80% Salesman + 20% Writer = Success. That’s the Blogging Equation

Giving people what they want will compensate for your lack of talent

Many people think that the easiest way to “succeed” in life is to have all the skills and resources needed. But that isn’t always true. Plenty of time, the most successful people are the ones who excel at being cocky and slick. They’re the ones reaping most of the benefits.

While a talented and skilled individual may be battling with imposter syndrome or the fear of trying out new things, it is usually the fools and unskilled ones who are shamelessly pushing forward.

That would be the blunt way to frame it. I guess the fancy way would be to say that how you sell something and to whom you sell it matter more than what you sell. Even more so if what you sell is average at best.

In this day and age, when God knows how many articles are being published online every darn second and young people are less and less into reading compared to the older generations, writing skills can only take you so far.

The problem is that the more skilled someone is, the more opportunities they’ll have somewhere else. Therefore, unless they publish online content as a hobby (and even then) or have a background in content creation, most skilled people give up on Medium too soon.

In contrast, the more a person sucks at writing or the more they aspire to be a “real writer,” the more excited they will be for every post they write and every dollar they make over here. So they are more likely to play the long game and keep doing what they’re doing.

Jesus Christ, I lost count of how many times I used “more” in the two sentences above!

We all know that a little bit of consistency and presence is crucial for gaining track and growing your network on Medium. But, beside that, you have to understand what you’re dealing with.

If you are a very good writer or an academic, you have to face the bitter truth — many people won’t be able to keep up with your skills and vocabulary.

In the end, you have to keep going until you build your own small but select audience or until a boost nominator discovers you. Being an expert will certainly pay off in the long term, even if the beginning is going to be as hard as it is for everyone else.

I once saw a frustrated academic writer acting as a hater on a popular average article that gained lots of traffic here on Medium. “I can’t believe this crap is so popular.” That’s more or less what they said.

Well, yes. Many of us are not experts, yet we make due with what we can. At our current level, boosts would be more of a random stroke of luck than consistency. However, not all hope is lost.

Amateur bloggers can speculate on the needs of the “market” and make a decent amount of money online. After all, it’s easier to give people what they want than to make them acquire a fine taste.

If you’re an amateur writer, the best thing to do is to read the “market” and give the fools what they want. You don’t have to con them. Just see what sticks and focus on it.

Find the thing that you’re good at and use it along your writing journey. Draw your audience your own way with the little resources that you have. Sell yourself to the best of your abilities.

Based on what I see around and my own experiences on this platform, that will take you far with a limited set of skills.