Episode 97 – The #1 Thing Every Writer Needs to Succeed

Speaker 1 (00:00):

You are listening to episode number 97 of inspire your success podcast. On today’s episode, I’m going to talk about the number one thing you need as a writer to drastically scale your income and raise your rates coming up.

Speaker 2 (00:19):

Hi, I’m Michael Leonard and I built a full time online writing business that offers me the freedom to never go back to a cubicle in a nine to five if you’re like most people, you want to make more money to pay off debt, have more freedom, travel, and actually enjoy your life. Whether you want to earn $500 per month as a side hustle or scale writing business to five figures per month and quit your job. Making money as a writer has never been easier in this podcast. I want to inspire your success as a freelancer and show you how I 10 X my income in one year and made $20,000 in one month as a freelance writer. If I can do it, I know you can too. Thanks so much for being here.

Speaker 1 (01:04):

All right. Welcome back to the show. In this episode of a writing Wednesday. I teased it a little bit there at the beginning, but again, we are going to talk about the number one thing I think that every writer needs. And uh, before we get into that, thank you again for being here. This is your host, Michael Leonard, a freelance writer and freelance writing coach who is out here to inspire your success and really just share a quick and easy thing that you can do as a beginning writer today. And that is this. It is all about creating your niche. And I would argue that this is the one of the best things that you can do as a freelance writer for so many reasons. And before we get into like how to choose your niche, um, I want to share a little bit about what niches I’ve been paid to write about as a freelancer.

Speaker 1 (01:59):

So the first one, I guess starting back all the way in like 2017 was personal finance. So I did a lot of personal finance, writing, um, money, retirement investing, things like that. Then it transitioned into personal development because I was a little tired of writing about money in Roth IRAs and everything else. And then from there I really like it. I still write some personal development, but then I also kind of transitioned more into digital marketing as well. So, um, if you listen to the last few episodes where I’ve been talking about working with James Wedmore, um, you know, that I’m a huge geek for all this digital marketing stuff. I mean, I love webinars and email funnels and Facebook ads and all this stuff. I really excites me because there’s so much opportunity to build an online business out there. And so I naturally kind of attracted some clients in that niche as well.

Speaker 1 (02:54):

And then, you know, of all those, the fourth niche is golf writing. And so you’ve listened to any of the episodes. You know, I’m a huge golfer. I talk about golf. It’s one of the reasons I quit my six figure job back in 2017, um, was to pursue professional golf. And somehow I have managed to become a golf writer and I never planned on this. Um, but my passion for golf and writing mixed and um, I’ve made, uh, close to about $40,000. I think, uh, maybe more than that now since, uh, when we published a post, uh, about it, uh, just from writing about golf and that’s working part time, you know, doing blog posts and eBooks, lead magnet, stuff like that. Nothing crazy. And uh, you know, I’ve been able to earn a lot of money from golf writing and then I’ve been fortunate again to write about personal finance, personal development, self-improvement stuff, uh, and digital marketing.

Speaker 1 (03:46):

So just goes to show you guys that there is a lot of things out there that you can get paid to write about. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Um, you know, some of my students write about yoga, fitness, personal development, uh, technology. I mean, there’s so many niches out there, but that’s the thing. You have to have a niche in my opinion. Again, there’s no one way to do this. You can be really the alternative, which is more of a generalist writer. Uh, but to me that’s, that’s making things harder on yourself because when you’re a generalist, you know, you might write about pets one day, then you write about, you know, garage doors the next day, and then you write about digital marketing the next day, and then you write about social media the next day. Um, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Speaker 1 (04:33):

I always tell people when they join freelance to 5k and they don’t have a niche yet, I say, Hey, no problem. But that is something you’re gonna want to get to sooner rather than later just because when you have a niche, you can charge more money. You become an expert in your niche, which helps you attract more clients. Plus the better and more versed you are at a specific subject, the faster you can write, which then means the more clients you can take on if you want. And that means, of course, more income and hitting your goals. So just to give you an example, guys, this morning I crushed out like 6,000 words of golf content. Um, and it took me, Oh, what was that? About three hours. So I was writing about 2000 words an hour, um, with a couple of 10 minute breaks in there.

