What’s your business model for your writing? Perhaps you’ve created a self-publishing business, or a content creation business.
You may be an infopreneur: someone who makes money from information in various ways. The term “infopreneur” comes from H. Skip Weitzen’s 1988 book, Infopreneurs: Turning Data Into Dollars.
Alternatively if you’re a newbie starting to make money from your writing, you might be wondering what kind of writing business you could create.
Start by deciding whether you’ll focus on ONE form of writing for money in 2020, or two. (Or even more, if you’re an over-achiever… :-))
Your writing business in 2020: will you specialize or diversify?
Will your business be laser-focused on one opportunity in 2020, or will you diversify?
Over the years, I’ve always suggested diversification to my writing students, because you’re spreading the risk. If a book you spent three months writing bombs, you’re stuck. Your potential income vanishes like mist.
On the other hand, when you diversify you risk spreading yourself too thin. Diversification can be a juggling act: you’ll have lots of balls you need to keep in the air.
Your personality may dictate whether you specialize or diversify. I’m a Gemini and easily bored, which makes diversification an instinctive choice. I started out writing romance fiction, then quickly added copywriting to my business.
If you like to challenge yourself too, diversification may be for you.
Writing business opportunities in 2020
You’re a writer. The world, to coin a cliche, is your oyster. Write whatever you enjoy and chances are, you can make money at it.
Opportunities include:
- Freelance writing: writing for companies large and small;
- Blogging. Making money via freelance blogging, or via a revenue-producing blog;
- Social media marketing: creating social media content for businesses;
- Self-publishing, either fiction or nonfiction, or both;
- Creating information products like courses;
- Copywriting: creating advertising and other marketing materials for business clients;
- Ghostwriting: either ghostwriting fiction, or ghostwriting nonfiction.
Writers are making six-figure (and more, in some cases) incomes via the above opportunities.
You can do it too. Whether you achieved your income goals in 2019 or not, create your 2020 writing business plan now.
Tip: use Trello. I’ve been laying out my plans for 2020’s projects in my “2020” board. In addition to other lists on the board, I’ve got lists for each of the four quarters of 2020.
Trello has dozens of free templates. Here’s a Trello business plan board you can download.

To download the above board template, click More in the right sidebar. Then click Copy Board. Open Trello and you’ll see that your new board’s ready to use. (If you haven’t joined Trello, do that first; Trello is free for basic use.)
Create your writing business plan now
Everyone’s busy and getting busier with the holidays on the horizon. Plan for 2020 now.
I like using Trello for planning because I can see where I am with a quick glance at a board. (BTW, I have no connection to the company.) In the past, I’ve used a single 5 x 8 index card to create a quick business plan.
Whatever you use, create your writing business plan NOW. You’ll be ready for a wonderful 2020. Onward…
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Copywriter and marketing pro Angela Booth maintains a busy copywriting and ghostwriting practice. Fascinated by online marketing, she wrote one of the first business books for internet marketing, published by Allen & Unwin. She’s been an enthusiastic blogger since the late 1990s.