Mind-Blowing Truths About Writing Every Expert Writer Needs To Know

The Art And Business of Online Writing by Nicolas Cole

I recently read a book by Nicolas Cole, The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention.

I bought it out of curiosity. I’ve been reading up about writing for years now, truly. I thought, what else can he offer me that is new and original?

I was in for a shock.

First, let’s start with the commonly known things about writing online — the already-known facts about writing. Let me summarize them here if you’re new to writing.

Commonly Known Lesson #1 — Write consistently to grow as a writer.

How much should we write as beginners?

Cole recommends writing for at least six months before deciding whether it’s worth continuing or you’re ready to quit. As for frequency, he says you write at least four times a month or twice a week if possible. The more, the better.

He says to contact him by email if you write every day; he’d like to get to know you better.

Commonly Known Lesson #2 — Then, he talks about audience hacking.

How to break into new readers?

Audience hacking is essential, like influencer collaboration. He recommends that you team up with another writer who has a slightly larger following than yours and create content together. This way, your writing is exposed to newer audiences, and your network also grows.

It’s the best hack to find new audiences and create newer content you’ve never made before.

Commonly Known Lesson #3 — Repurposing older content

Shocking New Lesson #1 — Learning about the lifecycles of social media platforms

Now for the things that I learned anew and that shocked me were -

Cole says there are 5 phases to any social platform.

• A platform is invented — new people flock to it.
• The platform starts becoming popular — so early users (influencers) become famous.
• The platform becomes an authority — now it may last a decade or more.
• Advertising begins on the platform — reach begins to fall.
• Once advertising is in place, organic reach becomes a downward slide, and then it’s time to look for a new platform.

The trick lies in identifying a platform’s stage in the lifecycle and using that stage to maximum advantage.

Ideally, join a platform in stage 3, recommends Cole.

Shocking New Lesson #2 — Creating new categories as a writer to stand out from the crowd

Be an unexpected writer.

Cole says identifying what category you’re writing in is directly proportional to your success as a writer. Understanding the steps to getting to the top of your category is crucial. Another strategy, he says, is to create an entirely new category.

Like J.K. Rowling, who created a new “wizard stories for kids” category.

He then goes on in his book on how to marry audiences, genres, and styles of writing to create a new genre.

Shocking New Lesson #3 — Writing has a rhythm — 1,3,1 or 1,5,1 and so on.

Structure is always important, whether for a business or writing.

But the rhythm of writing was a completely new one for me, and it goes 1–3–1 or 1–5–1: one strong opening line, followed by three descriptive sentences backing up the opening line, and then one concluding sentence. He has elaborated on many more such rhythmic writing styles if you want to write longer (1–5–1) or even shorter (1–1–1) posts. But this particular style felt dear to me instantly, and I’m embracing it in my writing from today on.

Did you notice I am using it for this post?

Shocking New Lesson #4 — The infinite idea generation technique using content buckets.

To create infinite ideas, have 3 buckets.

• One for a universal topic
• The second must be about your field of expertise
• The third should be about the industry you are in.

Then, decide what you want to write — an opinion article, an actionable guide, a listicle, or a story. Then, determine the idea you want to communicate — explain habits or lessons, tips or mistakes, or the latest news about that content bucket. Then, add credibility to the mix and curate infinite content ideas using these combinations.

Cole ends by saying — write a lot. This writing a lot, will help you identify your category and content buckets, create a rhythm, and grow as a writer.

So keep writing and keep creating. And Keep Reading!

This post was originally posted by me on Medium.