Speaker 1 (05:23):

So, you know, that was, I dunno what, six, 800 bucks, something like that this morning. And that was in, in the morning just because I’m such a knowledgeable golf writer and I’m not bragging here. I’m sure you’re knowledgeable about several subjects as well. But I think that’s one of the biggest things. That is why you should have a niche. But it’s funny because people don’t really think about it like that. They think about it because you can become an expert. Sure. You know, you want to become an expert, but most people don’t think about the time they’re spending as a writer. So one of the biggest things that I’ve learned is that, you know, your time is valuable and you can never get your time back. You can always make more money, but you can’t ever get your time back despite all the things we do to try and help.

Speaker 1 (06:06):

Um, so that’s why it’s really important to learn how to write faster and to write, um, better and just to have less mistakes and to not have to do tons of research because you are an expert in a specific niche. And so there’s a lot of things that I talk about inside freelance and 5k about that. Um, and, and talk about, you know, more ways to kind of niche down and stuff. But I wanted to give you just a really simple three-part formula to find your own niche. So the first thing is, is that again, you want to either be knowledgeable about it already or you want to have a strong desire to learn about it. So maybe you’re knowledgeable about personal finance. Maybe you’re knowledgeable about fitness or about alternative health or about technology or sales or CBD or I mean anything. Literally there’s a niche for anything out there, but you have to one, be knowledgeable about it or you have to want to learn about it.

Speaker 1 (07:05):

Because again, the reason I can write so fast with golf and digital marketing and personal development is that I know a lot of it already. And so I just am regurgitating it and talking about it differently. It’s not to say I don’t do research. Um, don’t get me wrong. I’m not just like, uh, an unbelievable writer who knows everything. That’s not the case. But I’m saying I do less research because I know what I’m talking about and I just, you know, find sources and link to those and things like that. But at the end of the day, that’s one of the coolest things about having a niche is that you can just crush out content and you can really get the ball rolling. And it’s because I’m so knowledgeable about it. And so that’s where I suggest you starting at is thinking, what are you knowledgeable about?

Speaker 1 (07:46):

Maybe it’s a past career, maybe it’s a passion you’ve had your whole life. Like I’ve had golf. Um, maybe it’s just something you’ve always wanted to learn about and you’re ready to put your head down and read some books, watch some videos, take a course and learn about something. Whatever it is, that’s totally fine. But that’s the first thing that you really need to get your niche. The second thing is, is that you want to make sure it’s in demand. Um, you know, if your niche is underwater basket weaving, you might not have a huge array of clients. Now, of course they use them, noxious example there, but that’s kind of the point is that you need to make sure that there are content. Um, you know, there are content sites out there, blogs, websites, YouTube channels, whatever you’re writing for. You need to make sure, um, that people are actually writing about this and that it’s an in demand thing.

Speaker 1 (08:32):

Um, you know, if it’s, if it’s some out of date thing or out of date niche that people just aren’t as really interested or maybe it’s like a trend. Um, you know, a lot of things come and go, stuff like that. Yeah, sure. Um, you want to obviously avoid those because again, if you become a niche or if you’ve been an expert in your niche, but there’s no websites to write for, well what’s the point? Right? So that’s the second thing. And that really comes from doing some, you know, you, you just have to figure out what your niche is and then do some Google, good old fashioned Google research going up, work, check for job listings going pro blogger, look for job listings, and then just type in the niche plus a blog. So for example, if I was starting over and I wanted to see if golf was a good niche, I’d type in golf, blog, golf, blog writing, golf writers, golf freelancers, all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (09:17):

And I would just search and I would just look for golf sites because even if you don’t find necessarily job listings, if you find blogs and websites that have fresh new content, that means somebody is hitting publish and it’s most likely not the blog owner doing all of it. That means they need to hire people like you. So that’s kind of where it comes in. And so do some good old fashioned research. Create a Google doc, you know, maybe write down a list of 20 different blogs, websites you could write for and then figure out, you know, if you can reach out to them. But again, that is just something you’re going to have to do. Of course there’s going to be niches that are forever going to be prevalent like personal finance or health or fitness, stuff like that. But you want to kind of niche down even further if you can in the beginning.

Speaker 1 (10:00):

Um, so that way you can again kind of get your start and that way you can find a sub niche even within your niche as well. So tip number three in this three step process here is to make sure it’s, it’s at least profitable. Um, you know, I’m not saying that you need to have like the, you know, most high paying niche, which is probably like personal finance or cryptocurrency or something like that. But at the end of the day, you want to make sure that you’re not going to be working for pennies on the dollar. And if that is the case, here is what I recommend if you’re just set on a niche. But man, it just doesn’t seem to be that profitable. Here’s what I would do is I would have that be your secondary niche. So that’s really what I’d done in the last few years and it’s worked out well.

