Writing for A Living – A Progress Update

A little while ago, I decided I wanted to explore the option of writing for a living. Since that time, I have been on an incredible self-employment adventure! In today’s blog, I want to reflect on the goals I initially set and evaluate how things have turned out. Although this blog is more of a reflective piece, perhaps sharing my process may also be useful to someone who is in a similar position*.

Reflecting on My Goals of Writing For a Living

In April 2018, I decided on a complete change of career. After realising that working for myself was likely better for my mental health, I decided to pursue writing for a living.

The main goal I had when I started out, was to gradually work towards becoming self-employed. I planned to do this with the help of The New Enterprise Allowance. Then, once self-employed, I would pitch to various writing publications and begin to make a sustainable living from writing.

I think it is safe to say that very little has gone to plan! However, this is not a bad thing, at least I don’t think it’s a bad thing. You see I have a very different approach to life, which has been given to me by following the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. I very much let life work through me and take everything one day at a time. Yes, I do of course have goals, but I choose to concentrate on the immediate now and let myself be guided. This often means I end up somewhere entirely different than I had planned, but usually in the right place for me. I think that far too often when we are too future-focused, we can miss the little signs on the way that show us perhaps a better and more suited path.

Goal 1) Becoming Self- Employed

Let’s start first with the biggest thing which has gone to plan on my journey towards writing for a living. My ultimate goal, when I first started this new path, was to become self-employed. I’ve spoken a lot about my reasons for deciding to go self-employed. In a nutshell, I thought it was the best way for me to work my life around my mental health.

In the past, when trying to return to work, in the usual sense of 9 to 5, my mental health would prevent me from being able to do this consistently. I explain more in the video below, which I made just after having the epiphany to change career paths.

I am very happy to say that I was right about self-employment. Being able to work flexibly has meant that I have managed to consistently work at developing my business, despite having many mental health flares ups. I have even added a new medical condition into the mix when I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism. And, I have even managed to keep chipping away at this business, despite the grief at losing my mum. The fact that I’ve managed to do all of the groundwork for my new business, in the face of such huge challenges, confirms it was the right decision. Plus, I absolutely love what I do.

Goal 2 ) Using The New Enterprise Allowance

Unfortunately, the path I initially set out on, to become self-employed, did not go to plan. As I was transitioning from unemployment benefit, I was accepted onto the New Enterprise Allowance. This would, in theory, support me to grow a sustainable business and then be signed off unemployment benefits.

However, when I moved in with my partner, his earnings meant I no longer qualified for benefits. In turn, this also meant I no longer qualified for the NEA. This was a bit of a blow but after some investigation, they did say I could still access their workshops. However, this was all put on the backburner when Mum passed away. It may be something I chase up later.

Goal 3 )Writing for a living

Even though I lost access to self-employment support, I felt confident enough to carry on. However, my plan of writing for a living has not yet materialised.  And this is where I begin to lay out everything that has not gone to plan at all!

When I first considered writing for a living, I thought about writing short stories. However, I didn’t have any luck there at all, despite sending many off to magazines. By the time I declared myself self-employed, I had decided to write about what I knew best, mental health and LGBT topics. I have, understandably, had more success at this and had a fair few blogs and articles published. My most successful article to date is a personal essay about my alcohol recovery, published in Narratively magazine.

However, most of my published works to date have been guest posts and I have only been paid for a few. Whilst these have been very useful to increase traffic and followers to my own blog, it isn’t paying the rent. I have also explored content sites, such as TextBroker. And, I have received a bit of money from writing content, but it isn’t very consistent. Neither is it much money to speak of.

My best-laid plan does not seem to have worked out as intended. However, it isn’t so much of a failure, more than I’ve gone in a different direction than I planned for my writing.

Why Has Writing for a Living Not Gone to Plan?

By complete accident, I seem to have moved my direction from being a writer to being a blogger. My initial plan, to secure some writing contracts, involved sending out a lot of pitches. And, in all honesty, I haven’t been pitching my work as often as I intended. I did send a lot of pitches in the beginning, but after getting lots of rejections, I instead turned my attention to my own blog. After researching, growing my own blog seemed to be a good way to raise my profile and improve myself as a writer.

As I learned more about blogging, I began to concentrate on doing guest posts. Guest posts helped me to gain high-quality backlinks to my site and increase my traffic, followers and domain authority. However, writing content for my own site, left me with limited time to send out pitches. This is the main reason as to why I have not been successful in writing for a living.

