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 Introduction To The Crackhead Hustle
Writing Method
“I worked too hard to have it taken away for something stupid. I ain't gonna be
laughed at the way I used to laugh at those crackheads.”-Edgerrin James, NFL
Running Back

So you want to be a writer? Who doesn’t?

There’s so much to love about writing.

It’s fun. It’s rewarding. You get to learn about the topics you’re passionate about as you go.

You can connect with people all over the world, and you can work from anywhere in the
world—whether that’s on a beach in Tahiti or from your bedroom in your pajamas.

Also, you can get paid from writing. Most people think they need to write a book to get paid, but
there are many ways to earn a living from your writing. For example, you can:

● Create a paid newsletter

● Write a blog and affiliate for different products
● Ghostwrite content for people with bigger platforms
● Write sales copy for your products or someone else’s

Getting paid is important.

You probably bought this book because you figured it could put more money in your pocket.
However, there is something about writing that I think is more important than money.

Writing forces you to organize your disparate thoughts on a subject and create with a purpose.
This is the most potent way to turn mental chaos into clarity.

When you write well, you can inform, persuade, enrage, or polarize. When it was said that “the
pen is mightier than the sword”, they did the pen a ​severe​ injustice.

The pen has shaped the world, built fortunes, and changed the course of men. It has caused
wars, brokered peace, ignited romances, and extinguished aggression.

The sword, even wielded by the most skillful swordsman, can only cut and parry. The pen, even
when wielded by a buffoon, can have a tremendous impact.

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The power doesn’t reside in the pen. The power is in the words the pen creates, the story it tells,
and the narrative it weaves.

Today, this power is expressed via writing software, social media, and blogs. Even Youtubers
use the power of words for fun and profit. Given the impact that great orators have had on the
world, the quote would be more accurate if it was “words are mightier than the sword”, but that’s
not nearly as catchy.

Why You Need Writing Skills, Regardless Of Your Line of Work

In this day and age, there are no longer any “gatekeepers”. You no longer need:

● A publishing house to publish a book

● A magazine company with wide circulation to be read
● A university to publish the results of your research
● To be a politician if you want your speeches to influence people

You simply need a device that connects to the internet, a message, and the determination to
improve your ability and reach.

This is the best time in history to be a creator. But as Charles Dickens famously stated in his
classic novel ​The Tale Of Two Cities​, “It was the best of times and it was the worst of times.”

We’ve covered the good about all of this. Now let’s face the bad.

With no gatekeepers and non-existent barriers to entry, this means that there is a lot of
competition. I mean a ​lot.​ There are BILLIONS of blogs, websites, and social media accounts.
Unless you enter the writing world with celebrity, you are a needle in a haystack.

Actually, you’re even worse. A needle in a haystack stands out because it’s different. Yes, it’s
small. But it’s also distinct.

You’re not even a needle yet. You’re just another piece of hay.

Therefore, you need to figure out how to stand out, capture attention, and develop a fanbase. If
you want your writing to be engaging enough to make a living from, it requires both skill and
market savvy.

It’s useless if you’re a good writer, but no one can find you. It’s also just as bad if you’ve got a
huge following, but you write like shit. If you’re out to make a quick buck, a big audience will get

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you paid once or twice, but if your writing is terrible, then it’ll be the only buck you make from
them.

On the flip side, a good writer will not only satisfy his existing audience, but that audience will
grow organically as a result of reviews and word of mouth. Before long, a skilled writer can build
a big following.

The inverse of this isn’t true. A big following does not automatically make you better at anything,
especially writing.

I’m not the best writer, but I’m far from the worst. I definitely fall somewhere nicely in the “I make
a living doing this”. As a this writing, I have:

● 100,000+ followers on Twitter (The social media platform that favors writers)
● 14,000+ subscribers to my mailing list
● $30,000+ in ebooks sold
● $40,000+ in self-published books sold
● 100,000 page views per month to my website

And I’ve done it all without appealing to the basic human drives of improving health, wealth, and
relationships. To put it bluntly, none of my books are about getting jacked, paid, or laid.

No knock on the guys who do it. Those are big markets with hungry buyers. I may even sell a
piece of writing on those topics myself. But at this moment, I haven’t sold any material on those
topics, but I have better sales metrics and a bigger fan base than many who have.

That’s the power of valuable writing.

What Is The Secret To Writing Success?

The reality is that most writers are far worse than they think.

This is why many haven’t done a fraction of these numbers.

Even if you’re a half-decent writer, with all the other half-decent writers out there, nothing but
excellence is going to cut it. If you want to grow your fanbase, influence the world, and make
money from your writing, you need to be damn good at it.

Don’t be discouraged. It’s just the truth. There are two other truths that should make you feel
better. They are:

1. It’s easy to become a more engaging, profitable writer.

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 2. Even though it’s easy, MOST people won’t do the work

What this means is that if you are willing to do the work, it’s going to be easy for you to stand
out, get attention, and get paid. Even if those aren’t explicitly your goals, your ability to organize
your thoughts and express yourself will improve and this will cause a ripple of improvement in
the rest of your life.

That’s the worst-case scenario; this book makes you a more efficient and effective
communicator. You will go into any situation better able to express yourself, convince people to
see things your way, and think through problems more clearly and find solutions.

You can 10x your writing and expressive abilities in 10 days or less. While everyone else
fumbles around for years, you can quickly grasp the fundamentals that most people are too lazy
to develop but all desperately need.

Good writing doesn’t require shock tactics to be engaging. You won’t have to publish a blog post
every day for SEO or capitalize on the latest political or cultural trends. When your message is
honed, it will simultaneously market and sell itself to an eager and engaged audience.

Here’s the best part: you don’t need to master grammar to produce dazzling content. Grammar
helps, but it can always be learned and edited for. Beyond some obvious and intuitive rules, this
isn’t what makes good writing.

Good writing is about flow, insight, voice, engagement, structure, and style. This forms the easy
to remember acronym “F.I.V.E.S.S.”

“Flow” is how easy your work is to read.

“Insight” is the particular perspective your writing comes from.
“Voice” is your unique word choice or order.
“Engagement” is how interesting people find your work.
“Structure” is how your work is presented.
“Style” is the unique fingerprint that you write with.

All of these things influence one another. You can only write as strongly as your weakest area.
People won’t notice if you’re weak somewhere, but they will notice if you’re terrible—and it will
affect the quality of your writing. If you doubt that, consider the following examples:

● An insightful blog post that is written with long paragraphs and almost no page breaks.
Everything is there, but the structure will turn people off.
● An easy to read, simple instruction that makes inaccurate analogies and metaphors will
do a poor job of getting people to understand. In this case, everything but the style is
developed.

