How Blogging Led to a Career Without Limits
A guest post from Sean Platt of Writer Dad
As a professional writer, my job is to saturate my days with words and ideas, filling screen or page with sentences designed to inspire. When I first started blogging I actually wondered how I would possibly manage to produce a fresh topic every day of the week. It’s now seven months later and I’m writing on around ten topics per day as my words are sprinkled from dot coms to dot infos all across the Internet.
The amazing thing about blogging, besides the instant access to a global population, is the inordinate amount of writing you must do just to keep your blog in orbit. Before starting Writer Dad, I wrote for only myself, my thoughts merely spun into sentences from within the desert of my own mind.
I sat, wrote, and pondered. Then I wrote some more.
Blogging is different. Writing for a blog means there’s a ticking clock always behind you. Within a month of my first post, the mood had changed to something more along the lines of: write, ponder, publish, repeat.
It isn’t just about writing the posts. Being an active blogger means you also have comments to answer, an inbox to sort through, and a reader full of other people’s thoughts to meditate and possibly remark upon. Thought fuels further thinking. A few months into Writer Dad and I realized how deep the well ran.
Our brains will keep on giving. So long as we’re willing to feed our creativity, and give our muse her rest when needed, there is no shortage to what we will see return. By the second month I had found my flow. By the third month I was almost on auto pilot, writing now taking the tone of conversation rather than the labor of construction.
At first I started to craft content for sites outside my own, then I began to help friends and colleagues polish copy. By the end of the year, I realized I was effectively writing five or six articles (minimum) day in day out across an unbelievably wide spectrum of topics.
Just like a freelance writer.
Ghostwriter Dad was born. I swept the floors and opened shop. The same tools I had been using to effectively blog seven days a week had provided me with a razor sharp toolset to deal with anything that fell on my plate Monday through Friday without ever having to feel the flutter of failure.
Lawnmowers, DUI, graphic design, vacation rentals, pet grooming, and bar-b-que grills. Those are literally the first six subjects that bounced into my brain when I decided to list just a few of the subjects I’ve been asked to write across the last couple of weeks.
If you can speak, you can write. If you can write, you can blog. If you can blog, you might be able to blog yourself into a steady career living as a freelance writer.
Sean Platt is a fantastic father and a gifted ghostwriter who also tweets.
29 Responses to “How Blogging Led to a Career Without Limits”
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I never get bored of your writing, Sean. It always has a ring, and a certain degree of mystery to it. :-)
Your last paragraph in this post is excellent:
“If you can speak, you can write. If you can write, you can blog. If you can blog, you might be able to blog yourself into a steady career living as a freelance writer.”
There are some days when I like to think being a successful blogger really isn’t all that hard. We just have to write, and write well. With a little practice, that’s not too hard for most people, right? :-)
Excellent post, as always, Sean!
Jamie
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Thanks for reminding me the word “write” is a verb and someone who “writes” is a writer; it’s too easy to theorize and intellectualize, but that’s not writing. I admire your ability to crank it out in such volume, but I also know the reason you can is because you do.
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Wonderful story! Best of success for your venture.
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Jamie: Thanks, Jamie. I think that’s well said, we have to write and write well. As we continue to communicate more and more online, our writing skills must keep pace. Here’s to hoping our schools are up for the challenge.
Terry: EXACTLY. It’s staggering how many writers don’t want to let others into their club. Write is a verb indeed.
Barbara: Thanks a lot! I appreciate it.
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Wow, what a great post. Congratulations on finding your niche!
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As someone who is just starting to feel the “flow” of writing, I find your post hopeful.
You have discovered the simple happiness and satisfaction that comes from communicating great ideas through words. I am just starting to feel that and I don’t even have much of an audience yet.
Blogging is so satisfying when we write from the heart.
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I’m very happy at your success, Sean.
I bet your writing is getting better too. I find that the more I write the better I get.
By now you must be some kind of a writing maniac.
Well done.
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately: how writing and blogging are two very different beasts. There is more interaction and community in blogging than in writing fiction.
Not that one is better than the other, but finding a nice balance is good.
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I hope that writing about that DUI wasn’t based on experience Sean! ;)
I agree with Bamboo in that I’ve noticed an improvement in my writing as I continue to practice the art.
