4 Myths About Online Writing That Cause New Writers to Quit

And prevent them from writing freely.

Sep 27, 2024

I quit the first time I tried online writing.

I dreamed of becoming a blogger while eating croissants, drinking cappuccinos, and sinking my feet in Cabo sand. I wanted the “easy life” before I put in the actual work — writing. I can’t blame new writers for thinking this way. Playing the game of online writing makes your brain do eighty somersaults every single day.

No one expects that friction the first time around.

But I stayed consistent at my craft and my blog got around 20k views a month, plus I earn a decent chunk of change doing something I love.

There’s plenty of myths in the air that need some clearing.

So here are four myths I had the first time I began my writing career that you should watch out for if you want to have some success.

The Algorithm is Messed Up

It gets annoying hearing a million people complain about a platform daily.

Of course, we all want our work to be seen by as many eyes as possible. That’s the goal of online writing. But some people take it too far, almost as if they’re going to leave the platform and that will fix everything. It won’t.

Every platform has its golden age that allowed early writers to feast on a view buffet. A lot of these writing platforms are overrun by new writers trying to partake as well, and I implore that.

What’s wrong with competition?

It’s more rewarding to become a top writer on a platform with millions of users than a platform with fifty. A lot of people like to chalk writing success up to being “early” on a platform. That’s a part of it, but success comes when your writing is so irresistible that even a platform with millions of other users loves your work.

One of Your First Fifteen Articles Will Go Viral

Ahhh, the golden misconception.

How on earth will I debunk this myth? Oh yeah, try publishing fifteen articles and see if one goes viral. I’m 100% sure it won’t. The proof is in the pudding.

You can’t be a writer who only wants to write fifteen articles and dip.

This is a patient game. You either play for the long haul or you don’t play at all. I’ve published over four hundred articles and I still haven’t seen one go viral (viral to me is 100k views). I actually like that. It gives me more drive to improve my writing quality. I’ll continue to write and see what happens with the next four hundred.

Every article you write is a micro-investment into your career. If you stay in the market long enough, you’ll reap the most rewards.

Writing is Either a Business or An Art Form

Writing is both a business and an art form.

I see tons of new writers treat writing as one or the other. If they treat it more as a business, they worry themselves about views, stats, marketing, following, promotion, etc. They’d rather talk about why someone should read their article instead of writing a great article that speaks for itself.

The art form writers like to write in their grandma’s basement in solitude and put out an article every couple of months. That’s fine to do, but in that case, you should play the journaling game, not the online writing game. Consistency is key. Quantity facilitates quality.

Those who treat writing as both will be successful because they know how to write a great article and market it effectively for maximum viewership. But even after all of that hard work, they still don’t harp over stats.

I’m still at a point in my writing career where I just need to get the word out there. I need to accumulate a plethora of quality articles, build my following, and then get the real business going. I don’t look at my daily stats.

Current stats don’t matter if you believe in the process.

Your Following Will Save You

A big following won’t do shit for your viewership.

It ebbs and flows as it pleases. You have no control over it. Heck, I always anticipate every single month on any platform that I’ll have at least one week where my views and engagement will drop. There’s nothing I can do about it. All I can do is write better content.

Also, most people gun to get their writing seen in large publications.

When I first started writing, my dream was to become a writer for the Huffington Post. I’m happy that dream died quickly. Articles of mine that I put in smaller/newer publications have the most engagement and viewership I’ve ever had. The articles I painstakingly got in big publications got zero views.

Even writers with a huge following can get a small article viewership.

Your long-term goal isn’t to amass a huge following. It’s to publish a timeless library of content that will continue to earn you dividends over time.

Final Thought

These are the biggest four myths I’ve seen throughout my writing journey.

All of them were debunked when I put my head down and challenged myself to write and publish every single day for a year. Bad algorithms, instant virality, business vs. art form, large followings, all of these myths get blown out of the water with one thing — consistency.

That’s all that matters.

Write on.