I’ve said this before, but I think that it is worth repeating: earning money online is not easy. It takes time, effort, and sometimes sacrifice. I can think of many times I would have rather been gardening or hiking, or even getting household chores done, but my writing had to come first.
One of the easiest ways to make sure that you can be successful as an online writer or niche blogger is to make a writing schedule. Set aside a certain number of hours each week and commit. For me, scheduling writing time is something that is really difficult. I can’t set a schedule of 1 hour per day, from 3:15 – 4:15 because life is unpredictable.
But what I can do is decide how many articles I will write or how many hours each week I will spend creating content. This more relaxed approach allows the pressure that leads to writer’s block to cease and to keep me from feeling burned out. Knowing that I can opt-in to things I need to do keeps me exciting about returning to the keyboard to write.
Here is my writing plan:
- Write 10 articles per week at various sites
- Put in five hours per week of blog maintenance and affiliate maintenance
That’s it. I know that once I have met my goals, my income is still on the upward trend and I am adding to my residual income.
Another thing I like to do is manage my vacation schedule with these same rules. For example, my family is traveling to Florida this holiday season. We’re driving, which means four offline days over the course of 14 days. But I still need to make sure I am meeting my goals. Just as someone at a “real job” would make sure everything is in place before they go on vacation (or scramble like mad when they return), I need to make sure that my online income is ready for me to take a break.
So, I work ahead. For this particular blog, just as an example, I write my posts ahead of time, usually in batches of three or four. My goal is to make sure that I have content updating as often as necessary to keep this blog moving. So, while I am on vacation, you’ll still be reading the latest information because I have planned ahead.
As far as articles go, I am trying to post an additional 2 – 3 articles in the three weeks leading up to my break. It’s a little extra time, but using my article rewriting strategies, what this really means is that I have to write only one more article, and then rewrite it twice for other sites.
Having a writing plan and sticking to it will greatly increase your chances of success when it comes to earning money online. If you treat it like the job it is, you’ll get the paycheck you deserve.
