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There’s no shortage of terrible writing advice on the internet.

This puts you in a tough spot. You want to build your writing career. You’re motivated, but you’re looking for clearcut steps to find your voice, build an audience, and become the great writer you imagine you can be.

On this path, you have to sift through about 7 million different writing gurus with contradictory advice.

You don’t know who to trust. Instead of implementing any of the advice you’re given, you keep spinning your wheels reading blog post after blog post, hoping something clicks.

Does that sound about right?

If you’re nodding your head right now, stick with me, and I’ll give you some writing advice that actually works.

Why Should You Trust Me?

So far, I’ve said nothing unique. Every writing guru claims they have the secret sauce and every other guru doesn’t. What makes me different?

Here’s your first clue. I’m not going to promise any of this will work exactly the way I say it will. Good advice is nothing more than a suggestion. Nobody can promise you anything because there are too many variables in life.

Most terrible writing advice centers around some guarantee that if you do what you’re told, things will work out in some precise way.

Of course, luck is involved when it comes to writing. But, there are ways to increase your odds of building an audience and having blog posts go viral. I have a bag of tricks, but I don’t know exactly what will happen after I hit publish. No one does.

Anyone who’s promising you their “proven secrets to virality” is a charlatan.

I offer useful strategies that tend to pay off in the long term because long time scales are more predictable.

I’m living proof of that. My blog posts have been read by millions, I’ve published two books with a third coming out this fall, and tens of thousands of people read my work on a monthly basis like clockwork.

But I’ve also been writing for five years.

Many, many, many people who write about writing edit out the part where they were stuck and frustrated and show you the “roadmap for success” based on a starting point that’s not real — the point where they got traction instead of the very first time they wrote.

I won’t do that.

You’ll get unfiltered straight to the point tips, the opposite of terrible writing advice. A great starting point for success is learning what not to do. Avoid these strategies at all costs.

Anything With the Number Six

I hate the number six.

“Become a successful writer in six weeks.”

“Have thousands of raving fans in six months.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen people build careers in six months out of thin air with a few viral hits. It happens. But I hate it when these same people turn around and give advice on how to do it as if it’s replicable.

Of course, there are ingredients to virality. But it’s not predictable. Of course, it’s possible for you to become a top professional writer in six months or less, but staking your hopes and dreams on that goal will kill your career 99 times out of a 100.

If you want to use the number six, try six years.

Jon Morrow, maybe the smartest blogger in the world, sums up the way to look at the timeline your writing career:

Starting a blog from scratch is just as difficult as starting any business. For example, it requires the same time and effort as starting your own restaurant, software company, or accounting service. Yes, those businesses are wildly different, but the first few years are usually the same story: low income, lots of stress, big learning curve.

If you want a more concrete answer than that, we’ve found it takes even our smartest, most dedicated students 3-6 years to make enough money from blogging to quit their jobs. And that sounds like a long time, but so what? 3-6 years to be able to work from anywhere in the world, take a vacation whenever you want, and probably have passive income until the day you die?

Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

As one of his most dedicated students who actually finished his course and has published on his blog not just once, but twice, I can tell you he’s exactly right.

Get an MFA

Getting an MFA is like getting an art history degree — useless.

If anything, an MFA will only teach you how to be even more entitled and pretentious than you already are.

You don’t need a fancy degree to become a writer. You need a computer and a writing habit. If you want to polish your skills, there are online courses you can take for a fraction of the cost. Often, these courses are created by people who’ve had real success with writing.

The problem with learning about writing from a writing teacher is the fact that a successful writer often wouldn’t be a writing teacher. There are exceptions, of course, but usually, if you have a successful writing career the last thing you’d want to do is become a professor.

I went to school for business. I had many a business teacher who’s only job was being a business teacher. What can someone who’s never run or been employed by a real business possibly teach me about business? Nothing.

This isn’t really a knock on MFA professors, but rather me railing against the idea of formal education in general. You don’t need it. You’re capable of being a self-taught professional writer and the digital landscape is giving you every opportunity to do so. So just go. 

Write About Whatever You Want

This is the writing version of “just be yourself.”

Writing about what you want isn’t terrible writing advice in and of itself, rather it’s the implication that people should want to read whatever you write.

You can write in many genres — romance novels, self-help, history, psychology, sci-fi, memoir, etc. I’m not saying you need to be pigeonholed.

But often, writers take license to write whatever the hell they want without taking other people into consideration.

If you want to write a memoir about your life, you better have lived a damn interesting one and find a way to connect your experiences with the people reading your book.

You can tell personal stories, but the stories must connect with the audience.

Most writers fail because they make their writing all about themselves. They’re not writing anything useful. They’re vomiting their personal diary into the abyss. This is a great way to fail.

If your first instinct is to ramble on about how you feel, you’re on the wrong track.

Josh Spector has a great quote on this:

“You can write for yourself or you can write for an audience, but you can’t do both.”

Write On Word Count a Quota

Ok, this isn’t exactly the most terrible writing advice ever, but it is when taken to the extreme. I’ve given advice on writing a set word count per day.

I did it because most aspiring writers are inconsistent and don’t build the writing habits they need to succeed.

The habit matters more than anything else. If setting a word count goal helps you get there, fine, but often people turn word count goals into this weird sport that makes them beat themselves up if they don’t reach their goal every day.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and well-intentioned advice can become counterproductive. All strategies should be a means to an end, not the end itself.

Your goal should never be to write 1,000 words. Your goal is becoming a better writer.

Should you write every day? Probably.

Is there a word count sufficient to make your writing session “count”? Maybe.

At the end of the day, don’t overcomplicate the process. You need to write more, period. You know this already. Do it.

Anything That Doesn’t Boil Down to “Write More”

“Authors need an awesome about page.”

“Your website design builds credibility.”

“Get on all the social media channels.”

“Learn how to do SEO.”

All that stuff is secondary. At best, they’re ancillary tips. At worst, they’re major distractions.

Both of my blogs cost less than $500 to make. I’m just now considering doing a redesign for my sites five years into the game because I’ve built my career to a point where it may be necessary.

I know how to do SEO, but I didn’t start learning that until a few years ago after I had already written more than 100 blog posts.

I promise you, get 100 blog posts under your belt and it will make everything else easier. When you write 100 blog posts, you tip over the “lead domino” that knocks the rest of them over via momentum.

Once you have the habit, you can write books, build your social media, create products, monetize, all of that good stuff you really want to do. But you won’t be able to do any of it if your writing sucks. And your writing will suck until you publish about 100 posts.

Join a Writing Group

Yeah, I’m killing a sacred cow here, sorry.

Jim Rohn says you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You should use this mental model when it comes to writing as well.

Look, if your writing group has motivated people in it who regularly publish work, get shit done, and have useful insights to offer, by all means, stay in it.

But those groups are the exception, not the rule.

I used to be in many online writing groups. I tried to help, give tips, provide free coaching, all of it, but none of it stuck.

Most of the people in those groups were either too lazy or too filled with self-doubt to do anything. As are most aspiring writers. They’d keep asking me for my “secret.”

I don’t have any secrets. I’m a writing machine. That’s my secret.

Writing groups are like those groups they forced you to be in for class projects. One person usually did all the work and everyone else rode their coattails. Don’t let that be you.

Become a Great Writer

How could “become a great writer” possibly be terrible writing advice?

It’s terrible writing advice when you associate the word great with someone like Ernest Hemingway.

I don’t have to know you to know that you’re probably not going to write the next Great American Novel.

I’m actually astonished at how many people with little to no experience think this is an achievable goal.

Maybe you can’t be Ernest Hemingway, but you can be somebody like Sean Platt, who published a huge library of self-published fiction books and makes a full time living with their writing.

You could be like Steve Scott, who hasn’t and never will hit the New York Times bestseller list but makes $40-50k per month with his library of books (to boot, the vast majority of traditionally published authors are broke).

At some point, I became okay with not becoming the next Malcolm Gladwell. I stopped basing my goals on vanity and started basing them on actual success.

If you’d stop thinking about your ego, you’d realize you can have a tribe of people who love your work, an income, and a pretty damn good writing career.

That’s all you really want, anyway. Focus on that and everything else will fall into place.

Writing advice is tricky.

Some people know what they’re talking about. Some don’t. Many will give you writing advice based on their experiences, but how can you be sure what worked for them will work for you?

Obviously, there’s no shortage of writing advice either. A lot of the tips you read and hear contradict each other. It’s hard to know who to trust and sometimes the sheer amount of information you have to wade through just leads to confusion and overwhelm.

What is an aspiring writer to do?

My #1 Piece of Writing Advice

Before I go into specific tips, let me leave you with one super-important thought to walk away with.

All the advice in the world isn’t a substitute for work.

See, the best way to deal with contradictory strategies is to…try them. I tried putting together an e-mail course once — didn’t work. I wrote two books — worked. To promote my work, I tried guest posting and publishing on Medium — both worked but to different degrees. I copied other writers styles, stole headlines, and studied the movements of my favorite writers.

I experimented. 

After I wrote my first blog post, I was hooked. I never stopped writing after that. Half a decade or so later, I’m a successful writer. None of this would’ve happened, however, if I kept reading blog posts about writing instead of actually writing.

Tips are good. I use them all the time. But, remember, nothing will happen for you until you get off the advice treadmill and start implementing what you’re told.

Do This Immediately

If you haven’t already, sign up for a free account on Medium and start publishing your work there.

If you’re not familiar with Medium here’s how it works. Medium allows anyone to create an account and start publishing their work instantly. You get a profile that people can follow. The more follows you gain over time the better. It takes time to get traction, but once you do, your writing career can really take off. 

And the best part? With their partner program, you can get paid for your writing. I talk about the Medium Partner Program in-depth here. 

I personally know many people who make a full-time living solely through creating on Medium. I’ve seen dozens of writers get book deals. I’m not the type to brag about my own income, but thanks to Medium, I am happy with my financial status.

Here’s a guide I wrote about how to build a solid platform on Medium.

I love it so much because you can practice your skills, grow your platform, and get paid all at the same time.

Don’t Be Afraid of This

Aspiring writers have a really weird irrational yet at the same time justifiable fear.

The fear of judgment.

