Writers. Stop Looking to Make Money from your Writing.

I recently broke myself out of the destructive habit of checking my story stats every single time I logged on to any of my writing platforms.

Every single day, sometimes multiple times a day, I would be logging on or open up my apps just to see how well my stories were doing.

Did I get any views?

Did I get a new follower?

What do my earnings look like?

Every time I would log on to see how my article, posted the day before, was fairing my mood was always instantly affected.

This is true even more so now as I am publishing across multiple platforms and views on most of my recent work is far and few in between since I have only been on these sites for a few weeks.

The point of writing on these platforms shouldn’t be how much money you make at the end of the day. That is just the bonus.

Checking your Stats Can Instantly Kill Your Creativity

Just the other day I posted an article I was more proud of than anything else I had written in a long time.

It was well thought out, edited to perfection, and was the longest article I had written with an estimated ten-minute read time.

Of the six platforms I had posted this article on, it had only performed well on one. The non-monetized one.

All the others have received little if no views to speak of.

Why was I even bothering to write for these platforms if this was how my hard work was going to be treated? What if every article I write tanks as instantly as the one I was most proud of?

Writing the day of checking these stats was going as smoothly as trying to spread frozen butter on untoasted bread.

I kept thinking what I was writing wasn’t going to be good enough. It’ll never get any views and I’ll never reach the goal of having these sites as a revenue stream worth spending hours typing away on. As you can guess this negativity didn’t lead to a productive writing day for any of my projects, even my fiction writing ability took a nose drive from my lack of writing motivation.

What Should You Be Doing Instead of Checking your Stats

Writing…writing… and writing.

I’ve made my opinion known that daily posting isn’t the way to go to write your way to fame, but it is the best way to get your thoughts and ideas out there and share them with your potential audience.

You know the saying, practice makes perfect. While there is no such thing as a perfect writer, practicing is a way to get as close as you can.

The internet, just like the world, fluctuates and just because that one article, or a handful of articles, didn’t perform well doesn’t mean the next one isn’t going to be the one that hits home with your readers.

The day you decide to throw in the towel and stop publishing may just be the day before you write an article that goes viral and circles the internet screens around the world.

I wish I knew who owns this image, but I could not find it. I’ve had this image taped to my wall for years.

How Often Should You be Checking your Stats

Of course, you can’t go on forever never checking what your audience thinks of your writing. You have to take the plunge and peek at some point.

My goal is to check them once a week as I’m planning out my writing schedule and projects for the following week so that I have an idea of which topics faired better than others. By doing this I can hone into what my audience is more interested in across all platforms and focus more attention on these areas.

Once a week should be the maximum amount of times your eyes should be roaming your stats page. Once every two weeks would be better and once a month would be perfect until you get a real sense of your writing style and skill level.

You shouldn’t be on these platforms just as a way to make money. If the bottom dollar is all you have in mind then the daily disappointment just might throw a giant wrench into your writing ability and your stats, and therefore your earning ability, will suffer for it.

Stop focusing on the number and focus on improving yourself as a writer so that you are proud of what you're putting out and then the numbers won’t matter.

Write to be a writer.

Most of the time writing isn’t as profitable as many make it out to be, but it’s the most fulfilling job I have ever had and I am proud to call myself a writer.

Keep writing.

With love,

B.K

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