🪴 Vik's Notes

Last updated Oct 31, 2023

• Author: Nicolas Cole
• Full Title: The Art and Business of Online Writing
• Category: #books

Nicholas Cole was a professional World of Warcraft player in his high school days. He started a blog to write about gameplay but he quickly noticed a few important things:

• People didn’t care about the informative stuff like game strategy; what made the front page was almost always drama.
• People wanted to know what gamers were like in real life. Personal stories went a long way.
• There was no social component to blogging. As a result the blog was not discoverable.
• There was no reason to be an “expert” to start writing. Just start sharing stories.

He began writing every day on Quora, and every question was a creative writing prompt. His first responses almost got no views, and this is where most people would have given up but he pressed on. The key to success he realized was consistency. He used a mixture of his experience at work and life to find answers to Quora questions and simply wrote it from his point of view. Sharing universal life lessons make his content go viral.

The moment he went viral, he immediately put together a personal website and sold eBooks about health and fitness to the traffic that was visiting his site. But he didn’t stop writing on Quora even after he got invited to write for Inc magazine. He doubled down on Quora and answered one question, while writing one article for the magazine, every single day.

By now, he was a successful online writer with a paid publishing gig. Then he realized that he can use his writing skill to become a ghostwriter for executives.

“It took me a long time to realize that writing online isn’t just for writers,” he says.

You should have a blog for two reasons only:

1. For monetizing website via ads, aka, the media business.
2. For selling products like online courses, aka, product business.
   1. Your main purpose is not to build an audience, but drive traffic based on specific keywords so that people can buy your product. A great example of this is Hubspot.
   2. The other reason is if you are a solopreneur where you can sell your coaching services. Your purpose is to capture specific kind of traffic. A good example is Kindleprenuer - a website dedicated to teaching you how to write and self-publish ebooks on Amazon.

If you don’t fit into these categories then blogging is not the right answer. For most people, a website is an online business card. This is different from the business of online writing.

There is an exception to this rule - Mark Manson who wrote “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fck”. He started off by writing a blog which then got him famous. He is an outlier who started blogging very early. This is not the recommended path anymore.

Simply starting off with a blog is a wrong way to do it because you are starting with zero traffic and the only way to get traffic is:

• Spend money on ads
• Optimize for SEO
• Build a following on another platform

But none of these methods help you share your insights and ideas at scale.

The definition of online writing is:

Sharing thoughts, stories, opinions, and insights on a platform that already has an active audience

If you are on a platform where an audience already exists, that’s online writing. If you are writing on your own platform hoping an audience will come to you, that’s blogging.

