Posted by: Suzanne Richardson
March 31, 2009
Issue #641

How to Become a Writer
(Even If You’re a Really Bad Writer Now)

Over 3.6 million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Your job could be in danger, and with it, your entire future.

That’s why you need an ace up your sleeve. You might be surprised to learn that one of the best ways to protect yourself from the recession mess is to become a writer. I’ll explain how in a second. Then I’m going to give you a super simple strategy for becoming a writer - starting today!

First things first. Writing can …

• Help you get your business off the ground. Writing an e-mail newsletter is an inexpensive way to market a fledgling business. Michael Masterson began Early to Rise with around $1,000, a simple website, and a newsletter. Originally, it was sent only to his friends and colleagues. But it grew. Now, Early to Rise is a $26 million business with over 450,000 readers.

• Help you become wealthy. I’m not suggesting that you’ll be the next J.K. Rowling. Most fiction writers struggle to get published, let alone make a living. But copywriting is a career path that can really rack up the cash. Clayton Makepeace, Bob Bly, Paul Hollingshead, Don Mahoney - each one of these men makes hundreds of thousands of dollars each year by writing sales copy.

• Move you up to the top of your company. This is another way to make copywriting pay off for you. After all, as Michael Masterson points out in his best seller, Automatic Wealth, the best way to get promoted is to get into the profit centers of your company. Writing copy that helps directly bring in money is one of the quickest ways to do it.

• Help you find a job - in any economy. A recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that the number one thing employers look for in new employees is “communication skills.” And a 2006 survey of 431 human resource officials indicated that those skills aren’t easy to find. Forty-seven percent reported that their employees who were graduates of two-year colleges were deficient in written communications, and 81 percent reported that their high-school-graduate employees had the same deficiency.

So if you know how to write, you’ll give yourself a big lead over other people competing for the job you want. Not convinced? My ability to write is what got me a job at Early to Rise - fresh out of grad school, with very little work experience. And it helped me become Managing Editor in six short months.

• Help your business grow. The more traffic you get to your website, the more chances you have to find paying customers. And filling your website with high-quality content is a great way to get Google’s attention … and start attracting visitors.

Real estate expert Julie Broad started her Internet business in late 2007. Then she started writing articles on real estate investing for Early to Rise. Soon afterward, her site’s traffic had increased 10 times. All because she was exposing her ideas and expertise - through writing - to 450,000+ Early to Rise subscribers.

• Help build your credibility. Writing articles about your area of expertise can establish your credibility and help you get published in top publications in your industry.

Bob Bly shares this observation on the subject from E.U., a successful publisher: “It is simply amazing the reverence people have for the printed word. Simply because a person has written a book about a subject, people think he has something to say about it.”

And those are just a few reasons.

But it seems to me that a lot of people are intimidated by the idea of becoming a writer. If that’s the way you feel, I have (as I said at the beginning of this article) a super-easy way for you to do it:

Just get started.

If you don’t start writing, you won’t ever become a writer. 

I know a very smart, very experienced marketing expert we’ll call “Alec.” He has thousands of good ideas and a brain full of useful advice. But as soon as he tries to put it down on paper, he gets stuck.

He’s been invited to be a guest writer for a well-known marketing publication. And appearing in that publication’s pages could enhance his reputation, help him reach hundreds of thousands of new prospective customers, and get the attention of industry giants who could propel him to greater success.

But because he can’t even bring himself to start writing down his ideas … he’s missing out on all that potential.

This first step is very important. (And it works for any type of writing - articles, sales copy, fiction.) You simply choose an idea - one small idea that you’d like to share. And you write it down.

Then you give it to three people to read - even if those three people are your spouse, your best friend, and your grandmother. Or you post it to your blog, save it on your computer; put it in your journal. Just get it out of your head and onto the page.

And you do the same thing the next day … and the next day … and the next day.

Don’t worry about grammar. Don’t worry about spelling. Or whether you expressed yourself well. You can hone your writing skills later. (And, by the way, Early to Rise has tons of great advice on that subject. To access it, all you have to do is a quick search through our Archives.)

Side Note: Many successful writers - including Clayton Makepeace, Michael Masterson, Bob Bly, Charlie Byrne, and John Forde (to name a few) - write beautifully. So it’s worthwhile to learn what it takes to be a fine writer. But when you’re just starting out, doing the actual writing is much more important than crafting elegant sentences and paragraphs.