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Great post! The more we write, the better at it we become, even when we’re blogging. Congratulations on your success.
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I like knowing that there are others out there who didn’t have some religious experience and suddenly become a famous freelancer overnight.
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@Trina You mean you haven’t seen the photo of Sean with the heavenly light shining down upon him?
Ah wait, must have been his hair as a teenager ;)
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Solvang: Thanks. I’m still finding my true niche I suppose, but I’m a lot closer than I’ve ever been before.
Charles: No doubt. For me it happened once I realized that writing wasn’t too far removed from conversation. I can talk for hours, surely I could write for minutes. Simple happiness is well stated. Thank you.
Bamboo: Definitely. I look back on stuff I wrote just six months ago and, though I don’t cringe, I do place it into a folder marked, “DO NOT OPEN!”
Writer’s Coin: I found that the snappy way in which I was writing my blog posts lent itself really well to the fiction I was writing. At least until my blog submerged to swallow me whole!
Marc: Nope, never even been close to having one of those! The more we read the more we absorb. The more we write the more fluid we become. Read, write, repeat. Best. Recipe. Ever.
Cyndy: Thanks, Cyndy. Writing for blogs is still writing. Even writing emails is writing so long as we’re paying attention to what we’re doing.
Trina: Oh far from it. It’s a daily struggle, but one I feel I am slowly winning.
Marc: It was definitely the hair.
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This is a great inspiration. I just changed my blog’s design, gave it a new name (inspiredtowrite.com) and it HAS been easier to write once I get in a groove. The more you do it, the easier it gets. I actually look forward to it now, even more than my ‘money making’ articles. I don’t have the readers to keep up with, but I hope to someday and inspire them all. :)
Thanks for you words!
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What I love about your writing, Sean, is that you dare to be vulnerable and deeply personal, and in doing that, you touch the universal in all of us. You have a lyrical soul and that helps your voice soar. You’ll definitely succeed in all your writing ventures; you have the right mix of heart and talent, savvy and hard graft plus the laser focus that it takes to suceed in a career as a writer.
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Hi,
I’m Dulce and I work at a company interested in text link advertising.
I find your website http://writetodone.com/
engaging, enterprising, and full of information. With this in mind, placing our link on your site and paying you for this will be a win-win situation for both of us.
Tell me if you’re interested so we can discuss further details about it. I’m looking forward to doing business with you. In any case, you’ve got a great site. Keep it up.
Best regards,
Dulce Liebe
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Very inspiring Sean. Nice work my friend.
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I spent several months trying to win freelance projects on Elance. I started using the advice in this blog: http://freelancemoney.wordpress.com/ and have been working consistently ever since. Can be “salesy” at times, but the information is invaluable. Read it!
Yani
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Dulce — This is not the place for inquiries like that. For contact information, see http://writetodone.com/about/.
WriterDad — This is a good summary, but you don’t fully deliver on the promise of the headline. What is your employment status? Are you working on writing full-time, or what? Who are your clients? And what does the phrase “career without limits” mean? You don’t talk about limits.
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Great post! Good information and inspiration!
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Very nice, Sean. I’m so excited to see how far you’ve come since we first spoke so many months ago. I knew you’d find your way and be a great success!
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Hi Sean,
It’s one great read for me today. Often in days when I chance upon a great article like yours here, I thank the Lord for the grace to read one.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Solomon
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Wow! Thanks for the motivation! I’m just getting back on my feet doing a little personal blogging (I gave it up for a long time and just started a new one this past weekend). I know that feeling of a ticking clock pushing you to keep creating, responding and engaging. Of course, without any readers yet, I’m still in the “lazy days”. You’re a definite inspiration. Keep up the great work.
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Thanks, Sean. I had just about given up on ever freelancing. I am hesitating between a lifelong, probably fruitless, devotion to fiction, and whatever reasonable, maybe writing-related job I can find within 30 miles of home. My blog exists to keep me honest. It’s lovely to hear that it could be good for both my skills and my income.
-Linnea
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Your article very interesting, I have introduced a lot of friends look at this article, the content of the articles there will be a lot of attractive people to appreciate, I have to thank you such an article.
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More motivation for me after read this post, many thanks
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