Is all the best writing actually click-bait?

Advice for writing online has a bad wrap for being garbage hiding behind clickbait titles masquerading as helpful content.

But there is one HUGE take-away from a synopsis video of Nicolas Cole’s book that changed the way I think about writing online and writing offline.

And I’ll say it upfront:

A piece of writing has value if it answers questions for the reader. Good online writing is no different from the most well-regarded novel: both MUST answer the reader’s questions.

Question: What is it like to go to Wizard School?

Answer: Read Harry Potter

Question: What are the best home office printers?

Answer: Read a Wirecutter article

Writing advice content 🙄

I’m going down a rabbit hole of consuming online writing advice content. I realize that everything must be taken with a grain of salt. Free advice is often just a lead magnet for a course offering or a book sale.

That’s fine. If the free info is good you either don’t need the course or you know that the course may be good based on what you’ve already learned.

I found a lot of this helpful, so I’m passing on my notes. Anyway, here’s more writing advice from Nicolas Cole’s “The Art and Business of Online Writing” as he presents it in the video below:

#1 - Don’t start a blog

Too late. I’m writing this on a blog. BUT to his point, nobody is reading this blog because it has no network. Use Twitter or Medium or Substack that all have built in networks that will help get your writing read by others.

I’m working on a Substack because I like its network (links to come soon). And I love this blog as more of a scratch pad or testing ground. Twitter is a cesspool that I need to stay out of. I don’t want that culture infesting the way my brain works. He recommends Quora and Medium, which are not for me.

Maybe some day I’ll write a post about why I chose my blog and substack over other outlets.

#2 - The reader is the main character. You are not the main character.

What does the reader want? What problem do they have? What question is the reader looking for an answer to?

He actually addresses a major complaint I have about writing focused on gaining an online following.

He says: “All good writing, even fiction answers a question. With an example about Harry Potter…why do so many people read Harry Potter? What problem/question are they trying to answer? They want to know what it’s like to go to wizard school. Or Marvel movies…people want to know if the good guys will beat the bad guys.”

This actually helps me frame writing a lot. It’s not all listicles and bulletted writing that can answer specific questions. The question can be anything and it can be answered in many forms.

Don’t let writing frameworks dictate the questions you try to answer, but be conscious of the fact that you ARE trying to answer a question. You better know what that question is.

#3 - You have to build an “anti-fragile” writing habit

Stop waiting for inspiration, start writing. Get your writing done no matter what. Life is busy, get your writing done anyway. Your writing habit can’t be susceptible to your whims and moods. Feel like writing? Great, write. But also do it when you do not feel like it.

I’ve started a daily 5:30am writing appointment. I’ve been going strong at it for 2 weeks straight. The more I do it, the better it feels and the easier it becomes. I’m building momentum. It feels amazing.

#4 - Stop practicing in private and start practicing in public

Put it out there. You can’t grow or learn otherwise. Start your feedback loop and keep it going.

#5 - You don’t find your voice by yourself, you co-create your voice with your readers

The argument here is that you create your voice through writing, you don’t “Find” it through sitting around thinking about what your “voice” should be.

That question has never made sense to me. Why would you be trying to find your voice. Just write. This seems self-evident your “voice” is your writing. The more you write the more you become more yourself.

Your voice emerges from this process: Write > Gather Feedback > Write some more incorporating what you learned from the feedback.

I argue that you can gather feedback from yourself as well. Your “voice” develops from writing and finding what you and readers resonate with. Then do more of that. Eventually, you’ve created your “voice”. (I’m insisting on quotes around voice because I think it’s a little silly to even care about maintaining a voice.)

#6 - Write consistently for AT LEAST 6 months and then make a decision

Direct quote because it’s a straight-forward point: “If you want to see growth, both externally and within yourself and your own skills, you have to give it at least 6 months” and then decide what you want to do after that.

AKA: Put in some work and then see how you feel. Find out what feels good or bad, what people enjoy reading, what you enjoy writing. I guarantee that within that 6 months you’ll figure out a LOT about your writing and, more importantly, about yourself.

#7 - It’s only clickbait “if you fail to deliver on your promise to the reader in the content of the piece”

Some of the frameworks I’ve heard Cole talk about walk a fine line between providing value and generating click-bait content. “10 best …”, “7 ways to…”, etc. Sure these can answer a question and provide value, but they’re not often going to provide thoughtful insight.

My take: avoid writing about click-bait-y topics and strive to provide insight beyond a transactional answer to a question.

Providing an answer to a question isn’t a free pass to manipulating behavior.

#8 - In the digital age, readers don’t read, they skim first

After they skim, they decide if the piece is worth reading at all. I’ve made this post easy to skim by using lots of headlines and some bolding.

“Skimmable” can also equate to well-organized. Using a heading structure (H1-H6) makes it easier for the reader to skim off the important topics. Plus, if you stub out your writing with headlines to start, it is much easier to write in the first place. If done correctly, a semantically well-structured page also has a huge benefit to readers using assistive technology like screen readers.

#9 - The size of the question dictates the size of the answer

Cole says, “The broader the question, the larger the potential audience, the more surface level the engagement.”

“The more specific the questions, the smaller the audience, but the more resonant the engagement” There’s a great example: How do I make more money? vs How do I make more money as a traveling nurse?

“How do I make money” is so broad that it could be helpful to everyone, but most likely it’ll be too vague to be much help to anyone. And because of that, they won’t resonate with the answer very deeply.

Readers likely have a question that’s specific to themselves, who they are, and what their specific needs are in that moment. A broad topic won’t be as likely to answer their question in an impactful way. And answering questions successfully is the best way to get people onboard with you and your writing.

#10 - Your ultimate goal is to create a category of one for your writing

Niche down so specifically that nobody else in the world but you can own your category. It’s a process that comes out of your published work and defines you and how people know you.

The example: Ryan Holiday == Stoicism

If I want to read about Stoicisim I know I can trust anything Holiday has to say about the topic. If I pick up one of his books and instead he’s talking about online dating advice, I’m going to go read someone else. He owns the topic of modern Stoicism now. We all know him for it.

Holiday is a great example of one who I believe has taken a marketing-first approach to his writing career. He’s great at what he does and I am a personal fan. But I will make a claim that his career has been very calculated (and cudos for that!)

Part of this is your voice. Part of this is your marketability. But when you own a category your reputation proceeds you and success in what you want to do will become easier.