Hello fellow blog writers and content creators! It has been over a year since I quit my day job and have dedicated my mornings to content creation. There have been a lot of ups and downs to the past year but, more than anything I am grateful for the ability to work from home and spend my afternoons to my homesteading chores.
The Journey
My path as a content creator started years ago. For so much of that time I wrote articles and Instagram posts that yielded very little attention. I tried to promote my physical art and ended up spending much more than I made. Mostly, this was due to my own lack of confidence and not searching out the platforms where the type of content I share could thrive.
Of course finding HIVE has been key to finding an audience where the time I spent on photography and writing could be seen and appreciated. Later on in this post I will share another platform where my blogging has actually made me money.
First though I want to discuss one tool that is essential to my writing...
Keeping a Notebook
The muse comes to me at random moments and if I don't write down my idea immediately it is likely to disappear just as quickly. That is why I now have a notebook that is dedicated to writing exclusively. There I jot down ideas for future video scripts and outline articles.
That brings me to probably my most important rule for content creation is ... planning! I love to fly by the seat of my pants and work when inspiration strikes but, some days I wake up without much of any. That is why keeping a notebook of all the ideas I had when I was feeling inspired is so key.
Keeping a Schedule
I usually work on content creation a few hours in the morning before making lunch and then a few hours at night after dinner. Looking at screens all day is not at all conducive to my creative process so my evening work sessions usually involve pen and paper only. The time I spend writing out ideas is well worth it as the articles come out very smoothly the following morning when I sit down to type them on the computer.
My partner and I have a lot of different projects going on. We take care of a 10 acre farm that involves lots of landscaping and house work. In the afternoons we usually both travel a mile up-hill to do some work on the house we are building. With so many different tasks to do each day it works best for me to have an order in which I do them each day: make breakfast, write, take pictures, tidy up, make lunch, rest, landscape etc. You get the idea... I have found that giving myself structure also gives my creativity the time & space to show up.
Medium vs. Hive
The bulk of my content creation happens on two blogging platforms though I have recently started making videos too. We are all familiar with HIVE, of course, but I thought it might be interesting to discuss the difference between Medium and Hive. Medium.com is a lot like Hive in that it promotes written content and the perspectives of regular people rather than journalists. But, It is really different from Hive in two main reasons:
On Medium posts (which there are called stories) must be approved by editors if they are to get any kind of circulation on the site. You can simply publish anything you want to your personal blog but, unless you have a huge following it is unlikely to get much attention. The way to get views, likes, and followers is by submitting your stories to the different publications on the website.
There is no limit to how long a "story" can earn. I have posts that I wrote a year ago that have earned upwards of $100 and are still earning! Of course I have many posts that were never accepted in any publication or I had so much back and forth between and editor that the time I spent on the story far outweighed any earnings.
Medium has recently opened up the countries accepted for earnings through their Partner Program so, it might be worth looking into sharing your work their too! I will say, however, that Medium is not quite as fun as HIVE. Most people are there purely to earn and their is a more serious vibe to the website. On the other hand the more journalistic approach to the website pushes me to improve my writing, so it isn't all bad.
Sharing my Writing Online & Off
I am a child of the 90's and thus, cannot neglect to mention the very analog aspect of my writing. Any post that I share online starts out as an entry in the work notebook that I mentioned previously. And now, many of my online articles actually circle back and become full zines which I share via my Etsy Shop.
Etsy is a very well known platform that has global reach. Though I only ship within the United States at the moment, I still think it is the best website to market and find zines and other forms of physical art. Zine making, however, is not a big money maker. This aspect of my content creation I do for love of keeping DIY publishing alive. As someone who spends a few hours online every single day it seems important to also dedicate time to drawing, designing, and copying-and-pasting too.