Follow them or perish
When I started writing online, I sucked harder than a granny eating a gobstopper.
But I kept at it.
And now, nine years later, I can confidently say that I am slightly above average (pumps fist in the air).
Which is fine by me.
Above average is good enough to earn money, and I’d rather do that than learn how to use a semicolon any day.
But how did I go from a sucky writer to a working writer?
I learned the laws of digital writing. Learn these, or your potential will always be just out of reach.
10. Always publish your finished articles
“F*ck it,” I thought to myself as I read over a finished article and considered shelving it. “you wrote the damn thing. You might as well publish it. Worst case scenario is that no one reads it, which is exactly what would happen if you kept in unpublished.”
And so I hit publish. Nothing happened. The feeling came back, and I hit publish. Nothing happened. Then, an article I published went on to get 250,000 views and become my most popular article of all time.
Just last week I finished writing a newsletter, thinking I’d phones it in and should try something else. But I stuck to my rule and sent it out. Here’s a reply I got:
You never know how an article will be received. Press publish and move on.
9. The most focused wins
Some people have a devil on their shoulder. I have a chipmunk.
He’s jabbering away to me like he’s got into a pile of funny-looking powder and telling me about the zillion projects I could be working on.
For a while, I listened. I was starting another business every year, constantly trying to juggle it all. Meanwhile, the one project I worked on consistently for four years was the single most profitable.
You have to stay focused.
Meaningful progress only happens when you can zone in on one area at a time and keep pushing forward.
The chipmunk might stay there, but you can choose not to listen and keep moving towards the goal.
8. No headline, no success
You have to nail the title. No matter where you write.
On Twitter or Linkedin, the headline is the opening sentence. For blogs, the headline is the title. And if you don’t learn how to master it, you won’t get attention.
Check out the Bdow list of power words to help spice up your headlines,
Or even better, check out the Headline toolkit by Derek Hughes. That man has mastered catchy headlines.
7. White space matters
You write on a computer, but people read on their phones.
This can make formatting tricky. What looks nice to you might look like dog doo-doo to the reader who’s reading on a phone.
That’s why white space is undeniably important.
Compared to writing essays at school, digital writing is totally different.
You can easily get away with one-sentence paragraphs. But never go beyond three-line paragraphs.
And bullet points to help break it up:
- They stop scrollers
- They are quick to read to keep interest
- And if you order them shortest to longest they look good
Break it up, make it skimmable. And while you’re at it…
6. Short and snappy sentences win every time
Short sentences work. They keep the pace quick.
As Seth Godin says, you can have sentences too long. But rarely too short.
A whole article on these might be too brief. But a few short sentences together can help the reader build up momentum so they stick with you through a longer sentence like this one.
See what I mean?
5. Vary sentence length
Let me demonstrate the problem:
Having sentences repeating at the same length is boring.
But for some reason, it happens all the time in your first draft.
That’s why you have to go back and edit to vary the length.
Boring right? Here’s an alternative:
Start short. Then maybe throw in a longer one. Not too long. And soon you start to dance with your writing as a rhythm appears. See what I mean?
Vary sentence length and turn beige content into a dazzling Tango of words that attract readers like a moth to a flame.
4. Feedback hurts, but you need it
My wife is a trained English teacher. A few years back, I asked her for feedback on my writing (without the semicolon lectures).
She crushed me.
No, she wasn’t overly harsh, she was honest. And that hurt even more.
But I can’t deny the truth. She made me a better writer by pointing out my mistakes. Without feedback, improving is hard.
But there’s a second type of feedback. Indirect feedback. That’s the feedback of an article performing well, of getting a lot of comments, shares, likes, whatever you’re looking for.
Take the indirect feedback and use it to guide your writing. Figure out what worked and see if you can replicate it.
3. You need to make it about them
Everything will change once you stop writing for you and start writing for your audience.
They don’t turn up because you have written something.
They turn up because you wrote something that helped them.
Helped them better understand themselves through your experience, learn from what you’re teaching, or be entertained by the story you told.
Writers like you must be selfishly selfless.
You must selfishly write about their opinions and experiences but selflessly do it for others.
Always ask: what’s in it for the reader?
2. Just keep publishing
Everything good in life takes longer than you want it to.
It took me 12 months of consistent writing online before I made $100. But after around 22 months, I could quit my job and go full-time.
Most people quit well before the 12-month mark, let alone the 22-month mark. But week in and week out, you have to keep showing up and keep publishing.
I tried three different niches and website styles before I found the winner. It might take you ten tries, or it might take you one.
The only thing for sure is that you will only be successful if you stick with it for the long haul and keep developing your skills as a writer and an entrepreneur.
1. Your favourite platform will change and hurt you
Ask any niche site owner how the last few years have been, and you’ll get a glimpse.
Writers used to rely on SEO to build a business. Then, when the Google gods declared war on creators, banishing their traffic to the dungeon dimension, all those niche site owners were burned.
Traffic dropped by up to 90% across the board, and earnings plummeted.
Every platform does this. No matter where you write, if you rely 100% on one platform for your writing, you’re sitting on a one-legged stool
Yes, start with one and begin to grow, but have a plan for how to diversify.
Lastly
Just keep writing.
All good things come with time, and the more time in the game, the better you’ll get.
Follow these laws, and you will find success.
P.S. Wondering what my most popular article was? It was an article about which Starbucks drink has the most sugar. I was as surprised as you are.
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