Don’t Be a Writer, Be an Entrepreneur Who Writes
By: David Mercer
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Writing, Startup, Marketing, Blogging

Don’t Be a Writer, Be an Entrepreneur Who Writes

The world isn’t short of great writers, it’s short of great entrepreneurs who write

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

An entrepreneur who writes is different from a writer. Being an entrepreneur means your true passion lies in using your wits to make money. Writing is your weapon of choice. A writer’s passion, by contrast, lies in the craft itself.

A quick multiple choice question can reveal which one you are.

Is making money from your writing more important than being a great writer?

a) Yes, definitely.

b) No, being a great writer is more important.

c) I’d like to have both equally.

Got your answer?

Here’s the twist. It doesn’t matter what you choose. Writing and blogging is so competitive you have little choice but to adapt and evolve into an entrepreneur. If writing is more important, treat the entrepreneurial side of things as a necessary evil that helps facilitate your passion.

Plan like an entrepreneur

An entrepreneur views writing as a means to an end. Not the end itself. Being an awesome writer helps, but it’s not the most important aspect of a writing based business/side-hustle.

As with any startup, writing a blog post requires an investment in planning and research. A single blog post requires a business plan. Yup, you read that correctly.

A reminiscent post about how your sibling used to blow their nose and wipe it on you (that’s just a hypothetical example) doesn’t need a business plan. I’m talking specifically about money posts intended to carve out your own slice of the pie, make money, or contribute to the foundation of your writing empire.

Here’s a quick overview of what a blog post business plan contains.

Blog post business plan from How to make money blogging on SME Pals.

Like any entrepreneur starting a business you need to know:

How much time and effort is required.

What financial costs there are.

What gaps or angles exist.

What obstacles exist.

Who the competition is and what they’re doing right (and wrong).

How much traffic there is.

Who your audience is.

How much money you can make (depending on the type of affiliate relationship, product or service you’re offering).

How to make that money.

How long it will take to start making money.

…

For me, the most valuable part of putting together a business plan is the market research — more specifically, competitor analysis. Competitor analysis is wildly useful for bloggers. It illuminates the tactics successful competitors use to win market share and earn revenue. If you want to be the best, learn from the best.

Competitor analysis illuminates the tactics successful competitors use to win market share and earn revenue.

Most of all, and I can’t stress how important this is,

A blog post business plan will tell you whether or not your idea is viable and worth pursuing.

Don’t waste time on content you have already shown to have insufficient earning potential. Find something else. Explore new topics. Move on.

Download a free blog post business plan template I put together here.

Write like an entrepreneur

Here’s where writers and entrepreneurs who are writers join hands. At this stage, the better you are at engaging and captivating an audience, the better you’ll do.

Here are some handy tips I’ve found to work well for money-content.

Win the title

Titles are hard!

You have to juggle three things at once in a single, short sentence:

Use target SEO keywords Accurately describe the content Spark intrigue

Take time over the title. It is absolutely critical to the success of your post.

A title is to a blog post what an elevator pitch is to a startup.

Wired wrote an article about what a difference clickable headlines make.

The difference between a good headline and a bad headline can be just massive. It’s not (in the ballpark of) a rounding error. When we test headlines we see 20% difference, 50% difference, 500% difference. A really excellent headline can make something go viral.

Adapt and fine-tune the title as you go. Hold off until it’s ready to go out there and captivate people. The title is often the last thing I work on — once I fully understand the content and purpose of the article itself.

Draw ’em in description

Make the description a promise of something greatly valuable for the reader.

A blog description must inspire readers with an exciting promise of value.

Along with the header, the description is about the only chance you have to convince visitors to click thru. Don’t waste it on a dry, boring description.

To do this properly you need to understand who’s going to be reading the article and what they need to know.

The description isn’t about the content; it’s about the reader.

Gripping section titles

Gripping. Is. Key.

Make sub-titles and headers gripping. Never, ever let go of the reader’s attention. Not for a second. Like the description, sub-headers should inspire and intrigue, pulling readers along. Gary Korisko gives us this great quote.

The four main ingredients of great sub-headers are curiosity, surprise, personality & emotion.

Pitch perfect

This is one aspect of writing I struggle with the most. Often, writing about topics in which I have a lot of experience causes me to lose the audience quickly. Avoid assuming too much or too little knowledge. Both are equally adept at turning readers off.

The better you understand your audience, the easier it is to pitch content in a way that keeps them captivated.

Captivate ‘em

Always maintain your energy and enthusiasm while writing. Take regular breaks to keep your mind fresh. Write when inspiration strikes.

Find a method that works for you and do everything in your power to avoid slipping into a mediocre, run-of-the-mill voice that allows readers to drift away (without a conversion).

Format for skimmers

Formatting plays a big role. Spacing, structure, fonts & layout all make a big difference in how easily readers digest and retain information.

Above all else. Be concise & clear. According to Hubspot,

73% of visitors skim rather than read the blog post thoroughly.

Formatting is a way to break up content in a way that entices readers to keep going. Especially people who are starting out with a cursory scan of the article to see if it’s worth their time.

Cite experienced influencers & experts

Don’t look at blogging as something you do alone.

Blogging is a collaborative effort and diverse perspectives add value.

Gathering input from influencers in your niche is incredibly important for a bunch of reasons.

Experts know stuff (you don’t)

Relationships you build with influencers are valuable

Influencers can increase your reach and buzz

Influencers help you build trust & authority with your audience

Out of all these points, really the most salient and immediately valuable one is that including quotes and inputs from great influencers helps turn them into evangelists for your article — when it comes time to publish like an entrepreneur.