You want to put your work out there, but you’re afraid of criticism. Make no mistake about it, criticism and trolling suck. Someone just emailed me the other day telling me to “go crawl into a deep dark hole and never come out.” It doesn’t feel good.

In your case, though, you shouldn’t worry about haters because…you don’t have any.

Nobody knows who you are (yet). That’s the one major benefit of obscurity. You can practice without the attention and pressure that comes with having a platform. Then, once you have one, you’re battle-tested, which you’ll need to be because criticism is an inevitable part of being a writer.

Don’t Write This Way

Using unnecessary words doesn’t make you look smarter. No, I’m not saying you should never use adverbs or words with more than three syllables. Just don’t go out of your way to sound smart. Big words don’t impress people — getting big ideas across in a clear way does.

I get it. You like words. So do I. I’ll throw a two-dollar word in here and there, but I’d rather write crisp and easy to understand prose. Read Hemingway — he writes at a 4th-grade reading level and it’s beautiful.

Some bloggers will tell you that you must not use long sentences, paragraphs, etc. That’s not true. Just don’t go crazy with the jargon.

Be Patient and Impatient at the Same Time

“You overestimate what you can do in a year and underestimate what you can do in ten.”

Jon Morrow, the owner or top-writing blog smart blogger, once said it takes “4 to 6 years” to build a blog that generates real income. I read it and thought to myself, “Sounds good.”

That’s about how long it takes to get traction – 5 years. There’s your answer. Straight up. Keep that fact in the back of your mind and work relentlessly in the present. Fortunately for me, when I started writing I didn’t know you could make real money from it. I wasn’t seeing dollars signs or itching to be successful — I just wanted to write.

And write I did — about 80 blog posts in the span of 18 months for absolutely no money. Building that writing habit helped a ton when it was time to turn my writing into a career. Had I focused too much on the future, I wouldn’t have gotten the traction I needed to have a future. 

If you don’t have the benefit of ignorance like I did, but your blinders on and forget about the money and fame for a while. Like Cheryl Strayed told a young writer in her book Tiny Little Things, just “write like a motherfucker” for a while. Be impatient about writing more. Be patient about making a career out of it.

Give Yourself Permission

If you write, you’re a writer. Period. Maybe you’re not a good one yet, but that’s okay.

I hate pretentious writers. I hate gatekeepers and tastemakers. I love people who make things happen. If you’re trying to make it happen, you’re already a winner in my book.

If you need someone’s permission to start taking your writing career seriously. I just gave it to you.

Write a Terrible Book (And Pat Yourself on the Back for it)

There’s a saying, “your first book is for the trash.”

My first book was a nice little experiment, but the writing wasn’t very good and I didn’t make a lot of money for it. If I had to go back in time, I’d write that bad book even sooner. Why? Writing a book gets the monkey off your back.

Some writers want their first book to be a hit and have an unblemished catalog. This can and does happen all the time, but think about the odds. Will that be you?

My favorite writer, James Altucher, wrote more than a dozen failed books. His 17th book — Choose Yourself — sold more than a million copies. Think anybody cares about his old failures now?

Exactly.

Learn the Definition of a “Good Writer”

A good writer is someone who writes the way they want to write while at the same time acknowledging their audience. They find a happy medium.

I prefer to write sharp and tight. My audience seems to like that. I use the style I prefer and I never pander to anyone, but I do recognize the taste of the people I’m talking to.

I don’t stubbornly write shit nobody wants to read. A lot of writers do and they genuinely wonder why they’re failing

A writing career comes at the intersection of what you want to write about and what people want to read. You have to get both right.

Don’t Get an MFA

People who want MFAs — or any credentials for that matter — are trying to play the status game.

“If I get an MFA and find an agent maybe Harper Collins will give me a book deal.”

Barf.

The larger point here – the gatekeepers are gone. On top of that, they don’t even really know what they’re doing. All traditional publishers do is buy up a bunch of books hoping one out of every 10,000 will be the next Harry Potter.

If you want to get chewed up and spit out by the writing industry, drop 50k on an MFA and go try to get a book deal.

If you want to succeed, just start writing on the internet for free. Take some online courses that are 1/10th the cost and ten times as useful, like DIY MFA or Ninja Writers.

Cure Your “Hemingway Syndrome”

Are you suffering from Hemingway Syndrome? If you have any of the following symptoms, please slap yourself immediately:

• You have no writing experience, but aspire to write the next great American novel
• You’re judgemental of “bloggers” who, in terms of putting words on the page, can write laps around you
• You expect an audience to (through telepathy maybe?) stumble upon your work and bask in your glory. In other words, you refuse to market yourself

I made up my mind a long time ago on this. If I become the best writer I can be and get the most out of my skills I’ll be happy, even if I never hit the NYT list or even traditionally publish at all.

Fast forward, and I’m not Franz Kafka, but I get paid to do what I love every day. And it’s pretty awesome.

You could experience the same joy if you would just get over yourself.

Ask Yourself This Question For the Rest of Your Writing Career

I try to imagine the person on the other side of the page and answer this simple question:

What’s in it for me?

You can’t have a writing career without an audience. And you can’t have an audience if you don’t, at least partially, write for them.

Many aspiring writers just seem to have this mental defect where they can’t stop babbling about themselves and treating their blog as a journal.

Is that you?

Think about it. Why would anyone want to hear your personal ramblings? If you weren’t you and you read those ramblings, would you want to read them or would you click away?

If you really want to write a memoir you need to:

• Get very very good at storytelling
• Have an interesting life
• Learn how to connect your story with the readers’ emotions

I’ve read many biographies. While the stories in them aren’t about other people, you can relate to the stories and have something to take away from them.

If you don’t give readers something to take away and you only focus on yourself, not only are you selfish, but you’ll fail.

Keep Your Emotional Scales Even

That last point was a little confrontational, eh?

Look, being a successful writer or…a successful anything really involves treading the line between self-care and self-reliance. Sometimes you need to give yourself a mental break so you don’t burn out. Sometimes you’re just being lazy. Knowing the difference is key to gaining momentum in your writing career.

I’m just trying to be honest and help you. This is not going to be easy. But it also doesn’t have to be extremely difficult.

Follow these rules of thumb:

• Write more
• Write more
• Write more

You’ll know when you’ve maxed out your capacity. If you’re reading a blog post about writing advice, you definitely haven’t.

Down the road, you will need to take time off here and there. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. In the beginning though, I tend to be pretty harsh to the aspiring writer because a lack of action is the #1 problem they have.

So, yeah, for now, maybe you should beat yourself up about your lack of progress a little bit. Not too much, but enough to turn your frustration into fuel for writing more often.

Admit it.

You want more fans for your writing.

You’re tired of writing posts nobody reads and being jealous of other online writers who hit a home run every time they publish.

You know it’s possible to attract an audience of loyal fans because you see others doing it, but for you it feels like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube while blindfolded.

I’m going to show you how to attract an audience for your writing. You don’t have to be a spammy internet marketer or try a bunch of fancy tricks to get people to notice your work.

I’m going to show you how to find readers, develop relationships with them, and market your work with integrity.

Are you ready to get started?

Let’s dive in.

The Subtle Psychology of Attracting an Audience Online

I have many author friends.

We all collaborate in a Facebook group and talk about strategies to attract more readers and sell more books.

I found a tactic that virtually guaranteed I’d get 100 subscribers to sign up to my mailing list with each post I wrote. I shared the strategy with them.

They loved it. They all told me they’d try it.

I checked in with them a few weeks later to see their results.

None of them tried it.

A few weeks later, I checked the group again. They were still asking each other about strategies to attract more readers for their list, even though I gave them a solid strategy none of them tried.

Why?

Moments like this cement the idea that tips on their own don’t help. If you want to build a writing career and attract the fans you need to make it happen, start with your psychology.

How to Start Taking Action and Stop Sitting on the Sideline

I listened to a podcast with millionaire entrepreneur Derek Sivers, and he said something insightful.

He said people make things seem more complicated than they really are.

He said success isn’t easy, but it’s simple.

If you want to get in shape, eat right and exercise — not easy, but simple.

People complicate the process by saying things like, “I would work out, but I have to sign up for a gym membership, buy new running shoes, and go to Trader Joe’s to buy organic food. I don’t have time for that.”

Ask someone who is in shape what it takes to get fit, and they’ll say, “It’s simple. You stop eating crap and start moving more.”

The strategy I gave my author friends was straightforward, but they over complicated the situation.

Attracting an audience is simple — You find out where your potential audience hangs out, and you write posts they resonate with.

That’s it.

I’m giving you the step-by-step playbook to help you. If you follow it to the letter, it’ll work. It won’t work, however, if you get in your own way. Your mentality either provides a path to success or a series of obstacles.

On your journey to attracting an audience of fans for your writing, watch out for the common pitfalls most writers fall prey to.

The Number One Writers Tell Themselves

John starts a blog or creates an account on Medium. He writes a few blog posts. Maybe he shares them on social media. He hits publish, waits, and no one shows up.

He decides this writing thing is a sham. After all, he did all the work and no one showed up.

“Why even try?” He thinks. He gives up and blames the everyone else but himself for his lack of success.

John doesn’t realize the importance of promoting his work. He believes great work should stand on its own and attract people.

There are many writers like John, who think, “If I build it, they’ll come.”

If you use logic, it makes no sense.

How are people supposed to find your writing if you don’t promote it?

There’s room for all of us writers, as long as we put in the extra leg work to succeed. You don’t need to feel intimidated by the amount of blogs and other writers out there. Success is more than possible for you, if you take responsibility for it.

Until you take responsibility for your success, things won’t work out your way, and you’ll get discouraged.

Most writers fail when they shouldn’t. They fall into the same traps over and over again.

Me and you are different. We’re here to thrive. Let’s work on avoiding the pitfalls and start doing work that matters.

Why Most Writers Fail

You want to succeed. I applaud you for your ambition. Be careful, however, because your ambition can turn into your worst enemy.

If you want success so badly it causes you to become self-centered, you’ll focus on yourself too much and ignore the signs pointing you in the direction of your desired outcome.

I fall victim to my ego at times.

I’ll write a blog post I think should be written instead of asking my readers what they want to learn about.

I’ll hastily launch a new product without doing enough customer research.

