The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online

by David Parell

It’s the best way to learn faster, build your resume, and find peers and collaborators who can create job and business opportunities for you (Location 5)

Content builds on itself. It multiplies and compounds. (Location 6)

Projects, mentors, speaking gigs, job offers, pitches, investment opportunities, interview requests, podcast appearances, and invitations to special events. (Location 7)

Leverage is a force multiplier on everything you do and every decision you make, and once you gain it, you can achieve things that once looked impossible. (Location 23)

You no longer need to sell knowledge by the hour (Location 26)

Whether you want to become an author or an entrepreneur, you should start writing online. (Location 28)

No matter what kind of book you want to write or what kind of company you want to start, it pays to have a smart and targeted audience. (Location 29)

that’s when you build your network, learn what you need to know, and discover what you’re good at. (Location 32)

When you publish ideas, you create your own “Serendipity Vehicle” – a magnet for ideas and people and opportunities from potentially every corner of the globe. If (Location 35)

your ideas resonate with people, people will discover you and bring you unexpected opportunities. (Location 36)

Your website is your resume, your business card, your store, your directory, and your personal magazine. It’s the one place online that you completely own and control – your Online Home. (Location 40)

Once they’ve committed to staying, lead them around the place, and introduce them to things that will interest them. If you can do that, you’ve done your job (Location 54)

New creators have a dilemma: they want a critical mass of work on their website, but don’t want to sacrifice the quality of their work to create one. (Location 58)

curate a summary of your favorite thought leader’s best work. (Location 66)

pick an idea you’re interested in and curate a list of the best resources on the topic. (Location 71)

Curation is relatively easy and very valuable for people who don’t have the time to do the research themselves, which makes it an efficient way to kickstart the growth of your audience. (Location 77)

If you choose the second option and curate a list of the best resources on a topic, send your list to practitioners in your field who are popular on social media. (Location 80)

No matter which option you choose, create the best guide you can, email it to people who have an audience, and drive people back to your website. (Location 81)

Focus on one platform, and as you build an audience, redirect those visitors to your website so you can grow your email list (Location 109)

Finding a community like Ribbonfarm or Less Wrongis one of the fastest ways to spin up an audience. (Location 115)

There are two kinds of distribution: discovery and stickiness. (Location 120)

Twitter. It’s a great place for people to discover your blog, but doesn’t encourage repeat visits. That’s where email comes in. (Location 121)

Email is a direct distribution channel, which makes it sticky and valuable. (Location 126)

Trying to build an online audience without an email list is a rookie mistake. (Location 129)

Sending emails to my 10,000 subscribers is one of the highest-leverage actions I take on a weekly basis. (Location 132)

When somebody Googles your name, you should own the top search results. (Location 143)

The more you write, and the better your work, the more likely it is that you will appear when someone enters your name. (Location 144)

Do everything you can to control your Google search results, so that people can find you (Location 145)

Google’s algorithm depends on trust, and building trust takes time. (Location 147)

(1) publish excellent articles, (2) coin new terms such as Naked Brands and The Never-Ending Now, and (3) avoid competition by using an uncommon name. (Location 149)

Trust, credibility and authority can’t be purchased. They must be earned, and that’s why they’re so precious (Location 155)

Writing is the most fundamental method of communication. (Location 157)

Storing and distributing text online is cheap, which means your words can be read by almost anybody, anywhere in the world (Location 159)

Develop a bias toward action. (Location 162)

Focus on quantity over quality at first (Location 164)

It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes – the "quality" group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.” (Location 171)

Expect a small number of articles to outperform the rest. (Location 174)

evergreen content, (2) quality, (3) specificity, (4) listening to feedback, and (5) building a body of work. (Location 185)

If an idea won’t be valuable three years after you publish it, don’t write about it. Prioritizing evergreen articles is the single best constraint you can give yourself (Location 188)

things that everybody knows, [but nobody around you knows], and you have a unique perspective on, (Location 194)

Many of the best writers I know began by summarizing other people’s evergreen ideas, and since they were popular, they already know the ideas will be interesting or useful. (Location 197)

If you have the best summary of a popular evergreen topic, you’ll build an audience. (Location 198)

Style is important, but substance matters more. (Location 205)

The better your ideas and the clearer you can express them, the better your writing will be. (Location 206)

They write with clarity, energy, and simplicity, which is exactly what readers on the Internet are looking for. (Location 208)

They rewrite and rewrite, and only hit publish once they’ve said what they wanted to say in the fewest possible words. (Location 210)

Great writing is like a dance, and words are the music that create the atmosphere. (Location 212)

You shorten your sentences, so you can make your point. (Location 215)

If you write for page views, you’ll end up watering down your ideas for the masses, which will result in boring posts that intelligent people won’t want to read. (Location 219)

The true magic of the Internet is its ability to attract like-minded people from far-flung places, who you’d never be able to meet otherwise. (Location 222)

By trying to appeal to everybody, you’ll end up appealing to nobody. (Location 223)

measures the success of a post by how many interesting emails he receives from it. (Location 224)

Build a targeted audience. (Location 226)

Speak their language, and ignore the temptation to write for the lowest common denominator. (Location 228)

Online writers benefit from copious amounts of feedback. As a prolific online writer, I have a treasure trove of data about what people are interested in and what they ignore. (Location 230)