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 ● A person can’t be bothered to find their own words for something, so they plagiarize. In
this case, they ruin a perfect opportunity to imprint their own insight and style on an
observation of reality.

You have something to say...

And there are people who need to hear it. My goal is to teach you how to say it in a way that
makes people want to read it.

Your stories and opinions will be received by more people with greater impact. If you have
something to sell or a story to tell, you’ll gain a more extensive and powerful reach.

Read on and learn how to make your pen—or whatever electronic device you use—more
powerful than any force the world has ever known.

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 Why You're Learning To Write Like A
Crackhead
“Say what you want about the crackheads, but when they're hard up for a fix, they
are good workers. This guy raked my entire yard with a fork in 11 minutes.”
-Mark Gross, Comedian

A lot of you know my story. A lot of you don’t. The part of my life that is most relevant to
the title of this chapter is my childhood.

I lived in public housing projects (council estates, for my European readers) until I was
18. These are extremely poor, violent, crime-infested neighborhoods. No public housing
project would be complete without a few crack addicts a.k.a. “crackheads”.

Crackheads get a bad rep, but there are some positive things we can learn from
crackheads.

First, crackheads work FAST.

If it were up to a crackhead, the only thing they would do is lounge around and smoke
crack all day. However, they’d have no way to make money to buy more crack. So not
only does a crackhead have to work, they have to work fast.

They have to work fast because addiction waits for no man. When a crackhead wants to
get high, it becomes possessed by that urge. The crackhead needs to satisfy this
craving as quickly as possible.

Secondly, crackheads work HARD.

I once witnessed a crackhead stay up for almost 4 days straight in a cycle of getting
high, working fast to get the money to keep getting high, getting and smoking crack,
then starting the whole cycle over to avoid coming down.

Crackheads, ironically enough, realize the value of hard work more than most people.

Lastly, crackheads are RESOURCEFUL.

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Most gas stations in the inner city have to keep their ink pens and Chore Boys behind
the counter because crackheads figured out how to use them to smoke crack.

It’s this combination of traits that have earned crackheads the reputation they currently
enjoy. While they may cause mayhem and ruin their lives (and often the lives of those
around them), crackheads get shit done. They get shit done because their addiction
leaves them no choice.

It’s either get crack or suffer a fate that is​—​to them​—​worse than death: withdrawal and
all of the misery that goes along with it.

A crackhead is not chasing pleasure so much as he’s running from pain. It may have
been fun when it started, but now the crackhead is literally trying to outrun the pain of
reality.

What Can We Learn From A Crackhead…

We don’t want to ruin our lives with crack addiction. It’s a shame I have to say this, but
let me be clear: I’m not encouraging you to smoke crack nor am I endorsing the use of
it. I’m making a point by turning something tragic into a comedy.

We don’t want to be crackheads, but we do want the crackhead hustle mentality. More
specifically, we want to apply that to our writing. This book will teach you how to write
fast, focused, and creatively.

When you write like a crackhead, it’s amazing how quickly you can produce quality
content. The faster you write, the better your writing will be because you’re getting out of
your own way. You can edit for mistakes later. The important thing is getting the content
out there for editing in the first place.

One of the biggest problems that new writers face is “analysis paralysis”. They spend
too much time thinking and planning, and not enough time producing and creating. ​The
Crackhead Hustle Writing Method​ will change that.

Do you think a crackhead:

Sits around thinking about getting high? No, they just get after it.

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Wonders how they’re gonna pay for drugs? No, they just get after it.
Worries what people will think of them? No, they just get after it.

The Crackhead Hustle Writing Method​ will have you writing harder, faster, and better
than you ever thought before. With your new output and style, people will probably think
you’re writing while on drugs.

Daily Action
For one week, start the day writing a minimum of 500 words. It doesn’t matter what you write
about. The only requirement is that all the sentences are related. Just writing random sentences
would defeat the purpose of the exercise.

The idea is for you to get used to writing with crackhead-like urgency.

The greatest barrier that many writers face is “writer’s block”. If you aren’t familiar with the
phrase, writer’s block is when a writer can’t decide what to write next, so they waste time staring
at the screen. This results in lost productivity and high opportunity cost.

Think about how a crackhead would deal with a silly obstacle like writer’s block.

Crackheads don’t worry about how they’ll look when they’re getting high. They just get it done.
Crackheads don’t worry about how they’ll look doing things to get the money to buy drugs. They
just get it done.

A crackhead wouldn’t worry about “addict’s block” or spend time worrying if they had enough
money to get high. They would just get after solving the problem.

I want you to start writing like a crackhead. Don’t worry about what you say or how it will look.
Just write to the best of your ability about whatever’s on your mind.

Once you get in the habit of putting down 500 words at a time, you can move on to greater
amounts, but for now, the goal is simply to write.

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 How to Measure Improvement
“... the future is a teenage crackhead who makes shit up as he goes along.”
-Chuck Klosterman

One of my favorite arguments is, “How do you determine if someone is a good writer?”

Is there any objective measurement—besides sales—that we can use to say that one writer is
better or that a writer’s most recent book is better or worse than his previous efforts?

I don’t think there is. Good writing is one of those things that everyone knows when they see it.

Because it’s a qualitative measure, we are very good at explaining why we think a piece of
writing is good or bad. We know when something is easy to follow, entertaining, or makes us
deeply engaged. It’s impossible to quantitatively measure writing skills, but it’s simple to give
them a qualitative judgment.

The challenge is judging our own writing while we’re creating it. We know the message we’re
trying to express, so we tend to overlook the subtle mistakes that will confuse the reader while
we’re writing. We think what we’re selling is worth buying, so we don’t see how non-persuasive
our copy really is.

We are close to our work, so we can’t see it.

We don’t see how the forest is going to turn out because we’re busy planting trees. However,
there are ​three​ ways to measure your progress so that you’re better able to create a
good-looking forest even though all you can see is the tree right in front of you.

Time

Although this book makes the bold claim that it will improve your writing in 10 days, you can
better appreciate this improvement over an even longer space of time.

Look at old samples of your writing and make edits to it as you go along in the book. Even over
the span of 10 days, you’ll be able to see how your eye for prose and skill with words has
improved.

If you don’t have any old writing, then write something. Right now. Make it 700-1000 words. If
you can’t come up with 700-1000 words on something, then this ebook is probably above your
level.

