Hello, I’m Michael Brockbank, owner and creator of WriterSanctuary.
I started my writing career on January 1st of 2012. Since then, I’ve grown from being a ghostwriter for content mills to blogging to self-publishing. And over the years, I’ve learned a great deal about all of these topics.
I’m still learning.
The reason why I cover several specific topics is that I am a writer. Whether I spend time blogging, working with clients, or publishing my next book, I am happiest at the keyboard.
Why I Created WriterSanctuary
Initially, I built WriterSanctuary as a way to document my journey while learning everything I could about various topics. In fact, if you look back at some of my posts in 2013, you can see a significant difference in style.
Putting it Into Practice
Every time I learn something new, I put it into practice. This is because humans often learn better by doing rather than simply reading. Eventually, what you learn becomes ingrained into your memory and becomes second nature.
This was especially helpful in the beginning as I was able to work on a lot of grammatical problems pointed out by the editors at Textbroker.
Today, I still put everything I learn into practice. But now, I usually back it up with spreadsheet data to demonstrate whether those techniques really matter or not. And if they do, how much of an impact do they make?
By keeping yourself constantly practicing with a blog, you have a chance to fine-tune your abilities. This makes you more valuable to clients or straightens up your storytelling prowess when writing books.
As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect.”
Sharing Everything I Learn to Help Others
I’ve always been one to help others in any way I can. WriterSanctuary is my platform to share everything I’ve learned about all of the systems I use as a writer. That way, I can hopefully help someone make a decision about their own writing or perhaps show off a new tool that vastly improves someone’s life or career.
This means that I am always focused on personal experiences or use data-driven elements to prove or disprove a point. In other words, I don’t merely cover certain topics because they’ll look good on a search results page.
I’m not in this to make enough money to drive a sports car or buy a million-dollar mansion.
In reality, I get just as thrilled when someone comments that I’ve helped them in some way as I do when I see a $5 day in AdSense.
Trying to Make Writing Easier for Everyone
A lot of people want to get into writing in some form. One of the driving factors of WriterSanctuary is to help make those paths easier to traverse. I want everyone to be successful, which entails sharing what has and hasn’t worked for me in the past.
Sure, everyone will have a unique experience as a writer. But there is something to be said about seeing how one person succeeded to help you develop your own strategies.
Not to mention that I come across tools, platforms, and techniques all the time that can easily help streamline your preferred method of writing.
My Goals for WriterSanctuary
Unlike a lot of other creators out there, I’m not driven by cash flow. If I was, this would be a completely different website.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love for WriterSanctuary to pull in enough to replace a full-time income. Then, I would simply write blog posts and books all day long. But the overall ultimate goal is to just be as helpful as possible to anyone who needs assistance.
Blogging
Not only do I manage quite a few blogs of my own, but I also manage several for various clients. I believe blogging is a great way to communicate with an audience and can be quite lucrative in varying degrees.
I share what works for me as well as my clients to drive millions of visitors every year. In one case, I helped bring a client from just under 20,000 visits per month to well over 200,000 within six months.
The best part is that I share everything we did with the sites to make that happen.
Self-Publishing
I am still relatively new to self-publishing. However, it’s one of those things that drives me to write every day. As I continue publishing books, I share everything I can about the entire process, from start to finish.
In fact, I published A Freelancer’s Tale without spending a single dime, and I laid out everything I did to make that happen.
Perhaps the hardest part about self-publishing is marketing. After all, no one is going to buy the book if they don’t know it exists. I’m looking forward to sharing the steps I take to sell more books.
Freelance Writing
From content mills to private clients, WriterSanctuary has a lot of posts when it comes to freelancing. Although I don’t do much with content mills today, I still believe they can help many people get their foot in the door.
Especially those who have no idea what they’re doing with AP Style English.
But there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting private clients. You’ll make more money and have far more power when it comes to various topics.
YouTube Videos
Recently, I began incorporating a few things about YouTube into WriterSanctuary. That’s because it’s a great platform to promote yourself as a creator.
Consider this; YouTube pulls in more than twice the traffic to this site than Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest combined!
Because YouTube is such a great platform for promoting oneself as a creator of any kind, I’ve decided to incorporate it into what WriterSanctuary offers. And as I did in the beginning, it’s a platform that helps me “put into practice” everything I learn.
Online Courses?
I’ve been asked a few times if I plan on publishing online courses about various writing topics. And to be honest, I’ve thought about it quite a bit over the last few months.
My problem is time.
Because I have my fingers in a lot of pies at the moment, I don’t know if I can squirrel away some time to make a decent course. But who knows what the future will bring?
I’m still leaning toward making a few affordable classes to help people with their own blogging, freelancing, or self-publishing journey, though.
The WriterSanctuary YouTube Channel
If you’re more interested in video content over blog posts, I do have the WriterSanctuary YouTube channel available.
Every Monday night at 7 pm (Mountain Time), I live stream and answer questions while hanging out with the other writers who subscribe to the channel. So, if you have any questions about writing, feel free to stop by and hang out with us.
Time permitting, I try to publish new videos every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Recently, I’ve been hosting a live WordPress webinar-type video every other Friday at 5 pm Mountain time.
Unfortunately, I have so much going on that sometimes videos get postponed. Client work takes up a large chunk of my week.
But if there is a topic you’d like me to cover, you can always reach out on social media on Twitter or Facebook, or use the content form. Or, simply stop by the live stream and suggest something.
Some of my favorite posts and videos have been suggestions from viewers.
Contacting WriterSanctuary
Contacting me at WriterSanctuary is relatively easy. I have a contact form available for those who are interested in certain aspects. And I get those messages immediately as I have my email running at all times.
You can also check out my personal blog at MichaelBrockbank.com. That website is essentially a breakdown of everything I do online, from the books I publish to the many different sites I manage.
If I publish something on the Internet, whether it’s a post or a video, MichaelBrockbank.com is where I share those specific platforms. Though, most of what I do is here, at WriterSanctuary.com.
How Can WriterSanctuary Help You, Today?
From blogging to books, I offer every bit of insight I can on what I’ve learned over the years. And while I am always in a state of self-improvement and learning, I share everything I come across for anything writing-related.
Hopefully, there is something here that can help you develop your own writing career.
Enjoy your stay, and let me know if there is anything in particular that you need.