Influencers who have contributed to your article are more likely to mention or promote it.

Publish like an entrepreneur

Planning and creating content, together, should only constitute around one-third of your total investment in a piece of content— both in terms of time and money. That’s more or less how things tend to pan out for me. Maybe more, maybe less depending on your unique topic, network and reach.

Planning and creating content, together, should only constitute around one-third of your total investment in a piece of content.

I tend to publish money-pieces to my own blog because I want it to generate income for some time to come. Publishing a piece like this on 3rd party platforms arguably provides greater initial reach and a higher chance of ranking in Google search. It also comes with some potentially serious downsides.

Many big publisher will happily take your content and publish at an off-time where it quickly disappears from the front page without so much as a ripple. If that happens, it’s all for nothing. At least if it’s on your own site, you can continue to promote it and write guest articles citing any useful stats, facts and figures to keep a stream of traffic trickling along.

Whatever you choose, it’s time to start marketing. As I like to say,

It doesn’t matter what business you are in; the business you are in is marketing.

To wit, the folks at GrowthBadger had this to say about marketing and promoting your blog.

70% of bloggers who earn over $50,000 per year say they are active or very active promoters of their blogs, compared to only 14% of lower-income bloggers.

Make the news

Part of the business plan, back when you first started conceptualizing the article, would identify and integrate news media opportunities in some form or another. There should be at least one (preferably more) hook. Either:

Include newsworthy content (original research, current trends, novelty, conflict, etc) in the post Create news that cites your blog post

Interest stories are a great way to go — especially if it cites your new article in some way or another.

Create a newsworthy story by talking about other people, organizations or businesses doing incredible things.

Include local content if local media coverage is important. Interview people. Do Research. Offer a prize. Offer a scholarship. Do whatever it takes to be able to pitch something unique and interesting to reporters and journalists covering your beat.

Just. Be. Newsworthy.

I wrote an article highlighting the best new business ideas coming out of U.S. universities. That’s newsworthy because it a showcases up and coming entrepreneurial talent bubbling away at American colleges. Also, it has nothing to do with me.

Pitching a great story to the right media often results in a bit of coverage that can go a long way.

10 best new business ideas from university entrepreneurs posted to USA Today.

Getting into the news requires a slightly different set of writing skills. Namely, press releases. At some point you’ll need to learn how to hook journalists using attention-grabbing headlines and give them everything they need to make their news article easy and compelling for their readers.

You can check out a press releases templates, including a few practical tips here.

Influence the influencers

Having worked hard to collaborate with a whole bunch of experts and influencers, it’s now time to put those newfound contacts to good use (apart from the, hopefully, great quotes and info they contributed to your piece).

Put together a personalized pitch for each person you mentioned or collaborated with. Here’s a quick template that should do the trick for someone you only mentioned (but don’t necessarily know personally):

Subject: Congrats! You’ve been mentioned in my latest article.

Hi [name],

I really learned a lot from your piece about [title] and mentioned it (with a link) under [sub-topic] in my latest article [title][link].

I’d love it if you would consider contributing an additional insight for this article?

It can be as long or short as you like. I will of course cite and link your contribution. If you can also share a link to a head-shot that would be great.

Thanks,

David

The purpose of this outreach is primarily to thank them for being awesome enough to include in your post. Next, you want to tell them you’ve already given them great coverage (without asking for anything first). Finally there’s an offer to contribute more — requiring them to at least take the time to look at your article.

This is significantly more effective than any of the hundreds of emails I get on an ongoing basis asking me for coverage in one of my posts. Instead of asking for something, reach out to share what you’ve already done for them (not a promise to do something, if only they…).

Influence any influencer with an easy 3-step process. Offer. Engage. Pitch.

Alternatively, if they collaborated with you, the outreach email might look more like this:

Subject: I’ve added your awesome insights!

Hi [name],

I added and linked your contribution. Thanks so much. I’m super happy with it.

Check it out at [title][link].

I’ve also followed you on [social network] and [2nd/3rd/etc social network] to keep up to date with what you’re working on. Feel free to drop me a line if I can help out or contribute in any way.

If you love the article please consider linking or mentioning it.

Thanks,

David

In this instance you are thanking them for being awesome. Letting them know that you’ve become a fan and are following them. Offering to work with them and collaborate on future projects. Requesting a link or a mention if they really like the article (their name is on it already so it’s far more likely they will at least share it around).

Cast a wide net

Initially, if the article is self-published, it’s likely not going to drive much traffic — unless you have a huge audience and/or a good relationship with Google’s first page rankings.

Spend some time exploring related content. It could be drilling down into more depth, new research, finding opposing views, or whatever. Get new content up and about that links back to your article from other blogs and sites.

Draw on your newfound experience and knowledge to write and pitch fantastic guest articles to related blogs, websites & media.

Don’t stop

An article is never really finished. There will always be new opportunities for marketing and promotions to explore. Opportunities to add and update the article with great new content. Opportunities to unearth new opportunities.

It’s up to the entrepreneur in you to find clever new gaps to exploit, build new partnerships to generate more revenue, or simply decide to move on to the next exciting article. Sometimes it’s nice to sit back and watch earnings build up passively over time.

Like this

Passive earnings from a single blog post.

Decide to promote via social media. Or don’t. Try paid advertising. Or don’t. Learn new tricks from people who are dominating. Or blaze your own trail. The sky really is the limit when it comes to the business of content. That’s what interests me the most.

Sometimes you’ll get lucky and an article will out-earn your expectations handsomely. It happens now and then. Dumb luck definitely plays a role. Make sure you’re in the game long enough by being smart about everything you publish. In the long run, it’s way more profitable to make your own luck.