The one thing required to grow a healthy writing business is consistent action over time.
Without action, you can’t develop the skills you need, connect with the right people, or finish projects.
Now, most writers I meet do take action. But they don’t do it consistently.
With sporadic action, you might land clients and get paid — you might even make enough money to pay your bills — but your business will likely be a stressful scramble.
With consistent action taken over time, you can figure out what works to hone your skills and get better results, make more connections, land more projects, and earn more money…
And once you do that, you can make the money you want on a schedule that works for you.
So, what’s the trick to consistent action?
It’s figuring out the systems that work for you and that you enjoy enough to do daily.
Goals versus Systems
Goals are important. They give you a direction, a destination to head toward. But the system is what closes the space between you and your desired destination.
You might have the goal of completing a novel by the end of the year. Writing 1,000 words a day is a system that will get you there.
You might have the goal of landing three new clients in the next three months. Sending five pitches a day is a system that could get you there.
Is any specific system guaranteed to work? No, of course not. But without a system, you’re almost guaranteed to not reach your goal.
A System You’ll Embrace
The first key element of a successful system is that you can embrace it and enjoy it for its own sake.
If you love the idea of publishing a novel, but every time you sit down to write, you struggle with writer’s block — or you can’t seem to make time for writing in the first place — then there’s either a flaw in your system or you haven’t set a goal that makes sense for you.
The same thing is true for your business. If you love the idea of using a blog to attract traffic and clients, but you never want to actually write those blog posts, that may not be the best system for you.
A system involves the activities you need to do to reach your goal, how often you need to do them, how much time you need to put in, and even the time of day that you’ll do them. Each of these components can vary widely. To find a good system for your writing business, begin with the goal you have in mind and then think of several different ways you could get there. Try to come up with at least five.
Review what you’ve come up with and choose the system you’re most excited about that also seems feasible based on your other commitments.
Trial and Error Is Part of the Process
Sometimes the system you come up with feels exciting at first and then quickly falls apart.
For the novel writing example, maybe your system is to write 1,000 words a day, but after a week, you realize that feels daunting and you find yourself dreading your writing sessions. Rather than scrap your goal, try adjusting your system.
Maybe you discover that writing 250 words is enjoyable. That will still get you to your goal… it will just take longer to arrive. But, if you can’t stick to 1,000 words a day, and you can stick to 250, then 250 is the better system for you.
For your writing business, once you implement a system, pay attention to how you feel about it and how often you make excuses to avoid it. If after a few weeks, you’re not sticking to your system, it may be that you just don’t enjoy it. Try tweaking it so that you do, and you’ll get a much better result.
New on the Site
Offering email fulfillment series as a project is a way to help both your clients and their customers. Your clients benefit because a good fulfillment series can reduce returns, increase good ratings and reviews, and bring in more repeat business. Your client’s customers benefit because they have the information they need to make the best possible use of the product they’ve purchased. See how to apply user experience principles to write a winning email fulfillment series in my most recent UX/CX Copywriting column.
Google’s AI tool, Gemini, is one of the newest AI tools to generate a lot of buzz. In her latest Trends & Technology column, Jen Phillips April digs into Gemini, what it’s capable of, and how you can start integrating it into your workflow. Give it a read.
In Jennifer Ayling’s newest Reality Blog post, she shares a helpful tool for anyone looking to start building an email list and do a little email marketing. She also walks you through her audience research process, which you can adapt to get familiar with your own target market. It’s a simple process and very useful, so check it out!
3 Things You Might Enjoy…
Since ChatGPT and other AI tools have come on the scene, there’s been a lot of advice thrown around about how to use these tools. The Content Marketing Institute has collected some of the worst and shared what you can do instead.
How you open your blog posts and articles matters… a lot. It’s your chance to hook your reader. And if you don’t, your piece won’t get read. Darren Rowse of Problogger shares 11 ways to structure an effective opener.
Understanding customer journeys can help you be a better writer and a more valuable partner to your clients. You can learn customer journey basics in this post from HubSpot.
That’s all for now. Have a great weekend!
