Can affiliate marketing help you earn more money as a writer working online? The answer is yes; affiliate marketing is a fantastic way to grow your income as a writer. You can create content about the products, services, or tools you use daily. The difference is that you would do this on a niche website about a specific topic or concept rather than about you. In other words, it's different from writing about something personal or what's happening in your day. That's a mistake that new bloggers o...
Mar 13, 2023•33 min
Many people say they need a good idea before they can sit down to write their book. But rather than trying to pick one good idea, generating multiple ideas that you can iterate, test, and work on is much more helpful. You could test them by writing short stories, blog posts, articles, or even creating other types of content. Then you can use all of this real-world information to decide if it's something that your ideal audience is interested in and if it's also something that you want to write a...
Mar 06, 2023•29 min
I'm a big fan of dystopian fiction. George Orwell's 1984 is one of my favorite books of all time, much like many readers. So, I wanted to talk to a dystopian fiction author who understands the conventions of their genre to learn more about their writing process and what it takes to write a book like this. I recently caught up with Aaron Gransby, who is a former journalist. A bit like me. However, he's a lot more experienced in the area. He's currently a magazine publisher, and he's written a new...
Feb 27, 2023•28 min
Do you want to break into the publishing industry? Many authors have questions about how to traditionally publish a book and how to find a literary agent who can help with that process. This week, I caught up with Jeff Herman, who's been working in the industry for 25-plus years. He runs a literary agency in the United States and has published over 1,000 different books. So, he has a wide variety of experience across different genres or niches. In this episode, we discuss: how to land a literary...
Feb 20, 2023•28 min
Have you created a strategy for your newsletter? A newsletter is the best way to communicate directly to your readers without relying on Twitter to surface your posts or Google to rank your articles. When you have a newsletter, you don't have to worry about crazy algorithm changes or something happening to posts that you've optimized for search. I've started several newsletters over the years. Of course, my biggest newsletter is the Become a Writer Today Email List. I'd love it if you could join...
Feb 06, 2023•30 min
One of the most impactful books I've read about productivity and time management is the best seller, Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. The book proposes that the average human lifespan is just 4,000 weeks long, which is a blip in the grand scheme of things. Oliver also writes about how we're just 35 lifetimes separated from the ancient Egyptians. He uses these types of numbers to put in a framework what it means to try and get more things done and why this is a fool's errand. I'm a former ...
Jan 30, 2023•29 min
I'm a big science fiction reader. I also like to watch a lot of science fiction on television. But I have little interest in writing science fiction because it's the type of genre that I like to read when I want to switch off. The best science fiction or speculative fiction books always have a big idea behind them. They have topics they want to tackle and often explain how these things may change our world for the better or worse. I love learning from speculative science fiction authors because ...
Jan 23, 2023•27 min
It's good that you want to become a successful writer, but what tips should you know if you're a beginner? In this episode, I will share 35 tips to help you become a better writer. These are the tips I wish I'd known when I started my writing career before earning a living from writing online. These tips have helped me; they've helped successful authors and can help you too. Resources: The Become a Writer Today Website 35 Effective Writing Tips For Taking Charge Of Your Prose How to Get A Job In...
Jan 16, 2023•25 min
Do you need a book coach? If so, what should you expect from a book coach, and how can they help you become a successful author? Writing can be a lonely process. Sometimes you'll come up with an idea for a book and wonder, is it any good? You might ask a friend or a family member, or a colleague. The result can be conflicting feedback, and it can be difficult to know if this type of feedback is worth listening to. This is where a book coach can help. This week, I caught up with Jennie Nash. She ...
Jan 09, 2023•31 min
Balancing writing fiction and nonfiction, can you do it? What about writing across genres? Should you pick one genre or take on multiple genres for your books? A couple of years ago, I worked with a marketing executive for Become a Writer Today , and he asked me what I liked to write. I explained that I wrote a series of books about the craft of writing, a couple of books about creativity, and some short stories back in the day. I'd also recently written a book called I Can't Believe I'm a Dad ....
