Writing is an activity of absolute contrasts. It evokes strong feelings that often make us move out of our chairs. It is like those adolescent love affairs, where one day the loved one seemed to us the most perfect creature ever created and the next day we hated him or her.

Who hasn't had it happen to them that, after spilling blood on a piece of content, we see it go unnoticed and lost in the ether, like tears in the rain?

I hate this platform.

I hate my followers.

I hate writing.

I hate myself.

It's up to you to play it with joy. It's up to you to play it well. If you want to accumulate loyal readers and customers willing to pay for your writing, you have to understand how the game works.

Let's go for it:

Successful writers play the online writing game consciously. Unsuccessful ones play it unconsciously, and then wonder why they don't succeed.

The first thing is to decide if you are doing it just for the love of the art, to express your ideas, feelings and experiences.

This is fine, don't let anyone make you feel bad about it. Writing is also a form of therapy. But then don't get upset or blame the algorithm if no one reads your post.

If, instead, you want to play consciously, you need to open your eyes to how it works, what gets attention and what doesn't, and what the data says about your content.

And what is data?

💹 The impressions of your post.

Platforms that show the metrics of our publications and make it easy to query between various periods (7 days, 14, 1 month, 1 year) are very useful. It is very easy to review the performance of all our publications and make informed decisions based on that.

💹 The number of likes and the type of likes.

We don't only care to see the number of likes, but also their type. If it's a recommend👍, a celebrate👏, a support❣️, an I loved❤️, I'm interested💡, I'm amused😆.

Now, you don't have to obsess over this metric, but giving an I loved requires a different amount of friction than what you experience with a recomendar (because you leave your finger, or mouse, pressed longer) This unveils an intention of the reader to support the content in a special way.

💹 The number and quality of your comments.

Many people just stop to tell you "Excellent article" and move on. Others comment in a more in-depth way. But, what do they say to you?

Did they understand your message? Do they want to know more? Did they react to your CTA?

These are valuable indicators that point you in the right direction.

💹 The number of times shared.

When a reader is in tune with your take on a topic and finds your point of view valuable, they are most likely to share it.

How many times does this happen with your posts?

Mind you, there's nothing wrong with your writing if it doesn't happen to you often, it's just an indicator that you're either touching on topics that aren't relevant to your audience, or you're writing in the wrong niche.

Speaking of Niches...

The whole game of online writing as a business is understanding what category you're competing in. As long as you are not aware of it you will never be able to know if your work is better or worse than the competition. It's when you understand what your category is that you begin to see "The Ladder" and how to climb to the top of it.

But why choose a category, isn't it better to write about all the topics that catch our attention?

The Internet is organized by categories, each site, each platform, within each social network. This is not new, inside our own minds we have things organized in the same way.

If we think of sitting down to watch a movie automatically our mind wonders, what kind of movie, action, mystery, drama, suspense? This is one of the categories that organizes our mental library: genre. When we have already decided on the type of movie then our mind does a quick sweep through all the movies that fall into that category and picks one.

This behavior, at scale, is what happens on the Internet and social networks.

The algorithm organizes content by category and within each category content competes to climb the ladder. Who makes it? The most interesting, informative, original within the specific rules imposed on the category.

Now, this is interesting because what might be considered "innovative" in one category might be considered "boring" in another.

The key here is to look closely at what's going on in your category, what's working, what's considered controversial, what's boring, the top players.

Look for related publications with the topics you address.

🔺Who stands out and why?

🔺What tone do they use? Long, informative articles or short, intense posts?

This is going to give you a general idea of the conventions of your category and what people prefer. Then, it's your turn to ask yourself:

💡How do I fit in here?

🔻 Do I do the same thing as everyone else but longer, more intense, more informative? 🔻Or do I become the unusual, innovative alternative? Within the limits of your category, of course.

***

Disclaimer: All quotes correspond to excerpts from the book The Art and Business of Writing Online It is written in English, I paraphrased the translations to make them more appropriate to Spanish and make them easier to understand. Any suggestions related to the translation, please write them in the comments of this article.