Although concentrating on blogging was not on my original plan, it’s one that has started to be successful. By creating lots of good content and writing guest posts for other blogs, I have created a healthy writing portfolio. I also have increased the number of followers and visits on my blog.

However, the downside to going off-plan is that I am making very little money. If I want to make money from writing, I need to work out what direction to go to from here.

Moving in A New Direction -Writing For a Living Using Self-Publishing

Moving forward, one of the main ways I see myself writing for a living is by becoming an author. I have been writing my memoirs for quite some time and have always intended to explore being published at some point. However, after a lot of research, I am now considering self-publishing as an option.

My first book, my lower surgery memoir, is almost ready. My transgender memoir and my recovery memoir are also extensively written. Additionally, I have the outline for a mental health self-help book, and a gender transition self-help book. Although I am still exploring traditional publishers, I currently feel that self-publishing would be the best way forward for me. This is because I already have an audience on YouTube, (my amazing Finn-Fam!) who I know would be very interested to read my books.

Unexpected Success – Increasing My Visibility

If I am to continue to develop myself as a blogger and author and establish credibility in my field, I need to get my name known. Increasing my visibility has been incredibly successful this year, although it wasn’t intended at all! In following my instinct to work on my own blog, I have begun to make myself much more visible. However, by far the biggest impact on my visibility is my work as an Open University as a Student Ambassador.

Working with the Open University is another one of those great examples of letting life unfold and lead the way!  By working with the OU, I have gained a great deal of confidence in myself and had the wonderful opportunity to share my story to inspire others. Additionally, featuring in OU campaigns has helped me to become more widely known and helped to endorse my credibility. I am hoping this will continue to pay off as I move forward from here.

Developing Myself as A Whole Package Brand

Another key element to emerge from my time working as an OU Ambassador is a much clearer sense of what I want to do. Importantly, I have also come to realise that I should be seeing myself as one whole package, rather than singularly focusing on myself as a writer.  What I mean by this, is that I should be focusing on my core message and then looking to deliver that in a variety of ways.

At the beginning of this adventure, I had these different elements of myself, my blogging and my YouTube for example. Initially, I didn’t know how to tie all that together and it felt like I was swapping hats all the time. However, I now have a much clearer idea of my message and my brand.

My central message is about inspiring and guiding people to recover their lives and rewrite their story. If I place this at the centre of everything I do, then my path feels much clearer. I can start from that message and then look at various mediums to deliver that message, whether in blog form, articles, books, videos and so on. In this way, I should be able to make money in other ways, as well as writing for a living.

Making a Living from Multiple Income Streams

Seeing myself as a whole package has helped me to create and develop a variety of different revenue streams. After a few months of work, these are starting to have some success

FinnTheInfinncible: My YouTube Channel

My YouTube channel is my biggest audience. I already monetise my videos through Google AdSense and I receive a little bit of money every couple of months. The revenue from YouTube is growing steadily and I am working hard to create great content and grow my audience. Viewing myself as a whole package I began to look at other ways to leverage my channel, to make some additional income.

Finnspirational Designs: Creating Print-On-Demand Products Via Zazzle

Using my YouTube channel as a starting point I created an online print on demand store on Zazzle called Finnspirational Designs. In my store, I make and sell YouTube merchandise as well as LGBT+ and recovery themed clothing and accessories. I am not a highly talented artist by any means! However, my channel merchandise has been very well received as has my LGBT+ themed products. I’m starting to see a steady stream of passive income from this now. Granted, it isn’t huge, but as its largely passive I am happy with that.

Fabulous Flags of Pride
by FinnTheinFinncible

Affiliate Marketing

I initially tried Google Adsense on my website, as I already had it set up with my YouTube. However, I didn’t like the ads it was serving. Also, I learned that I could make more money by placing my own ads using affiliate marketing.

Keen to try affiliate marketing, I signed up to a few different affiliate sites, namely, Awin, Share a Sale and Amazon Market Place. I have had no success with the first two whatsoever. I am not sure what I am doing wrong there at all! However, I have had a fair bit of success with becoming an Amazon Affiliate. By placing banner ads of products and services, and by writing blogs and including links to the products I mention, I have started to make a little bit of money.

