Pop quiz (and writing success!)

Follow this simple plan to create your path for 2021 [The Writer’ s Life]( December 23, 2020 Hi {NAME}, Die Hard = Christmas movie … Yes or No? The debate continues … but some people say it's not Christmas until Hans Gruber falls off Nakatomi Plaza. :) No one can deny that Hans Gruber was a man with a plan. He sure was dedicated to following it through! Now, here at AWAI, we prefer to earn our money through work we love. So, we've got a simple plan for you to follow for writing success. For a three-part plan you can adopt right away — and build your momentum heading into the New Year — check out what AWAI Success Andrew Murray has to say in today's issue. There's nothing but opportunity ahead for writers, and we want you focused and ready to take advantage of it. Andrew's been enjoying his writer's life since he and his wife Peta made the decision to walk away from the rat race and travel full-time around the Australian Outback. They fund their adventures with their travel-themed Money-Making Website. Andrew's teacher, Nick Usborne, has used this tactic to make over $450,000, writing just 1-3 hours a week, without any clients. For the last several years, Nick has helped hundreds of AWAI members make money with this fun writing project you can do in your spare time (without a single client!). [>> We've profiled some of them here.]( To your success, [Rebecca Matter's Signature] Rebecca Matter President, AWAI Your Simple Path to Writing Success in 2021 By Andrew Murray [man writing on laptop with planning notebook nearby] Wow, what a year we've had! Thankfully, it's nearly over. This means we have a chance to wipe the slate clean and start afresh. 2020 most likely punched a big hole in your plans. That's okay, these things happen. If nothing else, 2020 has taught us a whole lot about resilience and adapting to change. So now's a perfect time to take your newfound abilities and figure out a way to make 2021 the year you succeed in creating your very own version of the writer's life. And the best way to succeed? Start with a plan. Planning Your Success A plan really is no more than a series of logical steps … steps to keep you on track towards achieving your dream. It's fine for your head to be swimming with wild and wonderful ideas. After all, that's where the best ideas often come from. But to achieve your dream, at some stage you'll have to reach in, catch a few of those wonderful ideas, and pin them down. So, let's get started developing your cunning plan of achieving your writer's life dream in 2021. The Why Start with the Why. Why do you want to chase your writing dreams? Think of the top two or three reasons why you want to live the writer's life. Then write them down. It could be so you can travel and work … just like my wife Peta and I do as we work on our travel-based Money-Making Website, Top Wire Traveller. Or maybe you need a steady income and you want to work from home. Whatever your reasons are, write them down. Why? Well, there's something about the action of writing them out … it cements them in your brain. By dragging them from your brain and spreading them across the page, what was a dream now looks more like reality. So you might have: - "I want a steady income." - "I want to work from home." Now add a deeper reason. Start looking at the "why of the why": - "I want a steady income because right now I struggle to pay the bills." - "I want to work from home so I can spend more time with my children." Go deeper if you can. Try to get to the bottom of the real reason you want to achieve your dream: - "I want a steady income so I can pay the bills and save for retirement." - "I want to work from home because my children need me around as they grow up." Keep going until you've exhausted all options. By the time you've finished, your Why will likely look quite different: - "I want financial security for now and the future." - "I want to be a better parent for my children." So you've decided you need financial security and you want to be around for your children. Great! Notice how just a few minutes' work can yield a stack of valuable information? Now you have a clear reason, a deeper reason why you're driven towards your dream. Your dream is taking form. Just a few minutes ago it was a vague notion, a fuzzy cloud. Now it's defined … a clear, solid body staring back from the page at you. Something you can see in your mind. Something you can act on. It's time to move onto the What. The What How can you achieve your Why? Copywriting appeals to you because it allows you to achieve your Why. So what steps do you need to take to become a copywriter, to live the writer's life? Step One is to learn the basics. The AWAI Method for Becoming a Skilled, In-Demand CopywriterTM is an excellent course. This course is an absolute must for every aspiring copywriter. It's the foundation of your new career. It takes you through the subtle art of persuasive writing, from start to finish. By the time you're done, you'll be ready to work as a copywriter. Step Two of your What depends on what you want to achieve. For example, if you're looking to be up and running as soon as possible, then short copy projects are a good place to start … email campaigns, e-newsletters, blog posts, chatbot writing, and so on. This is also the time when you need to tell the world about your new skill set. Tell everyone you're a trained copywriter … friends, colleagues, work connections. And post it on social media. Tell the world you're open for