How we're already nearly halfway through January already, I'll never know. Don't even get me started on how an entirely new decade has up and started while I've been busy focusing on other things. I spent the rest of the time leading up to Christmas and New Year's continuing to focus on my professional and public-facing writing. Part of that involved continuing to build a presence and establish myself on a couple of the newer platforms I'd signed up with. The idea was to have turned those outlets into viable places to earn money on an ongoing basis before I was officially off the roster at BKA and really needed that income.
Things worked out on that front a lot better than I'd hoped -- so well, I actually spent very little time writing for BKA in the second half of December. One of the two platforms I'm using regularly these days is a little more sporadic and less reliable as far as being able to go there and pick up extra work whenever I want some, but it's great for filling in my schedule here and there. The other has been working out well enough that it's definitely an appropriate replacement for BKA as far as my overall income goes. New work is posted there very regularly, so I've had plenty of things to work on. I've also managed to connect with some new regulars. The pay is really good. There's the potential to earn even more and gain access to even better projects if I work hard there as well.
I'm hoping neither of those platforms suddenly goes tits up on me the way that BKA did because of AB-5, but I also feel like that becomes less likely the further into 2020 we get without it happening. It seems like most of the outlets that decided they wanted nothing more to do with California writers found it deeply important to give us the boot before the new year started and the new laws went into effect, so... knock on wood, and all that.
In other words, I'm very hopeful as to my near future as a copywriter, but the loss of my position with BKA definitely taught me a valuable lesson about putting too many of my eggs in one basket going forward. I'm very good at what I do, so I'm used to being seen as indispensable to my clients. If there were ever a problem with anyone in particular, it was usually on my end because the client was becoming too dependent on me and expecting more of my time than I personally wanted to give. It simply never crossed my mind that something like this could happen, because I thought I was too talented and too special. Obviously, no one is though, especially when it comes to circumstances like these, so I'm going to keep that in mind going forward.
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It's also worth mentioning that I've been as good as my word when it comes to diversifying my writing. I posted my first article on Medium a couple of days before Christmas -- a personal listicle detailing what I've learned from the fitness and weight loss journey I've been on over the past couple of years. To my great delight and surprise, the article wound up getting hand-picked by curators for widespread distribution by Medium itself. It saw a lot of traffic as a result, so it also earned me quite a bit of money via the Medium Partner Program -- close to $1,000 at this point (and counting). That's just mind-blowing to me.
I don't need any more motivation than that to justify getting more personal writing under my own name out there and circulating. Nothing I've ever written for any client has ever put anything close to that amount of cash in my pocket. The fact that this particular article was something I wrote from my heart because I genuinely wanted to only made the whole thing seem more rewarding.
I've been very busy with my copywriting since the New Year started, because so many people have been needing things. However, the plan going forward is to start posting new content to my Medium profile between two and three times a week (hopefully starting this week). Eventually, I'll wind up with other articles under my belt that perform as well as that first one did, so I stand a good chance of making a life-changing amount of passive income into the future if I work hard and stick with it. I'll finally stand a chance of getting ahead, but without actually logging increasingly more hours hunched over a keyboard. That would be amazing.
The significant (and very unexpected) degree of success I've gotten a taste of via Medium already has further caused me to reevaluate some things in regards to my web presence. When I first started freelancing as a creative, I pictured myself earning a living as myself -- sharing my own thoughts and insights on topics I found interesting -- but when I saw little to no return on those efforts, I gave up on that idea. Over time, I reluctantly became resigned to the idea of using my creative talents to offer practical services instead. In time, I even learned to take pride in my work as a copywriter and a marketing professional, as can probably be inferred from my feeling of loss over my position with BKA.
Blogging and social media became things I did only for myself and no longer thought of as dialogues I was having with an audience, either existing or potential, but I've been seeing those things in a different light lately. I wanted anyone who sought me out elsewhere because of Medium to have the opportunity to see more of me should they feel so inclined, so I've started making the occasional public post on Facebook, as well as tweeting more often. I've also personalized the Cat Olson Writing blog I currently still have under construction, as well as gone back to allowing this blog to be indexed by Google. Who knows. Depending on how 2020 goes for my personal writing, I may even give NaNoWriMo another shot in November. I'm a little rusty when it comes to writing I'm actually passionate about, but in time, it will feel as natural as my copywriting now does.
I have to admit I've missed thinking of my personal writing as something worth an actual share of my productive time and creative energy. I honestly had come to think of it as kind of a waste, especially since focusing on copywriting instead actually made me money. Even the possibility that my personal writing could be many times more lucrative than copywriting has really changed my tune and given me back something precious I thought I'd lost. I actually feel hopeful, optimistic, and excited about my future as a writer and as a creative individual because of that, so I guess something positive really did come out of BKA giving me the boot. Praise the Lord!
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