Still processing 👇🏼

• Data is the single greatest indicator of what’s working (and what isn’t working) about your writing.
• There are 2 types of writers today: those who use data to inform and improve their writing, and those who fail.
• why would a writer wait until the moment they were ready to publish their product to start building their audience? The more logical path forward would be to start writing online, build an audience, learn what people actually wanted from you, and THEN launch your product.
• The new way to think about being a writer in the digital age is to turn your writing into a data mining machine.
• 99% of people think they know what they should write about.
• the brutal truth is, they don’t
• before you do anything, before you write your book, before you launch your product, before you think about “positioning yourself,” you need to write online. Why
• Writing online, first, reduces your risk
• Writing online, first, helps you find your voice
• Writing online, first, builds your audience from day one
• Writing online, first, will give you insight into what people want:
• All of a sudden, I was no longer making decisions based on what I thought people wanted. People told me what they wanted—all I had to do was listen.
• This is your “Writing Data Flywheel.” Your “Writing Data Flywheel” is a mechanism for endless inspiration
• The sooner you start receiving feedback on your writing, the faster you will grow as a writer
• Likes = “This is something I approve of. Nice job.”
• Shares = “This is something more people need to know about. This represents me.
• Comments = “This is thought provoking. I agree/disagree, and I want you to know why.
• Views = “This strikes a chord. There’s something valuable here.”
• Practicing in public is how you gather that data in the first place.
• I believe the only way to overcome this fear is to run directly at it.
• The answer is because they’re afraid.
• Now, why don’t people like this approach?
• And it’s in running directly at it that you become the person “worth listening to” in the first place.
• Writing online is a competition, plain and simple.
• Chapter 3 How The Online Writing Game Works: 7 Levels Of Success
• Unfortunately, most people don’t see the internet this way. Instead, their measure for success is more binary. If they write a blog post, they’ve succeeded. If they don’t write a blog post, they’ve failed
• And because their measures for success are so black and white, they tend to spend money on all the wrong things to drive exposure, increase their audience, and build their credibility: a better-looking website, a bigger advertising budget, more PR, more promotions, more, more, more.
• Their biggest problem is the writing itself.
• Level 1: Conscious vs Unconscious
• Successful writers play the game of Online Writing consciously. Unsuccessful writers play the game unconsciously—and then wonder why they aren’t succeeding.
• I’m telling you that by playing the game with intention, and paying attention to the data, you will discover and amplify your most authentic writing voice ten times faster.
• Choose A Category
• Most people have no idea what category they’re actually writing in.
• the ENTIRE—art and business and “game” of online writing is rooted in understanding what category you’re actually competing within. Unless you can consciously name the category, you will never have a firm grasp as to whether your work is “Better” or “Worse” than the competition
• Categories are how we organize information in our minds. Know your category and you’ll know where readers “fit” you into their own minds.
• Your job is to take the time to read, observe, and study your chosen category to the point where you understand its native language. You should be able to hear the nuances in how people communicate
• Level 3: Define Your “Style” (Where Do You Sit On The Writing Spectrum?)
• this.
• Educating «<»> Entertaining
• Creating a unique, memorable, and “different” writing style is nothing more than a deliberate choice to sit somewhere unexpected on this Writing Spectrum
• The more unexpected the style, in the context of your category, the more likely you are to stand out.
• On the other hand, the more expected the style, in the context of your category, the more likely you are to sound like everyone else—and blend into the noise.
• The secret to creating a unique writing style is by doing what
• would be considered “unexpected” in your chosen category
• I cannot
• My recommendation would be for you to get started writing, publishing, gathering data, “practicing in public,” and studying The Ladder of your chosen category
• Level 4: Optimize Your Writing Style For Speed
• If your story is reliant on the reader making it past the first few pages, then chances are, your story doesn’t need those pages.”
• I would just start with the main point instead
• The Rate of Revelation.
• This is the rate at which you reveal new information to the reader
• Level 5: Specificity Is The Secret
• The inverse rule of “Specificity is the Secret,” is “The Broader You Are, The More Confusing You Are.”
• Ineffective writing is nothing more than writing that does not resonate. And the reason it doesn’t resonate is almost always a reflection of specificity—or lack thereof
• A lot of aspiring writers shy away from naming their writing that specifically, because
• they
