It’s been one year since I quit my six-figure corporate job and started my Substack page. I thought it would be a good time to reflect on writing, specifically recovery writing, as it’s something I’ve been doing for a few years and I’m sure people are out there interested to dive in but not sure how to get started.
I actually started blogging almost eight years ago. I created a Wordpress blog and started posting random insights about motherhood. It was innocent and spontaneous, but mostly pretty cringe. I mean… I remember writing about the relatability of Kim Kardashian’s pregnancy cankles at one point, and another one about my infamous RBF (resting bitch face). So, yeah… You will not find this posts on the interwebs anymore I’m so happy to announce.
Eventually when I created corresponding social media pages, that’s where my words were seen. Facebook and later Instagram were great, free ways to put my words out there and link back to my Wordpress page. The ability to share and go viral makes a big difference, and that is in large part how my social media pages grew so big (as of today I’m at 77k followers on Facebook and 89k on Instagram).
I also wrote a lot of guest posts on writer platforms in the early days, such as Scary Mommy, Her View From Home, Today Parents, and Huffington Post. I made a teeny tiny amount of money from those sites (Like $30-$100 per accepted submission sometimes, but sometimes nothing at all) but it also connected me to other writers.
This next section is for paid subscribers only, and I will break down what I’ve learned from my social accounts, how I spent my book advance, what I would do different if I was starting out today, as well as how much I’m making on Substack.
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