5 ways my poetry brings me an income

And how you can make art and then use it - inadvertently - to sell courses and get new coaching or consultancy clients.

A few years back, I decided to be a poet for a year. I wanted to see if I could be a proper creative and earn an income from it.

I discovered that I can do that (I earned £800 in my first week) but that monetising my poetry directly had a negative impact on my inspiration.

The ideas stopped dropping in; it all started to dry up.

So I went back to launching online courses, coaching women and writing non-fiction books, as well as the odd article.

But more recently, I discovered that I’ve created a career around my poetry, in a different way. And this time, the ideas are continuously rolling in.

What I like writing and sharing on Instagram - and what my followers seem to like me writing and sharing - is poetry and poetic passages.

About womanhood, motherhood and day-to-day life.

And so I decided to only share poems and passages on there.

I did it for myself, and my creativity.

I didn’t want to be writing posts about a new course or coaching space that had come up, unless the main post was a poem and I mentioned the course in the caption.

And what has happened - slightly by chance - is that this has helped me to grow my following.

I started it with the intention of returning to pure creativity, not with the intention of getting more followers.

It’s what I love to see on Instagram - people’s art work, photography, interiors, music, words - and so it’s what I wanted to share more of myself and become part of.

Now, rather than plateauing or going down, as others have reported, my Instagram community is steadily growing.

And it’s impacting my earnings in a positive way.

5 ways my poetry brings me an income

• Sharing poetry grows my following, which means more people clicking through to my Substack (linked in my bio) and becoming paid subscribers.

• My poetry has been the reason several women have signed up for one-to-one coaching with me and joined a marketing programme I ran.

• Similarly, the women who join my courses have often said they read one of my poems and then started following the ‘business’ side of my work.

• I have been commissioned by Red Magazine to write articles off the back of my poetry on Instagram. Psychologies, too.

• Now, I’m teaching others how to use their art (on Instagram) to create a new customer journey. It’s called The Creative Way and you can join in here (please note: I’ve made this course self-paced and the new pricing reflects this).

So, I get to share my art on Instagram, which feels exciting and aligned, and I no longer have that feeling of ‘do people actually want this?’ when I post.

I’m writing from the heart (not to sell).

And off the back of it, I’m growing my Substack, courses and coaching business and getting journalism commissions.

It feels like the loveliest flow.

Next step? A poetry book deal. That’s what I’m after. But I’m not chasing it - not yet - I’m just putting out the poems and seeing if something naturally comes my way…

Annie x