Nicolas Cole 🚒 Profile picture
Sep 24, 2021 β€’ 27 tweets β€’ 7 min read β€’ Read on X
Attention Writing Twitter πŸ“’

Only 7 days left to join the LAST Ship 30 for 30 cohort of the year.

...and it's looking to be our BIGGEST cohort yet.

In celebration, let's play a game.

1 RT = 1 digital writing tip we share inside the course.

Ready, go.
You can join the last Ship 30 for 30 cohort of the year here πŸ‘‡

ship30for30.com
Digital Writing Tip #1: It's your content. You can do anything you want with it.

Atomic Essays can become:

β€’ Newsletters
β€’ Landing page copy
β€’ eBooks
β€’ Digital Products
β€’ Course material
β€’ Scripts for podcast episodes
β€’ Etc.
Digital Writing Tip #2: You make your headlines more compelling by increasing the voltage ⚑️⚑️⚑️

You can do this to your:

β€’ WHAT?
β€’ WHO?
β€’ FEELING
β€’ PROMISE

More description in any one of these parts of your headline = ⚑️⚑️⚑️⚑️⚑️ Image
Digital Writing Tip #3: You are not the main character. Your reader is.

This means, even if you're telling "your story" or sharing "your insights," you have to find a way for it to relate to the reader's wants, needs, questions, and desires.

They should see themselves in you.
Digital Writing Tip #4: All content can be reverse-engineered in 4 buckets.

β€’ Actionable
β€’ Analytical
β€’ Aspirational
β€’ Anthropological

We call this The 4A Framework.

Start here, and your writing will have 10x more clarity. Image
Digital Writing Tip #5: DO NOT START A BLOG.

A huge reason we started #Ship30for30 was to help writers avoid making the BIGGEST mistake when writing online.

Your blog has zero distribution.

Instead, we help writers start their own Social Blog.

typeshare.co
Digital Writing Tip #6: Write for the version of yourself 6+ months ago.

So many people want to write, but aren't sure what to write ABOUT.

Here's an easy framework:

Write for the version of you who didn't know what you know today.

Help that person.
Digital Writing Tip #7: Not sure how to structure your writing? Use a proven approach.

"Lists" have a bad reputation, but they're a terrific way to organize ideas.

You can organize just about anything into a list. Image
Digital Writing Tip #8: It's only clickbait if you fail to keep your promise to the reader.

If you write an amazing headline but the content is sub-par, you "tricked" the reader.

They call that clickbait.

But if DELIVER on the promise, guess what?

*Bookmarked*
Digital Writing Tip #9: Credibility can come in many forms.

Don't feel like you're "the expert" on anything?

Go out and curate what experts have to say about X.

Congrats!

You're now "the expert of curating experts on X." Image
Digital Writing Tip #10: Volume wins.

What makes a successful writer in 2021+ is not one single piece.

It's their body of work.

Their LIBRARY.

Don't obsess over the performance of any one piece.

Focus on building a library of assets.

πŸ“ˆπŸ“ˆπŸ“ˆπŸ“ˆπŸ“ˆ
Digital Writing Tip #11: Don't compete in someone else's category. Create your own.

The book, "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" was the first self-help book with a "IDGAF" voice.

And it has sold millions of copies.

What happened next?

Lots of sub-par copycats. Image
Digital Writing Tip #12: The cost of reading your writing is TIME off someone's life.

Think about that.

When you write something, you're asking someone to *pay* with 30 seconds or 3 minutes of their LIFE.

Keep that urgency in mind when writing.

Make every word matter.
Digital Writing Tip #13: The easiest way to stand out? Use languaging.

Languaging = the strategic use of language to change thinking.

It's not a book. It's an e-book.

It's not art. It's digital art.

The word you pick to MODIFY the existing word changes how people *see* it.
Digital Writing Tip #14: The more you write, the more you write.

You'll only have so many ideas before you begin the journey of writing online.

But once you start, your flywheel will spin.

Everything you write gives you data on what ELSE you can write.

And so on, and so on.
Digital Writing Tip #15: When you find something that works, repeat it.

For example, I've written dozens of "101" threads.

Why? Because they get 10x more engagement than anything else I write.

Find patterns & repeat them.

Digital Writing Tip #16: Feel like you've run out of ideas? Use our Endless Idea Generator

β€’ What topic do you want to write about?
β€’ Choose a proven approach
β€’ Tell the reader why they should trust you

This is how you turn 1 topic into 100 different variations. Image
Digital Writing Tip #17: You can't know what your niche is until you start publishing.

Every writer begins their journey with assumptions.

"I assume readers want X."

It's not until they hit PUBLISH that they realize what they thought readers wanted, readers didn't want.
Digital Writing Tip #18: The most important thing you will ever write on Twitter is your Lead-In tweet.

This is what *hooks* readers.

And if your Lead-In tweet doesn't share a Story, Framework, or hint at the Actionable Advice to come, nobody is going to click and read. Image
Digital Writing Tip #19: Don't delete past work.

All writers have this fear:

"What if someone sees my early work and thinks it's bad!"

But guess what?

Your old work gets more valuable as time goes on.

It becomes your origin story.
Digital Writing Tip #20: Everything you write that performs well gives you the OPTION to explore new territory.

This is the best part about being a data-driven writer.

