Digital Writing Tips To Grow Your Audience From Two Masters Of The Craft
Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole have been writing online for several years now, and they have truly mastered the craft.
Combined, they have accrued hundreds of millions of views. Their efforts have brought them multiple millions of dollars through various streams of income, thanks to the massive audiences they have built on Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, and Medium.
They have even launched a dedicated course to helping people start writing online.
This course has achieved wild success since its launch. It has seen numerous success stories and has been attended thousands of times by people all over the world.
I have been following both of them on Twitter and have read all of their content for quite some time now. In this post, I distil all of their golden tips for digital writing into one simple blog post.
I have separated the post into 2 sections with several subsections.
- How and why to start writing online
- Consistency > perfection
- Don’t publish on a personal blog
- Writing online will bring you unexpected opportunities
2. Tips for Digital Writing
- Writing headlines
- Format your content for skimmability
- Have a good writing rhythm
- Digital writing is about clarity
Do not aim for perfection when starting online — Consistency > perfection
When writing online, it can be very tempting to be a perfectionist.
We want to get everything right. We want to make sure there are no errors. We want to ensure it is the best piece we have ever published.
Get rid of this mindset now.
Social media algorithms reward consistency. Your work does not have to be perfect, but it has to be consistent.
The more you write, the more you improve. Quantity, given enough time, will yield quality. Trust this process.
You obviously won’t be amazing when starting out.
If you could have done something better with one of your posts, don’t sweat it. Learn your mistake and move on to the next piece. You will gradually see great progress as you make more and more posts until everything you publish is of high quality.
Remember, consistency is key, and you cannot sacrifice it for perfection.
Don’t publish on a personal blog
When I first started creating, I published on my personal blog I had spent time creating.
I was getting no views or feedback and had absolutely no idea what people were interested in. I struggled for motivation as I posted content into the abyss. It was so disheartening to see all my efforts rewarded so meagrely.
It got so boring that I was close to quitting.
This all changed when I realised I was posting in the wrong place.
Instead of posting on a personal blog, it was better to post on a social platform
These platforms already had millions of users to view my content. They were also powered by intelligent algorithms that would propel my work to new audiences, regardless of my following count. They even offered detailed analytics to see what was resonating with my audience.
I was now no longer suffering from all the problems before.
Producing content became so much more rewarding and efficient.
Way more people were engaging with my stuff. It brought so many good feelings when random strangers on the internet complimented my work. It also showed me what to write more about and double down on. The analytics told me what to keep writing about and what to discard. In one week, I went from 5 views to 1000.
It was an absolute game changer.
So stop posting on that blog of yours for now.
Post on social platforms. Post on Medium, Twitter, LinkedIn or wherever else you want, just not on your personal blog.
You will see way more growth and be way more motivated.
Note:
- If you really want your own little corner of the internet, I highly recommend you get type share. This platform lets you have your own social blog but also cross-posts your content to various social platforms. It brings you the best of both worlds.
- I have been using typeshare for a while now and have fallen in love. It eliminates many bottlenecks, gives you your own space and makes the whole thing more fun. Highly recommend.
Writing online will bring you unexpected opportunities
Writing online is not only good as it will help you synthesise information and let you meet cool people, but it will also, undoubtedly, bring unexpected opportunities.
People may reach out with job offers, you may find potential clients, you can expand your network, you may make a new friend, get a speaking opportunity, and you may just even meet your future fiancée.
Your surface area for serendipity really does increase when you start writing about your passions online.
Writing headlines
Your headline is arguably the most important part of your entire post.
Don’t have a good headline? People won’t be tempted to click and therefore won’t read all of the wonderful stuff you have to say.
This is why it is absolutely essential to nail your headline writing.
Here are some tips from proven digital writers.
Questions to answer when writing a headline
When writing a headline, you should have very clear answers to the following questions:
- WHO is this for?
- WHAT is this about?
- WHY should they read it?
- What are you PROMISING, and what do they get in exchange?
Clarity > cleverness for headlines
When making headlines for an article, thread or tweet, make sure they are clear instead of clever.
People are lazy. They want easily digestible information. If they don’t know what your post is going to be about from the title, they won’t click.
Make your headline crystal clear. Make it readable for a 5th grader. Your reader should know exactly what they are getting into before clicking.
Some proven headline formats — potential thread
Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole are hugely successful digital writers that have been posting for years.
They have had millions of views and therefore have a pretty good idea of which headlines work.
The following are good formats that have worked for them for years:
BIG NUMBERS
People love big numbers. It makes the article sound pretty important.
$ SIGNS
People love money. Include dollar signs in your headlines, and you will get clicks.
Credible Names
You may not yet have the credibility to attract people to your posts. That’s fine. Use the credibility of proven geniuses.
E.g. Zac Efron uses this trick every day to get 6-pack abs
THIS just happened
Strange, out-of-the-ordinary events will trigger a curiosity in your viewers that will encourage them to read on.
QUESTION/ANSWER
Questions also ignite curiosity in viewers.
Ask them a question that they are bound to want the answer to, and you will get clicks.
E.g. Struggling to pay off your student debt? Read these 4 tricks that college students use to pay them off 5x as fast
Success story
Everyone loves a success story. Include one in your headline, and people are bound to click.
E.g. How this small marketing team lead to $2M in sales in just 3 months
Things that should not go together
Two weird things that should not go together often also ignite curiosity
E.g. Things Michael Jordan and Leonardo DiCaprio have in common
For Industry
Write your headline for a targeted industry.
E.g. 3 things small business owners do to stay profitable
Topic within a topic
Include a topic within a topic. You widen the pool of potentially interested viewers and also target a niche audience.
X number
E.g. 12 things every top writer does every morning
Format your content for skimmability
I didn’t appreciate this in the beginning, but formatting is so so key when writing content online.
Make your piece as skimmable as possible. This can allow readers to quickly scan your article and see whether it’s worth reading.
If they are unable to skim the article before they read it, they will not have any idea what the piece is going to contain. And if they do not know what it will contain, they are unlikely to invest the time required to find out and will therefore never read your article.
This is why it is so crucial to make your post as easy to skim as possible.
Below are some quick tips to improve skimmability:
- Make bulleted lists
- Include headers and subheaders
- Have consistent formatting
- Write small sentences and always introduce longer prose with an introductory sentence
Using these techniques, a reader will easily be able to get the gist of what your post will contain and is likely to keep on reading.
Have a good writing rhythm
Your writing should have a nice rhythm to it to captivate readers.
Alternate the use of long, wordy sentences with short, punchy ones. Too much of either and your writing will become monotonous and unengaging.
Your writing should sound like music.
Some proven rhythms are the 1–3–1 sequence and the 1–5–1 sequence, but honestly, any piece that alternates frequently will be good. You can also combine rhythms, for example, 1–3–1 + 1–3–1, etc.
BAD writing rhythms: 1–1–1–1–1–1–1–1–1, 2–2–2, 5–5–5
Digital writing is about clarity
As you can probably tell already, digital writing is all about clarity.
People don’t have time for your eloquent, witty writing. They just want to know what you have to say as fast as possible, so stop waffling and get to the point.
Avoid complicated-sounding prose.
If a sentence sounds too wordy, break it in two. If a paragraph brings confusion, cut it out. If a word doesn’t make sense or add anything, remove it.
Simplify your writing as much as possible whenever you can and get to the point.
Thank you so much for reading to the end.
I hope you gained something insightful from this article and will now be able to level up your digital writing game!
Reach out to me if you have any questions or have something to add; I love getting feedback!
Originally published at https://typeshare.co.
