Thread by @Nicolascole77

I started writing online when I was 17 years old.

The year was 2007.

Since then, I've written thousands of articles online, accumulated 100 million+ views, written 6 books, built 3 companies, etc.

If I was starting all over again, here's exactly how I'd do it 🧵👇

Step 1: Take a personal interest and become the expert of curating experts in that personal interest.

This is how @dickiebush built himself on Twitter.

• He was an avid listener of @tferriss podcast
• And curated his best episodes, lessons learned, etc.

Here's why:

When you're first starting out, you are probably not the go-to expert of any singular domain.

So, how do you become one?

By curating other experts.

When done successfully and consistently, these experts will (on occasion) share your work.

Which is the ultimate growth hack.

Step 2: After 3, 6, 9, 12 months of curating someone else's insights, you will have learned:

• How to create content people care about
• How to discern between what's valuable to readers & what's not
• Built the habit of being consistent
• And started to build an audience
👇

Now, you have two choices:

• Become a Creator (sharing your own insights) in a singular niche (probably related to the person you were curating, since that's a core interest for you)

OR

• Widen the category of people you curate, and double-down on being a curator.

Step 3: This entire time, I would have been writing in a Social environment.

• Twitter
• Quora
• Medium
• LinkedIn
• Etc.

No blog. No personal website. No need yet.

All just one big data-gathering exercise.

However, after a year or so of writing, and now with significantly more clarity around what readers want & what I enjoy, I would pick 1 specific topic within that category and go all-in.

Ex: "I like writing about writing."

Double-down to: "I want to help people START writing."

There's a misconception getting this specific is "too small."

But sit with the problem long enough, and you'll realize you could work for ~2 years non-stop on that teeny, tiny niche, and you still wouldn't run out of ideas, things to say, products to create, etc.

Step 4: I'd then spend the next year creating free content in social environments EXCLUSIVELY for that specific topic/niche and creating a library of content for that individual type of reader.

More practice. More data points. More learning in public.

All of this is to do a few crucial things:

• Build, nurture, and strengthen my daily writing habit
• Create so many data points that I learn EXACTLY what people are most interested in
• Practice writing things people care enough to read for free

Then? $$$.

Step 5: After ~2 years of writing in public, practicing, learning, gathering data points, THEN I would worry about monetizing.

Not based on "size of audience."

But based on my clarity of the problem.

Once I know 100% what readers care about, I'd pivot and create my 1st product

That 1st product should not be a question mark.

It should not be a "I wonder if people will want this."

You should already know, after ~2 years of gathering data, exactly what people in this niche want, care about, and are willing to pay for.

I'd then spend the entire next year mastering the sale of that 1 specific product.

• A book
• A course
• A workshop
• A live cohort experience
• A physical product
• A digital product
• Etc.

I would not chase any other rabbits. Just this one.

Step 6: Now, 3 years into the journey, after my first paid product was up and running, selling, and profitable, I would return to my list of data points.

Time to tackle another one.

(Still not moving outside my niche.)

The process of getting this 2nd product up will be faster.

Step 7: A few months later, I'd do it again.

A few months after that, I'd do it again.

And I'd spend the next 2-4 years building out different products solving different problems for the readers I know exactly how to reach and help most.

All based on data.

The 2 biggest mistakes I made on my own journey were:

1) I refused to "niche down" for years. And I accumulated tens of millions of views but they never led to anything.

2) I wasted so much time trying to tackle multiple niches at once.

Pick 1. Commit to it.

You will move 100x faster as a result.

And the process will teach you everything you need to know in order to do it again and again in other niches (if you want to) later on.

But start small, build the habits, and acquire the skills.

I hope this thread helps shorten your growth curve and save you some time.

And if writing is one of those skills you know you are going to need to acquire to get to where you want to go, start here:

startwritingonline.com