How to Establish Yourself as a Writer

by Cris Yeager
DIGITAL MEDIA GHOST
Ghostwriting

Writing is an increasingly popular way to make money as a career, and with the plethora of online writing platforms available today, it’s never been easier to start earning money as a writer. How do you start a writing career? It’s an essential question that every budding writer must ask themselves at some point in their journey, particularly when they are just starting out.

Getting a writing career off the ground takes work.

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When you start, it's easy to become quickly discouraged because there are so many writers on the market and how difficult it seems to get paid work. Here is some advice to help out when trying to launch a writing career. Establish yourself as a writer before you start chasing down assignments or pitching your services by showcasing your work in ways that demonstrate your writing skills and knowledge of the industry or genre you’re interested in working in.

The hard part comes after you’ve already started – how do you keep up your income levels? How do you establish yourself as a writer in the eyes of others so that you can command the income and clients you want? Here are some tips on how to go about doing just that.

Publish something
No matter what your career goals are, you need to start by establishing yourself as a writer. This means publishing something, whether it’s a blog post, an article, or even just a social media update. By putting your work out there, you’re telling the world that you’re serious about your writing career. A few things you can do is:

• Start a blog: Begin by writing a few short blog posts in the same topic range. Choose topics that are relevant to one another and that you know a lot about in the beginning. You can expand later on.
• Create a website: Keep your pages to a minimum and add only relevant information about upcoming services and yourself. Attach your new blog!
• Guest posting: Check blogs that distribute information in your writing niche to see if they accept guest contributors.

You're a writer from day one
Don't wait to call yourself a writer, you already are if you have the skill. Use your platforms of choice and write consistently. Publish something every week to keep within the means of search results. Searches engines rank websites higher with updated, new content. Publish articles with plenty of good keywords to attract people in your niche or find clients who need writers. Create an author page on social media like LinkedIn or Facebook where you can link back to your website and promote all of your work there. Keep writing. Write every single day in some way if you can. Keep your blog updated at least weekly and any social media statuses new daily. Look for reasons to write when you don't have ideas! Just write...

You're a writer, get it done!
By showing potential clients that you are a writer with a solid body of work, you increase the chances of landing higher-paying gigs. Keep in mind that it's never too late to start writing or building your career. 

And if none of these things work out, remember that there are many ways you can turn your love for words into income: publishing books or freelance editing; ghostwriting; teaching creative writing courses; even blogging about non-writing-related topics like crafts or hobbies - anything really! So get started today and establish yourself as a writer!

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