Three Potholes on the Road to Success I Hope Other Writers Miss. I Didn’t.
When you first get into this business, as with any (don’t ask me how I know, I have been around the block a couple of times) there is a learning curve. One difference with freelance writing is the online environment. It tends to feel like one big club with a lot of inside jokes you are not in on.
- People talk about sites, tools and strategies by name, with little or no explanation.
- There are a lot of “buzz words” that seem to be related to real things, but those things are invisible to beginners.
- It’s easy to feel that they are doing this on purpose, when in fact, they have just forgotten what it was like.
So, we make stupid mistakes
Every single one of us have been there. ALL OF US! Even the guys who invented blogging once didn’t know what they were talking about and a lot of these others are making things up as they go along, “faking it until they make it!” That fact takes very little sting away when we make those initial stupid mistakes. Here were three of mine.
- I waited to “ brand” myself. I kick myself almost every day for not launching my personal site, with my name on it, ten years ago!
- I missed the point and started out writing what people “needed to hear” instead of joining the conversation and then sharing my story.
- I gave up on some early attempts that actually had a lot of promise because they couldn’t be “monetized” immediately.
So, feel better? You are not alone. All of us have done some dumb things, I promise you. As artists, it behooves us to leave road signs for those coming behind us, so that hopefully the next guy won’t hit the same pothole we did.
So, try to avoid these potholes for yourself!
I don’t see you as competition. In fact, the more talented, high paid writers there are in the world, the better. It will raise the level of content being produced and increase the demand for expensive, quality content for me and others to create! If you’d like to read more about ways to avoid these, go to MarkRMorrisJr.com , thanks for reading, leave me a comment if you liked it!
July 11, 2015 @ 2:10 pm
Oh my goodness, Mark. I cannot emphasize on the importance of branding yourself enough. Early AND often. Its easy for a newbie to overlook but in the long run the familiarity that you impress on the industry will be worth it. Early branding is an investment – similar to making regular deposits into a decent HYSA.
I too made that you mistake but I can only be thankful that I didn’t wait any longer to prioritize this. By the way…
Don’t fool yourself thinking that, “you can’t afford” a domain name and hosting. A lack of it will cost you in the long run.
July 11, 2015 @ 5:44 pm
Thanks Kevin. My hesitation was not over having a domain, or even developing a site, but one with my name on it. I have several domains I have kept for years. They are the cheapest investment you can make. As to hosting, I highly recommend Go Daddy’s managed wordpress hosting. It is very inexpensive and reliable. Unless you have the money for a custom developer, it is one of the best ways to go.
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August 27, 2015 @ 2:50 pm
Hey Mark.. what really struck me was when you mentioned that you got discouraged when your blog wasn’t immediately monetized. I think your story is worth sharing with New and Intending bloggers…. as a friend of mine once mentioned, ” to succeed online, you need to have supreme Patience”
Nice write up.
November 17, 2015 @ 5:25 am
Awesome.. its freely share information learned over their successful writing careers.
August 30, 2016 @ 2:41 pm
You gave some really good tips on choosing the right domain name. One I believe most people will never think about are the keywords. Excellent tip … thank you for sharing