5 Things Successful Online Writers Don’t Do

To date, there are more than 500 million blogs out of 1.7 billion websites in the world. Their authors account for over 2 million blog posts daily.

Unless you’re already famous with an engaged following, it’s next to impossible to attract blog readers. Even worse, your own family and friends are unlikely to be interested in your blog.

So what is an aspiring online writer to do?

Starting a blog is a lot closer to starting a business

For starters, you can study what successful online writers are doing, and not doing.

By successful, I mean that they have a large, engaged following. Their readers leave lots of comments. The writing is crisp, professional, and draws you in.

Keep in mind, there’s a big difference between online writing versus magazine or novel writing. Online readers tend to skim, are impatient, and get quickly distracted by videos and other online content. People reading books and magazines tend to be more committed to what they’re reading.

What follows are five things successful online writers don’t do. It’s not an exhaustive list, and there are always exceptions, but avoiding these things will benefit your online writing.

Begin with a blog

In his excellent book “The Art and Business of Online Writing: How to Beat the Game of Capturing and Keeping Attention,” top online writer Nicolas Cole tells aspiring online writers not to start a blog.

Cole’s counter-intuitive advice goes against conventional wisdom, but his reasoning makes sense. Most blogs are started today because creators want to monetize with ads and/or products.

As Cole notes in his book:

Today, starting a blog is a lot closer to starting a business.

If you’re a business or trying to build a personal brand to sell products and courses, then it makes sense to have a website or blog. But even then, growing your website/blog is a hard slog.

I think blogging is a muscle that most people wear out. — Warren Ellis

Blogs take a lot of work. There are updates, site maintenance, comments, etc. It can be exhausting and become a kind of ball and chain.

Artwork by author

Successful websites/blogs require great SEO, professional images, amazing content, and more if they are to compete with everyone else. All of this takes time away from your writing.

L. L. Barkat, in an article for JaneFriedman.com, acknowledges that blogging is fine to develop self-expression, discipline, and experience. Then she adds the following about blogging:

But if writers already have experience, and they are authors trying to promote themselves and their work, I tell them to steer clear. If they’ve already found themselves sucked into the blogging vortex, I suggest they might want to give it up and begin writing for larger platforms that don’t require reciprocity (an exhausting aspect to blogging and a big drain on the writer’s energy and time).

In an article for BetterMarketing.pub, writer Jason Weiland says to skip a blog and write elsewhere online, where the audiences are. He points out that, despite having a website, virtually no one visits his portfolio there.

Weiland writes:

Does anyone contact me through my website? No, people know they can find me on Medium and social media. In my Medium profile, I have my email address. All the contacts I’ve made in the last few months have been through Medium and my email.

According to Cole, as an online writer, you want to share “your thoughts, stories, opinions, and insights at scale.”

“At scale” is the key. The reality is that, unless you’re already famous, no one visits blogs anymore. They visit social media. That’s where the action is. That’s where people go to research you and get the latest information and posts.

If you want to be read, you need to leverage social media.

Writers can use LinkedIn as their online business card. It’s fine to have a landing page too, with an email sign up to build a list. But you don’t have to blog.

Twitter is probably the best platform for aspiring writers. Instead of laboring over long blog posts, you can do micro-posts on Twitter. Editors can tell in 140 characters whether or not you have any writing ability. Who knows, it could lead to writing gigs.

To point is, share your brilliant writing on social media, where there are measurable audiences and built-in feedback. Get your articles published on websites with large followings.

Build an impressive body of work all over the place, where the audiences are. Editors may take note, opportunities might arise, and you’ll be on your way to becoming a successful online writer.

Ignore copywriting

When I first started blogging, I didn’t have a clue about online writing. It wasn’t until I hired Demian Farnworth (former copywriter at Copyblogger) that I learned about copywriting.

Demian shredded my articles. He taught me that no one will read my essays if the headlines aren’t catchy and compelling. I learned to shorten paragraphs to only a few sentences (because people skim online and hate large blocks of text).

Demian taught me the importance of subheadings, brevity, and the value of hooks and sentences that draw you in. He also told me to make it about the reader, not myself.

Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.— Leo Burnett

Look at the top online writers and you’ll notice they don’t ignore copywriting. If you’re unfamiliar with copywriting, do your homework. Read a few books. Hire a coach. Doing so will help your work get noticed online.

Write broadly

Unless you’re well established online as a writer, it’s probably a mistake to write broadly about everything. The reality is that people tend to read about their interests and look for solutions to their problems.

Picking a category or niche to write about makes it easier for readers to find and follow you. For example, if you have a Medium.com profile and state that you “Write about life,” what does that mean? It’s too broad.

However, if you state that “I write about cryptocurrency investing,” or “I write about the creative arts,” it’s easier for readers to know what you’re about. Disinterested readers will leave, but the ones who share your niche are more likely to stick around and follow you.

Very narrow areas of expertise can be very productive. Develop your own profile. Develop your own niche. — Leigh Steinberg

“Yeah, but I don’t want to box myself into one subject. Variety is the spice of life,” you might argue.

Artwork by author

I get it. I struggle with this myself. Just know that if you write broadly, it will take much longer for readers to follow you and/or discover your voice.

You can develop a more intimate, engaged audience via a niche versus writing for a mass audience.

Copy everyone else

James Clear is the king of writing about habits. For years, he wrote well-researched articles about habits, which eventually led to his best-selling book “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.”

I can’t tell you how many self-help bloggers parrot Clear’s advice and suggestions.

If James Clear already wrote about the Pomodoro Technique or early morning routines, what makes you think repackaging that advice will make your writing stand out?

Successful online writers don’t copy everyone else, they innovate and write fresh content. Even better, they look for the collision of interesting ideas and combine them in compelling ways. Originality trumps mimicry.

Either you go the way everyone goes and become an ordinary person like everyone else, or you create your own original way and become an extraordinary person that everyone watches in amazement. — Mehmet Murat İldan

Reading classic books is another way to discover useful ideas overlooked by online writers who rely on blogs and Quora for their ideas and articles.

Learn from other successful online writers, then do your research and come up with fresh ideas and articles that stand out from the ocean of similar content online.

Write inconsistently

People will never discover or follow your online writing if you fail to show up. Inconsistency kills success.

Ever visit a blog, only to discover the writer hasn’t posted anything new in a month? Even worse, you sign up for someone’s email newsletter, and they erratically share new content.

Inconsistency is the only thing in which men are consistent. — Horace Smith

Successful online writers don’t write inconsistently. They write and share their work frequently, and reliably. Quality matters, but in the online writing game, consistency is just as important.

There are many ways to create content people want to read, but if you’re just starting out as an online writer, begin by avoiding the above five mistakes.

Consider holding off on a blog and leverage the existing audiences on social media. Learn some copywriting, pick a category or niche to write in, be original, and write consistently.

Before you know it, you might just build a name and following for yourself.

Before you go

Artwork by author

I’m John P. Weiss. I draw cartoons, paint, and write about life lessons. To follow along, sign up for my free Saturday Newsletter here.