I do my best to remember my work is for you. I’m here to help you, because I know how it feels to be stuck in the weeds and lost. When I remember why I’m doing the work I do, the process is ten times easier.

If you focus on your goals and your vision alone, you can lose sight of the people who will make or break your writing career. You can’t be a successful writer if nobody reads your work.

Your writing isn’t about you — not if you want to make a career out of it and income from it. Writing for an audience means writing at the intersection of what you love and what people want to read.

If you only write for yourself, you’ll get frustrated when the readers aren’t clamoring to read your next book or blog post. You’ll get angry at them. You’ll think it’s their fault, but it isn’t.

You didn’t serve them.

Your readers don’t owe you anything. If your writing doesn’t strike a chord, it’s your fault. If your book flops, it’s your fault.

Responsibility helps you make better decisions. It keeps you moving forward because you know you have the power to change your situation and alter your strategy.

The tips are coming soon, but I want you to master your mind first. Once your head is in the game, the rest is simple. This leads me to a point I must stress for each and every writer.

One Thing to Remember When Attracting Your Following

Will your journey be filled with flowers and rainbows all the time? No. Will you feel like quitting at times? Yes.

On your path to building the writing career of your dreams, please remember the next sentence.

You’re good enough.

I mean it.

I know how you feel right now if you’re in the beginning stages. You feel a bit lost. You’re unsure of yourself. Your confidence hasn’t grown to a rock-solid level (yet).

Breathe.

You’ll be fine.

I can write circles around the past version of myself. I know ten times more than I did a year ago. A year from now, I’ll be even better. Growth never stops.

You’ll get better. You’ll learn more. You’ll grow into a more confident and competent writer.

I wouldn’t have written this if I didn’t believe in you. It’d be a waste of my time and energy.

You can do this. The question is will you?

Okay. Your mind is in the right place now. Let’s talk about attracting fans.

Tools of the Trade

If you want fans for your writing, you need to create a “home base,” online for people to find your work.

You want to have your own website instead of having an account on a blogging platform like Medium or Blogger.

Why?

When your writing is on your own website, it looks more professional.

Also, you’re free to do what you want with it. Other blogging platforms have restrictions on the features you’re allowed to have. Some forbid you from selling anything on their platform.

You want to make money, right? Owning your own website gives you freedom to build a business around your writing.

I talk about this in detail on my how to start a blog page.

Starting your own website is easy. You can start your website for as little as $3 in 10 minutes.

After you start your website, you want to create a system for attracting and retaining readers. The system starts with an email list.

Why You Absolutely Must Have an Email List

You need an email list, because it’s the life blood of your writing career.

Email marketing is still the number one channel for reaching fans and customers — strategies like SEO are secondary.

An email list helps you:

• Communicate with your readers and send them new material
• Learn about their needs and give you new ideas to write about
• Create a relationship with your readers
• Sell books and other products to your readers

The first three are more important than the last item. You want to develop a relationship with your readers and learn about them before you try to sell anything to them.

Don’t think of the people on your email list as numbers on a screen, think of them as people who have granted you the privilege to communicate with them.

Always remember, your readers are at the center of your world. Your job is to inspire, entertain, and educate them.

When you write online, keep your email list in mind at all times. Everything you do should be geared towards people signing up to your list.

List-Building Tools

In order to build an email list, you need to find an email marketing software to collect addresses.

I suggest using Mailchimp — it’s free up to your first 2,000 subscribers. Mailchimp is easy to use and great for beginning writers.

I won’t go into detail about how to set up Mailchimp. There are several free guides you can find, as well as paid courses to teach you how to master the software.

You can check them out here:

Getting Started With Mailchimp

Ultimate Guide to Using Mailchimp and WordPress

Chimp Essentials (paid course)

In addition to an email marketing software, I suggest using a tool to help you create “landing pages,” to collect emails.

How to Use Landing Pages to Grow Your Email List

If you’re not familiar with landing pages, here’s how they work.

Landing pages only give your reader two choices–perform the desired action or leave. It seems pushy, but sending readers to a page that limits their options increases their chance of signing up to your list.

Here’s an example:

For a landing page to work, it needs to have two important elements — a “hook,” to pique the curiosity of the reader, and an “incentive,” or “freebie,” to exchange in return for their email address.

In the example above, you see they’ve offered a free e-course in exchange for your email address. They also use the hook “one-stop-online shop for writer-related resources.” I signed up for this email list because of their promise and their message.

When you create your first few landing pages keep it simple. All you need is a catchy headline, a few bullet points sharing how you’ll help your audience, and something free to give away.

Later in the guide, we’ll talk about ways to get your writing in front of the right people by publishing on websites other than your own.

When you start guest posting and republishing your work, you’ll want to have a landing page to send new readers to. You’re allowed to place a link at the bottom of these types of posts. Instead of wasting that link by sending them to your homepage, send them to a landing page instead.

Landing Page Software

I use Leadpages to create landing pages. Leadpages has helped me add thousands of new readers to my list. I like leadpages because it’s easy to use. I can create a new landing page in minutes using their software.

I pay $37/month for Leadpages and it’s the best money I’ve ever spent on my writing career.

With Leadpages, you can create a landing page in minutes. They have hundreds of different templates you can use.

Here’s a great guide from the company to help you get started:

The Ultimate Guide to Landing Pages

The links I created above for Leadpages are affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you purchase the software through my link.

I promote products I’m proud of. I also want to help people who use my recommended products get off on the right foot. If you sign up for Leadpages through my link, I’ll give you a one on one strategy session to show you how to get your first 1,000 email subscribers.

Send me an email at ayo@pro-writer.com after you make a purchase and we’ll set up a time to talk.

How to Give Your Readers Multiple Opportunities to Sign Up For Your Email List Using SumoMe

Most online writers make a simple mistake that’s costing them tons of new fans.

They don’t create enough opportunities for readers to sign up for their email list. In some cases, they don’t have sign up forms on their website at all. If you place a few forms across your site in a strategic way, you’ll get more visitors to sign up for your list.

I found a tool that makes collecting emails dead simple. It’s called SumoMe.

SumoMe has four different email collecting features:

• Welcome Mat – Welcome Mat is an email collection form that takes up the entire screen when a user visits your site
• List-Builder – List builder is a timed pop up that doesn’t show until the time you set it to show after a user visits
• Scroll Box – Scroll box is less intrusive. It’s an email collection form that appears on the bottom right hand corner of the screen while someone reads your writing.
• Smart Bar – Smart bar is the least intrusive (but also least effective) collection form. It appears at the top of your website.

A note on pop ups: I know you might think pop ups are annoying, but they work. The data shows they help you add more readers to your email list. You can choose how aggressive you want to be with your use of pop ups, but I suggest having at least one on your website.

Here are some great guides on using SumoMe to expand your list:

How I used SumoMe to Increase My Email List by 10x Overnight

How to Install and Set Up SumoMe

My Philosophy on List Building

When it comes to building your writing career, your email list is by far your number one asset.

You’re a writer, so you care about putting words together in a beautiful way. Successful writers combine art and marketing. You don’t have to sell your soul to attract fans for your work, but you do have to make an effort to engage with them.

Without an email list, it’s harder to succeed. Do you ever wonder why certain online writers sell thousands of books during their first week or launch products that make six figures?

It’s because they have large email lists.

My writing is for joy, for me, and for you, but it always has a marketing component behind it. I provide value, so I’m not ashamed of promoting my message.

Your words are valuable. You can and will benefit people through your writing. Get them on your email list so you can build a relationship, provide value, and earn an income with your work.

See how we’re going from bottom to top? I could’ve started this guide by going straight into tips and tricks, but without the foundation, these strategies won’t work.

We’re here. Let’s get to the good stuff. Here’s everything I know about finding new readers for your work.

The One Mental Shift That Will Help You Explode Your Audience Growth

I’ve hinted as this idea in previous paragraphs. The more you center your writing goals around other people, the quicker you’ll attract an audience.

In addition to that, the more you center your writing around other places, the quicker you’ll attract an audience.

It may sound counter intuitive, but your website is the last place you want to focus on when it comes to attracting an audience for your writing.

If you’re just starting out, nobody knows your website exists, so why would they visit it?

It won’t show up on Google. You probably don’t have a gigantic social media following to promote to.

If you just write blog posts on your blog, you’ll never gain fans.

Instead, you want to get your writing in front of large groups of people who are already interested in your topic. If you write something for them that knocks their socks off, they’ll join your community.

You want to “siphon,” away readers from popular websites through guest posting and republishing.

Guest Posting 101

Guest posting has multiple benefits. First, it helps you build your email list. When you write a guest post, you’re allowed to place a link to your website in the “bio,” portion at the end of the blog.

This is where landing pages come in. Instead of placing a link to your website’s homepage in the bio, place a link to your landing page. If someone clicks on the link they are interested your writing. If you send them to a landing page it gives them an opportunity to continue the relationship.

When you click on Cathy Presland’s link in her author bio, you’re sent to this page. She offers a free guide on writing your first book, which relates to the guest post she wrote. Someone who just read her blog post, which was about writing books, would love to get this guide.

What was once a casual reader can turn into a loyal fan with just one click. Online writers use this guest post strategy to attract new fans. It’s a cornerstone of marketing for online writers.

In order to win fans through guest posting, you’re going to have to write a stellar post. You want to aim for it to be in the top five percent of posts ever written on the site.

Here are some awesome guides on writing guest posts that blow readers away:

Why You Suck at Guest Blogging (and What The Pros Do Differently)

7 Crucial Tactics for Writing a Wildly Successful Guest Post

How to Write an Effective Guest Post for High-Traffic Bloggers

How to Find Out Where Your Audience Hangs Out

You want to put your writing in front of people who are already interested in your subject. If there are popular blogs in your topic you already read, that’s a great place to start.

You can also use tools like Google to search for blogs in your niche.

Start with a simple Google search of your topic. For example, my search might be “best websites for writers,” or “best writing tips.”

The search “best websites for writers,” yielded a link to a list of 100 writing  blogs. If you use the word “best + your topic,” you’ll usually find these types of posts, which should give you more than enough blogs to choose from.

The search “best writing tips,” also provided promising websites to explore.