• But especially when you’re first starting out online, a box is exactly what you want. You want people to know where to put you on the bookshelf in their mind.
• For example: “Marketing” is broad. “Content Marketing” is more specific. “Content Marketing” is still too broad. “Content Marketing For High-Growth Businesses” is more specific. “Content Marketing For High-Growth Businesses” is still too broad. “Content Marketing For Founders And Executives Of High-Growth Businesses” is more specific.
  • Note: Justin welsh has exactly the same example On his website
• Either this is going to be exactly what they’re looking for, or they’re going to know right away I’m not the right writer for them
• the more specific I am, the more I as a writer also gain clarity around what it is I’m actually writing about
• Marketing is a great way to build exposure,” is a broad statement. “Content marketing is a great way to build exposure for your business” is more specific. “Content marketing is a great way to build exposure for your business,” is still a broad statement. “Content marketing
• the more specific you can be, the more likely you are to resonate with your target reader MORE than your competition.
• The real question you should never stop asking yourself is, “Could this be more specific?” Because
• Start
• Level 6: Engineering Credibility
• Luckily, how you build credibility on the internet is easy. In the simplest way, signals of credibility are nothing more than subtle (or not-so-subtle) signs that you know what you’re talking about and are “worth” listening to.
• The first layer is Implied Credibility
• Implied Credibility is how much “Better” or “Worse” your content is than everyone else’s in your chosen category
• Your content is so good, your credibility is implied.
• The second layer is Perceived Credibility.
• Profile picture
• Bio
• Production quality
• Grammar
• Organization of thought
• Specificity
• What credible people have to say about your writing
• Which major publications your writing has appeared in
• How many followers you have on social media
• High barrier-to-entry products
• Badges and achievements
• How much money you’ve made from your craft
• What so many people fail to realize is that these signals can also backfire—and they backfire often.
• you skip straight to this step in the game (and so, so, so many people do), chances are, every person whose attention you capture is going to be disappointed. They’re going to know, within the first three paragraphs of reading your writing, whether or not they’ve been tricked
• You might have captured their attention—but you certainly didn’t keep it.
• The third layer is Earned Credibility.
• This is the most undervalued form of credibility on the internet. It’s also the easiest to acquire.
• the reason we choose to pay attention to some people and choose not to pay attention to other people is not because of Perceived Credibility
• It’s actually their Implied Credibility (quality of content) and Earned Credibility (proof they’re “playing and winning the game”).
• What hooks us is their consistency, their improvement over time, and most importantly, their ability to create something that resonates with us in that particular category.
• long you’ve been creating content for
• How often you create content
• How much content you’ve created
• How many people consume your content
• How well one of your pieces of content has performed
• something uniquely different that comes with these badges, in the sense that each is a reflection of effort, skill, and self-discipline.
• What makes a badge of credibility valuable isn’t really the badge itself. It’s how the writer chooses to wear it.
• The moment you have even one signal of Earned Credibility, you should start leveraging it
• If one of your articles gets 10,000 views, you should have a link in your bio saying, “Read my most-popular article with more than 10,000 views.”
• Level 7: Create Your Own Category
• Competing in other people’s categories sucks.
• The answer is to create a new category of your own.
• Pop Science
• Gladwell, instead of competing in either of these two categories, created his own—which the media has since referred to as “Pop Science.” His books are based on thorough research, but they’re written for a non-academic audience.
• No-Bullshit Self-Help
• but it wasn’t until Jen Sincero published You Are A Badass, and Mark Manson published The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck, that a whole new niche emerged: telling people how to un-fuck their lives, plain and simple
• Fratire
• Before Tucker Max’s, I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, there was “satire,” and there were fraternity stories told around bonfires while drinking Natty Light
• The real reason Max became a #1 New York Times best-selling author was because he had created a completely new category
• Do I want to keep trying to be a ‘Better’ version of someone else? Or is it time I become a new and DIFFERENT version of myself?” And DIFFERENT always beats “Better.”
• Categories are created at unlikely intersections, spotted by writers with an intimate understanding of one or multiple sub-categories
• The fact that my top 10 highest-performing articles are predominantly about personal development should tell you something. These weren’t articles about me—these were articles about you, the reader. These were pieces to get you thinking, to make you more productive, to help your life in some way. And it was because I was putting the reader first that my articles performed so well. Anytime I shifted the focus to myself, or leaned too heavily into my own “navel gazing,” viewership fell.