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It doesn’t matter what genre or specialty it’s in, but you need something to compare how you
see writing now to how you’ll see it at the end of 10 days.

Once you have that sample, do your best at proofreading and editing. Then we’ll use this final
copy to practice your new skills at cleaning up an “old” piece of writing.

Partnership

A writer has to learn how to see their work as other people do.

This doesn’t mean you have to write for other people, but you should strive to have your
message understood without ambiguity. Unless your goal is to write poetry or allegorical prose,
then clarity is your friend.

To make sure you’re writing clearly, ​have a clear intention for your writing​. The main goal of
any piece of writing is to:

● Inform (teach)
● Persuade (sell)
● Entertain (distract)

Whichever goal your writing aims to accomplish, get someone to read it and give you their
honest feedback.

They’ll tell you if your writing accomplished its goal. Get their feedback on your writing:

● Did they feel like buying?

● Did you change their mind (or at least make them reconsider a position)?
● Did they learn something?
● Did they laugh or find it amusing?

The goal of this book is not to make you a master. It’s to gain proficiency and come away with a
few techniques that quickly improve your writing. If you have access to honest feedback, this will
go a long way toward reaching that goal.

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Skin In The Game

In terms of the knowledge you need to get started, this one is a little more advanced, but it
is—in my opinion—the single best way to gauge effectiveness. Try to make money from your
writing.

If you’re writing copy, sell something. If you’re teaching, create a how-to product, and get
affiliates to stand behind it. Self-publish something on Amazon, give it away for free, and collect
reviews.

Obviously there are technical and networking skills involved in making this happen, but this
is—by far—the best way to know if you’re improving.

This guide doesn’t teach you how to set any of those channels ups, but this is my preferred way
to get feedback. If you can inspire people to invest time and money into you, this means that
your writing has done its job.

I write to teach. The official mission of my writing is, “To take what I’ve learned the hard way and
break it down so that you can learn it the easy way”. My secondary purpose is to spread my
message as far and as wide as possible. Of course, writing pays my bills too, so there is ​some
financial incentive as well.

Knowing these purposes gives me very clear ways to measure the improvement of my writing.
It’s important that you get clear about what improvement means to you.

Daily Action

One way or another, get your writing in front of other people. There are a number of ways to do
this:

● Tweets (individual posts or threads)

● Facebook posts
● Emails
● Blog Posts
● Answering Quora questions
● Reddit
● Participating in forums and message boards

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The internet has made it easy for someone to get their words in front of other people. And if you
complain that you don’t have any followers, then gaining them will be a measure of
improvement.

Your daily action step for this chapter is to merely pick a platform and start putting your writing
there. It can only be one platform or you can use them all, but you have to consistently post.
Consistent posting and creation is the only way to get better.

You’ll be able to see if your readership and engagement increases. You’ll be able to show
someone your work so that they can catch any recurring mistakes or weaknesses. It also builds
the habit of creation, which is so important for someone who wants to profit from their writing.

As for which metrics to measure and track improvement, there are a few things you can focus
on.

Basic grammar, word choice, and structure are extremely important. These things are important
because bad grammar, poor word choice, or ineffective structure distracts the reader. If you
improve those ​three​ things, then your writing will leap past the competition.

You don’t need to know what a “past participle” or “indefinite article” is. You just need to know
when to use them. This knowledge can be gained through practice, feedback, and reading.
Remember, you don’t need to be an electrical engineer or electrician to change a light bulb.

When it comes to word choice, keep it simple. If you’re motivated to use a complex word, look
for a simple alternative. If you can’t find an alternative, do your due diligence and make sure that
the word is absolutely correct in both meaning and usage.

For example, I commonly see people substitute “use” and “consume”. In the purest sense of
meaning, they are synonyms. In terms of usage, it sounds awkward to say that you “used your
food” or that you “consumed too much time” in common communication.

Spell checkers and writing apps (Grammarly, Hemmingway, etc.) are very good at checking for
grammar and word choice. Improving structure is more challenging, but not impossible. Look
closely at writing that you find easy to read and see what makes the writing readable. See how
they make their points, defend them, and engage the reader.

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 Have Something Worth Saying
“All the crackheads, the critics, the cities
And all my heroes at the methadone clinics”
-Kid Rock

In his book, ​TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking​,​ a
​ uthor and president of
TED, Chris J. Anderson, reviews hundreds of speeches and explains what makes them wildly
successful—or unsuccessful.

What he found was that it didn’t matter if the speaker had massive charisma or stage presence.
In fact, almost nothing mattered except for one thing. All of the best TED Talks were given by
people ​who had something worth saying.

“The only thing that truly matters in public speaking is not confidence, stage presence, or
smooth-talking. It’s having something worth saying.”

Writing and speaking are remarkably similar. Every good speech is first written. I’ve done a lot of
public speaking. For every 10 minutes I’m on stage, I’ve spent 60 minutes behind the scenes
writing, revising, and rehearsing my speech.

Writing is easier when you have something to say and the experience to reinforce it. Almost
everything has already been said or done. I hate to shatter your ego, but you aren’t going to say
anything new. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t say something unique.

Your specific way of recalling your experiences, the lessons you learned, and the perspectives
you gleamed is how you develop your voice. Lately, the trend has been to refer to this as part of
your “personal brand”. Whatever word or phrase you use to describe this is irrelevant.

What is relevant is that you live your life and express yourself through the lens that is shaped by
the forces of your experiences. The two ways writers get this wrong is that they either don’t think
they have anything worth saying or they try to emulate someone else.

First, let’s address the latter error.

Imitation accelerates technical mastery but degrades stylistic expression. My boxing coach is
fond of saying, “I can teach you how to fight, but I can’t make you a fighter. You can learn how
to mix paint and stroke your paintbrush, but knowing that still won’t make you a painter.”

You can learn the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary by memorization or imitation. The specific
way you bring those elements together is your style. How you express yourself with that style is
beyond imitation. As a result, you will create something new and unique.

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It won’t be new in the sense that it’s never been said, but you’ll be the first person to say it a
certain way. Your voice will resonate with someone who may have heard the same thing a
thousand times before, but your voice finally gets through to them.

If You Doubt Yourself

Some of you think you’re too young or not experienced enough. This is not true.

Wherever you are in your journey is where you are. There are insights you have that no one
else will have. There are insights that will be valuable to someone.

For those behind you, you’ll be a teacher.

For those ahead of you, you’ll be a reminder.
For those at your level, you’ll be a motivator.

