Over The Hump

Photo by Jordan Wozniak on Unsplash

Okay. I am over the 10-post hump and now I’m ready to….

To what?

This is the first time I’ve gotten this far. It’s all new territory for me.

I’ve tried writing blogs before – one religious and one I don’t remember – and I never made it past five posts in either of them. So, ten posts…feels good.

I bought and created this website to further my writing career, to have a place to showcase my short stories and creative nonfiction  for prospective editors and publishers, and, ultimately, to achieve the writer’s dream: to be able to make a living off my writing.

But, it’s a new day and we aren’t confined to using our blogs, our websites, our online portfolios, to generate business, to market ourselves to paying customers. A blog isn’t just a window for prospective buyers to gawk at. The blog itself can be a writing business. It can be a source of income, apart from any business it generates. You can make a living as a blog writer.

That’s why I created it. I want to make a living as a writer and I need someplace to showcase some of my work, for that purpose. But, this blog can also be an income earner. But, I also want/need to make a living, or at least part of it, off my blog, as a business that gets me work, sells my work, and makes money for me.

So, how do I do that? How do I create a writing portfolio and a blog that also functions as a business blog, in part?

I have a lot of questions and problems. How will Google Adsense ads look on this website, with this template? It is dignified and understated and I am worried it will be shattered by the presence of banners. How will affiliate-marketing related content affect the overall mood and atmosphere of my website? What general impression will a visitor/reader leave with? About the blog? About me? I don’t want the affiliate posts to overshadow the literary content but I do want to use this site to increase my income. 

I also have to restructure and redesign, starting with the menu: home, blog posts, portfolio (the writing samples, mainly fiction), affiliate articles, and an About Me page – not that I know how to do it.  

I intend to add a few short stories, two or three at first, and some non fiction, and to stick my nose into some current events – Jussie Smollett, politics, etc.

This blog needs a lot of cleaning up, as well. The photos are too large, it doesn’t look professional. There are a lot of little tweaks I need to make in the coming weeks and months. Move the blog posts to the blog page, change the home page, write something informative and substantial on the About Me page.

Hmm, let’s see. What else? Finish writing this novel, find a new job, become self-employed, fully declutter my apartment…