Your catchy titles can mean the difference between writing a Medium article that makes $10 and one that makes $1,000.

Even if you write the world’s greatest blog post, no one will know about it if they don’t decide to click.

From copywriting expert David Ogilvy:

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”

There are dozens of skills you have to learn to be a successful writer. The ability to write compelling headlines is more important than everything else on the list.

Headline Writing 101

Your headline has to give people a compelling reason to click on your article.

It has to stand out on the feeds of the platforms you write for. You must capture attention quickly because readers can through feeds with lightning speed. If your headline doesn’t make them pay attention, they’ll whiz right past it.

Some quality headline traits are:

• Emotions: A great headline plays to either the reader’s fears and frustrations or their hopes and aspirations. Ask yourself “what keeps your readers up at night?” — the answer makes for a great headline.
• Curiosity gap: Give readers a hint of what’s to come, but don’t give it away.
• Focus on benefits: Don’t just tell people what you’re going to talk about, talk about what your article will do for them.
• Be specific: Speak to specific outcomes if you can, e.g., “only takes 10 minutes per day”
• Use power words: This article goes in-depth about power words, but always look for a phrase that packs a bunch instead of bland literal descriptions in your headlines
• Add Descriptors: Adjectives and Adverbs give your headline some extra flavor
• Polarizing: Making a bold polarizing statement will attract people who both love and hate your message
• Clarity: Most beginner writers struggle because they write vague, cryptic, and even confusing headlines that give readers no clue what the article might be about.

How to Get Better at Writing Catchy Headlines

It’s hard to write catchy titles. Most new writers struggle because they never commit to learning how to write solid headlines, nor do they study them.

If you want to stand out and learn how to write catchy titles that get clicks, these tips will help:

• Write 10 headline ideas daily: This means 10 headlines for 10 different blog post ideas
• Study headlines on Medium: Use the same process you’re about to see with the examples I’m going to show you. Each week, take time to read headlines from popular Medium articles and take notes on what works
• Don’t start from scratch: In the beginning, practice writing headlines by using headline templates you can tailor to your niche. I have 50+ templates you can download here.

Let’s walk through how to find top articles on Medium to study.

How to Find Top Articles to Analyze

On your Medium feed, select a topic you’re interested in, so you can see the topics page. Medium posts show their topics underneath the headlines in the feed, so just click on one that has a topic you’re interested in (bottom left corner):

When you’re on the topic page itself, select the best button at the top of the screen, one you do that a table will appear that allows you to choose between the best articles for the week, month, or year:

I chose a handful of headlines from different niches, blog post styles, and writers to make sure you know the part of writing catchy headlines is a skill any writer must master to be successful.

Quiet the Skeptics

This example comes from one of my students, Khyati Jain. She practices writing headlines regularly. All of my top students practice writing 10 headlines per day.

Let’s take a look at some things this headline does well:

• In the sub-heading below the headline, she makes sure to note that this article won’t include run-of-the-mill tips
• Notice the emotionally evocative words in the headline “kill” “rapidly” “stupid”
• Some people will read the post to confirm how smart they are. Others will read it because they suspect they’ve done some of these stupid activities

Take a Stand

This one comes from James Michael Sama a seasoned relationships writer who has been featured on CNN, CBS, CNBC, and the NY Post. (link to the full post here)

What this headline does well:

• It makes an absolute statement — men never do any of those 10 things. Bold and polarizing claims spark interest
• It targets a specific audience instead of being universal. Gendering your posts may come off as out of touch, but it makes your post idea more specific and invites controversy. Remember, on Medium, you get paid for reads whether or not they like your article
• Men will clap for and share this post because they want to see themselves as good partners. The same goes for the people they date.

Make People Worry

This one comes from Darshak Rana a 24-time top Medium Writer (link to the full post here)

What this headline does well:

• Gaslighting is a trending word that wasn’t used commonly until recent years. Adding it connects the post to a phrase that’s top of mind for readers.
• Most headlines take advantage of adjectives and adverbs for added effect. “Casually” even adds a bit of sting because it makes it seem like people can easily manipulate you effortlessly
• It plays on your fears and frustrations. This works to attract readers who are afraid of being manipulated as well as those who have been manipulated

Tell Your Story

Here’s an example from Lisa S.Gerard to show you that catchy headlines can be used for all forms of writing, including personal narrative essays.