As long as you are committed to growth, learning, and development, it will never be too early or
too soon for you to begin chronicling your journey.

Daily Action

I believe that every person has a story worth telling. Within that story, there are valuable lessons
that you’ve earned, not just learned. Your mission is to see the worth in your life and what you’ve
experienced.

In many ways, being a writer is remarkably arrogant.

You have to believe that what you say and how you say it is so powerful and unique that people
will sacrifice time and energy to read it. Even more arrogant is to believe that they’ll actually
spend money on it.

Building this level of confidence is only possible if you believe you have something worth
saying​—​and almost everyone does. You can either be a great example or a horrible warning. To
be the former requires confidence while the latter requires humility.

Either position grants you the ability to share value. In this way, your writing will engage, build
your fanbase, and generate profits. There is no middle ground either.

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If you want to be a great example, take stock of your life and the things you’ve done. Whether
you played a sport, started a website, traveled, or even just finished college. Within these stages
of life are lessons you learned that only your unique expression and experience will be able to
deliver.

If you’re a horrible example, look at all the mistakes you’ve made and what you’ve learned from
them. Those also contain valuable gems of wisdom, but humility is the pick required to mine
them.

Of course, a well-lived life is a mix of both warning and inspiration. It’s up to you to choose
which story to tell and which lessons you’ll deliver from it.

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 Know Your Purpose
“You don’t really gotta try to sell crack, OK? I’ve never heard a crack dealer go,
‘Man, how am I going to get rid of all this crack? It’s just piled up in my house.’”
-Chris Rock

It doesn’t matter what you write. As long as you consistently put words on the screen (or to
paper, if you’re old school), you’re a writer.

There are only three meta-reasons to write: to persuade, educate, or entertain. Everything else
is a subcategory.

If you write copy or argue in favor of something, you’re persuading.

If you write a dissertation or piece of journalism, you’re educating.
If you write a screenplay or a set of jokes for a comedy show, you’re entertaining.

Each style of writing has its own rules, conventions, and expectations, but these are the three
purposes. Actually, I lied. There’s technically a fourth, but most of you won’t be making rules,
writing bills to congress, and proposing laws.

For 99.9% of us, there are only three reasons to write.

Whether you’re writing to educate, entertain, or persuade, you must never lose sight of your
primary purpose. Every word you produce should help you do one of those three things.

The three main purposes can be condensed down to one statement: your writing needs to be
valuable.

What Makes Writing Valuable

Something is valuable when it either solves a problem or distracts people from one. Everything
you say should do one of those two things if you want your writing to be engaging and
profitable.

While it’s possible to hit both points of value and write to all three purposes, I’ve found that
writing that sticks to one main purpose tends to be received best. This is not to say that you
won’t change minds with your facts or entertain people with your sales pitch, but sticking to one
purpose while creating gives you an easy guideline for style and word choices in your prose.

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Take commenting on the weather. Depending on your purpose, you can do it in any number of
ways.

You need to drink lots of water because it’s hot out. (educate)
It’s so hot even the homeless people aren’t coming outside. (entertain)
When it’s this hot, you need a nice refreshing drink to stay cool. (persuade)

All three examples express the same idea: the temperature is so high that you will experience
discomfort. How we used that idea in our writing depended on our purpose. It also guides all
future commentary.

Notice that a quantitative measure of temperature is not given. Even in the “educate” example, I
didn’t mention the air temperature. There are a few reasons for this:

1. With the exception of scientific or legal reporting, fact delivery is boring. The main task of
the writer is to stir up emotion in the reader. Information alone is useless. Only when
information comes together with emotion does it become engaging.
2. From an expressive perspective, it’s not efficient. Once I state the temperature, I have to
follow it up with ​something. ​Otherwise, I’m just reporting facts and that’s not interesting
or engaging. Stating the facts causes me to add more words to express the same idea.

This is not to say that there aren’t situations where you’ll have to give facts, but when deciding
to give data-driven descriptions, always ask yourself: ​“Is this required or will the meaning
change if I leave it out?”

If it doesn’t make a difference, go with a qualitative description over a quantitative

measurement. But no matter what, be valuable.

You are valuable when you solve problems or distract people from them. This is done when you
teach the solution, entertain them as a distraction, or persuade them to take a less stressful
course of action.

Selecting a primary purpose for your writing will guide you in creating the most consistent,
cohesive, valuable content that people will gain tremendous value from. When they gain value,
your readership and bank account will swell.

Daily Action

From now on, I want you to do two things every day: educate and entertain. It doesn’t matter
how you do it, but I want you to teach someone something and make someone laugh. It doesn’t

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matter if you do it over social media, text, or in person. What matters is that you build the habit
of being a valuable person.

Take note of what I ​don’t​ say.

I don’t tell you to give people compliments. Compliments make people feel good, but they don’t
deliver value. Praise is not problem-solving and it doesn’t add value. Making someone’s life
easier or more enjoyable is the best way to add value.

While it’s most practical and most aligned with the goals of this course to add value via writing,
I’m more concerned with you developing the mindset of someone who adds value. If you can
accomplish this via writing, do it. However, the medium isn’t so important for this daily action.

Just add value.

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 Finding Your Voice and Mastering
Tonality
“Just because I have tea and green leaves, doesn't mean I'm not a crackhead
anymore”
-Katy Rose

Authentic writing has a certain tone to it.

Tone is to writing as time is to the universe.

It’s like a river that flows through everything and infuses your words with life. You can’t point to it
and say ‘here it is’ or ‘there it is’, but you know that it affects everything.

Tone is what makes your writing unique. It’s what gives it “personality” and separates it from
everyone else’s writing. There are many correct ways to say the same thing. For example,
consider the following sentences:

I picked up an extra shift, so I only got to the store around 8 o’clock.

It was a little before 8 when I finally got to the store.
On my way to the store, I enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

All three of those sentences express the same idea, but each one does it a little differently.

In each sentence, the reader understands the subject of walking to the store and arriving at
approximately 8 o’clock. The qualitative voice of the writer expresses the quantitative details a
little differently in each example.

Based on what the writer wants the reader to feel or focus on, the expression differs.

The reality is that you are most likely not going to say anything new or put forth any profound
ideas in your writing. What is said is far less important than how it’s said or who says it.

Tone is composed of a few things. Improving these areas will allow your writing to take on a
more unique and engaging angle.

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Writing How You Speak

When people talk to me in person, they remark that I sound like I do in my tweets or writing. This
is not a coincidence.

