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%. Image
In the game of Online Writing, volume wins. Image
The Golden Intersection of great writing is:

Answering The Reader’s Question

&

Telling Them An Entertaining Story Image
You are not the main character in your story. The reader is. Image
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. Image
The size of your audience is a direct reflection of the size of the question you’re answering. Image
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. Image
It’s only “clickbait” if you fail to keep your promise to the reader. Image
Anytime you fail to deliver on your promise to a reader, you’ve lost them. Image
Consistent output is the secret to every growth metric on the internet: views, comments, Likes, shares, etc. Image
Data doesn’t lie. But data is also a reflection of the external crowd, and not necessarily your internal compass. Image
If your goal is to be a successful writer, then social platforms are for publishing first, and consuming second. Image
When it comes to writing online, platforms will always change, but the rules will stay (pretty much) the same. Image
Categories are created at unlikely intersections, spotted by writers with an intimate understanding of one or multiple sub-categories. Image
What makes a badge of credibility valuable isn’t really the badge itself. It’s how the writer chooses to wear it. Image
The inverse rule of “Specificity Is The Secret,” is “The Broader You Are, The More Confusing You Are.” Image
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.” Image
Categories are how we organize information in our minds. Define your category and you’ll know where readers “fit” you into their minds. Image
Successful writers play the game of Online Writing consciously. Unsuccessful writers play the game unconsciously—and then wonder why they aren’t succeeding. Image
There are 2 types of writers today: those who use data to inform and improve their writing, and those who fail. Image
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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More from @Nicolascole77

14 Sep
The OG Category Designers: Al Ries & Jack Trout

In 2001, these two ad executives wrote one of the most impactful books on Marketing Psychology, called "Positioning."

In it, they revealed the 9 secrets for getting into the mind of the customer.

🤯👇
Secret #1: Positioning is about being known in the customer's mind for something specific.

And the easiest way to do that is to be FIRST.

Their rationale was simple:

It's better to be first in a NEW category than try to be "better" in an existing category.
Secret #2: Choose 1 leading benefit.

Legendary copywriter, David Ogilvy, used this technique often.

The only way to become "known" in the customer's mind is to own 1 specific benefit.

(Listing lots of vague benefits like, "Great, terrific, super tasty," etc., does nothing.)
Read 12 tweets
7 Sep
The 22 Immutable Laws of Online Writing

1. Don't start a blog (start a Social Blog instead)

2. Volume wins

3. Aim for CLEAR, not "clever"

4. Make a strong promise to the reader in your headline

5. Deliver on your promise in the content

6. Skimmability = Readability

👇👇
7. Your subheads should tell a story

8. Practice In Public

9. Use engagement data to dictate what you write, next

10. You are not the main character. The reader is

11. The size of the question = the size of the audience

12. Specificity is the secret to standing out

👇👇
13. Don't compete in someone else's category. Create your own

14. Imperfectly Published > "perfect" & unpublished

15. Don't focus on individual pieces. Build your library

16. Repeat your "core narratives"

17. The more you write, the more you write

👇👇
Read 6 tweets
1 Sep
Beware The NFT Crash of 2022

I bought my first cryptocurrency in 2016.

Poured all my savings into Ethereum.

In 8 months, I turned $10k into $250k. I was still living in a studio apt with no dishwasher or AC.

Then, everything crashed.

5 Big Lessons For This 🔥 NFT Market 👇
*Note: I just aped into NFTs.

I have skin in the game.

I think we have more headroom to go.

But, I also went from pretty broke to "short-term rich" to broke again 5 years ago. And I'm seeing a lot of patterns repeat here.

Let's not make the same mistakes, shall we?
Lesson #1: Just cuz someone made $$, doesn't mean they're smart.

In 2017, crypto was bananas.

Everyone where you went, "Bitcoin."

Since I was known as a ghostwriter for CEOs, I got invited to a "Crypto Mastermind Dinner" in a $20M home in LA one night.

Looked like this:
Read 20 tweets
31 Aug
Original Ideas 101

Over the past 5 years, I have ghostwritten 3,000+ articles for:

• Silicon Valley founders & investors
• Fortune 500 executives
• Olympic athletes
• Grammy-winning musicians

The crazy part?

Most ideas people think are unique/original, aren't.

🧵👇
Lesson #1: The amount of time you've spent thinking about the problem = the degree to which your idea is different.

I've written SO many articles for executives about:

• Culture
• Hiring
• Productivity
• Leadership
• Etc.

99% of them all say the same things.
Lesson #2: Business success does not guarantee "thought leadership."

Most people think being seen as a leader is about external achievement/biz success/title/$$$/etc.

And yes, those things can help.

But "thought leadership" is about differentiation of IDEAS.

Takes time.
Read 8 tweets
30 Aug
The Big Brand Lie:

Ask the masses why a startup/business succeeds, and they'll all say the same thing:

"Because they built a successful BRAND."

This is one of the biggest lies in all of advertising & marketing.

Categories make brands, not the other way around.

🧵👇
In 2011, The Atlantic published a piece on how "branding" was born.

"A brand manager would be responsible for giving a product an identity that distinguished it from nearly indistinguishable competitors.”

Note that sentence.

theatlantic.com/business/archi…
Branding became the answer to the problem, “We’re indistinguishable. What do we do?"

Instead of creating a DIFFERENT product altogether, big companies opted to change visual attributes with the hopes of convincing customers their "same" product was "better."
Read 10 tweets
19 Aug
My 10-year Overnight Success Blueprint

I started writing online when I was 17 years old.

Today, I write 10,000 words per day (almost a book a week) and earn 100% of my income from writing or publishing-related ventures.

Here are the skills I had to learn to do what I do✍️👇 Image
1. Volume

My first endeavor writing online was a gaming blog I had in high school.

I wrote (and published) a blog per day, every day, for an entire year.

By the time I graduated high school, I had 10,000 daily readers and was e-famous in the emerging eSports world.
2. Interviewing

My first major in college was Journalism at the University of Missouri.

I didn't go to class and hated school. But I did join the school newspaper.

I would call up the police department and ask any question I wanted (mostly about drugs): "I'm writing a piece."
Read 19 tweets

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