If an idea consistently surprises somebody, it’s probably good, but if people look bored or confused when you’re sharing an idea, you should either drop it or communicate the idea differently. (Location 232)

I move from conversations, to tweets, to emails, to blog posts. (Location 235)

By the time I’ve published a blog post, I’ve run the ideas through 3-5 filters, and each time I receive feedback, I keep more of what resonates and less of what doesn’t. (Location 236)

I call this method of receiving and integrating feedback “The Content Triangle.” (Location 239)

You’re already processing a large volume of ideas through your everyday experience: with the social media updates you post, the books and articles you read, the emails you send, the conversations you have, and the meetings you attend. (Location 247)

It’s important you emphasize to yourself that you don’t need to relive the experiences it took for you to become a subject expert in order to share them.” (Location 253)

Once you’ve developed a system for publishing at a consistent pace, you can turn your attention to building a body of work. (Location 256)

Your success won’t come from any one piece of work. It will come from your overall body of work. (Location 257)

Without a consistent writing habit, you won’t succeed as a writer. Start slowly, keep writing, and don’t stop (Location 259)

Writing on the Internet is the most effective way to meet peers and colleagues like yourself. (Location 263)

Skip the networking events and devote that time to writing instead. (Location 264)

Write something once and you can share it for the rest of your life. (Location 266)

Once you attract a critical mass of like-minded individuals, you can attract opportunities instead of searching for them (Location 267)

he loved ideas and wanted to share them. (Location 273)

His curiosity turned into expertise; his expertise turned into credibility; and his credibility landed him a job in the financial capital of the world. (Location 291)

Pick a high value, emerging industry. Learn as much as you can. Share what you learn on your personal website. (Location 293)

A Personal Monopoly is the unique intersection of your knowledge, personality, and skills that nobody else can compete with (Location 296)

On the Internet, ideas are infinitely scalable (Location 299)

Once you’ve found your niche, write about every aspect of it. The history. The people. The key concepts. Explore every nook and cranny, and write about the best things you discover. (Location 304)

Pick a small, but ever-growing market and learn everything you can about it. (Location 306)

If you can create a body of work before the wave of popularity arrives, you’ll be well positioned to capitalize on it when other people are looking for an authority. (Location 307)

They’re found in emerging industries and technologies. (Location 310)

the more you can build specific, high-value skills that are hard to replicate, the better your career prospects will be. (Location 313)

Advertising your unique skill set is the best way to attract high-value opportunities. (Location 320)

It’s hard to command a price premium for your work when your skills are easy to learn or overlap with millions of other people. (Location 321)

If you can advertise your valuable skills in an entertaining way, you’ll attract more opportunities than you (Location 322)

By lowering the cost of creating and distributing ideas, the Internet increases the returns to writing. (Location 333)

Since discovery has improved so much, one outstanding article can help you meet people you’d never be able to meet otherwise. (Location 334)

Top-of-the-market employees in industries touched by technology are switching jobs at a faster rate than they used to. Freelancing and remote work are accelerating these trends. (Location 337)

Instead of committing to a corporation for decades and depending on the corporation to determine their value, workers are letting the market decide their worth. (Location 340)

Since they switch jobs frequently, they’re valued and judged by the market more consistently than their elders were. (Location 341)

If you write well and find an audience for your ideas, you’ll attract better, higher-paying job opportunities. (Location 342)

It’s an always-on broadcast of who you are, and an open invitation for other people to create personal and career opportunities for you. It’s a Serendipity Vehicle that can grow automatically, independently of your efforts. (Location 356)

Whether you’re raising money for your startup, switching jobs, or building a business, writing online is the fastest way to accelerate your career. (Location 361)

Ultimately, the easier it is for others to find your blog, the more readers you’ll attract. It’s as simple as that. (Location 119)

There are two kinds of distribution: (Location 120)

When it comes to reader stickiness, nothing beats email. Nothing. (Location 126)

The easiest way to write more is to write about ideas that stimulate you. If you do, you’ll be able to produce on a more consistent basis. (Location 163)

It seems that while the "quantity" group was busily churning out piles of (Location 171)

Consistency develops ability, so pick a schedule and stick with it (Location 174)

If an idea won’t be valuable three years after you publish it, don’t write about it. (Location 188)

By writing in a persuasive, outcome-oriented (instead of academic) style, copywriters provoke responses and feedback. (Location 209)

Resist the temptation to focus only on page views. If you write for page (Location 219)

Resist the temptation to focus only on page views. (Location 219)

The true magic of the Internet is its ability to attract like-minded people from far-flung places, who you’d never be able to meet otherwise. By trying to appeal to everybody, you’ll end up appealing to nobody. One friend who is a very successful online writer measures the success of a post by how many (Location 222)

The true magic of the Internet is its ability to attract like-minded people from far-flung places, who you’d never be able to meet otherwise. By (Location 222)

Interesting emails encourage him to maintain a quality standard, and reach encourages him to write articles that spread (Location 225)

Attracting the right people matters much more than the number of people who read your work. (Location 227)

Intelligent readers want depth, nuance, and specificity. (Location 227)

Test your ideas out on intelligent friends, and don’t be afraid to state the obvious. (Location 232)