I’ve learned to write how I speak and speak how I write. Granted, there is always an editing
process that removes things from my speech that don’t translate well to the written word, but my
communication style converges to a point. This is your goal.

When I say that your goal is to have your communication styles converge, I mean that there
should be as little difference between your writing style and speaking style as possible. This not
only forces you to hone your overall communication skills, but it will also make it easier for you
to think about problems and express the solution to them.

This is important because this is all you’re doing when you write: delivering value.

My speaking style is unique to me and the way I think and interact with the world. Yours will be
unique to you. It’s useless to try and imitate my style of writing, because to be successful, you’d
need to copy my style of thinking as well. While that’s certainly not impossible, your writing will
be more impactful if it’s delivered in your own thought style and filtered through your own
experiences.

Speaking is a communication tool that is almost identical to writing. The only difference is the
medium of consumption. You read with your eyes and listen with your ears.

There are things you can do with speech that you can’t do with the written word and vice-versa.
You have to write how you speak, but you also must remember that people read differently than
they listen. When it comes to writing how you speak, the discrepancies can be corrected during
the editing process.

Think about the editing process as the converter from spoken speech to written speech. The
essence of your style, flow, and wording is maintained, but the transformation makes your
spoken words readable.

Next time you write, imagine that you’re having coffee with a friend. Imagine that they ask how
you’ve been or you’re explaining something you know well enough to simplify. This is how you
should write.

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The Beauty Of Writing Drafts

Remember, the first draft of your writing isn’t supposed to have perfect grammar, punctuation,
and usage. It’s merely to get the ideas out in your most authentic and natural voice.

You’ll make edits to drafts to make your speaking more readable, but for now, the goal is simply
to create in your natural voice.

If you’re writing to sell, imagine that you're telling someone about the product and what excites
you most.

If you’re arguing a point, write down all the points you’d make in an argument the way you’d do
if you were actually arguing. You can come back to clarify and support later, but for now, you
just want the points to come out in your voice.

If you’re writing to teach, take the Albert Einstein approach to explanation. Einstein is famous for
saying, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.” Aside from the
commentary on the mastery of the subject required to do this, Einstein is also implying that you
need to speak in the most simple and engaging method possible.

Think about trying to capture and maintain the attention of your typical six-year-old with just the
power of words. Do that in your natural voice, write like that, and you’ll produce instructive
content that is also loved and shared.

Entertaining writing most naturally works as a channel for the expression of your voice. There
isn’t much to add here but a cliche: stay true to yourself and entertain the way you want to. Too
many people pursue a genre because it’s profitable or they stay away from one because it’s not.

Do what you believe will allow you to be the most expressive. In this way, you’ll make the most
money that you possibly can without sacrificing your love of writing.

Daily Action

Forget whatever commercial environment exists around the medium you want to write in. Your
writing will be better and more popular if you write what you want to write, the way you want to
write it.

Once you start creating first drafts as conversations, your writing will drastically improve. You’ll
also find it easier to produce writing. We don’t find ourselves at a loss for words while speaking
nearly as often as we find ourselves staring at a blank page wondering what to write next.

22
Writing how you speak simultaneously overcomes writer’s block and allows you to write in your
most authentic voice. Authenticity is engaging, and engagement is how you build a fanbase as a
writer.

23
 Authenticity and Passion Are Powerful
“I probably did more drugs than anyone can survive. I was bangin’ 7 gram rocks
and finishing them, because that’s how I roll. I have one speed, one gear, and that’s
‘Go!’”
-Charlie Sheen

Above all things, be yourself.

This is a common problem for many new writers. They tend to think they need to say things a
certain way to please people. However, there is no special way to say something. There is no
special topic to write about that will please everyone.

There is only authenticity. To be anything but authentic is a severe disservice to both you and
your audience.

Authenticity is so powerful because it is, by definition, impossible to fake.

An authentic life is the exposed life. It's the life that teaches from both good and bad
experiences. When you live authentically, you may be disliked or you may be loved. But you will
never be mistrusted or disrespected.

Never write for external approval. Write for internal satisfaction.

When you write for reasons that are important to you, you’ll always be motivated. If you write
because you think it’s a path to riches, you will get frustrated and resign.

That is not to say that you can’t make money writing. After all, that is the title of this book.
However, if the ONLY reason you write is to get paid and you dislike communicating via the
written word, your chances of success dramatically decrease.

There are many ways to make money with the written word. There are also many ways to get
paid with physical labor, technical expertise, and other mediums of communication and
entertainment. If you’re only writing because you think it’s easy, you may discover that you don’t
have the temperament or the aptitude to write.

You’ll discover that anything is difficult when you don’t want to do it. Even—and especially, at
times—writing.

Now, if you lack the aptitude, I can help you there. If you lack the temperament, there’s nothing
in this book that will help you. If you’re hell-bent on making a location independent living in a
way that only the internet can provide, consider other skills like:

24
 ● Podcasting
● Coding
● Web Design
● Audiobooks
● Graphic Design

I know guys who have recommended copywriting and producing ebooks as a quick way to
make money, but if you hate writing, then it won’t matter. If you aren’t willing to expose yourself
and teach from your experiences, then you tremendously handicap yourself.

You’ll likely find that writing for money isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The key to successful writing is authenticity. The key to

authenticity is passion

If you aren’t excited about what you write about, you won’t be able to excite others. If you aren’t
passionate about the topics you cover, it will show in the quality of your writing. Not all people
will notice how boring your writing will be, but enough will to where it will affect your bottom line.

We’re in the business of using words to make a living. Your mood and mindset affect the words
you use and the time you take putting those words together. You will simply produce higher
quality writing in less time that will make you more money if you do it with passion.

There are many technical skills that contribute to my writing ability and productivity, but this is
the lynchpin. I am passionate about every topic I write about. I don’t risk diluting that passion by
being inauthentic or disingenuous.

Don’t mistake my advice for saying that you have to always write exactly what you’ve
experienced and no other writing is valid. You can authentically and passionately write fiction.
You can infuse energy into reports or sales letters. All that’s required is a genuine passion for
using words to affect reality.

You can be passionate about persuasion with words. You can be passionate about telling
stories with words. You can even be passionate about just reading words. However, there must
be something about words that excites you. This passion will motivate you to express yourself
authentically.

Like passion, authenticity transcends a specific genre. The key to expressing yourself
authentically in any genre is to only write what you are passionate about. I will never do

25
journalism or reporting of any kind. I actually tried to report on local boxing and MMA matches
once. It bored me to tears and made me hate writing.