business! Step Three? Use your industry contacts. If you're a little (or even a lot) jaded about the industry you're in, keep this in mind: A prospect is far more likely to hire a new writer who has loads of experience in their industry than an experienced writer with little or no experience in their industry. Why? Because you speak their language. You understand their challenges. You know their audience. (Keep in mind … you don't have to stick with that niche forever, but it does help you get your foot in the door when you're starting out.) Okay. You have the Why and the What. All you need now is the When. The When Ah, the When. This is a common stumbling block. Here's what can happen. You decide the act on your dream of becoming a writer. So you take a few copywriting courses. Then you see another course … another branch of copywriting that looks interesting. So you take another course. You justify this by saying, "If I do this next course, then I'll be ready to look for clients." The problem is, you never get any clients. Some people call it "shiny object syndrome." There's an easy way to avoid this. Concentrate on the When: - The date you'll start looking for clients. - How many prospects you'll target every week. - How you'll look for clients … via LinkedIn, warm emailing, and so on. And attach a date to every step of the When: - March 1 — Start looking for clients on LinkedIn. - March 1 — Send 10 warm emails per week for two months. - May 1 — Assess the success of my emails.  … and so on. By setting dates, you'll run out of excuses. Those dates hold you to account! Speaking of which, you might benefit from accountability groups. These are groups of people who meet regularly and share their successes and failures. Accountability groups can be a powerful motivator. If you need that extra push, then seek out an accountability group. The best place to find one is on [AWAI's Facebook page](. Wrapping Up Make the end of 2020 the circuit breaker you need to get started on your writer's life. Plan for future success by using the simple Why/What/When approach. What better way to turn a year to forget into one you'll always remember … the year your dream became a reality! What's your plan for success in 2021? Let us know in the comments so we can help. Editorial Note: Andrew is living his writer's life by making money from his travel website. You can do it too! A Money-Making Website is an ideal way for most writers to earn passive income. And when you write about something you're passionate about, it's a lot of fun too. Plus, it's easy to get started. Nick Usborne will walk you through building your own Money-Making Website in his live training sessions … A website that generates $750, $1,500, $3,000 or even more month after month. He'll even incentivize you to ensure you get your own website up and running. [>> Go here to learn how you can earn extra money by writing about something that really interests you.]( LIVE Training: How to Build Your Passive-Income Stream with Writing Get ready … because, for seven weeks, you'll get LIVE coaching on building your very own passive income stream. All by writing about what you're passionate about in your spare time. The rewards can be very nice: One writer makes $3,500 per month. Another, Holly H., makes $100,000 per year. And get this — one writer, Tomaz, makes a whopping $1,000 … per day! Even better: For a limited time, YOU can join in on this LIVE training and get started building your passive-income stream for (basically) free. [Here's How …]( LAST CHANCE: Make an Extra $10,000 … $15,000 … Even $25,000 Writing on the Side! That's what freelance copywriters—even newbies—can make. Working part-time. From home. Without answering to a boss or setting an alarm clock. In fact, one member of our club doubled his income in 2020 and made more as a part-time writer than he did from his full-time job! BUT PLEASE DO IT NOW! Because our 2020 year-end membership drive—with a 67 percent discount—ends at MIDNIGHT TONIGHT! [Listen Here Now!]( Join PWA for $1 …  … And Get FREE Access to 21-Day Client Challenge For a limited time, get FREE mentoring from top copywriting coach Ilise Benun when you join The Professional Writers' Alliance for $1. Ilise will help you set up a proven, repeatable system for attracting clients to you. This mentoring normally costs $497. But right now, you can get it for free as part of your PWA membership … Along with ALL the PWA resources that will help you run your business smoothly and focus most of your time on writing and getting paid. [Get Your Invitation to Join for $1.]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Trouble viewing this email? [View in your browser, here](. For questions or requests: [contact us online](. --------------------------------------------------------------- ©2020 American Writers & Artists Institute Do you know of someone who would benefit from reading The Writer's Life? Simply direct them [here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- American Writers & Artists Institute 220 George Bush Blvd, Suite D Delray Beach, FL 33444 (561) 278-5557 or (866) 879-2924 Ensure your subscription delivery. AWAI Whitelisting info available [here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- You are subscribed to this newsletter as {EMAIL}. To unsubscribe from any future issues of The Writer's Life, please click here: [Unsubscribe from The Writer's Life](. To unsubscribe from all AWAI broadcasts click here. [I want to permanently unsubscribe from all AWAI emails](.