Creator Support – Kofi Gold

One of the most successful income streams I have found so far is through my Kofi creator support page. On Kofi, people can choose to support my content by donating a ‘coffee’ which is a small amount of money. Initially, I began with the free version of Kofi and placed a donate button on my website and in my email footer.

I was amazed by the number of donations I received and so I decided to upgrade to Kofi gold. Gold membership allows me far more control over my page, including the option to allow people to choose either one-off or recurring donations.

This has been money very well spent as it is now my biggest source of income. Having a link to my Kofi in my email means that when people email me for advice, as often happens with my trans content, they can donate as a thank you. Many of these people have gone on to become monthly supporters. With Kofi Gold, I can offer perks for both kinds of supporters. I currently offer exclusive videos and early access to vlog uploads, but the list of possibilities is endless.

Kofi Gold also allows me to create commissions. So far I’ve run a Glastonbury Festival Postcard commission, where I sent people a postcard from the site. This was wonderfully successful and so much fun! More recently, I have begun to offer Finnstergrams, video messages for birthdays, celebrations and encouragements. I’ve sold a few of these and I love creating and delivering them!

If you fancy trying Kofi Gold for yourself, you can get 10% off using my referral link.

New Opportunities Ahead

Looking ahead to developing my brand further, I am exploring motivational speaking. I really enjoy speaking, which is why I love making YouTube videos. I enjoy the process of giving life to my thoughts and sharing them as if having conversations with people. Every time I have given a public talk, I have loved it. I know this seems strange considering I have such severe anxiety, but I have learned the benefits of facing that anxiety.

As some of you may have seen, I applied and was accepted as a TEDx Open University speaker! My talk is centred around my recovery message and will be a great experience, to see if this is something I could develop further. I am keeping my mind and options open and am looking forward to new adventures that speaking might lead me to!

What I Have Learned In My Journey Toward Writing For a Living

What I failed to account for when I set out on this journey, is the process of self-development. I had lots of great ideas, but until I tried them out, I wouldn’t know what really worked. There is so much learning to do on a journey like this and my goodness I have learned a great deal! I have learned marketing skills, self-promotion, SEO, blogging techniques and much more besides! It is no wonder that my direction has changed after learning all these new skills.

Also, all this learning has taken up a huge amount of time. I had not accounted for how many hours I would be pouring into this adventure. I love every second of it so the hard work feels good. However, it does also mean that being only one person, I have many limitations.

The biggest issue I have found so far is the lack of time. I simply cannot do everything. Trying to pitch articles, write my own content, film my videos, write my memoirs, volunteer with the OU, write for content sites, create passive income streams and keep learning new skills, is just too much for one person! On top of this, I am just starting my final Open University Module. If I am to stay mentally well, I must prioritise now.

What Has Changed?

I see myself and my role as completely different from when I initially set out. Now, I am no longer simply a writer, I am an entrepreneur! I love the term author-preneur, but I think I would more accurately describe myself as a creator-prenuer. I have a central message, to inspire and motivate others, and I love creating different ways to deliver that message, via various creative mediums.

Where Do I see Myself Going From Here?

Self-publishing is going to be the quickest way to see some more income coming in. Therefore, that needs to be my priority. Developing my blog is also a priority, as I can earn money from affiliate marketing and also increase my authority in my field. I shall also keep occasionally adding designs to my Zazzle store, to keep that ticking over. My YouTube is a no-brainer. Adding regular content there will keep increasing my revenue.

I am still unclear as to what to do about writing for other people. It would be very helpful to have a bit of steady income from a regular writing gig. However, I don’t know how to make this happen without spending a ton of time I don’t have, on pitching. Perhaps I will put this as my lowest priority, and only look for opportunities once I have completed all my higher priority tasks in a week. If you are reading this and think I am a great fit for an article you want, or you want to work with me in any other way, I am available for hire!

As usual, none of this is set in stone and actually, remaining open will always be my best avenue to success. By saying yes to unexpected events, doors have opened for me. This may happen after my TEDx talk too.

If you have got this far, thank you so much for reading this. I hope it made sense! I also hope it may be of use to you and I look forward to sharing wherever I end up from here! If you have any pearls of wisdom for me, I welcome them gratefully in the comments below!

Hello! My name is Finn and I have a passion for creating honest content, that inspires personal growth and promotes well-being.

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*Please note, this blog contains affiliate links which means when you buy through me. I may make a little commission. However, this is of no extra cost to you, and I only recommend products that I have personally found helpful.