A company needs to have an action plan in place to map out its future.
The same is mainly true for people. We need to have some idea what we ar doing on a daily basis. There is an entire industry built up on such concepts as time management and personal organization.
Sometimes, things drop out of the sky.
I have had a couple of writing jobs land in my lap. All I did was respond to some requests for writers, and suddenly, I had paying writing contracts. I never planned on them. I hadn't actively sought them out in a really serious way.
How then did I get the contracts?
I had a blog.
In fact, I have two blogs. There is this marketing, public relations and search engine optimization site, where you are reading. There is also my daily roller derby news and commentary site. Both are blogs that have new posts every day.
When I applied for the writing jobs, I merely pointed to my blogs for writing examples. The editors weren't concerned with the topics of my posts. Instead, they were interested in the fact that a) I write daily b) I showed a degree of committment to the writing craft and c) that my writing style was good enough to hire.
Had I not had a blog, I would not have been able to have applied successfully for those writing contracts.
Keeping and maintaining a blog often has unexpected side benefits, like earning money!
Making money from blogging is often a challenge for writers. Attempts have been made to sell advertising space, to get donations, and to add searches and affiliate sales features, to name a few. Some income ideas have worked for some bloggers. Different revenue concepts have worked for others. A few bloggers have gained income from almost all of them.
I'm happy to have gained some writing income as a result of my blogging activities.
Sometimes, you just have to take a chance and start blogging. You can never be certain where it might lead.
Occasionally, it leads to some added income!