However, I love using my writing to teach and entertain. I’m so-so on using my writing to
persuade. Therefore, my most authentic writing expresses itself where I’m either teaching or
entertaining. It’s no coincidence that my blog, newsletter, and Twitter feed do exactly those
things and I have had great success.

Daily Action

I assume that you’re passionate about writing. At the very least, you’re willing to discover if
you’re passionate enough about it to suffer the ups and downs that come with trying to make
money doing it.

Don’t worry. It’s not terribly difficult to make money as a writer, but like all things, it will take a
little work. You will gladly endure that work if you are passionate. If you are passionate, you’ll be
able to write authentically, and half the battle will be won.

26
 Simplicity
“Transform soft white, crack manufacturer. Turn soft into hard, full Viagra.”
-Metaphor The Great

The goal of writing is to say everything as simply as possible. The fewer words you use to make
your point, the easier it will be for your audience to understand it. Furthermore, simple writing
allows you to better explain any thought, process, or idea.

When you explain a process simply, you reduce the risk of confusion. You can deliver more
information with fewer words.

Example:

“Go turn on the faucet, run some water into a pot, and sit it on the stove to boil.”

This sentence isn’t confusing, but it’s full of extra words. The following is the simplified version:

“Boil a pot of water.”

If I need to, I can follow up with additional instructions and likely still say less. The first sentence
required 19 words. The second version required only 5.

From this example, let’s extract the useful points so you can apply them to your writing.

​ William Shakespeare
Brevity is the soul of wit—

What Is “Simplicity”
Simplicity is the ability to take something complex and reduce it to its essential parts. Simplicity
removes the extraneous and superfluous, leaving only the vital and essential. Simplicity cuts out
the fluff and focuses on the stuff.

Unfortunately, school trains many of us to add extra words so that we reach some arbitrary word
minimum for a meaningless grade. While I understand that this is an attempt to prevent kids
from being lazy, it ultimately makes students value quantity over quality.

I’ve always figured that a far better system would be to put in place a word maximum, and force
students to argue their points within constraints.

Constraints force you to express yourself efficiently and simplistically. It forces you to be clear
and concise. For this reason, I recommend that all writers use Twitter to improve their writing. If
you don’t have a Twitter account, you need to immediately remedy that situation.

I’ve talked to many writers who say that Twitter isn’t their thing. They have many reasons, but
none of them hold any weight. For a writer, the pros of using Twitter significantly outweigh the

27
cons. It’s easy to share your content, build an audience, and it’s a writing-based platform.
However, the greatest benefit is the character limit.

Twitter forces you to express yourself in 280 characters. While you can create threads that allow
you to post more, the viewership on and engagement with a thread decreases exponentially
with each additional thread.

Unless you’re telling a story you’re better off expressing an idea with 280 characters. And even
then, you’d be better off making a blog post and linking to it.

The heart of Twitter is simplicity.

With a 280 character limit, you’re forced to efficiently say what you need to say. This improves
clarity and removes any and all fluff. My success with my blog, newsletter, and books is rooted
in my Twitter usage. It allows me to simultaneously hone my writing skills while building an
audience to display said writing skills. Most importantly, it forces me to be simple.

Of course, simplicity can be found without Twitter. At the end of the day, the goal of simplicity is
​ he mark of a good writer is their ability to take something complex and make it
to aid precision.​ T
understandable for the less informed, like a mother bird digests food and mouth-feeds her
chicks.

How To Write Simply

Simple Sentences
Simple sentences make your writing readable. The more readable your writing is, the more
engaging it is. Engaging writing gets you fans. Fans get you paid.

Our goal is to write short sentences. Run-on sentences are an obstacle for the reader. They
often leave the reader frustrated and confused.

The ideal simple sentence has one subject, one verb, and one object. Sometimes that’s too
boring or not a feasible way to express the idea, but it’s usually enough. Consider this example
story.

“We walked to the fire hydrant and once there, we opened it to play in the water.

There’s technically nothing wrong with this sentence, but it feels exhaustive to read because
there are two subjects (“we” used twice), three verbs (walk, open, play), and two objects (fire
hydrant, water). The purpose of a period in a sentence is to tell us when the idea stops and
could stand alone. That doesn’t come until the end, so we have to hold all of this in our mind.
Right now, this sentence gives us way too much to think about.

This is the simplified, less complicated version.

28
“We walked to the fire hydrant. Once there, we opened it. Now we could play in the water.”

At first glance, these feel like the type of sentences you’d read in a children’s book. And you’d
be correct, but that’s a good thing.

The easier it is to follow your writing, the more likely it is that people will follow it. The more
people follow your writing, the easier it will be for you to teach, persuade, or entertain.

Simple writing makes it easier for you to deliver value.

Use Simple Words

Whenever possible, use the most simple version of a word to express a thought or an idea.
Sometimes there is an appropriate context for jargon and there are cases where only SAT-level
vocabulary will do, but these situations are relatively rare.

Every complex word has a simple alternative. If you doubt this, remember: you can’t define a
word by using that word in the definition. This means that every complex word is built using a
combination of simple words. Unless you need to precisely express the specific idea the
complex word is used for, always use the more simple alternative.

Assume that your readers are 5th graders. Aim to make your writing so simple that a 5th grader
would have no problem getting through it. No one ever complains that a piece of writing was too
easy to get through. As long as the ideas are clearly expressed and organized, your writing
won’t be considered immature or childish. It will simply be readable, digestible, and easy to
follow.

It's often the simplest words that paint the most engaging descriptions. Don’t try to make your
sentences or words anything other than what feels natural and simple.

Daily Action
Ernest Hemingway was known for the simplicity of his prose. The Hemingway app is designed
to make your writing as simple and easy to follow as possible. Put your writing into this app. Try
to follow as many of the suggestions it makes as possible. However, this will not always be
possible.

While the app is good, it’s still a computer. You are writing for other humans. Sometimes you’ll
need to go against their suggestions to make your point clear, but the app does an excellent job
of simplifying and clarifying your writing.

There is a free version on the website and a desktop downloadable for the one-time price of
$19.99. You can grab it below. This is not an affiliate link.

http://www.hemingwayapp.com/

29
 Fluency and Flow
“Bring me a fiend body, you gotta have a taster
Pull the water from the oil, get a turkey baster
Also, that baking soda will help you stretch that
Metaphor the plumber, I'll show you crack, bitch”
-Metaphor The Great

We tend to only think of “fluency” when it comes to speaking other languages. Fluency doesn't
just apply to language. A person can be fluent in anything.