Dec 19, 2022•31 min
Deadlines, should you be afraid of them? How much do you plan your books or even your series of books? In my early twenties, I learned one important lesson - the importance of deadlines. Deadlines can help you write book chapters, sections of your book, and even your entire book on time. They can also help you work with editors and then ship it so you can start earning book royalties. If you need help setting deadlines for your book, I recommend that you break it down into smaller milestones. So...
Dec 12, 2022•23 min
Over the years, I've interviewed nearly 200 guests for the Become a Writer Today podcast. These days, I get pitched a lot from potential interviewees. If you're thinking of pitching another show to appear as a podcast guest, ask yourself if your message or book is relevant to their audience. There's no point appearing on a podcast simply because it's popular. A good podcast guest also has an actionable piece of advice to share. They'll prepare in advance and have a compelling story their audienc...
Dec 05, 2022•30 min
Turning events from everyday life into stories is critical for nonfiction writing. It's also vital if you want to become a columnist, and it's even a practice that can help with your fiction. Years ago, I had a dream of becoming a columnist. I sent off dozens of job applications. Eventually, I got a response: "Bryan, you could only become a columnist if you're somebody who people know and feel that their writing is worth reading." In other words, I didn't have any name recognition because I was ...
Nov 28, 2022•33 min
How can you write if you’re experiencing chronic pain? Chronic pain is terrible if you’re a writer because it can prevent you from producing your word count for the day. I know because I’ve experienced migraines on and off over the years. They usually occur when I’m stressed, dehydrated, or tired. When I experience a migraine, I find it exceptionally difficult to look at a computer screen or a phone. I tried to push through the pain at one point, but this didn’t work for me. So now, when I exper...
Nov 21, 2022•32 min
How niche should you go with your books? This week's interviewee is Dr. Guy Windsor. He's well known as a martial arts instructor who teaches people the art of sword fighting, but he's also a well-known author in this particular genre or niche. In fact, he's published over 30 books on the subject, and he's created courses too. I first came across Guy Windsor's work in 2015 when he appeared on The Creative Penn Podcast hosted by Joanna Penn, but he's been writing about martial arts and sword figh...
Nov 14, 2022•32 min
How can search engine optimization help you write? If you’re starting a blog, a content publishing website, or writing online, there are two things that you need to do, spend time actually writing and then figure out how people will find and read your work. You can do this in many different ways, from social media marketing to paid advertising, using your email list, and using search engine optimization. Every writer working online today could benefit from search engine optimization simply becau...
Nov 07, 2022•30 min
What does it take to succeed on Substack today? And if you're thinking of starting your Substack newsletter, are you too late to the party? Over the past few years, I've interviewed several popular Substack newsletter owners. I even interviewed the co-founder of Substack, Hamish McKenzie. Substack has gotten a lot more popular since I first featured it on the Become a Writer Today Show. Now it's used by journalists, writers, fiction writers, novelists, bloggers, and all types of creatives worldw...
Oct 31, 2022•32 min
What should you do if you want to write across genres? And how can you sustain a rewarding and lasting creative career? Perhaps writing across genres is the way to do it. I spend a lot of time thinking about what genre to write in. Like many readers, I like to consume lots of different genres. What you read usually informs what you write, so if you find yourself reading multiple genres, that may explain why you want to write across more than one genre. And it can be rewarding to do so because yo...
Oct 24, 2022•33 min
Have you ever considered taking one of your old nonfiction books and rewriting it? It can take months to come up with the first draft, edit it, and turn it into something you're happy to send to an editor. Then when you get feedback, you'll probably spend more time fixing it. That's to say nothing of sending a book to beta readers who may have additional queries and clarifications for you. So, by the time you've finished the process, you're likely ready to move on. But what if the time comes whe...
Oct 17, 2022•29 min
Some nonfiction books are harder to write than others. If you're an expert in a topic, sometimes you can just bang out a couple of thousand words, repeat for a few days, weeks, and months, and publish your nonfiction book. In fact, many successful nonfiction authors have built careers by publishing short nonfiction books that cover a specific topic and then publishing these books frequently. Now, this writing workflow doesn't work for every genre or niche. What if you're writing something that's...
