Today, I am chuffed to bits to welcome the amazing writing talent that belongs to Jo Watson of ‘A Good Write Up’. She kindly agreed to share her story of turning something she loved, into something that makes her cash (on the regular) while providing additional value and service to her loyal customers and followers…
Over to Jo.
How I turned something I love… into something that loves me right back.
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As a copywriter, I’m a service provider. I write content for people, I edit their work, and I even train people to do it all for themselves. As with any service provider though, if you want to take your business to the next level – or even if you just want to start capitalising on additional income generation without having to do any extra work – you have to look at where you can productise what you do. It turns out, I was pretty shit at figuring this out.
“Do you have any resources that I can buy and perhaps download, to help me with my copywriting?” people would ask me, as I did my regular bit on social media to promote my copywriting courses and workshops.
The bloody cheek of people. Couldn’t they see I was trying to get bums on seats, here?
I joke now, but at the time, I was really pissed off with the constant questions, comments and messages about products and resources. Why didn’t these people want to bask directly in my glory at training events? Why did they want a resource that they could surely get anywhere else?? Didn’t they know who I was???
I’m joking again with that last bit, by the way.
It’s true that I was getting irrationally annoyed, though. My courses had brilliant reviews and testimonials, they would always sell out, and I knew from my market research that the pricing was spot on… yet people were asking if I had a resource they could download or have sent to them. The answer for so long was, “No, sorry – I don’t”. I should add that none of these people were asking for a freebie, either – they were expecting to pay, and they had their hands ready in their pockets.
So yes, over a period of about 18 months, I had a steady string of people telling me what they wanted, asking if they could buy from me, and essentially highlighting a gap in the market that I could swan in and fill. And I ignored all of it. Dismissed it, even.
18 months, and there was me, basically saying, “Go and find someone else to give your money to.”
It would seem that perhaps these people were reaching out to me because they knew I was good at what I do, but perhaps didn’t have the funds to invest in my direct services or my training options. Perhaps they also didn’t have the time available for that same investment. Perhaps they wanted to get stuck into to some copywriting for themselves, and saw me as the go-to girl (that I’d ironically worked so bloody hard to become) for giving them a boost in their writing. I couldn’t see any of it at the time, though.
Honestly, it’s a good job I’m a good writer, because I am clearly shit at reading (people).
With a lot of ‘gentle hints’ by people in this very group, I eventually got wise, and then subsequently relented. I’d put together a product to sell to those people who needed – or just wanted – some of what I could offer them for their business.
I knew that whatever the product was, it was going to take me a bloody long time to produce, because I’m a professional by trade and a perfectionist at heart. When I thought about all this effort I would need to put in, it hit me that I was going through this perfectionist nightmare of creation every single week anyway, in putting out any of the blogs I was writing for my own brand (agoodwriteup). I was doing all the work already – I just wasn’t charging for it.
I formed a plan to write a series of blogs… that would come together in one guide… to help people write… a series of blogs! I would call it, ‘From Blag to Blog: How to write blogs that people actually want to read’.
I genuinely love writing blogs. It’s a cathartic process, and as well as being the best possible way I can think of to introduce, boost or build your brand, blogs are also an amazing way to be reflective on your business. Blogs show you how far you’ve come in your work, and help to shape and uncover the pathways for where you’re going to go next. It made sense that this should be the ‘thing’ I turned into a product that I genuinely wanted people to have, but in knowing how much good stuff I was putting into it, I knew that this was the thing I had to sell.
And so, in producing From Blag to Blog, I believe I’ve created something that, let’s face it, I’d have created in small stages anyway for my own promotion and purpose. I’m so glad I finally saw that there was no harm in wrapping all of this lovely stuff up in a bow, pricing it up, and putting it out there on sale for the very people who were asking for it in the first place.
Why did I write this blog for the group? Because I wanted to share my story, and let you know it’s very likely that the ‘thing’ that can form your passive income (if that’s what we’re calling it) is firstly something you love, secondly something you’re already doing anyway in some other capacity, and thirdly, something people are actively asking you for.
Do yourself a favour, people. Listen to them, because when you start getting those random notifications in the middle of the day that tell you someone’s just bought your product, you’ll realise just how much your beloved product loves you right back.
You can find more info from Jo at www.agoodwriteup.com or grab your own copy of ‘Blag to Blog’ at www.agoodwriteup.com/help-me-jo
If I can help you further then….