• Trying to become a popular YouTuber today is much more difficult than it was 10 years ago. We’re seeing the same thing happen in 2020 with podcasts on Apple and Spotify. It’s much harder to start a popular podcast today than it was five years ago
• Phase 1: New website or platform is invented—early audiences flock
• Phase 2: Website or platform starts gaining traction—early users become “influencers
• Phase 3: Website or platform is established and begins a decade-long journey to profitability
• Whenever I look for new platforms to leverage as a writer, this is the “window” I look for. Because this “window” provides maximum upside for content creators
• The reason is because as soon as a platform reaches this stage, it needs to achieve certain exposure and engagement metrics in order to warrant turning on its advertising machine
• What these social platforms then do is begin prioritizing their high-volume and high-engagement content creators, giving them more and more exposure in user feeds—because they want to ensure engagement metrics remain high. In addition, because there isn’t any advertising on the site or in-feed yet, there is dramatically less friction between you and the people who follow you.
• Phase 4: Advertising model is launched and user reach starts falling.
• As soon as advertising begins on a platform, you can expect your reach to fall
• When a platform monetizes with ads, what happens is they have to start picking and choosing which content to show users in their feeds
• Without ads, you might have seen 20 potential pieces of content in the three minutes you spent scrolling. But with ads, you might only see 15 pieces of content, with 5 ads sprinkled in. Well, where did the other 5 pieces of content go? They’re still somewhere on the site, they’re just not being prioritized—which means those content creators are getting less views. This is what’s known as “throttling.
• Substack is aiming to be the “social” writing platform for paid newsletters. The reason I say “social” is because, unlike true social platforms where the purpose is to browse and scroll, Substack actually operates much closer to a tool for writers rather than a social environment (in the sense that there isn’t an algorithmic feed where you can consume new content, follow writers, etc.). However, the fact that they allow users to loosely browse newsletter creators tells me the social component of their site will develop over time.
• This means some very smart people are betting on the growth of the category of “paid newsletters” for writers and media creators.
• Deciding to start writing online is one thing. Not giving up is entirely another. The unfortunate reality is that most of us suffer from “instant gratification syndrome
• There is no such thing as, “I wrote my first piece and received 10 million views.” If that’s your expectation, get it out of your head now.
• Writing online requires an unrelenting commitment to consistency.
• If your goal is to be a successful writer, then social platforms are for publishing first, and consuming second.
• I have a rule I live by, and it goes like this: “The number of hours I spend consuming should never equal or exceed the number of hours I spend creating.”
• You don’t become a writer by reading other writers. You become a writer by writing—a lot.
• The more you write, the more data you will accumulate, the better your skills will get, the faster you will learn
• Stage 1: Just Start Writing
• Stage 2: Write Consistently For 6 Months And Then Make A Decision
• Part of getting started writing online means acknowledging that whatever it is you publish today will not be the single greatest thing you ever write. In fact, if it was, I’d make the argument you have an even worse problem on your hands. Instead of getting better over time, you’re going to get worse.
• The writers who become successful aren’t necessarily the most talented writers. The writers who become successful are the most consistent writers.
• It’s impossible to know whether or not you have something meaningful
• to say, or if a platform is worth writing on, unless you give yourself six months to find out
• Goal #1: See whether or not you can be consistent.
• The minimum amount you should be writing and publishing new material online is once per month. That is the absolute minimum
• My true “recommended minimum” however is to publish something once every other week.
• In order to be taken seriously on the internet as an authority in your category and a leader in your industry, niche, or genre, you need to be writing and publishing new material 2x
• per month
• And if you really want to beat the game of capturing and keeping attention, if you truly want the most guaranteed path to success, then you need to be writing and publishing something new several times per week—or ideally, every single day.
• First, think of a social media algorithm as a roulette wheel
• Every time you create a new piece of content, you are pushing that content into the social platform’s algorithm and “spinning the wheel.”
• Second, readers are fickle. So are viewers, listeners, and consumers of any type of content