Oct 10, 2022•27 min
Writers sometimes forget that those who don't practice the craft daily find it exceptionally difficult to communicate in the written word, but if you are listening to this podcast episode, you already understand how to communicate in the written word. Chances are, you know how to hit writing deadlines. You know how to research articles and how to publish them. So, rather than just doing it for someone else and letting them reap all of the rewards, and you get paid 5 cents or 10 cents per word, w...
Oct 03, 2022•20 min
What are your limiting mindsets around money and freelancing? Like many writers, I’ve had some limiting beliefs around money, which have held me back over the years. I guess I was telling myself I don’t deserve to get paid to write. Later on, when I started getting paid as a copywriter for a British software company, I said things like, “I should be content with what I have because lots of other people I know are worse off." Even later, in my 30s, I used to say things like, “It’s really hard for...
Sep 26, 2022•33 min
Years ago, I worked as a freelance writer producing my content exclusively. These days, I still write articles for the websites I run, but I also employ several writers to create content for me on topics outside my areas of expertise. To scale a content website, you need to publish more articles and blog posts, and it's impossible to write them all yourself. When you dive into a niche, you'll quickly find many untapped keywords, topics, and ideas on which you should publish content to scale up y...
Sep 19, 2022•26 min
I've spent a lot of time thinking about the future of content publishing online. When you run a content website, you must understand a couple of strategies to build an audience. If you're focused on attracting traffic from Google, you need to figure out search engine optimization. Alternatively, if you're looking for traffic from Facebook, you need to understand social media marketing and paid advertising. And if you want to build a relationship with your audience, you need a way of connecting w...
Sep 12, 2022•30 min
Over the years, I've produced, recorded, and outsourced various audiobooks based on works I've written. For my first book, I narrated it myself using a microphone at home. Later, I commissioned a narrator, also known as an ACX, and asked them to rework the entire audiobook. They did a better job than I did. For subsequent books, I outsourced production by hiring narrators, and I paid between $1,000 and $2,000 for a finished audiobook. More recently, when I wrote my parenting memoir, I Can't Beli...
Sep 05, 2022•36 min
How can you balance the analytical act of editing with the creative act of writing? I spend a lot of time thinking about editing and considering the best ways to take a draft and turn it into something publishable. That's probably because I spend some of the working days editing the work of other writers and because I've worked as a sub-editor for several newspapers over the years. I learned from editors far more talented than I am about how to take an early draft and turn it into something you ...
Aug 22, 2022•34 min
Meditation, mindfulness, and creativity, how do they work hand in hand? I like to meditate twice a day. It's a practice that took 8 or 9 years to develop. I first learned meditation using the app Headspace and took guided meditation courses. Then, I started taking some in-person meditation courses. I even went away on a meditative retreat. Because I spend so much time working alone, I find meditation helpful for mental health and learning how to focus and gain a bit of perspective. These days, I...
Aug 08, 2022•33 min
What should writers and content publishers know about using AI as part of their creative workflow? Over the past year or two, I’ve tested various content marketing tools, software, and so on. One tool that I use extensively is MarketMuse. About a year ago, the traffic on my main website, Become a Writer Today, dipped by 10 to 20 percent after a Google algorithm update. I was pretty stressed about the whole thing because I had just left my permanent job and relied on the site to pay the bills. Wh...
Jul 25, 2022•27 min
How can you earn a living from your passion for the written word? When I started as a writer, it seemed exceptionally difficult to earn a good living from the written word. That's probably because I was trying to make a living as a journalist in Ireland, and as a pretty small country, there were few opportunities. But I quickly discovered that my experiences weren't unique. It's pretty tricky to earn a living from the written word. Or at least it was up until a few years ago. Now there are a var...
Jul 18, 2022•31 min
How can interviews help you if you are writing a non-fiction book? I spent a lot of time interviewing guests for this podcast and as a freelance journalist. Interviews can seem like they're pretty straightforward to do. But it can take almost as long to prepare for an interview, particularly if you don't know the topic well. Even if you're knowledgeable about a topic, it's still helpful to figure out an angle for your interview because it gives a strong structure. I have learned to use interview...
Jul 11, 2022•33 min