When you find a website that looks promising, click through and investigate whether or not they allow guest pots.

There are two ways to find out if the website accepts guest contributors.

Many of them will have a “write for us,” section that clearly spells out guidelines for becoming a writer on the site. If you find a section like that, follow the guide lines to the letter to submit your idea.

If there isn’t a “write for us,” section, you’ll have to do some investigating to see if they accept guest contributors.

You’ll want to find out if there are contributors to the website other than the blog owner. If so, it’s likely they accept guest posts. If they don’t advertise their guest posting opportunities, it’s because they’re inundated with pitches and don’t want their inbox to be flooded.

You can still get them to accept your guest post, but it will take a careful approach.

In short, you have to find their email address and pitch them a potential idea for a guest post. Blog owners are always looking for great content, and if your idea is good they’ll give you a chance.

When you submit your pitch, you’ll want to introduce yourself, propose a few headline ideas, and show them some samples of your work.

Your pitch might look something like this:

“Hi Joe,

My name is Ayodeji and I’m a huge fan of writercircle.com. I especially enjoyed your post on book revision tips. I have a few ideas for guest posts I think your readers would love. Do you have a minute to check them out?

Here they are:

The Ultimate Guide to Submitting Query Letters

How to Write a Novel in 90 Days

The Top 10 Tools for Self-Publishing

Let me know if any of these work for you. If not, no worries, I’ll just go back to the drawing board and come up with more.

Here are some samples of my writing to help you get a feel for my style and voice:

The Ultimate Guide to Building a Writing Habit That Sticks

How to Be a Relentless Writer Who Never Quits

Have a great day.”

Here are some great guides on finding great guest post opportunities pitching like a pro:

The Ultimate Guide to Guest Blogging

The Definitive Guide to Guest Blogging

3 Guest Post Pitch Emails That Got the Gig

If you want to attract a large and loyal audience from scratch, you can guest post your way to the top.

How to Get Extra Mileage out Of Your Posts With Republishing

Most writers think of their blog posts as one-time sources for attracting new readers and adding subscribers to their email list. Smart writers know their work can be placed in multiple areas to increase reach and expand influence.

When I write a blog post for my website, it gets republished in different areas across the web. This strategy makes my posts much more effective than they’d be if I only published them on my site.

With guest posts, the blogs usually want original content. There are popular websites that allow republishing, and you can use them in the same fashion as a guest post.

You’ll want to add your bio at the end of your post that links to a landing page for people to sign up to your email list. If you’re allowed to add links to other posts within the body of your post, ever better.

You want to aim for publications large enough to need a high volume of blog posts. Their need to keep new posts coming makes it possible for you to republish.

Here are some of my favorite places to republish my work.

Medium

Medium is the best platform for writers on the internet.

Anyone is allowed to create a Medium account and start publishing their work. The best part about Medium is the idea of providing a level playing field for writers.

On any given day, your work can be featured next to a New York Times best selling author, a feature piece from the Washington Post, or a presidential candidate.

Mediums algorithms work on “recommendations” and “tags.”

When people recommend your articles, Medium gives them more weight in the algorithm. Both writers and readers use “tags.”

Writers use tags to tell Medium what their article is about. Readers use tags to pick the type of articles they want to read. It helps you find people who want to read your type of writing.

With that being said, you do need to garner a following to make your writing stand out and be accessible to more people.

For detailed information on creating a following and republishing on Medium, some great guides are:

Blogging on Medium in 2023

Medium Writing Tips

The Huffington Post

The Huffington Post used to be much harder to write for than it is now.

Honestly, it doesn’t take much to have your work featured on the site anymore. If you have a few solid writing samples and can craft a good pitch, you’ll be accepted into their publication.

The best way to have your work featured on the site is to contact the editor of the “vertical,” you want to write for and send them a pitch.

Introduce yourself, provide some samples of your previous work, and send them a few ideas for posts to write on the site.

You can refer back to the guest post pitching guides from earlier to help you craft the pitch.

Other Sources For Republishing

There are hundreds of websites across the internet where you can republish your work. Your job is to find them. I’ve given you a head start, now you have to do some additional leg work to find opportunities to spread your writing far and wide.

The team over at SumoMe created an excellent republishing guide, including a large list of sites you can use to republish.

Here’s the guide:

How to Get Featured on Large Publications (Without Guest Posting)

Take the Online Writing World By Storm

There’s more than enough room for you in the online writing world. Don’t get intimidated by the amount of writers online.

To tell the truth, there isn’t much competition. Sure, there are a lot of people who start blogs, but most of them fizzle out. Every popular writer you see decided to put in the work.

If you do the work, you’ll get amazing success. There’s no secret pill or magic bullet.

Remember, attracting an audience for your writing isn’t easy, but it’s simple.

If you’re just getting started, you have nowhere to go but up.

Many people will read this guide and move on, but I wrote this because I know one, two, three, or a handful of you will follow through.

Are you the person I wrote this for?

I hope so, because you won’t believe what’s on the other side if you take the time to grow.

I’ll see you at the top.

Are you a slow writer?

Do you want to learn how to write faster?

If you answered “yes” to both questions, keeping reading.

I’m a naturally fast writer. I can crank out 1,000 words in a half-hour or less if I need to. I can write copy for landing pages in minutes. I’ve written entire blog posts in ten minutes. Some of my advantages are genetic — words come easily to me — but I’ve also learned how to write faster over time with some of the tips and tricks I’m about to show you.

Before I dive in, though, let’s talk about the number one obstacle that’ll keep your writing productivity in the dumps.

The Myth That Produces Poor Writing Speed

None of the tips I show you will work unless you understand this part.

Let what I’m about to say sink deep into the recesses of your brain.

Ready? Ok.

Perfectionism kills writing careers.

In your mind, you might see yourself as the next great artist. You want to be great so badly that you produce the opposite outcome — obscurity and failure.

The tips I’m about to show you all derive from this axiom in one way or another — get over yourself.

It makes me sad. I see so many writers getting in their own way. If they would just write more and stop making excuses for themselves, they’d skyrocket their careers.

Oh well, this is for those of you who are ready to make the leap and become professionals.

If this is you, stick with me…

Add Subhead Here

If I get stuck on a sentence — missing facts, data, anecdotes, etc — I leave a place holder there and come back to it on the second pass through of my draft.

If you stop and Google facts, quotes, or any other information you need for your blog post or book, you will double, triple, and even quadruple the amount of time you would have spent otherwise.

This is because task switching makes you less productive:

“When we complete a tiny task (sending an email, answering a text message, posting a tweet), we are hit with a dollop of dopamine, our reward hormone. Our brains love that dopamine, and so we’re encouraged to keep switching between small mini-tasks that give us instant gratification. This creates a dangerous feedback loop that makes us feel like we’re accomplishing a ton when we’re really not doing much at all.” – Larry Kim: CEO of Mobile Monkey & Wordstream

The more you focus on a single task the better. Write with focus and then edit with focus, instead of trying to write and edit at the same time.

Beat Your Keyboard Into Submission

I’m a loud typer. I like to bang on the keyboard because the percussion sound it makes gives me the sense that I’m writing faster. Whether or not this is true, having the mindset of a fast writer helps me get things done.

It’s almost like typing harder lets the keyboard know who’s boss. You show your confidence by the physical energy you exert while you write.

Try it. Instead of timidly tapping, mash your fingers on the keyboard.

Align Your Forces

You’d never go to war without a strategy. You’d align your troops strategically and plot out the mission before you attack.

You can “align your forces” – themes, topics, ideas, and structure – for your battle against writer’s block.

I can write without using brainstorming and outlining because I’ve been writing for a long time.

In your case, though, if you’re not used to outlining your work before you write, you’d be surprised at how much more efficient it makes the process.

I’ve had students tell me they just want to “let it flow.” Most aspiring writers don’t have the skill to let it flow. What results is usually a word-vomit filled journal entry.

Structure, formulas, and outlines train you to write with discipline. After you have discipline, you’ll be able to freestyle in the future.

Lose Yourself in the Work

Nothing produces fast writing like getting into a good flow state. Flow occurs when you “lose yourself in the moment,” while working on something you enjoy.

How do you get in the zone?

First, the more often you write, especially at a similar time, the more likely you are to enter a flow state.

Second — not that this needs to be said, but it kind of does — you won’t get into a flow state if you interrupt your work. That means no social media or cat videos, you got it?

Last, you have to understand what works best for you. I write in the morning, some people write at night, others can write in coffee shops, some need complete silence, etc.

You need to know the type of environment you thrive in. And you can only do that by testing different techniques and strategies.

Start Wherever You Want

Do you ever find yourself getting stuck trying to write a killer introduction for your blog post?

I know I do.

Whenever this happens, I skip the intro and work on the main points. If I have a list of points I want to write about, I write about the one that inspires me to write the most. Then, I go back and fill in the other points because the initial one helped me get the momentum I needed to finish the rest.

I can always go back and re-order sections, add useful content, and write great introductions and conclusions in the editing phase.

Get the first draft done. It’s the biggest hurdle.

The Power of Physiology

Try smiling and feeling sad at the same time. You can’t do it. The physical act of smiling induces happy feelings.

Stand up straight with your hands on your hip like you’re Super Man. You’ll feel more powerful and confident.

There’s a connection between our body and mind. Use it to your advantage to write faster.

What do most people do when they feel writer’s block coming on?

They sit there…

Or they just give up.

Instead, just start writing, even if it’s total nonsense.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve started out a blog post like this:

Ugh. I don’t feel like writing right now. Maybe clacking on the keyboard a little bit will get the juices flowing. I’m hungry. I want a chicken salad sandwich for lunch…with bacon. Yeah, that sounds really good

Obviously, all of those words are meaningless, but that’s not the point. The point is getting my fingers moving, period. When I move my fingers, it tells my brain “you’re writing!”

Most of the time, I’ll get into a groove, write the post, and delete the gibberish I used to get started.

This is Obvious, But Let me Tell You Anyway

Writing should be fun! You should talk about subjects you enjoy and inject your personality into your work. You’ll write faster if, you know, you actually enjoy what you’re writing about.

This is why I don’t freelance for boring companies. I’d be bored! And I never want writing to get boring for me.

