Can my wit earn me a living?

by garretc8

Posted: 10 years ago 6 replies

SOCIAL NETWORKS

I stumbled upon a random forum a few months ago, not extremely high in traffic by any means but still fairly popular. I didn't post much at first and started to integrate myself into the community as I learned a little bit about the posters and how the people interacted. Now, I'm suddenly one of the most 'popular' posters and have made a name for myself, so to speak. This basically got me to thinking, is their a way to monetize that ability? They seem to enjoy either my content, information, or humor that I generally bring with my posts, and I have had several of them tell me how they thoroughly enjoy reading what I have to say.

I have a blog, and understand that it's how I can express my opinion and all that, but I'm curious if people hire people such as myself to simply post on their forums and stir up conversation, ie generate traffic and get people coming back because they want to enjoy seeing what so-and-so has to say, or so-and-so makes them laugh and so they start frequenting the site more... you know what I mean?

#earn #living #wit

Sue Calhoun 10 years ago

Why would you think about writing for someone else, to drive traffic or whatever to someone else's site, instead of your own? You have options like posting to other forums to build followers there, write sigs on those forums that invite people to visit your blog,where you can keep building, write a funny ebook, promote other products etc. there are plenty of "talking heads" out there, personalities, who are their own product, promote themselves. Hope you get the idea, just a thought.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9013017].message }}
Dennis Gaskill 10 years ago

Can my wit earn me a living?

Hmm... make me laugh and see if I tip you.

There are ways to make money via your personality. I invest some "personality" in my newsletter and it's a primary source of income for me. You might want to consider starting a newsletter.

Or, there are paid to post opportunities, but I don't know how much they pay. You might be able to create content and sell it as PLR. Depending on what kind of material you write and how funny you are, comedians hire joke writers. Again, depending on what you write, you might be able to sell your words in Kindle books, ebooks, or even print books.

In short, there are lots of ways to make money with wit and words. What do you want to do? Figure that out, set some goals, make a plan, and go for it.
- Thanks
- 2 replies
Signature

Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9013397].message }}
- Phil Gangluff 10 years ago
  
  You don't want to write for someone else, you want to write for yourself!
  
  What is the topic of the forum? If we knew that then someone here could probably give you more specific advice about how you can monetize your wit.
  
  Thanks
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9013454].message }}
- ShawnHansen 10 years ago
  
  Hi garretc8!
  
  The statement below is golden:
  
  Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill
  
  What do you want to do? Figure that out, set some goals, make a plan, and go for it.
  
  The truth is, you can make money doing just about anything, so the real question does come down to what it is you want to do. Without a significant desire, no business is going to get off the ground or grow.
  
  While thinking about what you want to do, know that when it comes to writing, there are two audiences: Those who want to do the writing, and those who want the writing itself. If you can cater to both of those markets, you have a much greater chance at income and success.
  
  You can sell your writing, and you can teach others the elements within your writing that make it valuable.
  
  I'll also go out on a limb and disagree (in part) with some of the folks who are suggesting you not write for others but build your own business. I say do both: I do, and it's far more lucrative. I can sell my ghostwriting/PLR for top dollar to those who can't/don't want to write, and I can also sell under my own name. It's a win/win for me. But I do agree that building your own business has to be a priority.
  
  Best of luck to you!
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  "Words have weight." ~ Stephen King
  
  * * * THE SMARTER WRITER'S OPTION * * *
  
  {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9013795].message }}
JCorp 10 years ago

Yes, especially if you're passionate about it.. the topic. I'm not sure if that forum allows signatures, but if so... the first thing to do is to set up a signature that points to your blog...

And if you don't have opt in forms on you blog to collect email addresses... do that now.

Build up a list and see what that demographic buys or interested in... and locate products/services/offerings that you can sell to them.

That's just a starting point.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9013709].message }}
garretc8 10 years ago

Hey thanks for the replies guys and gals. So, it sounds like some of you think it's good to continue on, just simply adding my blog into my signature, and others think I should focus more on my blog in general... I guess what I'd wonder next is what do you think the best time appropriation would be? It's a lot easier for me to communicate and discuss a variety of topics on the discussion forum than it is for me to do so on my personal blog. Perhaps a forum of my own? But then that's getting well ahead of myself, considering I have nothing yet to sell other than my words.
- Thanks
{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[9015085].message }}