What this headline does well:

• Read this headline in your head. Do you notice a rhythm or cadence to the way it reads? Think about how your headlines will sound in your reader’s minds.
• This is a perfect example of a curiosity gap. You think you know what the post is about but you’re not quite sure. Is it about infidelity? Did she reveal a damaging secret? You have to read to find out
• The addition of length of the marriage makes it more compelling. Ending a 25-year marriage is a lot different, and much more painful, than ending a two-year marriage.

Pose a Provocative Question

Here is yet another example of how to write an emotionally evocative headline without using the word ‘how-to’ or adding a number to it from Katie Jgln (link to full post here)

What this headline does well:

• For this headline, the topic of the piece touches on a common trope that’s emotionally evocative
• The target audience is crystal clear. So many women will relate to the headline because they’ve heard this toxic question and have had to deal with the consequences of it.
• Note the use of evocative phrases like “sex object” and “provocatively” that turn the descriptive and emotional dials up to ten

Use This Type of Phrase to Make Your Headline “Sticky”

This one comes from another student of mine, Anggun Bawi, who has written multiple viral stories with 50k views since joining the program and practicing her headlines relentlessly (link to the full piece here)

What this headline does well:

• If you can, give the concept you’re talking about a name or use one if it has one. Names tend to stick in people’s minds
• The use of the word trend sparks curiosity because people want to feel smart, in the know, and caught up with the times
• Note the power words used in this headline “Ugly” “Truth” “New” and “Trend”
• The sub-heading does a great job of spiking curiosity by letting you know you’re about to find out whether or not you’re being “roached”

Hone the Skills to Craft the Most Important Sentence

It takes time to get good at writing headlines.

If you try to skip the process of mastering this art and just focus on the writing itself, you’ll make the road to getting more views and making more money ten times as long as it has to be.

I’ve written more than 25,000 headlines in my life and I still practice them to this day.

The more you practice, the more often you’ll find headline ideas for blog posts that will change your life and writing career forever.

I’m only hard on you because I care.

Honestly, I could make a lot more money if I just painted a sunshine and roses picture about what it takes to become a writer.

I just can’t bring myself to do it because I want you to know what you’re in for.

Becoming a full-time writer is hard and most people who try don’t even get close to doing it.

At the same time, though, becoming a full-time writer is quite doable. Damn near anyone who knows how to be patient, follow directions, and practice their craft can do it.

There are a few traits that kill writing careers:

• Being hard-headed: I’m not perfect, but I’ve been writing for eight years. Why not just listen to me? Why question my advice? What you’re doing on your own isn’t working, right?
• Entitlement: A lot of new writers feel like they deserve views and money. You have to earn them.
• Extremely short time horizons: Full stop, you need to write for a year just to get good and it takes two to five years to go full-time.

Now, for my “harsh because I care” responses to common questions new writers ask me

“How do I Become a Writer?”

Read this 4,000-word blog post that walks you through every single step.

Don’t skip past all the detailed articles on my site, go to the contact page, and ask me a vague question like “how do I become a writer?”

It’s lazy and shows a lack of self-awareness.

There are so many guides that walk you through the process step by step, but you’re unwilling to use them.

Instead many of you will opt to reach out and ask vague questions because you’re afraid of the work. It’s an excuse mechanism.

You can either alleviate yourself of guilt if I don’t respond or, if I don’t answer the question well enough, you can blame my answer instead of blaming yourself.

These guides alone are enough to help. Maybe one percent of you will read and apply them. You’ll make it. The rest of you won’t. I’m not trying to be mean, it’s just the truth. There’s a direct correlation between implementing information and success. Grit your teeth and follow the steps.

“How Important Is it to Have a Niche?”

It depends.

If you want to use your writing to create products down the road, it’s important.

You’ll have to pick one of these broad categories to succeed:

• Health
• Wealth
• Love
• Relationships

If you don’t want to turn your writing into a business, you can write personal narrative essays, essays in general, stories, satire, memoir stuff, etc.

You just have to lower your expectations for financial success. You can still make solid money by writing on Medium and publishing books, but you won’t have that back-end support of products.

The more niched down you are, the easier it is to sell stuff. For example, giving weight loss advice isn’t as good as giving weight loss advice to women in their 30s who just had a child.

Thanks to places like Medium, you can toy around with topics. Just understand the tradeoffs.

