Why the web needs YOU!
Today I want to give you a very good piece of advice if you want to get started making money from writing, or if you want to boost your writing income.
And that’s that you really do need to have a presence on the Internet if possible.
I know, I know. The Internet has been around a few years now. That’s hardly new advice is it? But it really can make a difference to how successful you are, and how much money you make from writing.
It doesn’t really matter how small your writing business is, or if you only do it as a profitable hobby. If you set up your own website it will make all the difference.
There are a couple of good reasons why you should set up your own website…
* It helps get your name as a writer known far and wide. As your website starts to get picked up by the search engines you’ll pick up offers of writing work out of the blue, for virtually no cost at all. Some of them pretty lucrative too. (I’ve picked up book writing assignments from as far away as Singapore would you believe, mainly because of my website.)
* You can use it as a marketplace to sell your writing and other products. If you want to sell say ebooks, courses or other products you can do it all from your own website. I’ve got a few websites of my own, and they all help contribute to my writing income in their own way.
Now, I can hear you thinking… setting up your own website is going to be difficult and expensive. You’re going to need to pay a designer hundreds, if not thousands, to do it for you. It’s really not viable if you’re just a small time writer.
But the fact is, it’s not difficult or expensive. Nowadays setting up your own website can be easy and cheap. Because you can actually do it yourself, without any technical knowledge at all.
It’s all thanks to something fairly new called WordPress. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. WordPress started a while ago as a kind of blogging system (you might remember I talked about blogs a few weeks ago). But it’s evolved into what’s known as a content management system which includes all the tools needed to design and build your own professional website.
What’s really clever about WordPress is that it’s intended for ordinary people to use. WordPress allows ordinary people to create smart looking websites without any techie knowledge to speak of.
And best of all WordPress is available to you absolutely FREE. Details here (http://wordpress.org/) if you’d like to know more about it.
Of course, like anything else WordPress takes a bit of getting used to. It pays to take some expert advice to discover the tips, tricks and short cuts that make it easy.
Sam Goodall is just such as expert. Sam Goodall is a successful online entrepreneur who used to work for one of the biggest search marketing organisations in Europe. But nowadays he’s jumped ship and dedicates all his time to showing ordinary people like us how to succeed online.
Sam’s just written a manual called Your Brilliant Website, the aim of which is to show anyone how to create smart, user-friendly websites geared to maximising your online income. There’s no HTML or jargon and you won’t be blinded by lots of confusing choices. Just straightforward, step-by-step advice to get your website up and running ASAP.
Sam’s claim is that he can show ANYONE how to set up a website in less than two hours… no matter how bad you think you are with computers.
I’ve had a run through Your Brilliant Website and I have to say it is well – quite literally – brilliant. It makes what used to be so technical and confusing so practical and do-able.
If you’d like to know more about Your Brilliant Website details are here (http://www.canonburypublishing.com/webbuilder/)
So far so good. But once you’ve got your own website up and running what should you put on it?
It’s important to have as much quality, original content on your website as possible. This is will get the attention of the search engines fast and impress potential customers. For starters, have details of what writing you do, a writing CV and a photo. Or maybe even a video if you like. Very importantly, add some samples of whatever work you’ve had published – or links to places they’ve been published.
And here’s a sneaky little tip if you haven’t had anything published yet: Write some sample articles, books, reviews or whatever and post them up. Potential customers will be able to see you know what you’re doing even if you’re a beginner!
You can also make some money from your website by selling other people’s products even if you don’t have any of your own yet. (Your Brilliant Website will show you how to do this by the way.)
I really do wish Your Brilliant Website had been around when I set up my first website. Would you believe it, I actually paid a designer almost £800 to do it for me? Although he did a pretty good job I won’t be shelling out that kind of money again. I’ll be building my websites myself with WordPress and Your Brilliant Website.
Again, details are here (http://www.canonburypublishing.com/webbuilder/).
I hope you find these ideas for ways of making money from writing interesting and that they’ll help you get started cashing in on your writing skills.