The Best Digital Writing Platforms To Build An Audience In 2024 #ghostwriting #digitalproducts

Summary

Nicholas Cole, a renowned online writer, shares his insights on starting a blog and leveraging social platforms for writing. He emphasizes the importance of writing on platforms like X, LinkedIn, Medium, and Quora, which are incentivized to find the right readers. Cole suggests that these platforms allow access to a broad audience, including industry leaders, and encourages building a niche library of reusable content. He provides a content strategy involving three verticals: niche topics, universal topics, and personal topics, and recommends using the '10 magical ways' to create content. Cole's strategy aims to help writers find their niche, engage readers, and grow their online presence.

Takeaways

• 🌐 The scale of online platforms is massive, with platforms like X, LinkedIn, Medium, and Quora boasting hundreds of millions to over a billion users and billions of monthly visits.
• 📝 Starting a blog is suggested as the initial step for online writing, allowing for personal branding and design control.
• 🤔 The speaker, Nicholas Cole, emphasizes the advantages of writing on social platforms due to their large user bases and distribution capabilities.
• 💰 Social platforms are incentivized to find the right readers for your content to maximize engagement and data collection for targeted ads.
• 🔍 These platforms use algorithms to show content to the right people, helping writers reach a wider and more relevant audience.
• 🚀 Writing on social platforms can give access to influential individuals, including industry leaders and celebrities, expanding the potential impact of your writing.
• 🔄 The concept of a 'writing flywheel' is introduced, where writers build a library of content on specific topics that can be reused and repurposed over time.
• 🎯 The strategy of focusing on niche, universal, and personal topics is recommended to create a cohesive and engaging body of work.
• 📈 The '10 magical ways' method is presented as a tool for generating multiple pieces of content on a single topic, ensuring consistent output and exploration of various angles.
• 🔑 Finding a niche is not about premeditation but about writing, gathering data, and iterating based on what resonates with readers.
• 📚 Prolific writers become known for their niche by consistently writing about it and tying it to broader topics and personal stories.
• 📈 The importance of starting with any topic and using the '10 magical ways' to generate content is highlighted as a practical approach to discovering what works for the writer and the audience.

Q & A

What are the monthly user counts and website visits for X, LinkedIn, Medium, and Quora according to the transcript?

X has over 500 million users and gets more than 6 billion website visits per month. LinkedIn has over 900 million users with over 1.6 billion visits per month. Medium has over 100 million users and gets over 200 million visits per month. Quora has over 400 million users and gets over 800 million visits per month.

Why does Nicholas Cole suggest starting a blog might not be the best idea initially?

Nicholas Cole suggests that starting a blog might not be the best idea initially because a blog has no built-in community or distribution mechanism. It's just a blank page on the internet that no one knows about except for close acquaintances, and it requires SEO efforts to attract readers.

What is Nicholas Cole's professional background in writing according to the transcript?

Nicholas Cole is one of the most read writers on the internet, having written online since the mid-2000s. He has accumulated over a billion views on his writing, built an audience of hundreds of thousands of followers and email subscribers, and sold over $15 million worth of writing-related digital products, ghostwriting services, and books.

What are the three main reasons Nicholas Cole believes in writing on social platforms according to the transcript?

The three main reasons are: 1) Social platforms are incentivized to find the right readers for your content. 2) Social platforms allow you to reach people you otherwise would never have access to, such as industry leaders and celebrities. 3) Social platforms force you to build niche libraries of reusable content.

How do social platforms make money, and how does this benefit writers according to Nicholas Cole?

Social platforms make money by allowing businesses to run targeted ads, which require data on user preferences. This benefits writers because the platforms are incentivized to keep users engaged with content they like, which includes showing the writer's content to the right audience to gather data and make more money from advertising.

What is the concept of a 'niche library of reusable content' as described by Nicholas Cole?

A 'niche library of reusable content' refers to a collection of content written on a particular topic that has proven to be engaging and successful. The goal is to build such a library so that you can reuse the content across different platforms or over time, without having to constantly create new content.

How does Nicholas Cole suggest writers find their niche?

Nicholas Cole suggests that writers find their niche by writing online, gathering data on what works, and seeing what topics resonate with readers. It's not about knowing your niche beforehand but discovering it through the process of writing and analyzing engagement.

What is the '10 magical ways' strategy suggested by Nicholas Cole for writing about a topic?

The '10 magical ways' strategy involves creating 10 different angles or approaches to write about a single topic. For example, if the topic is real estate, one might write about tips for buying real estate, stats for profitable real estate, steps to buy a rental property, and so on.

What are the three verticals Nicholas Cole uses for his content strategy?

The three verticals are: 1) Niche topic (e.g., digital writing, ghostwriting, self-publishing), 2) Universal topic (e.g., personal development), and 3) Personal topic (e.g., gaming, drawing from personal experiences like being a pro gamer).

How does Nicholas Cole define a successful writing trajectory?

A successful writing trajectory, according to Nicholas Cole, is not linear but circular, resembling a flywheel. It involves writing on various topics, identifying the most successful ones, and then focusing on repeating those successful topics while cutting out the less successful ones.

What resources does Nicholas Cole offer for those interested in writing online?

Nicholas Cole offers a free walkthrough for those interested in writing online at startwritingonline.com. He also mentions his digital writing program called 'ship 30 for 30' for those who would like more guidance and mentorship.