Sharing the Wealth

Maybe the most difficult thing in crafting a blog is finding an angle that solves a problem and yet is still fun to read. Questions come up: What is it about? What does it try to teach or accomplish? Why are you writing it? And, Who cares?

Bloggers who write on how to make money blogging claim that if you are venting or rambling about personal stuff, you'll never make money. You don't write a blog then wonder how to make money from it. You create a blog concept then create content that promotes that concept.

I will add to that and say that you can do both. Correction--not only that you can do both, but that you should do both. Sort of. No, I am not suggesting that you ramble on about anything or use social media to vent all the stuff nobody wants to hear and that you'd be embarrassed you posted in the first place. What I am suggesting is that with the use of personal story, you attract your readers. People need people to be real. To relate. To know they're not alone. Personal stuff can make the post both enjoyable and memorable. And that's also how people learn. You can create a blog to make money by sharing the personal, no matter what the concept, product, service, or brand. Personal connection is the secret.

And that's kind of what I wanted this blog to be about: Sharing the Wealth. Sharing the best stuff. Favorites, from products to books and movies, from quotes and pictures to advice and writing tips, from therapies to ancient wisdom and new research.

I wrote a paper during my MFA for Creative Writing in a Composition Theory class titled Sharing the Wealth, and the title came back to me. It is a worthy title and the concept is in line with my life purpose. Purpose and passion are certainly what this is about. Discovering and formulating our life purpose is essential to well-being. And we do this through writing and through reading as well as living life. Sharing the Wealth means granting the power of the pen to those who will read and practice, develop both their writing and their purpose.

I aim to share the tools of the art and craft of writing and how to use them. But I also aim to show you how to use writing as therapy. We cannot write, cannot go through the writing process without going through therapy. That is what it is. Writing is cathartic. And so while we develop the art and craft, we heal ourselves. And just maybe others, too, as we share our stories with them and leave our venting unpublished.

Through this blog I will share everything you need to know to get published and make money doing it. (And heal yourself in the process!) And I will share all the good stuff I find along the way. On here you will discover your purpose or get back to it. And you will find support in following your bliss. All of the that. All through the power of the pen (or as would now be more appropriate--through the power of our computers), but ultimately, language and the written word.

Until tomorrow,

Lucía Belmontéz