Nowadays, anyone with a computer keyboard can launch themselves on the world as a writer. That's fine. I'm not being elitist. I love the fact that writers can start earning quickly.
But quick money, even if it's a tiny amount, is dangerous.
Some 30 years ago, when I started writing, you served an apprenticeship. It took most writers three to five years to learn how to sell to magazines, and around the same period to learn business writing.
If you wanted to write a book, the apprenticeship period was much longer. Of course there were blockbuster books, but if you read the details about an "overnight success", the blockbuster writers were journalists, screenwriters or copywriters. They had the background; they'd learned how to write. On the other hand, if they truly did jump from nowhere to bestseller status, it was rare that they could repeat the success of their first book, because they didn't have the background.
Here's what I mean by "If you do what others do, you'll get what they get."
If you've managed to get someone to pay you some small amount for an article or whatever, you'll get annoyed when you're stuck in the writing ghetto. And it's inevitable that you will. You just don't have the background to move up and out. You think that since you're making $5 an article, anyone who tells you that you could be making $1 to $3 per WORD is a liar.
You're doing what other writers do -- and you're getting what they get.
Every week, I receive messages from writers telling me they've been published on some content mill or other, so they're "experienced" writers. They're wondering why they're not making more money. They want a fast way to make more income.
If you want to make more money than other writers who write for content mills, you'll need to do what they DON'T do.
They don't:
* Learn writing skills
* Approach high-paying markets
* Build their writing inventory
* Create a website which sells their skills
* Etc. and etc...
There's a HUGE, unlimited world of writing opportunities out there for you. All you need to do have a huge writing career is do what successful writers do -- not what the unsuccessful ones do.
Does that make sense?
Just model success, and stop doing what isn't working for you.