• If my favorite content creator stops playing the game, I’m not going to sit around and wait for them to come back
• For this reason alone, you have to understand that in order to be “seen” as a credible, consistent source of information, you need to prove to audience members you’re going to be there for them and with them, day in and day out.
• Third, you have no idea which one of your creations is going to be “the one” that takes off
• Goal #2: Start gathering data about what your most popular categories are.
• your first six months of writing online, you should be less concerned with “establishing” yourself and more focused on “discovering” yourself.
• The way we would engineer this process for our clients at Digital Press is we would come up with three categories (“Content Buckets”) that represented who they were and what they wanted to write about.
• We would then begin writing and publishing content in all three of these different categories, alternating back and forth until we started to see patterns emerge.
• We were running an experiment. And what we usually found was, the topics they thought people would want to hear about from them weren’t actually the topics data told us were most engaging
• Once data enters the equation, this is where the “Who Do I Want To Be?” conversation gets interesting. Do you want to keep writing what you had originally wanted to write about? Or do you want to write what people clearly want more of?
• My answer is: you should always do both
• Data doesn’t lie. But data is also a reflection of the external crowd, and not necessarily your internal compass
• Let data tell you your next move, give people exactly what they want, and win the game.
  • Note: Option 1
• ignore the data
  • Note: Option 2
• there is a third option, and that’s to optimize the former so you can introduce people to the latter.
• Goal #3: Pay close attention to writers at the top of the hierarchy of the social platform—and constantly measure yourself against their performance.
• If you want to surpass even the most popular, highest-performing writers within an existing category, all you have to do is everything they’re doing, more consistently.
• Your job is to study the competition and understand exactly why they are succeeding in the first place.
• Question everything. Nothing a creator does repeatedly is accidental.
• These unspoken “rules of the game” exist on every single platform
• Your job is to find the common threads, make them part of your own strategy, and then slowly over time create a style and category of your own
• Stage 3: Once You’ve Proven You Can Be Consistent, Pour Some Gasoline On Your Fire And Go KABOOM!
• If
• However, if you’re unable to be consistent for six months, if you’re incapable (no matter how hard you try) to write on a regular basis, I have some bad news for you: You’re not a writer.
• So, if you can’t be consistent for six months, either realize you love the idea of being seen as a writer more than you love sitting down and writing and move on to something else, OR, try again. Pinpoint your mistakes. Be honest about why you weren’t able to remain consistent.
• Consistent output is the secret to every growth metric on the internet: Views, Comments, Likes, Shares, etc.
• Audience Hacking means collaborating with another writer who has a similar audience to you—introducing your audience to them and their audience to you
• Once you have a sound foundation as a consistent writer on the internet, now you can begin adding in all the fun growth strategies that start to separate amateur writers from professional writers.
• Audience Hacking
• Collaborations could include: Co-authoring an article together You interviewing them, and them interviewing you You sharing one of their articles, them sharing one of your articles You both meeting up in real life, taking a picture or shooting a short video clip together, posting it and tagging each other You giving them a testimonial, and them giving you a testimonial
• It’s an incredibly effective way to market yourself to new audiences while at the same time creating content that is different and maybe even better than what you could otherwise create on your own.
• Trend Jacking
• Trend Jacking is probably the easiest, most common growth hack on the internet.
• Trend Jacking is where you hop on someone else’s train in order to bring some of that heightened attention back to yourself.
• Engagement Hacking
• This growth tactic can be very tedious, but it works extremely well.
• Engagement Hacking is where you engage with the audiences of other writers, introducing them to your own writing.
• The first step is to make a list of other writers within your chosen category
• Once you have a list of ten or fifteen writers (ideally with audiences similar and slightly larger than your own), go to each of their profiles and start commenting on recent content they’ve published—or, even better, respond to someone else’s comment on their content
• The whole idea here is to get your name in front of the same people who are actively looking for the type of content you write
• Hashtag Stacking
• Most people don’t know how hashtags actually work.
• The biggest mistake people make when using hashtags is treating them as words and phrases within their actual message