The thing is, if you wait until you can write like Jane Austen … or if you wait until you have a big list of potential subscribers to your not-yet-launched newsletter … or if you wait until you “get inspired” - you will never get started. You will NEVER become a good writer. And you won’t get any of the benefits that come with being a good writer either. So don’t wait. Start right now.

Michael Masterson has said it hundreds of times: Ready, Fire, Aim. You’ve already got the experience or the passion or the ideas. So you’re Ready. Now it’s time to Fire - to start writing about it. And then you can work on the Aiming/improving.

Pick up a pencil or open up a Word document and write something down. Right now. It’s as simple as that.

Contributed by Suzanne Richardson
Guest Contributor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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11 Comments »

1. Comment by mark — March 31, 2009 @ 9:44 am

   Good post.

   Too many people wait for everything to be perfect.

2. Comment by karen — March 31, 2009 @ 10:48 am

   Great effective, yet gentle, kick-in-the-butt reminder of what we probably all know but have tucked away in the back-burner somewhere for another day - that we never seem to get to - yet should. Good job - Thanks.

3. Comment by Marcelino Latorre — March 31, 2009 @ 11:30 am

   This article was hot!

4. Comment by Chu D. Obii — March 31, 2009 @ 11:38 am

   Beautiful advise, its as simple as “Ready, Fire, then Aim”… Just get started…

5. Comment by Chris — March 31, 2009 @ 3:42 pm

   I fully agree. To get good at writing, you have to start…writing. Then read any helpful books . Not the other way. You will sit and wait forever.

6. Comment by Julie — March 31, 2009 @ 10:48 pm

   WOW! What a great surprise to receive this little mention Suzanne. Thank you! This is a great article - and I completely agree that it’s critical that you just start! In addition to all of the great benefits you mentioned, I also find that writing articles forces me to collect my thoughts. I wouldn’t normally schedule time to reflect on what’s made our real estate investing partnerships work, but if I decide to write about that subject I will spend several hours thinking about it. After spending that time thinking I am very well prepared to clearly explain my thoughts if someone were to ask me. Having clear and well thought out answers to questions in my area of expertise makes me look even more credible, knowledgeable and experienced!

   And, the more you write - the easier it gets!

7. Comment by Noel Gama — April 1, 2009 @ 1:10 am

   How true - I’ve moved up the rungs of one of India’s largest steel pipe manufacturing companies because of my writing.

   Here’s how: My primary job is conceptualizing, making sound policies, framing effective rules and devising systems that work. But when it comes to implementing these very policies and systems, it’s persuasive writing that is the defining factor between success or failure.

   To unearth the insider secrets of the masters of the art and science of persuasion, I immersed myself in the world of copywriting. As an AWAI-trained Off/Online copywriter, I was made head of CorpComm in addition to HR.

8. Comment by Jeremy — April 1, 2009 @ 5:50 am

   Great inspiring article. Just what I needed. Thank you.

9. Comment by RAY EDWARDS — April 1, 2009 @ 12:44 pm

   For sure writing gives you the ability to write your own check. The sheer portability of a freelance writer’s job is a big PLUS. I’ve move a couple of times over the past 10 years and the fact that I write copy for a living means I only require internet access to stay “employed”.

   People give me questioning looks when I try to explain to them what I do for a living.

   Three cheers for writing!

10. Comment by Daniel Cajiga — April 1, 2009 @ 4:29 pm

    Thank you very much Susan, we need this kind of motivation from time to time. I have started writing some months ago but left it for procrastination, I´m going to write something right now.

    Thanks again. Thanks to this amazing Total Package as well!

    Daniel Cajiga

11. Comment by Solomon — April 3, 2009 @ 5:01 am

    I read somewhere that until you coherently put across about your expertise in writing, your expertise isn’t complete.
    Not only that, if the the business heads and entrepreneurs become writers (at least try it), our job will be easier, and won’t deride the copywriter’s contribution.
    It’s a good exhortation to take up writing. If it is for a job or for a living, I don’t know, for certainly becoming a good expert in whatever field, and capacities we are.
    It’s a good post and timely too!
    Solomon