At the end of the day, you’re writing for yourself more than anyone else — even if you have an audience. Instead of writing about stuff you think people will like and pandering, choose topics that mean something to you in the first place.

This seems obvious, but a lot of writers don’t follow this advice.

You don’t have to write about productivity hacks and marketing if you don’t want to. In fact, you shouldn’t.

Write about your passions so you can write with passion. 

I Disagree With Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway is known for stopping mid-session and quitting while he’s ahead. The thinking goes — you’ll be dying to write the next day if you stopped at a point where you had momentum going.

I disagree with this. Squeeze all the juice you can out of your writing.

Farbeit for me to disagree with one of the greatest writers of all time, but most writers simply don’t write enough to spare their potential in lieu of a productive tomorrow.

Most days, I usually write until I’m mentally exhausted and depleted. I stop when I realize my work is no longer good.

I start my day writing for a few hours and then I spend the afternoons working on all the tedious stuff I need to do that doesn’t require high-level creativity, e.g., answering emails and replying to comments on my blog posts.

I’m all about being prolific – getting as much work done as possible – and I write faster because I feel my energy depleting as I write. I’m racing against my own fatigue.

Become a Better Writer Without Becoming a Better Writer

A colleague of mine once wrote a post about the way your health impacts your writing.

His recommendations:

• Get more sleep
• Exercise
• Stop eating crap

Turns out, he was right.

I’d rather get an extra needed hour of sleep than use that hour to write because I know it will be a net positive — I write faster when I’m more alert and I’m awful when I’m tired.

Like I said before, the mind-body connection is very real.

Taking care of your body helps you become a better writer. Hell, it helps you become better at everything you do.

You Know What I’m Going to Say Next, But I Have to Say it

I’ve written two books.

My words have been read by millions of people across multiple platforms.

I have a thriving side-business based on my writing skills. If I write faster, I earn more income.

I once had a reader ask how writing came so easily to me.

The truth? I just write a lot. That’s it.

I write faster because I write a lot.

I write well because I write a lot.

Millions of words later, I still write a lot because writing a lot is the key to every single dream each writer has.

Will you persist? I don’t know. But if you do, I can tell you what’s ahead.

You’ll become a writing machine.

The world will open up to you and your work.

The stronger your creative muscles get, the easier it will be to command language with strength.

I wrote the first draft of this post – 1600 words –  in 46 minutes.

Did you know there’s a website called Medium.com you can use to make a full-time living writing, no strings attached? Get exclusive access to your free five-day email course on monetizing Medium.

The old ways of making an impact and an income with your writing took time, patience, thick skin, and a ton of effort.

You still need those qualities to become a successful writer, but the path in 2023 and beyond has fewer twists and turns.

When I started writing, the recipe for success was much different…and much harder.

Now, there’s a path to the writing career you want that’s mostly predicated on your effort.

Let me explain.

The Old Path to Writing and Blogging

A few years back, if you wanted to build a writing career through a blog you usually took the following steps.

• Set up your own blog – You still need a blog today because you don’t want to build your platform solely on rented land, but as you’ll see shortly, it’s not going to be the main channel for your writing.
• Write (a bunch) of guest posts to get subscribers – From pitching the idea, to writing the draft of the post, and going through revisions, one solid guest post on a top-tier website can take 20 hours or more. I know from experience (check out this 10,000 word tome I wrote for a top blogging website).
• Monetize your platform…somehow

The last part is the trickiest.

If you thought getting subscribers was the hard part, wait until you need to try to turn that audience into paying customers.

It’s as hard as it looks.

This is where most people quit. They just want to write. They don’t want to have to create a premium online course, or write a book a month, or freelance, or become a coach.

The old method only worked for the most dedicated bloggers out there.

Now, there’s a better way.

You can get paid to write and build your platform. Straight up. No middleman. No excuses.

Medium: The Holy Grail of Writing Platforms

I’m a Medium evangelist.

I’ve written multiple posts about how to succeed on the platform.

I personally know many writers who’ve built not only a platform but an entire career solely by publishing on Medium.

Take Benjamin Hardy for example. He wrote detailed in-depth personal development articles on Medium for two years straight.

As a result of this, he gained hundreds of thousands of subscribers. His popularity on the platform helped him get a $220,000 book deal. I’d venture to say he’s now running a 7 figure business that wouldn’t have been possible without Medium.

Or take my friend Anthony Moore who used the “put your head down and write your ass off on Medium” strategy as well. He added 25,000 subscribers to his list, also got a book deal, and became a full-time writer through building his platform on Medium.

And me? I’m very satisfied with the results I’ve got from using the platform.

The best part about Medium isn’t the mega-success-stories.

It’s the level playing field that allows normal people like you to become professional writers.

Still with me?

Let’s talk about what success could look like for you. Yes, you.

The Most Straightforward Opportunity To Monetize Your Writing in the History of Writing

The Medium Partner Program allows you to get paid for your writing, directly, by getting engagement on your posts by Medium members.

Medium members pay $5/month to get access to premium content.

As a writer, you can “lock” your posts and make them eligible for earning money.

Before you can earn some decent coin, you have to build up a bit of a following.

I talk in-depth about how to do that here.

And here. 

After you’ve been on the platform, published good work, and have a bit of a following, you can start to make money directly.

I’ve seen stories of writers who “locked” their posts from day one and went straight for monetizing their writing and got great results.

You get paid once per month through the program, which means you can become a professional paid writer in 30 days or less. 

If you write good posts and take the aforementioned steps, you’ll instantly join a select group of people online — writers that actually make money.

First, you might make nothing more than a few bucks.

But that turns a switch on in your brain. The minute you realize you can receive compensation for your writing, you can use the smallest amount of earnings as momentum.

You can move forward to making a hundred bucks a month, a few hundred bucks a month, and you can even crack $1k in a few months time if you put your head down and work.

The more you focus on writing great pieces on the platform, the more chances you get to “hit the jackpot” with one of your posts.

The $1,000 Blog Post and Medium’s Viral Potential

I was hesitant to show this and I don’t want to come off like I’m bragging, but I want to show you the viral potential the platform has.

I made $1,000 from one blog post on Medium:

I’ve had single posts that made a few hundred bucks:

I’ve hit #1 on the whole website:

I’ve also had posts that didn’t do well:

But I put the same energy and attempt to create the best quality posts each time.

Some posts don’t move the needle, but the ones that do really move it.

Medium has an algorithm that promotes posts based on readers’ interests (which is why it’s important to choose the right ‘tags’).

They also have a team of editors and curators who look for quality writing to put it in “featured” sections on the website.

The best part? They just look for great articles. It’s not just about your follower count.

I’ve seen writers with little to no following write amazing articles that get promoted and do very well on the platform.

For the first time ever, there is a platform paying writers straight up for quality work.

For some reason, it’s still not incentive enough for most to get off their butt and start working.

Why?

Do You Suffer From “Special Snowflake Syndrome”?

As humans, we all twist reality to fit into our own narrative.

Creative people are especially known for this.

The funny thing about it all?

Those courses, programs, training, seminars, blog posts, podcasts, etc, that teach you how to make a living, build a platform and create your own path in life — the advice works.

But most people don’t follow through with them because they have special snowflake syndrome.

People suffering from this ailment take perfectly good advice and say, “Sure, that worked for you, but you don’t understand, I’m an [insert excuse based on identity or circumstance].”

I hate to burst your bubble, but I’ve seen writers on Medium succeed in unique ways.

If you’re not doing well with your writing right now, it’s for one of two reasons:

• You’re just not cut out for it (rare)
• You don’t write enough (likely)

I always give aspiring writers the same benchmarks for complaining. You can complain about your lack of success if you:

• Have written 100 blog posts
• Have been writing for 24 months
• Tried to improve during that time frame

The last point is important.

Writing doesn’t necessarily equal practicing. I’ve seen writers who lament about their progress — claiming they’ve practiced — when what they’ve really done is repeatedly exercised their naval-gazing skills.

Let me explain…

The Only Rule You Need to Follow to Become a Good Writer

I can guess with 99.99% accuracy what ails an aspiring writer who gets no traction.

What’s your guess?

Here it is…

Nearly every struggling writer makes their writing all about themselves.

You can spot that type of writing when you see it. And nobody wants to read it.

I usually get push back when I say this.

“What about memoirs?”

Take a book like Eat, Pray, Love. Do you think people loved the book because they’re interested in Elizabeth Gilbert’s life? No, they loved the book because she wrote her life story in a way that allowed readers to see themselves in it.

There is a huge Grand-Canyon-like-difference in writing a relatable story that connects with readers and the ramblings of what appears to be a personal journal.

A telltale sign you’re making it all about yourself — you think people want to “follow your journey.”

Trust me. They don’t.

They want the words you put on the page to do something for them. Period.

If you catch yourself mostly thinking about yourself while you write, you’re on the wrong track. Any format or genre works, as long as you find a way to make it about the person on the other side of the screen in some way, shape, or form.

How to Write Blog Posts People Love

There are no hard and fast rules for writing successful blog posts, especially in places with diverse voices like Medium.

There are some common traits I’ve seen work:

• Be yourself – Don’t be fake vulnerable or fake guru or fake anything. Talk about the world from your perspective
• Headline – Your headlines don’t have to be “How-to” format, just communicate potential benefits with your headline
• A quick test – Genuinely ask yourself if anybody besides you would be interested in reading your post
• You/I ratio – It’s good to have an even balance of the world “you” or “I” in your writing
• Tell stories – Learn the basic story arc/hero’s journey and use it to add flavor to your writing
• Topics – You have to be a student of the zeitgeist. Talk about what’s going on in the world right now
• Don’t bite your tongue – As Nassim Taleb said “If you see fraud and don’t say fraud. You are a fraud”
• Steal – See what’s working for other writers and steal their techniques. Not their actual words — that’s plagiarism — but their post structure, style, imagery, promotion techniques, etc
• Make pretty posts — Take full advantage of Medium’s user interface and make your posts sparkle
• Write (a lot) – If you write a new blog post 3x per week for a year you’ll have a real writing career

You Can Become a Professional Writer

I started writing four years ago. I had no intention of becoming a professional writer at first. I just wanted to write.

I wrote for years without making a dime because…I loved it! 

