This guest post is by Ali Hale of DailyWritingTips.com.
Blogging can feel like a long, hard road—especially when you're starting out. You haven't hit 100 subscribers, let alone 1,000, and it feels like you're writing into a vacuum.
And even when you're a little way down that blogging road, it can still be tough. You might be spending two or three hours a day on blogging—writing content, answering comments, building up friendships on Twitter and Facebook. Chances are, you're not making much money from it, though.
I'm not going to suggest that you give up. I'm not going to suggest that you work harder, either, pouring more and more hours into your blog.
Instead, I'm going to suggest something which you might never have considered before: becoming a freelance writer as well as being a blogger.
This might sound like a huge step. But really, you just need two key things:
- the ability to write well
- some contacts who're willing to pay you.
These might well be challenges—but they're not insurmountable hurdles.
Prerequisite #1: Being able to write
You certainly don't have to be a budding Shakespeare in order to write a competent, professional blog post—but you do need a strong grasp of grammar, and the ability to write engagingly.
There are certainly a few sites out there which will pay you for sloppy, lazy content—but the rate of pay will be abysmal. If you're going to write for a good, reputable blog, your writing needs to be solid. That doesn't mean flawless (even professional authors have copy-editors) but you should know:
- how to construct an engaging blog post, with a gripping introduction, clear message, and strong conclusion
- how to format your posts for easy readability, using subheadings, short paragraphs, bold text, and bullet pointed lists
- how to adapt your writing style for different purposes—some blogs will want a much more...