The critics are correct. You will make more money writing blog-style advice and how-to content. It’s up to you to decide what you want to do with that information.

“How Do I Avoid Writer’s Block?”

The more time you spend upfront putting together the structure of the piece, the easier it will be to write.

This means mapping out the ideas of your post, turning them into an outline, and getting it to the point that writing your first draft is like coloring a picture in a coloring book.

It can feel formulaic, but it will increase your output.

Also, if you want to avoid writer’s block, you have to write every day. I liken it to exercise — the only way to stop being too tired to go to the gym is to go to the gym.

These dead-simple pieces of advice will skyrocket your productivity:

• Write at the same time every day
• Give yourself a time window to work. Feel free to exceed it, but never fall short of it
• Your only two options during your time windows are to work or sit there and be bored

“Which Platform Is The Best?”

I prefer Medium because it’s beginner friendly.

Let’s say you wanted to start a substack and make $1,000 a month.

You’d have to build up your substack list to 1,000 people if you think you could convert 10 percent to pay you $10/month. If you can only convert 5 percent or charge $5, your list would have to have 2,000 people on it.

Substack is working on discoverability, but it isn’t there yet.

You’d have to get traffic to your substack, somehow, write compelling copy to get people to sign up, and keep them from unsubscribing.

I have students who make $1,000 a month on Medium just from writing.

This gives them the confidence to build a full-time writing business. If you’re struggling to get the writing done, what makes you think you’re going to be able to build up an audience on another platform and sell them something?

For everyone who complains about Medium, I’d love to hear a better alternative.

“What If I Don’t Want to Write Listicles and How To Posts?”

Ah, yes, the simultaneously inexperienced writer who also has impeccable taste.

Here’s my advice:

Do whatever you want, but then live with the results.

Maybe you really are a misunderstood, revolutionary, creative genius who shouldn’t have to bother with learning how to blog. If so, best of luck to you.

Odds are, though, you’re not.

I get it, though.

You might not necessarily want to write traditional blogging stuff. If you don’t want to, then don’t. If you’re open-minded though, I suggest using those forms of writing as training wheels to get you some momentum.

You can ditch them later.

Even if you want to strictly be an essayist or storyteller, you should study copywriting, marketing, and persuasion because they teach you to understand what people want.

You can achieve a happy Medium. There are lots of successful writers who write more artsy content while also packaging their posts well with solid headlines, compelling intros, unique sub-headings, etc.

“How Long Do I Have to Write For to See Results?”

I get this question a lot and one thing that strikes me is the phrasing.

They always ask me how long they have to write for as if it’s a burden. I can’t relate. From day one, I looked forward to writing. I told myself I get to write today. I needed someone to push me to start writing, but once I did, I was hooked.

Anyway, here are the answers:

• Write for 30 days straight just to build a habit
• Write for 90 days to get solid footing
• In 6-12 months, you’ll be making some money and you’ll have a decent-sized audience
• In 3-5 years you can build a six-figure writing business. 18 months to 2 years if you’re a ruthless executor

“How Can I Make Money as a Writer?”

If you want to start making money fast, become a freelancer. You could have a full-blown business running in 30 days.

If you want to be a freelancer, set up a profile on LinkedIn describing your work, pick a niche to focus on, and send 100 cold DMs per day to companies who fit your niche.

You’ll get ten people to say yes to a meeting, five will actually show up, three will be interested, and one will buy. Repeat this until your monthly retainer X your price = the money you need to live.

Other options are:

• Writing on Medium: realistically, the top numbers for writers are more like $1k-$10k instead of the $10k-50k it used to be. Earnings have gone down, but you can still earn.
• Publishing Kindle books: Even better, you can serial publish and write a new book every month or two. I know writers doing this who earn $20k a month or more.
• Courses, coaching, consulting: If you give how-to advice in any of the popular verticals of health, wealth, love, and happiness, you can productize your knowledge
• Affiliate marketing/ads: You can recommend products and get a commission. You can also put display ads on your website. You’ll need a lot of traffic to get this to work, so most people use SEO and focus on creating niche websites on topics that have low competition keywords

“What Can I Do If I’m not a…?”

What can I do if I’m not a tech person?

What can I do if I’m not salesy?

What can I do if I don’t know how to do marketing?

You can either quit or learn how to master the skills needed to build a writing career.

A lot of newbie writers act helpless. They get it in their head that they’re incapable of these skills when they haven’t even tried.

