The reason I like tagging posts with both broad and niche hashtags is because it gives each post a chance to be exposed to the masses, and to be found by highly targeted readers. We’ll talk more about this in the next section, but the entire secret to getting exposure on your writing online is to find as many ways as possible to make your writing resonate both on a broad level and with a specific audience at the same time. This is one of those ways.
All of my most popular Quora answers followed a similar methodology. 800,000+ views: How to become more confident. 783,000+ views: How to stop being average. 507,000+ views: What it feels like to go from unattractive to attractive. 425,000+ views: A stranger I met once that changed my life forever. 412,000+ views: Why having everything you want won’t make you happy.
am better off “niching down” until I find one (or a few) categories I can dominate. For example: “Marketing” is broad. “Content Marketing” is more specific. “Content Marketing” is still too broad. “Content Marketing For High-Growth Businesses” is more specific. “Content Marketing For High-Growth Businesses” is still too broad. “Content Marketing For Founders And Executives Of High-Growth Businesses” is more specific.
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Now, there is a way for you to get the best of both worlds, and that’s by using niche topics to answer universal questions. For example, an article titled, “How To Be A Better Writer” answers two of our three questions. You know who this article is going to be for, and you know what it’s going to be about. Unfortunately, the PROMISE is a little weak. What does being a “better writer” really mean? What benefits do you receive by becoming a better writer? Why should someone want to become a “better writer” in the first place? Here is where you have a decision to make. You can either make your PROMISE answer a niche question or a broad question — and depending on which you pick will dramatically change the size of your potential Audience. (It will also change the content of the piece.) For example: “How To Be A Better Writer Today, So You Can Start Writing Best-Selling Books Tomorrow” would be a title with a big PROMISE for aspiring authors. If you have no interest in becoming a best-selling author, you probably won’t want to read this piece of writing. It’s more specific, and will resonate more clearly with your target reader, but it won’t reach as many different types of readers. This is the pro/con. “How To Become A Better Writer, Journal More Often, And Live A More Present Life,” on the other hand, has a completely different PROMISE. The question it’s answering is dramatically bigger (“How can I live a more present life?”). The Curiosity Gap here is saying that by becoming a better writer, and using writing as a habit, you can live a more present life. This technique of tying niche topics to universal questions is a powerful way of tapping into new audiences and expanding your reach outside of your particular industry or category. Here are a few more examples: “The Future Of The Biotechnology Industry” is niche (and vague), and can be expanded by changing it to “How The Future Of Biotechnology Is Going To Make All Of Us Happier, Healthier, And Live Longer.” “The Gi
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1/3/2/1 & 1/5/2/1 The basic structures of online writing are 1/3/1 and 1/5/1. Once you learn these, you can then start to play with rhythm a bit more and elongate your introductions. I cannot stress enough how much you do not want to elongate your writing by cramming sentence after sentence into one paragraph. Online writing benefits from clearly separated thoughts and statements, which is why I recommend using variations of the 1/3/1 and 1/5/1 structure if you need the extra space. Remember: you want to optimize for speed and Rate of Revelation. Anything that isn’t absolutely necessary, delete it. 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. And this fourth sentence rounds out your argument, guiding the reader toward your conclusion. This fifth sentence is your strong conclusion. And this sixth sentence is expanding on why you’re making such a strong conclusion. This seventh sentence is what you’re going to talk about next.
As you continue to refine which specific category you’re writing in (and this is an ongoing process), you then have the opportunity to bring that same specificity into the writing itself. “Marketing is a great way to build exposure,” is a broad statement. “Content marketing is a great way to build exposure for your business” is more specific. “Content marketing is a great way to build exposure for your business,” is still a broad statement. “Content marketing is a great way to introduce new customers to your business and move them to the top of your sales funnel” is more specific. “Content marketing is a great way to introduce new customers to your business and move them to the top of your sales funnel,” is still a broad statement. “Content marketing, when published by your executive team opposed to your company’s blog, is a highly effective way to build organic exposure and trust with your target customers, moving them through your sales funnel without them feeling ‘sold to,’” is more specific.
Instead of taking the time to give all this backstory, or make the reader wait and wait for me to “get to the point,” I would just start with the main point instead. This became a defining characteristic of my writing style. I would give a few sentences of explanation or story, and immediately move on to the next point, and then to the next point, and so on and so forth.
If everyone in your category is writing restaurant reviews as if they’re formal essays, something “unexpected” would be to write comedic restaurant reviews from the perspective of a part-time food blogger named Cindy who works for a failing restaurant magazine, and shows up to every restaurant pretending to be this hot insta-famous food-review writer but actually doesn’t know anything about food and gets too drunk at every tasting (and it shows in her writing). In the professional-restaurant-review category, this would be “unexpected.” And as a result, it would stand out.
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.
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.