Writing is an activity of absolute contrasts. It evokes strong feelings that often make us move out of our chairs. It is like those adolescent love affairs, where one day the loved one seemed to us the most perfect creature ever created and the next day we hated him or her.

Who hasn't had it happen to them that, after spilling blood on a piece of content, we see it go unnoticed and lost in the ether, like tears in the rain?

I hate this platform.

I hate my followers.

I hate writing.

I hate myself.

It's up to you to play it with joy. It's up to you to play it well. If you want to accumulate loyal readers and customers willing to pay for your writing, you have to understand how the game works.

Let's go for it:

Successful writers play the online writing game consciously. Unsuccessful ones play it unconsciously, and then wonder why they don't succeed.

The first thing is to decide if you are doing it just for the love of the art, to express your ideas, feelings and experiences.

This is fine, don't let anyone make you feel bad about it. Writing is also a form of therapy. But then don't get upset or blame the algorithm if no one reads your post.

If, instead, you want to play consciously, you need to open your eyes to how it works, what gets attention and what doesn't, and what the data says about your content.

And what is data?

💹 The impressions of your post.

Platforms that show the metrics of our publications and make it easy to query between various periods (7 days, 14, 1 month, 1 year) are very useful. It is very easy to review the performance of all our publications and make informed decisions based on that.

💹 The number of likes and the type of likes.

We don't only care to see the number of likes, but also their type. If it's a recommend👍, a celebrate👏, a support❣️, an I loved❤️, I'm interested💡, I'm amused😆.

Now, you don't have to obsess over this metric, but giving an I loved requires a different amount of friction than what you experience with a recomendar (because you leave your finger, or mouse, pressed longer) This unveils an intention of the reader to support the content in a special way.

💹 The number and quality of your comments.

Many people just stop to tell you "Excellent article" and move on. Others comment in a more in-depth way. But, what do they say to you?

Did they understand your message? Do they want to know more? Did they react to your CTA?

These are valuable indicators that point you in the right direction.

💹 The number of times shared.

When a reader is in tune with your take on a topic and finds your point of view valuable, they are most likely to share it.

How many times does this happen with your posts?

Mind you, there's nothing wrong with your writing if it doesn't happen to you often, it's just an indicator that you're either touching on topics that aren't relevant to your audience, or you're writing in the wrong niche.

Speaking of Niches...

The whole game of online writing as a business is understanding what category you're competing in. As long as you are not aware of it you will never be able to know if your work is better or worse than the competition. It's when you understand what your category is that you begin to see "The Ladder" and how to climb to the top of it.

But why choose a category, isn't it better to write about all the topics that catch our attention?

The Internet is organized by categories, each site, each platform, within each social network. This is not new, inside our own minds we have things organized in the same way.

If we think of sitting down to watch a movie automatically our mind wonders, what kind of movie, action, mystery, drama, suspense? This is one of the categories that organizes our mental library: genre. When we have already decided on the type of movie then our mind does a quick sweep through all the movies that fall into that category and picks one.

This behavior, at scale, is what happens on the Internet and social networks.

The algorithm organizes content by category and within each category content competes to climb the ladder. Who makes it? The most interesting, informative, original within the specific rules imposed on the category.

Now, this is interesting because what might be considered "innovative" in one category might be considered "boring" in another.

The key here is to look closely at what's going on in your category, what's working, what's considered controversial, what's boring, the top players.

Look for related publications with the topics you address.

🔺Who stands out and why?

🔺What tone do they use? Long, informative articles or short, intense posts?

This is going to give you a general idea of the conventions of your category and what people prefer. Then, it's your turn to ask yourself:

💡How do I fit in here?

🔻 Do I do the same thing as everyone else but longer, more intense, more informative? 🔻Or do I become the unusual, innovative alternative? Within the limits of your category, of course.

***

Disclaimer: All quotes correspond to excerpts from the book The Art and Business of Writing Online It is written in English, I paraphrased the translations to make them more appropriate to Spanish and make them easier to understand. Any suggestions related to the translation, please write them in the comments of this article.