I promise if you said down and read a guide on let’s say, email marketing software, you’d figure out how to do it if you took the time to figure out how to do it.

Becoming a writer requires an identity shift. You have to adopt a growth mindset instead of a fixed one.

You have to remind yourself that all skills are learnable. And you have to embrace discomfort and the feeling of sucking at what you do.

There’s no way around it.

This Is The Answer to All Your Questions

All these answers boil down to…do the work.

I promise, if you practice and focus on your craft, you will get a lot better at writing

You will get more views.

You will make more money.

The process will get easier.

In the beginning, though, everything is just hard and frustrating. I get it. I really do.

I also know you’re more than capable of doing it. You just have to believe in yourself as much as I believe in you. Do whatever you can to get out of the newbie vortex and you’ll be just fine.

Now, get to work.

If you can’t handle criticism, don’t write online, period.

As your audience grows, the trolling only gets worse. If you ever build a massive audience, trolls and naysayers will come at you non-stop, relentlessly, every single day.

I’ve been called all sorts of names and been told I’m a charlatan more times than I can count. People try to tear my ideas to shreds daily.

Negative comments hurt. Sure, I feel them. I felt them much more strongly in the past.

But I never gave a fuck about them.

It never once crossed my mind that I should abandon my goals as a writer just because some random people on the internet said some mean things to me.

It seems like this does cross the minds of my students and people in my audience, so let me address it for you all today.

Understand Who’s Talking to You

“You want praise from people who kick themselves every fifteen minutes, the approval of people who despise themselves. (Is it a sign of self-respect to regret nearly everything you do?)”

If you want to learn how to deal with a troll, first get inside the mind of a troll. 

Imagine taking the time out of your day, precious time out of a short life, to tear another human being down on the internet.

These people are losers. They know they’re losers. They lash out to get your attention because they crave validation and acceptance — two things they’re not getting in their lives.

I pity them. I couldn’t imagine being so lame of a person that I’d take time to publicly take shots at anyone without a really good reason for it.

I got shit to do. These people don’t.

If you believe in your words, stand on them. Anyone can portray any image they want online, but at the end of the day, they have to be themselves in real life.

Most trolls who puff up their chest and try to tear you down have to go back to a miserable existence as soon as they close their laptop or put down their phone.

When people negatively comment on my posts, I understand this about them so I know I’ll get the last laugh because I love my life and they hate theirs.

I don’t automatically call everyone who disagrees with me a troll or a naysayer, though. People fit into different buckets. Let’s talk about my rule book when it comes to responding to blog post comments that critique my work.

You’re All Allowed to Disagree With Me

Sometimes I’m just…wrong.

I’m just sharing the truth as I see it at the time. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time. Every once in a while, someone will disagree with me and I’ll realize their right. When that happens, I’ll address it publicly.

The world gets better for all of us when we’re allowed to disagree with each other in public. So if you think something I wrote is wrong, feel free to tell me. I’ll engage and be cordial, under these conditions.

• You’re respectful: Name-calling either gets you ignored, blocked or the occasional nasty response from yours truly
• You’re debating the argument itself: I encourage people to disagree with the content of my words, but if you start making ad hominem attacks, where you attack me instead of the argument, I either won’t respond or I’ll troll you.
• Your objection actually makes sense: A lot of people literally don’t know how to read and their reading comprehension skills are low. People will sometimes argue points I didn’t make because…they can’t read.

If I don’t see any of these red flags, I might engage with you. I say might because I have a lot of shit to do and I default to not responding to comments at all because there are so many.

If you’re new and trying to make a name for yourself online, it’s smart to reply to every single comment. You can use these rules to decide when, if, and how you’ll respond to them.

How I Choose to Respond to Critics, Trolls and Naysayers, If At All

Nine times out of ten I just ignore them.

They’re trolling you because they want you to respond. So even if you send them a clever response back, you’re still giving them what they want.

“The best revenge is not to be like that.” Marcus Aurelius

The best revenge against trolls is to keep winning and totally ignore them. These people are miserable, best to keep winning and let them seethe.

So many people have taken shots at people like Tim Denning. And he just keeps plowing along getting richer and more influential every single day. They hate it. I love it. It’s hilarious to watch. Run up the score in public and let them hate you all they want.

Say what you want. We’re never gonna stop.