As things perform well, you now have a choice:

β€’ "Do I want to write more of this?"
β€’ "Or don't I?"
Digital Writing Tip #21: Write where people already are.

Our favorite platforms are:

β€’ Twitter
β€’ Quora
β€’ Medium
β€’ Reddit
β€’ (sometimes) LinkedIn
β€’ Anywhere with an EXISTING userbase
Digital Writing Tip #22: Don't worry about editing.

In your first year of writing online, there's 0 point in editing your work beyond checking for spelling errors.

Because you don't know what to edit FOR yet.

Instead, ship as many ideas as you can.

Learn what readers want.
Digital Writing Tip #23: The size of the question dictates the size of the audience.

Most writers think, "I want to write about X," and THEN, "How do I get X in front of millions of people?"

Instead, start in reverse.

"What question do millions of people have?"

Answer that. Image
Digital Writing Tip #24: You can't steer a stationary ship.

There is very little to be gained strategizing about hypotheticals.

The truth is, you don't know what is going to resonate.

You don't know what readers are going to grab onto.

So, just start.

And pivot as you go.
Digital Writing Tip #25: When writing for niche audiences, GET SPECIFIC.

The more specific you are about WHO the piece is for and what outcome they can unlock, the more readers will see themselves in your writing.

If you're not specific, they won't know it's for them. Image

β€’ β€’ β€’

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
γ€€

Keep Current with Nicolas Cole 🚒

Nicolas Cole 🚒 Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Nicolascole77

May 12
I built my first 7-figure business from scratch.

I didn't have an MBA, any special connections, or start out with investors.

But I learned a ton of hard lessons along the way.

Here's my first-time founder playbook: Image
1/ Build in public

Too many founders want to build "in stealth"β€”so they can do a grand reveal to the world.

Unfortunately, stealth =

β€’ Slower
β€’ Very expensive
β€’ Harder to iterate
β€’ More pressure to make it "perfect"

Building in public = speed & easier to iterate.
2/ Always be "in beta"

Don't ever think your startup will reach an end.

Don't strive for "done."

Even at 600,000 employees and $1.5 trillion in market cap, Amazon still operates as "it's always Day 1."

Greatness should be a forever journey, not a destination.
Read 23 tweets
May 10
This is David Foster Wallace.

In 1996, he wrote a ground-breaking novel called Infinite Jest (which TIME called one of the 100 best novels of the decade).

But sadly, on September 12, 2008, he took his own life.

Here are his 9 best writing insights that will live on forever: Image
For many, Wallace’s work is complex, dense, and impenetrable.

But once you peel back the layers, Wallace was fascinated with the human condition and how we understand each other.

Here are some of his lessons about life and writing, in his own words:
1. Wallace says fiction has two purposes:

β€’ To be instructive
β€’ And to be fun

At its core, it is an exchange between two minds. But that exchange is being warped by commercial culture:
Read 13 tweets
May 6
A brutal truth for writers who love to read:

Reading, in and of itself, doesn't make you a better writer.

To master your craft, you have to read CLOSELY and study the language.

Ask these 5 key questions every time you read something (to become a world-class reader): Image
Before we dive in, some context:

Most writers (and people in general) don't know how to read.

They aren't aware of all the different things happening in the writing.

This is why I recommend this one book for writers:
I am a firm believer there are 2 types of writers who read:

The first are writers who read for fun (and are well read as a result), but unable to transfer those learnings over to their own writing.

And the second are writers who read less for fun and more as mental exercise.
Read 12 tweets
May 3
4 dead-simple steps to write a bestselling book title in 10 minutes (even if you’ve never written a book before): Image
A bestselling non-fiction book title can be constructed in 4 steps:

Step 1: Choose your obvious/non-obvious pairing
Step 2: Decide how to call out your audience
Step 3: Make it Tangible
Step 4: Make it Objective

Let's dive in!
Step 1: Choose your pairing

A bestselling non-fiction book title falls into 1 of 2 categories:

1. Are you solving a non-obvious problem in an obvious way?
2. Are you solving an obvious problem in a non-obvious way?

Here's how this works:
Read 18 tweets
Apr 25
25 writing prompts every writer should use to:

β€’ Write quality ideas, faster
β€’ Reach & engage more readers
β€’ Build your timeless library of content
β€’ And attract new opportunities online

Let's get started: Image
1. What was your first job, and what's 1 lesson you learned you'll remember forever?
2. Who was your first mentor, and what's something they taught you that changed the way you saw the world (and yourself)?
Read 29 tweets
Apr 23
Over the past 10 years, I have created a dozen side hustles for myself, each unlocking 6-figure income streams.

I've also built two 7-figure companies doing millions of dollars in revenue.

So, if you want to make $100,000+ per year, follow these 7 simple steps: Image
Step 1: Pick a skill you love.

My college degree is in fiction writing.

Back then, EVERYONE told me "You'll never make money as a writer."

Until I started making good money as a writer.

Then everyone said:

"Of course, it's easy to make money as a writer."

It's subjective.
Step 2: Work for free.

If you can't do it for free, you can't get paid to do it.

Period. Full stop.

So, forget monetization ($$$).

Instead, focus on MASTERY.

β€’ Prove you can do "the thing"
β€’ Prove people think it's great
β€’ Prove you are reliable
β€’ Prove it works
Read 10 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(