the very best writers share a superpower

they know how to turn good ideas into viral memes, using this simple writing framework

here's how it works: articles and essays are generally long, complicated and nuanced

to help our ideas spread, we want to compress our writing into "memes":

simple phrases that can endlessly spread and reproduce

7 powerful mental models for writers & content marketers: 1/ gordian knot

what it means:

complex problems can often be easily solved through lateral thinking - like cutting through a tangled knot, instead of trying to untie it

i made a dumb thing! blogroast.co

Blog Roast: 5-minute video teardowns of the BEST content marketing around

check out the first 5 episodes in this thread 👇 question: why did you do this?

answer: critical analysis of content marketing is the best way to improve your skills. we can learn a lot from great writers!

[real answer: i bought this domain because it sounded funny and i wanted an excuse to commission this logo]

stock images: 🥱
custom blog post graphics: 🔥

here's how we use *free* tools to create custom graphics for every @AnimalzCo article: why are blog post images worthwhile?

~ snare the reader’s interest in social feeds or email roundups
~ break up walls of into something less intimidating and more approachable
~ help elaborate upon the article’s core idea

tl;dr - good images will leave the reader smarter

one of my best friends is a writer who's still finding his way in the world

over a couple of drinks, i shared some career advice: 1/ don't pick a niche because you enjoy it - pick it because it's profitable

i started my career writing about my favourite subjects: beer, weightlifting and music

but even ten years ago, it was brutally competitive. everyone wants to do the fun stuff

10 visual sketches to help you become a better content marketer: 1/ fractal article structure

great writing often has a fractal structure: "cut" into any layer and you'll find the same narrative structure. it's a satisfying read at the article-, paragraph-, and sentence-level

i've seen people share frustration at being a ghostwriter: you write something amazing and someone else gets the credit.

i've been ghostwriting for over a decade. 95%+ of my writing is published under someone else's name

i get the frustration - but i think it's misplaced: 1/ your "reward" is money, not recognition

people pay for ghostwriting because you make them sound smarter, better, more polished

if you got recognition for the writing, then the entire value proposition of the service crumbles

anonymity is what makes ghostwriting viable

6 instant writing tips

here are six instantly-applicable tips to improve the clarity and persuasiveness of your writing: 1/ create a list of "weasel words": words and phrases that sound specific but actually convey no meaning

"business outcomes"
"experts believe"
"analyzing data"
"make a decision"

delete them whenever they appear & replace with specific, tangible examples

how to write better SEO content

the days of ultimate guides, "10x content" and the skyscraper technique are behind us. modern search content has to be smarter to generate results

here are 10 small-but-mighty tweaks for writing better SEO content: 1/ share an opinion

an article like "20 Best CRMs for 2022" is less helpful than it seems

what you view as "choice" the reader finds overwhelming

they can only buy one CRM. they want your expert opinion

i started in content marketing 11 years ago. a lot has changed in that time

back then, you could excel with simple keyword research skills and the ability to write quickly

but not today. if i was starting my career over, here are 12 things i would do to land my first job: a/ position myself as a content maintenance specialist

the old world of content marketing was all about creation. companies were in an arms race to publish articles and rank for keywords

today, many companies are slowing their aggressive publishing schedules and looking inward

here's a tweet to bookmark for next year:

8 content spring-cleaning tactics to set yourself up for success in 2022 🧹 📈 chances are you created a LOT of new content this year

but as content marketing grows more competitive and new keywords and traffic opportunities grow scarce...

the performance of *existing* content becomes more important

before you start writing in 2022... have a spring-clean

1/ There are few topics more painful, muddled and confused than... content distribution.

There's a huge amount of misinformation circulating. Lots of wasted time and energy. It doesn't need to be this way.

Here are 3 diagrams to explain the fundamentals of good distribution: 2/ Here's the "classic" approach to content distribution:

• Write an article
• Optimize it for search
• Hit publish
• "Distribute" to Facebook, Twitter, Linked, email...
• Crickets. Nada. Zip. Sadness all around.

🦗🦗🦗

15 principles of (great) content marketing

Last year I ran an "introduction to content marketing" session for a16z portfolio companies.

I distilled ten years+ of content marketing into a handful of ultra-simple slides. I stand by it today.

Here are the 15 core principles: 1/ Content marketing is writing that serves a business objective. It exists to make sales easier.

How?

• Generate new business
• Add value through education
• Build company and personal brands
• Share your vision for your industry
• Build a marketing moat

hot take: writing is NOT thinking.

thinking is a messy, chaotic, disorganised process. thoughts are usually 10% baked and easily forgotten.

but writing is how we turn those chaotic fragments into something interesting, insightful, and permanent.

here's a short process to help: 1/ write daily

our brains are infinitely fallible. good ideas bubble up on a regular basis, but unless they're captured, they disappear again.

make a habit of writing down every idea, observation, quote and criticism.

write generously, exhibit no judgement.

before I joined Animalz I cofounded a much smaller, much less successful content marketing agency

watching Animalz grow has helped me identify the missteps and wrong turns we took

most boil down to one thing: we weren't honest with ourselves about the type of company we were 👇 1/ the agency had pivoted to content marketing in response to growing demand

(previously it had offered SEO, "reputation management," website design)

I joined to head-up our content marketing, but old habits die hard...

Here's my talk from Wynter Games 4, one tweet per slide.

Thanks to @wynter_com and @peeplaja for having me - you can check out the full session recording over on Youtube: Most SEO content drives a bunch of traffic but sucks at instilling *trust.*

Expertise, credibility and authority are necessary to generate revenue from your content.

I know this from first-hand experience. This article ranks for 1,100+ keywords and generated $0 in new revenue👇

1/ someone in the team asked me to share a potted guide to writing "Animalz-style content"

here are my stream-of-consciousness thoughts, in case they're helpful for you're own content marketing 2/ I basically spend my time doing two things:

Collecting content marketing “best practices,” truisms and popular opinions, and questioning whether or not they hold-up, finding edge cases, adding nuance to ideas that are too simple to be helpful, and...

1/ .@ajtatey and I just finished digging through 150 million pageviews

We wanted to set a few core benchmarks for #SaaS content marketing, and discover the traits of high-performing content

The full report is here, but first - my biggest takeaways 👇
animalz.co/blog/benchmark… 2/ Internal linking is vastly underused 😱

The median number of internal links per article is 0.

It’s recommended by Google. It’s common wisdom. It’s part of every hub-and-spoke strategy.

And yet over half of all articles don’t link to another article on the same blog

How to thrive as a #remote worker

1/ Be nosy as hell.

Remote work can obscure the "big picture" view of your company, so read every public doc, spreadsheet, email and Slack thread. Leave unsolicited opinions in areas that interest you, or where you can add value. 2/ Surface your hidden effort.

Reading and research are crucial growth levers, but remote implicitly work penalises anything that doesn't result in a visible output.

So make it visible: add "research" into your calendar. Share public takeaways from the articles you've read.