All that matters is the ease and speed with which one can effectively string together the
fundamentals of their craft. In this case, our craft is writing.

Writing is simply another form of communication. To communicate fluently, you must

simultaneously know what you’re going to say and have vocabulary and structure to say it
clearly. A robust vocabulary with no fluency is just as ineffective as the gift of gab with a shallow
lexicon.

When someone is described as being “good with words”, this is what they mean: It’s not the
nerd with a dictionary for a brain nor is it the smooth talker who never reads. Fluency is gained
the same way in your writing as it is in any other skill: deliberate practice and application.

I have a high degree of conversational ability in Spanish. My mathematical ability is well above
average (at least good enough to get a degree in physics) and I have a high skill level in boxing.
How are all of these things related to writing and developing fluency?

I consider myself fluent, to varying degrees, in each of these areas. I attained that fluency by
first breaking down the smaller steps of each skill, gaining proficiency, then integrating the
smaller parts into a larger skill.

In boxing, I learned to jab.

In Spanish, I built my vocabulary.
In mathematics, I mastered algebra.

Then I did the same thing for other smaller contributing skills. After the jab, I developed my
footwork. After my vocabulary, I learned grammar. After algebra, I learned trigonometry.

I didn’t just develop these areas individually by themselves. I also worked to get them to work
well together. This is what we aim to do with our writing.

30
We want to take the individual parts and cleanly bring them together. This is how we develop
fluency and flow.

The same reason people stumble over their words is the same reason why writing lacks fluency
and flow. You stumble over your words when you either don’t have the ability to express your
ideas (lack of linguistic ability) or you’re emotionally flustered to the point where it interrupts your
ability to think.

Fortunately, the techniques that help us become fluent in our speech also help us become more
fluent in our writing.

One Point At A Time

One reason we become flustered is that we have too many thoughts on our minds at once. Or
rather, it’s more accurate to say that we become flustered when we try to express many
thoughts quickly. Fluency is best achieved when we focus on expressing one specific idea.

Regardless of how many things happen in the story or narrative you’re delivering, focus on one
idea.

Each piece of content is dedicated to one main idea.

Each paragraph is focused on delivering one main point in support of the main idea.
Each sentence in the paragraph reinforces the point being made by the paragraph to support
the main idea.

Every word you type contributes to the sentence, which reinforces the paragraph, which
supports the main point of the article.

When you approach your writing like this, then you don’t have to worry about what to say next.
You’ll never be stuck with a case of writer’s block. When you focus on placing one sentence in
front of another in support of the main point, your writing will begin to effortlessly flow.

Confidently Take Your Time

Readers are patient and will let you make your point. However, you don’t want to abuse this by
taking too long, but you don’t need to rush either. I find that when a writer is in a hurry to make
his point, you can tell.

31
They use too many words instead of expressing the idea simply. They use complicated words
instead of the simpler version. They tell stories that aren’t relevant to the point because they
think the stories will better hold the attention of the reader.

The reality is that these things make the reader less likely to engage with your prose.

The remedy to this is to be confident in what you have to say. When you believe in what you
have to say and you trust in your ability to say it, then you won’t need to resort to ineffective
gimmicks to make your writing engaging.

When you’re confident that what you say is worthwhile, you’re less likely to default to common
writing mistakes which only ​appear​ to make your writing have more depth, but actually drives
people away. When you use more words, the wrong words, or go off on tangents, you make
your writing less fluent and less engaging.

Avoid Block Text and Run On Sentences

Notice how I keep my paragraphs 3-5 sentences long.

While people will stick around to read huge amounts of content, they won’t do so if it ​feels l​ ike
they are reading huge amounts of content. Therefore, any time a reader sees a paragraph
longer than 3-5 sentences long, resistance is being generated in their mind.

Think about reading a book. How much more quickly do you get through books with short
chapters? When the chapters are short, it is easy and enjoyable to read ‘just one more’. When
the chapters are long it feels like a chore.

Whether it be on the internet or with books, readers are the same. Except on the internet,
attention spans are even lower! This is a fact.

Work with it. Speak your say in as few words as possible.

When writing for SEO, people try to hit massive word counts because they think that’s what
Google wants. But if you add fluff to fluff, the engagement of the post is going to fall off a
cliff—and engagement is far more important than word count. A powerful tweet is the same.

Daily Action
The best thing you can do is look at examples of this in action. There are many websites that do
this well, but I want you to read a few of my favorites to see how this looks.

www.edlatimore.com​ (I had to put mine at the top. I’d be a poor teacher if I didn’t practice what I
preach)

32
https://boldanddetermined.com​ (This is the website I originally learned from)
https://studenomics.com​ (A variety of topics, plus exception writing in other areas)
https://lifemathmoney.com/​ (A favorite blog of mine for smart people)

These are excellent examples of websites that have great fluency, flow, and structure.

33
 Headlines
“Mayday! Mayday! There’s a crackhead lifting up the bus!”
-Red Balls Skit, The Dave Chapelle Show, S2: E5

When someone comes to your content, you’ve only got a few seconds to catch their attention.

Today, people have attention spans that can only be measured in nanoseconds, and you aren’t
the only one trying to get a piece of it. Having a good headline is no longer an option. It’s a
bare-minimum necessity if you want people to read your content, regardless of what you write.

Headlines are to webpages as titles are to books as names are to products.

Before people devour your content, their first exposure to your writing is the headline, title, or
name of your product. If you mess this up, it doesn’t matter if your content will make someone a
millionaire overnight. No one will read it because you failed to capture their attention.

You can’t just put your message in front of someone and expect it to be popular.

No matter what you write, you won’t be the first person to tackle the topic. When people search
for answers to—or distractions from—their problems in various search engines (Google, Bing,
Amazon, Yahoo, etc.), they will be inundated with content and products from your competitors.
For any given issue that a person has, there are thousands of people who have written a unique
solution.

For example, when you use Google to look for an answer to your problems, you never get one
page. You never get just one website. You get at least 10 organic search replies along with 1-2
paid advertisements. Your first challenge is just to appear on the first page. If you can’t do that,
then you can forget about ever being read.

Even if you manage to rank on the first page of Google, you still need to compete with 9 other
articles on the same topic. This is why your headline is so important.

Aside from the fact that SEO takes your headline and the number of people who click through it
into consideration, many people skim the first page. A good headline will make you stand out on
all search engines and get people to read your solution to their problem. As a result, your
solution will rank even higher because of how a pages relative position is determined.

