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

πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡
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

πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡
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 "perfect" & unpublished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

πŸ‘‡πŸ‘‡
18. Word count is a poor measure of value

19. Writing for "everyone" means writing for no one

20. Memorable Writing = Answering the reader's question & telling them a story

21. Optimize for SPEED!

22. Time spent reading should never exceed time spent writing
If you enjoyed this thread, grab a copy:

amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08GZK…
BTW, to 10x your online writing, I recommend grabbing this free email course:

ship30for30.com/sneak-peek

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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.

πŸ€―πŸ‘‡
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
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 πŸ”₯ NFT Market πŸ‘‡
*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:

β€’ Silicon Valley founders & investors
β€’ Fortune 500 executives
β€’ Olympic athletes
β€’ Grammy-winning musicians

The crazy part?

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

πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡
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:

β€’ Culture
β€’ Hiring
β€’ Productivity
β€’ Leadership
β€’ 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
Today is The Art & Business of Online Writing 1 Year Anniversary

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

Thank you to everyone who grabbed a copy!

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

πŸ‘‡πŸ“—
Give away 99% of your best writing for free. Monetize the last 1%. Image
In the game of Online Writing, volume wins. Image
Read 23 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.

πŸ§΅πŸ‘‡
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, β€œWe’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 doβœοΈπŸ‘‡ 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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