Now, my hard work has bore fruit.

It wouldn’t have worked, however, had I got started for the wrong reasons.

Look, if you want to do this writing thing. Do it.

Don’t half do it. Don’t do-it-for-a-little-while-get-a-tummy-ache-then-quit.

The only reason I have more followers, subscribers, and money than you is because I’ve been writing for a longer period of time with more consistency than you.

That’s it. 

I started at zero — followers, subscribers, dollars, network, all of that.

It’s all there for the taking but you have to do the work.

There is a website paying people to write and for some reason, this is still not motivation enough. I am truly baffled.

If I sound a bit aggressive it’s because I care.

I hate to see wasted potential.

And I write these posts because I know one of you will turn your potential energy into kinetic and build your writing career.

To recap:

• Sign up for a Medium account
• Write your ass off
• Study how the platform works
• Get paid
• Turn pro
• You’re welcome.

What would your writing career look like if you’d published 500 posts by now?

Do you dream about having your writing read widely?

Are you anxious to build an audience of people who love your work?

Are you still stuck in the starting gate without getting the traction you want?

Becoming a prolific writer could be the answer to your problems.

A Twist on a Common Cliche

People often say “quality over quantity.”

The prolific writer thinks quantity leads to quality. 

A lot of writers — maybe you — suffer from something called Hemingway syndrome.

People with Hemingway syndrome are obsessed with creating the next Great American Novel. They toil away at their work in obscurity with the hopes that they’ll one day release their work to the world and readers will shower them with praise.

Often, this doesn’t happen. Instead, their perfectionism leads to “paralysis of analysis.” Their need for approval and hesitation cripples their productivity.

The prolific writer realizes creating more work leads to better work.

In his post on writing, bestselling author Mark Manson says you need to write 100 posts just to find your writing voice. He’s right. It’s better to write poorly first and hit the publish button than it is to wait until you’re an amazing writer before you put anything out there.

I look at the posts I wrote years ago and they make me cringe. I’ll have the same reaction to this post a year from now. This is called growth.

Had I waited until I was “ready” I’d still be in the same spot — zero audience and zero confidence in the future of my writing career.

This isn’t where you want to be.

Think of the path to great writing going through bad writing.

This mental switch is necessary to avoid procrastinating for the rest of your life.

On top of mindset, there are some tips, tricks, and techniques you can use to produce more work.

A Prolific Writer Feeds Their Brain

You can’t become a great writer without becoming a great reader.

Reading opens up the adjacent possible. Think of the adjacent possible like a new door opening in your brain — the house. Each time you read something new, you can make new connections in your writing.

Reading good writing also helps you become a better writer yourself.

When you read, take notes. Imagine the authors state of mind and thought process while you read the book.

Here’s an example of the notes I use to write books and articles:

I’m constantly collecting information, quotes, and anecdotes I can use for my writing.

Read whatever excites you and stimulates your intellectual curiosity. Fiction or non-fiction — it doesn’t matter.

Some people give the advice to create instead of consume The prolific writer creates and consumes.

They make time in their day to foster creativity because they realize inspiration is for suckers.

You can’t wait until you feel inspired and creative to write. Make inspiration and creativity part of your routine by making a commitment to doing the work.

Do This One Little Thing to 10x Your Writing Productivity (Seriously)

“I Only Write When Inspiration Strikes. Fortunately, It Strikes at Nine Every Morning” – the original quote author is up for debate.

I won’t bury the lede here.

Pick a time to write, block it out, and write at that same time every day.

It’s such a simple concept that not enough writers adopt, accept, and practice.

This all ties into the same theme — get off your pedestal and be a professional about your work. I don’t know what it is about writing that makes people have these whimsical fantasies about casually showing up and making great work.

No. Being a prolific writer requires a lunchpail and steel-toed boots kind of attitude.

If you really want to make a career out of your writing (which you do because…duh) treat it like a career.

You don’t arbitrarily decide when you want to show up and your real job, right?

You don’t think about whether or not you’re going to go. It’s your job and you need that check. You go.

Your writing should be no different. There are tangible financial outcomes to be had from writing, but they, um, require you to write. 

If you block out even one hour per day you’ll be amazed how much you can get done.

The key here — have your ideas and structure ready to go before you pen a word.

Lay the Ground Work So You Never Run Out of Ideas and Follow This Process After

Every morning, I write down 10 headline ideas. Maybe 2-3 of them will be good, so I move them to a document called my “headline bank.”

On Sundays, I go through my headline bank and choose the ideas I want to write about for the week.

I decide which day I’m going to write each post and start thinking about the content that will go in each.

Then, as I sit down to write each post each day, I use this simple 6 step process for each post.

Write the Headline 10x Again

Your headline can make or break the success of your post. Also, the headline sets the frame for the entire post.

I’ll re-write the headline ten times until I find one that looks really good.

Mind-Map Ideas for the Post

A mind-map is a brainstorming technique you can use to come up with ideas for your writing.

You take a piece of paper, put the headline in the middle, and create branches of ideas for sub-topics.

Then, you create branches of sub-ideas for your sub-topics.

Here’s the mind-map I created for this post:

Once you have all your ideas out of your head, you can piece them together into an outline to guide your writing

Outline Your Work

Outlines make writing 10 times easier.

I can hear the Hemingways in the peanut gallery.

“Writing should just flow. It’s art. Let your soul pour.”

Ok, Sylvia Plath. Have fun with that.

Outlines and writing formulas aren’t robotic, they help you create better art. When you crystallize the main points of your piece, it keeps you on track when you’re writing. You can tell when someone just started firing away at the keyboard and it usually doesn’t look good.

Ryan Holiday said it best in this quote:

It’s [easy] to vomit words on the page, it’s harder to spit out polished prose.”

Some writers take the crappy first draft approach to it’s extreme and the results show it.

Create a simple outline for your work. Something like this:

Intro

Section A

• Subsection A
• Subsection B
• Subsection C

Section B

• Subsection A
• Subsection B
• Subsection C

Section C

• Subsection A
• Subsection B
• Subsection C

Conclusion

Then you’re off to the writing.

Write Your Post

“Writer’s block is a phony, made up, BS excuse for not doing your work.”

I like to keep my outline as a reference while I’m writing. I’ll refer to it when I get stuck, but otherwise, I go mostly from memory. The act of creating a mind-map and outline serves the purpose of getting my head right.

They help me make sure my mindset and writing aren’t disjointed while I’m doing the act.

This should go without saying but I’ll say it anyway.

Write without distractions. No open tabs. No T.V. in the background.

Here’s a little trick. When I want to reference a quote, statistic, or idea that I can’t think of that very second, I make a note like this [xxxxx] and highlight it in red. That tells me to come back and revise it on the second pass.

You must focus while you write and fight through the discomfort of not knowing what to say. If you’re feeling stuck, literally write “I’m feeling stuck” and keep writing until good words emerge. Then, you can delete the gibberish you wrote prior.

Focus, quite literally, on moving your fingers across the keyboard.

Then, when you get into the groove, you’ll enter a flow state – that in the zone feeling where time disappears. That’s where great writing comes from — deep work, deliberate practice, and a lack of belly-aching.

Do me a favor. Today. Write a blog post. Stop reading articles like this until you’ve written your next post.

All the marketing techniques, hacks, formulas, strategies, and everything else under the sun come second to writing. I don’t know how else to put this — you’re not writing enough!

Are we on the same page? Ok good. Let’s move on.

Edit Your Post

Go back through your post and fill in any of the ideas you left out.

I won’t write a full treatise on editing, but here are some useful tips:

• Remove redundant sentences
• Read the post from start to finish to make sure there’s a logical structure
• Use an editing tool like Grammarly for spelling errors and insights on your grammar
• Edit once for post structure and context and edit one more time for “fine tuning”

Publish the Damn Thing (and Do it Over and Over and Over Again)

Publishing is the hardest part of building your writing career, not the writing itself.

When you publish your work, you’re making yourself vulnerable to the world (in your mind at least). You open yourself up to criticism. You’ll be putting work out there that may not be your “best possible” work and you’ll hesitate because of that fact.

But publishing gives you the prolific writer mindset you need. The act of putting yourself out there repeatedly creates the professional attitude you need to make a real career from writing. It also lessens the mental blow each time you do it.

When I work with new students, they often have a ton of unpublished work — journal notes, blog post drafts, the whole nine.

99 percent of my job is getting them to publish. They’re the ones with the skills and potential, but the potential doesn’t become kinetic until they share their work with others.

You won’t realize the dividends of publishing until much later.

Now, I can look back at hundreds of posts, which gives me the confidence to never quit.

Those posts have led to financial gain and helped me reach most of my dreams.

But even now, after a million words or more under my belt, I’m just getting started.

Why work so hard still? Because I owe you.

Stop Being Selfish

If you don’t write often enough…

…you’re being selfish.

That’s right.

I used to think aspiring writers didn’t write because of fear. This is partly true. The other part of the equation, though, is arrogance.

You’re arrogant because you believe the world is watching you. It’s not. Nobody knows who you are yet, meaning it’s the best time to practice your skills in public. 

Without an audience to serve, you only think about yourself and your precious feelings instead of the impact you can have on other people.

You have all these ideas in your head, but you’re hoarding them. Why?

Because you think the universe revolves around you and your emotions.

If you’re going to place yourself at the center of the story, at least be the hero.

Becoming a prolific writer is an act of generosity. We need more writers to add to life’s catalog. The conversation always has room to push forward.

No complaining about your writing career until you’ve published consistently for 24 months or have published 100 articles, whichever comes first.

I know you either have or are tempted to give up because you think you’ve put in effort that hasn’t bore fruit.

Incorrect — you haven’t done nearly enough. You’re not in the same solar system of having done the work yet.

Harsh? Yes. But true? Hell yes.

Publish a bunch of pieces and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

There is only one real piece of writing advice — do it as often as possible. 

What makes a good writer? A great writer is remarkable. How do you become remarkable?

Let’s take a lesson from the worlds most popular T.V. service.

(more…)

The madness has to stop.

It’s one thing to offer resources, services, and products to help writers succeed. I do it and without the help of blogs that teach writing, I wouldn’t have been able to build my own writing career.

Bullshitting people, however, isn’t okay. 