A potential reader could be in your corner of Twitter searching for topics that you write about.
That doesn’t mean they’ll read your content. This doesn’t even mean that they’ll follow you. No
matter what corner of the internet you exist in, there will be competitors—often with far more
skin in the game than you.

34
People scroll through their search results and social media feeds at lightning speed. The only
thing that makes them pause to engage is something that catches their eye. This is why the
headline of your content is important. This is why the title of your book will sell more copies than
the content within it. This is why the first sentence of your tweets is crucial.

If your first words catch them, they’re far easier to deliver value to. This makes it far easier for
you to make money and increase your exposure.

Daily Action

There are two excellent tools for creating excellent headlines. I use these tools for both my
newsletters email headings and for my blog posts.

https://headlines.sharethrough.com/
https://www.aminstitute.com/headline/

These tools are self-explanatory in how to use them and interpret their results. As far as I can
tell, they run on different algorithms but usually reach similar results. However, you’ll
occasionally get conflicting suggestions. You’ll eventually get a feel for how to use them and
how to make the best decision based on what they tell you.

I’ve used these headline analyzers with excellent results. Just remember that writing is an art
AND a science. Sometimes a headline idea will rank highly but is too long or doesn’t quite sit
right with you. On the other hand, sometimes a headline will rank poorly but your intuition and
experience run against the analysis.

As you get more experience at using the tools, you’ll get a better feel for what works, when to
take the guidance it gives you, and by exactly how much you alter your original headline when
you disagree.

35
 The “Woman’s Skirt” Principle & The 4
C’s
A general principle I’ve used for crafting content is that all parts of it should be like a woman’s
skirt: long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to be interesting. I was originally
introduced to that idea somewhere in high school, and it’s since guided a lot of my writing
decisions.

In school, we were trained to make our paragraphs have five sentences: an opening statement,
a closing statement, and three supporting ideas in-between. Turns out that you can create more
engaging content by eliminating 2 of the supporting sentences and just starting another
paragraph if you really need to make additional supporting points.

I assume this has something to do with the way people consume content online. Before the
internet, when the 5-sentence paragraph rule was developed, there was not really a competition
between content creators for attention. Nowadays, if your content doesn’t look like it’ll quickly
solve the problem, then people skip and look for something more promising.

Notice that I said, “look like it’ll quickly solve the problem.” Even if your writing does actually
solve the problem or deliver value, it can’t look too dense or look like it’ll be difficult to extract.
People want the diamonds as long as they don’t have to do the mining to get them.

We’re looking for quick answers and we want them quickly. According to​ ​hostingfacts.com​, 63.4
percent of internet users access the internet from mobile devices. On a smartphone, a
three-sentence paragraph looks a lot less intimidating than a 5 sentence paragraph. It takes up
less space on the screen and makes it appear that the value will be easier to extract.

According to ​marketingland.com​, search engines favor essays right around the 1750 word mark,
but that’s because it’ll increase the amount of time spent on your site. While that sounds like a
lot, consider that the longer the content, the less likely people are to read through it.

If it’s too short, it’s nearly impossible to solve a problem and give the necessary supporting
details. For the average person, 1750 words take about 5 minutes to get through. That’s an
excellent amount of time to have a person on your page. That’s short enough to keep them
engaged, but long enough to provide a useful answer.

36
The Headline

Headlines follow the same general principle with a few addendums.

A headline that’s too short won’t properly showcase what the content is about. On the other end
of the spectrum, a headline that’s too long is likely full of superfluous language that confuses the
reader about what problem it actually solves.

Your headline should give the reader an idea of what the rest of the content is going to deliver.
You’re selling the reader on your value in one sentence. ​If no one pays attention to your
headline, no one is going to read your content. Therefore, ​you need to give your headline as
much attention as the body.

Utilize ‘The Four C’s’

The “Four C’s” are an easy rubric to measure your headlines against. The idea is that you hit at
least one of these in your headlines.

● Cheap - ​People are more motivated by the avoidance of loss than the potential of gain.
In psychology, this is called “loss aversion bias”. Your headlines will generally do better if
you show people how to shield themselves from suffering rather than increase their level
of enjoyment.

“How To Avoid Dehydration” will get more viewers than “How To Stay Hydrated” even
though they are expressing the exact same idea.

● Comfort - ​This is the natural extension of pain avoidance. It’s not so much that people
would rather avoid loss than chase gain. It’s more so that both take energy, and only one
is coupled with an immediate benefit—relieving pain.

People’s loss aversion decreases in direct proportion to how quickly the benefits of
potential gain are experienced. If you can promise to make something easier, faster,
more pleasant without additional risk or effort, people will pay attention.

“The Easiest Way To Lose 10 Pounds in 10 Days” will get more readers than “The Slow
And Steady Way To Lose 10 Pounds in 10 Weeks”, although the latter is likely much
safer and more reasonable.

37
 ● Competition - ​Competition is one of the driving forces of evolution. Whether it’s two
people competing for a mate or for a promotion, there’s always the desire to outperform
and dominate others. Make your headlines appear that you have the secret to victory.
● Community - ​Relationships are another biological motivator we can’t shake. Whether
it’s being more popular or getting the girl, people will pay attention if they believe you can
improve their social status.

Competition and community appeal to the main goals for any human. When you strip
away our fancy technology, humans still operate on their basic desires: to survive and to
reproduce. This is why headlines and content centered around those ideas do so well.

These four play on biological needs we can’t shake.​ If you understand your niche and play
your cards right, your prospect will be unable to ignore your message.

Keep in mind that what makes a good book title might be different than what makes a good blog
post title which might be different than what makes a good opening line for a tweet. The medium
will determine the specific execution of these principles, but they don’t change the general idea.

Daily Action

Learn copywriting. Copywriting is the skill of using words to sell. If you do this, you’ll better
understand that certain triggers exist to make people more likely to feel a certain way.
Copywriters simply figured out how to use this to make money, but it can be applied to any type
of writing.

The idea is to generate interest, engagement, and ultimately make a fan of your writing. While I
recommend learning copywriting, my motives are not completely aligned with the typical
copywriter. I don’t write solely to make money. That’s merely a 2nd order effect of my primary
goal: to generate engagement.

I have two great resources for learning copywriting.

The gold standard for the basics is “Cashvertising”. This book comes highly recommended by
everyone for a reason. It’s fantastic and will teach you the barebones. The other is an excellent
course called “Braindead Simple Copy”. It’s a step-by-step manual on how to craft excellent
copy. It’s an amazing blend of theory and knowledge.
These are both affiliate links.

Cashvertising

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Braindead Simple Copy

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