Other Options

Sometimes, I’ll respond with kindness. Gary Vee does that a ton. People will write entire hit pieces on him and he will reply sincerely saying how much he’s trying to help and that if it comes across the wrong way, he’s sorry.

Somebody wrote a hit piece on me a while back saying my ideas were shit. I responded by saying I welcome the challenge of getting better and competing with the rest of the writers on Medium.

He backpedaled and tried to praise me because he knew he fucked up. I’ll never work with him or help him in any way, but I hold no ill will toward him. Also, responding positively in public brings people to your cause because you show you’re above it all.

Sometimes, if I see a similar critique across the board from a bunch of comments on a blog post I wrote, I’ll know the actual idea missed the mark, so I’ll address all of them.

If I want to make the time, I’ll address random individual critiques. Usually. I respond to the ones that say they liked some things about the piece and didn’t like others. That’s a sincere and honest comment, which provides actual feedback I can use.

Last, every once in a while, I talk shit back because I’m feeling frisky.

Mainly, I just ignore it.

How to Deal With Naysayers In General

Most people will never accomplish anything of consequence in their entire lives.

When you have the audacity to go after your dream, you become a mirror that reflects people’s own inadequacies back at them. If you understand this about people you can have empathy for them. They’re in pain and they’re taking it out on you. Deal with it however you want to, but don’t let them stop you.

It’s the price you have to pay for becoming great.

Focus on becoming the best version of yourself, creating the best work you can make, and doing your best to help others with your writing. If you’re doing that, then you shouldn’t worry about what other people say.

I’m not perfect. Neither are you. The point isn’t to be perfect, it’s to share what you honestly believe, consequences be damned. Don’t pull punches or pretend to be something you’re not for the approval of the crowd.

Naysayers will weigh on your mind in the beginning, but you care less and less over time.

After nearly eight years in the game, I’ve seen it all. Nothing surprises me anymore and I know negative comments are inevitable. I choose to think about the people I’ve helped over the years. The ones I’ve inspired. The ones I’ve made stop and think. Those are the people I’m writing for, to begin with.

Who cares about some random trolls on a computer screen?

I don’t.

You shouldn’t either.

If you’ve been reading my work for a while, you’ve probably had a moment like this.

I described something you felt, but couldn’t articulate yourself.

Often, it feels like I’m reading your mind.

And even though my words reach millions each year, it feels like I’m literally talking to you.

It’s hard to replicate this effect in your own work though, isn’t it? You’re afraid people don’t want to hear what you have to say. You don’t think you’re smart enough or talented enough to persuade an audience.

So you stumble around, trying different strategies to write stories that fall flat. Either that or you don’t write anything at all because you’re so paralyzed inside of your own mind.

Your confidence keeps decreasing and the dream you’ll make it as a writer fades with each passing day. I’ve seen it make aspiring writers bitter and jaded. It’s sad. If you don’t change your strategy, you’ll face a similar fate.

I can fix you.

Instead of just helping you become a writer, I can help you become a leader who doesn’t just write words but moves people in a profound way.

If you want to develop this mind-reading effect and build a massive audience in the process, you must understand these important truths about your readers.

You Crave This (Even If You Don’t Think You Do)

People crave status.

If you can help them elevate their status, they’ll love you. If you make them feel like they’re losing status, they’ll reject you.

I know what you’re thinking…

You don’t care about status. You don’t want a Lamborghini, a mansion, or a million Instagram followers.

To understand status, you must expand your definition of it. Status is anything that makes you look better to the people you want to look better in front of.

• Parents drive mini-vans to increase their status as responsible, loving, and caring parents who care about the safety of their children
• Environmentalists are signaling to others that they care about the planet
• Buddhists and minimalists want the status of avoiding the status game

It’s all status.

Think of how you can make your audience look better in the eyes of the people they want to impress. Writers ultimately want to feel like real writers. I give them the tools to elevate their status as people who share important messages with the world.

Emotions > Logic

People are not rational.

We use emotion to make decisions, then use logic to justify those decisions.

It’s funny. People who love using data and statistics — the type who think they’re immune to irrationality — are the easiest to persuade because they come up with the best reasons for their emotional decisions.

The less stock I’ve taken in logic, the more persuasive I became.

The most intelligent people in the world aren’t academics, they’re copywriters, salespeople, storytellers, and those who understand how to tap into people’s emotions.

