Writing for Your Wealth

Ever get annoyed by all those cliches about walkways and wealth?

You know: the road to riches, the path to success, the boardwalk to financial freedom (all right, Google tells me I made the last one up). These oft used phrases make it sound as if all you have to do is wander down some pre-made route to your dreams, when the reality is you’re in a jungle with a machete forced to make your own path before the vines encroach to strangle you.

Okay, that may be a tad dramatic, but a lot of us have probably felt that way from time to time.

And that reality is what we have to understand before we can succeed. Even if some of those successful role models had blazed a path you could follow, you’d probably find a few obstacles had grown up since it was laid.

The truth is there is no simple road, trail, or public transit route you can take to success (despite what all those flashing pop-up banners and late-night infomercials tell you). And, despite my accusatory title, nobody is deliberately obfuscating the road to riches (though it can seem that way).

Because we’re all unique individuals, we can’t expect to follow in someone else’s footsteps to find freedom and financial independence.

Before I depress you, let me point out two good things:

1. Realizing you have to create your own path is half the battle.
2. There are millions of ways to build wealth.

Don’t believe me on that last one? Just head to the real estate investing section of any bookstore. Pick up five different books about how to make money in real estate. I’ll wager each one of them talks about how the author made money a different way. One flipped houses, one invested in vacation rentals, one lived in multifamily homes while fixing them up, one sells houses with lease options, one bought storage units…. You get the picture.

They all made money writing those books about how they made money (take heart, good authors–find a way to make $5,000 in your spare time and you can make another $100,000 selling the information on how it was done).

My point is that even though building wealth isn’t as easy as strolling down some cobblestone path, there are countless ways to do it.

Here are a few words to help you pave your own road:

Learn from Others (but Don’t Try to Be Them)

Writing a Harry Potter knockoff probably won’t win you a book deal, and even in the world of blogging, you can’t necessarily just do what others have done and expect to make a fortune. Sure, you can learn a lot from bloggers such as Steve Pavlina, Darren Rowse, and maybe even a little from the moderate success of this blogger, but you’ll find that times and tactics change at light speed on the Internet, so the formulas that worked for people who started a few years ago have a few different variables today. Take what you can from stories that inspire you, but be prepared to apply your own variations.

Get the Right Tools

Yup, you’re going to need that machete to hack your path through the jungle. (Even better would be that big diesel Jungle Cutter from the last Indiana Jones movie). Our words are one powerful tool, but those of us living in the internet world must also learn internet marketing.

Whether you’re planning to make your wealth through blogging, writing a book, or something else entirely, realize you’ll have to learn enough about internet marketing to bring people to your site (even if you’re writing a book, you’ll need a site!). You don’t have to have a PhD in influence and persuasion, but arm yourself with the basics and become a pro in a couple methods to ensure a steady influx of visitors to your sites.

Be Remarkable

In most arenas, part of succeeding is being noticed, but copying someone else’s style won’t get you far. Find your own style, the one that’s honest to your inner voice, and mine it for ways to stand out from the pack.

Outlast the Competition

What’s the theme of Survivor? Something about outwitting, outplaying, and outlasting, right? A lot of that could be applied to making money online.

Specifically, I think outlasting is a big key.

Most blogs don’t survive more than a few months. A lot of the winners out there are big earners, at least in part, because they’ve stuck around and regularly posted content over the years.

It takes time to be found–are you ready to invest the time to outlast the competition?

Now, quit blaming the rich and those people who make up phrases about walkways, and get out there and build your own path to success.