My first Income Statement as a Full-time Writer.
Eleven Months of blogging.
Income reports are among my favorite online article reads.
The headline light up my yahoo feed and is usually the one I click on first before embracing my daily avalanche of emails.
I love reading income reports of writers, bloggers, and anyone that makes a living through the written word.
It is one of those things that excites me and keeps my eyes glued to my computer screen.
It’s fascinating to know that writers are making money from their writing and some of them even boast of 6-figure incomes.
Contrary to the myth of the starving-writer syndrome. Or is it a myth?
It has been 11 months since I started my journey into full time writing and I have taken the trip round the bend and back.
I started blogging at the beginning of 2020 due to my research into the steps of successful authors, and their methods used to get to the top of the charts, especially the New York Times bestselling list. These steps included having an author’s website [aka blog].
A home base where the author can showcase their work and communicate with their readers.
I did not want to blog, nor vlog, all I wanted to do was write.
But after 20 years of writing without success, I reluctantly gave in to the recommendation.
THE JOURNEY
So, what have I done thus far?
Other than renting a spaceship and orbiting through the large span of Blogosphere.
Here is a condensed list of my blogging steps.
1. I purchased a website and hosting package.
2. Bought two additional domains for the free websites that came with my hosting package.
3. Opt-in to ten top bloggers’ newsletter. [this was highly recommended by the top bloggers].
4. Purchased a few e-books from top bloggers in the field, inclusive of John Monrow and Ryan Robinson to name a couple.
5. I purchased two Pinterest master classes, one from no other than Elna Cain. [Love her teaching}]
6. Purchased approximately 20 eBooks on social media marketing and blogging.
Read all of them, mind you.
7. I watched a million You-tube videos on blogging and making money with books.
Subscribed to 100 channels and counting.
And a host of other stuff, too many to mention.
Some led me down the rabbit hole, not sure if I am totally out.
A NEW BALL GAME
I must say that blogging was a whole new ball game for me. I knew nothing about computers, technology, and the online arena. So, the learning curve was exceptionally long and winding.
And continues.
Blogging is a lot of work, and sometimes it is hard work. I tip my hat to every aspiring and successful blogger out there.
But I had taken the bait, I was hooked and had no intentions of sinking.
I kept investing.
Some S.E.O. giants like Brian Dean of Backlinko and Neil Patel almost took me off the deep end; my only intention to be successful online as they are. These guys really know their stuff and are great at teaching.
I had almost forgotten the reason I started blogging. And that is to create a platform for the success of my future books. Thankfully, I could swim a little, so reluctantly I let go and made my way back to safety.
Why was I writing? Simply stated:
I write, because I love writing.
I blog, because I want to help others during the process.
And I write books because I want money.
With no need for finances, my writing would stay right where they are, comfortably stuffed in my over-full filling cabinet where they have been nesting for the past 20 years.
But as I mentioned, blogging is a lot of work that takes a lot of time. And if you want to play the game, it is best to learn and abide by the rules.
I did learn a few new words along the way though like “Algorithms” “Blogosphere” and “S.E.O.”
Yah me!
I also learnt about a few companies as well, “Mailchimp.com, AmazonKDP and Medium.com. I had never passed this way and literally never knew they existed.
There are some great perks along the way and blogging really opened a whole new life for me.
So how much money did I make online for the past 11 months?
There is a little thing I like to do in my blog post to celebrate my minor achievements; which is to insert “drumroll please” before the grand announcement.
So today, let’s have that drum roll, please.
And my total blogging income to date is …
$0 dollars and 00 cents. Tada.
How did I accomplish that?
I do not have the complete answer to that, but my instinct points to the fact that I have distributed my eggs in too many baskets at the same time.
Before I started blogging, I just believed that I was a great multi-tasker. The crazy one in the family that does all the running about. It turns out, and I have discovered this term just recently from a fellow blogger, that I have what is known as busy-mind syndrome.
A sensory condition that renders the mind incapable of focusing on one event at a time. Of course, the more optimistic among us labels it as the mind of the visionary.
Lots of great ideas but many unaccomplished tasks.
This describes me, but there is also the fact that I have never made an offer on my website. Nope, there is nothing for sale. So, what is my audience going to invest in, anyway. All there is at the moment is less than 10 blog post.
So, Yikes.
So, I still have a distance to go. The journey is tough, but I am not giving up.
I love writing and 11 months of time and money invested is small compared to what other successful writers had to contribute to the writing arena to succeed at their writing career.
My other monthly commitments along the way includes a subscription to Canva.com, a must have if you want to get some dazzle in your life. Not 100 percent ideal for blogging, but great for everything else. And my Microsoft Office Suite, cannot forget that now.
A few online publications made the early part of the journey easier for me and I must mention ..
1. The Write Life
2. Freedom with Writing
Their weekly emails of various publication updates and publications that are seeking submissions were all I looked forward to in my early months of blogging. To date, I have submitted 5 poetry, 10 short stories and 5 flash fictions.
Some I heard back from with a polite ‘your submission was not accepted’. Some I did not. There was one contest I was certain I was going to win. The rejection email hit me hard. I know the piece was good. The judges decided that there were hundreds better. Well, life goes on, that’s their job after all.
Would I stop trying? No way, even if I wanted to, the cyclone of words in my head would not allow me to.
Giving up would prove nothing except that I was a quitter. Pressing forwards against the odds would prove that I can accomplish anything I diligently set my heart on accomplishing.
Sounds nice, I may just need to find some additional meaning to the word diligent.
Against the admonition of top bloggers, I purchased 3 different domains names and opened 3 WordPress websites.
The way I looked at the situation, I am made up of 3 entirely different components. Body, soul and spirit and all 3 wanted to be expressed and will not allow these expressions to be scheduled for a later date and opportunity. And learning to focus my writing to one niche at a time was torture.
I learnt about Medium somewhere around my fifth month of blogging. I subscribed immediately but never considered submitting my writing until I watched a video on You-tube and learnt that this writing/blogging submissions platform accepts writing in all genres, all lengths, and all styles. Once the piece fits their publication guidelines.
Hello writer’s paradise. Or shall I say, busy-mind syndrome paradise.
I have found my home.
I am on my way to my goal of becoming a self-made best-selling New York Times Author.
Not because I want to boast about being a self-made anything.
I do not have the fare for a ride. So, I walk alone.
Today is exactly two months since I joined the Medium Partner Program and this is my first article submitted to Medium.com.
It will be my last income report about my finances until I have made my first $1,000 dollars writing online. Everything else before that will be expressions of me. Lol.
So, hello Medium. Hello world.
See you all around the corner.
