Writing as a Side Hustle
Does it make sense or is it just a waste of time?
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In this article, we’ll take a look at how I had it and what helped me to succeed. Don’t see the article as bragging, but as a demonstration of my concept that turned into a nice income and there’s nothing nicer than being able to give back to the community, because if I could break through then anyone can. I’m not going to linger any longer and let’s take a look at it.
How to get started
To get started you don’t need anything special just a tablet, an older laptop or computer, just any device you are able to type on. I’m a media writer, so you’ll still need an internet connection for this form of writing. When you have everything you need in terms of hardware the next thing comes in.
What should I write about?
Write about topics that are close to your heart. To begin with, it is not necessary to go into details, on the contrary, it is nice if you can present complex things to the readers in a simple form.
Write about things/activities that interest and entertain you, if you have such a topic then readers will easily know that you are passionate about the topic and share your joy. For example, I have chosen the area of technology where I write mostly about Apple, but I also cover innovation, science and other topics.
I choose what to write about based on what has resonated with me most in the previous days and stuck in my mind. Once you’ve chosen a topic you can sit down and get started it will be hard at first, but it’s nothing you can’t handle over time.
What will help you in your writing
For me a few things are necessary when writing, when I sit down at my MacBook to write an article I need to know what I’m going to write about at that point. Furthermore, by knowing myself, I know when I am in a creative mood and when I am not, and you have to choose what you are going to do accordingly.
Music also helps me when writing. I have some playlists that I listen to, but from what I’ve seen with Mark, he uses Brain.fm which can be interesting. There’s one other thing that has fundamentally changed my productivity when writing articles and that’s the fixed amount of time I have to write an article, as I’ve come to understand that you have just as much time to spend on things as you give yourself, so if there’s no upper limit then the article will never be perfect and you won’t get published.
However, for the last few weeks I’ve been experimenting with yet another form, and that’s writing X number of articles in a certain block of time to stock and then scheduling them for publication. Because when you get into a flow then everything goes easier.
I almost forgot one last thing, I try to make my own images but I don’t always have the time to do it and that’s what image banks are for, but there is one major problem, the same image you choose can be chosen by someone else and then it’s very easy to lose your article in the feed among other articles.
To be successful with publishing you need to make writing a habit, for example I started writing for an hour a day after a while and it literally changed my life for the better as my approach to writing articles became more organised I had a set time when I sat down and went to write an article and most importantly it helped me to be consistent.
So the most important thing for you, at least in the beginning, will be:
- Calm,
- Music,
- time block,
- regularity/habit.
Published article but no one reads it
This is a major problem in the beginning no one knows you, you are starting out with writing so you are definitely not going to write a great article on the first try, with a brilliant headline, great sub-headline and intro and a perfect picture to go with it.
Maybe I’m wrong and that’s exactly what your first article will be, but if not don’t despair my articles weren’t great to begin with either, and even now I certainly have significant gaps.
But since I enjoy writing and have something that has kept me writing for over a year now. Readers will come with time, the more often you publish your articles and the better your content the more readers you will have.
Motivation
To keep writing you need motivation, but it’s not just the measly motivation of seeing a profit for the articles you write, you need something you want yourself. For me, my motivation for writing from the beginning has been that I wanted to improve my poor English, hopefully I’m succeeding, but I’m not the one who can objectively judge that. So having the right motivation is crucial to sticking with writing.
What does writing bring you?
For me writing has brought a certain peace and order to my life, through writing I have learned to organize my thoughts better and I would say it has also raised my expressive skills. I come across some new words almost every day so my vocabulary has expanded as well.
I have confirmed to myself that if I set my mind to something, I will achieve it. I see my English as richer than when I started writing. I have found a lot of interesting readers whose comments make me think about things that I might not have thought of without their comments.
The moment people read your articles and you get your first positive review in a comment it is so motivating and warms your heart.
The first milestone
The Media Partner Program is the first imaginary milestone you can reach the moment you meet the entry requirements, which at the time of writing corresponds to having published one article and 100 subscribers and being in a country where you can apply for the partner program.
Once accepted you can start earning royalty fees by writing articles but also earn a portion of the subscription fees that someone purchases through your unique link. This milestone can be reached in different ways, either you write your first article so well that the followers will only increase, or you go the wrong way and build up access to the affiliate program but your profile will be so weak that it will not bring you anything in the end.
Or you will continuously write articles and gradually through consistency and persistence gradually gain new and new followers. You can also help yourself for example by using quality comments on other authors’ articles, but keep in mind that this is a double-edged weapon your comment will not be relevant or you will write it on some dead article then your efforts will go to waste.
I myself had a thorny and slow road to the affiliate program it took me almost 6 months, but my reward was a strong profile which already earned me more than $100 in the first month I was in the affiliate program, and it only got better as time went on. It’s all about not rushing anywhere, publish regularly and readers will find you sooner or later.
You don’t want to have people in your followers who won’t read your articles as a result, rather have less followers but have real readers out there who are interested in your content. If you’re interested in this article and you’re interested in my journey on Medium.
You can check out this list I’ve put together for you, but my articles I write most often are about technology, so if you’re not interested in that topic an article like this only comes out once in a while.
One final tip
If you have other dreamers in your area who would like to write something, tell them about your intention and consult your activity regularly, by having someone to talk to about writing you will get very valuable feedback and at the same time you can try different strategies to succeed in multiple people and then share your conclusions with each other.
Final words
If you’re serious about writing for a living then I can recommend Mark’s Ebook, and definitely try the power of various publications, but it all depends on how you hit or miss the mark with your readers.
Bear in mind also that by publishing an article under a publication you are giving the editors of the publication access to the stats from your article, so thanks to you they can see for example that this topic works for you and therefore probably if they write an article on the same topic then they will also have success. There are more things that can be read out this way, but that’s for another time.
Please follow me if you enjoy my writing on Medium. I write when my mind is full of ideas, and I need to offload some of them on paper (or a computer, in this case). I’m a paying member myself, and I highly recommend joining, too, to get full access to this platform’s beautiful articles. Click here to do so (a portion of your membership fee will be sent my way and directly support my work!). PS: You can follow my journey on Medium.