Instead of trying to logically convince people, tap into their emotions to help them come to a decision on their own.

Use This Framework to Captivate Readers

This framework has helped me tap into people’s emotions and move them.

Focus on these two aspects of human nature:

• People want to move away from their fears and frustrations
• People want to move toward their hopes and aspirations

I opened this post by using the problem, agitation, solutions (P.A.S.) framework:

• Spell out the problem your reader is having
• Talk about how their life will get worse if they don’t solve the problem
• Allude to a solution

I use this framework to write headlines:

• Step 1: Spell out the fear/frustration or hope/aspiration and write it from the “I” perspective — I can’t get people to read my work because I don’t know what they want to read
• Step 2: Describe a positive outcome that fixes the problem — I figured out simple frameworks for understanding my readers, which helped me build an audience
• Step 3: Turn the outcome into a headline – You Must Understand These Important Truths About Your Readers (If You Want to Build a Massive Audience)

Always Ask This Question

Readers don’t care about you or your story.

At least not right away.

They care about what you and your stories can do for them.

• If you’re giving advice, they want you to help them make a transformation.
• If you’re writing an essay, they want you to help them feel informed or see into their own lives through the lens of your story.
• Even if you’re writing a story about yourself, they want that story to entertain them in some way.

Every time I sit down to write a post, even if the post is a personal narrative essay, I ask myself the same question:

What’s in it for the reader?

I ask this question because it’s the question they ask themselves to decide whether or not they want to keep reading.

Be Careful With These Powers Once You Know How to Use Them

Have you ever been marketed to, know you’re being marketed to, know the exact techniques they’re using, and still allowed yourself to be persuaded anyway?

Companies have tried removing sales and discounts from their products and just lowering the price. It didn’t work. People want to feel like they’re getting a deal.

That corny infomercial tactic where they stack the offer with a bunch of bonus products and keep slashing the prices down ending with “you can have the whole system for just $19.99,” works like gangbusters.

Hell, you know that $19.99 is just a penny less than $20, but you like that it’s $19.99.

You can pull people’s psychological levers without their permission. Once you know how to do this, you must use this skill responsibly.

Use These Classic Persuasion Tools

Let’s take a look at some of the classic levers that work:

• Anchoring: If I first make a ridiculous offer you won’t accept, you’ll accept a lower offer that’s still high, but lower than the original outlandish number
• Commitment consistency: People want to be consistent with who they say they are. If you say you love local entertainment and go out all the time, you’d look like a fool not to buy a coupon book for local events.
• Social proof: I saw a video once where a woman walked into an elevator where everyone was facing the wrong direction. People kept walking in and facing the wrong way. Eventually, she caved and turn around even though it felt stupid.
• Reciprocity: If someone does you a favor, you’re inclined to return it. Be careful when the salesperson offers you water or coffee. You might buy a car out of guilt.
• Liking bias: Most people won’t listen to someone they dislike even if they make good points. The reverse is true as well.
• Authority bias: People want to be led and they defer to people with perceived authority and credibility.

Some great books to understand persuasion deeper are:

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
• Presuasion
• How to Win Friends and Influence People

Our Deepest Desire

Human beings desperately crave acceptance.

They want to feel part of a tribe, a community, something larger than themselves.

You can see this at play in political parties, gangs, cults, churches, Crossfit, book clubs, and online audiences to follow tribe leaders.

Your job isn’t to “build an audience.” It’s to start a movement and form a tribe. You and your tribe are fighting for a mission, and standing against the forces in the world that opposes you.

My tribe is people who see themselves as professional writers or want to become one. We aim to inspire the world with our words. Our enemies are the people and the societal message that tells us we have to follow the rules and obey instead of carving our own path in life through words.

This is why it’s important to get specific about who you help:

• Don’t be a “self-improvement writer.” Help entrepreneurs make more money and save time by building better habits backed by science.
• Get real clear on what the people in your tribe really want. Writers, above all else, want to be heard.
• Find out where your potential tribe hangs out online — blogs, platforms, social media groups, forums
• Use the words they use. I copy and paste blog post comments and book reviews all the time. Then I use their exact phrases in my own blog posts and copy
• Build a community. I have a mastermind group for my students. Yes, we help each other grow as writers. But most importantly, our group keeps us from feeling like we’re all alone on this writing journey. The outside world thinks we’re crazy for wanting to make a full-time living writing. We keep each other sane

How to Use Your Story to Your Advantage and Build a Massive Audience in the Process

So where do you come in?