• you are writing or sharing links to your writing on platforms that use hashtags, the correct way to do hashtag stacking is to do a little research before you post—so you can tag your content with popular, relevant folders. First, go back to your list of popular writers within your chosen category. What hashtags are they using? Why are they using them?
• The second step is to then create different tiers of folders for your posts to be organized within. When you click on a hashtag on any social platform, you can see how many people are currently using that hashtag. What you want to do is tag your posts with a blend of both large, popular hashtags and smaller, niche hashtags
• The reason I like tagging posts with both broad and niche hashtags is because it gives each post a chance to be exposed to the masses, and to be found by highly targeted readers
• entire secret to getting exposure on your writing online is to find as many ways as possible to make your writing resonate both on a broad level and with a specific audience at the same time
• Publishing Hacking
• One of the biggest benefits to building a vast library of content for yourself is the fact that you can continue to leverage that library over and over again.
• The bigger you build your library of content, especially when your content is more timeless than timely, the more you can continue to engage your audience well into the future. There’s nothing wrong with sharing an article you wrote three years ago—especially if it’s a great article.
• Delete your original post, change a variable or two, and publish it again.
• Maybe you published it during an unlucky time of day. Maybe your original title didn’t have the right hook. Maybe you realized after the fact that your post could have been flushed out further. Whatever the reason, there are no rules against deleting your original post and republishing it with a different set of variables
• My personal advice is to avoid publishing and deleting content as often as possible
• Instead, I’m a big believer in just re-writing a new and improved version and publishing a second piece instead
• Build syndication relationships with websites and major publications, and get around the “duplicate content” rule
• 100,000 views, I thought it wasn’t a winner. Then it got syndicated by Business Insider and it went crazy. Which is why it’s to your advantage to have your content appear in as many places as possible on the internet. You never know which environment is going to be the one that makes it “go.”
• However, the “con” of this strategy is what’s known as “duplicate content.”
• Duplicate content” is the terminology Google uses to explain their ranking system—and their dislike for seeing the same exact content on multiple websites.
• The only time you should be worrying about duplicate content (which means: the same exact content appearing on multiple, different websites) is if you are writing with a heavy focus on SEO
• In short: writers who fear “duplicate content” think they’re doing the right thing, not realizing they’re actually playing a completely different game
• The beginner version of this strategy is to post every single article you write on every single social platform you can
• Every time I write an answer on Quora, for example, I will copy/paste that answer, give it a headline, and also publish it on Medium. Then
• I’ll take that Medium article, copy/paste it, and publish it on LinkedIn. And I’ll keep doing this with as many social platforms as I can, where publishing articles of that quality is acceptable.
• The advanced version of this strategy is to reach out to websites and publications and let them know you are writing content that aligns with their target audience, and that you’d be willing to let them syndicate your content for free
• The expert version of this strategy is the advanced version at the publication level.
• There are five types of writing on the internet. Form #1: Actionable Guide Form #2: Opinion Form #3: Curated List Form #4: Story Form #5: Credible Talking Head
• The way you “win” the game of online writing is by creating the single best possible version of whatever form of writing you’re using in your chosen category.
• The very first question you should ask is, “What type of writing is this?”
• The second question you should ask is, “How can I make this the ULTIMATE guide to writing online?”
• Your goal should be to create a guide so specific, so comprehensive, so informative, that the moment a reader starts reading what you’ve written, they will immediately 1) bookmark it, 2) share it with someone else, and 3) feel as though they don’t need to go read any other guides, articles, or eBooks on the same topic.
• This requires research. It’s nearly impossible to know whether or not you’ve successfully “beaten” the competition if you have no idea who your competition is in the first place. So, poke around the internet. Google the topic you want to write about, along with a handful of related topics. Read a few other people’s “ultimate guides,” and see if you can pinpoint where they went wrong, or where you (as the reader) wished they had gone more in depth.
• the third question you need to ask yourself is, “Can I make this more specific? Am I trying to cram too much into one article?”
• You aren’t aiming for a word count. What you’re aiming for is the most value you can possibly deliver WITHOUT 1) confusing the reader, or 2) wasting their time.
• The usual mistake writers make here is they try to fit too many ideas into one single piece of content.

