Nicolas Cole Quotes

This was exactly the same lesson I’d learned as a teenage gaming blogger: when I wrote about niche topics, viewership was mediocre. But when I wrote about universal life lessons, my writing went viral.

People who succeed in life are people who keep their promises. You know what you need to do. And every day, moment by moment a tiny, faint voice in your head reminds you of what you need to do, or what you had said you were going to do. Start listening to that voice. Step 1 with anything is always: less talk, more action.

What makes a great headline is getting someone to understand three things at the exact same time: What this piece of writing is about Who this piece of writing is for The PROMISE: the problem that will be solved, and/or the solution being offered This is what’s known as The Curiosity Gap. The Curiosity Gap is what tells the reader what this piece of writing is about, who it’s for, and what it’s promising — all without revealing the answer.

Before you begin writing anything, you need to decide who you are writing for. And that decision needs to be clearly reflected in both the headline and the content of your piece.

Success is a decision you make on a daily, hourly, and even moment-to-moment basis.

Write confidently and declaratively. A lot of people hesitate to “make a point” or “take a stance” when writing online because they don’t want to get criticized in the comments. As a result, their writing stands for nothing, and resonates with no one. It’s safe. It’s self-conscious. And worst of all, it’s vague. The more declarative you can be with your language, the more you will force readers to make a decision. Either they will say, “I strongly agree,” or they will say, “I strongly disagree.” Either of these responses is far better than, “Meh.

Less worried about whether or not I was the most credible person to be answering each question, I focused all of my energy into making my answer the most relatable to whoever was experiencing (or wanted to experience) similar things in life.

How much money you’ve made from your craft: Mystery novelist James Patterson is “The world’s best-selling author. His total income over the past decade is estimated at $700 million.” That’s Perceived Credibility on a completely different level.

The average column on a major publication receives less than 1,000 views. The articles that “go viral” only fall into three categories: They are about an insanely successful company (Apple). They provide an unexpected perspective on a controversial and trending topic. They focus on personal development/life advice.

The size of your audience is a direct reflection of the size of the question you are answering

The 1/5/1 structure is the same as the 1/3/1 structure, just with more room for description and clarification in the middle. Here’s how it works: This first sentence is your opener. This second sentence clarifies your opener. This third sentence reinforces the point you’re making with some sort of credibility or amplified description. This fourth sentence builds on that credibility or description, giving added context or new information. This fifth sentence explains to the reader why you’re telling them what you’re telling them. And this sixth sentence drives home the point. This seventh sentence is your strong conclusion. You want to use the 1/5/1 structure when your opener would benefit from additional context, or you want to tell a story that requires an extra sentence or two for clarification.

The answers with the most engagement almost always begin at the absolute height of the story: “The first time I became a millionaire, I was living in my parents’ basement.” Boom. You’re in the story before you’ve even decided whether or not you wanted to be there in the first place.

Lazy writers do this by saying things like, “Which is why, if you want to know more, you should check out my website, and if you want to hear what I really think about this topic, you should check out my YouTube,” blah blah blah. Readers hate that shit. Instead, just say what you want to say in this one individual piece, and be done. Let there be some dissonance in the air. Let readers feel like you could have said more, but didn’t. This is what gets them to come back again and again.

The entire — and I mean this quite literally, the ENTIRE — art and business and “game” of online writing is rooted in understanding what category you’re actually competing within. Unless you can consciously name the category, you will never have a firm grasp as to whether your work is “Better” or “Worse” than the competition. It isn’t until you understand the category, and see “The Ladder” that exists within your category, that you can begin climbing your way to the top.

For example, here’s an excerpt from my article, “How Do Some People Succeed So Quickly? They Approach Life Like This.” Every single moment, of every single day, you are “practicing” something. If you don’t floss in the morning, you’re practicing not-flossing. If you choose to eat quinoa and veggies instead of Frosted Flakes, you’re practicing eating for fuel instead of eating for enjoyment. If you yell at your significant other, you’re practicing a lack of self-control. If you watch TV instead of working on your book, you’re practicing postponing your dream of becoming a novelist. The moment you start to see the world this way, you start to realize that every single moment, of every single day, you are practicing something. And how aware you are of whatever it is you’re practicing dictates how consciously (or unconsciously) you move toward or away from where it is you actually want to be: whether that’s a destination, a physical place, or an emotional state. Here, I am combining the 1/1/1/1 structure with repetition to give a reader plenty of actionable examples without forcing them to read through paragraphs of prose. I’m only giving them what they absolutely need — and then once I’ve given them a handful of examples, I follow up with a longer, more descriptive paragraph (alternating rhythms).