If you want to move people, you have to understand how your story intertwines with your readers.

Your mess is your message.

When you tell stories, talk about your ups and downs. Talk about the epiphanies you’ve had. Don’t just describe what happened. Describe how you felt in the process using feelings other people feel right now.

For writers, I’ve told the story over and over again about how I always knew I wanted to be a writer but struggled to start. I talk about what it felt like to have zero readers, money, and connections. How I felt delusional for thinking little old me could possibly achieve the same level of success as big-name writers.

I’m ahead of you in the journey and I shared how I transformed myself.

Do the same for your audience.

You have a ton of valuable life experiences. You’ve been through a lot. You have only one thing no other writer can copy. You have your mess.

The good news is that we all have a mess.

The most important thing to understand about readers is that they’re human beings just like you.

We’re all pretty similar creatures.

If you tap into the things we all have in common and communicate them in a captivating way, readers will love you.

1 out of every 100 people who try to do it becomes a full-time writer.

If you’re serious about making it, that fact shouldn’t scare you away from trying.

It didn’t scare me.

I came into the game with eyes wide open and no rose-colored glasses tinting my vision. A lot of the advice I’m about to give you derives from the attitude you need to have to become a full-time writer.

You need to have grit, tenacity, moxy.

I say this to you all in the kindest way possible. Most of the newbie writers I see are soft. They underestimate what it takes to succeed and they get a tummy ache when things don’t go their way.

If you’re not willing to go through the ups and downs of the game, you’re not going to make it.

However, if you get a few things right, your odds of making it full-time are pretty much one hundred percent.

You Have to Pay Your Dues

Society, in general, has forgotten the merits of paying your dues.

Nobody wants to take unpaid internships to learn skills from a mentor. Everyone demands a wage instead of earning one. They don’t want to go the extra mile at a job that isn’t their dream job, yet expect to suddenly become responsible once they do find that dream job.

Doesn’t work that way.

It especially doesn’t work that way in the writing world.

Take Medium, which pays you directly for your words. I love that this opportunity has become available, but it also created a toxic mindset with new writers who think they’re supposed to earn money right away.

If the beginning, your reward for doing the work is the chance to do it again the next day, the day after that, and every single day after until it works.

I practiced my craft for the sake of practicing my craft, for free, with zero expectations aside from the chance to do it again. I didn’t care about the money, which is why I made so much of it on the back-end.

You Have to Master Platforms

There were no Medium courses available when I first started writing. I observed what others were doing well on the platform and reverse engineered their techniques.

New writers struggle with the process of reverse engineering strategies that work. They practice blindly. And when they don’t get the results they want, they blame the platform instead of their lack of understanding. If you want to be successful on a platform, you should spend as much, if not more, time observing the platform as you do writing on it.

I read top articles on Medium daily. Often, I take notes on what works well and what doesn’t. I monitor which publications have thriving articles. I look at the pictures writers use on their posts and the way they format them. I study their headlines, intros, conclusions, and hooks.

You likely just publish whatever you want and go about your day without ever trying to get a deep understanding, don’t you?

It’s cool. I’m not here to beat you up. I’m here to inspire you to change the way you work. Open your eyes. If something you’re doing isn’t working, you need to look within.

You Have to Play the Long Game

About a year or so into writing, I decided I’d never quit. I knew it, in my bones.

Didn’t matter if it took ten years, I was going to do it.

Alex Hormozi has a saying:

If you won’t do it for a decade, don’t do it for a day.

Like I said, with all kindness and sincerity, you guys are soft.

It baffles me how often I see new writers complain who’ve done so little writing for such a short amount of time.

Here are some hard and fast guidelines to win:

• Write daily for 90 days straight without fail to escape the ‘newbie abyss’
• In 12 months, you will no longer suck at writing and have a decent voice
• In 2-5 years, you can build a six-figure writing business

I’ve given you the timelines.

If you stick to them you’ll be fine.

You Have to Hit Publish Button

“I want to put my work out there, but I’m afraid to hit publish.”

I want you to think about this deeply.

How are you possibly going to build a writing career if no one sees your writing?

Stop collecting drafts. Stop trying to perfect your work. Hit the damn button. Then hit it again, and again, and again. I credit naivete to my success. I didn’t know how much I sucked so I had no fear of publishing. I just did it, typos and all. I didn’t give a damn.