• Actionable Guide
• Again, the goal of writing an Actionable Guide of any kind is to get someone to bookmark it.
• Better” Quality: If everyone else writes short guides that don’t go into very much detail, you can be the one to write long, insightful, walkthrough-style guides
• Better” Voice: If everyone else’s How To guides are dense and overwhelming, you can show up to the party and be fast, full of personality, and overly casual
• Better” Organization
• you can win simply by organizing your writing more visually and “appearing” easier to read and understand.
• Better” Positioned
• Better” For The Audience
• Better” Experience: If everyone else writes as if they are trying to hard-sell readers into buying a product or course
• Opinion Opinion pieces are, without question, the most popular type of written content on the internet.
• Better” Data: If everyone else’s opinions are shot from the hip and aren’t backed by anything substantial, this is your opportunity to show up to the party with a satchel full of facts
• Better” Quotes
• to amplify your opinions by curating credible, insightful quotes
• Better” Insight
• Better” Stories
• telling a unique story that underscores the point you’re trying to make
• Better” Clarity
• What really matters here? Why? And how can you say it in a way where a single sentence rings louder than an entire essay on the topic
• In order for your list to not be clickbait, but actually be meaningful and valuable to a reader, you need two things: Specificity and Speed.
• Curated List
• Specificity is how relevant the examples you’re choosing in your list are to the target reader
• Speed is then how quickly you are revealing new, important information to the reader
• What makes a list “work” is the fact that it has the potential to pack a ton of valuable information into a very short period of time.
• Writers go wrong by trying to have one without the other. They optimize for speed, but sacrifice substance—or they optimize for substance, but sacrifice speed.
• Better” Examples
• In addition to Specificity and Speed, techniques for making your Curated Lists “better” than the competition (in addition to the techniques we’ve covered above) are:
• Better” Structure
• Better” Subheads
• Better” Introduction
• Story
• Stories are one of the most powerful ways to “hook” a reader into your piece of writing
• The answers with the most engagement almost always begin at the absolute height of the story: “The first time I became a millionaire, I was living in my parents’ basement.
• Writer and marketer, Josh Fechter, took this strategy and applied it to writing on LinkedIn—and in 2018 actually “broke” LinkedIn’s algorithm, accumulating hundreds of millions of views on his long-form status updates
• Techniques for making your Stories “better” than the competition (in addition to all the other techniques described above) are:
• Better” Openers: If everyone else is taking their sweet time getting to the point, blow right past them and start writing at the moment of conflict or achievement.
• Better” Transitions
• Better” Characters
• what’s expected is boring. What’s unexpected is exciting, new, and different.
• Better” Language
• Better” Category
• Credible Talking Head
• Your goal as a writer is to always be looking for the topics, subject matters, and categories you are most qualified to write within
• Write what you know,” as the adage goes
• Better” Association
• Name-dropping is one of the fastest ways to tell a reader, “I know what I’m talking about.”
• Better” Context
• Better” Arguments
• Better” Perception
• What makes a great headline is getting someone to understand three things at the exact same time: What this piece of writing is about Who this piece of writing is for The PROMISE: the problem that will be solved, and/or the solution being offered This is what’s known as The Curiosity Gap. The Curiosity Gap is what tells the reader what this piece of writing is about, who it’s for, and what it’s promising—all without revealing the answer.
• Before you start writing anything, the very first thing you should do is think deeply about the headline, the frame, and the focal point you are presenting to your reader.
• Even if you’re writing a 100-character Tweet, I encourage you to question, “What would be the headline of this Tweet?”
• The size of your audience is a direct reflection of the size of the question you’re answering.
• The first question I encourage you to ask yourself is, “Who is this piece of writing for?”
• Biotechnology is a niche. Which means, if you’re writing about what’s happening within the world of biotechnology, your Audience will only be as big as the number of people actively asking themselves about biotechnology
• However, a lot more people wake up in the morning and ask themselves, “How can I be happier in life? How do I know if I’m in a healthy relationship? How can I make more money?”These broader, more universal questions have much larger Audiences—which means, by choosing Happiness, Relationships, or Money as your Subject Matter, you will inherently reach a wider Audience.
• Now, there is a way for you to get the best of both worlds, and that’s by using niche topics to answer universal questions.
• This technique of tying niche topics to universal questions is a powerful way of tapping into new audiences and expanding your
• reach outside of your particular industry or category
• When people are scrolling through titles, they really only look at the beginning and the end
• Pieces Of A Perfect Headline
• The 1 Question That Gets Every Single Millennial {In Trouble}
• The 1.
• There are two reasons this technique of using a number at the beginning of a headline is so effective. First, it conveys conviction, which readers trust. It’s declarative, and anything that is declarative implies a strong stance or opinion (which people love)
• This part of the sentence is the what.
• It’s the carrot you dangle in front of the reader letting them know what they’re about to read
• The real key to choosing the right word for this part of the headline is to think about what will stir up the most curiosity in your audience. This is the beginning of your Curiosity Gap.
• That Gets*
• This is the part of the headline that connects the beginning to the end. Connecting pieces should be used sparingly.
• Now, based on your genre, category, or topic, you might not even need these connecting pieces. If you do, make sure to pick strong, descriptive words
• Every Single Millennial
• This is the WHO. WHO is this article for?
• This is the part of the sentence that caters most to your target audience
• In Trouble
• And finally, the ending—also known as THE PROMISE
• The key to writing a great PROMISE is to use language that elicits an
• emotional response
• The best way to come up with a compelling PROMISE is to think deeply about 1) outcomes your readers want to receive, or 2) outcomes your readers want to avoid
• Your Content Roadmap: Constructing A “Sticky Web” For Your Writing
• Content Buckets
• To get the most “return on investment” from your writing, it’s important to have a roadmap for success
• gathering
• The three types of “content buckets” I recommend are:
• General Audience: You should have one bucket that is aimed at universal topics. Things like positive habits, life lessons, productivity topics, etc., are big, broad categories that resonate with the widest number of people. How you make them relevant to you is by approaching them through your own specific lens
• Audience: Your second content bucket should be hyper-relevant to your expertise
• continuing to leverage universal topics to broaden your reach, or intentionally excluding general audiences by speaking directly to the intimate pain points your target reader is experiencing. My recommendation is to do both.
• Company/Industry Audience: Your third content bucket is the environment and industry you exist within
• Now, it’s important to remember that your content buckets can, and most likely will change over time
• I experimented with a ton of different Niche Audiences before data told me what people really wanted to hear about from me most
• Endless Idea Generator
• Writing anything on the internet follows a very simple 3-step process.