I’m sad to see some of the nonsense that’s going on in the blogosphere — hyperbolic promises, well-intentioned yet bad advice, and flat out lies about what it takes to succeed.

The good news? As I’ve said many times before, we’re living in the best possible time in human history to be a writer.

Maybe (probably) you’ll never become a New York Times bestselling author, sell a million copies of your book, or be able to retire early off your writing income and live on a beach all day.

But you can have an audience of thousands of people who read your work. That’s pretty cool, right?

You can make a living with your writing — maybe not a lavish one, but isn’t being able to sit down and write every day and get paid good enough?

Even some of the loftier goals I mentioned above are possible, but I can’t tell you how to achieve them because I haven’t done them.

I made the unsexy decision to give tips and strategies that are, you know, grounded in reality. I could make more money by creating $3,000 courses on “making six-figures in six months” but it’s just not my style.

If you want to know the truth about building your writing career so you can actually succeed, read on.

And remember, the advice is good, but the hustle is sold separately.

Luck Plays a Large Role in Your Success

Wait, didn’t I just say if you take the right steps, you can find success with your writing?

Yes, but many elements of becoming a successful writer are purely based on chance.

In fact, much of the wild success you see in life is random. Nassim Taleb, the author of Fooled by Randomness, says it well in a section of the book:

“Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel or a private jet.”

Some writers go viral early in their career and it sets them up for success in the future.

Traditional publishers — who have a horrible track record identifying best sellers — publish thousands of books in the hopes a few will pay for the rest of the flops. In fact, that’s exactly what happens.

This is why you should be careful when someone makes it big tells you to follow their exact steps to get the exact same results. When people get successful, they smooth out the randomness, luck, and advantages that influenced their success out of the story.

They might not be lying, per se, either. We tend to create a narrative around the steps we took in our lives to get where we are today. We omit the parts that don’t ‘fit’ and what’s left is our ‘memory.’

So why shouldn’t you just abandon this article right now? Doesn’t this rule apply to what I’m saying?

While wild success is unpredictable, lower degrees of success are predictable.

There are tried and true blueprints for:

• Getting your first 1,000 subscribers
• Getting your first 10,000 subscribers
• Publishing your work on popular websites
• Creating compelling work with the elements of virality (you just can’t guarantee the results)
• Validating book ideas with a chance to sell

And much more…

And while all of these blueprints work, they have to be done on a long enough timescale. Which leads me to my next point.

Success Will Take Longer than You Think

Hofstadter’s law says the outcome you want to achieve will take longer than you expect, even when you account for that up front.

Jon Morrow, a millionaire blogger and master writer who I learned much of what I know from, once said it will take “four to six years” to build a blog that earns in the six-figures annually.

I bet that discouraged most writers who read that. Fortunately for me, it wasn’t. I’m lucky.

Writing clicked for me right away. Even when I wasn’t good at it, the thought of writing for years seemed exciting to me because I love to write.

Some writers do very well in a much shorter time frame. To understand why re-read the first point. 

The four to six-year time frame makes sense when you think about it. If you want to be a successful writer, you should treat your writing as a business.

Nobody bats an eye at the idea of a traditional business taking four to six years to get traction.

Why should it be any different for writing? It’s not.

If you want to be a writer and an entrepreneur, you’re going to experience the same problem an entrepreneur faces.

Nobody knows who you are…

You will try things that don’t work and it won’t feel good…

There’s a lot of competition…

There’s an easy way to overcome the last point, though. If you want to beat out the competition, just keep trying longer than everyone else.

The Reality

While it’ll take a while to have the type of success you really, really, really want, you don’t have to go penniless and publish work no one reads for an infinite amount of time.

You get traction and pass milestones along the way.

Even in the early stages, you can make some money, but you have to do the work.

Why not just pay the price up front? Decide now. Understand it’s not going to be smooth sailing at first so it doesn’t surprise you when you face inevitable setbacks.

Your Friends and Family Will Think You’re Crazy

Do yourself a favor. Don’t tell your family and friends you plan on becoming a full-time writer.

Unless they’re really supportive, they’ll either flat out tell you it won’t work or they’ll ‘concern troll’ you.

Concern trolling happens when people undermine your success and mask it as concern. They can’t even control it. It’s a deep subconscious thing.

Also, if your friends and family think you’re crazy, they’re right. 

There’s a reason why most people don’t get to sit in their underpants and write all day. It’s hard. There’s a reason why everyone isn’t an entrepreneur. It’s hard.

The hard thing about hard things is…they’re hard.

Your writing career is your evil plan.

You have to be like Dexter from Dexter’s Laboratory and work on your insane little projects in your basement.

Tell your friends and family it’s a hobby. Keep the dream to yourself and do the work.

Writing Isn’t a Great Way to Make Money

In comparison to all other means of making money…

I can think of hundreds of better business models than making a full-time living writing, but I chose writing for a living because I love it.

If you want to do this writing thing, you have to love it.

You can’t want to write to get rich and then get rich writing. If that’s your main reason for starting, you should quit right now. I’m serious. It’s not going to work.

It seems like I’m being harsh and negative, doesn’t it?

I’m just trying to counter-balance some of the crazy promises I’m seeing these days. I don’t want you to see dollar signs and end up heartbroken.

Write because you love to write.

You need to build the habit first. When you build the habit, you’re more competent. When you’re more competent, you’re more passionate. The more passion you have, the more attractive you make your writing.

When you wield attractive words, people will start to notice you.

Then, and only then, can you start thinking about making the big bucks.

Like I stated earlier, there are many means to earning money in the short term. You don’t have to starve. But, hold off on the six-figure talk for a little bit, eh?

You Probably Suck at Writing (for Now)

I’m looking at the first blog post I published. Awful.

I can’t even bring myself to read my first book. I literally can’t open it. I cringe.

A few years from now, I’ll cringe at this post.

Seth Godin put it best:

Writer’s block isn’t hard to cure.

Just write poorly. Continue to write poorly, in public, until you can write better.

Writing more will solve most of your problems.

You’re frustrated because you’re not very good. You won’t get good until you write more.

No one wants to read your writing right now because it isn’t good. Write more.

If you’re a novice writer and you’re focused on anything else but…writing…

…you’re misguided and need to write more.

If this hasn’t sunk in yet, take a look at this lovely infographic:

Source: Copyblogger

Why I’m Bullish On Writing Despite Everything I Just Said

In spite of everything I said in this post, I’m excited for not only my career, but the careers of those who put in the work, practice in public, and focus on gaining momentum.

There are no barriers to your success, except for you. We all get a fair shake at this writing thing now…

No more having to send query letters to publishers who never reply.

No more waiting to be picked by a gatekeeper.

With the advent of blogging, self-publishing, patronage, and many different avenues, you can build a writing career from scratch with no one’s permission.

And, unless you have zero talent (which I doubt is true), you can expect a reasonable amount of success.

In a single day, I worked with a client I gained from writing, published a paid freelance post, checked my book royalties dashboard to see I’ve made some sales, watched an affiliate commission come in.

I’m not a six-figure blogger yet, but I get to write every day and do what I want.

You can have the same future, but it will stay a vision of the future unless you do the work today, and the next day, and the next.

Want to write on Medium? Get exclusive access to your free five-day email course to become a top Medium writer and make thousands each month.

You want to try publishing on Medium or try other strategies, but you’re overwhelmed.

Every day, you come across blog post after blog post preaching the hottest tip, trick, or tactic for growing your blog.

You’d think so many options would be helpful, but you end up with nothing more than an endless reading list, and the information overload makes you indecisive.

You know you need to find a strategy that works and stick with it, but which one is best?

Is it social media?

Is it SlideShare presentations, blogger outreach, or SEO?

All of these strategies work in and of themselves, but I’ve found one that goes above and beyond the rest. It’s even helped me receive more traffic than guest posting.

Publishing on Medium helps you generate traffic for your blog and build your email list, but most people fail to find success on Medium because they don’t have the right mindset.

The Publishing on Medium Trap – Why Most Bloggers Fail to Succeed on a Thriving Platform

Each and every year, thousands of actors come to Hollywood to become the next big star. Most of them come to find out the competition is too stiff. They give up and move back to their hometowns with their tails between their legs.

I’ve seen the same situation occur with bloggers on Medium.

Most people publish a few posts on the site — without following the right techniques — then get frustrated and quit because their posts get few or no reads. Afterward, they blame the platform and make excuses for why it doesn’t work.

Medium works if you work Medium.

I felt frustrated with Medium when I first published on the website. After some reflection, I realized my strategy was wrong and observed what bloggers who were successful on the platform did to grow their readership.

Had I done the same thing the majority of would-be Medium bloggers do, I would have continued to get the same results. Zero. Zip. Nada.

The saddest part?

The mistakes most writers make are so easy to fix.

By changing a few strategies and committing myself to finding success on Medium, I went from a writer nobody knew to gaining hundreds of thousands of views on my posts and adding 1,000 + subscribers to my email list directly from Medium.

The same can happen for you if you create a smart game plan.

The Quick and Simple Strategy to 10X Your Reach on Medium

Once I discovered this simple tweak the views on my posts skyrocketed.

See, most people publish their posts on Medium and leave it at that, but smart bloggers know this little trick to get exposure.

In order to get tons of views on Medium, you need to submit your post to a publication.

You know that publishing your work on “guest blogs,” is a great way to build traffic for your own blog.

Publications act as a “guest blog,” of sorts within Medium itself.

These publications have their own group of followers, with top publications having one hundred thousand or more.

When you publish a post on someone’s publication, it shows up on the timeline of every reader who follows that publication.

The strategies you use to pitch a potential publication are identical to sound strategies for guest blogging.

Some publications will have pitch guidelines like this:

In those instances, if you follow the submission guidelines to the letter, you’ll have an excellent shot at being accepted. Others will require you to find the email of the publication owner and pitch them, just like you would an owner of a guest blog.

How to Pitch Publication Owners Like a Pro

Just like guest blog owners, editors who run publications on Medium are inundated with pitches sent to their inbox, most of which are bad or downright awful. The best way to set yourself apart from the competition is to first familiarize yourself with the publication owner and the content they publish.

