Writing Targets for 2013

I’ve found that it is important to have goals and write them down. This makes them more realistic and pushes you towards them even more. Always set a deadline for your goals that is realistic and attainable but still pushes you. This will offer you the motivation you need to continue with your writing and get to where you want to be.

My New Year business resolution for 2013 is to take my writing more seriously. Last year was difficult for me since from April to December I was on maternity leave and my family life was more important. Now that I am back, I am looking for more ways to create a residual income stream so that I can have time off to spend with my little girl and higher paying clients to do less work throughout the day. Here are the goals that I have for 2013.

Set a Target for the Month

This year I will have a monthly target that I will push myself to meet. I’m starting off relatively low for the first couple of months at £1,000 per month, which is about the wage of someone who works full-time at minimum wage in the UK. As I develop my writing and goals, this monthly target will increase.

Having a monthly target helps me set a daily target. I divide the amount that I want to earn each month by the number of days that I want to work. This will differ from month to month. For January, I don’t need to take any time off, so I just need to factor in the days that I want to take off during the week – usually Wednesdays and Sundays. The only other day that I took off was New Years Day. That left me with 21 working days in January, which means that my target per day is £47.

A Goal for More Residual Income

I never really took this seriously the last couple of years but did have articles up on various websites. While I’ve been on maternity leave, those articles have been building up money and I did receive payout every now and then and without much promotion for me. I’ve even started seeing my own blogs offer a return after all the work I’ve been doing. I now see that residual income is a reality and want to make it a reality for me.

I’m researching more websites that offer residual pay, such as HubPages and Squidoo. I signed up for many when I first started writing online but left them, thinking that I’d never see payout. This year I’m looking at them more serious and setting up a schedule to post at various websites on a regular basis to help improve my chances of residual income.

Starting My Own Websites

The end of 2012 I started to get my own websites up and running. The first was Student Survival Tips, which is still building slowly. I now have Mummy and Baby Musings and am looking at many other options. I want to take a move away from Blogger blogs and have my own sites, where I have more control. These sites will also offer me more residual income so that I can take some time off.

Finding Higher Paying Clients (Preferably in Pounds)

I write for a number of content sites that pay minimal amounts. They help to fill in the gaps when my clients don’t have any work for me. However, this year I’m going to search for more higher paying clients and more websites that accept guest posts for a larger pay. I’ve found a number of tech sites looking for writers so I’m going to start taking my tech writing more seriously.

By finding higher paying sites and clients I will be able to do less work during the day. Instead of it taking me four or five hours to reach my daily target (still less hours that it does for someone working full-time at minimum wage), it will take me a couple of hours. What could be better than working half a day and spending the rest of my time with my six month old daughter?

I’ll keep the content sites though. While the pay is low, I can do the articles quickly. It takes me about 15 minutes to complete a 400 word article. I worked out a couple of weeks ago that I type at a rate of 95 words per minute on average! These sites usually offer topics that I’ve already got the research for or know answers off the top of my head from years of writing on the same topic. They’re not worthwhile full-time but they are great to fill in the gaps on bad days.

What are your goals for 2013? Are you looking for more residual pay? Are you finally taking the steps to start writing and earning money? Good luck!