Write on... don't give up the dream!

Do you dream of being a writer?

If you want to be a writer, the only thing required is to put your butt in a chair, place your hands on a keyboard, pen, pencil or whatever you use to write, and write, write, write.

Consider writing as your job. If your dream is to publish, remember writing is a business, and treat it as if you’re an entrepreneur, because you are.

It doesn’t make any difference if you are young, old, or in between.

Don’t let anyone; including yourself talk you out of your dream of writing. Just write what subject you want to write about.

It doesn’t make any difference who you are, what sex you are, or anything else. Determination and persistence is will make you a writer.

Every writer can come up with myriad excuses not to write. The writer doesn’t use them, but writes in spite of them.

One major excuse is not having the time. This is a cop-out  If you want to be a writer, you’ll make time by going to bed later, get up earlier, or turn the Television off instead of watching some inane program. If a movie or some show is important to you, record it for a later time.

For the novice writer, the internal editor is a major problem. Overcome this by just writing, and then edit it.

It’s simple, writers write and that’s it, period.

If you want to be a writer, sit down and write the darn book; it won’t write itself.

Now is the time to organize your thoughts, notes, research, or outline and begin telling your story as only you can.

Today is the day you become a writer.

Robert Medak

Freelance Writer, Blogger, Editor, Proofreader, Reviewer, and Marketer

Find me on the Web http://xeeme.com/RobertMedak

Setting Writing Goals for 2012...How are Your Goals Working for You?

Writing takes planning and implementing, reviewing and revising. In nursing we learn to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate for a patient problem. That process can apply to many things outside of delivering nursing care. It can also apply to your writing goals for 2012.

Assess: Sit down and make a list of what you have accomplished in  2011 against what you wanted to accomplish. This activity is the time for assessing what has worked for you this year and what has not related to your writing goals. Assuming we want to be published and to sell our work means the honest assessment of how much we published and how much we sold. This is crucial to setting goals for 2012. After you have assessed where you are and where you want to be as an author, list 3 or 4 major writing/publishing goals for the New Year.

Plan: Now to make a workable plan, your smaller action steps must be actions that work towards one of your major goals. The actions you took in the past year that led to more submissions and acceptances needs to be placed in the plan again. The marketing actions that you took that produced successful sales needs to be added and tweaked for the coming year. The things you assessed that did not work or that hindered your writing need to be deleted. Sometimes that means deleting an activity unrelated to writing but that takes time away from your writing. Keep in mind if the actions you want to take don't move you towards your goals, they are not part of this plan.

Implement: January 1st will be here before you know it so try to have your assessment and your plan figured out before the first of the year, or at least the first week of the New Year. Then decide what day your plan will start and begin implementing the actions you have decided on. If I want to monetize my blog for instance, I may put something in my plan that lists the actions I will take to do this. Here is a sample for January if one of my major goals would be to monetize the blog-

• Week 1- research products to incorporate on the blog/affiliate products
• Week 2- add links to my blog with 2-4 affiliate links with posts about each product
• Week 3- post at least once about the products, send out newsletter to remind readers about products
• Week 4- post at least once about how one of the products has helped me with my writing career

 This is just an example, but you get the idea.

Evaluate: Set up time in your writing schedule to evaluate your goals and your actions steps at least 3 or 4 times a year. Many writers evaluate weekly and set up a new plan for the next week. Awesome if you can do that, but realistically many of us are lucky to jot a few notes every week. In some ways we evaluate every day about what we did and what we need to do. A serious evaluation every 3-4 months includes looking at what you have circulating out with publishers, what you need to resubmit, what needs revisions, and what are the next target markets on your list. However you decide to evaluate your goals, make sure the new changes will be action steps that will make your writing soar.

Keep in mind that the rule for goals is this:

Goals should be specific.
Goals should be realistic.
Goals should be attainable.
Goals should be measurable.

Remeber that you also may need to hone your skills as one of your major goals in order to make your writing and publishing goals attainable and realistic.

Now, looking at your goals for last year, be honest in deciding what is working for you. Can you expand your career this next year? Do you need more education? Do you need to focus on submissions? Do you want to attend a conference? Do you want to become active in a critique group to help hone your skills? Do you want to publish a novel? Be specific in what you want and go for it. There is no time like the present to take actions steps towards making your writing and marketing career soar for 2012. My writing mentor, Suzanne Lieurance always tells us to write like the wind, and I will add soar like an eagle. Make this next year your best.

Creating, Promoting, and Selling in the Writing World

I recently attended a teleconference presented by David Riklan, a well-known marketing expert and the founder of SelfGrowth.com. The focus of the topic was creating a successful online business from scratch.

According to Riklan, the first two ‘core’ ways to establish a successful online business, one that generates income is to:

1.Create your own product to sell.
2.Create a service to sell.

Please understand that when you create a product or service, it should be a quality product or service. It needs to address the potential customer’s problem, need, or want.

What are some of the products and services you can create and sell online?

1. Books
2. eBooks
3. Podcasts
4. Workshops
5. Teleclasses
6. Webinars
7. White papers
8. Your writing skills as a ghostwriter, freelance writer, or copywriter
9. Speaking engagements
10. Coaching

You can see there are a number of things you can create and sell. And, when you create one product, you can always turn it into a number of others.

For example, if you present a live chat workshop be sure to have it copied. You can later create a report from the transcript and/or create a podcast. You can also create an e-book from the content you prepared for the workshop.

The same can be done for any of the products or services mentioned above. Rework the original content into as many other products you want.

But, take note that just having a business or a product to sell won’t necessarily generate an income. You need to attract potential clients and/or customers to your website and opt-in box, kind of like a magnet.

Why is it so important to attract visitors/potential clients to your site?

The answer is simple: Attracting visitors to your site gives you the opportunity to turn that visitor into a subscriber on your mailing list. This in turn helps you develop a relationship with the individual.

Statistics show that a first time visitor will not buy what you’re offering. But, if you have that person on your mailing list, you will be able to try again, and to promote other products or services you have for sale.

Along with your products and services, you can become an affiliate marketer to other products and/or services you feel are of value. This creates a win-win-win situation. The product creator gets a sale, you get an affiliate fee, and the customer gets what he wants or needs.

So, the key is to offer something the visitor will feel is worth his valuable email address.

What is the most effective strategy to use to motivate someone to give their email address, thereby increasing your subscriber list?

The number one way to do this is by offering a FREEBIE. The visitor subscribes to your mailing list and then gets the freebie. This is known as an ethical bribe.

Obviously, the freebie must be something people want or need. If you have a health site focused on allergies, visitors will want information on allergies, maybe a report on the latest allergy statistics or alternative strategies for alleviating allergy symptoms will prompt visitors to click on your opt-in.

You need to provide a freebie that is geared toward your target market, something that offers a solution to their problem or need, or provides something they want, and one that will help establish you as an expert in that niche and trustworthy.

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Image courtesy of Free Digital Photos - Photographer: Salvatore Vuono

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Related Articles:

How to Create an Ebook: 5 Simple Steps
How to Drive Traffic With Informational Content
Book Promotion: The Foundation

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Until next time,

Karen Cioffi
Author, Ghostwriter, Freelance Writer

http://KarenCioffi.com
http://DKVWriting4U.com
Karen Cioffi Writing and Marketing

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