3 Reasons I Quit Writing Online
I first started writing consistently online in January 2020. I wrote and published every day for 100 days straight. It was a life-changing experience that kicked off my writing career.
Over the next 18 months, I would go on to build an audience of 16k+ Twitter followers and earn $30k+ through ghostwriting.
On the outside, I was winning the writing game; building my audience, and earning a great side income. But on the inside, I was burnt out.
Eventually, I stopped writing online and ghostwriting.
Here’s why (and what I’m doing to avoid that this time around):
I was afraid to deviate from my niche: I built my audience around the business of fitness. I wrote startup stories for up-and-coming fitness technology startups like Whoop, Strava, and Levels. They got a ton of engagement but once I figured out that’s what was working, I was afraid to write about anything else. And when I did, it didn’t get the same engagement as my fitness stories. It got to the point where I was afraid to publish anything that wasn’t fitness related, so I just stopped writing altogether.
I was too focused on audience building: When I was writing my health technology stories, my audience was multiplying. Anything I wrote would add 100s sometimes 1,000s of followers. It was great for my dopamine and my audience growth, but as I saw those numbers go up, I was reluctant to publish anything that wasn’t guaranteed to grow my audience. So, I stopped writing.
I was too focused on earning money: As I started to build my audience, people started hitting me up to ghostwrite for them. I was pumped. However, the more clients I had, the less time I had to spend on my own writing. I was making great money but lost my writing habit in the process.
Despite my success with writing online, I ultimately stopped for three reasons 1) I was afraid to deviate from my niche 2) I was too focused on audience building, and 3) I was too focused on earning money.
I’m committing to writing online again. But this time around, I’ll focus on consistency rather than writing about a specific niche, building an audience, or earning money.
If you’re interested in following along, follow me over the next 30 days as I write about Fitness, Wellness, and other topics.