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Writing / Newsletter

"Don't write to sound smart. Write to be useful.

If you're useful over a long time period, you will end up looking smart anyway."

https://neilpatel.com/blog/the-step-by-step-guide-to-writing-powerful-headlines

Writing Tips​

  1. Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style. This explains why for many of us our first writing (outside of high school essays) tends to be about the first love in our adolescent life.
  2. Do not ramble. Keep it terse. Your rule might be this: If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out.
  3. Keep it simple. As for your use of language: Remember that two great masters of language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. "To be or not to be" asks Shakespeare's Hamlet. The longest word is three letters long. Joyce, when he was frisky, could put together a sentence as intricate and as glittering as a necklace for Cleopatra, but my favorite sentence in his short story "Eveline" is this one: "She was tired." At that point in the story, no other words could break the heart of a reader as those three words do.
  4. Sound like yourself: The writing style which is most natural for you is bound to echo the speech you heard when a child.
  5. Say what you mean to say. Avoid jazz-style writing. Avoid imitating other writers: "...write accurately, always selecting the most effective words, and relating the words to one another unambiguously..."
  6. Keep in mind that your reader is likely to be a busy person. The harder you make it for her to understand the thousands of words you have scribbled on the page, the less likely she will be to take to your writing.
  7. If you care about writing well then train yourself to write well. Vonnegut recommends reading "The Elements of Style"by William Strunk Jr and EB White.

https://substack.com

Substack makes it simple for a writer to start an email newsletter that makes money from subscriptions.

LinkedIn growth playbook​

  1. How to pick a topic to write about

    Pick a topic that meets 3 criteria:

    1. You are interested in it
    2. You are good at it (or want to get good at it)
    3. Other people are interested in reading about it

  2. How to find ideas to write about

    • Consume books, podcasts, and articles about your topic
    • Every time you come across an idea, write it down
    • Collect and organize ideas in a word file or diary

  3. How to write compelling content

    • Make it catchy. The first line of your post should catch the reader's attention
    • Keep it simple. Avoid complicated words
    • Keep it short. Delete extra words and keep your sentences short

  4. How to go viral

    • Post at least 5 times a week
    • Post betweek 8am - 10am EST
    • Befriend accounts with 1k-10k followers and share your content with them. The more engagement you get from big accounts, the more the algo shows your content to other accounts on the platform
    • Do this for at least 8 weeks to see meaningful results

  5. How to get more followers:

    • Optimize your bio and give people a strong reason to follow you
    • Focus on practical over emotional. Practical content gets more followers than emotional posts
    • Once you have provided value with your post, ask for a follow at the end

On Writing Well

How to Write Less but Say More | Jim VandeHei | TED

How to Become a Youtuber? My Learnings as an Influencer and Finance Content Creator - YouTube