The big question is: which platform is best for you?
Here's a breakdown of which types of writing succeed most, where 🧵👇
1/ Twitter = best for short form & testing ideas
If you are new to Online Writing, Twitter is your best place to start (right now).
You can test ideas, gather data, and very quickly learn what Content Buckets work for you.
Nonfiction & Fiction can both work here.
2/ Quora = best for medium form & testing ideas
The next-best place to test ideas is Quora.
Quora does an amazing job distributing your content to relevant readers because the site is organized in a Q&A format.
Better for nonfiction, but I've seen fiction writers there too.
3/ Medium = best for long-form articles.
Medium's distribution flywheel is very slow. Not great for new Online Writers.
Instead, test ideas on Twitter or Quora, then expand the ones that work on Medium.
Some small fiction communities on Medium, but much better for nonfiction
4/ LinkedIn = best for short form & republishing long form.
The best way to use LinkedIn is similar to Twitter.
If you're going to use long form here, treat another platform as primary and republish to LI (distribution is meh).
100% nonfiction, leaning biz & self-dev content.
5/ Wattpad & Kindle Vella = best for fiction
Wattpad has been the only real player in the Fiction Online Writing world for years. Amazon just launched Kindle Vella, which is basically the same thing.
If fiction is your jam, you should be using 1 or both of these platforms.
6/ BitClout = best for crypto & money writers
If you play in either (or both) of these categories, you should be writing or republishing your content on BitClout.
Huge opportunity right now to ride their growth wave and tap into those types of readers.
7/ News Break = similar to Medium, OK for republishing
News Break isn't doing anything radically different. But of all the places to easily copy/paste long form content to get a bit more distribution, it's good.
If you want to stay ahead of the curve and always know what new platforms & publishing techniques are best right now, I encourage you to join the Ship 30 for 30 community.
Members know what kind of knowledge gets dropped each week 🤯🤯🤯
I published The Art & Business of Online Writing in August, 2020.
- Self-published
- Invested $3k in cover design, formatting, etc.
- $0 spent on ads
- Marketed to email list (15,000 people) & social media following (150k combined)
Results:
👇👇👇
Here's how the book did:
- Recouped investment week 1
- Avg selling ~10 copies sold per day since
- Book has led to six figures in ghostwriting clients
- Book has led to an increase in podcast/speaking opportunities
- Book has generated $1k+ passively/mo in sales since launch
In order for this book to have achieved these same financial goals with a formal publishing contract...
I'd need to be selling 100+ copies per day (10x more).
If the average advance is $20k, this book reaches that same goal around a year and a half after publishing.