Nicolas Cole 🚢 Profile picture
I talk about digital writing, ghostwriting, and self-publishing. | Co-Founder Ship 30 for 30, Typeshare, Premium Ghostwriting Academy. | Author of 10 books.

Aug 30, 2021, 23 tweets

Today is The Art & Business of Online Writing 1 Year Anniversary

• Self-published
• Sold 4,000+ copies to date
• Still selling ~300 copies/mo
• 5 Stars on Amazon

Thank you to everyone who grabbed a copy!

Here are my favorite 20 quotes from the book, visualized:

👇📗

Give away 99% of your best writing for free. Monetize the last 1%.

In the game of Online Writing, volume wins.

The Golden Intersection of great writing is:

Answering The Reader’s Question

&

Telling Them An Entertaining Story

You are not the main character in your story. The reader is.

If the “sweet spot” of an online article is 800 to 1,200 words, then your job as a writer is to pack as much value into your Main Points as possible—without inflating the piece’s word count.

The size of your audience is a direct reflection of the size of the question you’re answering.

The Curiosity Gap in your headline tells the reader what this piece of writing is about, who it’s for, and what it’s promising—all without revealing the answer.

It’s only “clickbait” if you fail to keep your promise to the reader.

Anytime you fail to deliver on your promise to a reader, you’ve lost them.

Consistent output is the secret to every growth metric on the internet: views, comments, Likes, shares, etc.

Data doesn’t lie. But data is also a reflection of the external crowd, and not necessarily your internal compass.

If your goal is to be a successful writer, then social platforms are for publishing first, and consuming second.

When it comes to writing online, platforms will always change, but the rules will stay (pretty much) the same.

Categories are created at unlikely intersections, spotted by writers with an intimate understanding of one or multiple sub-categories.

What makes a badge of credibility valuable isn’t really the badge itself. It’s how the writer chooses to wear it.

The inverse rule of “Specificity Is The Secret,” is “The Broader You Are, The More Confusing You Are.”

When I was in college, one of my teachers used to say all the time, “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.”

Categories are how we organize information in our minds. Define your category and you’ll know where readers “fit” you into their minds.

Successful writers play the game of Online Writing consciously. Unsuccessful writers play the game unconsciously—and then wonder why they aren’t succeeding.

There are 2 types of writers today: those who use data to inform and improve their writing, and those who fail.

If you haven't read The Art & Business of Online Writing yet, you can grab a copy here:

amzn.to/2Yf1tKR

Special thanks to @SACHIN_RAMJE for doing an amazing job visualizing all these quotes from the book.

If you are looking for someone to help you visualize your own content, I can't recommend Sachin enough. Such a joy to collaborate with. Hit him up!

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