The Smutlancers

Author: Kayla Lords

copywriting as a way to make money 0

Freelancers / How to Make Money

How to Make Money: Copywriting

Several weeks (months?) ago, I began a series called How to Make Money where we discuss different money-making opportunities. What I’ve covered so far isn’t close to everything, but I got distracted by bright, shiny objects and wandered off to talk about other things. Now I’m back with a single topic that encompasses multiple ways to make money as a writer: copywriting. What is Copywriting? The simple definition of copywriting is that it’s the content you write to sell something. The flyer you get in the mail from a car dealership and the script used in a commercial are two...

episode 8 discusses ignoring the critics and making your thing anyway 2

Episodes

Ignoring Your Critics and Getting Better at What You Do SL008

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:01 — 18.1MB)

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This week I went on a rant (it’s kind of my thing) about ignoring your critics – even your own inner critic – and doing your thing. We all start somewhere and we all get better with time. It’s easy for someone to sit on the outside and say you did it wrong, but much harder to be out there getting it done. In this episode: Two separate Twitter convos inspired this week’s episode – one on whether you can like someone who sucks at their art and the other about non-helpful criticism. There’s a difference between the critic and...

A question often asked by sex bloggers - when will my sex blog make money 0

Making Money / Sex Bloggers/Sex Toy Reviewers

When Will My Sex Blog Make Money?

Tl;dr: There are no guaranteed timelines to making money. It’s what you do right now and what you keep doing that matters most. So when will my sex blog make money? It’s a question all sex blogging smutlancers ask themselves, especially when you’re working hard to get someone to hire you, accept your pitch, or become a sponsor. The short answer? As long as it takes. Yeah, I know, it’s not satisfying. The first time I made money from my blog was a total fluke. Someone randomly emailed me and wanted to pay for a sponsored post. Before that, I...

episode seven discusses the importance of community 2

Episodes

Why Community Matters SL007

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:33 — 21.7MB)

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After talking about friendships in episode 6, the sex blogging community as a whole is on my mind. Cultivating friendships is important but being a part of the community, even in a small way, matters just as much. In this episode: Communities remind us we’re not completely solitary. We might not all be besties but we have a place to share the struggles and good times as a creator. Communities are where you learn best practices, problems (like Twitter shadowbans), and what you don’t know that you don’t know. Online communities are out there – in every social media platform....

a blog post about the Twitter shadowban 3

Smutlancer Life

Why the Twitter Shadowban Matters…and Why It Doesn’t

The social media and content entities of the world work hard these days to lock out adult content. Either due to investor concerns about all that dirty, dirty sex littering their cash cow. Or it’s in an unconvincing attempt to “Think of the children!” WordPress, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Patreon, and even the place many of us once thought safe for sex, Twitter, have crumbled and fallen to censorship and pretending sex is for “other people” instead of every (legal adult) fucking body on the planet. Since Twitter still allows an obscene (pun intended) amount of porn on its platform, my...

Smutlancer podcast episode on friendship 0

Episodes

Why Friendship is Important When You’re a Smutlancer SL006

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:14 — 20.2MB)

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Over the weekend I read a book called A Secret Sisterhood: The Literary Friendships of Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, and Virginia Woolf. While it was a fascinating look at a forgotten or ignored part of literary history, it also got me thinking about how important friendship is to the smutlancing life. In this episode: This week’s episode is sponsored by Blubrry.com. We need friends as creative people. Friends who are on a similar path and understand what we’re going through. Friends to bounce ideas off of or to get a gut check from. One or two is enough....

post on breaking up with aka firing a client 0

Freelancers / Smutlancer Life

Breaking Up With a Client Doesn’t Have to Be Heartbreaking

I know, I know…some of you are thinking, “Breaking up?! I’m trying to get a client — not get rid of them!” If you’re just starting out in this smutlancing thing, it probably seems impossible that a day will come when you’ll break up with (aka fire) a client. A few years ago, I thought the same thing. Desperate for work, I took anyone who came my way (this sounds a lot like my love life when I was 20…). I never sabotaged my career but even when it was awful, I’d wait for them to end it with me...

banner for blog post on being a professional as a smutlancer 0

Making Money

How to Be Seen as the Professional You Are or Want to Be

When I say “the professional you want to be” I’m referring to any work that you do in a creative way that earns money and involves sexual content – erotic writing, sex blogging, podcasting, videos, photography, any of it. In every creative field, there are specific things we do or avoid doing so that we’re seen as the professional we are. But some things are universal. Certain activities and behaviors have to be learned, and some may need to be unlearned. There were some things that came naturally to me when I began freelancing, and others I had to learn...

Smutlancer Podcast episode on comparing yourself to other sex bloggers and creatives 0

Episodes

The Compare and Contrast Thing We All Do SL005

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:52 — 21.7MB)

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In episode 5, I discuss a bad habit that a lot of creative people have – and as a sex blogger, I know I do it. We compare ourselves to others and decide there’s something wrong with us. Sometimes the insecurity of jealousy makes us not like the other person but most often, we find something in ourselves lacking. We tell ourselves we’re not as good as they are and we never will be. The compare and contrast thing is something we all do, and it’s something we should all do less of. In this episode: This week’s episode is...

banner that says The Anatomy of a Good Blog Post 5

Blogging / Sex Bloggers/Sex Toy Reviewers

The Anatomy of a Good Blog Post

“Good” is subjective. A good blog post even more so. Only one part of what makes a post work isn’t about subject matter or word choice but how the information is presented so that it can easily be read. You can craft the “perfect” blog post (based on the steps below) and if it’s not interesting, entertaining, or helpful, it won’t matter. And you can write words that move people and speak to them on a deep level filled with errors or presented as a wall of text on the screen. This is purely subjective, but if you’re looking for...