Something I Never Share
But it might help you earn more...
I’m going to share something with you today I never really talk about:
My earnings.
I’m not embarrassed or afraid to talk about money. If you’ve read my personal essays, you know I talk about almost anything. Open book here!
I don’t talk about my income typically because there’s no reason to. It’s not often helpful to you.
But I think this might be.
You’ll have to let me know.
This weekend, I made myself cosy in my beanbag (my favorite writing spot) and wrote for two afternoons.
I finished the commissioned personal essays due Monday—I’m a last minute kind of person—and, in just two afternoons, made $950.
What would an extra $950 mean for you?
What if you could earn that on repeat?
It’s a very achievable reality
For 10 years, most of my work was writing services pieces for magazines.
Wondering what service pieces are?
They often have titles like: 8 Ways to Get Your Kid to Stop Picking Their Nose
I churned out hundreds of those. And yes, one was about nose picking!
But in the last few years, writing work has shifted.
AI can write service pieces.
AI has already being used to write news reports, service pieces, Op-Eds, and all sorts of content online.
A lot of my work also used to be proofreading. When Grammarly came along, work dried up overnight.
My little daughter was so mad! “Mum, the robots stole your job!”
I wasn’t mad. I hated proofreading, but it was work so I did it.
What I really wanted to be doing was writing creatively. As I saw it, Grammarly did me a favor!
90% of my commissioned work now comes from personal essays.
Real-life human stories.
If you want to get paid as a writer, you need to future proof. Learning to tell your story well is future proofing. It’s today proofing! (Is that a thing?)
Today, editors are willing to pay for your stories!
If I was starting my career today, I’d learn to:
Write service pieces. They’re still useful earners and they’re easy.
Edit my own work well, alongside Grammarly or ProwritingAid.
Study publications to understand what editors want. Read, read, read!
Master copywriting with a course (like this free training and optional paid course—affiliate link by the way, but a course I personally found really helpful.)
Practice in public with feedback from readers, like on Medium or LinkedIn.
Pitch editors. HuffPost Personal are looking for personal essays right now!
Write personal essays.
What do you still need to learn that will help you bring in those extra $950 paydays?