Don’t try to write the end all be all essay. Take a small piece of wisdom and publish it. Don’t write draft after draft after draft and constantly refine all of them. Pick one idea, write it from start to finish, then work on the next idea.

You need to build a catalog.

It’s your portfolio that will compound over time.

I can’t tell you how to hit publish other than to tell you to just do it. Your ideas will never be perfect or complete and that’s okay.

You Have to be Brave

If you can’t get over what others think of you, just give up.

People will talk shit.

People will call you names.

Personally, I just never thought the opinions of losers were worth sacrificing my dream. And that’s what naysayers and trolls are. Total losers who have nothing better to do than bring other people down. These people are pitiful. They’re hurting. They can’t face their own demons so they tried to create them inside of you.

Fuck them.

I’ve been attacked online more times than I can count. But at the end of the day, I’m going to keep doing what I love and winning while they sit on the sidelines. I’m not afraid of random people on a computer screen because it’s foolish to be afraid of them.

I don’t have some comforting or coddling message for you here.

Just ignore them…

You Have to Learn Marketing and Sales

Your fear of sales comes from your fear of people.

When you try to promote your work, some people will call you a snake-oil salesman. If you use marketing hooks and write clever headlines, you will be accused of click-bait.

You get to decide which type of writer you want to be — a starving artist or a highly paid writer. I don’t seek to impress stuffy journalists and literary magazines. I aim to impress my audience.

If you want to build an audience, you have to package your words the right way. And you don’t have to write listicles to do it either. You will have to learn how to persuade people to read your work.

This means:

• Learning to write copy with strong calls to action to people join your email list
• Writing clever titles for your blog posts, books, landing pages, and more
• Promoting your work aggressively. I sent 10 times the amount of emails to promote my second book than the first and it sold 10 times as many copies.
• Studying marketing and persuasion. Here are some great books you can read to start.
• Understanding the psychology of your readers

You Have to Find Your Ideal Readers and Build Your Tribe

If you don’t know who you’re writing for, your writing won’t resonate with anyone. I make my students create a reader avatar where they vividly describe the person they’re writing for:

• What are their fears and frustrations?
• What are their hopes and aspirations?
• Where do they hang out online?
• What kind of person do they want to become?
• Do they want to be inspired, entertained, educated, or all three?

When I write a new book, I read all of the reviews of similar books to see what they like and dislike. I read blog post comments and copy and paste them into documents to use for later.

How do you think I achieve the effect where it feels like I’m reading your mind?

You need to find a niche and focus on it.

Then, you build a tribe. Your tribe is the in-group. Your tribe has a common enemy to defeat. Instead of just building an audience, you focus on creating a movement. You speak to your tribe with conviction, which pisses naysayers off but makes them love you and become die-hard and loyal readers.

You Need to Commit to a Path

Get one platform to work first instead of trying to do them all at once. Pick one way to monetize your writing and master it before you build new income streams. Take one online course and actually finish it before you jump to the next one.

You guys are all over the place.

You have a Medium blog, a Substack, a LinkedIn, a Twitter, and they all have mediocre writing.

You’re in 12 different online courses, none of which you’ve completed and executed fully.

You have 97 different gurus with contradictory advice in your ear instead of just picking one and seeing their advice all the way through.

You’re playing musical chairs with monetization techniques, which means you’re not making good money on any of them.

I write on multiple platforms, but I built the foundation of my entire writing business with Medium and my email list.

I sell one online course.

I’ve redone the sales page for the course four times. I’ve redone the funnels. I’m refining the strategies for building an audience and having them go through that singular path.

You can pivot over time, but you need to lay the foundation.

The Final Word

All of this circles back to the main point.

Pick your head up. Do the work. Just be patient and consistent.

Building a writing career isn’t that daunting if you just take it one day at a time and focus on the present moment.

I started writing eight years ago and the time flew by because I just worked on my writing for an hour or two per day without quitting. Gradual progress becomes explosive growth.

I remember how it feels to be at square one. You feel like it’s just too distant of a dream. There’s so much work to do. You can’t imagine how you can possibly amass all these followers, subscribers, and dollars.

Don’t worry about all that.

Just close this article, craft an idea for a post, write it, publish it, and then do it again tomorrow.

No need to think any further than there.