Creating Secondary Incomes

By sparklyscotty on 6/1/09 3:38am
4 Comments

Want to make more money?Want to make more money?Making money writing is a challenge; earning a living as a full time writer is tough; bringing in a great, regular salary as a full time writer can sometimes seem a nigh on impossible feat.

One way that many, if not most writers boost their income is to offer complimentary services.  Adding a second (and third, and fourth) way to earn money can be the key to having a steady stream of work, being considered a valuable resource and building a strong portfolio.  There are many options for adding extra services to your writing from web design, to newsletters, SEO services to speaking at conferences. 

Each writer will have their own set of strengths and skills which they can use to leverage extra income.

Regardless of the type of extras or upgrades you offer,  here are my top three commandments to take into consideration when adding a second income stream to your portfolio of services:

  1. Know Thy Clients
    What do they want and need?  Can you give it to them?  Think about who you have worked with over the past few months, and what other needs they have that you might be able to fill.  Once you have some ideas, contact a few with proposals to test the water.  Based on their reaction you can put together some packages and service products to offer in general.  I have seen writers offer everything from e-books to online coaching, but at the end of the day it comes down to what you can do as well as the types of people that you work with.
  2. Know Thy stuff
    Don't just charge blindly into a new area.  Treat your second income with the same integrity and pride as you would your writing.  If, for example you want to start offering promotional blog tours to your clients then take the time to thoroughly research the niche.  Read up online,  take e-courses,  buy books and work through tutorials.  Don't take it for granted that your existing knowledge is enough for you to demand being paid.  Keep in mind that you should stay on top of new developments in whichever niche you choose to work in.  You will need to make a commitment to keep up to date on any area that you choose to work in.
  3. Know Thy Focus
    Be clear from the outset what your primary function is. Don't get carried away by listing all of the things that you can do, therefor diluting the perceived strength of your original skill. Adding extra services can lead to your focus being split in different directions, and while it is OK to change priorities based on what you are enjoying most or what area is becoming more profitable you should always have a clear idea of your primary purpose.   Without this, your message is going to sound confusing and your website will likely become cluttered.  People are far less likely to hire 'Jack.  All trades done at a reasonable rate.'  than 'John.  I specialise in what you really need, but can also offer you some other great services.'
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Comments

Know thy homophones

Submitted by Anonymous on 6/1/09 7:56am.

complimentary: "1. Expressing, using, or resembling a compliment: a concert that received complimentary reviews. 2. Given free to repay a favor or as an act of courtesy: complimentary copies of the new book"

http://www.bartleby.com/61/19/C0531900.html

complementary: 1. Forming or serving as a complement; completing. 2. Supplying mutual needs or offsetting mutual lacks.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/90/C0529000.html

For a blog about writing, this one is surprisingly riddled with errors.

Thanks!

Submitted by sparklyscotty on 6/2/09 4:18am.

Oops. Thanks for the clarification. This is one that does tend to slip by me, even though I'm aware of the distinction. I've chosen to leave the error in the original post so that other visitors can see why it was wrong. I'm open to any other 'Spot the mistake' comments, so feel free to fire away on the other errors riddling the blog. ;)

It's not so much a matter of

Submitted by Anonymous on 6/5/09 3:56pm.

It's not so much a matter of "spot the mistake" as it is one of if you are presenting yourself as a professional writer, you shouldn't be making elementary errors. For instance:

One way that many, if not most writers boost their income is to offer complimentary services.

You correctly use the comma before the inserted and non-essential clause

if not most but you also need a comma after "most," because the clause is essentially inserted in the middle of the sentence. One way to check for this particular kind of sentence, and comma, is to eliminate the clause or phrase in question and see if the sentence still makes sense:

One way that many writers boost their income is to offer complimentary services.

If it makes sense without the inserted clause, the clause needs leading and following commas.

You can read about it here:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/02/

Hope you are all listening

Submitted by sparklyscotty on 6/23/09 8:47am.

Ah, I see.  Or rather I don't.  I've touched on the topic of punctuation on this blog before, noting my own lack of understanding of the actual rules and concepts.

Believe it or not, I attended schools in both the US and the UK to a masters level and never once was the subject of 'clauses' touched on.   I can make an intuitive guess, but, like I said in the blog post,  intuition isn't enough to make sure I am 100% right.

My intuition tells me that I have probably made at least three comma errors in this reply alone!

I have actually considered taking a course, so I appreciate the link to the resource. 

I am also awaiting several books from Amazon to help me crack these issues.  I'm nothing if not dedicated!