You can follow these sound strategies to build a relationship with editors of Medium publications and pitch them properly:

1. Never pitch strangers by email or any other way. Build a relationship with them first on Twitter or by putting a few comments on their blog. Unless you have some connection with them before you write your pitch, your email will be deleted straight away.

2. Be sincere and personal.

3. Get your facts right and show them you’ve read their blog. Most bloggers love to support and help the readers who support them.

4. Mention something you’ve done for them – linked to their blog, left comments, shared it on Facebook, subscribed to their newsletter, or bought their latest product.

5. At the very least find out the person’s name and spell it right.

These strategies take time and effort to execute, but success in blogging happens when you do what other bloggers won’t. The time you spend will pay major dividends.

If you’re new to the Medium terrain, take some time to read through posts of respective publications and know their content like the back of your hand.

How to Find Top Publications to Pitch

Here are some of the most popular publications on Medium who regularly allow contributors:

• Be Yourself – Submission guidelines here.
• The Coffeelicious – Submission guidelines here.
• The Writing Cooperative – Submission guidelines here.

There are dozens of others just like these who accept contributors. You can check the “Top Stories,” and “Editor’s Picks,” sections to find posts from top publications as well.

Here are more useful links on finding publications to follow.

Once you find a publication and build a relationship with the Publication editor you can pitch them.

Some publications will entertain a pitch, but others will ask for a full post.

Either way, you’re going to have to write an excellent post to be featured in the publication.

Here’s how you write a post that will knock both the editor’s and readers’ socks off.

Elements of a Successful Medium Post

The rules for writing a successful Medium post are the same as writing a successful post on any blog.

You’ll want to follow these tried and true blogging techniques to write captivating posts your readers will love:

• Write excellent headlines – The headline is the most important piece of real estate for your blog post. Use elements of curiosity, intrigue, and “you language,” in your headline to draw readers in.
• Provide a strong introduction – You have a few short seconds to keep readers engaged with your content. Write an intro that speaks to their desires and goals or pains and frustrations.
• End with a motivational close – Your goal is always to inspire your readers to take action. Use an emotionally arousing conclusion to leave your readers energized.
• Add a call to action – You want Medium readers to sign up for your email list. Make sure to add a compelling call to action with a link to your landing page and free incentive/lead magnet.

Elements of Style

In addition to these techniques, you’ll want to take advantage of Medium’s stylistic capabilities by using the following strategies:

• Keep sentences short – Medium uses a crisp interface and short spaced out paragraphs make for eye-catching content.
• Add a large photograph to your post – Posts with photos perform better than posts without them.
• Make your words shine – Use headings, bold, and italics to give your content an extra visual edge.
• Use the embed feature to link to other blog posts – Medium has an excellent visual feature which allows you to embed blog teasers into your post. See below:

Save

Once you’ve learned how to write excellent posts for Medium, you can begin to build momentum and grow your influence on the platform.

How to Build a Loyal Medium Following to Skyrocket Page Views and Rapidly Grow Your Email List

Winning on Medium requires a marathon mentality. You won’t go viral with your first blog post. Your follower count will build with each new post, which gives you further reach with each new post.

You also want to build a relationship with the readers of the community. Medium has a feature that allows readers to “recommend,” your posts. When readers recommend your post it shows up on the feeds of their followers. You want to encourage readers to recommend your posts, and you also want to engage with them when they comment on and share your posts.

I usually respond to every reader who shares my post on twitter personally with a thank you reply. I reply to people who provide thoughtful comments and engage in dialogue with them. I share and recommend posts from fellow writers who I enjoy.

Relationships on Medium work the same as they do in the blogosphere. Connection is just important as promotion.

Speaking of promotion, you also need to take extra steps to get as many eyes on your posts as possible.

• Promote Medium posts to your email list
• Share Medium posts on social media
• Retweet people who share your posts on Twitter
• Add a teaser of your Medium post to your personal blog

I didn’t hit pay dirt on Medium until after I’d published more than a dozen posts. It takes perseverance, but these smart marketing strategies will work given enough time.

Use Medium to Take the Blogosphere by Storm

As a fellow blogger, I know how tough it can be to stand out.

The most important thing I’ve learned is that patience, effort, and commitment lead to blogging success.

There are lots of “shiny objects,” tips, and tricks to wade through, but the most successful bloggers focus on being excellent at a few strategies. Bloggers who fail spread themselves thin by trying a bit of everything.

I had zero followers on Medium and zero reads on my posts until I got out of my way and took smart advice.

Success is out there for you, but you’ll never find it until you get out of your own way and follow proven methods that work.

I’ve just laid out the blueprint for success on Medium. If you follow it to the letter, it will work.

You have a focused community of millions of readers dying to read excellent content.

Immerse yourself in Medium’s landscape, write your heart out, and watch the traffic and subscribers roll in.

Imagine making a few hundred bucks with a click of a button…

Would you be interested in doing that? Of course, you would.

Why do I bring it up?

Becuase I’ve done it. More than once. After writing for a few years, I’m finally making (what I consider) a good income with writing.

You can do the same. It will take time, effort, and patience, but the landscape for writers is more promising than it ever has been.

What a Time to be Alive

I’ve seen writer success stories left and right lately. Writers getting massive book deals, creating membership channels earning enough for them to quit their jobs, self-publishing books earning from $1,000 to $500,000.

I anticipate more success stories to come given the state of the blogosphere in 2023.

Let’s say you wanted to be a successful writer in 1979.

You’d have to send query letters — physically through the mail — along with your manuscript to dozens of publishers for consideration.

Your chances of hearing back were about zero.  Then, if you did get an advance, it may not have even been life-changing. For every Stephen King or John Grisham, there were thousands of unknown writers.

Today, the traditional route is dying. Even if you do get published by a traditional publisher, they want to know about your platform — how many subscribers and followers you have — before they’ll work with you.

If you’re passive about your writing career, you’re dead. If you’re active, however, nothing is stopping you.

You have sites like Medium to feature your writing. You can build an email list to help promote your work. And you can be the publishing company. 

So what do you do? You’ve been here before. All of this sounds good, but putting it into practice is another story.

Today, I’m going to strictly talk about attitude.

You can find all of my ‘tactical’ stuff at the links below:

• The Ultimate Guide to  Attracting a Loyal Audience
• The Ultimate Guide to Writing Your First Book
• How to Start a Blog for $3 in 10 Minutes or Less
• The Ultimate Guide to Building a Writing Habit That Sticks Like Superglue
• How to Build an Audience on Medium
• How to Pick a Writing Topic (and Stick With it)

Those guides provide a roadmap for getting out of the starting gate in your writing career, but tips don’t help if you don’t…use them.

You won’t use them if you don’t have the right attitude.

What’s the right attitude? For starters, you must desire to be a good writer.

Define “Good”

Is E.L. James a good writer?

Most people would say no.

Does E.L. James care?

Probably not.

E.L. James penned the 50 Shades of Grey novels. She started writing short stories on a Twilight fan fiction site. She got popular. Capitalizing on her popularity, she turned the stories into a novel. She self-published the book and it went viral…like, really really viral.

She eventually got the book deal, the movie rights, and the rest is history.

I’m sure she has some nasty critics online and probably cries herself to sleep using $100 bills as tissue.

My point? The tastemakers opinions have little to no bearing on an individual’s success. Who’s opinion matters? Yours and the readers. That’s it.

Don’t suffer from what I call ‘Hemingway syndrome.’ People with Hemingway syndrome are delusional. They want to write the next great American novel. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to write quality work, but if you’re a snobby writer who feels they’re above other writers or methods of promotion, you’ll fail.

If, after reading James’s story you feel tons of envy and scoff at her luck, it’s a death sentence for your career. Not because you’re wrong — she was lucky — but because envious people rarely succeed at anything.

Focus on finding people who want to read what you write and nothing else. Don’t chase prizes and accolades from your peers.

Be Remarkable

You have to focus on the readers, but readers can be picky.

Put yourself in the shoes of a reader. They live in a distracted world with notifications, pings, and apps dancing around on their phones, tablets, and computers. Upon visiting a site like Medium, they browse around only to find what appear to be copies of the same article.

What Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Warren Buffer Eat for Breakfast

How to Avoid Mediocrity at all Costs

The Ten Steps to Getting Rich

First, know this — the excessive amount of ‘me too’ writing is actually a good thing. While others play Where’s Waldo with blog posts, you can stand out by contrast.

How?

There are plenty of ways:

• Add a twist to a common trope – I wrote an article about the secret to creating successful morning routines where I mentioned something no other writers had before — the fact you need an actual reason to get up. It opposed the common view that arbitrarily adopting habits causes success.
• Be brutally honest – Say what others won’t say. I often talk about how much work it takes to become a successful writer instead of trying to sell the “six-figure blogging shortcut method.”
• Hone your voice – Most subjects have been written about, but you can always have a unique voice. Develop your own style. I write punchy and tight while other writers I know are verbose — both work. Many types work, as long as they sound like you.

I use headline formulas and talk about subjects other people talk about, but I always remember to stand out by being me.

Do the same, and you’ll grow a following people dying to read your work.

Become an Overnight Success

Want to know how to become an overnight success? Write for ten years.

What excites me most about writing is how much room I have to improve. I’ve only been writing for 3 years. While I’ve learned a lot, I have tons to learn.

Now, I’m starting to think in decades instead of years.

I love the Tony Robbins quote “You overestimate what you can do in a year and underestimate what you can do in ten years.”

The landscape is favorable to committed writers. I’m reaping what I sowed three years ago. Now, I treat my work like a deposit in a bank account.

Your body of work is a bank account that collects interest in the form of fans, sales, and new opportunities.

I randomly get emails from fans who read something I wrote two years ago.

I found out — by accident — a post I wrote got published on business insider.

When you hit publish often you toss out a net to catch opportunities. Publish your work all over the place. Remix it and republish it.

Again, all of this sounds great, but you have to stay the course.

That’s why I started writing about writing in the first place. I know how hard it is to go from zero to one — from obscurity to momentum — so I developed a site to help aspiring writers like you.

If you’re serious about your writing career, go back up to the earlier section with the links provided and do the work.

Right now is the best possible time to be a writer. There’s more potential for success than ever before.

It’s time for you to be kinetic.