5 Basic Things You Learn After Starting To Write Full-Time

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

5 Basic Things You Learn After Starting to Write Full-Time - www.alliepottswrites.comI haven’t been in my new position as a full-time writer long, but I am already learning a number of things about the process, especially as to how it pertains to online media – like how bad I am at it on this site (in terms of monetization, rapid audience building, or anything else you can think of when you try to come up with ways to actually making a living off writing outside of selling books, which is a whole story for another day), even when the writing itself was good.

For one, I don’t use nearly enough H2 tags in my blog posts, or headers for those not as versed in HTML lingo. Apparently, readers like to see big bold text so they know which words I spent hours upon hours tirelessly crafting are okay for their eyes to totally skip over.

That being said:

Be bold

Readers bypassing lengthy intros will jump directly to the text immediately under the header, so feel free to repeat yourself. Chances are they didn’t read it the first time you alluded to something in the opening.

Explain the benefit in clear and simple terms

You might think you are offering your readers a great value in sharing your story. After all, you are giving the very generous gift of your writing time when you probably should be spending that time on the last book in your science fiction trilogy or … I don’t know … relaxing (I hear that’s a good thing) and asking only that they give you minutes of their time or a comment or two in return. As a result, you might think the benefit to the reader is clear but is it? Is it really?

Don’t forget about SEO

Google and all its AI helpers scurrying about in the background like long, long web pages (as in hundreds if not thousands of words), filled with short, short paragraphs (5 lines and under will do) prominently featuring your primary keyword. They can be difficult to please like that. There are all sorts of other rules to follow for true SEO, but I’m still learning those.

End with a call to action …

Want to connect? Leave your contact information. Want them to sign up for your newsletter mailing list which had never been sold to third parties, and never will be, but also now is forcing you to create this whole privacy policy thingy in order to be GDPR compliant instead of writing a longer post? Tell them. People like instructions. Except for anarchists. But then again, you should never expect to please everyone.

Seriously – comment – sign up – or connect. I love to hear from you.

… but also leave them a reason to come back for more

Until next time.

 

24 thoughts on “5 Basic Things You Learn After Starting To Write Full-Time”

    1. Nor do I, which is why I thought to share. I prefer to tell stories than worry about headers, so I don’t know that I’ll be making any big changes to my style, but at least now I know what I could do differently if I felt so inclined.

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  2. I found once you put the bold words in, I actually began to skim which I had never done before so I see what you are saying. It takes away the feeling of storytelling though which I enjoy…sigh.

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  3. Fine job on the bold headings, which allowed me to skip over the rest of it. 😛 But yes, you’re right. I think I’m in about the same place you are in your writing career, so this is really useful info. Thanks for posting it!

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  4. Sounds like you’re enjoying your new job and learning much about the world of professional writing. Right on! (And write on.) I don’t worry about the “rules” so much on my blog – it’s just a place to write much more casually for me. And hopefully entertain a few people! 🙂

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