Marketing Your Web Writing - Self-Promotion Is Not Bragging

To become a highly paid Web writer, you need to spend some energy on promotion. Unfortunately, this is difficult for some writers.

Many Web writers are self-conscious and shy. There are a million and one reasons for this, but to write successfully - that is, to get paid what you're worth - you need to become comfortable at promoting your Web writing. If no one knows what you do, you'll always be scrabbling for the next paycheck, when you could be turning away Web writing clients because you're booked solid.

Here's a snippet (quoted with permission) from an email message I received this week:

"I've tried the out-sourcing sites, but it's ridiculous - 100 articles for $250. Come on! I'm getting discouraged. I don't think I'm cut out to be a writer at all... I know you said I need a Web site, but aside from the effort of learning how to do that, and the time it takes, I don't like bragging. It's just not me."

I'm not against $2 articles - some writers are happy to write for $2, and why not? Web writing is a global occupation, and $2 goes a lot further in India than it does in Europe, the US or Australia. I also know a lot of writers writing for these amounts are college students, earning some extra money.

This is fine - but these people are not professional writers. There's a lot more to professional writing than writing, so to speak.

No one, least of all me, is suggesting that you churn out $2 articles. However, to get paid reasonably well, you do need to put effort into self-promotion.

Self-Promotion Is Not Bragging, It's Marketing, And It Works

All businesses market themselves. Whether it's a local store hiring a sign-writer to plaster the week's specials across a window, or a giant fast-food operation buying blocks of TV advertising time and spending millions in the process, it's promotion, which is a form of marketing. It's not bragging. It's business.

I know that many writers suffer under the impression that they shouldn't need to market their writing. You're an excellent writer - so why should you hustle? It's demeaning.

Well, it's not demeaning. When you know how to do it, it's a lot of fun. I used to be a writer with a "self-promotion is bragging" attitude. So I took a marketing course at my local college. It was the best time and money I ever spent. Of course you don't have to go back to school to learn marketing, you can visit your local library and take out books on marketing.

It's really up to you. There's a lot of money to be made in writing for the Web, and many writers have already made the switch because Web writing has huge benefits. But yes, you do need a Web site, and you do need to do some self-promotion.

Try it - you have nothing to lose, and much to gain. Once you do, I promise you that you'll have a lot of fun. I went from a person who hates all forms of self-promotion to someone who loves it, and you can too. Put some time into self-promotion, and your Web writing income will rise - it really is that simple, and that easy.