others won’t require anything to sign up. The key is to only promote goods and services you trust to retain credibility with readers.

You can Google search businesses and their affiliate programs. Or you can just scroll to the bottom of most business webpages and see if they have an affiliate program linked at the bottom.

In the end, this won’t pay the rent, at least not at first. However, if your posts can rank high on Google, there are bloggers who make very consistent (and passive) income through affiliate programs.

SEO

If you don’t know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization (complete definition here). It’s a fancy way of saying, will people find your posts or are you typing into the void?

As writers, we sometimes believe in the Field of Dreams mantra “If you build it, they will come.” And if you’re Stephen King, that might work.

But if you’re just starting out (and even if you’re not), you’ll want to optimize your articles for SEO so you can build and grow followers and subscribers.

I certainly don’t know everything about SEO but committing to learning a little more about how it works each week can help to ensure your writing gets onto readers’ screens. It will be time well spent if it helps your writing reach a larger audience.

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“Imagine promoting businesses you use every day by providing links to products you trust. Every time someone uses your link to buy that product, you make a percentage of the sale.”

Invest in Education

This doesn’t mean a masters degree. It’s about pragmatic education you can use from day one.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over years of writing, it’s that you’ll never know everything, but you can always know more.

This year, I’m going to invest money on writing courses. Many writers I know have avoided these courses for a long time and for good reason. There are a lot of scams out there.

However, if we think of it more as an investment than an expense, the price of a course can have a solid return on investment.

Remember, investing is always risky! Just like there are stocks that will earn money and stocks that will lose money, it’s true of these courses. Do your homework and don’t rush into anything.

There are a variety of different places to get courses, especially if you know what type of writing you want to do (freelancing, blogging, copywriting, etc.).

Udemy [affiliate link] and Coursera [affiliate link?] are just two of the many places you can go to invest in a variety of courses to find out where your interests are.

My suggestion: start small (and cheap) to get an idea of what you know and what you don’t. Then invest more heavily when you have a better understanding of what you need.

 

Time

The biggest move we should all make in 2021 is optimizing our time. Time is the only resource we can’t replenish. So we should treat it as important as it is.

If you’re like me, you’ve spent years improving your craft. It’s time to monetize it and use it to build the writing career you deserve.

Set goals. Set timers. Most importantly, continue moving forward.

You should value your time and part of the way our society values our time is by paying us.

If you follow along to my blog, you know that I value your time and want you to maximize your time. Build passive income that will make you money so you can use the time that you have for the things that matter most to you.

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“Set goals. Set timers. Most importantly, continue moving forward.”

 

Conclusion

Writing is difficult. Building a writing career is really difficult. But the good thing is, people have laid the groundwork for how to do it.

Follow the path others have laid ahead of you. If you’re persistent (and have some luck) you’ll ditch the traditional day for the freedom of a full time writing career. We’re all rooting for you!

 

Some of the links on this blog are affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission from some sites if you make a purchase. Please know that I have experience with all of these companies and services. I only recommend them because I know they will be helpful in launching a writing career. By using these affiliate links you’re helping me to keep my blog up and running. Thanks!