Speaker 1 (10:46):

And so, you know, golf writing is not my main niche. I would say my main niche is still the digital marketing side of things. But the golf niche is something that I love doing. Um, it provides, you know, two to four grand a month in income just for a couple of blog posts and different projects for clients. And I love doing it. And that is, again, it’s a fast, it’s a fast project for me. I’m passionate about golf so I don’t have to spend hours and hours doing research. Um, so even though it might not be making 20 or 30 cents a word, I can crank out this content and I love helping golfers, so it’s like a win, win. Um, and I, I mean, if I really wanted to, I know I could probably grow the golf niche and I think that’s something that could happen in, uh, later 2020 as I launch, um, my golf brand.

Speaker 1 (11:34):

But for right now, and really what I’ve done the last two years is I’ve had a secondary niche. And so I talk a lot more about how to have a secondary niche inside freelance to 5k. And I think this is such a valuable thing that you can do, but most writing coaches are not telling you to do this, but this is a little secret little hack that I’ve used. And that’s just to have a secondary niche that is around your passion. So you know, that way you can have your main niche, maybe be quote unquote, more profitable or have more opportunities, but you use that secondary niche to really recharge and fall in love with your writing. So that’s kind of where, where I’m at with, uh, you know, having that secondary niche. I’m never someone that tells my students don’t have more than one, you gotta just do this.

Speaker 1 (12:18):

Um, I think to me that’s kind of a losing formula. But again, that’s, that’s my 2 cents on it. But just a quick recap here. Um, you know, obviously you learned a lot of why the niche is important and how you can use it to make more money, but then follow this three step formula guys. You know, find a niche that’s in demand, something you’re knowledgeable about or want to learn about and something that’s profitable. And again, if it’s not profitable, make it your secondary niche. And we’re going to have another episode all about secondary niches probably, but just keep that in the back of your mind. And then finally, guys, make sure you download the new checklist here for June. It’s going to be very easy to take it and run with it and put it right into your business. So if you go over to inspire your success.com forward slash quick wins, you can get this new checklist and it’s a five part formula here to basically get some quick wins in your business.

Speaker 1 (13:10):

So that way you can generate some momentum, maybe even land a client and start that freelance writing career. You’re not going to want to miss this. It’s super easy. It’ll give you five things you can do today to get some quick wins, build that momentum, get that dopamine flowing through your body and get super excited about your future as a successful writer. So again, go over to inspire your success.com forward slash quick wins. Enter your email, we’ll get that sent your way. And then you can also just take a look at the show notes and click the link there. So thank you again guys. Very excited, uh, for everyone for tuning in. We’re on month six of kind of relaunching the podcast and having a lot of success. So thank you again for showing up, listening. Um, emailing me, leaving reviews means the world to me.

Speaker 1 (13:56):

So finally, if you are enjoying this content and you want to help other people, please go out there and leave a five star rating and review that way more people can learn about this. Apple really seems to reward people that have more reviews. And again, my goal is to really inspire hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people with this content. So you can help out with that. And you know, just as a thank you for me sharing all this content with you, uh, if you could just leave me that review, it’ll just take a few minutes. Um, and it would be so greatly appreciated by myself and the team over here at inspire your success. So thank you so, so much. Uh, stay safe, stay positive, keep inspiring others with your own actions and if you ever need any help or have any questions about working together or just about writing or podcast episodes that you want in the future, email [email protected] Thank you again for listening. And as always, I hope you have an Epic day.

Speaker 2 (15:01):

Thanks for listening to this episode of inspire your success podcast. If you’re the kind of person who likes to help others, please leave a positive review on iTunes so more people can learn about the show. Also, if you have any questions about freelancing, I’m here to assist. Please email [email protected] and I may even use your question for a future episode topic, and if you want more inspiration and freelance writing tips to build your business, follow me on Instagram. My username is at, I am Michael Leonard. Finally, if you’re ready to learn how to make your first thousand dollars as a freelance writer, check out my free seven day [email protected] forward slash one Kay. Thanks again for listening.